SB Nation User Blog: Soaker

MLB Network home page now has a channel locator

Soaker — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:03:21 -0000

MLB Network home page now has a channel locator

You can now type in your zip code to see if your local cable company will be carrying MLB Network, and if so which channel it will be on.

On Sunday, January 11 (day before HOF election results are announced), MLB Network will show Games 2 and 4 of the 1989 ALCS between the A's and the Blue Jays.

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.)