baseball commentators' sig phrases

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Apr 6 00:29:50 UTC 2004


>Page Stephens writes:
>>If anyone out there has any more interesting baseball announcer's signature
>phrases I would love to know about them.<
>~~~~~~~~~~
>Joe Nuxall (was that his name?)

Nuxhall.  Not quite 16 when he first pitched as a "bonus baby"--in
those days, you had to keep  draftees who were paid a bonus on the
major league roster, even if they weren't ready.  Sandy Koufax was
another southpaw bonus baby in the mid-50's, but not quite as young
as Nuxhall.

>  -- youngest  ever pitcher for the Cinci
>Reds, during WWII -- as color commentator for the Reds in the '70s, used to
>sign off: "This is the old left-hander, rounding third and heading for
>home."
>A. Murie

Current Yankee announcer John Sterling's sig call is something like
"It is high.  It is far.  It is....gone."  (Sorry I can't reproduce
the key suprasegmentals.)   Just checked the internet, and someone
renders it this way, more accurately than I just did, at least when
it's a Yankee who goes long:

"Hmmmmmmmmmit is high, Hmmmmmmmmmmmmit is far, Hmmmmmmmit is gone."

Chris Berman, ESPN:   Back back back back.....gone.

Oops, just realized we could all save ourselves a lot of time.  Check
out:  http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quohomer.shtml
I remember a bunch of these, but far from all of them.

Larry



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