There are a lot of things in the world of sports that irritate me to no end. Most recently, however, one particularly annoying trend comes from my former career field – sports broadcasting. It seems like every day I hear an color analyst or anchor tell me that this athlete or team did something that hasn’t been done in so long. Now, on the surface, this wouldn’t bother me if it were a significant achievement since a significant amount of time.
Instead, we get, “That’s the first time he’s singled to right field after the seventh inning since last week, man it must feel good to break out of that slump.”
What? It reminded me of the 1987 movie Major League with Wesley Snipes and Charlie Sheen when Bob Eucker, playing the role of the Cleveland Indians radio broadcaster, would be handed a completely irrelevant stat that read something like what I wrote above.
This has to stop. Give me relevant stats, like, this is the first time a player has hit a home run in 10 consecutive games since 1912! Now THAT is a stat worth mentioning.
I propose a five year buffer on all “first time since…” stats. If an athlete does something that hasn’t been done in at least five years, great, lay it on me. But, if it’s only been two or three years, no thanks, it’s not worth my time.
