Inside Baseball

“Inside baseball” is a metaphor for a discussion of science, technology, entertainment, politics, or related subjects of which the public has some general knowledge, but whose inner workings could be totally boring or TMI for those outside baseball or the subject at hand.

I love to keep my mind going at a baseball game—hit or bunt with man on first and one out; steal with two out and the one slot at bat—if out, one slot leads off next inning; bring in the lefty or leave the control pitching right-handed reliever in; tag up from second on a long fly ball; and so on.

Quality of piezoelectric (love that word) transmitted sound vis a vis Bluetooth could be that type of  “inside” and probably boring discussion

It has been three weeks since activation of the Envoy Esteem and I thought I should do an update but the information will not be of interest to my friends and relatives who check out this blog.  It may be of some interest to Esteem patients so I will be brief.

There is an A, B and C setting.  I know that two settings are some kind of volume settings and one settings are for noisy places--just not sure which is which.  I started at A-3 and had no issues—no feedback, no static.  I progressed easily to A-5 and had comfort but some difficulty since it is set below my audiogram maximum.  I moved on to B-2 and B-3 but had difficulty in restaurant settings.  Total static at a loud bar—and that was before the house band started up.  Went to C-4 and liked that until I went to a Big East basketball game with the 100 decibel announcer and seats adjacent to the 60 member pep band—OUCH!  Other than that, it was comfortable and I thought it was more volume than the A band.  I have been at C-4 and C-5 the past few days for every day use but still have problems hearing soft spoken folks.  I found the word recognition of the TV was better with the C settings than the A settings, but still weak.

OK, enough of that.  I will try B-4 tomorrow for an 8 AM meeting and golf match later and see how it goes.  [I wrote that last night—had the meeting today--in the online edition of paper already.  That is me on the left—bored]. 

Envoy Medical’s technician, Allison is in Tampa March 19 so I set an appointment for that day and will keep a daily log for her review.  I hope she can program more richness and base into the B settings.

Pitchers and catchers report this week and the Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles are both 15 minutes from the house and my Rays are a half hour away (Manager Joe Madden, to the left, with Ozzie, signed a 3 year contract today).    Time to start hanging by the bullpen and the benches and picking up inside baseball from the guys who do  it for a living. Just maybe I can actually HEAR what they are saying.