Hooks & Runs

Jerry Grillo, author of "Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize," (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2024) joins us this week for a wide-ranging, fast-paced interview about this legendary Cardinal, Giant and Yankee first baseman. Grillo was an energetic guest and Mize's amazing life provides plenty of material to talk baseball. Grillo's book, by the way, is fantastic --...

Author Dan Helpingstine has written several books about baseball in Chicago, including, "South Side Hitmen: The Story of the 1977 Chicago White Sox," and "The Cubs and the White Sox: A Baseball Rivalry, 1900 to the Present." Helpingstine is a life-long White Sox fan - his 2023 essay about Bill Veeck's second tenure as the White Sox owner is the subject for this show. Check...

On this Rex and Craig agree -- Foreigner is a boring band.  And it is an outrage that Foreigner is nominated for induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame while Iron Maiden and Soundgarden are not.  Then again, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has been a joke for a long time. Why stop now? Rex and Craig review this year's nominees and cast our (imaginary) ballots. Oh, and that Peter Framp...

The Houston Colt-.45's started an all-rookie lineup on September 27, 1963, the one and only time in Major League Baseball history a team has done this. Houston eventually played a remarkable 16 rookies in the game, another MLB record unlikely to be challenged any time soon. Rex and Craig take a look this week at this lineup to see which rookies panned out and which did not. They found a wide...

Kristin Cavness is the general manager of the Alpine Cowboys, the only truly independent team in the independent Pecos League (the other 15 teams are owned and operated by league). The Cowboys are owned and operated by a locally-controlled non-profit that keeps Alpine's strong baseball history alive. The team plays their home games at historic Kokernot Field, dubbed by Sports Illustrated&apos...

Bayleigh Von Schneider co-hosts Soxy Chicks, a podcast about Red Sox and White Sox baseball. She returns this week to Hooks & Runs for our annual American League preview. Von Schneider also shared some thoughts on Jordan Montgomery's landing spot (we didn't know yet it would be Arizona), Shohei Ohtani's gambling woes and the perils trying to compete in the hyper-competitive Amer...

Sara Sanchez, who writes and podcasts at Bleed Cubbie Blue, BaseballHQ and the Fantasy Feud podcast, returns to be Hooks & Runs' first three-time guest for our 2024 National League outlook. Sara is a talented, engaging baseball journalist and analyst who deserves your attention. She always delivers the goods. A lot happened between the recording on March 18 and the release on March 25 inc...

Dr. Ben Wynne, Ph. D. (Univ. of N. Georgia) is our guest this week to talk about his latest book, " A Hound Dog Tale: Big Mama, Elvis and the Song that Changed Everything "  (Louisiana State Univ. Press 2024). This is a fascinating interview about a song that was a major rhythm & blues hit for Big Mama Thornton and a ground-breaking success for Elvis Presley a few years later. Throug...

Former Houston Astro Jason Lane is one of 21 pitchers in MLB history that have pitched or pitched at least 10 innings in the big leagues with a career ERA below 1.00. The list includes both Negro League players and players that played in the National Association (1871-75). We are looking at the background and history for all 21 players in this episode -- stories that include unfortunate injuries,...

This week's guest is Jim Leeke, author of the new book, " The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I " (Potomac Books, 2024). This is the Leeke's fifth book about baseball and the Great War authored by Leeke, a retired journalist, copywriter and U.S. Navy Veteran. We thoroughly enjoyed this chat. This interview discusses players such as...

Life got in the way this week so we reached back into the archives for this interesting interview with Prof. Levy in January 2022. Here are the show notes from that episode: This week we discuss Hall of Fame southpaw, Rube Waddell with his biographer, Professor Alan Levy . Levy, a professor of history at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, published, " Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant...

Rex and Craig are on the case, from Luke Combs' "Fast Car" cover and performance at the Grammy Awards Show with songwriter Tracy Chapman; to our review of this year's Super Bowl halftime show starring Usher and friends; to our inquiring why some people get so triggered by Taylor Swift to Houston Astros pitchers and catchers reporting. Also, Craig has a couple of Tik Tok stories...

Harris Cooper, Ph. D. is the  Hugo L. Blomquist Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University and for our more immediate purposes author of "Finding America in a Minor League Ballpark: A Season Hosting for the Durham Bulls" (Skyhorse, 2024). He is our guest this week to talk about his book and the joys of baseball. Errata: Ron Shelton wrote and direct...

This week Craig and Rex conclude the three-part series ranking the first generation concrete and steel ballparks build prior to the Great Depression. This episode includes the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium in New York City, Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston. Episodes Mentioned 127 - The Old Ballparks Project, Part I 184 - Class Warfare in Detroit!: The Old Ball...

Professor Katherine Rye Jewell (Fitchburg State) joins us this week to discuss her new book " Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio " (Univ. North Carolina 2023). Jewell relates in her wonderful book and this interview how college radio progressed from a sleepy "left of the dial" collegiate training ground to a major force in the popular music business, and the...

It's been a minute but Rex and Craig this week pick up the old ballparks project started in Episode 127. Andrew, Craig and Rex ranked the 14 brick, concrete and steel ballparks build between 1909 and 1923 (with the Baker Bowl, built in 1895 thrown in for good measure) based upon several factors we don't remember and didn't exactly follow. This episode includes the middle tier - the...

Bill Lamb is our guest this week to discuss the sad and tragic Len Koenecke. Koenecke played three seasons for the Brooklyn Dodgers during the Great Depression. The Dodgers released Koenicke in September, 1935 while the team was in St. Louis and sent him home to New York by plane with two other players. Koenecke never made it home in a story filled with both mystery and tragedy. Bill Lamb, an awar...

Julia Simon's book, "The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson," is new in paperback via Penn State University Press. This book, originally released in late 2022, examines the life and times of New Orleans blues and jazz great Lonnie Johnson through his music, from his first cut, "Mr. Johnson's Blues," on Okeh Record in the mid 20s to his unforgettable ballads and jazz songs in...

We are closing the books on 2023 and that means it is time for the eagerly anticipated Hooks & Runs Best of 2023. This year we do not disappoint - here is a list of artists mentioned in the show, more or less in order: Brothers Osborne, Waxahatchie, Little Nax X, Saxon, The Weather Station, Nothing More, Michael Schenker Group, Gregor Barnett, Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver, Rosanne C...

In this episode, Carolina Panther attendance woes; the Houston Oilers are back, baby; what are the Kansas City Royals up to; Shohei Ohtani's most unusual opt-out ; a game of chicken in Tampa/St. Pete ; plus Craig and Rex review the brilliant Sam Pollard documentary, " The League " (2023) about Negro League baseball. Past episodes referenced: 46 - A Journey Through the Negro Leagues...

This week Rex and Craig discuss Shohei Ohtani's record contract to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers and decision time for Houston in the  wake of an SB Nation article that ranks the Astro farm system 30th out of 30 teams going into 2024. The co-hosts also muse on Florida State's omission from the college football playoffs and the KISS farewell tour, which to nobody's surprise was no...

Zak Ford released a fascinating book this fall, "Called Up: Ballplayers Remember Becoming Major Leaguers" (McFarland Press 2023). Ford's book is an oral history that includes interviews with 109 former and curren tMajor League players from the 1960s to the present. The players related their experiences and memories being called up for the first time to the big leagues. Ford revisits...

Craig and Rex riff on New Mexico State beating Auburn, Texas A&M is really proud of beating Abilene Christian and Sam Houston, the 2024 Hall of Fame ballot, who might be the baseball equivalent to Journey, MLB owners approve Oakland's move to Las Vegas and the Rolling Stones are going on tour. Episodes Mentioned: 143 - The Rays Are Getting Their New Stadium w/ Dr. Elizabeth Strom 163 - A...

Professor Langston Collin Wilkins (Wisconsin-Madison) joined us this week to talk about his newly released book "Welcome 2 Houston: Hip Hop Heritage in Hustle Town" (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2023), exploring "the relationship between music creation, place attachment and local heritage within Houston, Texas’ hip hop music scene." We talked about the role of neighborhoods, the &q...

Rock journalist Bob Ruggiero (Houston Press) joins the show this week to talk about his latest book, "The Classic Rock Bob Reader," released earlier this year. The book compiles interviews Ruggiero has conducted in over a quarter century in journalism. We talked about the classic rock's (and rock's) future as a genre as well as some of the many interviews in the book including...