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Good morning, Athletics Nation!
The Oakland A’s will be on the radio again this summer.
After flirting with the idea of leaving terrestrial radio entirely in 2020, the A’s changed course in July and signed with 960 AM, a member of the Bloomberg Radio Network. They’ll stick with the same station for another year, the team announced last week, with all 162 regular season games broadcast on the airwaves in 2021.
Bay Area fans who prefer listening online will still be able to do so for free at A’s Cast on iHeartRadio. You don’t even have to wait until Opening Day to use A’s Cast, as the rest of this spring’s Cactus League games are being broadcast there.
For those outside the area, and for Spanish-language options, click here to see A’s Radio Network listings by city.
Oakland will return their top-notch radio duo for a 16th season, Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo. The duo will occasionally be joined by Ray Fosse, as usual. Korach enters his 26th season in the booth for the green and gold.
As for TV broadcasts, you can also expect to see all regular season A’s games on the tube between NBC Sports California and MLB Network, says team president Dave Kaval.
Of course, nothing beats going to the actual ballpark, which fans will be allowed to do again this summer after staying home last year. If you bought FlexTix vouchers, then you can begin redeeming them today (March 18). Otherwise, single-game tickets go on sale Tuesday (March 23), but if you sign up for the A’s Insiders newsletter then you can pre-order a day early on Monday. Click here for more details on attending games at the Coliseum this season, where capacity is likely to begin around 11,000.
A’s Coverage
- Lockard: The top 10 A’s rookies most likely to make an impact in 2021 ($$$)
- Coffey: Which A’s pitchers can fill in if Mike Fiers can’t start the season? ($$$)
- Gallegos: Clock ticking for Tom; Bassitt solid
- Kawahara: Who’s the A’s backup catcher? Camp competition likely going ‘down to the end’ ($)
- Rubin: A’s takeaways: A.J. Puk’s velocity down in spring debut; Is that cause for concern? ($$$)
- CPL #31: Skye Bolt and Hogan Harris can play their way back onto the radar
MLB News & Interest
Cactus League
- Spring Game #15: Chris Bassitt good again, but bullpen struggles
- Spring Game #16: Jed Lowrie homers in A’s loss
- Spring Game #17: A’s bats explode, and two star pitchers debut
- A’s return Rule 5 pick Dany Jimenez to Blue Jays
- What did A’s first round of spring cuts tell us about 2021 Opening Day roster?
- Jesús Luzardo served up his Turkey Sub pitch and it was everything we hoped for
Good news and bad news
Some updates on MRIs today: Laureano could be back in games early next week.
— Shayna Rubin (@ShaynaRubin) March 17, 2021
Buddy Reed will be out for a while.
Puk debut!
AJ Puk struck out three batters in his first inning. Also walked one and allowed a two-run home run that Ryan McBroom hit over the fence behind the scoreboard in LF. Puk was 92-93 with the fastball
— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) March 17, 2021
Rosenthal debut!
Trevor Rosenthal threw 20 pitches that inning, 10 strikes. 12 were off-speed pitches. His fastball was 95-97 mph. Royals hit three line drives on fastballs, two singles and a sacrifice fly. Rosenthal walked one and struck out one.
— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) March 17, 2021
Schimmel debut!
.@SchimmelAmelia started us off for the first time this Spring ️ pic.twitter.com/7EQy1s4XxS
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) March 17, 2021
Ka’ai Tom is already 3-for-6 since getting back into action
Luck of the Ka'ai pic.twitter.com/zFXaATc10u
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) March 17, 2021
Thirty-Six miles of separation
Luzardo threw another Turkey Sub to Trayce Thompson (Klay's brother). Stadium radar had it at 60 mph. Next pitch was 96.
— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) March 16, 2021
Documented proof of the Turkey Sub
Luzardo v. Thompson pic.twitter.com/azwAoJlqZ6
— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) March 16, 2021
Not to worry about Luzardo’s rough outing, though
Luzardo said his stuff was there, but his command of it was not. Added that he was happy with his curveball, but wants to work on his command and mixing up his pitches in the last few weeks of camp.
— Alex Coffey (@byalexcoffey) March 16, 2021
Lowrie’s first hit in a major league game of any kind since 2018
Send it flying, Jed! pic.twitter.com/dwJ05ap8lh
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) March 16, 2021
Another double for the 19-year-old Soderstrom
All Tyler Soderstrom does is hit pic.twitter.com/d2v0TkJ0su
— Shayna Rubin (@ShaynaRubin) March 16, 2021
... And Soderstrom earned every bit of the extra-bases, with the team’s highest exit velocity of the game
Seems ok pic.twitter.com/45G566gLdK
— Alex Coffey (@byalexcoffey) March 16, 2021
Best of Twitter
LeBoston
Source confirms @MikeSilvermanBB report: LeBron James is now a partner in Fenway Sports Group, making him a part-owner of the Boston Red Sox.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 16, 2021
Late spring transaction
Maikel Franco: $800K salary, $200K incentives, bonus if traded, parties agree that option can be utilized first few weeks due to late start, MLB deal. #orioles
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 16, 2021
Yeah but these don’t even come close to the all-time weird injury list, which includes Nolan Ryan getting bitten by a coyote, Steve Sparks dislocating a shoulder trying to tear a phone book in half, Joel Zumaya pulling a muscle playing Guitar Hero, and Marty Cordova falling asleep in a tanning bed, among others (much less John Smoltz allegedly ironing the shirt he was wearing)
This has turned into one of the most furious races ever for Weirdest Injury of Spring Training.
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) March 15, 2021
I still think Brendan McKay's dog-toy adventure is the leader in the clubhouse. But lots of competition! https://t.co/D7vMioPsMe
Fox played for the A’s in spring and summer of 2010
10 years ago, Jake Fox ruled over the Grapefruit League. And then, he disappeared. I talked to him about what it felt like to be on top of the baseball world for a month. He was great. (Also the art by Tom Forget should be on a Florida billboard.) https://t.co/Go0z8Fr5mG pic.twitter.com/AyjrZUrMnp
— Matt Monagan (@MattMonagan) March 16, 2021
When hot takes go cold
heckler, mid-pitch: "strike three!"
— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) March 15, 2021
Patrick Wisdom: pic.twitter.com/Ji7jPOTdoJ