If you love watching the Cavs on TV but don’t love listening to national TV announcers pulling for the underdog, this might be the gizmo for you.
As I noted last year during the World Series — when about half of all Tribe fans were ready to string up Fox play-by-play man Joe Buck — the problem with turning down the sound on your TV and tuning in the local radio announcers is the time lag.
The radio signal is way ahead. So unless you want to watch three hours of instant replays, it’s just not workable.
At least that’s what I thought at the time.
Then along came reader William Ferguson, an ardent Tribe fan, who is among those who figured out how to watch a Tribe game on national TV and listen to our old buddy Tom Hamilton at exactly the same time.
This method also would work if you’re grinding your teeth over Hubie Brown and want to soak in the Cavs’ John Michael.
And, of course, it also would work for the Browns — assuming they’re watchable this year, which is hardly a safe assumption.
Anyway, a company called Scanner Master sells an AM-FM radio with an adjustable delay of up to 16 seconds to enable you to sync your radio’s audio with your TV’s video.
Here’s a link: bit.ly/trickradio
The downside is that the radios aren’t cheap. It will cost you about 70 bucks to dodge the Joe Bucks of the world.
So I guess what we have here is another ugly case of pay-to-play-by-play.
Rosy noses
Reader Marilyn Waldow thought she spotted a wonderful typo on an electronic sign in front of the Walgreens at West Market and Miller in Fairlawn, and sent me a photo. The sign read:
“Red Noses $1.”
I thought she had found a funny goof, too — surely, it should have read “Red Roses” — until a colleague told me about an annual charity event to raise money for poor kids through the sale of fake red noses. They’re big round noses that slip onto the end of yours.
In fact, May 25 is “Red Nose Day” — and Walgreens is all over it. The company annually donates half of the purchase price to the drive, which sends money to an array of domestic and international agencies that fight childhood poverty.
Leg up
Beacon Journal Features Editor Lynne Sherwin, ever-watchful for odd and/or funny stuff that might interest her semi-favorite columnist, spotted something on Buzzfeed that fit those descriptors.
Because I work in Akron, and Akron is still synonymous with tires, and this tale involves tires, and I need stuff to put in my column, rubber-oriented or otherwise, here goes.
The largest tire manufacturer in the world is … Lego.
Wrote Buzzfeed:
“In 2011, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized the toy company as the world’s largest maker of tires. In that year, Lego made 381 million tires, while Bridgestone produced more than 190 million, Michelin manufactured 184 million, and Goodyear put out 181 million.
“It all kinda makes sense when you consider how much easier it is to make a tiny Lego tire, but still!”
Being the highly responsible journalist that I am, I checked the Guinness website and couldn’t find that category. But Googling the topic confirmed the figures, sourced by Rubber World and Lego.
I’m pretty sure this information would enable you to win a bar bet.
You’re welcome.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com. He also is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bob.dyer.31