Good Seats Still Available

We sit down with the eldest scion of Los Angeles' legendary Dr. Jerry Buss family sports empire for a wide-ranging discussion about its early construction, day-to-day operations, eventual unwinding - and its ongoing legacy via the current NBA World Champion Lakers, of which (along with his five siblings) he is a part-owner.   Along the way, Johnny takes us through his personal adventures in places...

Former Denver Post columnist and long-time sports writer/author Terry Frei (" Third Down and a War to Go ;" " '77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age " + plenty more ) joins to discuss the briefly curious life (1976-82) of NHL hockey's Colorado Rockies - Frei's first-ever professional newspaper beat assignment back in the day. As originally recounted in his eyebrow-raising 2010 memoir Playin...

Filmmaker and Maryland-native Troy Lowman (" The Ghosts of 33rd Street ") helps us kick off the new year with a look back at the pro football franchise that still looms large over the city of Baltimore's sports exploits - the Colts. While the Ravens have been carrying the region's modern-day NFL torch since their messy arrival/conversion from the original Cleveland Browns franchise in 1996, few re...

[ A re-release of fan favorite episode from January 2020! ] Prolific rock/R&B drummer/musician Steve Ferrone (Average White Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) joins to delve into the backstory of helping write/craft the official theme song for the New York Cosmos – the latest chapter in our irregular series devoted to Tim's longstanding fascination with the North American Soccer League's most...

We bid an emphatic good riddance to a crappy 2020 with our second-annual holiday roundtable spectacular featuring the return of fellow defunct sports enthusiasts Andy Crossley ( Fun While It Lasted & Episode 2 ); Paul Reeths ( OurSportsCentral.com , StatsCrew.com & Episode 46 ); and Steve Holroyd (Episodes 92 , 109 , 149 & 188 ) – for a spirited roundtable discussion about the past, present and po...

Just about any Canadian of a certain age will be able to tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing on September 28, 1972. That's the day when "Team Canada" (and Toronto Maple Leaf) forward Paul Henderson scored a dramatic and decisive late-third-period "goal heard around the world" to clinch the eighth and final game of an epic month-long hockey series against a similar professiona...

A guilty pleasure this week, as we go deep into the story of iconic vintage sportswear retailer Ebbets Field Flannels - the world leader in researching, sourcing and creating 100% authentic athletic apparel - with its owner and founder Jerry Cohen. From the EFF website: "Jerry Cohen grew up in Brooklyn, not far from where the fabled stadium once stood in Flatbush. Jerry listened to his father tell...

For the first time since Episode 47 with Dennis Seese , we dial back to US pro soccer's optimistic but tenuous late 1960's reboot, with Derek Liecty - the founding general manager of one the period's most successful (yet historically overlooked) teams, the Oakland (née California) Clippers.   One of ten inaugural franchises in the renegade National Professional Soccer League - one of two competing...

We celebrate the Society for American Baseball Research's fiftieth anniversary with a look back at one of the most pivotal events in major league baseball history - and featured in the group's newly-released commemorative anthology " SABR: 50 at 50 ".   Longtime Society contributor Bob Bailey ("Four Teams Out: The National League Reduction of 1900") revisits his 1990 Baseball Research Journal arti...

When anyone brings up the topic of pro hockey in Philadelphia, the conversation quite naturally starts (and often stops) with the Flyers - one of the six franchises added to the NHL in the league's 1967 "Great Expansion," and the fastest of the bunch to capture the Lord Stanley's Cup, after only its seventh season.   But as this week's guest Alan Bass (" Professional Hockey in Philadelphia: A Hist...

We consult a higher authority this week to help us dig into the story of the NFL's former Houston Oilers - one of the American Football League's founding franchises in 1960, and the predecessor to today's Nashville-based Tennessee Titans.   Before decamping for divinity school in the late 1990s and a second career as a vicar in the US Anglican church, Fr. Ed Fowler (" Loser Takes All: Bud Adams, B...

Our resident lax experts Dave Coleman and Steve Holroyd (" Two for the Show ") return to help us dig deeper into the largely untold story of the original National Lacrosse League - the seminal mid-70s indoor circuit that helped lay the groundwork for modern-day professionalization of one of North America's oldest organized sports.   Originally conceived by NHL hockey owners as a means of filling t...

Pop culture writer/filmmaker Steven Blush (" American Hardcore ") joins the festivities this week to (at long last) help us delve into the enigmatic story of the original 1970s-era incarnation of World Team Tennis - including an exclusive preview of his upcoming book & documentary Bustin' Balls: World Team Tennis - Pro Sports, Pop Culture and Progressive Politics .   From the "Bustin' Balls" book...

When legendary Red Sox slugger Ted Williams gave his induction speech at the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 25, 1966, he unexpectedly included a blunt admonition to the sport's establishment that something in the hallowed Hall was significantly awry - the absence of standout players from the Negro Leagues: "I've been a very lucky guy to have worn a baseball uniform, and I hope some day the...

Logo archivist Chris Creamer ( SportsLogos.net ) and graphic brand designer Todd Radom ( Todd Radom Design ) join this week's show to dive into the rich and fascinating visual story of the National Hockey League's nearly 103-year history - as told by the names, logos and uniforms of its teams. Their new book collaboration Fabric of the Game: The Stories Behind the NHL's Names, Logos and Uniforms i...

Veteran sportswriter and Birmingham, AL native Scott Adamson ( The Home Team: My Bromance with Off-Brand Football ) joins the pod to discuss his curious decades-long relationship with the various attempts at rooting pro football in the "Magic City." Birmingham's venerable Legion Field - known legendarily as the "Football Capital of the South" for its long-time association with the annual Alabama-A...

From the book jacket of the 2007 reissue of Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues - the seminal 1983 book by this week's guest Donn Rogosin: "In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier and became a hero for [B]lack and white Americans, yet Robinson was a Negro League player before he integrated Major League baseball. Negro League ballplayers had been thrilling [B]lack fans s...

Writer/author (and Episode 158 guest) Eric Nusbaum ( " Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between " ) returns for a second visit, this time to help us obsess about the curious story of the National League's 1899 Cleveland Spiders - the worst major league baseball team of all time. While today's current generation of baseball fans will swear that the 1962 NL expansion...

Little did we know when we dropped our minor league hockey tribute to the 1990s ECHL Columbus Chill in our Episode 169 with David Paitson & Craig Merz earlier this year that it would not only become our most listened-to episode of 2020 (so far), but would also unearth a project devoted to the colorful history of the forgotten teams that preceded it. Columbus native and Cincinnati creative agency p...

Columbia College Chicago cultural studies professor Rich King ( Redskins: Insult and Brand ) joins the podcast this week to discuss the roots and long-simmering backstory of the Washington NFL football franchise's problematic - and now former - nickname. Investigative reporter Tisha Thompson framed the situation in her recent piece for ESPN : "Daniel Snyder endured decades of protests, lawsuits an...

If we ever get around to creating a Good Seats Still Available "Hall of Fame," this week's return guest will most certainly be part of its inaugural class of inductees. Dennis Murphy (" Murph: The Sports Entrepreneur Man and His Leagues ") is a bona fide legend in sports entrepreneurial circles - a man responsible for helping found no less than four "major" game-changing leagues across the North A...

We steal away for a little summer vacation time this week - but not before sitting down for a massively enjoyable interview with fellow defunct sports enthusiast and long-time friend-of-the-show P.F. Wilson - as a guest on his comedy-tinged podcast " PF's Tape Recorder ." P.F. (née Patrick François) is also the creative engine behind one of our longest-running sponsors OldSchoolShirts.com - where...

We cross the virtual border northward this week to obsess about the original incarnation of hockey's Winnipeg Jets - with author/team completist Curtis Walker (" Winnipeg Jets: The WHA Years Day By Day "; " Coming Up Short: The Comprehensive History of the NHL's Winnipeg Jets "). One of the twelve founding franchises in the upstart World Hockey Association's inaugural 1972-73 season, the Jets were...

By popular demand, former Los Angeles Lazers president and Episode 166 guest Ronnie Weinstein returns for an eagerly-awaited "part two" conversation about his sojourn through professional indoor soccer - this time centered on the intriguing story of the 1990s-era Continental Indoor Soccer League he helped create and operate. Loosely borne from the 1992 collapse of the Major ( née Indoor) Soccer Le...

Cycling writer/historian Peter Nye ( Hearts of Lions: The History of American Bicycle Racing ) joins the podcast this week to help us understand the long and curious backstory behind the 1989 launch of the Tour de Trump - a major world-class cycling event that, for a brief period, aspired to become the American equivalent of the sport's iconic Tour de France. Once the king of sports in the US at t...