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The original USFL produced its share of unforgettable franchises. None was more entertaining — or more unbelievable — than the San Antonio Gunslingers . On the field, they were gritty, competitive and remarkably resilient. Off the field? Pure chaos. Bounced paychecks. A front office operating out of a double-wide trailer. Players racing across South Texas to cash payroll checks before the money di...

[While Tim runs up and down the East Coast this week to take in some World Cup knockout matches in person, please enjoy this ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE of our tribute to pro sports' most innovative decade - with award-winning sports history chronicler Michael MacCambridge - from 2023.] + + + After an absence of over six years and more than 300+ episodes, sportswriter extraordinaire Michael MacCambridge ("...

Baseball history is often told through championships, statistics and the tales of legendary players. Todd Radom sees it differently. One of sports' foremost designers, branding experts and visual historians, Radom has spent decades exploring the artifacts that tell baseball's deeper story: logos, uniforms, ballparks, scorecards, mascots and the countless details that connect generations of fans to...

From Red Byron's pioneering 1949 title to the modern playoff era, NASCAR's Cup Series championship history is really the story of the sport itself: its birth on the dirt tracks of the South, its rise through the Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon and Johnson dynasties, and its continuing evolution into today's faster, tighter, more unpredictable championship battles.  This week, we dig into that legacy with...

For billions of people around the globe, the FIFA World Cup is the ultimate sporting event. But what does the tournament reveal about the world beyond the pitch? This week, we welcome Financial Times journalist and New York Times bestselling author Simon Kuper to discuss his latest book, " World Cup Fever: A Soccer Journey in Nine Tournaments ." Drawing on more than three decades of firsthand repo...

For more than four decades, Tom Durkin 's voice was synonymous with the biggest moments in horse racing. From the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes to the Breeders' Cup and Saratoga, his soaring calls helped transform great races into unforgettable theater. But as Durkin reveals in his new memoir, " A Life's Calling: The Voice Behind the World's Greatest Horse Races ," the story behind the microph...

We dive deep into the strange, fragmented, often unbelievable history of American men's soccer with acclaimed journalist and author Leander Schaerlaeckens , whose new book, " The Long Game : U.S. Men's Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts ," chronicles the U.S. Men's National Team 's long, improbable march from global irrelevance to the doorstep of the 2026 World C...

For more than six decades, baseball's  New York Mets have occupied a singular place in American sports culture: eternally overshadowed, perpetually chaotic, strangely lovable, and deeply woven into the identity of New York itself. Born in the aftermath of the departures of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants , the Mets quickly became something far more complicated than an expansion baseball t...

Next month, the FIFA World Cup returns to North American soil, marking a transformative moment for the sport of soccer on this continent. But to understand the current state of the US Men's National Team as they prepare to host the world, one must first examine their complex and often turbulent relationship with their greatest rival: Mexico . In this episode, we welcome back soccer journalist, his...

[We mourn the passing of legendary sports broadcaster John Sterling with an ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE of our memorable conversation from 2019.] + + +  Legendary New York Yankees baseball play-by-play man John Sterling joins host Tim Hanlon for a cavalcade of career memories from his 50+ year journey in sports broadcasting – including a treasure trove of stops along the way with previously incarnated or o...

Author Bill Ranauro joins the podcast this week to discuss " The Chosen City ," his captivating new book on the 1946 Nashua Dodgers and the New Hampshire community that became the first integrated team in "organized" baseball.  Ranauro's book shines a light on a pivotal but often overlooked moment in Brooklyn Dodgers history, when Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe arrived in Nashua and helped turn a...

In the early years of professional basketball, before the bright lights and global reach of today's NBA , the game was held together by grit, geography, and a patchwork of teams fighting to survive. Few franchises capture that fragile, formative moment better than the Tri-Cities Blackhawks — a team that didn't just represent one city, but an entire region straddling the Mississippi River. In this...

Ron LeFlore 's trajectory from a maximum-security prison cell to starting in Major League Baseball 's All-Star Game is a narrative of improbable survival and self-inflicted exile.  In this episode, we sit down with Adam Henig , author of " Baseball's Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore ", to unpack the gritty, unvarnished reality of a man who was as much a product of Detroit's turbulent East Side as...

From wartime England to the rise — and fall — of pro soccer's first big American boom, Roger Faulkner has seen it all — and now, he's telling that story in his new memoir, " You Can't Get There from Here: My Soccer Journey from Derby to Detroit ." In this episode, we sit down with the Detroit Express co-founder to trace an unlikely journey: from growing up in Derby to helping bring top-flight inte...

ESPN didn't begin as a media giant — it started as a gamble.    In 1979, a cash-strapped startup bet on an unproven proposition: a 24-hour sports cable TV network delivered by satellite, built largely on programming no one else wanted and live coverage that barely existed. By any conventional measure, it was an absurd idea. It also changed sports media forever. This week, we revisit that origin st...

Nonfiction author extraordinaire Luke Epplin joins the pod this week to unpack the intertwined legacies of basketball legends Julius Erving and Moses Malone , as chronicled in his acclaimed new book, " Moses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship, and the Birth of Modern Basketball ." What unfolds is more than a dual biography — it's a portrait of a transformational era when professional basket...

Manhattanville University sports studies professor Seth Tannenbaum  joins the show to unpack the provocative ideas behind his new book, " Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites: Democracy and Division at the Twentieth-Century Ballpark " — a sweeping reexamination of the American ballpark and the myth of baseball as a truly democratic space. Tannenbaum walks us through how stadiums have long been designe...

This week, we dive into the remarkable history — and uncertain future — of soccer's greatest spectacle: the FIFA World Cup . Our guest is veteran journalist and soccer author Clemente Lisi , whose newly updated (and eminently essential!) book, " The World Cup: A History of the Planet's Biggest Sporting Event, 2026 Edition ," chronicles the tournament's extraordinary evolution from its modest begin...

Women's basketball is enjoying a remarkable surge in popularity — but it also stands at a pivotal moment. As the Women's National Basketball Association and the WNBA Players Association remain locked in difficult negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, the sport faces a paradox: unprecedented visibility and momentum, yet uncertainty just weeks before the next season. In many ways,...

Before Cy Young, before Babe Ruth, before baseball even had a strike zone, there was Jim Creighton — a 21-year-old phenom whose brilliance and tragic death helped create the modern game. This week, we explore the extraordinary life, myth, and enduring legacy of baseball's first true superstar through a revealing conversation with historian Tom Gilbert , author of the new biography " Death in the S...

Few figures have shaped modern American soccer more profoundly than Alan Rothenberg  (" The Big Bounce: The Surge That Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer ")  — and in this revelatory conversation, he tells the story in his own words. Best known as the founding architect of Major League Soccer and the driving force behind the record-breaking 1994 FIFA World Cup , Rothenberg's influence on the game in...

Sports lifer. Road warrior. Straight shooter. In this no‑holds‑barred conversation, veteran sports marketer, former minor‑league ballplayer, and acclaimed author Bob Wilber opens up about a wildly unconventional career that somehow connects the Detroit Tigers minor-league system, Converse sneaker deals, indoor soccer barns, and nitro Funny Car mayhem. Wilber takes us inside a childhood spent in du...

In the spring of 1974, a bold experiment arrived on the American sports scene: World Team Tennis (WTT) — a mixed-gender professional league co-founded and championed by Billie Jean King , who envisioned a more inclusive, fan-friendly, and forward-looking version of the sport. WTT challenged tennis tradition and reimagined how the game could be played, packaged, and consumed. With innovative scorin...

Valdosta State University history professor (and Episodes  334   and 244 guest)  Tom Aiello  is back — this time for an intriguing look at one of the most politically and culturally charged nights in American sports history: Muhammad Ali' s comeback fight against Jerry Quarry on October 26, 1970, in Atlanta. After nearly three and a half years in professional exile, Ali returned to the ring having...

This week, we pull back the curtain on one of the most seismic shifts in American sports and culture: the explosive rise of legalized sports gambling. Once condemned as a corrosive menace to the integrity of competition, betting on games is now a pervasive part of how fans watch, interact with, and spend on sports. But at what cost?  Our guest, journalist Danny Funt , has spent years investigating...