For all I know, Yankees broadcaster John Sterling is a perfectly nice man who reads to children, paints church pews in his spare time and helps little old ladies across the street. I still do not like him.

My reasoning is simple. Five words, ninety-three syllables: “Yankees win, tha-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a Yankees win!” Just thinking about it makes me so angry…I refuse to post a YouTube video example of this atrocity. And if you’ve seen my work anywhere, you know I love me some embedded YouTube.

Thanks to SPORTSbyBROOKS, there is now another reason to either dislike Sterling or, at the very least, question his decision-making ability. When Alex Rodriguez hit a walk-off homerun to beat the Indians last night, Sterling referred to the blast as “an A-Bomb for A-Rod”. I saw the highlight on ESPN after the game and heard the call, but immediately dove for the mute button for fear of the dreaded phrase you see above. It struck me as an odd choice of words, but nothing malicious.

Maybe so, but Brooks and Sporting News Radio host Dave Smith made an interesting point: what if the walk-off had come against Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Sterling had called it the same way? What type of backlash would we see? I like Brooks’ analysis:

“Maybe it’s just me, but knowing Sterling, I’m guessing he just thought the call was clever and didn’t attach a potential ulterior meaning to it. And if Dice-K had been pitching, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d let it slip out. The fact that he used it now (and people are now bringing up the Japanese connection) probably will save him from making the mistake in the future. “

Seriously, can’t we all picture Sterling waking up at three in the morning, scrambling for a piece of paper and pencil, and chuckling at his own wittiness as he jots down this gem of a homerun call? I can.

Two points: one, this isn’t the first time Sterling had busted out the “A-bomb for A-Rod” phrase (he actually seems to use it fairly commonly when Rodriguez goes deep), and two, I was more offended when he said, “Alex Rodriguez is having the greatest month of his or any other life,” because it’s not true. Either part. A little hyperbole goes a long, long way.

YANKS “A-BOMB” RADIO CALL ROLLS DICE WITH PC POLICE (SPORTSbyBROOKS)

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