Yeah, I mean who would want interviews with ex-players, writers, executives and scouts on a baseball pre-game show?

Lurie was pretty much the only reason I ever listened to the A's. While I'm sorry he won't be on during the week, the fact that the Giants snagged him is yet another feather in their marketing cap.

And I should add, it is one helluva listen. While I don't always agree with Marty's point of view, it is obvious that he is very passionate about the game and his job, and it shows.

Marty produces the most stimulating pre-game show that I have ever heard. He is not just a shill for management. Each segment was well thought out and interesting for novice listeners as well as primates.

MLB should sign Marty to produce a segment that could be syndicated to each team for their own pre-game show.

As an A's fan this is the most crushing piece of news in years.

The A's problems aren't due to the stadium or market-SIZE, but market-ING.

Figure it out Lew. You would have gotten a lot more milage out of ML than you will out of Coco Crisp, and at a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the cost. Sure this decision ultimately belonged to the radio station, but doesn't that tell you something about your radio partners?

There is a slim possibility I'm going to be seeing Shooty in Ecuador in a few days, so it will be fun to give him this news that so few people in that entire hemisphere other than him will care about.

Do you call each other Lassus and Shooty in real life?

As an A's fan this is the most crushing piece of news in years.

The A's problems aren't due to the stadium or market-SIZE, but market-ING.

It's something I say to Giants fans about the move in San Jose. Let them - have the A's shown anything that proves they have a frigging clue how to attract new fans?

It seems like this is the fault of the radio station and not the A's. I know people will say the A's should get a better radio deal that lets them dictate more of this stuff, but that may be easier said than done. At least they moved themselves to a station with a signal that reaches further than across the street.

It seems like this is the fault of the radio station and not the A's. I know people will say the A's should get a better radio deal that lets them dictate more of this stuff, but that may be easier said than done. At least they moved themselves to a station with a signal that reaches further than across the street.

I'm assuming the reason Lurie won't be on during the week for Giants' games is because of Ralph/Tom etc. However, they realize that he's a big improvement over whatever they have preceding/following weekend games. I wonder what 860 has on the weekends.

Agree it's the station's error, not the club's.

Oh, and Flynn, the A's outdrew the Giants until PacBell park was built. For all the A's marketing mis-steps over the years - and they are legion -- it ain't the Giants' marketing that closed the gap, it was their real estate. Wolff has stepped on his dick more than once in his real estate quest but it's not for lack of trying. His bigest challenges have been the economy & politicians and while not absent for the Giants in the 90's, they were much less problematic then.

And trophy cases attract fans......:)

And Steve Treder, if you're seeing this thread, you will LOVE Lurie's stories & interviews of the old PCL.

For all the A's marketing mis-steps over the years - and they are legion -- it ain't the Giants' marketing that closed the gap, it was their real estate.

I agree that the move downtown has unquestionably helped the Giants marketing-wise, but that isn't the whole picture. For one, since 1979 their flagship station has been KNBR, "The Sports Leader", who for better or worse have been the dominant sports station in Northern California. Whereas the A's have more or less been on a dartboard plan for the last two decades. Second, they have built what is arguably the strongest broadcasting team in all of sports. Third, they plug (probably overly so) such events as Filipino Heritage, Singles Night, Star Trek Night, etc. etc. etc.

Oh, and Flynn, the A's outdrew the Giants until PacBell park was built.

That is true, but it comes with a bit of a caveat. While still at Candlestick, the Giants outdrew the A's every year from 1993-1999, their last 7 years in that dump. Since 1993, the Giants have outdrawn the A's every year. These are their average crowds from 1993-2009: 21,525 (OAK) and 32,696 (SF).

Yet for the whole period 1968-1999, when both teams were in the Bay Area market and before Pac Bell opened, the A's average attendance per game was slightly higher: 16,989/game to 16,565/game.

The two factors which seem to have driven the attendance for both clubs over the years has been winning or losing and the perceived quality of the ballparks.

From its opening until the early 1990s (when the new ballpark fad began), the Oakland Coliseum was perceived to be one of the nicest places to attend a game. But as the stadium aged -- and then got a lot uglier with the construction of Mt. Davis in 1995 -- the Coliseum quickly fell off the map as a nice place to see a game. With the closure of the Minnesota dump, in 2010 the Coliseum will be perhaps the worst home park in the American League, save Tampa.

Candlestick was always perceived as a lousy home park (after its first few years*), due to the wind and Hunters Point. But in the seasons the Giants won, especially the Bonds' years, they drew a decent crowd.

The most exceptional period for the A's were the Bash Brothers years. They massively outdrew the Giants from 1988-1992. Oakland averaged 9,737 (43.2%) more fans per game over that 5-year stretch, 32,253 to 22,516.

Yet if you take out that one period of A's attendance dominance, then the Giants draw more fans over the 1968-1999 period: 15,463 to 14,162.

I think the biggest differences in the Giants and A's as franchises can be seen in their TV ratings. On radio, the Giants completely dominate. But that is due to KNBR. The A's have good announcers, but lousy stations. Yet there is no reason, other than a much bigger fan base, that the Giants dominate on TV. I don't know any current numbers, but I heard the director of what used to be FSN-Bay Area, which had both teams, say (in a KNBR interview) that the Giants TV audience was double the A's TV audience. He said that had been true for 10 years and he said it was true on cable TV and broadcast TV. He said that the ad rates on Channel 2 (the Giants broadcast TV station) were much higher than the ad rates the A's got.

Maybe the TV ratings are simply a reflection of the decline of the A's post 1992, when the ballpark declined in relative and absolute quality and the team performance on the field started to slide, while over the same period you got the Bonds era in San Francisco and a greatly improved home ballpark. I don't know what the TV ratings were like prior to the mid-1990s.

But my perception, as an A's fan in the Sacramento area, is that there are twice as many Giants fans in all of Northern California, now.

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*At Candlestick, the Giants never were in the top 3 in attendance in the NL after 1965.

They traded Lurie for Michael Savage? ######' a-hole.

It seems like this is the fault of the radio station and not the A's. I know people will say the A's should get a better radio deal that lets them dictate more of this stuff, but that may be easier said than done. At least they moved themselves to a station with a signal that reaches further than across the street.

Right. While Marty's show was always in conjuction with the A's broadcasts, they were always a separate, independant operation, though obviously the A's and their previous SF stations cooperated with Marty to get the show on the air, etc. KTRB were less accomodating even last year for various logistical reasons, and didn't want the show this year. The A's have nothing to do with this change. It's all KTRB.