TAKE NOTE...IT'S SUNDAY

On the radio

I WAS A SAFECRACKER AS A KID

Okay, clearly I wasn’t a safecracker as a kid. If I had been, I wouldn’t be so reliant on Substack missives for a living. But, many nights during the baseball seasons of my childhood, I honed a technique that was not too dissimilar from that of a safecracker.

You’ve all seen movies where safecrackers put their ear to the mechanism and move the wheel in a minuscule and precise motion primarily by feel and vision, with sound sometimes supplementing the process. This was me on the radio in my Stuyvesant Town bedroom in New York City, trying to pick up the feed of a clear channel broadcast of the Cardinals, Tigers, or the Cubs, or whatever other game was drifting in the AM radio air around me.

When I could get KMOX, with Hall of Fame broadcasters Harry Caray and Jack Buck, it introduced me to stars such as Lou Brock and Bob Gibson because, magically, I was in St. Louis. If I could get WGN, I would be in Chicago. Finding a game one night meant no guarantee of finding a game the next night. I didn’t have a fancy radio with a precise dial. It looked a lot like this:

But, when the weather was right, and the skies were clear, and the moon was…well, I’m not really sure what the moon had to do with picking up a game. I just always felt that it did. When all those things fell into place, I had baseball from the foreign land known as “the Midwest.”

Today, it’s easier to listen to games, and I highly recommend doing it. Baseball is a game made for radio. We had a President once who was not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but unlike our current thug, Gerald R. Ford was a decent man. He was known for his verbal miscues (which are still better than the lies and venom we hear from the President today). Ford said, “I watch a lot of baseball on the radio.” And, while that was somewhat of a malaprop, Ford was right. Radio provides a theater of the mind. Listening to folks like Howie Rose, Eric Nadel, Jerry Howarth (who I still miss doing the Blue Jays games), Dave Sims/Suzyn Waldman, and my dear friend and colleague, Charley Steiner (who gave me the honor of working with him), plus so many other talents, you see the game as they describe it. We are lucky to have so many quality broadcasters out there, and it is indeed a joy to listen to them. You can always spot the newbie or the announcer who has only done television as you attempt to follow the action.

I have both the MLB app and SiriusXM radio to enable me to listen to games as I walk the doggies at night. I love that I can listen to the same game from the broadcasters of both teams. That means these days, for example, when Tim Neverett is working a Dodgers game with Rick Monday, I listen to them. When Tim isn’t doing the game. I listen to the Dodgers’ opponents’ broadcast team. One of the best ways to learn about your favorite players is to listen to how the other team talks about them. I suggest it.

I get infuriated that the folks who run the MLB app won’t produce new and innovative in-between inning content. This results in hearing the same poorly produced filler multiple times in the space of a couple of innings. It makes me crazy. At least Sirius promotes many different shows during the breaks, and you don’t feel as put upon.

This coming week, listen to some games, relish the experience, and be grateful you don’t have to be a safecracker to enjoy them.

THE SUNDAY NOTES

Aaron Nola tweaked his ankle at Steinbrenner Field while doing an agility drill in the outfield. He’s on the IL for the first time since 2017, and it couldn’t come at a better time. Nola is 1-7 with a 6.16 ERA through nine starts this season….Last season, the Orioles won their 20th game on May 2, when they moved to 20-11. Who knows when they’ll win their 20th this season….If they continue their losing ways, look for the other teams (and Ken Rosenthal) to be all over them come the trade deadline….On the other hand, the Minnesota Twins 13-game winning streak screwed up all the scouts plans for picking them apart. Right before they started their winning streak, they were seven games under .500. After winning 13-straight, they are six games over .500 in second-place….The Pirates have a streak of not scoring more than four runs in a game in 22 straight games….Oh, what a night on Friday from the Giants’ Wilmer Flores. In five AB, he hit three homers, scored three times, and drove home eight. He is the second Giant to have a 3-3-8 game, but the first in a century. On June 14, 1924, HOFer George “High Pockets” Kelly did it against the Reds at the Polo Grounds. Called by Bill James the worst selection to the Hall of Fame, George Kelly scored four times in that game….Today is the Angels’ 16th of 26 consecutive games in California. It will be the longest streak in Angels history….The Mets have won each of Griffin Canning’s last eight starts since he lost to the Astros on opening weekend….Going into action on Saturday, the Angels’ six wins this season when trailing or tied after eight innings are the most in the majors, tying them with the Marlins, Rays, and A’s. None of those successful comebackers will make the postseason….Cody Bellinger has the current longest hitting streak in the majors. He’s hit in 12-straight games and hit .340 during that stretch….When the Tigers won on Friday, Jack Flaherty earned the win. The Tigers are now 2-7 in his starts, and considering they are 30-16, I found that pretty surprising….Not surprisingly, the White Sox lead the majors in making at least one error in 26 games this season. The Dodgers, Astros, and Rangers have made errors in only 13 games this season….Rafael Devers hit the first walkoff homer of his career last night as Boston bounced back from a five-run deficit….Speaking of the Red Sox, Friday night featured a great duel between Garrett Crochet and the Braves’ Chris Sale. Boston acquired both pitchers from the White Sox. Another example of why sometimes it's worth it to deal from the pipeline. Just a reminder that a prospect is a suspect until he makes it in the show….We constantly (and appropriately) read about the amazing hitting exploits of Shohei Ohtani. Well, last night, for the first time as a Dodger, Shohei went 0-6 (against the Angels). It was not his worst game at the plate in the majors. On August 30, 2019, while playing for the Angels, in a 15-inning game against the Red Sox, Ohtani went 0-8.