August 15, 2006

Marty —

It’s Hank Masler from the Chamber. Nick Swisher is here in City Center signing autographs and suddenly it dawned on me that I never sent you the short story that I wrote following our interview at spring training. So here it is — complete with the photo I used. Thanks again, and I hope all’s well with you.

Hank Masler

Hank Masler
Communications Manager

Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
475 14th Street
Oakland, CA 94612-1903

Click below for this article!Lurie’s second career a hit to A’s fans

Most professional people are happy with just one enormously successful career. Marty Lurie has had two.

A former high-profile Bay Area criminal defense attorney, Lurie now hosts two distinct radio shows prior to every Oakland A’s game – ‘Right Off the Bat,’ which introduces the upcoming game with personal insights, and ‘Memories of the Game,’ a look back at baseball history with the players and coaches who made those memories possible.

Until 1995, Lurie represented some 3,000 people with 125 homicide cases, and says ‘I went through a major burnout. I was working six or seven days a week and giving, giving, giving. I was just not able to do it anymore.’

So Lurie left the profession and a year later turned to El Cerrito High School, where his son Evan was playing ball. He created his own radio show and broadcast the school’s baseball and football games.

And that started a second tremendous career, this time as the creator and host of his own baseball talk show prior to Oakland A’s games. The shows were 15 minutes long at the beginning, but have worked their way up to a full hour this year on KYCY AM 1550, the station of the A’s.

Ninety minutes before game time, Lurie hits the air waves with ‘Right Off the Bat,’ which previews the upcoming A’s game, takes a look at the previous day’s contest, looks at baseball around the league, and usually features a fresh interview. He also hooks up with A’s radio play-by-play broadcaster Ken Korach before play begins.

‘Memories of the Game,’ which is also broadcast prior to the game, is now syndicated to ten cities across the country, from Des Moines, Iowa to Syracuse, New York, from Louisville, Kentucky to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A native of Brooklyn, Lurie grew up with the Brooklyn Dodgers, who had signed Jackie Robinson a year after Lurie’s birth. It was the Dodgers of Robinson, of Don Newcombe, Pee Wee Reese and Roy Campanella, and he grew up, he says, ‘Within the beauty of Ebbets Field.’

‘Memories of the Game,’ in fact, has given him the ability to speak with some of the players from that era, including Newcombe, who brought back all the wonderful memories of Ebbets Field. Other memorable guests over the years have included Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow; Dodgers star Maury Wills, who Lurie calls ‘well spoken and a very interesting man;’ Yankee pitching great Whitey Ford; the late Minnesota Twins star Kirby Puckett, whose enthusiasm for baseball, Lurie says, ‘came across well on the air;’ former Dodger and Negro Leagues star Joe Black; and countless other Hall of Famers.

Lurie says that his work as an attorney has helped in his new profession, making him a better listener and doing his homework before the interviews begin. Many players, in fact, have told Lurie that he knows their careers better than they do. That, says Lurie, ‘is the ultimate compliment.’