I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: While not all of us care about using proper grammar at all times, we all have at least one language pet peeve. As you’ll notice from the Pet Peeves page on our site, language pet peeves can certainly be grammar related, but they might also be a word or phrase that’s redundant, annoyingly trendy, or just doesn’t make any sense.
I recently saw a blog about Texas Rangers’ pitcher Kevin Millwood, who has to pitch a certain number of innings in order to be guaranteed the final year of his contract. If he reaches the requirement, then he will make $12,000,000 in 2010. An article about Millwood’s contract status said that Millwood had “12 million reasons to pitch 180 innings in 2009.”
The blogger on mlbtraderumors.com wonders why every dollar is a reason (Odds and Ends: Abreu, Wiggington, and Millwood). That sounds like a pet peeve to me, and by the way, I couldn’t agree more. I would hope that Millwood, a professional athlete with years of experience, would want to pitch well for reasons that go beyond money, such as the benefit of the team, pride, and because it’s the right thing to do.
Of course, since the original article (Millwood Steaming Toward Next Season) states that he’s lost 12 pounds and is determined to rebound, perhaps that wasn’t the case. Wait, 12 pounds with 12 million dollars on the line—–that’s a million dollars per pound of fat!
–Paul
Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever
