I followed The Apprentice avidly during its first couple of seasons, but the show has gotten progressively more annoying. Among the things that irritate me most is the fact that the contestants all speak some weird dialect of Business English that seems to consist mainly of clichéd baseball metaphors. Some of the phrases I hear way too often are:
- step up (to the plate) If they could get through an entire episode without anyone saying “step up” even once, I might be willing to watch for another season.
- touch base
- cover (all) the bases
- off the bat
- home run
- hit/knocked it out of the (ball) park
- strike (struck) out
- out in left field
- major league(s)
