Things College Softball Announcers Can Quit Saying

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Dec 11, 2010
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As the Minister Of Snark here at DFP, and as a service to the college softball announcers everywhere, let’s help them out by creating a List Of Things They Can Quit Saying 15 Times Per Game.

1) Find a different way to describe a base on balls than “Issuing A Free Pass”. Please. Beth, this means YOU.
2) “She didn’t try to do too much with that pitch” (but she did hit it out....)
3) Team A, (which I used to play for) will “keep fighting”. Or, “They are fighting right now.”
4) The word “scrappy” shall here after be limited to less than 5 times per season. Get a thesaurus, kid.
5) I know you used to have to call the coach “Coach_________”. You are an announcer now. Unless you are speaking directly to them, quit.
6) “Kept her hands inside the ball” or any variation is banned.
7) Announcers will here after run poles for every “Um”. Your job is to talk now. Practice it. Do drills. Figure it out.
8) “Aggressive” can no longer be used unless it helps demonstrate some unique insight. I’m glad she’s an aggressive hitter. Nope, nope, nope.
9) Pitcher A “just missed. She wanted that pitch.” Thanks. I bet she did.

Just generally, you don’t have to break down every little thing like you are a little league coach. Quit with every coaching generality statement that every coach you ever played for ever said. Don’t feel like you HAVE to be saying something all the time, watch the game and visit with your broadcast partner. You are allowed to have some fun. You don’t HAVE to talk about Softball every minute of the broadcast! Talk about the guy with the stupid hat in the stands. Talk about the cool dog on the berm. Talk about the restaurant you always hit in whatever town you are in. Quit being so technical. Entertain us. Tell the story about how you missed curfew sneaking out of the hotel to get ice cream or something. Talk about that time Coach A was a real jerk. Tell us about how that one time the team couldn’t find a restaurant open and the coach made you eat frozen hot pockets on the bus or something. Your life as a player is interesting! “She left that pitch on the plate and that’s why it was a home run” is boring.
 
Last edited:
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
For the non-snarky part.... Madison Shipman does a nice job. Louie Belina is fun. Margie Wright is great mix of interesting insights and honest observation.

Chime in with the good and the bad, y’all!
 
Apr 16, 2013
1,113
83
7) Announcers will here after run poles for every “Um”. Your job is to talk now. Practice it. Do drills. Figure it out.

I still remember speech class in college. 5 points deducted every time you said "Um". You'd think that would have been covered in, "Announcing 101."
 
Feb 14, 2014
160
16
I love, Love, LOVE the SEC. However, I’m tired of hearing, “Every series is like a mini-super regional.” every single game. Yes, it’s a very tough conference. Come up with a different way to say it, please.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Feb 15, 2017
920
63
For SEC announcers:

How about "Every week is against a team that you might meet in a regional."

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 

Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
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Mundelein, IL
When I was in college I did sports broadcasts for the campus radio station. Did football, basketball and baseball. Baseball was definitely the most challenging because there can be long delays in anything meaningful happening. I used to talk about all kinds of goofy stuff going on around the field just so no one would think the station had gone off the air (which was always a distinct possibility).

Softball is a little better because you don't have throws over to hold the runner on base, but you get two or three foul balls in a row and there will be some dead space to fill.

Where I think TV announcers often don't get it is they forget we can all see the same things they're seeing if they're describing the action that's on camera. That's what makes the great ones stand out. They get it and don't state the obvious. Color commentators should be offering up more insights, and stories from their playing days to fill the time. For example, Coach A likes to sac bunt runners to second, so I don't know why the third baseman isn't playing 10 feet away. Or running in hard on the pitch.

As for things I never want to hear again:

"She really inside-outed that ball." Translation: she was late with her swing but got lucky enough to hit it to the opposite field.
"Her rise ball is really jumping as it reaches the plate today." No it's not. Unless the laws of physics have been temporarily suspended in that vicinity.
 

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