Regular Season

Mr. La Russa Sir, Can I Go Home Now? - A's 4 Yankees 0 (7/4/1994) with Charles Star

In this episode I’m joined by lawyer, comedian and podcaster Charles Star to talk about a 4-0 A’s win over the Yankees on July 4th of the strike-shortened 1994 season. Actually it turns out this is a game he conflated with another one where it was really hot but we had fun nonetheless talking about being a 33-year-old lawyer, a Pirates fan in Queens and a deadbeat dad.

Some Guys and a GOAT - Dodgers vs. Reds (8/3/2006) with Craig Calcaterra

Most of the people I approach to be on this podcast have to think about it for a minute, if not a couple of weeks. Craig Calcaterra was not one of those people. The baseball writer and proprietor of Cup of Coffee, a newsletter about baseball, knew instantly which game he wanted to talk about. One he was at in person, at the time an uninspired and unhappy lawyer, that featured his favorite pitcher, Greg Maddux. It’s a game he has thought a lot, and even written [https://craigcalcaterra.com/blog/heroes/], about. Maddux never threw a no-hitter in his long and storied career, but on that night, at 40-years-old, he came as close as he ever would and provided one of the key inciting incidents on the way from Craig Calcaterra esq. becoming Craig Calcaterra baseball writer. Interstitial sound thanks to FSN Ohio (George Grande and Chris Welsh) Music by Bryson Elrick

1996 Olympic Swimming Prelims (7/21/96) w/ Matt Hodler of the University of Rhode Island

This week I get out over my skis (wrong kind of Olympics, sorry) and talk competitive swimming with Professor Matt Hodler of the University of Rhode Island. A competitive swimmer himself in college, Matt chose the preliminary round of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. If you’re like Matt, then the names Nuk Surisant and Antonia Maharia mean something to you. If you’re like me, you’re knowledge of competitive swimming goes about as deep as Michael Phelps and Summer Sanders. We talk about swim culture, race and swimming, swim media and much more.

St. James vs. Calvary Baptist (11/30/07) w/ Joel Anderson of The Ringer

Joel Anderson of the Ringer was always someone I wanted to have on Regular Season and when I found out he spent two years at the Shreveport Times I knew, more or less, what I wanted to talk to him about. Joel is a writer at the Ringer where he also co-hosts The Press Box podcast with the delightful Bryan Curtis. Before that he worked at Slate, ESPN, Buzz Feed, The AJC, the Tampa Bay Times. He might be best known for his great work on the podcast Slow Burn where he did three seasons. One on Clarence Thomas, another on the Los Angeles riots after the Rodeny King verdict and the most well received was on the Tupac-Biggie beef.. As a younger man Joel played college football, even spent one year backing up Ladanian Tomlinson at TCU. We talk about all that here but mostly we talk about Louisiana high school football, specifically St. James vs. Calvary Baptists from November 30, 2007. A game that was FAR from meaningless—for Joel who was working at the Shreveport Times, or for the fans of Louisiana high school football—but not a game that persists in the popular imagination. It was a 2007 LHSAA Class 2A Semifinal so they were playing for the opportunity to go to the Superdome where the finals are contested..it’s got plenty of Booty’s and Durons, a religious dispute, a hot shot quarterback who became a Broadway star…its’ Faulknerian for lack of a better term.

PREVIEW: Booty Call with Joel Anderson of the Ringer

On November 30, 2007 Joel Anderson had one foot out of Shreveport, Louisiana where he had spent almost two years covering everything from city hall to high school football. Before he packed up and headed for a new gig in Tampa Bay though he had one last assignment. Travel south to St. James Parish to cover a local upstart program that seemed destined to make their first trip to the Superdome. The story of St. James 34 Calvary Baptist 14 has that faulknarian quality you tend to get whenever you travel south of Mason-Dixon line. There’s a religious rupture, a star quarterback turned broadway star and a family named Booty. Hoping to drop the full episode next week, but for now enjoy this preview.