A few days ago, the New York Times talked to Yankees broadcaster John Sterling about the home run call that he’d decided to use for Giancarlo Stanton this season:
“This one is so different,” he said. “It’s an Italian phrase that rhymes. I don’t know if anyone will get it. I’m really worried. Well, not really worried. In fact, I’m not worried. Let’s say I’m mildly concerned.
“Boy, I hope it works. It may not.”
Turns out: it does not work. Stanton crushed two dingers in New York’s 6-1 win over Toronto today, and Sterling’s call there was neither catchy nor good:
The initial guess from fans there was that this was supposed to be non si pue de parlo (translation: I can’t speak of it, or I have no words) but there’s another school of thought that he was actually trying to go for non ci puoi straparlo (translation: you can’t get around it) but it doesn’t really matter. Either way, it’s clunky and not something that most fans will easily get and, just, why? Stanton’s not Italian! It’s a weird-ass choice to begin with, but if Sterling was really married to using a call in Italian here, there are a lot of ways to get a phrase in the language that ends in -o, and there’s gotta be something better than this. Or take something in English. That works, too.
Stanton should give him plenty of chances to workshop, at least.