Things that bother me

David Cone. He's awful on YES. No as bad as John Flaherty, but nearly so. Why? Here's a few reasons:
- He picks one word per sentence and over-emphasizes it. "You see, Damon just DROPPED the bat head on the ball there. He SLASHED that ball into the gap. That's the kind of hitter Damon is, a SLASHER. He SLASHES."
- He's repetitive. He mentioned the "cold water/ammonia" thing no fewer than four times during Sunday's broadcast. We get it. It's cold water mixed with ammonia that acts as a sort of smelling salt. He also told the David DeJesus/Mo Rivera "home run of a lifetime" story at least twice. Once during the open and again when Rivera came in the close out Sunday's game.
- He uses words such as "attractive" to describe a player. This is probably a personal pet peeve, but at no time should a player of any sport be referred to as "attractive" a "stud" or anything similar.

The "is this the spark the Yankees needed?" question. Baseball is a long season. One game doesn't make or break that season. One great come-from-behind win, or two for that matter, in the span of four days, doesn't mean much other than the team won a game. The Yankees are back above .500 by one game. They haven't shown any desire to be much better. If they go on a streak, great, if they don't, it's business as usual for 2008.

The phrases "not trying to do too much" and "grinding it out."

Sideline/clubhouse reporters: There is no group of people better equipped to ask less intelligent questions to elicit the least informative of responses. Except perhaps YouTube participants in presidential primary debates. "So, Bobby, did it feel good to hit that home run?" "Yes, yes it did. I wasn't trying to do too much, just make solid contact ..." Credit athletes, and coaches for the most part, for answering the questions, time and again, even if those answers, like the questions, are unintelligible.

Anything that has anything even remotely to do with horses. Even glue is on my shit list. Now that Big Brown flamed out just like every other horse that has chased the Triple Crown, can horse racing just go back to being for degenerates? Can we stop pretending, like boxing and soccer, it matters in the United States? I like to think the horses that failed in their Triple Crown bids did so on purpose. As if they knew what was at stake and thought, you know what, "Screw you and your trifecta." But they didn't think that BECAUSE THEY'RE HORSES. They just didn't run well, because, I'm sure, even horses have bad days.

Quotation marks and people who use them excessively in blogs.