Thursday, August 27, 2009

Baseball Jargon Pet Peeve.

Look, I'm happy, nay, THRILLED that the Red Sox are righting their little post-break slide (freefall?), but the grammar nazi that I am can't help but shudder at the improper use of baseball terminology. Last night, David Ortiz did NOT hit a walk-off homerun to win the game. To do that, there had to have been at least one runner on base (the score was 2-2 before Ortiz came up to bat. The whole idea behind a walk-off is that the hitter doesn't need to cross home plate -- but in this case, Ortiz had to do just that to make the score officially 3-2 for the Boston win.
Late inning heroics are good and all, and Ortiz, steroids or no, is totes clutch, but walk-offs are a unique beast. Close enough is for horseshoes and hand grenades (oopah! I've been waiting--DYING even--to use that in my writing!), not walk-offs.

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