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Long-time Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) contributor and " Mover and Shaker: Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers, and Baseball's Westward Expansion " author Andy McCue joins the podcast to discuss his provocative new book " Stumbling Around the Bases " - a persuasive account of the American League's consistently haphazard approach to expansion and franchise relocation during baseball's mod...

​A pro football ​ player who protests against the actions of his government, is shunned by ​the league establishment, and eventually ​winds up out of the ​game , working for social justice. ​ No, it's not Colin Kaepernick ​; it's the 1960s NFL saga of a former St. Louis Cardinals linebacker named Dave Meggyesy.   A 17th-round draft pick in 1963 out of Syracuse, Meggyesy was a steady presence and r...

[A September 2017 archive re-release favorite with the production wizard behind behind early network TV coverage of the World Football League & North American Soccer League of the 1970s!] On January 20, 1968, a frenzied crowd of 52,693 packed the Houston Astrodome to witness the #2-ranked University of Houston Cougars nip the #1 (and previously undefeated) UCLA Bruins in a college basketball spect...

Pat Jordan grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut where, in the mid-1950s, he became a highly pursued pro baseball prospect as a young pitching phenom in local Little League and as a high school ace at Fairfield Prep.   On July 9, 1959, after being pursued by more than a dozen Major League Baseball organizations (MLB's first amateur draft didn't start until 1965), Jordan signed a then-record $36,000 "b...

We traverse a fascinating litany of top-tier North American professional indoor soccer leagues with pioneering player, record-setting coach and now, current Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) commissioner Keith Tozer.   In a pro career spanning more than 40 years, Tozer has literally done it all in the indoor game: Playing on original Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) sides like the Cincinnati Kids,...

We reminisce about the original Arena Football League and its curious dalliances with the New York metropolitan area, with veteran Newsday sports writer/columnist Gregg Sarra - who not only regularly covered franchises like the 1997-98 New York CityHawks and the Long Island-based New York Dragons (2001-08), but also even played an actual game with one of them - and lived to tell (and write) about...

It's another bucket-list conversation with one of Tim's favorite players from the legendary New York Cosmos of the original North American Soccer League - defender extraordinaire​ (and de facto club keeper-of-the-flame) Werner Roth.   A childhood émigré of his native Yugoslavia in the mid-1950s, Roth spent the bulk of his youth in New York City - cutting his semi-professional teeth in the heavily...

[We dig out from last week's major winter storm with a fan-favorite Archive Re-Release from 2018!] By the summer of 1959, the absence of two former National League franchises from what was once a vibrant New York City major league baseball scene was obvious – and even the remaining/dominant Yankees couldn't fully make up for it.  Nor could that season's World Series championship run of the now-Los...

Fresh off his appearance on last month's Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular , fellow defunct sports enthusiast Steve Holroyd returns to the show for a dive into the deep end of the "forgotten sports" pool, with a look back at the little-remembered, but ahead-of-its-time Pro Cricket from 2004.   An attempt to quickly capitalize on the venerable sport's faster-paced Twenty20 format launched in...

After hiding in plain sight for the better part of five years, we finally take an initial swing at the deeply fascinating story of baseball's original "lovable losers" - the St. Louis Browns.   St. Louis native and keeper of the flame Ed Wheatley ( " St. Louis Browns: The Story of a Beloved Team " & " Baseball in St. Louis: From Little Leagues to Major Leagues ") knows a thing or two about this mo...

As we continue to debate the general wisdom of resurrecting the intellectual property of the original short-lived 1980s version of the United States Football League - as well as question the viability of launching yet another spring pro football circuit - our attention this week turns to one of the eight chosen "franchises" for the new USFL launching this April.   Of course, memorably well-support...

We geek out this week with Sports Reference, LLC founder and president Sean Forman ( " The Negro Leagues are Major Leagues : Essays and Research for Overdue Recognition ") for an inside look into the complex and detailed process of integrating the statistics of the recently elevated Negro Leagues into the official records of Major League Baseball.   Advocated for decades by countless baseball rese...

Valdosta State University Professor of History and African American Studies Thomas Aiello (" Dixieball: Race and Professional Basketball in the Deep South ") joins our first podcast of the New Year - with an intriguing look into the tortuous history of pro hoops in America's Deep South.   While NBA fans take today's Hawks and Pelicans as historical "givens," their very existences belie the Sunbelt...

[More holiday fun with a re-release of a fan favorite episode from January 2018!] We conclude our two-part journey into the early history of the Arena Football League with founder and inventor Jim Foster, who recounts some of the most notable events of the league's formative years – including a memorable 1987 "demonstration season" featuring: The February debut "Showcase Game" in suburban Chicago'...

[We celebrate the holidays with a re-release of a fan favorite episode from January 2018!] As the new year beckons, the fate of the Arena Football League – one of America's most innovative modern-day professional sports concepts – hangs in the balance.  With only four teams (the mutually-owned Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade, defending champion Philadelphia Soul, and a still-unnamed Albany,...

We try to make sense of a decidedly bipolar 2021 with our third-annual Holiday Roundtable Spectacular - featuring three of our favorite fellow defunct sports enthusiasts Paul Reeths ( OurSportsCentral.com , StatsCrew.com & Episode 46 ); Andy Crossley ( Fun While It Lasted & Episode 2 ); and Steve Holroyd (Episodes 92 , 109 , 149 & 188 ). Join us as we discuss the past, present and potential "futur...

Our "tour" of lost pro sports venues continues with another stop in the Keystone State, this time for a loving look back at the life and times of Pittsburgh's legendary Civic Arena - aka "The Igloo" - with Steel City native Dave Finoli (editor, " Pittsburgh's Civic Arena: Stories from the Igloo ").   Originally constructed in 1961 for the city's Civic Light Opera, the Arena was an ahead-of-its-tim...

Our GPS coordinates take us back to the "City of Brotherly Love" this week for a fond, first-person reminiscence of Philadelphia's legendary Spectrum - with one of its chief managerial architects, Lou Scheinfeld (" Blades, Bands and Ballers: How 'Flash and Cash' Rescued the Flyers and Created Philadelphia's Greatest Showplace "). A state-of-the-art indoor sports and events mecca upon its opening i...

After months of speculation, the first concrete pieces of confirmation of a possible return of the United States Football League were issued by Fox Sports' PR department last week. Despite a press release claiming to contain " everything you need to know " about the new USFL, a ton of important questions about the what, when, how, and even where of the proposed spring league still remain.   What i...

The NBA's 75th anniversary season is well underway, and we take a reverential look this week at some of the league's most legendary dynasties, starting with its very first - the Minneapolis Lakers of the late 1940s/early 1950s - with sportswriter Marcus Thompson (" Dynasties: The 10 G.O.A.T Teams That Changed the NBA Forever "). While the Los Angeles version of the Lakers has been pumping out icon...

The Thom & Hawk Football Show is the only football podcast hosted by two long-time NFL vets, former teammates, AND current best friends. Each week, twice a week, join 10-time Pro-Bowler, Joe Thomas, and 7-year NFL vet, Andrew Hawkins as they bring you an unfiltered and insider's perspective on today's NFL that you're not gonna get anywhere else. Listen every Wednesday as they welcome in guests, pl...

We return to the fascinating story of the pioneering National Women's Football League (1974-88-ish) - and its overlooked role in the surprisingly resilient world of women's pro football - with sportswriters Britni de la Cretaz & Lyndsey D'Arcangelo (" Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League ") The modern women's pro game started modestly enough in 1967, when a Clevelan...

By the time you hear this week's episode, the Atlanta Braves just may be celebrating their second-ever World Series trophy since moving from Milwaukee in 1956.  If so, it would be the team's first title in 26 years, and only the second time in the region's modern sports history - or fourth, if you include the titles won by the now-defunct NASL's Atlanta Chiefs in 1968 and Major League Soccer's Atl...

It's off to Vegas this week, baby, as we dig in to the fascinating backstory of two short-lived racetracks that lived fast and died hard trying to bring top-flight motorsports to Sin City in the late 1960s and early 1980s - with all the over-the-top theatrics, gambling connotations and underworld intrigue you'd expect from the "Entertainment Capital of the World." Racing writer Randy Cannon (" Sta...

We pick up where we left off in our previous episodes 62 (with the "Whaler Guys") and 100 (featuring WHA-version franchise founder Howard Baldwin) for a comprehensive look into the former NHL franchise that regularly sells more branded merchandise than even some current league teams - the Hartford Whalers. Author Pat Pickens ( " The Whalers: The Rise, Fall, and Enduring Mystique of New England's [...