Sports books

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Sep 5 14:59:48 UTC 1999


Barry quotes,
>---------------------------------------------
>Marv Albert, I'D LOVE TO, BUT I HAVE A GAME (1993)
>...
>Pp. 136-137  I'm afraid "Yesssss!" has leaked out from the world of sports.
>I don't know how many times Macauley Culkin said it in the movie _Home Alone_
>but I know I'm still waiting for the royalty checks.  It has replaced "All
>right!" in the American idiom.  It is part of the language now.  _You mean
>your mother-in-law is moving out_?  _Yesssss_!  (...)
>Pg. 137  The first "Yesssss!" I ever uttered was at the end of the third
>quarter of a Knicks game in 1968.  Dick Barnett hit a long shot at the buzzer
>and I said, "Yesssss."  People started repeating it back to me the next day,
>and the next thing you know it was part of my repertoire.  I got it from the
>one time colorful NBA ref Sid Borgia.  Whenever a player would get fouled
>while shooting, Sid would stick up his hand and holler, "If it
>goes...Yesssss!"  In other words, "If it goes in the basket, I'm going to
>give this guy a bonus free throw!  Yesssss!"  Poor Sid.  I don't believe he
>ever recovered any royalty checks, either.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that he's back behind the mike (or mic) again, perhaps Marv can put
that other side of his life behind him--the side that suggests his response
to various suggestions wasn't ALWAYS "I'd Love To, But I Have a Game.".
(e.g.   "What did Marv Albert said when NBC gave him a pink slip?"
        "No, thanks, I already have one.")

But something I've never quite understood about his trademark calls is
this:  Under the circumstances he mentions in the citation above, Marv's
adaptation of the Sid Borgia holler is, or at least was, "YESSSSSSS.  And
it counts!"  The problem is that he never actually announces the foul, he
sort of presupposes it.  "YESSSSS.  And {the foul/he's fouled}!" would be
more informative.  Oh well.

Larry



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