Sports With Friends

This episode focuses on Major League Baseball, as the traditional Opening Day is set for shortly after this show's release. Despite having two games in Japan, most teams start now amidst a changing sports climate. The A's and Rays are playing this season in minor league ballparks. 10 teams are having their games broadcast and produced by MLB. Payroll disparity is at an all-time high. Despite this,...

Elliott Kalb is a 13-time Sports Emmy winner as a writer/producer/researcher/editor. He is a noted sports historian and storyteller (known nationally as “Mr. Stats”). Kalb covered 16 Super Bowls, 18 World Series, 13 NBA Finals, and 7 Olympics games. Kalb was an Editorial Consultant for NBC Sports for first 12 years of Football Night in America, a writer for HBO's “Inside the NFL” from 1990-2008, a...

Commemorating Women's History Month in March 2025, media mogul Jessica Robertson joined the show. She is a co-founder and chief content officer of Togethxr, a media and commerce company founded by four of the world's greatest athletes: Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel, and Sue Bird. In 2023, Togethxr was named one of Fast Company's ten most innovative companies in sports and won Media Company...

In late February, ESPN announced that after the 2025 season, it is forgoing the remaining three years of its current contract. MLB responded by ripping the network, saying it has covered baseball less and less over the years. ESPN paid $550 million per season, and baseball will attempt to replace the upcoming lost revenue by replacing it with other networks and digital app opportunities. Eric Fish...

In lieu of an All-Star Game, the National Hockey League hosted a unique international tournament over 10 days in February 2025. It featured the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Finland. It was played under a political controversy in which President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada advocated for Canada to be the 51st state of the US and called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a governor. Durin...

The New York Sirens are a charter member of the 3-year-old Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). After two seasons in Connecticut, the Sirens play the majority of their home games at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Lauren Williams is an assistant coach for the Sirens. Prior to joining the staff of the Sirens, she coached at Stonehill College (2022–23) and Mount Royal University (...

Jon Wilner has been covering college sports for decades and is an AP top-25 football and basketball voter, as well as a Heisman Trophy voter. In addition to being a writer for the Mercury News, he hosts a podcast called Canzano and Wilner with Jonh Canzano. He also appears on various radio stations across the country, specifically KJR Radio in Seattle. He was named Beat Writer of the Year in 2013...

Super Bowl 59 features a rematch between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. Miguel Gurwitz will be calling the Super Bowl on Telemundo. It's his first time calling a Super Bowl, but he has been a play-by-play for many sports over many years. Gurwitz was named Thursday Night Football en Español's play-by-play announcer in August 2022. He has been the play-by-play announcer for The...

On Sunday, January 26, 2025, the Philadelphia Eagles clinched their 3rd Super Bowl since 2017 with a 55-23 victory over the Washington Commanders. The Eagles will play the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 on February 9th. Merrill Reese has been the play-by-play voice of the Philadelphia Eagles since 1977. Earlier this season he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame by winning the Pete...

The feature film Unstoppable is the true story of Anthony Robles, who became an NCAA Champion despite significant social challenges and having only one leg. A model of what determination and hard work can achieve, Anthony's story is an inspiration for everyone. The film is based on a book Robles wrote along with Austin Murphy. The film features an all-star ensemble cast including Jharrel Jerome, B...

Erica Herskowitz is known by many sports radio listeners from her days anchoring sports updates on New York's WFAN radio. She started in the late 1990s and has flourished in her career. She's worked for ESPN, NBA TV, Westwood One, and Bloomberg, among others. She also gave up her career trajectory when she made the choice to settle down and have a family. In this episode, Herskowitz discusses her...

This episode is a continuation from a conversation that took place on the Hall of Justice podcast episode 395. In that episode, Ken Levine detailed his illustrious TV writing career that included writing for MASH, Cheers, Frasier, the Simpsons, and countless others. In that episode, there was no discussion of what this episode is about. While he was writing Cheers and Frasier, Ken Levine was ALSO...

This episode continues the tradition of being the last episode of the calendar year 2024. Since 2017, Scott Seidenberg has joined this final episode. The title says it all. “2 Jews Hanging Out on Christmas Day” was born out of necessity when the show first started having sponsors. Now, Scott rejoins the show every year to lament the year and talk about the goings-on in the sports world. With his 7...

Former MLB Outfielder Johnny Damon played in the big leagues from 1995-2012. He came up with the Kansas City Royals and after a short stint with the Oakland A's, Damon signed a four-year contract with the Boston Red Sox. During his Red Sox tenure, he participated in the iconic ALCS between the Red Sox and the New York Yankees in 2003 and 2004. He also was a part of the '04 World Series championshi...

Longtime CBS Sports football and basketball studio host Adam Zucker is also a Syracuse alum. Continuing the string of having Syracuse alums on this podcast, Zucker graduated in 1998. After doing local TV and radio, he began working for a fledgling upstart cable network called College Sports Television or CSTV. CSTV was eventually acquired by CBS and has morphed into what is now known as the CBS Sp...

Claire Smith is a pioneer in sports writing. She was the first ever female Major League Baseball beat writer, covering the New York Yankees for five seasons starting in 1982. She became a national columnist and worked at the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and later ESPN. In 2017, she was the first female to win the Baseball Hall of Fame's BBWAA Career Excellence Award, formerly the J. G. T...

Brian Geltzeiler is the founder of Hoopscritic, an NBA blog. He is a financial advisor who created a broadcasting career from that blog. Hoopscritic led to many radio appearances and eventually a job with Sirius/XM NBA Radio. He has also appeared on NBA TV. In this episode, Geltzeiler explains his fantastic origin story. He goes into great detail about how his blog led to his radio appearances. He...

In November 2024, longtime baseball announcer Dave Sims was named the new radio play-by-play voice of the New York Yankees. Sims replaces John Sterling who held the position since 1989. Sims has been the TV/Radio voice of the Seattle Mariners from 2007-2024. Sims has an extensive career and is one of the first voices on WFAN radio, the flagship station of Yankee games. In this episode, Sims tells...

The southeast United States was impacted heavily by two hurricanes in October 2024. Hurricane Helene and Milton affected lives and property in many states, including Florida. On October 9th, Hurricane Milton destroyed the fiberglass roof of the ballpark this month, leaving it open to the elements. With the Rays set to open the season at home on March 27, there's unlikely time to put on a new roof....

The southeast United States was impacted heavily by two hurricanes in October 2024. Hurricane Helene and Milton affected lives and property in many states, including Florida. On October 9th, Hurricane Milton destroyed the fiberglass roof of the ballpark this month, leaving it open to the elements. With the Rays set to open the season at home on March 27, there's unlikely time to put on a new roof....

Chad Finn is a sports and sports media columnist for the Boston Globe. He is the editor of “The Boston Globe Story of the Red Sox” and the recently released “The Boston Globe Story of the Celtics.'' Finn joined the Globe from the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire in 2003 as a sports copy editor and page designer before moving to the writing side and taking over the sports media beat in 2009. He has...

Former NBA Center Etan Thomas makes his second appearance on the show. At the time of this episode's release, the NBA season will commence in six days. This is the final season of the NBA on TNT, as there is a new television contract starting next season. Thomas played in the NBA from 2000 to 2011, mostly with the Washington Wizards. In college, he was a star at Syracuse. Now, he is a television c...

Kevin Brown recently completed his 6th season calling Orioles games on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN). Brown is a graduate of Syracuse University and worked in Syracuse with the AAA-baseball team, the Syracuse Chiefs. He is also a play-by-play announcer for ESPN. In this episode, Brown tells the story of his ascension to his current position with the O's. He also addressed the controversy...

In 2024, longtime New York Yankees radio announcer John Sterling announced his abrupt retirement, effective immediately. With three-quarters of the season left, the Yankees decided to split the play-by-play duties among three broadcasters. Emmanuel Berbari is one of the three and called dozens of games this season. Sterling announced that he was returning to the booth for the final week of the reg...

Wesley Walker played wide receiver for the New York Jets for 13 seasons from 1977-1989. He was an NFL All-Pro, a 2x Pro Bowl representative, the NFL receiving yards leader in 1978, and a member of the New York Jets Ring of Honor. In this episode, Walker recounted the many highs and lows of his illustrious career. He speaks candidly about making the NFL without vision in one of his eyes. He discuss...