Saturday Night Radio Comfort Food: Marty Lurie and Bruce Jenkins Schmooze Baseball on KNBR --When We Really Need It

Marty Lurie

YOU KNOW I LIKE MARTY LURIE, the Bay Area's "Mr. Baseball", here's proof.

Baseball is a joy, much like it's a joy for some of you. Many of you in fact and now that baseball is MIA, due to the Coronavirus pandemic,  it's a lonely summer --among other things.

Which brings me back to Lurie and his fantastic show on Saturday night on KNBR; you don't have to love baseball to love this program. It's more than just baseball but yeah, baseball is its zeitgeist --and that's more than OK with me.

Lurie loves to schmooze. He has a virtual rolodex of friends and celebrities on his show which usually runs pre-game but since there's no baseball, Lurie's been broadcasting a five-hour marathon from 6-11 PM. His interviews are stellar. He can walk the walk and talk the talk. He's buddy, buddy with Willie Mays. That's pretty cool. He gets good interviews and knows how to ask great questions.

One of my favorite segments involves Marty's weekly schmooze with Chronicle Sports columnist, Bruce Jenkins. It's usually about a half hour long, and 99 percent of the time, a half-hour too short. Jenkins, who does a master job writing about baseball and NBA basketball, is a great storyteller; moreover, he's terrific interacting with Lurie. Two guys in a bar talking sports devoid of artificial sound; just intelligent conversation and a good vibe sounds almost like a cliché but it absolutely fits Jenkins and Lurie.

It's just the right ingredient to an old-fashioned virtue: sincerity and genuine laughter on a Saturday night works well. And it especially works well when the two men sound like they're having fun.Like Jenkins and Mr. Baseball.

Checkmate.

Bruce Jenkins/SF Chronicle photo

Get out the pizza and beer and listen up because if you don't, you're wasting an otherwise boring weekend night.

The Best Show on KNBR And You Won't Believe I Love It. Marty Lurie My Chicken Soup For Recovery

YOU READ ME A LOT. You have a hunch of my tendencies. What I like and dislike. You know I'm a sucker for originality and creativity --genuine people, even those I may disagree with on style or substance, I applaud because at least they're sincere.

WHICH BRINGS ME to

Marty Lurie

Many of you assume I dislike Marty's performance and whose show on KNBR is a hodgepodge of audio Giants minutiae run amok that I would despise --you're wrong on both counts.

Lurie makes me laugh and gives me unexpected pleasure. His radio show is a NY-flavored tapestry (big words) a table full of bagels and cream cheese --lox and red onions --the only thing missing is the Joe Franklin Show. If you ever went to NY or are an east-coast transplant you know the Joe Franklin show which today remains one of the very best and funny shows ever.

Marty is my Joe Franklin and I can't get enough of him.

You thought I was an Oakland/Eastbay fan and everything Giants was against my religion and you thought wrong.

Again.

Marty Lurie was my chicken soup for recovery shortly after mom passed.  I don't want this to be a downer because it isn't. I rip a lot of people on here and you often complain I'm never positive. I'm about to break one of my edicts because I'm about to stray to sunshine. Cloudy days are abated.

Lurie's brand of radio show is my cup of coffee --ok, so four hours of coffee, (sometimes) is not quite healthy but listening to Marty in the backyard is healthy for the heart. It's all baseball and Giants and while, yes, the calls can be long and laborious, they are funny and often entertaining and again, remember this word, "sincere." (For the most part) Because Marty Lurie is sincere.

Joe Franklin 

The best thing about Marty is he reminds me of my late Uncle Duddy. Duddy had a charm of being sort of negative but engaging. He would take modern day life and its jaded tones and somehow convey a sense of comfort and realness. Duddy cracked me up just like Marty does but in a nice way. Taught me a lot about life.

I know I'm being sort of coded here because I haven't even mentioned much that Marty mostly talks about baseball and the Giants --two things I don't really care for but Lurie's chicken soup supersedes both of those subjects. I'd call it comfort food radio --macaroni and cheese and a slice of meatloaf if you get my drift.

Marty is real and passionate. Which makes listening to him all the more pleasurable because he seems very happy in his element. I don't have to love the Giants but I do love listening to Marty Lurie.