Monday, November 12, 2007

Homers, Homers, Everywhere

Homers in the media aren't only limited to the Twin Cities. They are in every sports market. Cases in point over the weekend:

1) On KFGO-AM, Sioux hockey radio play-by-play guy Tim Hennessy said that the Wisconsin hockey coaches were probably wondering how they pulled off their Friday night win over North Dakota. Final score? Badgers 4, Sioux 0. As my cousin Dale used to say to announcers who incessently brought up shots-on-goal totals: "Any time you wanna play for shots on goal, let me know."

2) On NBC on Saturday, the color guy talked about Air Force was "eking out a ten-point win" over Notre Dame. One, two, three points? Sure those are "eking out", but not ten. Yes, I know NBC is based in New York City while Notre Dame is in South Bend, but NBC's coverage of the Irish still qualifies as homerism in my book. And Air Force ended up beating Notre Lame by 17, which certainly qualifies as a beatdown. (This allows me an excuse to link to Slate's hatchet job on Irish coach Charlie Weis.)