Cheapseat Baseball

We've got a real barn burner this episode.  We talk about our fantasy football league -- especially topical now that football season is over.  Thankfully that's it for the football talk, as we end up discussing the 1987 St. Louis Cardinals, which has NOTHING TO DO WITH FOOTBALL AT ALL WHATSOEVER.

This week Tom and Josh discuss pranks -- including Josh pulling his own prank by not using his recording mic for this episode.  While we start talking personal stuff, we spend most of our time talking about MLB pranks.  We go over some of the old standards and tell one another about some more elaborate pranks that we came across.  This is a fun, if a bit of a dumb one.

This week Josh tells Tom about Glenn Burke and Billy Bean (not the one you're thinking of) who were two baseball players who after their playing days came out as gay.  Both had very rough stories for very different reasons -- none of which had to do with them being mediocre players or Burke creating the high five (seriously).  While we make a couple of jokes, we will warn you that this does get a bit heavy, but if we're a baseball history podcast, then it's a story to cover.

Welcome to episode 75, where we finally get to Rickey Henderson... just kidding, we're covering the 1976 classic The Bad News Bears, not to ever be mistaken with the 2000's era Billy Bob Thornton-era cluster****.  Walter Matthau pulls together a scrappy group of child rejects to SoCal Little League greatness.  We admire the hardcore 70's nature of the movie, the wide variety of cheap beer, and are touched by the fact that it's an actual movie with an actual plot.  Enjoy it with us!

We talk Boggs, we talk the Rocket, we talk the curse, and we talk Buckner.  This week Tom tells Josh about the 1986 Boston Red Sox, including the history of the franchise leading into this season, how they built a contender, and how they fell just short in the most agonizing way possible.  Join us.

Apologies for ending 2022 with a fizzle -- between the holidays and other stuff in real life, we didn't post any new episodes, but we'll make it up for you in 2023! We discuss Nolan Ryan and Bo Jackson a bit more before launching into the meat of today's episode on the history of the minor leagues.  Over time the minors have gotten more standardized and smaller.  This episode was also recorded as the news broke of the MLB Players Association deciding to allow minor leaguers to join... so we kinda blew that one by not posting episodes forever. Though we do discuss some fun moments of the history, talk about fun team names, and some of the records set in MiLB history.  Join us.

Tom and Josh draft their 1990's all-decade teams, exercise veto powers for the first time, Tom jumps all over Pedro Martinez for the umpteenth time, but does Josh figure out Pedro this time?  Let's find out...

In this episode Josh tells Tom about 'dem Bums, the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, first going through the sad-sack history of the team until that point -- including a discussion of their many questionable team names. Tom's dog Dalton makes an overdue cameo. The famed Boys of Summer finally put it together this season, and got past their crosstown rival Giants (who had taken them down previously via the Shot Heard Round the World) and the Final Boss of 1950's baseball -- the also-crosstown New York Yankees, who had defeated the Dodgers in the World Series the past five times they had made it. Join us to talk 'dem Bums.

As elder millenials, Josh and Tom decided to watch the movie rather than read the book, and that's what we did with the 2011 Bennett Miller / Aaron Sorkin movie Moneyball.  It was based on a 2003 book by Michael Lewis about the 2002 Oakland Athletics.  We dig into the movie a bit, we nitpick the baseball details because we're a baseball podcast.  Though we do call out important details they got right, like the Royals' horrifying 2002 uniforms.  Also, some dude named Brad Pitt was involved. Never heard of him, though.

Following up last week's episode with our own take on Bo Jackson, we welcome sports journalist and bestselling author Jeff Pearlman to discuss his new book The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson.  Jeff tells us about some of his favorite Bo stories, how people are so willing to talk about their heroes and brushes with a legend like Bo.  We also cover a few of the other topics he's covered over the years as well like the 86 Mets, Lyman Bostock and others. If you'd like to purchase The Last Folk Hero, it's now available for purchase at the publisher's website or from your local or online bookseller.

This week Josh and Tom take turns telling some of the story of multi-sport legend Bo Jackson.  While his star rose as a Heisman-winning football player, he shocked the world in the 1980's by refusing to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and instead choosing to sign with the Kansas City Royals.  It was with the Royals and (eventually) the Los Angeles Raiders that Bo's legend took off before a horrible injury derailed his career, but led to one of the greatest comebacks in pro sports history. Join us for our take, before we have a special guest join us to continue the story next week.

The Guardians, Mariners, Padres and Phillies may have advanced in the "real" playoffs, but in our simulation, we pick back up in the LCS series where the 84 Tigers take on the 90 A's and the 69 Mets take on the 16 Cubs.  Who will advance?  Who will win it all?  Will Tom accept that the Royals lost?  Let's find out.

It's playoff time, which means we decided to do our own playoffs, pitting all of the teams we've profiled so far against one another.  What do we do with the 1919 Black Sox?  Who can possibly stop the 1985 Kansas City Royals?  Will the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers finally win it?  Will the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals carry forward their black devil magic?  Is it even possible to stop the Miracle Mets or the 2016 Chicago Cubs? Let's find out how the opening rounds go...

Josh takes Tom to the OC in the mid-90's where we talk about No Doubt and the 1995 California Angels.  We cover the origin story of the Angels, their move from Los Angeles proper to Orange County early in their existence, and the long run of mediocrity through their first 30-odd years -- a solid run in the late 70's to mid-80's notwithstanding. The 1995 Angels showed up after the strike, having rocked the worst record in baseball in 1994, and got off to a scorching 56-33 start and a 11 game lead in the AL West.  Then things happened... Join us to find out.

Josh and Tom make fun of Canadian whiskey before discussing the career of Canadian baseball legend Larry Walker. We follow his journey from being a middling hockey prospect, his transition into baseball, his early career with the Montreal Expos, his star run with the Colorado Rockies, and his ring-chasing year and change with the St. Louis Cardinals.  Also, the wonderful tv series Letterkenny comes up a lot for some reason.

This week Josh tells Tom the history of the MLB All-Star Game.  The great moments, the not-so-great moments, the time it ended in the tie.  The stretch of time that there were two of them a season for some reason.  The time that the Royals justifiably made up the whole damn AL roster, which was a fine and correct decision (guess who's writing this episode summary...)

We fire up the Whatif? simulator to square off Josh's all-time Cleveland Bronchos / Naps / Indians / Guardians against Tom's Cincinnati Red Stockings / Reds / Redlegs / Reds.  Can Bob Feller contain the Big Red Machine? Can Dolf Luque contain the Cleveland's stacked 90's outfield? Why does Whatif? love old timey players so much?  Let's find out.

We pick up where we left off in the last episode, wrapping up the story of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, by talking about the Yankees dynasty they took on, the 9/11 attacks, and one of the greatest World Series ever played.  The shambling corpse of Rudolph Giuliani is mentioned. 

This week Tom tells Josh the story of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, one of the most quickly successful expansion franchises.  We go over the origins of the franchise, its initial run, its going big and signing big names into the turn of the millennium, and then its magical 2001 run.  We discuss expansion yet again, go into some big names, get into what a weird season 2001 was, Josh incorrectly says Alex Rodriguez was still with the Mariners that season, and tell the Diamondbacks story... up until the 2001 World Series, because that warrants its own episode. Join us.

This week Josh tells Tom about San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn.  We follow Gwynn as he developed from a multi-sports star into one of baseball's best pure hitters.  One who drove fellow Hall of Famer Greg Maddux to curse his name, and who received a key piece of advice from Ted Williams to unlock a secondary peak later in his career. Come join us.

What better way for Josh and Tom to celebrate being together and recording together for the first time than firing up the WhatIf simulator and drafting all-star teams out of the Deadball Era?  Tom's voice is clearly dead from the Jawbreaker concert the night before, both of us are clearly hung over, and we had to dig deep and pull together some guys we'd never heard of to fill out a 25-man roster under our true backup and reliever criteria... Sit back and enjoy!

Tom and Josh discuss the greatest episode about baseball (or more accurately, softball) ever created: The Simpsons' "Homer at the Bat." We fanboy out about the Simpsons, before getting into the episode, the premise to get so many athlete cameos into a single game, the stars featured, the stars not featured because they were long dead, we engage in a fierce debate about British history, and fanboy out about the Simpsons a bit more.

In this episode Josh takes Tom on a journey that combines baseball history with true crime: the tragic story of Lyman Bostock.  I'd offer a summary, but I wouldn't want to spoil our first true crime adventure...

Just in time for the real CWS, Josh tells Tom about the biggest annual sporting event that takes place in the city of Omaha, Nebraska: the College World Series.  We discuss the ping of aluminum bats, it's evolution into a big annual event, various stars that made it into the majors, and the programs that have dominated the event.  Unfortunately we recorded it early enough that we didn't mention jello shots.  There's always next year.

We break out the WhatIf simulator with Tom assembling an all-time Royals roster and Josh an all-time Blue Jays roster.  Two expansion teams, two two-time World Champions, two-time ALCS opponents, with all-stars and Cy Young winners (and shoulda been winners) up and down the rosters.  Will Tom's Royals triumph (as a sign of all being right in the world) or will Josh's Blue Jays get revenge for '85 and '15?

This week Josh tells Tom about arguably the greatest softball player ever, Jennie Finch.  We talk about her absolute dominance of college and professional softball, how she was a trailblazer for women's sports, and we also make fun of what white people name their children and go down a few other diversion, because that's what we do.

After a bit of a lull, Josh and Tom return to discuss the most baseball-packed baseball movie ever to feature baseball: the slapstick police parody The Naked Gun.  We discuss Leslie Neilsen's performance, the totally-not-awkward-to-talk-about-now performance of O.J. Simpson, Encrico Pallazzo and the wealth of jokes in this great, great movie.

We should probably apologize for the sheer amount of dick jokes at the top of this episode. You see, we're talking about Merkle's Boner -- boner in this instance being an old-timey word for blunder or mistake. That said, this was a major early incident in baseball history. It turns out that it's not exactly clear what REALLY happened, except that he made a horrible mistake that cost the New York Giants a pennant. Come join us as Tom goes into the various accounts of Merkle's Boner.

This is without question the most important episode we've done yet. Tom revisits the Kansas City Royals and tells Josh about their momentous 1985 season.  After nearly a decade of excellence that saw them repeatedly falling short, they finally broke through in 85, taking on an up and coming Blue Jays team in the ALCS and the evil St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. We talk about the team's early history, how an aging team finally put it together for a final run with a young pitching staff, how the Royals kept coming back against teams that appeared to be much better than them on paper, and -- of course -- Don Denkinger.

Josh takes Tom to our great neighbor to the north, Canada, to tell us about the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays.  We talk Gerry Ford, Exhibition Stadium, Letterkenny, and the Blue Jays' run of futility starting in the mid-80's and how it all came together for a magical run in 1992.  Come join us!

After moving up our four-part series on the MLBPA and labor relations... we kick off the episode by talking about a triumph of the Kansas City Chiefs and the imminent retirement of Tom Brady?  Yeah, we recorded this one a while ago folks... After repeated losses in our WhatIf sports simulator, Josh finally bit the bullet and assembled an all-time Yankees team.  Tom responded with their long-time rival and little brother, the Red Sox.  Will the 26-time champion finally get Josh over on Tom (and Pedro Martinez)? Will Tom get Williams, Yaz, Foxx and Papi onto the same roster? Who gets Clemens? Boggs? Ruth?  Let's find out...

The conclusion of our series on MLB labor history brings us to the infamous 1994 strike, which cancelled the World Series, and was only brought to its resolution by court order of a future Supreme Court Justice.  Josh also tells Tom about developments in labor relations up to just before the 2021-22 lockout, talking about the wonderful relationship between Brewer's owner / MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and MLBPA President Donald Fehr, and the gradual erosion of player protections through subsequent CBAs.  We also welcome a pair of really great new sponsors.

We talk St. Patrick's Day before launching into part three of our series on the MLBPA and baseball labor relations. This week Josh covers the first strike that cancelled a significant amount of games in 1981, the collusion scandal and the build up to the infamous 1994 strike. Tom makes wise@$$ comments.

This week we continue our series on the MLBPA, which takes us through the first CBA in MLB history, the tragic story of Curt Flood, the first work stoppages in MLB history, and the advent of free agency.  Along the way we talk about Ben Verlander, Gussy Busch, the owner's undying love of Marvin Miller (the term bosom buddies is used), and a handful of other diversions.

A timely episode of a baseball history podcast?  That's right, we're hitting hard here at Cheapseat Baseball.  We call Rob Manfred Doug for some reason.  The Josh tells Tom about the early history of the MLB Players' Association.  At first there was no players' union, then failed efforts to unionize, failed efforts to form their own leagues (including a diversion into bad 1800s team names). After a while, there was a union in name only, before the owners overplayed their hand and drove the players to elect one Marvin Miller to be the President of the Players' Association. The first episode in a four-part series. Sources include: SABR, Wikipedia, Cardinal Nation, Virginia.edu, Marcnormandin.com, Economic History, Beyondtheboxscore.com

So, we started recording a series of episodes on the history of MLB labor relations recently, and with the lockout actually coming to a head and cancelling games... we're airing episodes in a different order than we recorded them.  So this is a way of saying sorry that there won't be a Yankees / Red Sox episode this week.  Also, screw the owners and screw Rob Manfred.

Josh tells Tom the story of the 1991 Minnesota Twins. How the Twins came to Minnesota after being the Washington Senators, how they won the 1987 World Series, only to fall back to last place by 1990 only to rebuild themselves into a World Series squad in 1991. The team was built with home grown stars like Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbk, Dan Gladden and Chuck Knobloch as well as key acquisitions like Jack Morris, Kevin Tapani and Chili Davis. We also get sidetracked discussing a man named Dick Such... In the World Series they faced the Atlanta Braves in what's likely the greatest World Series ever played. Tom also teases the possibility of doing an episode on Lonnie Smith, which has already been done far better by Jon Bois, so here's a link to that.

This week Tom tells Josh about the Judge: Frank Robinson. We discuss his rapid rise to the majors, his time as a franchise player in Cincinnati, his being a cornerstone of Baltimore's 60s-70s dynasty, and him becoming the first black manager in MLB. Along the way he overcame racial prejudice, numerous injuries brought about his tough style of play, skeptical owners, and even a brush with death to become an MLB legend.

Sometimes we fire up the Whatif? Sports simulator to have fun with great sports debates.  Who's better all-time: The Dodgers or the Giants?  Can you come up with the greatest team of base stealers?  This is not one of those episodes.  Josh assembles a team of people who share a name with him.  As does Tom.  Stupidity ensues.  Join us.

This week Josh tells Tom about the greatest triumph of his favorite team, the Milwaukee Brewers.  A team with great facial hair, nicknamed after a shitty cocktail, and even though they didn't win it all, the city of Milwaukee loved them.  Also, our theme of identity theft returns and we end this episode very abruptly -- but Josh does get to tell the full story.  :)

We're shooting the breeze in this one, fam.  Josh talks about playing a computer game.  We talk about how great the Yankees are with complete and utter sincerity. Seriously, Tom goes over franchise history, and we appreciates it very deeply. This is a 100% serious episode.

The team that lifted the curse of the Billy Goat.  We go through the history of the White Stockings became the Orphans became the Cubs.  After a history-making season from 1906-08... the Cubs started losing.  They lost some World Series until 1945... when they kicked a man and his billy goat out of Wrigley Field and never made a World Series ever again.  Well, until 2016. Josh takes Tom on this journey.  Won't you keep us company?

Paul and Lloyd Waner. The men. The myths. The legends. Not only did the Waner Brothers star for Josh's Boggstars team, not only did they also star for the 1920's and 30's Pittsburgh Pirates, not only are they both Hall of Famers, they have some of the best nickname duos ever in Big Poison and Little Poison. Big Poison Paul brought home an MVP award and starred for the 1927 pennant winners. Little Poison Lloyd was also nicknamed "Scratch" for legging out scratch hits. They were also heroic drinkers. Particularly Paul, who has some of the best baseball drinking stories ever. Josh shared them with Tom and now with you.

Is this heaven?  No.  It's a podcast.  In this episode, Tom and Josh discuss the classic 1989 film Field of Dreams. We talk Iowa, Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones' comedic chemistry, boomer hippie stuff, the choice to cast Ray Liotta as a left-handed southerner, daddy issues, and dead baseball players.  Really everything that aging baseball fans love and hold dear. Come join us.

Josh and Tom fire up the WhatIf Sports simulator again as a follow-up to our episode on integration.  We draft teams of players that wouldn't be in MLB if it weren't for integration and put match-up in another best-of-seven series.  See who gets drafted first in center: Willie Mays or Ken Griffey Jr.; at second Joe Morgan or Jackie Robinson; in left Rickey Henderson or a steroid addled monster named Barry Bonds.

We discuss the 2021 World Series briefly before Josh tells Tom about the 1919 Chicago White Sox... a team notorious for eight of its players taking money from gamblers to throw the world series.  Their story was kept alive by the movie Eight Men Out and star leftfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson was further immortalized in the movie Field of Dreams.  Josh digs more into the story, highlighting more of the roster, the sad story of Buck Weaver who got suspended with the gamblers because he wasn't a snitch, and how the scandal brought about the tenure of legendary baseball villain Kennesaw Mountain Landis.

While Jackie Robinson is rightfully remembered as a groundbreaker, MLB integration is a story that spans almost a century, involving Moses Fleetwood Walker, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, a gentleman's agreement, and the players who integrated every single MLB franchise of the era.  Josh takes Tom through one of the most important chapters in MLB history and highlights those stories.

We watched Artie Lange's Beer League so you don't have to. It's tempting to have that be the entire episode's description, but hopefully our misery about having to watch this is amusing to all of you.  Artie Lange decided to make a movie with Ralph Macchio and a bunch of bit players from the Sopranos who all played bad Italian stereotypes.  And it had something to do with softball.  It's bad.  It's really bad.  I'm still in pain over this...

We discuss identity theft, mention the greatest player of all time, and look at the embodiment of mediocrity before stat geeks turned us onto the fictional "replacement player" -- Mario Mendoza. Mendoza was a glove-first shortstop who made it to MLB from the Mexican Leagues but was most famous for eternally flirting with the .200 batting average for his big league career.  Come join us on our journey.

Friends of the pod Todd Van Popple and Bob Uecker! Cliff Politte! Jim Levey! Pat Rockett! These are just a few of the luminaries of the absolute worst rosters Josh and Tom could throw together in an effort to see who could lose a series in the WhatIf Sports simulator, the last of which I promise was not made up. Come join us as we dredge up players best left forgotten in baseball history, pit them against one another just awful ballgames and see if Josh can finally win another simulation and in the process lose, because we were trying to lose. Make sense????

The Philadelphia Phillies were the last of the original 16 MLB teams of the World Series era to win a World Series. They were beaten to that achievement by one expansion franchise and was pitted against another in their pursuit of a world title. Join Josh as he tells Tom the story of the 1980 Phillies -- a team anchored by two Hall of Famers and a would-be Hall of Famer (if it weren't for gambling). Join us on our journey and be sure to @ josh on Twitter to weigh in on a future team profile.