League of Fans' Sports Forum

Ken Reed starts off this episode by announcing that he is retiring from League of Fans after 13 and 1/2 years serving as Sports Policy Director. In this episode, Ken is joined by League of Fans Founder Ralph Nader. They talk about the history of League of Fans and the reason it was created. They then move into a discussion of a variety of contemporary sports issues that League of Fans has been wor...

One of America's best sportswriters, Joe Posnanski, joins us for this episode. Posnanski has twice been named the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors. He's also written for The Athletic and Sports Illustrated. In this episode, we chat about his new book, "Why We Love Baseball," as well as a couple of his other books and his new Substack newslet...

It is estimated that more than 5,000 fans have been injured, some seriously, by foul balls in Major League Baseball (MLB) and minor league baseball stadiums since 2012. While significant improvements have been made at the Major League level in recent years (in terms of protective netting being installed to the end of the dugouts or down to the foul poles) fans in some minor league and college base...

This episode was recorded a couple days after the 108-year-old Pac-12 conference imploded, sending the world of big-time college sports into greed-based chaos. Dr. David Ridpath, sports administration professor at Ohio University and a long-time member of The Drake Group, a college sports reform think tank, joins us on this podcast episode. Topics include: 1) Why the Pac-12 fell apart; 2) The toot...

Former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and United States Congressman Tom McMillen chats with League of Fans' sports policy director Ken Reed in this episode. The two talk about Tom's decision to delay his NBA career by accepting a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University. The discussion then turns to the state of college athletics today, given the pressures o...

In this episode we talk with Mano Watsa, President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world, with over 150 camps in 30+ U.S. states and Canada.  Mano leads a unique organization dedicated to the holistic development of young people as both players and human beings.  In addition, Mano is a sought-after speaker who has inspired over 250,000 students, athletes,...

Linda Flanagan, author of the new book "Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids' Sports and Why It Matters," joins the podcast to talk about the ways heavily commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.  Linda has written extensively about how youth sports can hijack families to the point where family outings, non-sports activities and...

In this episode of League of Fans' Sports Forum we chat with John O'Sullivan, Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project (changingthegameproject.com), a youth sports reform initiative.  John is also the author of "Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids."   A long-time coach and sports administrator at the...

In this episode, we chat with Michael Horn, co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.  Michael is an expert on K-12 education and he believes in the power of physical education to improve academic performance and enhance physical, emotional and behavioral health.  His recently released book is "From Reopen to Reinvent: (Re)creating School for Every Child....

Our guests on this episode are Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci, the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit organization created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities across the country through the power of sport, storytelling, and community creation. Mental health in college athletics is an important issue today.  At least five student-athletes died from suicide...

Benita Fitzgerald Mosley won the gold medal for the United States in the 100 meter hurdles at the 1984 Olympic Games.  She also was on the 1980 American Olympic team and was an alternate on the 1988 squad.  As a collegian at the University of Tennessee, Fitzgerald Mosley was a 15-time All-American. Following her athletic career, she embarked on a career in sports marketing and administra...

In this League of Fans Sports Forum episode, we explore new ways to be a fan in the year 2022 with baseball and culture writer Craig Calcaterra, author of a new book called "Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game."  Craig is also the writer and editor of a popular baseball, news, and culture newsletter called "Cup of Coffee."  In this discussion, we...

Pedro Moura is a national baseball writer for Fox Sports.  He previously covered the Los Angeles Dodgers for The Athletic.  His new book is titled "How to Beat a Broken Game: The Rise of the Dodgers in a League on the Brink."  During this podcast episode, we'll discuss how and why the game of baseball is broken, what factors caused it, and offer a few thoughts on how to "fix" a grea...

In this episode we chat with long-time youth, high school and college basketball coach Jim Huber.  Jim is Director of Coach & Curriculum Development for Breakthrough Basketball (breakthroughbasketball.com).  He's won many championships as a coach and developed over 50 collegiate players and 10 professional players.  But more importantly, he has focused on impacting the lives of...

This week's guest is Anika Orrock, author and illustrator of "The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League." For many, the AAGPBL was brought to light by the movie "A League of Their Own," directed by Penny Marshall and starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna.  "A League of Their Own" was entertaining, funny and told the story of an important moment in femal...

On June 23, 2022, we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark federal civil rights legislation which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or other education program that receives funding from the federal government. We'll talk about the progress female athletes have made since Title IX's passage but also the hurdles that remain before we arrive at true equal o...

Robert Lipsyte was a long-time sports reporter and columnist for the New York Times.  He later served as the ombudsman for ESPN and is the author of more than 20 books.  One of Lipsyte's best-selling teen-age novels, "One Fat Summer," was recently made into a film with Donald Sutherland called "Measure of a Man." We chat about Lipsyte's amazing career and some of the athletes he covered...

Andrew Maraniss is a great storyteller.  He writes sports books but not your stereotypical odes to star athletes.  His books, while easy to read, have depth.  They educate you and make you think about various socio-cultural issues, from a historical perspective as well as how they continue to impact society today. His first book, "Strong Inside," was a biography of Perry Wallace, th...

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Tim Rice, the lead faculty member for the Sport and Performance Psychology program at the University of Arizona Global Campus.  Dr. Rice is a long-time coach who transitioned into the field of sports psychology.  He has been in higher education for nearly 20 years at colleges and universities across the nation.  He is also a consultant with Basketba...

In this episode, we chat with Gary McCoy, an innovative strength, conditioning and high performance coach who has worked in many capacities throughout his career, including with several Major League Baseball (MLB) organizations.  He's an Australian native who serves as head of performance for Team Australia's baseball program.  He's also currently Vice President of Performance for Kinety...

This week we get to pick the innovative and progressive mind of Dan Evans, former general manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Evans has also served in leadership roles for the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays.  Currently, he's a consultant for a variety of baseball organizations, including Go the Distance Baseball, which owns the Field of Dreams m...

We take a lighter path in this episode.  Our guest is Dan Gutman, author of the 12-book Baseball Card Adventure Series for children.  The series features a boy who has the amazing ability to travel in time.  Equipped with his trusty baseball cards, the boy uses his one-of-a-kind power to meet legendary baseball players -- including Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Shoeless Joe Jackson an...

In this episode, we're fortunate to spend 45 minutes with Dr. Chris Nowinski, co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, a non-profit leading the fight against concussions and CTE and dedicated to improving the lives of those impacted.  Dr. Nowinski is the author of "Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis" and has been profiled on HBO's Real Sports and ESPN's Outside the Lines....

Cleveland Indians Owner/CEO Paul Dolan joins us on this episode of Sports Forum.  We jump right into a hot topic: the use of Native American names and logos by sports teams in general and the Cleveland Indians in particular.  Dolan describes the process the team went through in dropping the Chief Wahoo logo, banning face paint and headdress at the team's home field, and the decision in D...

We have a very special guest on this episode of our Sports Forum podcast: Ralph Nader.  Nader is a long-time consumer advocate and four-time presidential candidate.  He was named one of the “100 Most Influential Americans of the 20th Century” by Time magazine.  Nader is also the founder of League of Fans. Our conversation begins with a discussion about how he became interested in sp...