“fan base”

Here’s the latest literary virus spread by my former profession, sportswriting:

“Jeremy Lin’s 25.8 ppg, and the Knicks’ 5-1 record at home since he’s been a starter, have breathed life back into their fan base.”

The old way to say this would have been simply “breathed life back into their fans.” But then this “fan base” thing started at some point in the 1990’s. It originally made sense. It was used to refer to the total size of a fan pool in a given city, in order to pose questions such as: “Does Kansas City have a large enough fan base to support another chance at an NBA team?” But gradually it crept into general use, as a replacement for “fans.” Which is funny, because it’s longer and more complicated. But I suppose it sounds more sophisticated, more critical-analytical.

Another sportswriting-related virus that is only now just starting to fade after 10 or more years: excessive use of the indefinite article. Example… Question: “Who’s the best point guard in the NBA right now?”; Answer: “I think you’d have to look at a Derrick Rose, or a Chris Paul, or a Deron Williams.” It would be best to answer this question with no articles at all, of course, but for awhile it was nearly mandatory to use the indefinite in that way… Actually, come to think of it, it isn’t really sportswriters who do this so much. It’s more an oral phenomenon, promulgated in speech by broadcasters.

Again, I despise language “purists” who nitpick on questions of usage, but what I dislike even more are stupid language viruses. In America we’ve never really recovered from the Valley Girl Era of the early 1980’s. Like like like like like like like like like. The other night I was stuck on the bus right in front of a remote male product of that era, who spent the whole hour trying to impress the girl sitting next to him (and she did seem impressed, amazingly). His speech consisted entirely of phrases such as this: “I was like, ‘no way.'”

Worst I ever heard, though, was from a young waitress in State College, Pennsylvania. After she brought the food, I told her there was no fork. Her response: “And you’re like, ‘oh my God.'” Well, not quite.