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Posts Tagged ‘major league baseball’

Baseball’s What Not to Say

Posted by languageandgrammar on April 6, 2009

I apologize to all of the people I know who will read this and think I’m singling them out because they will most likely make some version of the statement during the next 24 hours. I’m not, and that’s part of the point of the type of statement I like to call “You Thought You Were Clever, But….” We all do it–we make that non-clever, obvious statement even though when we hear the very same statement, we roll our eyes and shake our heads.

Do  your friends, family, and co-workers a favor, and don’t make any of these comments about the local Major League Baseball team after the first game of the season:

  • The Pirates are going 162-0 this year
  • At least we know that the Pirates won’t go 0-162 this year
  • At least we know that the Pirates will win one game this year

There are probably other versions, but you get the point.

It’s not funny. It’s not original. It’s as annoying as saying “See you next year” on December 31.

–Paul

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12 Million Reasons

Posted by languageandgrammar on December 30, 2008

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

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