Entry from March 29, 2005
“YESSSSS!”
Marv Albert is known for his Madison Square Garden broadcasts of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, although he's signed for next year to broadcast the New Jersey Nets basktball team.
"Yessss!" is just one of his catchphrases.
I'd love to but I have a game:
27 years without a life
by Marv Albert with Rick Reilly
New York: Doubleday
1993
Pp. 36-37 He (Marty Glickman--ed.) brought forth the language of the game. For instance, he was the first basketball announcer to start using the word "swish." People thought he invented it, but all he did was stand alongside Knicks star Carl Braun one day and every time Braun shot it up Braun would say, "swish." He just brought it to the booth. And the country.
Pp. 136-137 I'm afraid "Yesssss!" has leaked out from the world of sports. I don't know how many times Macauley Culkin said it in the movie Home Alone but I know I'm still waiting for the royalty checks. It has replaced "All right!" in the American idiom. It is part of the language now. You mean
your mother-in-law is moving out? Yesssss!
Pg. 137 The first "Yesssss!" I ever uttered was at the end of the third quarter of a Knicks game in 1968. Dick Barnett hit a long shot at the buzzer and I said, "Yesssss." People started repeating it back to me the next day, and the next thing you know it was part of my repertoire. I got it from the one time colorful NBA ref Sid Borgia. Whenever a player would get fouled while shooting, Sid would stick up his hand and holler, "If it goes...Yesssss!" In other words, "If it goes in the basket, I'm going to give this guy a bonus free throw! Yesssss!" Poor Sid. I don't believe he
ever recovered any royalty checks, either.
Sports on New York Radio:
A Play-By-Play History
By David J. Halberstam
Masters Press, NTC/Contemporary Publishing group
1999
Pg. 65: Yet it was that very first night that he (Foster Hewitt on March 23, 1923 - ed.) blurted out in his falsetto, "he shoots, he scores." It would turn out to be the legend's trademark call forever.
...
Pg. 232: Red (Barber - ed.) introduced his New York constituency to homespun Southern idioms never heard before in the big metropolis. Newsweek printed
just a few of them in 1945:
Sitting in the catbird seat.......everything is going your way
I'll be a suck-egg mule...........Red is pretty concerned
A can 'a corn........................an easy-to-catch fly ball
F.O.B...................................the bases are full of Brooklyns
The bottom of the pickle vat....the Bums are in bad trouble
...
Pg. 243 Vin's (Sully - ed.) occasional home run call "forget it" was born in Brooklyn. "I picked up 'forget it' from the players themselves around the batting cage.
(Could this be the birth of FORGEDDABOUTIT?--ed.)
...
Pg. 251: "'How about that!' originated in 1949 just after Joe DiMaggio missed 65 games. When he came back he hit four home runs in three days. Fans were (Pg. 252) hysterical and I couldn't help showing enthusiasm as they began to climb. It was during those excitingh afternoons that I would cry, 'How about
that!'" He elaborated, "I did this without the slightest premeditiation. It was just a natural impulse."
The other (Mel--ed.) Allen expression, "going, going, gone," also
emerged naturally. In 1946, when a ball kept carrying at Yankee Stadium, "I just kept saying, it's going, going, as the ball sailed out of sight."
...
Pg. 353: TEN MOST POPULAR PHRASES
Author..........Phrase
Mel Allen............."It's going, going, gone!" signature home-run call
Marv Albert.........."Yesss!" for a made Knicks basket
Mel Allen............."How about that!" anything astonishing
Phil Rizzuto........."Holy Cow!" anything from Roger Maris's 61st home run to traffic on the George Washington Bridge
Marty Glickman...."Swish!" a shot that went right through the cords without hitting iron
Bob Murphy........."We'll be back with the happy recap" going into a commercial break after a Mets win
Marty Glickman...."It's good...like Nedicks!" a basket by the home team (Nedick's sponsored broadcasts)
Marty Glickman...."It's high enough, it's deep enough, it's through there!" a made field goal on the gridiron
Les Keiter............"In again, out again, finningan (sic)" a shot on the hardwood that pin-balled in and out
Marv Albert.........."Kick save and a beauty!" great save by the goalie in hockey
"Yessss!" is just one of his catchphrases.
I'd love to but I have a game:
27 years without a life
by Marv Albert with Rick Reilly
New York: Doubleday
1993
Pp. 36-37 He (Marty Glickman--ed.) brought forth the language of the game. For instance, he was the first basketball announcer to start using the word "swish." People thought he invented it, but all he did was stand alongside Knicks star Carl Braun one day and every time Braun shot it up Braun would say, "swish." He just brought it to the booth. And the country.
Pp. 136-137 I'm afraid "Yesssss!" has leaked out from the world of sports. I don't know how many times Macauley Culkin said it in the movie Home Alone but I know I'm still waiting for the royalty checks. It has replaced "All right!" in the American idiom. It is part of the language now. You mean
your mother-in-law is moving out? Yesssss!
Pg. 137 The first "Yesssss!" I ever uttered was at the end of the third quarter of a Knicks game in 1968. Dick Barnett hit a long shot at the buzzer and I said, "Yesssss." People started repeating it back to me the next day, and the next thing you know it was part of my repertoire. I got it from the one time colorful NBA ref Sid Borgia. Whenever a player would get fouled while shooting, Sid would stick up his hand and holler, "If it goes...Yesssss!" In other words, "If it goes in the basket, I'm going to give this guy a bonus free throw! Yesssss!" Poor Sid. I don't believe he
ever recovered any royalty checks, either.
Sports on New York Radio:
A Play-By-Play History
By David J. Halberstam
Masters Press, NTC/Contemporary Publishing group
1999
Pg. 65: Yet it was that very first night that he (Foster Hewitt on March 23, 1923 - ed.) blurted out in his falsetto, "he shoots, he scores." It would turn out to be the legend's trademark call forever.
...
Pg. 232: Red (Barber - ed.) introduced his New York constituency to homespun Southern idioms never heard before in the big metropolis. Newsweek printed
just a few of them in 1945:
Sitting in the catbird seat.......everything is going your way
I'll be a suck-egg mule...........Red is pretty concerned
A can 'a corn........................an easy-to-catch fly ball
F.O.B...................................the bases are full of Brooklyns
The bottom of the pickle vat....the Bums are in bad trouble
...
Pg. 243 Vin's (Sully - ed.) occasional home run call "forget it" was born in Brooklyn. "I picked up 'forget it' from the players themselves around the batting cage.
(Could this be the birth of FORGEDDABOUTIT?--ed.)
...
Pg. 251: "'How about that!' originated in 1949 just after Joe DiMaggio missed 65 games. When he came back he hit four home runs in three days. Fans were (Pg. 252) hysterical and I couldn't help showing enthusiasm as they began to climb. It was during those excitingh afternoons that I would cry, 'How about
that!'" He elaborated, "I did this without the slightest premeditiation. It was just a natural impulse."
The other (Mel--ed.) Allen expression, "going, going, gone," also
emerged naturally. In 1946, when a ball kept carrying at Yankee Stadium, "I just kept saying, it's going, going, as the ball sailed out of sight."
...
Pg. 353: TEN MOST POPULAR PHRASES
Author..........Phrase
Mel Allen............."It's going, going, gone!" signature home-run call
Marv Albert.........."Yesss!" for a made Knicks basket
Mel Allen............."How about that!" anything astonishing
Phil Rizzuto........."Holy Cow!" anything from Roger Maris's 61st home run to traffic on the George Washington Bridge
Marty Glickman...."Swish!" a shot that went right through the cords without hitting iron
Bob Murphy........."We'll be back with the happy recap" going into a commercial break after a Mets win
Marty Glickman...."It's good...like Nedicks!" a basket by the home team (Nedick's sponsored broadcasts)
Marty Glickman...."It's high enough, it's deep enough, it's through there!" a made field goal on the gridiron
Les Keiter............"In again, out again, finningan (sic)" a shot on the hardwood that pin-balled in and out
Marv Albert.........."Kick save and a beauty!" great save by the goalie in hockey
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