Dunkirk, NY – I don’t consider myself too much of a stick-in-the-mud when it comes to changes in baseball. I mostly like sabermetrics, I am a fan of the DH, and I very much enjoy watching players play the game with evident flair and enjoyment. But there are some terms creeping into the lexicon of baseball that I find somewhat annoying. The title of the post says it all.
“Velo” is short for “velocity,” and velocity is having a moment in the game. Velocity works two ways: how fast the pitch comes in , and how fast the ball leaves the bay on contact. In the Statcast era, velocity is a new measurement of power. I don’t have a beef with velocity as such, but I really grind my teeth when I hear the phrase “velo.” Almost every broadcaster who wants to sound hip and cool uses “velo” as opposed to “velocity.” It’s now becoming overdone. I’d rather hear “VR” (velocity rate) as the shortcut to velocity than “velo.” Maybe, in the back of my head, I keep hearing “J-Lo,” which makes me think of A-Rod, which makes me ill. It follows the trend of shortening players’ names in some way, like Car-Go, Car-Gone, A-Roid, V-Mart, J-Ram, etc. Enough, already. As Crash Davis once said, “The moment’s over.”