Sportscasting's worst cliches
Courtesy the Denver Post
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(February 1, 2011) The list of bad broadcasting bromides continues.

Two weeks ago I mentioned:

"Back to you guys . . ."

"He does a nice job . . ."

KOA radio's Larry Zimmer added two more in last Monday's column:

"They'll move the chains." (There is only one chain to be moved.)

"Upon further review . . ." (There is only a single review after a team's protest of an official's call.)

I invited readers, through e-mail, to voice their pet peeves in sports broadcasting. Here's a mixture of responses from the more than three dozen received:

Blair Johnson offers a pair of irritating bromides — one aimed at Zimmer and Dave Logan, who say "I'll tell you what" when they start voicing opinions.

Johnson also bristles at locker room interviews that begin with: "Talk about . . ."

Burt Cushing's bad bromides:

"Take it to the next level." (Just how many levels are there?)

"There's still plenty of time . . ." Cushing feels that's a gimmick to hold the audience when the game's outcome has been decided.

Dick Hilker gets tired of hearing this: "It all depends on where the ball is spotted." Hilker asks, "Doesn't it always?"

Christian Shute's pet peeve deals with announcers who get excited about a particular play and yell: "He's a football player!"

Shute adds: "Well, duh. He's out there on the field, in a uniform, playing football."

Rich Cain boils upon hearing: "He gives 110 percent . . . or 150 percent."

Cain notes: "That's mathematically impossible."

Patricio Cordova makes sense with two regularly used bromides:

"He's some kind of a ballplayer." Cordova wants to know: "What kind?"

Cordova also objects when an announcer says: "They'll have to settle for a field goal." Cordova's reality check: "They'll have to settle for a field-goal attempt."

Timothy J. Lynn notes that one college announcer (he didn't say which one) regularly says a player will be "playing at the next level" or "he'll be playing on Sundays next year."

The announcer, according to Lynn, often makes such comments about players on both teams during a game.

A pet peeve of Bill Cates is golf announcers who spend more time talking to one another than to the audience. He references the Golf Channel recently when announcers talked to course reporter Bill Ray Brown 17 times in 10 minutes.

Rudy Parmelee gets upset when an announcer says, "Nobody does it better" — and then references another player in the same position during the same game.

Areferee (obviously an e-mail handle) says he's been connected with sports for more than 30 years and is tired of hearing coaches tell broadcasters: "We'll take it one game at a time." Areferee's response: "As if they have a choice in the matter? I've never been able to cover two games at one time."

And this from Hoot from Butte (Mont.): "Anyone who says 'wow' during a broadcast should be summarily shot and then hung."

My favorite comes from Larry Johnson, who claims that "forced and unforced errors" references, legitimate commentary in tennis, are sneaking into golf coverage.

He says a bad golf shot is often labeled "an enforced error," adding: "Please tell me what a forced error in golf is? Maybe the result of someone sticking a 5-iron in the opponent's crotch just as he begins his putting stroke."

Read more at the Denver Post where this story was originally published.
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