Mariners Baseball

We aren't really what you'd call classic sports fans, but for whatever reason we've been watching broadcasts of our home team - the Seattle Mariners - play ball this month.

And when you watch sports on TV, you also listen to sports announcers.

Now baseball is a slow game; a quiet, contemplative game, punctuated by Big Action Moments, however few and far between. For the announcers this means a lot of time for idle chit chat and inane statistics, peppered with screams of excitement punctuated with such pithy comments as 'Holy Cow!' and 'Fly Away Baseball!' and 'My oh My!' - comments designed to help them avoid swearing on the air.

And there seems to be a need to demonstrate intimate knowledge of the team and the game and the temptation to imply 'insider' status with the players - Ichiro, Gutierrez, Tuiasosopo Lopez...

For the Seattle announcers, this last bit results in 'nicknaming' the participants - basically creating a diminutive form for all their names - Ichi, Guti,Tui, Lupi... sounding like the 7 dwarfs and Junior. Do you suppose that is really how the locker room chat goes?

I think we're probably focusing on the wrong stuff.