Unless you happen to catch a David Sedaris segment on “This American Life”, the most reliably funny show on the radio is the Gary Radnich sports talk show on KNBR (AM 680) from 9:00 a.m. to noon.

I only listen during the first hour while I’m on my way in to work, and then only if I’m late or the traffic sucks. And you may have to be at least a little bit of a sports fan to get the jokes and the general tone, but actually, most of the laughs have more to do with timing and quick comebacks. I have laughed out loud several times while listening to this show, and I’m a tough audience.

Radnich also appears on KRON TV channel 4 in the evening — and he’s actually more associated with channel 4, where he’s worked much longer — but I think he shines much brighter on the radio. His co-anchors on KRON always seem a little scared of him.

Photo by DC Metroblogger

San Francisco is heaven for an urban runner like me. There is always a new road or alley to explore.

You can have flats, heights, or stairs for your thigh-buring morning. And no matter where you are, there is always a breathtaking view around the next turn.

Then again, all these hills are a real pain. Pain in my knees, my shins, my ankles. If only I were still twenty-nine for the third time.

And if only, as I tried to slow going downhill on California Street, I didn’t clip that sidewalk crack and go ass over teakettle. I would still have a working camera, I would still have a great manicure, and I would still have my ego all intact.

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Really, could you? Looking across the tranquil bay, I see Alcatraz and it seems close enough to touch.

Close enough to swim, too.

I’ve heard there are Bay swimmers, those who forgo kayaking the Bay for a total immersion cold-water workout.

While I’ve had my own frigid frolics, going walrus in Russia, it wasn’t in open water.

Would you be one of these long distance cold water swimmers? One who would swim to Alcatraz? Better yet, be a Alcatraz Centurion?

And if so, what do your friends and family think of your efforts? Crazy or cool?

In stadium news — never thought I’d start an entry that way — the 49ers are saying they’ll keep the city’s name as part of the team name; the city says “Screw you”. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is jumping into the fray, saying in typical Di-Fi syntax, “When a team takes the name, and in this case the heritage, of a city it causes great consternation.”

Meanwhile, the A’s are announcing at this hour their move to Fremont. Fresh: Just-posted KTVU story, which says — speaking of team names — the A’s are considering “Fremont A’s” or “Silicon Valley A’s.” God help us.

(Pictured: the Oakland Coliseum. This post’s title from the song written by Joe Raposo and recorded by Frank Sinatra.)
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This announcement went out today to people who bought As tickets online this season:

A’S OWNER TO MAKE MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT

Oakland A’s Owner and Managing Partner Lew Wolff will be making a major announcement tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. PT regarding the team’s quest for a new ballpark in the Bay Area.

The announcement will be available live on OaklandAthletics.com at 11:30 a.m. PT. Just log onto the A’s Official Website at the announcement time to view. FSN Bay Area will also show the broadcast.

Will they be headed to Fremont — or staying put? See the Chronicle’s A’s page for developing news.
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Earlier, wrote about this event I was helping organize: Emeryvillains NineMillion.org Benefit. Pictured here is a guy in the crowd at Harrington’s who won Kodak hat and jersey from our cycling team! Last night, we raised $1,240 for NineMillion.org – 9 million kids are living in refugee camps- by selling raffle tickets. Yours truly actually won a 100$ certificate at Sports Basement, the prize I had my eye on all night. Now, a new lock for a new bike (very excited). Thanks for my buddies who ran around Harrington’s selling raffle tickets to the post-work fi-di crowd:Carroll! Rebecca! Kathy! Janet! And to transplanted Kiwi Gavin (source of Kiwiisms, and the guy in photos) for organizing the event- amazing what a little 2 dollar ticket can do for a kid in a refugee camp. The photos of the event are fun too.
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If fellow SF Metblogger Richard Ault’s Ocean Beach photos of yesterday’s big surf didn’t stoke you enough:

Two new, coffee-table surf-dream books have been published by Chronicle Books, and there’s a book signing by the authors and other surf stars on Tuesday, October 24th. This Surfrider San Francisco benefit celebrates the publication of Inside Maverick’s and Photo/Stoner at 111 Minna Gallery. Down some beers and mingle with surf authors & luminaries Matt Warshaw, Doug Acton, Grant Washburn, Jeff Divine, Bruce Jenkins (of San Francisco Chronicle 3-Dot Lounge fame), Maverick’s surfers, and more.
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So I biked across Marina Green last week and saw about 20 little AYSO kids running around demarkated fields. My niece – it’s all she can talk about, how they “got 1 point!” (I informed her that my bball team scored 6, against 76…) The season is here to play soccer, soccer, soccer. My shinsplints and general laziness prevented me from joining my company’s team, the punnily named EmeryVillains…

plug: My coworkers are hosting a fundraiser for the season end of their soccer team, the Emeryvillains. Raffling off a Kodak camera, no less. In really un-characteristic non-hooliganism, they’re celebrating the end of a “moral victory” season by organizing a fundraiser for Ninemillion.org, a very cool organization. Heart-warming when folks do stuff like this- totally conceived and propelled into reality by my coworker Gavin, the Kiwi. Cool Kiwiisms: chooka. You just don’t want to be called a “toss rag.” Photographed here is Stephen, football superstar, about to get slide tackled from his wife Leslie. Supposedly someone on another team had it out for him and kept kicking him in the shins. I’m sticking to b-ball. Event info here.

I visited Glen Park Canyon park yesterday. I was at my basketball game at the center there a half-hour early, due to the inexplicable fact that driving from North Beach to Glen Park never takes the same amount of time. The upside is that this is a new park to me, and here in San Francisco no less! I felt like I was in Rancho San Antonio, my favorite open space (so far). It was on the brink of dusk, and either it was the leaves on the ground, or the canyon walls, but the sounds from the city are muted on the whole, so all you hear are the footfalls of other hikers, dogs, or wildlife. The October briskness must be back in the air after our warm Fleet Week. We lost, 74 to 6.

Or at least the greatest name of all time: Unicorn Warhammer.

I bumped into an old friend while trying to buy some moped gloves down in Union Square. We played catch-up and she mentioned that her roommate had joined a softball team with the greatest name ever. The team, Unicorn Warhammer, plays here in town against teams with names like KMD, Dwell Magazine, or Anchovies. Seriously, here is the schedule, check the other names out. Their logo is a unicorn with a warhammer instead of a horn, mounting another unicorn. I love this city.

Let’s all take a moment of silence to observe the sheer awesomeness of this.
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