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The National Football League is back in full swing, and what better way to celebrate than with a deep dig into the primordial ooze from which it and the broader endeavor of professional football evolved - with Gregg Ficery, author of the new and immediately essential tome " Gridiron Legacy: Pro Football's Missing Origin Story ." From the revelatory new book's dust jacket:   Professional football's...

Hollywood history maven Erin Carlson (" No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of " A League of Their Own": Big Stars, Dugout Drama, and a Home Run for Hollywood ") stops by the podcast to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the iconic motion picture that comically (and lovingly) brought the largely forgotten story of the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League to the...

While the NCAA is still the predominant pipeline for rookie basketball talent looking to break into pro hoops, the 2023 NBA Draft showed just how far legitimate alternate pathways have come - especially for eager high school players unwilling (or unable) to go the traditional college route. Three of this year's top-five first-round picks came from two relatively new entities - Overtime Elite (brot...

Domestically, American football has never been more popular (or prosperous) than it is today - yet questions continue to circle among the ownership class of the NFL as to how the pro game can continue to grow outside the confines of its current 32-team franchise structure.   While the feasibility of pursuing more club expansion within the US is hotly debated, there is no denying that the true futu...

[ We round out our last week of  summer vacation with a re-release of this listener-favorite episode from June 2019 - enjoy! ] Author and former SPORT magazine writer David Levine ( Life on the Rim: A Year in the Continental Basketball Association ) joins the 'cast to give us our first taste of the quirky minor league basketball circuit that began as a Pennsylvania-based regional outfit in 1946 (p...

[ A summer vacation re-release of a fan favorite episode from March 2019! ] We celebrate our second anniversary with the intriguing background story of the original Major Indoor Soccer League, with the man who started it all – Ed Tepper.  A commercial real estate developer by trade, Tepper actually got his start in pro sports ownership as the owner of the original National Lacrosse League's Philad...

[ A summer vacation re-release of a fan favorite episode from September 2018! ] The Buffalo Braves were one of three NBA expansion franchises (along with the Portland Trail Blazers and Cleveland Cavaliers) that began play in the 1970–71 season.  Originally owned by a wobbly investment firm with few ties to Buffalo, the Braves eventually found a local backer in Freezer Queen founder Paul Snyder – w...

[ A summer vacation re-release of a fan favorite episode from January 2020! ] It's a return to the gridiron, and a revealing behind-the-scenes look at the brash, but ultimately ill-fated United Football League of 2009-12 – with its only commissioner, Michael Huyghue ( Behind the Line of Scrimmage: Inside the Front Office of the NFL ). Formed in 2007 out of big-budget dreams to establish a national...

We discover the story of the Twin Cities' forgotten, but undeniably first, NFL franchise(s) with the help of football writer/historian R. C. Christiansen (" Mill City Scrum: The History of Minnesota's First Team in the National Football League "). From the " Mill City Scrum " book jacket: "In the flour milling city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, a group of first-generation American teenagers team up t...

Younger fans of today's Memphis Grizzlies can be forgiven for thinking the NBA franchise has spent the entirety of its 28-year existence playing its still-evolving brand of pro hoops in the FedExForum. But this week's guest - documentary filmmaker and Vancouver, BC native Kat Jayme (" The Grizzlie Truth ;" " Finding Big Country ") - is here to remind us that the "Grizz" actually got its start as o...

om groundbreaking trades to team-saving negotiations, Bob Whitsitt (" Game Changer: An Insider's Story of the Sonics' Resurgence, the Trail Blazers' Turnaround, and the Deal that Saved the Seahawks ") has been in the captain's seat for some of the most pivotal moments in Pacific Northwest pro sports franchise history. But before helping rebuild Seattle's SuperSonics into an NBA Finals team in the...

University of Maryland physical cultural studies professor Michael Friedman (" Mallparks: Baseball Stadiums and the Culture of Consumption ") cozies up to the pod machine this week for a thinking man's look into the evolution of the grand old American ballpark - and a provocative thesis of how designers of this generation of baseball stadiums are embracing theme park and shopping mall design to pr...

El Paso Chihuahuas Triple-A baseball play-by-play broadcaster Tim Hagerty (" Root for the Home Team: Minor League Baseball's Most Off-the-Wall Team Names and the Stories Behind Them " and " Tales from the Dugout: 1,001 Humorous, Inspirational and Wild Anecdotes from Minor League Baseball ") joins the show this week to spotlight some of the most memorable names and events in "forgotten" minor leagu...

American followers of the "beautiful game" undoubtedly know the name Thomas Rongen - but can easily be forgiven for not remembering just exactly how. Of course, there's his current color commentary work for today's Major League Soccer Inter Miami CF - but fans of a certain age will recall the Dutch-born, mop-topped midfielder from his on-field (and in-arena) antics during the halcyon days of the o...

Sports historian Bill Ryczek ( Blackguards and Red Stockings: A History of Baseball's National Association ; Crash of the Titans: The Early Years of the New York Jets and the AFL ) returns after a five-year absence to help us unpack the intriguing story of 1884 - arguably the wildest season in major league baseball history. In his latest tome, " Baseball's Wildest Season: Three Leagues, Thirty-Fou...

With the 28th season of Major League Soccer well under way - featuring the debut of the league's 29th franchise (St. Louis CITY SC) and the expansion announcement of its soon-to-be 30th (San Diego) - it's hard to believe that the entirety of MLS was on the verge of collapse after just its sixth campaign in 2001. Instead of pulling the plug entirely in 2002, two clubs - the charter 1996 Tampa Bay M...

If anyone's qualified to weigh in with authority on the current Oakland A's relocation imbroglio, it is our guest this week - long-time professional sports marketing executive and Bay Area-based industry consultant Andy Dolich (" Goodbye, Oakland: Winning, Wanderlust, and A Sports Town's Fight for Survival "). Dolich spent 15+ years in the Athletics' front office from 1980-94 during the Walter Haa...

We answer some of our voluminous viewer mail this week, as listener Rob Hawksford joins for an intriguing look back at Portland, Oregon's pro soccer scene in the 1990s - when summertime indoor clubs known as the Pride (Continental Indoor Soccer League, 1993-97) and the Pythons (Premier Soccer Alliance, 1998 & World Indoor Soccer League, 1999) kept the sport alive after the collapse of the iconic o...

It's a reassignment back to the minors again this week, as baseball writer Dale Tafoya (" One Season in Rocket City ") joins the 'cast for a look back at the unforgettable inaugural 1985 season of the Southern League's Huntsville Stars - the Oakland As' talent-laden, then-Double-A affiliate that took both the city and the sport by storm. Named after Huntsville's celebrated space industry, the Star...

With the New Jersey Devils still in contention in this year's NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, we turn the dials on our George Michael Sports Machine back to the late 1970s/early 1980s with hockey historian Greg Enright (" Rocky Hockey: The Short but Wild Ride of the NHL's Colorado Rockies ") - for a deep dive into the Newark, NJ-based franchise's tenuous six-year incarnation as Denver's Colorado Rockies...

Long-time Chicago White Sox fan and unwitting basement documentarian Matt Flesch joins the pod this week to discuss the story behind his extraordinary new three-part YouTube documentary " Last Comiskey " - a video love letter to the South Siders' final 1990 season in the venerable park once known as the "Baseball Palace of the World."   From Dan Day Jr.'s review on " The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog...

We celebrate our 300th trip around the track with a special roundtable conversation on the colorful history of NASCAR racing - with award-winning stock car reporter-historians Kelly Crandall, Jimmy Creed, Mike Hembree, and Al Pearce (" NASCAR 75 Years ").   In addition to looking back at some of the most iconic moments in the circuit's first 75 years, we also get an inside look at how their new hi...

We point the Good Seats Wayback Machine back a hundred years to the Roaring '20s - for a look at baseball's then-New York Giants and their larger-than-life owner Charles Stoneham - with baseball biographer Rob Garratt ( " Jazz Age Giant: Charles A. Stoneham and New York City Baseball in the Roaring Twenties ").    From the dust jacket of Jazz Age Giant :   "Short, stout, and jowly, Charlie Stoneha...

ESPN multi-platform writer/reporter/host Ryan McGee (" Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time ") joins us this week to reminisce about his early-career experiences as a $100-a-week intern with 1994's Class A South Atlantic League Asheville Tourists - a proud minor league baseball team in the heart of North Carolina's Blue Ridge...

It's more International Hockey League (1945-2001) memories this week as Episode 181 guest Eric Weltner returns for a look back at one of minor league hockey's most dominant, yet curiously ephemeral franchises - the Cincinnati Mohawks (1952-58). Not to be confused with the middling AHL team of the same name that pre-dated them by three years, the IHL Mohawks were the class of their circuit during t...