Good Seats Still Available

In 1991, twenty-something baseball fanatics Bill Craib and Sue Easler did something no one else had ever done before - they went to a game at all 178 major and minor league baseball parks in one season. Craib and Easler drove nearly 54,000 miles and shot home-movie-style video (remember VHS?) at each stop - selected footage of which was featured on a segment that became known as "Bill & Sue's Exce...

It's an early Spring Break hiatus for us this week - but not before sitting down for a very fun interview with CFL America blog/podcast publisher and friend-of-the-show Greg James - as a guest on his popular Sports History Network podcast " From the 55 Yard Line ." Tim and Greg go deep into the origin story of Good Seats Still Available , as well as a veritable audio potpourri of hot takes on what...

We head West this week to pay a visit to the "California Sports Guy" Dan Cisco (" California Sports Astounding: Fun, Unknown, and Surprising Facts from Statehood to Sunday "), and stir up a rich bouillabaisse of little-known factoids about defunct, previously domiciled and otherwise forgotten teams and leagues who once called the Golden State home.   Discover the reason why Oakland was chosen as a...

Legendary Boston sports photographer Steve Babineau (" Behind the Lens: The World Hockey Association 50 Years Later ") joins the pod this week to discuss his new, lovingly-curated collection of largely never-before-seen images of the colorful 1970s challenger hockey league that helped kick-start a life-long love for photography - and a 50+ year career behind the lens shooting some of the game's bi...

[After an entertaining "inaugural" weekend of the XFL's third incarnation, we dig into the archives for this 2019 conversation with author Brett Forrest - and a rewind to the league's original season back in 2001!] As another NFL season closes, we shift gears toward the forthcoming Alliance of American Football – the first of two new leagues attempting to again extend the pro game into viable Spri...

On the eve of the most significant changes to Major League Baseball's rules and scheduling, we continue our lament of 2021's radical streamlining of the minor leagues and obsess about the demise of its oldest circuit - the New York-Penn League - with City University of New York history/philosophy/political science professor Michael Sokolow (" Bush League: The Brooklyn Cyclones, Staten Island Yanke...

We channel our inner yellow tuxedo this week for a revealing conversation with the inimitable minor league baseball impresario Jesse Cole - and a look into the phenomenon behind his ground-breaking Savannah Bananas franchise - as it migrates from its collegiate summer Coastal Plain League roots into an audacious (and already sold-out) cross-country barnstorming tour featuring its own wildly entert...

[It's a quick trip to the Bay Area this week for an archive fan favorite from 2017, featuring a true American sports original!] A merica's most famous professional sports cheerleader "Krazy" George Henderson ( Still Krazy After All These Cheers ) joins Tim Hanlon to discuss some of the wackiest adventures from his 40+ years of live performances – and how a self-described shy, mediocre schoolteache...

While American tackle football has long been considered an exclusively male sport, this week's guest Russ Crawford (" Women's American Football: Breaking Barriers On and Off the Gridiron ") takes us on an eye-opening journey over the decades that highlights the persistent and still-growing interest of women playing the game - including professionally.   Anecdotal evidence abounds of amateur footba...

We point our GPS towards the Garden State this week, for a return to the days of pro hoops in places like the "RAC" (Piscataway's Rutgers Athletic Center), the "Rock" (Newark's Prudential Center), and the strangely iconic Meadowlands - as we look back at 35 seasons of the oft-forgotten New Jersey incarnation of NBA basketball's peripatetic Nets franchise with sports historian Łukasz Muniowski ( "...

In 2014, Major League Baseball's Official Historian John Thorn and veteran baseball journalist Alan Schwarz published an authoritative and thought-provoking list of " Baseball's 100 Most Important People ​ "​ - including more than its fair share of surprisingly influential figures. Nestled between National Baseball Hall of Famers "Hammerin'" Hank Greenberg and "King" Kelly at number 79 on that lis...

[ We kick off our holiday break this week with a deep descent into the "Good Seats" archives - and an eyebrow-raising revisit of the enigmatic Continental Indoor Soccer League of the 1990s with former play-by-play broadcaster Kenn Tomasch! ] Former sportscaster and fellow defunct pro sports enthusiast Kenn Tomasch joins host Tim Hanlon to dig deep into the two-season saga of the Indiana (née India...

​ In 1966, when a still- young Dallas Cowboys franchise ended six years of NFL futility with its first winning season and a championship game appearance, the team's founder /owner Clint Murchison , Jr. was already dreaming bigger.   In order to vault his club into the league's elite, Murchison knew he needed a better home situation than as a renter at the aging Cotton Bowl in Dallas' Fair Park - o...

​We're back from our extended Thanksgiving break with an inside look at the venerable sports venue that single-handedly elevated 1960s-era Atlanta to "major league" status, and cemented its place among the most important American cities.   Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium - known simply as "Atlanta Stadium" when it opened in 1965 - was the long-time home of Major League Baseball's Braves (1966-96), t...

[We near the end of our Thanksgiving leftovers this week with a June 2018 archive re-release favorite featuring US Soccer Hall of Fame broadcaster JP Dellacamera - currently in Qatar covering this year's FIFA World Cup for Fox Sports!] Fox Sports soccer play-by-play broadcaster extraordinaire JP Dellacamera joins the podcast this week to discuss a pioneering career in sports announcing spanning ov...

[Our Thanksgiving gift this week is a December 2017 archive re-release favorite with world-renowned singer/entertainer Pat Boone!] We usher in the holidays and round out our debut season with the inimitable Pat Boone – an American entertainment legend and inveterate business entrepreneur, with a life-long passion for the sport of basketball.  In a career spanning over six decades (and counting!),...

In 1974, a small Midlands underwear firm changed soccer forever when it won the contract as official kit supplier for England's national team - featuring a tradition-busting combination of bright colors, definitional striping, and, uniquely, prominently positioned manufacturer's logos on both shirt and shorts.   Admiral Sportswear's bold designs and distinctive branding - soon outfitting storied c...

An important but surprisingly little-remembered story in the history of pro football - and a turning point in the city of New Orleans' eventually successful pursuit of an NFL franchise - is the subject of this week's hugely intriguing conversation with Erin Grayson Sapp, author of "Moving the Chains: The Civil Rights Protest That Saved the Saints And Transformed New Orleans" .   From the book's du...

There are few moments in sports more thrilling, compelling, or inspiring than a comeback story.  From the resurgence of a sports figure to a team that defies the odds for an unexpected win, to someone who never quite made it, finally getting their shot, these stories are the lifeblood of sports. Nobody knows this more than former NFL star linebacker, Ryan Shazier who scratched and clawed his way b...

As preparations for next month's 2022 FIFA World Cup spectacle in Qatar enter their final stages, we turn our attention back to the pitch for an intriguing look back at a seminal international "friendly" tournament earnestly designed to crown a world club soccer champion - and the unwitting genesis for today's officially-sanctioned FIFA Club World Cup competition.   Soccer writer and part-time Eng...

Fans of Americana music may recognize the name Bob Carlin as one of the country's leading practitioners of the classic "clawhammer" style of banjo.  His myriad recordings, historical writings and frequent performances across the US and around the world have won him plaudits from old-time banjo scholars and aficionados alike. B ut when he's not downpicking in the studio or performing on stage, Carl...

​​ P ittsburgh-native sports historian (and previous Episode 242 guest) Dave Finoli ( " Where Pittsburgh Played: Oakland's Historic Sports Venues ") returns to the pod for a deep dive into the notable histories of the Steel City's important first generation of modern-day sports venues.   We dig into some of the memorable (and many not-so) professional teams and leagues that called the city's Oakla...

​ The Hartford Whalers were a beloved hockey team from the ​ moment of their founding in 1972 as the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers. Playing in the National Hockey League's smallest market and arena after the 1979 WHA merger/absorption/expansion ,  t he Whalers struggled in a division that included both the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens - but the club 's fans were among the...

He's enshrined as a member of the College Football Hall of Fame for his record-breaking, two-time consensus All-American fullback rushing career at Syracuse in the mid-1960s. He's an inductee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, most notably for his dominant rushing prowess with the Don Shula-coached Miami Dolphins of the early 1970s - and his leading role in the club's three consecutive Super Bowl a...

We welcome budding sports historian - and previous Episode 190 guest - Alan Bass (" Ed Snider: The Last Sports Mogul ") back to our microphones this week, this time to delve into the life and times of modern-day Philadelphia's patron saint of professional sports. The dustjacket for The Last Sports Mogul makes the case: " Most sports team owners make their money elsewhere and purchase a team as an...