Baseball Terminology...A Lot Depends on Broadcasters

I feel very fortunate that the San Francisco Giants hire the best play-by-play announcers. These "voices" sell the product that is Giants baseball better than any advertisement could and they have decent ads.

Baseball begins in March, with Spring training, and ends in October (if your favorite team plays well enough to make the post-season). That's eight months of a twelve month year. The voices of your favorite ballclub are like family, the way they enter your life by way of the airwaves. Some people prefer watching baseball on television, but when I first followed the grand old game I had a transistor and it's my preference to listen to games on the radio.

People see me walking with my walkman and they probably see something that is outdated but it serves me just fine.

I enjoy tuning into Giants baseball and am entertained by the likes of Jon Miller, Dave Fleming, Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow and occasionally J.T. Snow or F.P. Santangelo. I am so plugged into their insights that often I'll say something and moments later the announcer will repeat what I just said.

Baseball terms, you can find them under Wikipedia's glossary of baseball. The explanation of terms is interesting, especially since the glossary is an ever-growing list of words.

For example, it's no longer a bloop, excuse-me swing, duck snort or dying quail. The in vogue term, according to Giant broadcasters (Miller and or Fleming), is looping liner.

Ninety-nine percent of the time a looping liner falls safely. If a fielder were somehow able to catch this accidental phenomenon it would have been described as a squibber or a ball that was cued as if hit with a billiard stick.

Kevin Marquez