We've just endured five consecutive months of phrases like: "He's really picking apart their defense," "They left it all out on the field today," and "That was a costly turnover." And we are about to endure eight months of phrases like: "Can he pitch his way out of this jam?," "That ball took a bad hop," and "He's swinging for the fences."
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Sports cliches seem so trite and hackneyed that I sometimes have to turn down the sound on the TV because I just can't take another round of them. I fantasize about retiring to a second career as a broadcaster, since all you need to know is twenty or so phrases that you use over and over again to describe what's happening on the field.
But then, the more I got to thinking about it, I realized that IT is equally guilty of using clichés to conduct routine business. So, with no prioritization, here is a list of the clichés that I've encountered most frequently in my career:
1. "It comes completely preconfigured and can be implemented right out of the box."