Evolving subjunctive

[Alice Faber]

Bill Smith said:
>Skip Carey (son of Harry) is one of the radio/tv  announcers for the
>Atlanta Braves.  When there are two outs and he announces the batter on
>deck, he says, "Chipper [e.g.] would be next."  Is this a new use for the
>subjunctive?  For Cubs fans, did he get it from his father?
>On the other hand, he will also say, for example, "If he doesn't stop, he's
>out," when one would expect "If he hadn't stopped, he would have been
>out."  Are these unique to him?

The first, the implied conditional ("Chipper would be next [if Andruw gets
on]") may well be unique to Caray. However, the contingent sentences ("if
he doesn't stop, he's out") seems fairly common in sportscasterese.

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Alice Faber                                  tel. (203) 865-6163 x258
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