Sports writer looking for Grammar help

Editor at my old shop used to get his panties in a bunch over, "broke the game open."
He would always make it broke open the game.

If it has to be, "broke open the game," shouldn't it be "broke open it."

 

Bloody hell, mate. You look at a word and look at a word, and contemplate looking it up but think, "Nah, I'm in a hurry," and I'll be damned.

 

Probably. But then again, it should be RsBI, too, so there is that.

 

Here's one more for the SIDs, or writers who came up with a radio background.

If you write, "Podunk knocked off Anysville 14-8 last night from Soldiers Field," I am going to cringe and scream. You don't play from somewhere. You play at somewhere.

 

Was the team literally knocked from the field? Otherwise, yeah, that's awful.

 

The term "knocked off" implies that the losing team was ahead of the winning team in some sort, be it rankings, standings or whatever.

"Knocked off" should not be used as a synonym for "defeated."

I've been doing this for 19 years now, and learned this about a year ago. It makes sense, though.

 

Probably a thread jack, but the new local radio play-by-play guy drives me nuts. When we're wrong, we have to run a correction. Not these nimwits.

First of all, there is a difference between a false start and an illegal procedure. A false start is a dead-ball penalty. Get it frickin' right.

Second, if it has already happened, for the love of God, stop saying, "... gonna be ..." Does every play-by-play guy do this!?

Third, he is wrong nine times out of 10 when calling the action.

He: "Smith carries it to the 19 for a first down."

Me (under my breath): "18."

He: And it's third-and-1 from the 18.

He: "Jones drops back to pass ... he's gonna complete it to Brown for a 22-yard pass play to the Podunk 38."

Me: "23 yards ... to the 37."

Had a radio guy at a D-II school proudly announce to the crowd that Podunk State had a 29-10 lead at halftime. Found out later that Podunk State lost 55-24. He had the teams backward.

 

Grounds crew, two words, not groundscrew. Otherwise it looks like ground screw.

 

No, it shouldn't be. An acronym is treated like a word. The plural of a word gets an S, so it's RBIs.
Attorney general = singular. Attorneys general = plural. AG = singular. AGs = plural.
Run batted in = singular. Runs batted in = plural. RBI = singular. RBIs = plural.

And it's "versus," not "verse."

 

I don't have an editor and use grammarly. It seems to catch the major stuff and I haven't had any English teachers call to rip me.

 

I have mentioned this in another thread (at least I hope it was another thread).

If the Rams beat the Cowboys, it will be incorrect to say, "Sean McVay won his first playoff game."

McVay lost his first playoff game, last season to the Falcons.

If the Rams beat the Cowboys, it will be correct to say, "Sean McVay earned his first playoff victory."