The Wonderfully Strange Language of Sports…
Doing what I do, supporting customer networks, requires a lot of butt-time in my trusty Subaru Outback traveling around the Greater Nashville Metro area, sniffing out problems to fix. Occasionally I see something of vital interest that is granted documentation in these pages, but most of the drive time is routine and humdrum. To puncture the tedium, I listen to a lot of sports talk radio, which is as good in this town as anywhere in the country. There are three stations that I surf through, but most of my time is spent on my favorite, 104.5 The Zone. Their on-air personalities are the best — well informed, covering a wide range of sporting activities and events, articulate and personable — and they have the strongest signal of any, always available wherever my adventures take me.
What’s that, you say? You think the words sports and articulate do not belong in the same paragraph? Well, keen observers, you may be right in general, but not with the specificity wherein I dwell. To be sure, there are some jocks that have pursued post-playing careers in broadcasting, who demonstrate with every parting of their lips and movement of their tongues that the selection committee for Rhodes Scholars has not erred in omitting them from those prestigious awards. Some of the language is so colorful that I note it for relaying on to you, both of my readers. Here for your reading pleasure is a small sampling of what I have heard recently. Enjoy…
- A team or player that is not intimidatable…
- A team or player that out-athleticed another…
- A player has great quickness of speed…
- Both players can talk trash like Charles Barkley, but so-and-so can out-Barkley the other…
- The ubiquitous ath-uh-lete … used by many, perfected by Coach Doug Matthews on 104.5 The Zone…
- This one is used repeatedly (substitute football, baseball, or any other sport for basketball): A player has good Basketball IQ…
- Every player and coach and analyst declares that the way their team can win the game is to execute…
- … the dramaticness of the crash … (4/5/08 — Doug Matthews, talking about a NASCAR crash. I am not putting him down. Doug has forgotten more football than most people ever know. I love the guy, but he does use some language at times that makes me think and go … hmmm …)
- And from the master analogist of the sports world, one of the most articulate, intelligent, and highly respected sportscasters anywhere, Mark Howard of 104.5 The Zone, right here in Nashville, comes this nugget from a recent discussion of how the Nashville Predators had overcome so many non-game and off-season obstacles to make the NHL playoffs: People don’t want to hear about the labor pains, they just want to see the baby.
In all sincerity, I believe 104.5 The Zone and The Director, George Plaster, are to be commended for assembling a stellar cast of personalities that inform and entertain Nashville area sports fans every day. In addition to George and the aforementioned Mark and Doug, the list of inmates and regular guests includes Frank Wycheck (yes, that Frank Wycheck, former Titan of Music City Miracle fame), Kevin Ingram (impersonator par excellence), Willie Daunic, John McClain (of the Houston Chronicle), Darren McFarland, Coach Eddie Fogler (during basketball season), and others. Collectively, they are the best. And as George Plaster says, you can Book It!
8 Comments so far
[...] nobody asked… wrote an interesting post today on The Wonderfully Strange Language of Sports…Here’s a quick excerptThis one is used repeatedly (substitute football, baseball, or any other sport for basketball):… [...]
Could you provide a pronunciation guide for “out-athleticed”?
IF they work, I don’t at all mind neologisms, and sports (as well as other areas of endeavor that tend toward jargon) are a rich source of them. But I tend to weary of “execution.”
On another note: the mother of my children would giggle whenever a sportscaster would talk about “penetration”–a frequent occurrence during football season, as any fan can attest.
“Quickness of speed” is almost metaphysical in quality: there is indeed a difference between speed and quickness (reaction-time) not always appreciated by fans.
My comment has no real point beyond wanting, by way of playing along, to say Thanks for posting this.
Now forming the “John Madden fo Presdent” committee… thanks for the excellent and penetrating post.
- Papa
John B: I don’t know if you were serious, rhetorical, or just being a smart-ass. “Irregardless” (another one that we hear constantly), here’s my best shot at a pronunciation guide for “out-athleticed”: out-ath-let-ticked
The way I’ve heard it used, the first, second, and final syllables get equal emphasis, while the third gets less. Not sure if that makes sense, but I am neither lexicographer nor etymologist. More of a digital entomologist, chasing computer bugs for a living.
Good post! Talk radio can be exhausting, so I think you have found a way to use it for your own entertainment (and ours). Thanks
Winston,
I was being serious–I tried out about half a dozen different pronunciations, each of which seemed to be lacking in some way. So, thanks. That’s a hard word to pronounce.
Sorta off-topic: Whoever coined “irregardless” deserves to be frozen up to his/her neck in the 9th circle of Hell so, if I, here as I am at the academic midpoint of my life, should come along for a visit, I can kick him/her in the head a couple of times and ask, “What the hell were you thinking?” I don’t think of myself as being especially schoolmarmish about language, but that one does indeed get my goat.
Geez. I really DO need that sabbatical.
Ah word that seemed to pop up in the last couple of years with the sports announcers, usually in the context of college football when some unusual offensive play is run: “trickeration.”
Usually, with good announcers, the patter is better than whatever athletic event is being broadcast, I think.
[...] Asked sings the praises of Nashville’s sports-talk community and in particular the flag-ship station of the [...]