Fungos & Fastballs: Baseball History & Trivia

Ep 24: Kitchen Sink Episode: LOOGY Explained, The Kissing Bandit, Eephus (film), & '70 East West Classic,

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2569696/fan_mail/new] A single baseball episode can feel like four different road trips, and that’s exactly the point here. We’re clearing out a backlog of “first pitches” with a grab bag of baseball history, MLB trivia, and the kind of oddball stories you only hear when fans start swapping favorites. Before we dive into the time capsule, our friend Edwin Nolan calls in with a sharp MLB rundown, including what’s happening across the AL and NL, plus a quick moment to remember two huge losses in the baseball world: legendary Yankees broadcaster John Sterling and Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox. From there, we hit the baseball dictionary with “Loogie” (the left-handed one-out guy) and explain why the tactic thrived, why it slowed games to a crawl, and how the three-batter minimum rule basically pushed it into extinction. Then we step straight into baseball folklore with Morgana Roberts, the Kissing Bandit, whose cheek-kiss field invasions turned into a strange, very real piece of 1970s and 1980s sports culture and earned her a place in conversations about the Shrine of Eternals and baseball’s broader lore. We also go high culture in our own way with a review of the film Ephus, a quiet, quirky baseball movie that ditches the usual underdog formula and instead nails what it feels like to hang onto a field, a team, and a night you don’t want to end. Finally, we tell the story of the 1970 East-West Major League Baseball Classic, a powerful charity game organized in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that featured an unbelievable lineup of legends, meaningful symbolism, and no known video record. We wrap by answering the Hall of Fame trivia question: the only player inducted without the five-year wait.  Subscribe, share with a baseball-loving friend, and leave a quick review if you want more deep cuts like this. Email us at fungosandfastballs@gmail.com

E23: Talkin’ Ryno: Ryne Sandberg - Heart of the Chicago Cubs

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2569696/fan_mail/new] A Cubs legend doesn’t have to be loud to be unforgettable, and Ryne Sandberg is the proof. We sit down with longtime friend and die-hard Cubs fan James Maumus to trace how a kid in New Orleans became devoted to Chicago baseball thanks to cable TV, WGN superstation broadcasts, and the simple magic of day games at Wrigley Field. The result is part baseball history, part fan memory, and a clear case for why Sandberg’s steady, team-first style still resonates. We dig into Sandberg’s path from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Cubs, the infield that helped define early 1980s Chicago, and what it means to win nine straight Gold Gloves as a second baseman. From there we relive the electric 1984 season and the moment that put Sandberg on the national map: June 23, 1984, the “Sandberg Game,” when he took Hall of Fame closer Bruce Sutter deep twice in the biggest spots, with Harry Caray’s call turning it into Cubs folklore. The conversation also follows the full arc: playoff heartbreak, Sandberg’s 1990 power peak, the emotional toll of the 1994 MLB strike, and how fans reconnect to the sport. We close with Cubs retired numbers trivia, Sandberg’s Cooperstown values, the statue outside Wrigley, and the weight of his later battle with metastatic prostate cancer, plus one of the most human fan stories you’ll hear all week. If you care about the Chicago Cubs, baseball history, or what real leadership looks like between the lines, hit play, then subscribe, share the episode with a Cubs fan, and leave us a review. Email us at fungosandfastballs@gmail.com

E22: The Baseball Reliquary: A Fan’s Hall of Fame

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2569696/fan_mail/new] Cooperstown tells one kind of baseball story. The Baseball Reliquary tells the one that lives in fan memory, strange artifacts, and the people who shaped the game’s lore even if they never fit a Hall of Fame template. We sit down with Joe Price, Professor Emeritus and co-director of the Institute for Baseball Studies at Whittier College, to explore how an “alternate hall of fame” can honor impact, meaning, and cultural weight alongside on-field greatness.  Joe explains what a reliquary is and why the word belongs in baseball, then takes us inside the collection now housed at Whittier: a grassroots museum and archive built from donations, obsession, and love. We get into unforgettable pieces of baseball memorabilia, from perfect game baseballs signed across eras to a one-of-a-kind Tommy John surgery textbook signed by Tommy John on the very page that diagrams the procedure. Along the way, we talk about Joe’s National Anthem Tour and what it reveals about baseball as tradition, ritual, and community.  Then we break down the Shrine of the Eternals, the Reliquary’s fan voted hall that celebrates cultural significance, barrier breakers, and enduring stories, not just career totals. If you’ve ever argued about who really matters to baseball history, this will sharpen your list and probably scramble it too. Subscribe, share this with a baseball friend, and leave us a review with your pick for who belongs in the Shrine next. Email us at fungosandfastballs@gmail.com

E21: Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr & 1960 TV's Home Run Derby

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2569696/fan_mail/new] A home run derby sounds like a modern invention until you stumble on a 1960 TV series where Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and other legends went head-to-head for cash at Los Angeles Wrigley Field. We start there because it’s baseball history hiding in plain sight, and it helps explain how the sport’s love affair with the long ball kept evolving long before today’s MLB Home Run Derby. Then we follow the full sweep of Ken Griffey Jr’s career, from Denora, Pennsylvania to becoming the face of the Seattle Mariners and one of the defining athletes of the 1990s. We break down WAR (wins above replacement) in everyday terms, talk through the peak years of elite power and ten Gold Gloves, and replay the moments that still feel unreal: the father-son season with Ken Griffey Sr, the warehouse shot at Camden Yards, and the 1995 ALDS when Edgar Martinez’s “Double” and Griffey’s dash home helped change the future of baseball in Seattle. We don’t skip the complicated parts either. The trade to the Cincinnati Reds, the long stretch of injuries, the brief White Sox stop, the return to Seattle, and the strange “napgate” story all raise a bigger question we keep coming back to: when an athlete becomes a true celebrity, do fans actually get closer to the person or farther away? If you love baseball trivia, Seattle Mariners history, and Hall of Fame legacies, this one is built for you. Subscribe, share this with a Griffey fan, and leave a review with your favorite Griffey moment. Email us at fungosandfastballs@gmail.com Email us at fungosandfastballs@gmail.com

E20: Bill Mazeroski’s Stellar Defense and Series Winning Homer, Golden Sombrero Explained, & 2026 Season Update

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2569696/fan_mail/new] The MLB season moves fast, and so do we: quick division check-ins, the kind you can actually remember, followed by the sort of baseball trivia that instantly upgrades how you talk about the game. We hit the recent headlines and early surprises across both leagues, including why some starts feel real and others look like smoke, and we keep ourselves honest with a speedy pace. If you like MLB standings talk with a little skepticism and a little humor, you’re in the right place.  Next, we open the baseball lexicon and define a phrase every fan should know: the golden sombrero. Four strikeouts in one game sounds brutal, but baseball slang has a way of turning misery into poetry. We trace where the term comes from, how “hat trick” traveled across sports, and why these odd little words stick around for generations. It’s a short segment, but it’s loaded with baseball history and trivia that makes the next broadcast you watch more fun.  Then we go deep on Bill Mazeroski, one of the greatest defensive second basemen of all time and a Pittsburgh Pirates icon. We talk Gold Gloves, double-play mastery, and the fast, almost invisible mechanics that made him “The Glove.” And yes, we relive the moment that made him immortal: the 1960 World Series Game 7 walk-off home run against the New York Yankees, still the only Game 7 walk-off homer in World Series history. We also dig into the surprising MVP choice, the Bing Crosby tape story, and why Maz’s Hall of Fame case took decades despite a career built on run-saving defense.  If you love baseball history podcasts, MLB trivia, and stories that prove defense can change everything, subscribe on your favorite platform, share this with a fellow fan, and leave a review so more listeners can find Fungos and Fastballs. Email us at fungosandfastballs@gmail.com