Come To Think of It: Annoying Pet Peeves in the World of Sports

I love sports. That's one reason why I write about sports, why I watch sports, and why I often eat, drink, and sleep sports.

Yet I have to admit that there are some little things in sports that just annoy the hell out of me. They may seem trivial to you; to me, though, they take away from the pure enjoyment of the sport.

Recognizing that, I decided to produce a sampling of my pet peeves and I encourage you to add some of your own.

"The Batter's Box Shuffle"

You know what I'm talking about here—it's the baseball player that has to step out of the box after each pitch and fix his cap, tug on his collar and adjust his crotch. Umpires were supposed to be cracking down on this but it goes on nevertheless.

It takes away from the flow of the game and let's face it, baseball is slow enough as it is. They should strictly enforce a rule that the player has to remain in the box unless he fouls a ball off his foot or something like that. If he doesn't, then call a strike and move on. He'll get the message.

Failing that, take him out and shoot him.

"Armor-All"

Staying with baseball for the moment, any player who gets hit by a pitch while wearing body armor should not be rewarded with a base. Let's see the player lean into the pitch without that stuff on. You know, getting hit by a baseball hurts and when you're wearing all that unnecessary crap you don't feel it.

Come to think of it, just eliminate the extra protection altogether.

"The Free Throw High Five"

Does it bug you that after each free throw, even if it's a miss, all the players have to come over and slap the hand of the shooter? Well, it gets my goat. Look, if you slap the shooter's hand following a miss you are rewarding failure.

Instead of slapping the hand, they should slap his face and say "make the next one jerk."

"The Ridiculous Time Out"

This one doesn't happen often, but when it does it really ticks me off. Sometimes in football, but usually in basketball, you'll occasionally find a coach who will call a time out to draw up a play and discuss strategy even though his team is losing by 30 with only 10 seconds left in the game.

Do they expect to win the game? Are they simply trying to enjoy the moment in a loss? Come on, let the misery end so we can move on already.

"Excessive Celebration Penalty"

Now I'm going to sort of turn the tables on you for a minute. While the previous peeves have focused on players behavior, this one actually supports bad behavior.

Yes, I think the NFL's penalty for celebrating a touchdown is silly. Not after a sack—the dances and taunting are stupid and unnecessary—but, come on, after scoring a touchdown a player should be allowed to do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight. Within reason. But take away the penalty. It's just a bunch of guys who are happy that they did a good thing, leave them alone.

"Talking about Yourself in the Third Person"

This one should be self explanatory. Bo knows football, Bo used to tell us. Shaq wants to be a sheriff, Shaq says. LeBron is tired, according to LeBron. 

Bob is really sick of hearing this stuff.

"It's Not About the Money"

Now here's one that really makes me cringe. If you're Joe Sixpack like I am, you'll never see even one year's salary of a star player in your lifetime. Yet we keep hearing about the free agent who says, "It's not about the money, it's about security for my family."

Security? What, sixty million isn't a secure enough money blanket for your family, you just have to have that extra twenty big ones? Look, get off your high horse and just be glad you don't have to live in the real world pal.

Or they'll say, "I just want to win." Then they sign with a bottom feeder because they offered the biggest paycheck. Alex Rodriguez was a perfect example of this when he signed with Texas years ago.

"Tightness in my Forearm"

You often will hear about a pitcher who has the infamous "tight forearm". What they really mean is "my frickin elbow hurts like hell!"

I realize they don't want people to panic, because as soon as you hear "elbow" you're thinking Tommy John. But we deserve the know the truth, don't treat us like idiots.

Now, what bugs you?