SB Nation User Blog: jeffro

Rickey's Induction and Bill King

jeffro — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:42:52 -0000

So I am an ignoramus... I can't figure out how to post an image here. If you are interested in seeing the t shirt/downloading the picture go to www.rememberingbillking.com and it is available or email me)

Rickey and Bill. Probably my two favorite people associated with the A's over the course of my fandom. There have been many great players (Everyone from Mark McGwire to Tim Hudson) and talented broadcasters (Lon Simmons, Greg Pappa, Dick Stockton, Monte Moore, Ken Korach, etc.). But none of these people have been as good at what they do as Rickey and Bill, in my opinion.

I am hoping on seeing many of you in New York City, Cooperstown and Boston at the end of the month. I am hoping many of you will do Bill King asmall favor and wear a DIY "Bill King in the Hall" t shirt along with me.

It's very simple... got to craft store, buy some iron on transfers (10 for 10 bucks at Michael's). Get a t shirt and iron on the image that is posted at www.rememberingbillking.com.

Congrats Rickey! Let's get the guy who made so many great calls about Rickey and his teammates honored at a future date.

(thanks to Leopold Bloom for schooling me, the image is in the comments)

DLD- 6/23/2009: Man I am aggro today

jeffro — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:19:55 -0000

In honor of taking the low road. Some mean spirited links to dump:

Seriously, only the San Francisco Chronicle could try and paint Sanchez in a good light after he gave up 4 runs in 5 innings to a team that sucks against lefties.

I am tired of the excuses from the A's... if you want to market your past glory it can't be for one weekend a year. Start using the past all the time... kind of like the team across the bay with an inferior past does, they even got a plaque for Kirt Manwaring and Johnny Lee LeMaster. Man alive, maybe some of the old dudes would come if it wasn't some token crap.

Is it too much to ask that MLB find three people from the Bay Area to represent the A's in their stupid contest?

Well, at least this looks like good news.

If I ahve to hear about this banality anymore, I am going to puke.

Dump with a ferocity....

A Lighthearted Interview with Brooklyn Cyclone Joey August

jeffro — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:21:03 -0000

(bumped from the FanPosts. --eric)

Hey all,

I am one of the globe's newest Mets fans. Primarily because my Cousin, Joey August, was recently drafted by them. Being a fan, I have always followed the draft from afar. This year, I had a great deal of interest in the process and outcome. In the days leading up to the draft, I had a ton of questions, but for fear of jinxing my cousins chances like a 5th outfielder jinxes a no hitter by asking "Do you think you can keep this up for two more innings?", I refrained from asking them. This past week, with the process over for my cousin, I sent him a bunch of questions, because i really wanted to know the answers, and he really answered them. I figured you die hard Mets fans may find the conversation interesting, or at least amusing.

Me: Did you follow the draft as it unfolded? If so how?

Joey: I did follow it, I was watching the draft tracker in my room and listening to their live stream. It was a little bit stressful for sure just waiting to see your name pop up on a computer screen

Me: Did you have any advance knowledge that the Mets would take you? If so, did it still shock you a little bit when you actually were taken?

Joey: I had a about 5 minutes advanced knowledge that the Mets were going to take me. They sent me a text making sure I would sign and wanted to play and told me they wanted to take me in the 20th... they proved true to their word. It did shock me, it just was hard for me to believe that one of my dreams was being realized and I was actually going to get a chance to play pro baseball.

Me: Once you were taken, what were your initial thoughts on your new organization?

Joey: I was really excited about the chance I had to play for such a great organization. I have friends in the system and they had great things to say and plus New York is a great sports town and the fans are very passionate about their teams.

Me: What is living in Brooklyn like as compared to Palo Alto?

Joey: Brooklyn is very different from Palo Alto. The biggest change is just the pace, everyone here seems to always be in a hurry and you have to move with a purpose or your going to get run over. It is a lot of fun though, there are a ton of people here and there is so much culture here its unbelievable. (Laughing) It's going to take me a while to get used to people honking every two seconds though.

Me: You guys won your first game against Staten Island, what was the atmosphere like in that first game? Did the game sort of solidify "teammate" bonds? Did you know any of the other guys on the team before coming to Brooklyn? Was there an emphasis placed on beating your cross town rivals? Was there a big Mets v. Yankees buzz between the players?

Joey: The atmosphere was unreal on opening night. We had about 10,000 fans there and they were all very intense and passionate. The people not only love the sport but they love their teams and do whatever they can to will us to a win. I think the game was big for our chemistry, just to get to finally work together toward a common goal helped us all come together. It was just nice to see guys cheering for each other. It was great to beat that team opening night, some of the older players talked a little bit about the rivalry and the hatred between the two teams but I heard it most from the fans. The Mets and Yankees do not like each other and the fans want badly to win this rivalry at all levels.

Me: Can you walk all of us through the typical day of a SIngle A ball player? How is it different than playing in the Pac-10?

Joey: A typical day starts fairly early with some breakfast... we usually walk across the street to a little cafe. Then vans usually leave our dorms at about 1 for our game at 7. We show up and get dressed at get a lift in usually and/or get some early work in the batting cages. We have some down time before we actually start getting ready for the game and some guys like to read, listen to their ipods, or play cards. We spend a lot of time at the field so thats really where we get to know each other. Then we go outside for some fundamental stuff and infield/outfield before we take BP. Then we come back inside for a little pre-game meal and get ourselves ready. They feed us after the game too (they take really good care of us here) and then we head back to the dorms and get ready to do it all again the next day.

Me: Thanks for your time.

Joey: You're the man, the dude abides.

Salvaging a Season: One Fan's Perspective and A Request for Help

jeffro — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:51:34 -0000

Ugh.

Being Worse than the Giants is horrible. Seriously, I woke up in the middle of the night last night wondering what would have to go right for the A's to sweep the Giants and not lose a season series to the Orange and Black for the first time since 2001. In my mind it was a Rubik's cube with too many colors to actually be solved.

Sleepless nights over the A's in June are not a good thing. How to salvage a season that isn't half done? New Stadium? No way that is sorted out before the end of the season. Stab at a Division Crown? Preposterous! Wild Card run? Ha! So what do I, as a fan, have to look forward too?

As I stared at the ceiling, after I walked down the hall to check on my three princesses, my mind wandered to my impending trip to see Rickey (linked is a great article by Monte Poole with some criticism I agree with) inducted into the Hall of Fame... July 23rd through the 28th. The A's and Yankees on Friday night at the Monolith, Saturday night to watch my cousin Joey (named for my father and grandfather) play for the Brooklyn Cyclones, Sunday an early morning drive to watch the greatest A's player ever inducted into the Hall and Monday night in Boston to catch the A's at Fenway.

I kept thinking about Rickey's "I Am the Greatest" speech and I realized something is missing from this trip.

There was this guy, who made unbelievable calls of many of Rickey's best moments. He also had unbelievable calls of many of the A's franchise historic moments (even that damn Kirk Gibson lucky swing qualifies as a great call in my mind).

Salvaging this season for me, as a fan, means seeing Rickey inducted into the Hall while campaigning for Bill King to be where he so rightly deserves to be.

What I need from you, my AN brothers and sisters, is some ideas for the most effective way to campaign for Bill. My first idea is to hand out a boatload of T Shirts at the actual Hall of Fame induction ceremony that say "Put Bill King in the Hall Now!" I am hopeful that if I had 30, I could find 30 A's fans at the ceremony to wear them.

What else guys? How do we turn my brotherly journey (my younger brother is also on the trip) to pay tribute to one of our boyhood heroes into a campaign for another of our heroes? Ideas? I am listening :)

Let's make the season about something as cool as a playoff berth, let's make it about Bill King.

Dredging for Hope 2: Hope Found?

jeffro — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:49:34 -0000

About a month ago, I did this little write up thingy.

At the time there were two main things I wanted to highlight:

1. There were a bunch of unanswered questions about the A's during Spring Training that were left unanswered during Spring Training and were still in the process of being answered after a month of season.

2. The season is long and one of my favorite GM's, John Schuerholz, used the break the season into thirds (1 what do you got/ 2 what can you get/ 3 go for it). We should too as fans.

So, one third down... questions abound.

The questions we posed last time (for those that don't care to read the old post again) were:

How will the young starters hold up?

Who will be the young starters anyway?

Is the bullpen going to be okay?

How will the defense work out?

Will the offense be any better?

If anything the recent run has shown is that the answer to these questions is mostly positive for the A's. I know, easy to say after beating two fairly crappy teams on a six game win streak... but consider that good teams always beat up on bad teams. If anyone would categorize what the A's have been doing the past week as anything other than beating up on bad teams I point you to this table showing the White Sox enjoying the second easiest schedule to date and still having a pyhtag winning percentage .442 and the Orioles with a pythag winning percentage of .402.

So if the trend in performance is showing the A's are staring to answer the 3 month old questions in a good way, what questions will shape the second third of the season, the third when the team solidifies it's position as buyer or seller of major league players at the deadline?

Here are the questions we, as fans of the team, should be asking, and my feeble attempt at answers.

Did the two months in Purgatory give the rest of the division too much of a lead to overcome?

Which offense is for real? The early season or the recent?

Will the starting pitching keep getting deep enough into games so that the bullpen won't fall apart?

One at a time:

Did the two months in Purgatory give the rest of the division too much of a lead to overcome?

Assumption: Coming into the season, many expected the Angels to win the division with the A's nipping at their heels. The Rangers and Mariners were not expected to factor in much (although Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports told me they would).

Answer: Heck No! The Rangers are not what they are being made out to be. Their pitching is not that improved. Their collective FIP is the worst in all of Major League Baseball, and though I don't buy into the "pitching wins championships" axiom, I do think of winning as a balance sheet of sorts. Only, instead of Assets and Liabilities teams have Runs and Runs Allowed. The projected Runs Allowed (based on that FIP) side of the ledger for the Rangers does not show a team that is streaming towards 95 wins. Sure they will score a bunch, which brings me to the other real hurdle for the A's...

The Angels (sorry M's fans, I don't buy that you have a shot) can pitch it. Their FIP is lower than their ERA which leads me to believe they will get a bit stingier. Add to it a solidified rotation with Lackey and Santana (who has been more Jell-o than solid but should probably be on a rehab assignment still) and they will be even more formidable. But the potential Runs Scored side of the ledger (based on OPS) ain't as pretty for them. Add to that their propensity for costing themselves runs on the base paths and... well both of the teams, to steal a line from Denny Green, are what we thought they were. Not horribly great and the division is entirely winnable. Which leads to the second question...

Which offense is for real? The early season or the recent?

So... Maybe it is just blind optimism on my part but I can't believe that every veteran on the team will severely under perform against their career averages. I know, I know... Matt Holliday played in Coors Field, Giambi is old, Cabrera ain't that good in the first place and so and so forth. But I ask this, when was the last time you saw someone hit a line drive that high off the hitting background during a night game in Oakland? And another question... when the heck did Jason Giambi start walking and roping again?

In short, it was just a matter of time before these guys started to perform up to their established level of ability. Regress to the mean. Giambi won't get near his career OPS of 937, but it will be somewhere north of his current 736 and last years 876. Similar things can be said for Holliday, Cabrera. On the other side of the coin... Kennedy ain't Babe Ruth and a team that has the majority of the season with Crosby and Hannahan splitting 3rd base isn't going to score 9 runs a game (is any team?).

The point of all this rambling is that the 685 OPS as a team isn't going to stay there, I expect it to get somewhere in the middle of the pack... 750 would be okay assuming the third question is answered in a positive light.

Will the starting pitching continue to pitch deep enough for the bullpen to be effective?

When last we spoke of the dredging for hope, the bullpen was pitching about 40% of the total innings. There is no way that would work out in a good way for the A's. Since then... well it really hadn't gotten much better for most of May, but the A's are now working on going through the rotation for the fourth time where most starters made it at least five, and with the exception of Edgar Gonzalez (who is no longer in the rotation) and one bad Brett Anderson start (and one out to few from Cahill)... the A's starters have gone a minimum of 6 innings each time out since May 21st. Is this a mere blip, a peak in the rookie roller coaster, or something sustainable?

My best guess is that it is most likely it is a peak on the rookie roller coaster. But that doesn't mean it can't be a peak followed by a brief drop and another peak. This is the kind of question that is only answered with time. What bodes well for the "something sustainable" hypothesis is the fact that the games they have been lasting 6 innings have come against one outstanding offense, two middle of the pack offenses and one putrid offense.

So, completely going by gut feel and not looking up stats... it seems that the bullpen started to bark a bit in Texas after nearly two months of over use... but a few times through the rotation with mostly 6 inning starts (plus a series against the White Sox) seems to have helped.

All that said, this question is really the big one, as it has been since day one of the season and will be even after the second third is over. If the boys keep pitching like they are all growsed up maybe the next dredging will be "dredging for a third basemen."

I have to admit... the series against the NL West on the horizon make me feel like perhaps June might end with less talk about where Holliday is being traded and turn to "can Barton and Simmons (or some other combo) bring back an impact bat at third base?"

Of course, if they regress... well, that discussion is for the future.

What do you all think are the questions that need to be answered over the next 6 weeks or so? Here's hoping this team is more the 2004 Astros or 2007 Rockies and less the garbage team that took the field for most of the season so far.

A's on MLB Network Classic games in 10 minutes!

jeffro — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:52:36 -0000

Hey all, just yesterday I was griping about CSNCA not playing truly Classic A's games and here we have one, but on MLB Network

A's and Blue Jays 1989 ALCS game 2.

Seems a nice way to gear up for a potential 5 game win streak :)

Unfortunately, this is not the game where Jose Canseco roided a shot into the 5th deck at Sky Dome. Still, it will be nice to feel 14 again and dream about the next big slugger to hit a moon shot in the playoffs for the A's... Carter? Cust? Holliday?

The 4 P's: Marketing Science and the A's

jeffro — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:00:45 -0000

First, I have an advanced business degree (MBA). Not from an Ivy League school. Not from a good school, even. But I have one, even if most of the stuff I learned I never use because my real world job is in Technical Operations and not Finance or HR or Marketing or Accounting. That said, I have always loved Marketing. Mainly because it is a lot like baseball, some science and some magic. In the process of getting that piece of paper I mentioned in the first sentence, I learned a lot about Marketing and so I am about to go off like a pompous ass windbag.

One of the best parts of the science part of Marketing is known as the 4 P's, or the Marketing Mix.

For those who don't want to go and read that drivel I just linked, the 4 P's are Product, Promotion, Price and Placement (distribution). I have read a lot lately on here about the A's approach to marketing. I like a lot of what I have read... suggestions about moving Stomper's Fun Zone, the Festival Area in the parking lot, etc. are all very cool ideas. I thought it would be fun to throw on the Marketing Scientist hat (er, lab coat?) and take a higher level, strategic view of how to improve the teams approach to marketing.

A good first step is to define each fo the P's as it relates directly to the A's.

Price is fairly straight forward. It's what we pay to watch the team. We could always also consider it all the coin we spend on jerseys, t shirts, hats, night lights and bucket liners (Bucket liners?) but I think that would make this pompous rambling way longer than it needs to be. So, ticket prices it is and nothing more will be written about it. Okay, one more thing... The A's have a below average price.

Placement has to do with distribution. That is boring. Especially in the context of ticket buying. Online, over the phone, box office or ... what else? Who cares,

So let's get on to the P's that are interesting.... Product and Promotion.

Product... what exactly is the product? Some folks will say that it is the team. I agree with those some folks. But there is a lot more to the team than how it performs on the field. The premise of this book that some dude wrote back in the day was that the only thing that draws fans is a winning team. Okay... the A's attendance has sucked and they aren't winning. Case closed?

Hell no! The team is more than what it does on the field. I was dancing like a little school girl the day the A's signed Jason Giambi! Because the team is not just the record, but the experience we all share along with that performance. Jason Giambi represented something nostalgic for me and I imagine many other fans as well. When I hear his name I think of a Mike Stanton curve ball flying into the right field "bleachers." I think of my brother sending me text messages like "Jason Giambi just said, 'Sterling Hitchcock this is the upper deck, upper deck this is Sterling Hitchcock.'" during the 2001 ALDS while I sat in night school.

That is not to say that the game is not important, that winning is not important. I am just saying that having a team of players we all care about that wins is better than having a team of dudes we could give half a moldy fig newton about that wins. Right?

In the end, the product is the game itself, being played by players we care about. Of course the product is more than that. It includes the environment in which we watch the game. Touchy subject. Some folks get all angry if I say that environment is a cool stadium in the Bay Area more than a cool stadium in Oakland. So I will just say that regardless of the city the stadium is in, the environment within the stadium is important. This is why I am perplexed when people rail against pee wee golf courses or Coke slides within stadiums. As a parent, I wish the Coliseum had something like this within plain sight of the game so I could pretend to watch my girls while they ran around like crazy banshees in a safe place while I actually followed the game.What 4 year old s going to follow a baseball game? None. They are going to whine the whole time and distract me from the game. Unless of course there is something for them to do while I watch it.

I feel better now. Back to Marketing.

If the product is the game itself, the 3 to 4 hours of action on the field and the players we care to watch, what is effective Promotion?

I'll tell you one thing it ain't... Jordin Sparks.

Now that I got that off my chest, what is it? So Manny Pacquiao bobblehead night was huge in San Francisco... but is that what we need? A one night boost of 11k fans? What sort of promotional approach should the A's take?

To me the answer is the one they are already taking. 860 KTRB and Comcast Sportsnet California are easily the two largest opportunities for the A's to promote the on the field product in a way that drives sustainable fan interest. I don't mean the game broadcasts, those are part of the product in my warped half educated world.

I know, I know... these are not channels to casual fans or corporate box holders. Those are what a new stadium is about... growing the hard core fan base is what the media is all about.

If I was running the A's marketing operation and I needed to get people in the seats now, I'd probably be focusing on getting the repeat customers to repeat buying tickets more often rather than trying to draw casual fans to the concrete donut (or toilet as some call it) we all love. Until there is a new stadium, where ever it may be, casual fans ain't coming out with any regularity. So enough with the Jordin Sparks and more of the Classic Games on CSN California (only play some true classics instead of games from 2007) to inspire folks like me to come out see the next Tim Hudson/Dave Stewart or Rickey Henderson/Miguel Tejada. On the radio side, get some nonsyndicated programming that focuses on the A's on KTRB like straight away. Mark Patrick, who used to host Baseball This Morning on XM, is looking for work and he is an A's fan. Sign him up!

Okay... my pompousness is getting old for even me... Seriously, what would you all like to see on CSNCA and KTRB to help promote our team? How wrong am I? How right am I? What gives? Can someone pour me another Newcastle?

Go A's!

Dredging for Hope: Revisiting the A's Spring Training Questions

jeffro — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:23:21 -0000

Way back in Spring Training... There were several questions that should have been on every A's fans mind.

How will the young starters hold up?

Who will be the young starters anyway?

Is the bullpen going to be okay?

How will the defense work out?

Will the offense be any better?

Those questions, and their answers, lead to a new perpsective on our current plight as A's fans.

So let's take em question by question:

Will the young starters hold up? Who will be the young starters anyway?

Old Assumption: We could expect for Eveland, Braden and the Duke to be a league average trio. Cahill, Mazzaro, Anderson, Gonzalez, WIlliams, Outman etc. would have to make up 2/5ths of the rotation and would make or break the season.

Where we stand currently: Duke is DL'd, Braden has been doing alright despite a FIP that suggests his ERA is about 2 runs too low and walking only 6 less than he has k'd in 30 innings. Eveland was the opposite of Braden, he had a FIP that suggested he was pitching much better than his ERA but after the weekend the FIP is doing it's best to catch up.

So we have Anderson, Cahill and Outman (and maybe Gio very soon) to monitor.

Keith Law declared Anderson MLB ready back in Spring Training. His FIP and ERA agree he is a 5 runs a game kind of guy. We can debate if that meets the definition of "ready" or not.

Cahill has been wildly uneven... His FIP suggests his 4.5 ERA is too low, he has taken a no hitter into the late stages, he has been knocked around to the tune of 7 runs in 2 and 2/3rds innings... Sort fo expected for a "high up side" but young pitcher.

Outman, who seemed like an after thought when he was named the fifth starter, is performing better than I expected.

Conclusion: I expect that Gio Gonzales is about to take Dana Eveland's rotation spot. First, it doesn't ruin the 4 lefties and a righty theme the A's appear to be striving for. Second, Bobby Geren appeared to be hinting this in his statement that Eveland will be "reassessed" after coming out of the pen this weekend. So when the Duke comes back, who vacates his role? Personally, I'd like to see Trevor Cahill work on his control in Sacramento... These two changes (subtract Eveland and Cahill, add Duke and Gio) replaces FIP's of 5 and 6.3 with FIP's we could expect to be 3.8 and 5. This would be only a slight improvement so we can probably expect any changes to result in one less game a week with a crooked number hanging in the bad guys line scores.

Is the bullpen going to be okay?

Old Assumption: With the potential for so many young pitchers in the rotation, the bullpen will be throwing a ton of innings. The back end is good with Devine and Ziggy but, beyond that, depth is a problem. Billy Beane saw this coming and upgraded by sign and trade.

Where we stand currently: One of the two coclosers won't pitch this season. A relative unknown made the squad out of Spring Training and has been lights out to offset that loss. Michael Weurtz has been a refreshing change. Springer is doing alright, Casilla has looked good (but is now hurt) All in all, the bullpen has done pretty well... although the innings have been A LOT... 90 innings out of a total of 208 for the entire staff.

Conclusion: It is probably not fair to expect the pen to keep pitching well if they are going to be asked to pitch something like 40 to 45% of the total innings. The only way this could even be sustainable is to keep shuttling guys up from Sacramento to pitch way too much for a month and then send them back to recuperate... Oh the joys of Organizational depth. The real solution is for Duke to come back and throw more than 5 innings a start, combined with the other guys getting deeper into games. Maybe that is too much to ask at this juncture? If it isn't too much to ask, I like where the bullpen can take the team with 3 innings a game and Bailey, Ziggy, Springer, Weurtz, et al.

Will the defense work out?

Old Assumptions: With Giambi in the fold and at first, Cust will be playing the outfield a bunch. Sweeney will be playing out of position. Cabrera and Ellis will be one hell of a double play tandem, Chavez is back at third but who knows how well he will play. Garciaparra helps provide stability behind Giambi and Chavez...

Where we currently stand: I have to sort of chuckle as I think about the infield at the end of the game yesterday, Crosby at first, Hannahan at third. At least Cabrera is saving runs at short instead of Crosby giving them away. Sweeney has been better than I thought in center field, and not just because of the two highlight reel plays this week. A plus 19 in Center Field isn't the hackness I expected (obvious small sample size warning inserted here).

Conclusion: With Ellis, Chavez and Garciaparra out and Giambi creaking it is really hard to guess where this is headed. Hannahan may well be better than Chavez was. The real trouble will be at second base. I can't imagine Petit, Patterson and Crosby playing as well as Ellis. Patterson seems like his nickname should be "Clank" when he is wearing a glove and standing near second base and Petit was great at second/horrid at short last year in limited appearances.

Jack Cust really bites in the outfield. It ain't changing.

Will the offense be any better?

Old Assumptions: Holliday, Giambi and a lack of Crosby, Hannahan means a bump in the team OPS. Add in a healthy Chavez and the spot starts for Garicaparra and scoring runs won't be an issue.

Where we stand: Despite the recent evidence of a thaw, the bats have been frozen for most of the season. The A's team offense has scored the fewest runs in the American League.

Conclusion: This is another area, like the infield defense, where judgment should be reserved. The team was built to score runs with power and none of the guys we can all reasonably expect to hit home runs and doubles have done much. Holliday, Giambi and Cust all seem poised to start swinging it. If they haven't done more than show signs by the end of May, ugh.

In summary, we should all take the approach I have heard credited to Jon Schuerholz and break the season into thirds. The first third to see what you got, the second to look around and make changes, the third to go for it. We are halfway through the first thrid and I think we can all only reasonably say that the starting pitching needs to get a lot better in order for the A's to compete. Those other questions, the bullpen, the defense, the power... they all are likely to be okay but are still in the process of answering themselves. I am not ready to lock myself in the closet and listen the the Shins for the rest of the season quite yet, but I am also not ready to be excited. How about all of you?

DLD 4/20/2009-860 AM updates?

jeffro — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:55:02 -0000

Prompted by this from our Sacramento based brethren, I was wondering if anyone had any updates on the 860 AM situation?

This past Friday I drove to Windsor. On the way, between my longing for the next morning and a number 7 at Omlette Express I paid super close attention to the radio broadcast in my car.

I was pleasantly surprised, I left my office in Sunnyvale at about 4:00, stopped off quickly at my house to pick up some things in Pleasanton. From there I took 580 all the way to San Rafeal with no interruptions in service.

Sometime between passing the Grand Lake Theater and Skywalker Ranch I became distraught as I realized my GOG picks were completely stupid.

But much to my surprise I was able to listen all the way up through Santa Rosa without losing the game.

Has anyone noticed any changes or is this typical? This was my first such drive of the season and, with my in laws living up in the Country of Wine, I imagine I am going to be testing this a few more times.

Speaking of San Rafeal... it's 4/20.

Some discussion about San Jose.

Who else has something to dump?

How to fix the FOX Blackout crap, my opinion anyway :)

jeffro — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 06:02:06 -0000

So this rant got me to thinking.

It's true that the media situation for MLB sucks eggs.

There is a strange parallel between the leagues situation and the A's. In the past few years the A's have been all over the place on TV (Channel 36? FSN BA, FSN BA+ or the last few innings on either?). In that same time the MLB game of the week has been on TBS, ESPN, Food Network... Just kidding about the Food Network.

So how should it be fixed?

My simple plan requires MLB to make Fox do two things. Rip off the NFL, and rip off XM Radio.

First, the NFL ripping off: Make every team in the league schedule their Sunday games during the day and at one of two times (10:05 Pacific and 1:05 Pacific) save for one game, the Sunday Night contest.

By doing this, it would allow for the entire slate of games to be broadcast. If they followed the NFL modus operandi, certain local markets would get the local game while most of the country would get the "marquee match up." ESPN would still broadcast THE marquee match up at 5:00 Pacific.

The biggest difference between the NFL and MLB, as far as broadcasts go, is driven by the schedule. 162 games requires each team to have a TV Broadcast crew and a radio broadcast crew. Meanwhile, NFL teams only have radio broadcast teams and the networks provide the TV crews.

This would present a challenge. It would probably cost prohibitive for FOX to create 14 broadcast crews. That is why they would rip off XM and use the home teams broadcast crew for each Sunday broadcast. Heck, they could even combine thecrews of the two teams playing and change out the play by play guy to give eacht eam equal time. Either way, it would be fairly simple and cost FOX diddly.

There are other challenges for certain. The Rangers play in an undomed stadium in a place that gets hotter than jabanero salsa with no Coke Zero on hand to wash it away, for instance. This plan requires a change in the day of the week that FOX broadcasts games and "Sunday Baseball on TBS" would have to become "Saturday Baseball on TBS." These are just two of many things that would pop up.

What would you propose?