The only sure thing about the Oakland A’s lineup this season: it’s sure to be a surprise. Ken Macha gifts us every game with a revamped order, apparently reveling in tossing his players’ names into the air and playing a little 9-card pickup. Now towards the end of August, the lineup is finally beginning to fall into place.

For a long time, injuries propelled the veritable batting order shakeup—Frank Thomas, Milton Bradley, Bobby Crosby, Eric Chavez, and/or Mark Kotsay. Now there’s something else to it. When Eric Chavez volunteered to bat 9th during his tendinitis-induced slump, he exemplified what makes the A’s so much fun to watch right now: this team does not revolve around a single, high-priced MVP. Can you picture Manny Ramirez volunteering himself for the bottom of the order if he ever hit the skids?

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Marty: The Giants are within striking distance of first place in the division and/or the wild card. This, after an up and down season to date, a year in whch they have endured lengthy losing streaks coupled with a recovery in which they managed to overtake the pack mid-season for a game or two but quickly went into a lengthy losing streak that deposited them at the bottom of the division. Rising from that low level, today they look back at a fourteen game period during which they have won eleven games, largely the result of great starting pitching.

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OAKLAND (August 28) – I hope you don’t read my column before you head for the sports book at Vegas. It could be confusing.

My brother told me: “You change your mind every three weeks about who the best players and teams are.”

He was wrong. It’s more like every three days. Or, when I was spending some ill-advised time and money at Tahoe and breathlessly watching the ticker, every three innings.

My brother happened to be specifically referring to my opinion of Eric Chavez at the time he made that comment. It was during the winter a few years ago, and I was starving for a baseball argument.

So, I started up with him. “I don’t understand Chavez getting the Gold Glove again. He’s not that good.”

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Sept 1st is just around the corner. It’s the time of year the “pros” take over in baseball.

Baseball players who carry their teams through the most meaningful games of the pennant race are immortalized in the games history.

The AL West has turned into a two-team race between the A’s and the Angels.

How many wins will it take to nail down the title?

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Inside Baseball with Marty Lurie, Bruce Magowan & Shooty Babitt – A’s injures: Oakland keeps rolling, David Ortiz: Big Papi hurting?, AL Central: Detroit Tigers in a ‘mini’ slump?, NL Wild Card: Can the Phillies do it?
Segment one : Marty, Shooty, Bruce & Paul White(Sports’ Weekly Senior reporter).
Segment two : Marty, Shooty, Bruce & Paul White.
Segment three: Marty, Shooty, Bruce & Paul White.
Segment four : Marty, Shooty & Bruce. [Read more →]

This weekend Right Off The Bat will originate from three locations.

Friday night’s show will begin at 4:00 PM live from Fenton’s Creamery on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.

Saturday Inside Baseball and Right Off The Bat will air from Crogan’s Montclair beginning at 2:30 PM.

Sunday I’ll be at the Warehouse at 4th and Webster in Oakland for Right Off The Bat beginning at 3:30 PM.

All the shows can be heard on 1220 AM and 1550 AM in the Bay Area. You can also dial in on the web simply by clicking on the KNTS 1220 icon on the lower left hand side of the screen. You will be directed to the KNTS web site, once you hit the “listen now” icon you can hear the shows in their entirety.

Let me know what you think about the season so far.

Marty [Read more →]

Rick Kaplan

OAKLAND (August 22) – Performance-enhancing substances are not the biggest threat to the integrity of the game. Neither are juiced baseballs or corked bats.

No, it’s the water !!

H20 is rising around our ballparks, threatening to momentarily turn the Grand Old Game into a water sport.

It may have begun innocently enough in 1973 with the Esther Williams-esqe waterfall and fountains beyond the centerfield fence in Kaufmann Stadium in K.C. Then there was the inclusion of a swimming pool at Bank One in Phoenix in case anyone wanted to get in some laps while the Snakes were getting shut out . . .

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I’ll be broadcasting from Crogan’s Montclair Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday this week.

The Tuesday and Wednesday shows will begin at
2:30 PM. On Saturday Inside Baseball Saturday Night airs at 2:30 PM too immediately followed by Right Off The Bat.

KNTS 1220 AM now carries Right Off The Bat in its entirety every day during the week instead of joining the show at 6 PM as they had done in the past. Thanks to GM Ken Miller for making the additional time available.

You can listen to the show through this web site: Just click the 1220 AM KNTS icon down and to the left and you will be directed to KNTS’s live streaming on the internet.

If you come over to Crogan’s please bring a transistor radio if you can so you can hear the show.

All times listed above are Pacific. The Marty Lurie Radio network also includes 1550 AM here in the Bay Area every day.

Thanks for listening…
Marty

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The game of baseball has changed over the years. In today’s game you rarely find a starting pitcher who averages seven innings per start.

Roy Halladay is my choice for AL Cy Young. Halladay not only leads the league in wins, but he and Arizona’s Brandon Webb are the only starters in all of baseball averaging at least seven innings every time they take the ball.

The Tigers starting pitchers lead the AL in ERA. Detroit’s relievers are second to the Twins staff in ERA. With that combination, barring a total collapse in September the Tigers are in the playoffs this fall.

Joel Zumaya is the most valuable pitcher on the Detroit staff. The 21 year old throws 100 mph. In the playoffs a game can turn on one pitch in the late innings. Zumaya will throw that pitch for the Tigers.

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Inside Baseball with Marty Lurie & Shooty Babitt – More A’s injuries: Street joins the club, Jeff Weaver: Surprise success?, Detroit: Magical Season?, Uggla: Hitting the wall?.

Segment one : Marty & Shooty.
Segment two : Marty, Shooty & Larry Krueger.
Segment three: Marty, Shooty & Rick Hurd.
Segment four : Marty, Shooty & Roxy Bernstein who is in Miami. [Read more →]