While recently tweaking with the site, I lost the comments from a couple of the blog entries. I still have them on Haloscan, they're just no longer associated with the posts on the site. My bad...

Listen to your heart's content!

Thank you to those who mentioned this to me. I'm aware of the fact that the newest episode does not appear in the Pupu Player and I'm trying to get it fixed. I'll let you all know when it's taken care of.

Show Topics

0:31 -- A's vs. Giants weekend series

7:57 -- Rich Harden and Cy Young consideration
16:15 -- Rant of the week -- Tailgaters

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Show #3

I recently read an article on the SF Gate (SF Chronicle) site discussing Nick Swisher's recent attitude adjustment. I remember when Swisher was drafted in 2002, there were two statements that were constantly being bandied about in various news outlets:

1) Nick Swisher could become be the next, great A's power hitter.

2) Nick Swisher's head might be too large to make it through the A's clubhouse door.

With regards to the former statement, the Swisher reality hasn’t matched the hype. Even when giving him the benefit of the classic, A's Slow Start™, he still hasn’t performed well. In April, he was batting .218, with 17 hits, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 23 Ks and 6 walks. Now, didn't Swisher come up through the A's farm system where getting on base is next to breathing, in terms of overall importance? Well, let's insert our grain of salt here: He's a rookie, after all. Those numbers will surely pick up after Swisher settles in, right? Well... let's just say his numbers have been mediocre, at best.

This wouldn't such a terrible thing if Swisher hadn't earned a reputation for being one of the cockiest players ever to wear the green and gold. I've always been of the mindset that it's okay to be cocky as long as you have something to back it up and Swisher, though he may have all the talent in the world, wasn't backing up his mouth with actual numbers. The article mentions that Eric Chavez, in an all-too-brief stint as team leader, had a talk with some of the guys where he stated that some of the young players were “too comfortable.” Though it wasn't directed at anyone in particular, Swisher had to know that he fell into that category. I believe it was mentioned during spring training this year that as long as Swisher fulfilled his recommended daily allowance of defensive plays, he would remain in the lineup.

At the time of Chavvy’s talk, around June 9th, Swisher was batting .239 and hadn't homered in his last 29 games. Since then, he has been batting .320 over 14 games, with 5 home runs and his overall average has crept up to .246. It would appear that removing the ego has apparently lightened Swisher's load. He's getting good at bats and he appears to be concentrating more at the plate. This, to me, is further proof that if you don't humble yourself to the game, the game will definitely do it to you.

Now, I could be completely wrong and it could just be the new contact lenses he's been wearing. Whatever it is, he needs to keep it up!

I have two things that I need to apologize for:

1) I'm really sorry that it took so long to get this out there. I'm still working out the kinks and trying to find a way to cut down on editing time. This is still taking a lot longer than I had anticipated.

2) I apologize for the audio quality of the show. I have no idea what the problem is, but you'll hear in certain sections that the audio either cuts out or speeds up really quickly then returns to normal. I have no idea why this is and I'll be experimenting with a different audio recording app to see if that's the problem.

Show topics:

- The recent A's improvements
- The loss of Octavio Dotel
- Rich Harden's return
- Rant of the week: How much I really hate opposing team's fans
- Plea for new listeners
- Request for show name suggestions
- Games I'll be attending

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Show #2

I know this has probably been talked to death in other arenas, but I'm not afraid to beat a dead horse. Since the 2004 season saw the loss of the venerable Greg Papa because the A's "felt it was time to make a change in his position in order to bring a different feel to our broadcasts." So, the A's succeeded in bringing in a different feel, but it's not an improvement. Since Papa left, the A's have been hobbling along with Hank Greenwald, whom I like to call the donut spare tire of the A's broadcasting booth. Yes, he gets you from point A to B, but he doesn't do it very well. You can't drive above 50MPH on him and... well I guess this is where the analogy loses a little something.

That being said, there has actually been somewhat of an upside to Bill King not being able to travel with the team. I found that I definitely like Greenwald more on the radio. Some part of this can probably be attributed to the fact that I believe that part of his problem is that he just hasn't gotten used to the fact that there was no need to call the play-by-play (it's TV, we can see what's going on, remember?) Since this is the case for all TV announcers, the standard practice is to tell interesting anecdotes. Here's where we find the next problem. It's not that Greenwald doesn't have stories -- he seems to have a infinite number of them -- it's that every one of them is loaded with enough tryptophan to put some small countries to sleep.

Since I'm not old enough to have heard Greenwald in his heyday, broadcasting for the Giants, I can't say whether his current style is the same as it always was, but I can say that his voice and pacing make him one of the most uncharismatic baseball broadcasters I've ever heard.

Beyond that, there doesn't seem to be the same amount of camaraderie and chemistry between Greenwald and the other broadcasters. On the TV side, he's paired with Ray Fosse, who in my opinion is a great color guy. Normally, Fosse can banter back and forth with his counterpart very easily and the dynamic between these two just seems stiff and very unforgiving. Many times, it seems as though Fosse keeps trying to keep the conversation flowing, but isn't given the proper "ins", segues or cues that would allow the chatter to flow more freely.

On the radio, Greenwald's normally dour voice, which many have said can be equated to Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, sounded a lot more sprightly -- like he was happy -- an emotion you could hardly accuse him of expressing when the camera is on him.

Overall, I don't believe that Greenwald is a great fit for the A's broadcast team.

If all goes well, I will be recording and posting a new show tonight, so keep watching this page, and stay subscribed!

For those of you who have found your way to this site, but have no idea what to do now that you're here, check out the Podcasting FAQ page on the left side of the page. I welcome any feedback you may have that would make using this site easier, so drop me a line.

I'm planning to come to tomorrow's game against the Mets. Sorry for the short notice, but this was kind of a spur of the moment thing. As fate would have it, I have tomorrow off and have absolutely nothing to do, so I'm planning to trade in a previously unused ticket to attend the game.

Even more importantly is that my new (to me) recording equipment will also be making the trip. So, any of you who are planning to be out there, drop by my seats in section 101, row 22, seats 2 and 3 just to say "hi" or to be interviewed for the next show. Hope to see you there!

Let's Go Oakland!

P.S. I didn't get a chance to see or hear tonight's game because I went to see Batman Begins, but it looks like Scutaro came through yet again. Scutaro continues to prove his critics wrong by giving them all the proof they need by showing them that when it comes time to send someone down to AAA, he should be spared.

Anyway, if you have no other plans this weekend, go see a game at the Coliseum, then go see Batman. You won't regret it.

This is a really short show tonight since I'm planning on listening to the Gameday Audio for tonight's A's vs. Mets game. I'm hoping to have a full show early later this week, though I'm still waiting on my replacement USB headset to show up.

Anyway, here's to hoping that the A's can continue their winning ways and that Eric Chavez, especially, can continue on the tear he's been on recently.

If you want to make sure that you don't miss the next show, be sure to subscribe to the feed using the podcast graphic link or on the left side of the page.

To subscribe to the podcast, click the Feedburner link on the left side of the page.

Click below to listen now:


Right-click the link below to download the show manually:
Show #1.5

I have very low reader- and listenership. It would seem that a major contributor to this fact is the show's name. It was a good idea at the time, but now I'm starting to realize that no one is really going to search for "athletics" when looking for a podcast. Yes, I know that a "lesser" and, to some, more logical reason would be the fact that I haven't been around that long, but I want instant fame! Is that too much to ask? But, I digress.

I'm thinking about changing the name of the show to something perhaps a bit catchier and searchier (sic) and being the unimaginative type that I am, I need help. Please send me any and all of your ideas for what I should change the name of the podcast to and it just might net you some swag (it probably won't, but it might!). Put on those green and gold thinking caps!

I'll be moving to a new web host -- from the 350MHz Blue & White G3 at my house to DreamHost -- so, there's likely to be a short bit of downtime while the switch is being made. There will be a temporary site at http://homepage.mac.com/papasmurf/podcast. This should only be needed for at most 48 hours. I'll post again when the site is sitting at its new digs.

While recording the first show, I found the recording quality of my headset to be extremely lacking. Even in a totally quiet room, there appeared to be background noise or interference leaking into the recording, so it took a lot of time to get as much of that edited out as possible.

I called Plantronics technical support and they agreed that the problem seems to be with my headset and that I should seek a replacement. So, it looks like I'll be sending my headset back to the reseller and asking for a replacement. I may be able to record a new show if my mobile recording equipment shows up in the meantime.

Anyway, I'll keep you all posted as to when you'll be hearing my golden voice again.

So, I just listened to my first show and realized that just as I was telling you about how I'm doing the podcast, I went off onto some other tangent. It's just like me to do something like that. Anyway, I'm using:

Audacity - man, I love open source!
Plantronics DSP500 - highly rated for podcasting use, but the jury's still out in my case
Power Mac G4 450MHz dual processor - oldish, but damned reliable

If anyone has suggestions on how to improve on the show's quality or has suggestions on better equipment, drop me a line!

Here's the first show. I'm still working out a few of the kinks and it definitely took much longer to edit than I was hoping it would. I look forward to your questions and feedback!

Check out episode 1. I promise it'll be better than Star Wars Episode 1, though that's a pretty low bar to hurdle.

To subscribe to the podcast, click the Feedburner link on the left side of the page.

Click below to listen now:


Right-click the link below to download the show manually:
Show #1

Well, the new colors lasted all of a day before I found something better. Hope you all like it too.

Well, the site updates are coming slowly, but surely. Since I know nothing about CSS/HTML coding, it took a couple of days to get the site's colors changed from the default blue (much too close to Yankees colors) to ones a bit more A's-ish. More to come.