SB Nation User Blog: Soaker

For Michael Lewis fans: Add a new chapter to "Liar's Poker"

Soaker — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:08:28 -0000

For Michael Lewis fans: Add a new chapter to "Liar's Poker"

This column is essentially the addition of a 2008 chapter to Michael Lewis' terrific book, Liar's Poker. Lewis wades into the subprime mortgage mess and, hey, at the end he has lunch with Gutfreund. If you enjoyed the book, I think you'll find this column intriguing.

MLB television viewership and ratings for 2008

Soaker — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:24:48 -0000

MLB television viewership and ratings for 2008

A's games on CSN Bay Area were seen in an average of 42,000 households in 2008. That ranks 24th among 29 U.S. teams. Viewership of A's games was 75% of that of Giants games in 2008, so the gap closed a bit, although that was entirely the result of a decline in the Giants' viewership.

An insomnia DLD for 10/2/08

Soaker — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:02:14 -0000

Yes, I'm awake at 4 a.m., and have been for a couple of hours. I'm pretty sure I'm being punished for rooting for the Red Sox. I swear, I wasn't really "rooting for the Red Sox", I was rooting AGAINST SLEGNA, but same difference I guess.

Justin Duchscherer underwent arthoscopic surgery on his hip yesterday.

The recovery time is two months, according to Duchscherer, and he expects he will not miss any time next spring. He's currently on crutches, but he said he'll be walking in less than a week.

It's supposed to rain in the Bay Area in the next couple of days. Over the six months when it's dry, people forget how to drive. Tailgating at 70 mph when the roads haven't been rinsed off in than long is really not a good idea.

Celebrity obit of the day: Mr. Clean.

House Peters Jr., a TV actor who became the original Mr. Clean in Proctor & Gamble's commercials for household cleaners, died Wednesday. He was 92.

Crime report:

Missing in Mexico: 5,000 condoms, sound equipment and a motor used to inflate a giant prophylactic, all stolen from a "condom-mobile" used to promote HIV/AIDS awareness....Gomez said the thieves left some 800 HIV tests and a 23-foot inflatable prophylactic, which were also in the vehicle.

Oh come on, what a great decoration that would be for your backyard.

Enjoy today's playoff games! The Red Sox and Slegna are off today, so maybe I'll be able to sleep a little better tonight.

Open Thread - Bricktown Showdown, River Cats vs. Yankees

Soaker — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:09:41 -0000

On what promises to be a beautiful night for baseball in Oklahoma City, the Sacramento River Cats take on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in the third annual Bricktown Showdown, a one-game playoff between the winners of the Pacific Coast and International Leagues to anoint a champion of AAA baseball. Sacramento is going for its second consecutive Bricktown Showdown title; the River Cats defeated the Richmond Braves 7-1 in last year's game. Crapshoot or not, you can bet that the A's brass would love to cap off a strong year for the organization by beating a branch of the Evil Empire in tonight's game. The game starts at 5:05 Pacific time and will be televised on ESPN2. The webcast is available for free at MiLB.com.

The River Cats are the designated home team, by virtue of the PCL's 6-5 victory over the IL in the AAA All-Star Game played on July 16.

Scranton has been the butt of a joke in a commercial that has aired on A's radio all season (in the ad for the "Lexus Lanes at Airport Security Card", the announcer asks, "As for why you're going to Scranton..."), but the city is busting its buttons with pride over having a native son participating in this year's presidential race:

Sacramento may not have a candidate for veep this year, but speaking of busting buttons, we'll select this Sacramento native to represent the River City tonight:

Tonight's starting pitchers:

Ian Kennedy: A 23-year-old righthander who struggled in 9 starts with the Yankees this year but pitched well for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in July and August. In 13 games (12 starts) he has thrown 69 innings, posting a 2.35 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP, giving up 52 hits including just 4 home runs, walking 17 and striking out 72.

Brad Knox: A 26-year-old righthander who has been hit pretty hard, especially in his last couple of starts. He pitched in 27 games for Sacramento, making 18 starts, with a 5.33 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP. He last worked in the first playoff game against Salt Lake, surrendering 11 hits and 7 runs in 2-1/3 innings. The River Cats have only played once since Friday, so everyone except Sunday's starting pitcher, Brett Anderson, should be available for bullpen duty tonight.

Lineups:

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees:
LF Justin Christian
2B Chris Basak
1B Juan Miranda
RF Shelley Duncan
DH Ben Broussard
CF Matt Carson
3B Eric Duncan
C Chris Stewart
SS Ramiro Pena

Sacramento River Cats
RF Chris Denorfia
LF Danny Putnam
CF Carlos Gonzalez
DH Wes Bankston
2B Brooks Conrad
1B Casey Rogowski
3B Donnie Murphy
SS Gregorio Petit
C Justin Knoedler

Poll

Your favorite Adrienne movie?

The Fog

1 votes

Cannonball Run

7 votes

Escape from New York

12 votes

Swamp Thing

4 votes

Creepshow

0 votes

Cannonball Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death

2 votes

26 votes | Poll has closed

The high point of 2007.

Soaker — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:08:12 -0000

The high point of 2007.

We need to make this an annual scene again.

Soaker — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:04:26 -0000

We need to make this an annual scene again.

Jack Cust, July 31, 2007

Soaker — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:02:49 -0000

Jack Cust, July 31, 2007

DLD Monday 11/19/07: AN observes World Toilet Day

Soaker — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:16:26 -0000

It's not just any old Monday. It's November 19, the 7th annual World Toilet Day, as sponsored by the Singapore-based World Toilet Organization (thanks, Englishmajor, for the link).

World Toilet Day has been declared to be on the 19th of November each year.

The purpose of having this day is to have people in all countries to take action, increase awareness of toilet user’s right to a better toilet environment, and to demand for it from toilet owners. As such, it is also the toilet user’s duty to contribute towards its maintenance, cleanliness and hygiene. The public marks the day to practice toilet etiquette, the restroom community-at-large celebrates with a new declaration for the forthcoming year.

For many people in the world, the subject of toilet availability is no laughing matter:

International statistics (WHO and UNICEF 2000; WHO and UNICEF 2004) indicates that over 2.6 billion people in the world today are without any form of "improved sanitation". The real situation is even worse: the statistics include toilets that are so bad, or shared by so many people that it cannot be regarded as "improved sanitation".

Since you have Internet access, I'm going to assume that you are not among those 2.6 billion underprivileged and unfortunate people. As such, you may be thinking of upgrading your existing facilities. Just in time for the holiday season, Toshiba is rolling out the all-new SCS S-510:

Toshiba Consumer Marketing Corp, with headquarters in Tokyo, will release a bidet-style toilet (a toilet with a water nozzle) equipped with a newly-developed instantaneous water heater Nov 23, 2007.

The lid automatically opens and closes when a sensor is tripped. And it is also possible to open and close the seat by using a remote control so that users do not have to touch the seat at all.

In addition, the toilet is equipped with a variable-speed deodorizing fan motor, whose "speedy deodorizing" function blows three times as much air as normal.

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PLEASE VOTE!!! Click here to vote

Raiders fans might enjoy hearing Bill's call of the Stabler/Casper "Holy Roller" play in San Diego in 1978. A 13-minute recording, which includes the description of the earlier Raiders touchdown in the 4th quarter of that game and then Bill's call of the entire final scoring drive, is linked from this page.

That Bay Area Radio Museum website is fun to surf when you have the time. There are a lot of old recordings...the full hour of the Dr. Don Rose show on KFRC from the day when Nixon resigned is a fun listen, ads included ("6400 Mission Street, Top of the Hill, Daly City!").

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The Arizona Fall League season was completed on Saturday. The Phoenix Desert Dogs, the team to which the A's contribute players, won the championship for the fourth straight year by knocking off the Surprise Rafters, 7-2. The box score shows that Cliff Pennington went 3-for-5 in the championship game with 2 runs scored and 2 stolen bases(!). Over the AFL season, Pennington batted .241 (14-for-58) in 23 games, but drew 18 bases on balls giving him a team-leading .410 OBP. Looking at the rest of the Desert Dogs' season statistics, James Simmons made 9 relief appearances, giving up 7 hits and 3 walks (1.07 WHIP) while striking out 8. Jeff Baisley and Jeff Gray struggled in AFL play.

The MVP awards will be announced this week. Joe Posnanski discussed in his Friday blog entry why Baseball Writers' Association of America members may have to stop voting on Cy Young, MVP, etc. (Blame Curt Schilling!)

Speaking of awards, the one recently won by University of Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick is a doozy:

(I'm late to that party; the ESPN screenshot was on a lot of sports blogs over the weekend, including Deadspin and Awful Announcing.)

On to your links and comments in 30 seconds, but first, if you please, a word from our AN World Toilet Day sponsor:

Free preview of Extra Innings this weekend

Soaker — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:01:12 -0000

The Extra Innings television package is available as a free preview this weekend for all of you who have digital cable. If you are outside of the A's and Twins blackout regions, you should be able to watch these games without charge on your digital cable service. I know that there has occasionally been confusion about how Extra Innings works, so the free preview seems like a great opportunity to go into some detail. I'm going to use the games of Friday, July 13 for purposes of illustration.

Here in Oakland, we are within the A's and Giants blackout region, so any games involving those two teams are blacked out of the EI package. Of course they are usually available through standard cable via FSN Bay Area (both teams), KICU 36 (A's) or KTVU 2 (Giants).

Comcast Oakland has Channels 461-470 reserved as the Extra Innings (or as they say on their website, "MLB Pay Per View") channels. The game designated as "GAME 1" is on Channel 461, "GAME 2" is on Channel 462, etc. At times, more than 10 games are going on at once, and Extra Innings has a "GAME 11", "GAME 12" and so forth. Those games go on the channels that are reserved as "NBA Pay Per View". "GAME 11" goes on Comcast Oakland Channel 442, "GAME 12" on Channel 443...but this happens only occasionally, mainly in April when the NBA, NHL and MLB are all competing for channel space. However, there is an example this Friday as noted below.

If you live in Oakland (or, I think, anywhere in the Bay Area within the Comcast service territory), you can watch any of the 15 major league games being played on Friday, as follows:

VISITOR HOME TIME (PT) EI CHANNEL Comcast Oakland ch. FEED Houston Chi. Cubs 12:20 GAME 1 461 CSN-Chicago Chi. W. Sox Baltimore 4:05 GAME 2 462 CSN-Chicago Kansas City Cleveland 4:05 GAME 3 463 Sports Time Ohio St. Louis Philadelphia 4:05 GAME 4 464 FSN Midwest Toronto Boston 4:05 GAME 5 465 NESN Washington Florida 4:05 GAME 6 466 FSN Florida Cincinnati NY Mets 4:10 GAME 7 467 Sports Net New York NY Yankees Tampa Bay 4:10 GAME 8 468 WWOR Pittsburgh Atlanta 4:35 GAME 9 469 FSN Pittsburgh Colorado Milwaukee 5:05 GAME 10 470 FSN North-Wisconsin Oakland Minnesota 5:10 GAME 1 Blackout FSN North-Minnesota --- --- --- --- 6 KICU San Diego Arizona 6:40 GAME 11 442 FSN Arizona Detroit Seattle 7:05 GAME 2 462 FSN Northwest Texas LA Angels 7:05 GAME 3 463 FSN West LA Dodgers San Francisco 7:15 GAME 4 Blackout FSN Bay Area --- --- --- --- 40/720 FSNBA/FSNBA-HD

For NRAFs, check your cable company's channel listings. The Friday 7/13 A's/Twins game will be on the first EI channel ("GAME 1" as shown above). Saturday's game at 4:10 PT and Sunday's game at 11:10 AM PT will be on the 8th EI channel ("GAME 8").

As a RAF, I don't need EI to watch the A's...but I enjoy watching other games, and I feel like I have gotten my money's worth. It's definitely a hell of a lot better than watching games via MLB.TV on the monitor. Suggest you try the EI free preview this weekend and see if it's worth it to you.

The full Extra Innings schedule is available here. ("MB01" on this schedule = "GAME 1" on-screen.)

Product review: DelayPlay (syncs radio sound to TV picture)

Soaker — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 22:07:54 -0000

The purpose of this diary is to relate my experience with a product which other ANers may find helpful in improving their enjoyment of radio and TV broadcasts. It is intended as a product review, not an advertisement.

When watching a TV broadcast of a sporting event, and particularly an A’s game, I often like to mute the TV sound and listen to the radio broadcast. That’s partly because I like to be able to look away from the TV and still follow the action, but more than that I find that commentary by good radio announcers is usually superior to that of most TV announcers. Over the last 25 years A’s fans have been particularly lucky to have the radio booth occupied by Hall of Fame caliber announcers such as Bill King, Lon Simmons and Ken Korach. Those guys always add to my knowledge about and enjoyment of the game. Few TV announcers could live up to the standard those men have set.

Often the sound from the radio broadcast has come ahead of the TV picture by maybe one second or so. I could live with that delay. But in the last couple of years, the discrepancy between radio and TV has widened, due to both the increasing technical complexity of broadcast transmission and also the "bleep delays" added to many broadcasts by companies not wishing to incur the wrath of the FCC for the accidental broadcast of obscene words. Too often, I have heard the crack of the bat and roar of the crowd while the pitcher was just coming to his set position on the TV picture. Or, Joe Starkey is shouting "Lynch is in the open and he’s gonna go!" while Nate Longshore is just receiving the snap from center on TV.

A fellow in Pennsylvania who shares my preference for radio but unlike me has engineering expertise invented a device which helps to resolve this issue. "DelayPlay" is a small device (about 5" x 7") which buffers radio sound and sends it out on a delay of up to 16 seconds. It works very similarly to the "Pause Live TV" function on a DVR which allows you to freeze a TV program for a few moments, then pick up right where you left off, not missing any of the program but trailing the live broadcast by some fixed amount of time.

The DelayPlay unit:

A caveat, before you read any further, is that DelayPlay is not cheap. Being a niche product, it's not manufactured in large quantities. The price is $149.95 per unit.

The best way to set up DelayPlay is to connect an auxiliary radio to the DelayPlay inputs. The DelayPlay has both 3.5-mm and RCA inputs so just about any radio will do. Then, the DelayPlay can be connected to one of your receiver’s inputs and the sound can be routed to your speakers. One thing you can’t do is use your receiver’s tuner as the radio source and then route the DelayPlay output back into that same receiver.

Inputs and outputs on the back of the DelayPlay:

You turn on the radio and TV and, using a lever on the front of the DelayPlay, shorten or increase the difference between the two as necessary, using the crack of the bat or the pop of the catcher’s mitt as a mark. If you are still hearing the sound before seeing the event which caused it, you nudge the lever a bit to the right to increase the radio delay. Go too far and you will hear the sound after you see it happen on TV, so you need to move the lever back a bit. This is a simple process and very precise. I find that I can have TV and radio matched up exactly within several pitches, no later than maybe the third batter’s plate appearance. Once you have set the delay it does not "drift"; you’re good to go for the rest of the game. DelayPlay’s performance in timing the delay is outstanding.

Where the device falls a bit short is in the quality of the sound output. Comparing the output from DelayPlay to the raw radio signal, I consistently notice a bit of tinniness or hissiness in the DelayPlay sound. The reduction in quality does not really detract from a play-by-play radio broadcast the way it would if I were trying to listen to music, but it is noticeable. Another intermittent sound issue is a bit of a background crackle which occasionally appears...similar to listening to an AM radio while there’s a thunderstorm going in the distance. The crackle is irregular and infrequent, but again, noticeable enough to mention. I’m giving the quality of DelayPlay’s sound output a rating of "OK".

It’s important to note that, by itself, DelayPlay is only useful when the radio sound is arriving ahead of the TV picture. This is currently the case when FSN Bay Area is televising the games. FSN has a delay of anywhere from 4 to 8 seconds compared to live action...it seems to depend on whether the viewer has standard or digital cable and also on whether the telecast is in HD or not. The KIFR/KYCY delay is running about 2.5 to 3 seconds. So to match the two signals up, the DelayPlay delay might have to be set anywhere from 1 second to 5.5 seconds.

Sometimes the TV picture is ahead of the radio sound. That is happening on telecasts carried on KICU-36, which is broadcasting without a delay. To sync radio and TV in that case, you need the help of a DVR’s pause function to delay the picture so it shows up after the radio signal. For me, the easiest thing to do is to use the one-button function on the DVR to set a 10-second TV delay, then go to DelayPlay and set the additional 7-7.5 second radio delay needed to match. This same DVR/DelayPlay combination can also be used to match play-by-play from XM radio (which is delayed about 12 seconds vs. real time) to an Extra Innings television feed.

In spite of the sound quality issues, I have found that DelayPlay really enhances my enjoyment of the broadcasts of the games. I’m going to spend a lot of hours over the next six months watching and listening to the A’s, and eliminating the frustration of the audio-video discrepancy is a real relief. If listening to the radio announcers is important to you, this product is worthy of your consideration.

With the cheapest shipping option costing $21.02 (we're not dealing with Amazon here, no free shipping), the total price of a DelayPlay unit comes to $170.97. Further information and ordering info is at www.delayplay.com.