Passed Ball Show

6-3-2020 Passed Ball Show. John spends the majority of this show talking about how Black Lives Matter is a movement that all people should be taken seriously. All lives matter is an ignorant statement that’s ignorance makes a statement of its own. History has shown that black lives have not mattered. George Floyd’s murder is an example of a black life not mattering. Many people have judged the vio...

5-23-2020 Passed Ball Show. John talks about the proposed changes to the Rooney Rule in the NFL and how teams can use it as a tactic to gain draft picks and better their team. Rather than that, teams that have a history of not hiring minority candidates should be mandated to. John once again mentions the fact that eleven teams in Major League Baseball have never hired a black manager, yet few thin...

5-16-2020 Passed Ball Show. John starts off this show by teasing his Rooney Rule take which will air on his next show. John then talks about the allegations against NFL players Deandre Baker and Quinton Dunbar, innocent until proven guilty vs guilty until proven innocent, and lists pasts NFL players who got additional chances in the NFL after doing terrible things. John then talks about the tragic...

5-9-2020 Passed Ball Show. John talks about the Yankees’ Core Four and how criminal is the neglect of Bernie Williams. Outside of Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, there was no more impactful Yankees player from 1996-2000. Any mention of Core Four without Bernie disrespects the player who traced back the team to the Stump Merrill days. In fact, before the significance of Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posa...

5-2-2020 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this show by talking about the Bad Boys Detroit Pistons teams of the late 1990’s and why they were successful. They absolutely should not back down from their reputation as instigators and dirty basketball players. Any remorse is contradictory to what led them to their two NBA Championships and three consecutive NBA Finals appearances. Plus, it comes off as...

4-16-2020 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this show by giving respect to the sacrifice of the great Jackie Robinson. Jackie handled something that was unfair and unacceptable now and changed the history of civil rights. John openly asks why people are now more accepting of differences in skin color but were not for so many years? Did God not always create every man equal? We seem to understand mor...

4-2-2020 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this show reminding some about the importance of sports even in a time where there is no sports. He talks about the 33 NFL non-special teams players who played a game into their forties. He re-tells a hilarious Bill Simmons comparison about Tom Brady. After that, John talks about a couple of extremely tragic deaths that involved former players for the Houst...

3-28-2020 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this version of the show by talking about how odd it is to not have live baseball to watch right now. Would you rather have games played in front of no audience or wait until fans can once again attend? John then talks about the upcoming MLB draft and how if it is limited to five rounds, teams can sign as many amateur players without any sort of draft syst...

3/11/2020 Passed Ball Show. John opens up the program telling people to chill about the pandemic involving this virus. He then talks about the depth, particularly in the first round, of this year’s upcoming NFL Draft. Is this the year Gonzaga finally wins its first National Championship in College Basketball? John then talks about some of the worst teams in the National Basketball Association. Fin...

3-7-2020 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this program by giving the Yankees and Dodgers the preseason odds to win their respective league pennants and reminding those who are bitter about what the Houston Astros did to not rule them out just out of spite. John talks about how common scoring five goals in an NHL game is, even if it does not happen as much I’m this generation. Spoiler alert- a playe...

3-6-2020 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this program talking a little bit about the LA Angels and their decision to fire their visiting clubhouse attendant. Allegedly, was he a bitter employee? Why would he want to help his teams’s opposition? Did he really expect loyalty from those he was helping? John then talks about some of the worst reported landing spots for free agent Tom Brady. He then ma...

2-29-2020 Passed Ball Show. John starts this abbreviated show by talking about the reasons Tom Brady may play for a new team in 2020. And why over time, many will not remember or think of it. John talks about where Joe Namath and Johnny Unitas finishes their careers and the reasons why few remember that. It may make little sense though, for a team to bring Brady in considering his worst season as...

2-28-2020 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this version of the show talking about the history of the NBA and its player coaches. Is now a better time than ever to revive the once popular happenstance? Does the player coach have to be a star? History shows both stars and non-stars have succeeded in player coaching. Is it time to junk some of NBA’s hideous uniforms? John makes it known his feelings o...

2-20-2020 Passed Ball Show. John spends this program previewing the 30 MLB teams (In a cliff notes version) and what could be expected. Results will be on www.johnpielli.com. It is an embarrassment to baseball that the Red Sox will not play Rusney Castillo this season regardless of his 2020 performance. A loophole in the CBA allows a team paying a player to not have that contract count against the...

2/3/2020 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this program by reminding the country that it is not baseball season. The fact that the end of the Super Bowl begins the lame “it is baseball season” statements is just that, lame. John talks about the reason the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl and the fact that their offense was stronger and more durable than the highly respected San Francisco defens...

This is an interview I conducted with Luis Rojas in 2014 when he was the manager of the Savannah Sand Gnats of the South Atlantic League. Among players on this team were Dominic Smith, Jeff McNeil, Gavin Cecchini, Robert Gsellman, Rob Whalen, John Gant, and Akeel Morris.

1-18-2020 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this show piggybacking off his last show talking about how the Astros cheating is just par for the course when it comes to the history of Major League Baseball. Since the inception of the sport, it has been run by deviousness and straight up criminal activity. Few tell the story of the origins of “America’s Past Time” but truth is, during the middle to the...

Listen back to a series of clips from John Pielli's Passed Ball Show.

1-4-2020 Passed Ball Show. John shows his love for his country and baseball by bringing in a new year of the PBS. He talks about the lack of Latin American managers in Major League Baseball. In fact, he chronicles the first LA manager of each team and points out the eleven teams who have yet to do so. He recaps his list of African American managers and calls out the Phillies (1883), Senators/ Twin...

12-23-2019 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this program by thanking his listeners for another solid year on the PBS. John then talks about the job MLB player agent Scott Boras has done and where it ranks among all time pioneers for the sport. Has Boras done enough for MLB players that it can be considered “game changing”? Enough to warrant consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame? John then tal...

12-19-2019 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this show by talking about the grave health of long time NBA Commissioner David Stern. Stern was one of the best commissioners in the history of sports. Baseball owners continue to claim poverty citing "market size." How come football and basketball teams don't have the same problems? It is all because of the lack of a salary cap, but just as important, a...

12-14-2019 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this version of the program by talking about how the New York Mets are in a business of saving money. They continue to put up the front that they have to reduce payroll if they are to make the necessary additions they need to make to compete with the best teams of the National League. Yet, they did not pay Yoenis Cespedes almost half of his contractual ob...

12-12-2019 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this portion of the program by talking about the change amongst MLB free agents and the Baseball Winter Meetings. The last couple of sessions have seen the likes of top free agents not even sniffing their next contract due to owners' collision. The combination of team(s) needs and owners stepping up to the plate, free agency is well under way. Since the s...

12-12-2019 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this portion of the program by talking about the change amongst MLB free agents and the Baseball Winter Meetings. The last couple of sessions have seen the likes of top free agents not even sniffing their next contract due to owners' collision. The combination of team(s) needs and owners stepping up to the plate, free agency is well under way. Since the s...

12-4-2019 Passed Ball Show. John opens up this program by talking about the feelings of the younger generation. As history has proceeded, older generations have had issues with the decisions of the younger. Today, the issue has more to do with right and wrong. The definition of right and wrong has changed to where a point can no longer be proven with a series of facts. Also, there are more angered...