Every now and then I invoke personal privilege in order to get something—usually some insignificant something important only to me—off my chest. I can do this because I pay for this Web site and we all have our pet peeves and this is my way of airing mine. (Sometimes, I write these for me.)
My gripe is with the otherwise splendid team of LSU play-by-play announcer Chris Blair and analyst Doug Thompson. They add a whole new dimension to listening to LSU baseball with Blair’s professional and descriptive play-by-play and Thompson’s insightful running analysis of the many subtleties of the game (and make no mistake, baseball is many games within a game, all going on simultaneously and it takes a student of the game like Thompson to convey that).
Having said that, please understand that I have had a lifelong passion for baseball, going all the way back to when Ted Williams and Stan Musial were in the twilights of their careers.
I thought I would never live to see the Red Sox win a World Series after seeing them take the Cardinals (1967), the Reds (1975) and the Mets (1986) to the seventh game each time only to lose the deciding game. Then came 2004 when the Red Sox looked like they had a real chance.
When the hated Yankees won the first three games of the League Championship Series, I fell into despair only to see the Sox rally and tie the series at three games each. Great, I thought. They’ve come all the way back just so they can break my heart again by losing the seventh game. But they didn’t and they swept the Cardinals to win the World Series for the first time since 1918. They won again in 2007, sweeping the Rockies in four straight. Then they won a third time this century when they again dispatched the Cardinals, this time in six games in 2013. Life is good.
I also am a huge fan of LSU baseball and I attend every game I can and I listen whether I’m at the game or at home. (Yes, I’m one of those who watches the game live with a headset on so I can hear the radio broadcast to pick up statistics, sidebar stories, and scores of other games.)
I cherish all six LSU College World Series titles. Framed copies of commemorative Baton Rouge Advocate sports pages heralding the victories, including the one with the photo of pitcher Doug Thompson (yes, the current analyst on the radio broadcasts) after the last out is recorded in the LSU win over Alabama in the championship game, on my home office wall are testament of my devotion. The 1996 College World Series, however, was especially magical and anyone who has ever set foot in Alex Box Stadium on the LSU campus knows all about Warren Morris’s first-pitch, two-out, two-run, home run in the bottom of the ninth that converted a potential 8-7 loss into a 9-7 championship. (Has it really been almost 20 years?) An enlarged framed photo of Morris circling the bases at the old Rosenblatt Stadium as Miami Hurricanes shortstop Alex Cora lies face down in the infield grass also adorns the wall of my home office.
So you see, I love baseball. I always have, always will. To me, it’s the purest sport of them all. Ken Harrelson said it’s the only sport that when you’re on offense, the other team has the ball. It’s also one of only two sports I know (tennis is the other) when the ball hits the white line, it’s not out of bounds (except on serves in tennis). And it was either Joe Schultz or Jim Bouton who said, “It’s a round bat and a round ball and you gotta hit it square.”
But I have a real aversion to sports announcers who violate the most basic of the rules of English grammar. One of the most prevalent errors among sports announcers is the improper usage of the personal pronoun “I.” This is where my one and only complaint about Blair and Thompson comes into play. It seems that they are worse than most in the misuse of “I” in lieu of the correct pronoun “me.”
Just today (Sunday), it was Chris, I believe, who said Ben McDonald “tells Doug and I” that Mississippi State has a strong bullpen.
Only 18 games into the season, I have already lost count of the times I have heard one or the other say (and I’m paraphrasing all but the “I” part), someone “tweeted Chris and I,” or “they cooked up some good ribs for Doug and I,” or “tag Chris and I about your favorite memory” of the former player being featured during a particular game.
Any time one makes a personal pronoun the object of a verb or preposition, it requires the objective form. “I” is subjective; “me” is objective. If you’re confused, try dropping the first name and saying something like “He told I,” or, “If you ask I,” or “Tweet I,” it starts to sound pretty stupid, right? It should be “He told Chris and me,” or “Tweet Chris and me,” or “They cooked up some good ribs for Doug and me.” The same goes for sentences like, “She told Robert and he.” It should be, “She told Robert and him.”
There is a handy Web page that addresses nearly every conceivable question of proper language usage. It’s called Common Errors in English. http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#p
For the proper use of “I” and “me,” you can go to this link: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/myself.html
E-mails to LSU sports and LSU radio have been ignored, so I am using this medium to plead with Chris and Doug to address that bothersome little habit.
Yes, I know, in the overall scheme of things, this really isn’t very important.
Except it is.
School kids listen to the games. Chris and Doug are not only the voices of LSU baseball (and Chris, of course, will next move on to football and basketball with the retirement of Jim Hawthorne), they are, in a very real sense, the voice of higher education; and not just higher education, but Louisiana’s flagship university….and LSU is still an educational institute.
Unlike the massive budget deficit facing the legislature, this is a simple issue to correct.
So, a final word to Chris and Doug: Please try a little harder to sound as though you represent an institution of learning and quit embarrassing your high school English teachers.
Louisiana Voice 
LOL! 😆
Everyone is entitled to a pet peeve Tom. Duly noted.
I enjoy your website, but give the guys a break.
Sorry, but no. They are very good at what they do but their continuous sloppy grammar in the use of “I” instead of “me” is an egregious error common to so many today. We’ve relaxed far too many rules in communication. When, for example, did it become acceptable to say “Everyone is entitled to their opinion”? These guys are out front as public representatives of a university and should set an example of proper grammar.
Thank you for this column!!
Finally! Another person offended by the improper use of “I.” Just yesterday I PROPERLY used the phrase “Mark and me” as the object, only to be “corrected” by a well-intended but incorrect friend. (Sigh) I am glad to see that I am not alone.
To your list of grammatical pet peeves, please consider adding the use of “that” when the proper word should be “who.” All too often people say such things as, “The doctor that performed the surgery.” Gack!
Another example of bad grammar that has crept into everyday usage.
Thanks.
Tom, I do the same thing. Is it because we had such great English teachers in grammar school? I hear “I” & “me” misused, & it makes me “ouch!” Glad I am not alone!
I think you may be correct. I had three absolutely wonderful English teachers at Ruston High School: Mrs. L.J. (Mary Alice) Garrett, Miss Charlotte Lewis, and Miss Maggie Hinton. They would never have allowed us to get away with the abuse of the English language that seems to commonplace today. Oh, how I loved those dedicated teachers who cared so deeply for their students. Mrs. Garrett knew I was from an extremely poor family and knowing how I needed to earn money, she bought eggs from me year-round for 50 cents a dozen even though they were cheaper in the store in the spring and summer. Miss Hinton took me to the doctor when I became very ill after school and paid the doctor. Miss Lewis, my freshman English teacher, was the first to see a glimmer of promise in my writing and encouraged me to keep at it. Fifty-five years after graduation, I still have vivid—and cherished—memories of those wonderful people.
Tom, the method you spoke about above is what I use to determine when I should use “I” or “me”. Unless, my memory is failing, I don’t remember being taught that in school. I picked it up years later from a former legal secretary. She was the supervisor of House Administrative Services. Her job, along with her staff, included proofing all of the legislation that was drafted by the staff upstairs. Thank goodness for Administrative Services. The problem here is that Chris and Doug do not have Administrative Services and their broadcast is spontaneous.
Tom, excellent column. As you said, it’s such a simple fix. I agree with Belynda also, mixing ” that” & “who” drives me up a wall. My other grammatical pet peeve is using “like” in stead of “as”. I’m sure you remember the furor over that old cigarette commercial: “Winston’s taste good like a cigarette should”. Back then grammar mattered and there was a national debate over correct usage of “like” and “as”.
It’s good to know some journalists still care about grammar. Keep up the good work.
I appreciate this column and the above comments. I am amazed that that Belynda was actually corrected for proper usage! I fear this practice has entered the realm of acceptability through common usage. Also I noticed many years ago, as a fan of Reggae music, that this usage occurs frequently in song lyrics, but without an intervening objective pronoun, ie, in a Bob Marley song I recall the line “…(they) sold I to the merchant ships.” Thanks Tom, keep up the good work.
Thank you, Tom, for starting a dialogue on the corruption of our language, due to ignorance or laziness.
Those of us who have been taught excellent grammar (despite the influence of the AP Stylebook, which seems to have fallen out of journalistic favor, to the dismay of classically trained journalists) generally suffer in silence. It also appears that newspaper copy editors, whose jobs were to ensure proper spelling, grammar, context, headline/story correlation, etc,, have gone the way of printing presses, dinosaurs and editors-in-chief who actually cared about excellence: ain’t dere no more, as they say, colloquially, in NOLA.
Personal pet peeves:
that/which
prevent/avoid
hopefully in almost context (rather than “it is to be hoped”)
amongst and whilst/among and while (when did we go 19th century British, anyway?)
anyways/anyway
People who correct other people’s grammar in polite conversation (usually displaying poor grammar themselves, as well as poor manners, to the dismay of such polite and long-suffering people as Miss Manners and earthmother, who confine their corrections to the written word rather than insulting conversants to their faces.)
Bravo!
You must really get a kick out of listening to Bobby Hebert on the radio. Lol.
No doubt!
Hurrah, Tom! This is one of my pet peeves, and it makes me cringe when I hear the use of “I” instead of “me.” It seems to me people think they sound more educated with this use, but it is totally incorrect. When I taught school, I also told students to use the simple trick of leaving off the other name and see what sounds right! Mrs. Garrett, Miss Hinton, Miss Clingan, Mrs. Gilbert, and Miss Lewis taught us well at RHS…….
A lot of people simply operate on the assumption that it’s impolite to refer to oneself as “me”
Anyway, when it comes to baseball announcing, I think you have to apply the Dizzy Dean bar. If they don’t talk about how “Bregman slud into third base” you are ahead of the game.
I am totally on your side about this. Drives me nuts, but those great announcers are not the only ones doing this. I, too, had those same great teachers you mentioned. Since it does drive me nuts, I know that it is my problems and not theirs, I just quit listening. I love “off” buttons.
Thanks, Tom. I often am bothered by repetitive poor usage of the English language in broadcasts of all kinds. I was particularly irked by local weatherman Mike Graham’s indifferent use of the words “bring” and “take”. So when he repeatedly advised his listeners to “be sure to bring an umbrella to work today,” I got a cheap umbrella and took it right down to Channel 9’s studio for him. I think he got the point.
If that bothers you, how in the world did you stomach listening to an event called by Hawthorne? I loved his enthusiasm and his love for LSU but over the last several years, he was horrible.
If the game was on TV, it was an obvious choice. Otherwise, I gritted my teeth and tried to get through it. I will say that Hawthorne was a pretty fair basketball play by play announcer, but he was lost doing baseball. Worst of all, he did not have a full grasp of the rules. There were times when I was at a baseball game and listening on my headphones. From time to time, I found myself wondering if we were watching the same game.
Sorry to disagree but while Blair has a wonderful voice and a pleasing on-air persona he needs to work on his play-by-play. It’s not great. I’ve listened to all of the Tigers games on radio so far this season and he doesn’t always give us a good picture of what is going on. In fact, I’ve been, um, talking to the radio frequently this year. For example, when the ball has been hit he will say ” the ball has wafted up” but not give us the complete picture….where? infield fly? foul? was it a pop up? how hard? who got it? I can’t see it so I’m counting on him to give me the details, important details for people who love the game.
There will only be one one Vin Skully but I’m hoping things will improve.
Tom,
My 5th grade English teacher wife says bravo to you. She affirms how important it is.
Tom,
Your point is very well taken, just between you and … me! One minor comment: near the end of this column, you state, “Any time one makes a personal pronoun the subject of a verb or preposition, it requires the objective form.” Surely, instead of “subject,” you meant “object of a verb.” That’s because, as you properly noted, “me” is objective.
You are absolutely correct. Making the change now! Thanks! I always my own worst proofreader.