Skip to main content

June 11, SF HotCut: I Take Some Time to Survey the Late Night AM Dial.

The Watched Pot

Around 13:30 I had suggested to B that there was not any HotCut today.  A minute later I received the text:  SF HotCut.  It's Berríos and Samardzija.  Now on my phone via LTE in a cabin at Washington State Park is Texas at Washington.  This game began at 11:05 central daylight, an early start I'd say for a Saturday game that is not the first game of a doubleheader.  Which by the way, there are two of today, including a scheduled single-gate, straight up old school twin bill.  The Nats are leading, powered by an Adam Lind home run.  Ryan Zimmermann has the day off.

Blackmon for MVP?

The Rangers scored two in the ninth off Koda Glover and sent the game to extras, where they won in eleven or twelve, Kela getting the win, Shawn Kelley the loss.  I would then have shifted to Cards - Phillies but the Cards were up 6-0 behind Carlos Martinez and I found that less than compelling.  So I went to Jeff Hoffmann and Colorado leading the Cubs at Wrigley, 4-0 in the seventh.  Then Chicago got a run, Hoffmann left and the Cub rally fizzled against Chad Qualls, then someone else.  Later Felix Peña and especially Pedro Strop couldn't buy an out and Colorado turned the contest into a nolo contendre.  Reynolds hit his 17th, Charlie Blackmon hit —those two have been hitting and hitting.  Blackmon could be MVP.

The HotCut is Now

The Twins are up 3-1.  DoZier touched Samardzija for a home run, then Shark walked a guy, denting a ridiculous stretch over seven starts during which he had posted sixty-three strikeouts against one walk.  That is an historic K:BB ratio over a seven-start stretch.  Legendary, unheard of and now over.  It's 3-2 on a Posey RBI groundout, his 19th RBI on a .342 average.

Saved By 700 WLW

It's 21:47.  On ESPN radio, 101.1 FM, the Red Sox have storm-surged Warwick Saupold, Alex Wilson and other assorted characters churned out of the Tigers pen.  The score was 10-3 and I've lost focus.  It occurred to me the Reds had not yet played.  I switched dials and went to 700 AM.

Inside this cabin with no antenna I am listening to Reds at Dodgers on WLW out of Cincinnati.  It is a powerhouse of a radio station.  When 700 goes I might as well go myself.  I haven't heard any Marty Brennaman recently; not sure why.  This is Jim Kelch.  He has been part of the radio crew, doing play-by-play alongside Jeff Brantley during the innings Marty rests.  But I can recall that earlier this week, for the Scooter Gennett game, the radio highlights I heard via the Buster Olney podcast were all Jim Kelch calls, no Marty.

The reception isn't clear as a bell but it's pretty clear.  Gennett scores now.  Alex Wood's scoreless streak is snapped at 27 1/3 IP on a José PeraZa single.  Cozart now.  I'm scanning the dial.  The ESPN game is also on 680 AM, the Sox win 11-3, game over, goodbye.  AM 670 comes in, the Cubs are there now I believe, the "Score" out of Chicago.  The White Sox used to be there, where are they now?

The AM Dial

The trash, static and miscellany of the AM dial is like a rotting piece of wood that won't fall apart entirely, year after year.  1100 booms out of Cleveland but they played earlier so it's just a random station to me at the moment.  I get baseball on AM 870 ... but it's college baseball ... out of New Orleans!  The legendary 870.  I can remember listening to that station for news on Hurricane Katrina when I lived in Austin in 2005.  And I tuned in that station—during the day—as we drove along the Gulf Coast on a vacation in the Florida panhandle in 2010.  They were still talking about Katrina even then.  It's call signals are WWL.  Bottom 6, Bulldogs lead but I don't know which Bulldogs:  Georgia, Yale, GonZaga, Mississipi State, Fresno State?  There are a lot of bulldogs.  It's cool but I'm moving on, back to 700 WLW.

Comments