SB Nation User Blog: coffee roaster

Update on U-Verse/Comcast HD

coffee roaster — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:01:12 -0000

I read the thread regarding the lack of HD broadcasts on Comcast California for U-Verse customers last week, and made a mental note to ask my sister about it. She works for AT&T and is involved in selling U-Verse service.

She had a meeting with a Senior Vice President yesterday and brought the situation up and also forwarded to him the AN thread about this. She received this email back this morning:

"Got some good news for your inquiry about the A's. Great question.

The A’s games are carried on Comcast Sports California HD. It has been an issue for us in the past but we just received some great news this morning. As of 8am, that channel has been added to the U-verse line up, and our customers will now be able to see the A’s games in HD. "

Coming: PBS documentary on the A's

coffee roaster — Sun, 14 May 2006 13:06:33 -0000

I was watching the local news this morning (I'm in Kansas City) and there was a lengthy piece on a new PBS documentary that's currently filming here. Yes, it's on the A's - the Kansas City A's.

They showed some of the archive footage of the A's playing at the old Municipal Stadium, and a long informational piece on Charlie Finley ("He's still hated in Kansas City", said the reporter "for moving the team to Oakland". Given the current state of the Royals, this might be more true now than ever).

They're interviewing many of the former KC A's players and they spoke of the greats who played here for the A's - Roger Maris, Catfish, etc.

It looks like we'll get to see some excellent history of our favorite team soon on your local PBS station.

Here's a link to the story: Kansas City A's Documentary

As a side note, my brother-in-law was a huge A's fan when they played here. He still has a collection of stadium giveaways from those days, including a really funky KC A's baseball bat from bat day. Sadly, he's become a Royals fan but I'm still trying to bring him back from the brink of hopelessness.

Rex Hudler - so much more than an annoying announcer...

coffee roaster — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 21:54:17 -0000

Here's something you probably didn't know about Angels announcer and favorite AN whipping boy Rex Hudler: He plays for God's home team.

There's a very fascinating site called "The Goal" where professional athletes of the fundamentalist Christian variety give testimony about their personal relationship to God (I found this researching a snarky comment I was about to post on another blog about Mike Sweeney).

If you click on "baseball" in their search function, you'll get a long list of baseball players - some former A's - offering these testimonies. Many of the teams are wrong or these guys are long gone, but I was surprised to find Rex Hudler amongst the group.

So, here's part of his story - click on the link for the rest.

Once I rearranged my priorities and became serious about my personal relationship whit Jesus Christ, things began to happen. God blessed me with a new enthusiasm for baseball -- not because I stayed at the major-league level, but because I wanted to please Him in everything I did. After all He was the one who gave me the talent to play the game.

Playing for the Lord doesn't diminish the importance of winning and giving 100 percent. But when I put everything into proper perspective, I realize that there is nothing I can gain (materially speaking) from baseball that will last.

Didn't he get busted for drugs a few years ago?

Anywhere, here's the link: http://www.thegoal.com

MLB Extra Innings: Best/Worst local announcers

coffee roaster — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 19:15:06 -0000

I've subscribed to the MLB Extra Innings package on DirecTv for three years now - I've moved from the Bay Area and I need my A's fix - and for any new subscribers, I offer my review of the best and the worst of local baseball announcing crews. Feel free to add to the list or dispute mine.

Best:

A's (of course)

Mariners - I know that many will disagree, but they stick to the details of the game with only a small amount of homerism.

Baltimore - They aren't irritating, and believe me, that's enough to make the best list given the below.

Indians - see Baltimore

Kansas City - Yes, they have annoying voices but they know they cover a dreadful team and they don't attempt to hide the disgust in their voices during many an on-field failure (a side note: the Royals have the worst production values in MLB - the visual quality is terrible, with faded colors, fuzzy, out-of-focus camera shots and terrible on-air editing. It looks like it's filmed using a relative's camcorder).

Tolerable:

Atlanta
Mets
Texas Rangers

Worst

Hands down, the worst of the worst are the White Sox announcers. Homerism to an extreme, "bad guys" vs. "good guys" babble that hardly teaches good sportsmanship to young viewers, and the unseemly habit of the broadcasters to include themselves as part of the team ("We really got that run in!"). An excessive overuse of player nicknames ("Good eye, Paulie, good eye"). Execrable. Nauseating. Avoid at all costs.

Angels: Steve Physioc appears to have a mancrush on every Angels player, which in and of itself wouldn't bother me. However, adding Rex Hudler to this mix brings the annoyance level to high pitch - perhaps he's desperate to be forgiven by upper Angels management for his unfortunate drug bust, but his constant stream of unsullied praise for Angels management throughout the broadcasts is stomach-churning. His schtick of playing with a baseball whenever the camera is on him is apparently supposed to remind us that he was once a scrappy MLB player. Whatever. This crew is gross, just gross.

Giants - Almost as irritating as the Angels crew. I'd place them first except perhaps their Bonds-worship this year will be somewhat tempered - time will tell.

Cardinals - the leering, smug Joe Buck for some reason makes me queasy. He seems to hover over sports like a nightmare and he's friggin' everywhere - I'd rather eat glass than listen to a Cardinal's broadcast. I hit the mute button when I want to see Mulder pitch.