Used to be that a baseball announcer’s habit that would drive me craziest was when a long fly ball was either misjudged or oversold by the play-by-play voice.
You’re made to think the ball is launched toward the Mass. Pike, only to have it meet its fate in the left fielder’s mitt 10 feet in front of the warning track. A couple of decades ago, this was a surefire way to get me to start rapid-fire cussing at my car radio while listening to the Red Sox.
Nowadays, my chief grievance when listening to baseball play-by-play, especially on the radio, is a broader one — not a moment, habit, or tic, but more of a stylistic approach.