"He's worked it back to.."

[mlblover15]

Ok am i the only one that is annoyed as heck at the words during at bats that really dont exist...

"he has worked it back to (name a count)

um there never was that count to begin with... no matter what it is...

please Russell and team is there any way over the next couple of years we can start to omit that complete phrase out of the commentary completely...

it should state....

He has worked it to (name the count )

sorry i just hate it when they say that.. because as we all know the count never even, full or whatever before... it isn't like you can take pitches away and add to them in an at bat...

i dont think i have ever heard any on air, radio or tv say this in their approach to the at bat for any time in any situaton.

sorry if any of you think that this is not a big deal but to me it is big time wrong..

if this thread gets closed that is fine... i just needed to vent... but in case there is anyone else with this issue ... please feel free to join the discussion..

[NEOPARADIGM]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

No, I do believe you're incorrect, real announcers (which Matt V is as well, if you didn't know) do say that all the time. It refers to the whole behind/ahead dynamic: a batter has "worked it back to 2-2" for instance if he was down 0-2; a pitcher has "worked it back" to 2-2 if it was 2-0, and so on.

[bp4baseball]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

See that actually sounds natural to me. Most of the time if it's the batter who goes down 0-2 they'll say he's worked it back to 2-2 or 3-2 because he was down in the count and now he's gotten it back to a neutral/hitters count. It's the opposite if it's the pitcher... 3-0 to 3-2

I get what you're saying that it technically doesn't make sense but it's used a lot and English is full of stuff like that

Edit: already answered

[Madden's Jowels]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

No, I do believe you're incorrect, real announcers (which Matt V is as well, if you didn't know) do say that all the time. It refers to the whole behind/ahead dynamic: a batter has "worked it back to 2-2" for instance if he was down 0-2; a pitcher has "worked it back" to 2-2 if it was 2-0, and so on.

Came in here to say this.

But I'll go ahead and hijack the thread and say this:


Every single time it looks like they're pitching around you and Matty V says "well it looks like he's not going to see anything here..." the next pitch is ALWAYS a strike. It drives me crazy. I want that walk! If you're pitching around me, then pitch around me. Don't start to pitch around me and then groove a fastball on 2-0. And the fact that Matty V is conspiring against me to lure me into a sense of "ohh he's pitching around me, might as well set the controller down..." and then BOOM, middle of the plate fastball... despicable, Matty.

[Jolly Roger]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

The most aggravating lines for me are

(1) Eric Karros complaining that a pitch was so far out of the zone that the batter didn't even have to worry about swinging. Look Eric, it happens, okay? Stop saying this so much.

(2) The guys getting on me for looking at a pitch right down the middle on 0-0, 1-0, etc. This is mostly frustrating because they're right, this is a bad habit of mine.

[Blzer]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

The most aggravating lines for me are

(1) Eric Karros complaining that a pitch was so far out of the zone that the batter didn't even have to worry about swinging. Look Eric, it happens, okay? Stop saying this so much.

(2) The guys getting on me for looking at a pitch right down the middle on 0-0, 1-0, etc. This is mostly frustrating because they're right, this is a bad habit of mine.

I just think that a lot more commentary has to be "in passing," meaning they just kind of let things go and chalk it up as the game playing itself. Instead of describing every pitch down to its core, a more natural flow about the elements surrounding the game... historic, current, and future... would make the commentary more authentic.

[LastActionHero]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

Most annoying line to me:

"It's up there, and then I mean waaaay up there."

"And we'll have to leave it there..."

[breakfastcat]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

Most annoying line to me:

"It's up there, and then I mean waaaay up there."

"And we'll have to leave it there..."

That's a MAJOR LEAGUE POP-UP. Way up there!

[Will I Am]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

The announcing in this game is so bad I turn it off. Maybe it should just be scrapped all together and use the resources elsewhere.

[braves_94]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

They say "worked it back to" because percentages show hitters don't hit well 0-2. 2-2 and 3-2 are more workable counts for hitters because the pitcher is more likely to throw something hittable. 0-2 the pitcher can put it anywhere they want. They can try to paint the corner, they can throw a breaking ball in the dirt. Same thing as early in the count, with the added difficulty for the hitter because he can't layoff the borderline pitches he could with no or one strike.

The ones I can stand are the young National slugger Ryan Zimmerman, or the young Met slugger David Wright. They're both 30 or older!

[kehlis]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

Over thinking it a bit.

It simply means brought the count back to even.


Started at even with a 0-0 count. If a hitter starts out 0-2 and brings it back to 2-2 he brought it back to even.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

He's worked it back to a full count from 0-2.
Nothing wrong with Matt's semantics.

[ryanak]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

One line that really bothers me is the one that happens when you make the pitcher throw a lot of pitches. I dont know the exact quote but it's something along the lines of:

"This is what the good ones do. they sort of take pitches, foul pitches off...they make the pitcher come to you ."

I feel like the line should be "they make the pitcher come to them."

[Bobhead]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

I dont want to make it seem like I think you guys' complaints are unjustified, because they are all quite valid. I would welcome better sentence structure and grammar....

But some real commentators aren't exactly English majors themselves. Ever heard Hawk Harrelson?

[Mabster]

Re: "He's worked it back to.."

But some real commentators aren't exactly English majors themselves. Ever heard Hawk Harrelson?

Unfortunately.

I think people only have problems with these lines because we hear them over and over and over and over and over.