Podcasts about casey award

Episode 287 features the author of A Baseball Gaijin:  Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back, Aaron Fischman and Champion Pitmaster Fred Robles, With Guest Co-host, Doug Scheiding   Aaron Fischman is a sports writer, author, editor and multimedia journalist, who currently hosts the On the NBA Beat podcast, a weekly interview show he helped co-found with Loren Lee Chen and his brother, Joshua Fischman.  His first book, A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back is a very entertaining and informative look at the life and baseball career of Tony Barnette, who took a nontraditional route to the Major Leagues.  Barnette started in the MLB's minor leagues, spent six years pitching in Japan for Tokyo's Yakult Swallows, and then at the age of 32 had his first cup of coffee with the Major League's, Texas Rangers.  The book was nominated for the prestigious CASEY Award for best baseball book of 2024. Fred Robles of Rio Valley Meats has been cooking on the competitive barbecue circuit since 2013. Fred is the owner of a butcher shop in Weslaco, Texas. According to Fred, "I love to compete and I love food sport.  We have met some great people on this journey that have become our friends, but feel more like family.  Some of his competitive cooking accomplishments include, winning the 2017 World Food BBQ Championship, the 2019 National BBQ Championship, winning the 2022 San Antonio Livestock and Rodeo, plus winning more than 95 Grand and Reserve Championships. We recommend you go to Baseball BBQ, https://baseballbbq.com for special grilling tools and accessories, Magnechef https://magnechef.com/ for excellent and unique barbecue gloves, Cutting Edge Firewood High Quality Kiln Dried Firewood - Cutting Edge Firewood in Atlanta for high quality firewood and cooking wood, Mantis BBQ, https://mantisbbq.com/ to purchase their outstanding sauces with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Kidney Project, and for exceptional sauces, Elda's Kitchen https://eldaskitchen.com/   We conclude the show with the song, Baseball Always Brings You Home from the musician, Dave Dresser and the poet, Shel Krakofsky. We truly appreciate our listeners and hope that all of you are staying safe. If you would like to contact the show, we would love to hear from you. Call the show:  (516) 855-8214 Email:  baseballandbbq@gmail.com Twitter:  @baseballandbbq Instagram:  baseballandbarbecue YouTube:  baseball and bbq Website:  https//baseballandbbq.weebly.com Facebook:  baseball and bbq 

Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski https://amzn.to/46EEbM5 NEW YORK TIMES bestseller WALL STREET JOURNAL bestseller #1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball's history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again. Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays's catch, Babe Ruth's called shot, and Kirk Gibson's limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters. But these are also moments raw with the humanity of the game, the unheralded heroes, the mesmerizing mistakes drenched in pine tar, and every story, from the immortal to the obscure, is told from a unique perspective. Whether of a real fan who witnessed it, or the pitcher who gave up the home run, the umpire, the coach, the opposing player—these are fresh takes on moments so powerful they almost feel like myth. Posnanski's previous book, The Baseball 100, portrayed the heroes and pioneers of the sport, and now, with his trademark wit, encyclopedic knowledge, and acute observations, he gets at the real heart of the game. From nineteenth-century pitchers' duels to breaking the sport's color line in the '40s, all the way to the greatest trick play of the last decade and the slide home that became a meme, Posnanski's illuminating take allows us to rediscover the sport we love—and thought we knew. Why We Love Baseball is an epic that ends too soon, a one-of-a-kind love letter to the sport that has us thrilled, torn, inspired, and always wanting more.About the author Joe Posnanski is the New York Times bestselling author of Paterno, The Machine, and The Secret of Golf. He is currently the founder and editor of Joe Blogs at JoePosnanski.com as well as co-host of "The PosCast" podcast with television producer Michael Schur. Joe served as Senior Writer for The Athletic, MLB, NBC Sports, and Sports Illustrated, and co-founder of Passions in America. He was named national Sportswriter of the Year by the Sports Media Hall of Fame and was twice named the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors. He is a two-time Emmy winner as part of NBC Sports Olympic coverage, and his first book "The Soul of Baseball," won The Casey Award as best baseball book. He was recently honored with the Tony Kubek Award by the National Polish American Sports Hall of Fame, and he was given the Buck O'Neil Award by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. He is the author of six books and has been anthologized widely. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife Margo, daughters Elizabeth and Katie, and standard poodle Westley.

Jonathan Eig is the bestselling author of six books. His most recent King: A Life, was An Instant New York Times Bestseller, A Barack Obama Summer 2023 Read and was Hailed by The New York Times as "the definitive" account of MLK's life Jonathan's previous book, Ali: A Life, won a 2018 PEN America Literary Award and was a finalist for the Mark Lynton History Prize. His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He served as consulting producer for the PBS series "Muhammad Ali," which was directed by Ken Burns. Esquire magazine named Ali: A Life is one of the 25 greatest biographies of all time. Jonathan's first book, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, reached No. 10 on the New York Times bestseller list and won the Casey Award. His books have been listed among the best of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.This podcast was recorded on September 28, 2023.

Named one of the most anticipated books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsweek, Jonathan Eig's King, an ''intimate, multidimensional biography'' (The Boston Globe) of Martin Luther King Jr., offers a fresh and sweeping portrait of the civil rights icon. Eig's other acclaimed biographies include Ali: A Life, winner of the PEN America Literary Award; the bestseller Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, winner of the Casey Award; and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. His book The Birth of the Pill will soon be staged as a play by Chicago's Timeline Theatre. A former senior writer for The Wall Street Journal, he has appeared on the Today show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and NPR's Fresh Air. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/29/2023)

It's a Tale of Two Robs with Baseball Writer, Rob Neyer and Rob Rainford, Cookbook Author and Host of the TV Show, License to Grill Rob Neyer is a baseball writer known for his use of statistical analysis or sabermetrics.  He started his career working for Bill James and joined ESPN.com as a columnist and blogger from 1996 to 2011.  He was National Baseball Editor for SB Nation from 2011 to 2014 and Senior Baseball Editor for FoxSports.com in 2015 and 2016.  He has written freelance stories for Yahoo Sports, FiveThirtyEight, and The New York Times.  He is an accomplished  author or co-author of several books, including The Umpire Is Out:  Calling the Game and Living My True Self which he wrote with our episode 137 guest, former Major League Baseball umpire, Dale Scott. In 2018 his book, Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game won the prestigious Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year.  Rob is also the host of the extremely entertaining podcast, SABRcast.  You can find more information on Rob at https://robneyer.com/ Rob Rainford is a trained chef, author of the cookbook, Rob Rainford's Born to Grill and host of the television show License to Grill.  Over five seasons and 104 episodes, Rob hosted the series, License to Grill, which involves backyard cooking and entertaining.  Rob's Born to Grill cookbook includes more than 100 recipes and 20 complete menus that are specifically tailored for backyard cooking.  The book introduces the "Rainford Method," a series of techniques to help improve your cooking skills.  Rob did not just wake up one day as a sucessful chef, author and TV show host and he shares stories of his journey and talks about his love of teaching which he continues doing.  Go to https://gustotv.com/hosts/rob-rainford/ for more information on Chef Rob. We conclude the show with the song, Baseball Always Brings You Home from the musician, Dave Dresser and the poet, Shel Krakofsky. We recommend you go to Baseball BBQ, https://baseballbbq.com for special grilling tools and accessories, Magnechef, https://magnechef.com/ for excellent and unique barbecue gloves, Cutting Edge Firewood High Quality Kiln Dried Firewood - Cutting Edge Firewood in Atlanta for high quality firewood and cooking wood, Mantis BBQ, https://mantisbbq.com/ to purchase their outstanding sauces with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Kidney Project, and for exceptional sauces, Elda's Kitchen https://eldaskitchen.com/ We truly appreciate our listeners and hope that all of you are staying safe. If you would like to contact the show, we would love to hear from you.   Call the show:  (516) 855-8214 Email:  baseballandbbq@gmail.com Twitter:  @baseballandbbq Instagram:  baseballandbarbecue YouTube:  baseball and bbq Website:  https//baseballandbbq.weebly.com Facebook:  baseball and bbq    

Today's guest is author Dan Good. He is a longtime journalist and book ghostwriter. His biography of baseball star Ken Caminiti was published by Abrams Press in May and has been nominated for a Casey Award as one of the year's best baseball books. He has worked with thought leaders and CEOs to ghostwrite more than a dozen books. His book ghostwriting projects have involved politics, leadership, tech, ethics, and disability inclusion. Prior to book writing and ghostwriting, Dan was a news editor and reporter at outlets like the New York Daily News, New York Post, ABC News and NBC News. In this episode: Why writing is book is a great way for an athlete to build their athlete brand Dan's experience writing sports book  How long it takes to write a book How much it costs to pay a ghostwriter to write a book Why journaling can help athletes write a successful book The importance of creating a game plan for what the book will be about deciding on who is the intended audience Dan defines what a “hook of a book” is and why it is important for selling the book How value of writing a book goes beyond the profit from traditional book sales, including credibility and speaking engagements The process of getting a book published How to sell the book and why having a strong athlete brand and marketing platforms will help you get a publisher for your book The impact of Amazon on book sales The opportunities that come with self publishing How to get paid for writing a book How your book could cement you as an expert and make you newsworthy Show links: Pliable Athlete Branding  https://www.pliablemarketing.com/athlete Pliable athlete Alyssa Bourque: https://pliablemarketing.com/news/f/athlete-profile-alyssa-bourque-university-of-vermont?blogcategory=Athlete+profiles Dan Good's Substack Website https://dangoodstuff.substack.com/ Connect with Dan Good Twitter: @DGood73 Email: DGood73@gmail.com

Betty Selakovich Casey is an award winning author and illustrator of three children's books: The Prince and the Prairie, That is a Hat and May Finds Her Way. In fact, That is a Hat was chosen by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries as the featured children's book for Read Across Oklahoma. She is also a talented artist and has her works at at Sky Gallery on Route 66 in Tulsa. In addition to these extrememly successful side-hustles, she is the Editor of Tulsa Kids Magazine, where she has been for over thirty years. Our visit will shed light into finding a publisher, she connected with Oklahoma-based, Roadrunner Press, along with her background and the timing of when she started writing and illustrating books - because it happened after her kids were grown! She also shares what she does to manage stress as well as her perspective on living purposefully.

Links from the show:* True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson* Never miss an episodeAbout my guest:Kostya Kennedy is an editorial director at Dotdash Meredith and a former senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He is the New York Times bestselling author of 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports (runner-up for the 2012 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing) and Pete Rose: An American Dilemma. Both won the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year. He has taught at Columbia and NYU, and lives with his wife and daughters in Westchester County, New York. Get full access to Dispatches from the War Room at dispatchesfromthewarroom.substack.com/subscribe

Rickey Henderson is as enigmatic as he was dynamic on a ballfield. Major League Baseball's all-time leader in runs scored and stolen bases and greatest leadoff hitter of all time vexed and perplexed teammates, fans and the media as much as he did opposition over a 25-season career. Even up until his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009, questions of who Rickey actually is and what has driven him to be so singular have remained. In June 2022, Howard Bryant (senior writer, ESPN, and a two-time Casey Award winner) released Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original. In the 380 pages, he provides the context that helps explain Henderson's motivations and Henderson's value in the age of advanced analytics.

ABOUT TRUE: THE FOUR SEASONS OF JACKIE ROBINSONThe year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of baseball legend Jackie Robinson. It also marks the 75th anniversary of one of the most significant moments of the 20th century - Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in major league baseball. Rightfully, much has been written about Jackie Robinson. To commemorate these two significant anniversaries, acclaimed author Kostya Kennedy has written the most interesting and unique biography of Jackie to date in his new book, TRUE: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson (St. Martin's Press, on sale April 12, 2022, $29.99).Whereas all-time greats like Ted Williams, Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio captured the eye of fans everywhere, Jackie Robinson became the epitome of a new America. It was not just that he opened doors for black Americans to play major league baseball. Rather, his reach extended to black Americans being able to participate in other sports. And more importantly, beyond the fields of play he helped open doors and shine a light on black people in non-athletic professions. With each accomplishment on the baseball diamond - and, indeed, for years after his career ended - he became an important national figure who spoke and wrote eloquently about racial injustice and inequality.What makes this book unique? Instead of day-to-day accounts of Jackie's first year breaking the color line, or a recap of his legendary career, TRUE examines Robinson's impact on sport and society from the lens of four non-consecutive transformative years of his life:1946 - his first year playing in the minor leagues with the Montreal Royals1949 - the year he won the Most Valuable Player Award in his third season with the Brooklyn Dodgers1956 - his final season in major league baseball, when he played valiantly despite his physical struggle with diabetes1972 - the year of his untimely passingThrough vivid prose and interviews with Robinson's family, players, and fans who witnessed and felt his impact, the author offers a new look at Jackie Robinson: the player, father, husband, and just as importantly, civil rights hero. To this date, half a century since his passing, his widow, Rachel, and the Robinson family continue to receive myriad letters expressing admiration for Robinson's courage in the face of the racial animosity he endured while playing. What's more, they express admiration and thanks for what Jackie did and meant to them as they carved out their own lives and careers, achieving respect and accomplishments in a country that seemed to be closed off for so many.TRUE will establish a new view on the life of Jackie Robinson in ways not even the most devout fans of his amazing career considered. Kostya Kennedy's previous books on the complicated life of Pete Rose and the meaning of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak both shone a new light on these players. He has done it again with the most interesting and unique take yet written on the life and meaning of Jackie Robinson.ABOUT KOSTYA KENNEDYKostya Kennedy is an editorial director at Dotdash Meredith, and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He is a New York Times bestselling author of 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports (runner up for the 2012 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing) and Pete Rose: An American Dilemma. Both won the Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year. He has taught at Columbia and NYU, and lives with his wife and children in Westchester County, NY.PRAISE FOR TRUE"This is a marvelous addition to the library on the ever-important, ever-enigmatic Jackie Robinson, one of the towering figures in the Civil Rights Movement. Kennedy has given us four remarkable 'snapshots' of Jackie at this most brave and vulnerable moment." --Ken Burns, filmmaker"True is a captivating reminder of Jackie Robinson's greatness not only as a baseball player and trailblazer, but also as a fearless activist for the equal rights and fair treatment of all people. Reading it, I said to myself time and again: "I wish I could have met him." --John Grisham"The 75th anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson became the first Black man to play in the Major Leagues is the perfect time to remember a great baseball player and an even greater American. Kostya Kennedy's True tells Robinson's story beautifully, a sweeping narrative rich in detail and full of riveting and important stories that should be told and retold for generations." --Christine Brennan, USA Today sports columnist and bestselling author of Inside Edge.

Leigh Montville is a three-time New York Times bestselling author, a former columnist at the Boston Globe, and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He is the author of TALL MEN, SHORT SHORTS - The 1969 NBA Finals: Wilt, Russ, Lakers, Celtics, and a Very Young Sports Reporter, which is out now. Published by Penguin Random House, Tall Men, Short Shorts is a masterpiece of sports journalism with a charming touch of personal memoir. Not only does this book chronicle the 1969 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and The Boston Celtics, it gives us an inside look at what life was like as an up-and-coming sports writer at the time. Leigh is also the author of Sting Like a Bee, Evel, The Mysterious Montague, The Big Bam, Ted Williams, At the Altar of Speed, Manute, and Why Not Us? His book Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero won the 2004 CASEY Award for best baseball book of the year. Leigh lives and writes in Boston. You can follow him on Twitter @LeighMontville or visit www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/21056/leigh-montville to learn more.

Two great guests make episode #97 a must listen.Marty Appel is a former New York Yankees public relations director and television producer, and considered the leading historian on the team's rich history.  He is an Emmy award winner and a two-time Casey Award winner for the best baseball book of the year.  His illustrious career with the Yankees began in 1968 as he was hired to help answer Mickey Mantle's fan mail.  He has had the honor of getting to know some of the game's greatest names, including Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Billy Martin, Casey Stengel, Whitey Ford, Bobby Richardson, Elston Howard, Catfish Hunter, Graig Nettles, Thurman Munson, Lou Pinella, and Willie Randolph.  He is a baseball treasure with incredible legendary stories, and we were so lucky to discuss his amazing life which for so many years has centered around baseball.  We never hide the fact that we are fans, and we are truly honored to have had this wonderful conversation.Brie Blackford is the co-founder of Elda's Kitchen, maker of incredible sauces, many of which are perfect for the barbecue.  We were so fortunate to have been the first podcast Brie appeared on, but you would never know she has not been doing this as she came across as a seasoned pro.  She is inspired by the wonderful cooking and hospitality of her grandmother, Elda Abronzino.  Brie loves what she does and that was quite apparent during our conversation.  The sauces are vegan friendly, contain no MSG or preservatives, are non-GMO, gluten-free, and do not have high fructose corn syrup.   You can find Brie and her sauces at https://eldaskitchen.comWe conclude the show with the beautiful song, "Baseball Always Brings You Home" from the musician, Dave Dresser and the poet, Shel Krakofsky. We recommend you go to Fifth & Cherry, https://fifthandcherry.com for wonderful cutting boards and http://www.baseballbbq.com for grill tools and clothing for barbecue and baseball fans and the Pandemic Baseball Book Club, https://www.pbbclub.com  to find many of the wonderful books we have featured as well as some additional swag.We truly appreciate our listeners and hope that all of you are staying safe.If you would like to contact the show, we would love to hear from you.Call the show - (516) 855-8214Email - baseballandbbq@gmail.comTwitter - @baseballandbbqFacebook - baseball and bbqInstagram - baseballandbarbecueYouTube - baseball and bbqWebsite - https//baseballandbbq.weebly.com 

Bushball welcomes baseball author and historian Dennis Snelling  who talks about the Golden Era of PCL, his most recent book subject Lefty O'Doul and our Team of the Week the Hollywood Stars.Snelling is a three-time finalist for the Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year--for "The Greatest Minor League" in 2011, "Johnny Evers: A Baseball Life" in 2014, and for "Lefty O'Doul: Baseball's Forgotten Ambassador" in 2017. In addition, "Johnny Evers" was a 2015 Seymour Medal finalist. Snelling was a senior writer for "Helmar Baseball History & Art Magazine" and writes a column for "Minor Trips Digest" and reviews sports books for the New York Journal of Books. He is in his 46th season as public address announcer for Downey High School sports teams, particularly football, in Modesto, California, and works as an Associate Superintendent for a school district in Roseville, California.Dennis' Book https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MDSFSB3/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1

About This Episode: John Eisenberg is one of the country's most acclaimed sportswriters. A native of Dallas, Texas and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he started out covering the “Friday Night Lights” for the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald in 1979. After rising through the ranks to cover pro basketball, he joined the staff of the Baltimore Sun in 1984. For the next 23 years he wrote columns in the Sun about the hometown Orioles, Ravens and Maryland Terrapins, and also covered major events such as the World Series, Super Bowl and Olympics. His honors included several firsts in the prestigious Associated Press Sports Editors' contest. Since 2012 he has written columns on the Ravens' website. His latest venture is a popular Ravens podcast, What Happened to That Guy? The subject is former players and life after football. John has also authored 10 bestselling sports books, including The Streak: Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Baseball's Most Historic Record. Published in 2017, it was a finalist for the Casey Award, which honors the year's best baseball book, and was shortlisted for the PEN/ESPN Literary Sportswriting Award, which honors the year's best sports book. John's most recent title is The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire. John has also written for Sports Illustrated and Smithsonian Magazine. He lives in Baltimore with his wife of 36 years, Mary Wynne Eisenberg. They have two grown children and a grandson. Find out more about John at: Baltimoreravens.com - https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/john-eisenberg Twitter - https://twitter.com/bmoreeisenberg Check out our YouTube Channel: Jeremyryanslatebiz Make Extraordinary a reality: jeremyryanslate.com/extraordinary See the Show Notes: jeremyryanslate.com/832 Sponsors:Gusto: This episode is sponsored by Gusto. Run your payroll the easy way, the same way we do at Command Your Brand. You'll get a. $100 Amazon Gift Card just for running your first payroll! http://www.jeremyryanslate.com/gusto Audible: Get a free 30 day free trial and 1 free audiobook from thousands of available books.  http://www.jeremyryanslate.com/book  

About This Episode: John Eisenberg is one of the country's most acclaimed sportswriters. A native of Dallas, Texas and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he started out covering the “Friday Night Lights” for the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald in 1979. After rising through the ranks to cover pro basketball, he joined the staff of the Baltimore Sun in 1984. For the next 23 years he wrote columns in the Sun about the hometown Orioles, Ravens and Maryland Terrapins, and also covered major events such as the World Series, Super Bowl and Olympics. His honors included several firsts in the prestigious Associated Press Sports Editors' contest. Since 2012 he has written columns on the Ravens' website. His latest venture is a popular Ravens podcast, What Happened to That Guy? The subject is former players and life after football. John has also authored 10 bestselling sports books, including The Streak: Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Baseball's Most Historic Record. Published in 2017, it was a finalist for the Casey Award, which honors the year's best baseball book, and was shortlisted for the PEN/ESPN Literary Sportswriting Award, which honors the year's best sports book. John's most recent title is The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire. John has also written for Sports Illustrated and Smithsonian Magazine. He lives in Baltimore with his wife of 36 years, Mary Wynne Eisenberg. They have two grown children and a grandson. Find out more about John at: Baltimoreravens.com - https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/john-eisenberg Twitter - https://twitter.com/bmoreeisenberg Check out our YouTube Channel: Jeremyryanslatebiz Make Extraordinary a reality: jeremyryanslate.com/extraordinary See the Show Notes: jeremyryanslate.com/832 Sponsors:Gusto: This episode is sponsored by Gusto. Run your payroll the easy way, the same way we do at Command Your Brand. You'll get a. $100 Amazon Gift Card just for running your first payroll! http://www.jeremyryanslate.com/gusto Audible: Get a free 30 day free trial and 1 free audiobook from thousands of available books.  http://www.jeremyryanslate.com/book  

Mr. Catch 365 Ethan Bryan is the author of the 2020 Casey Award-nominated book "A Year of Playing Catch." He also played the outfield for the GRBL champion Ozark Mountain Ducks. Rance sat down with Ethan (and Ethan's cat) to talk about his writing, the challenges of promoting a book in the middle of a global pandemic, fatherhood and a whole lot more. Find out more about Ethan and his writing at http://ethanbryan.com.

https://sportshistorynetwork.com/football/nfl/john-eisenberg (John Eisenberg page on Sports History Netwo)https://sportshistorynetwork.com/football/nfl/cleveland-rams (rk.) In this episode we cover John's career as a sportswriter and stories from his books covering the NFL. Speaking of his books, John has graciously offered to send an autographed copy of his book to one lucky winner. https://sportshistorynetwork.com/contest (Head Here to the contest page). (Note - even after the contest ends on 11/1/2020, the contest page may have other giveaways available) John Eisenberg Bio Note - this is from Adams' bio on http://www.johneisenberg.com/bio/ (his website). John's writing journey began when he was a sports-loving youngster in Dallas, Texas. After completing the imaginary football and basketball games that occupied him for hours after school, he would come inside, sit down in front of a typewriter and author game stories, copying the styles from articles in the local newspapers, which he devoured every day. His love affair with writing and reading continued with his first job as a teenager. He worked at an independent bookstore that his mother co-owned. As a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he majored in English but spent most of his time at the school newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, where he was a staff writer and sports columnist. In his senior year, Penn's basketball team won the Ivy League and went on a miracle run to the Final Four. John traveled to Salt Lake City for the event – the first of dozens of major sports events he would cover. After college, he wrote for newspapers for almost three decades, starting at the Dallas Times Herald, one of the papers he had devoured every day as a boy. His first job was covering high school sports, where Texas' fabled “Friday Night Lights” provided a rich writing tableau. After jumping to The Baltimore Sun in 1984, he spent more than two decades as a columnist covering major events around the globe while also paying close attention to his hometown teams – the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Orioles, and Maryland Terrapins. Along the way, he wrote 3,000 columns, won more than 20 awards, and witnessed historic sports achievements such as Cal Ripken's Ironman streak, Tiger Woods' barrier-busting Masters triumph, Michael Jordan's Game 6 masterpiece against the Utah Jazz in 1998, and both of the Ravens' Super Bowl triumphs in January 2001 and February 2013. He covered the Olympics in Los Angeles (1984), Calgary (1988), Albertville, France (1992), Lillehammer, Norway (1994) and Sydney, Australia (2000). After the experience of working in a bookstore, John set a goal to author a book. That goal was attained when he published his first work of narrative nonfiction in 1996. The book was The Longest Shot, about an unlikely Kentucky Derby winner, a relatively obscure horse named Lil E. Tee. John has since written nine more books on baseball, pro football and horse racing. In 2017 he published The Streak: Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken Jr., and Baseball's Most Historic Record, an in-depth examination of baseball's Iron Man record, which Gehrig and Ripken made famous. It was a finalist for the Casey Award, which honors the best baseball book of the year, and was short-listed for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting, which honors the best sports books of the year. Although he left newspapers in 2007 to focus on his books, John has continued to write daily about Baltimore sports, first at csnbaltimore.com and now as a columnist for the Ravens. He has also written for Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian Magazine, and Details, and taught an upper-level sports journalism class at Towson University. John lives in Baltimore with his wife of 34 years, Mary Wynne. They have two grown children: Anna, a University of Maryland graduate who works as a corporate designer near Washington D.C.; and Wick, a former college pitcher who works as a... Support this podcast

Air India has been operating charter flights between USA and India to repatriate its citizens who have been held up getting back home by travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has also been selling tickets to the public. USA Department of Transportation (DOT) says the Indian government and regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have not allowed US airlines to operate same kind of flights to India, creating what DOT termed “a competitive disadvantage for US carriers”. Right now when it comes to ULDs the modern day boxcars, we stay in touch with Bob Rogers a person that has thought about these things for most of his life examining all possibilities as the spirit and guiding force of ULD Cares. As he speaks you can imagine if Bob had his way, he might even live in a can and listen to the patter of rain on the tin roof as he thinks his next big thoughts. The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) recognized Jill Maschmeier who serves as the National Carriers, Inc. Director of Safety/Compliance, with the “TCA Safety Professional of the Year 2020 Clare C. Casey Award “. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geoffrey-arend/support

Howard Bryant is a multi-award-winning author, sports journalist, and radio and television personality with ESPN and NPR. He is the author of the Legends series for young readers; Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston; The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron; Juicing the Game; and Full Dissidence. The only two-time winner of the prestigious Casey Award for baseball writing, Howard is a senior writer for ESPN.com and is a regular contributor to NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Zach has the honor of speaking with Howard Bryant, an award-winning author and senior writer at ESPN, about what prompted him to write his latest book, Full Dissidence, and how he landed on the title, and Howard also talks a bit about some of the differences between power and money. Howard also touches on his coverage of Colin Kaepernick's workout, and he graciously shares his concerns about the direction of this country, particularly in the area of journalism.Connect with Howard on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and don't forget to check out his website.Learn more about Howard's latest book, Full Dissidence, by clicking here.Interested in finding out more about Howard's other books? Click here to be redirected to his Amazon page.Visit our website!TRANSCRIPTZach: What's up, y'all? It's Zach with Living Corporate, and you know what we do. Every single week we're having real talk in a corporate world. We do that by what? Having authentic conversations with black and brown thought leaders, activists, educators, executives, recruiters, entrepreneurs, anybody really who's willing to center underrepresented experiences in the workplace. And man, I'm just really excited, because this week we have Howard Bryant on the podcast. Howard Bryant is the author of nine books, the most recent being Full Dissidence: Notes From an Uneven Playing Field, and he's contributed essays to 14 others. He is a two-time Casey Award winner for best baseball book of the year, and a 2003 finalist for the Society for American Baseball Research Seymour Medal. The Heritage was the recipient of the 2019 Nonfiction Award from the American Library Association’s Black Caucus and the Harry Shaw and Katrina Hazard Donald Award for Outstanding Work in African American Studies awarded by the Popular Culture Association. He has been a senior writer for ESPN since 2007 and has served as the sports correspondent for NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday since 2006. In 2017, he served as the guest editor for the Best American Sports Writing anthology. He has won numerous awards, as y'all should've heard by now, [laughs] and he was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in 2016 and 2018, both for commentary, and earned the 2016 Salute to Excellence Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. In addition, Mr. Bryant has appeared in several documentaries, including Baseball: The Tenth Inning and Jackie Robinson, both directed by Ken Burns, and Major League Legends: Hank Aaron, produced by the Smithsonian and Major League Baseball. Mr. Bryant, welcome to the show, man. How are you doing?Howard: I'm good. Thank you for having me.Zach: Man, thank you for being here. Let me start off by saying I was familiar with your work because, you know, I'm an ESPN consumer, but it was over the past few months in your--and really, like, frankly the past over a year or so of your coverage of Kaepernick, but particularly the workout that had me really investigate your work and pre-order Full Dissidence. Can we talk a little bit about what prompted you to write this book and how you got to the title for the book?Howard: Well, I think that the first question is... I think time, you know, got me--when you work on projects and when you write, it's an organic process in so many different ways. You don't really even know what you're gonna be working on, but the environment around you begins to dictate an urgency, and things start telling you that, "Okay, these are subjects--" As I always say, if an idea comes and goes, it's really not that important. If it keeps staying with you and keeps staying with you, then you have to pay attention to it. And what was happening I think in this country, if you start to look at the accumulation of the election of Barack Obama followed by Trayvon Martin followed by Jordan Davis and Ferguson and Eric Garner and all of these different things that were happening, also then followed by Kaepernick and then followed by the election of Donald Trump. You've got so many issues here that you have to pay attention to, and especially as African-Americans, you feel certainly that--the racial component of all of these ideas hit you close to home. They're not just topics. It's not just a subject for you. And I think for me what was really becoming more and more clear was that they were all connected and that the connectedness of it told you that there was something else happening that you need to explore, especially--to be more specific, I would think certainly the 2016 election made me think--it made me re-examine the relationship that I had with my white friends and my white colleagues and the people that I grew up with and all of these folks that you associate with who, in so many different ways, would want you to believe and that you would want to believe were your friends for life or that you had great relationships with and that you had great professional relationships with, and then you get to a place like this, you know, election-wise, and you start to see the gap, or when you start talking to your white colleagues about policing and you start hearing how wide the gap is between you, and then you start looking at the gap as well between what was being said about--you know, about America and its post-racial potential during the Obama administration, and then you go from that to this presidency. It just made me look at all of these different components as a black man, and you had to start reassessing the relationships and what they meant and what it meant for me personally.Zach: Man, that's just a really--well, thank you for that and the context. You're absolutely right. I recall--it's interesting because I've had long-standing relationships with white folks, and I recall during the election, leading up to it and then of course after the results, having certain conversations that I just made a presumption that we agreed about or that I would just think that--Howard: "We're on the same side."Zach: [laughs] Right? And then you have a conversation or you say something and you say--you know, you have a point of view on something that's pretty pointed or matter-of-fact, and then not to get that same level of acknowledgement back almost like--you know, you might say something like, "You know, this is clearly wrong," and then, you know, you get back a "Well, is it? I don't know." Howard: They're like, "Oh, is it really clearly wrong?" Yeah. I mean, for me the first moment of it was October 1st, 2008, and I remember this specifically because I was driving to Logan Airport in Boston. I was going down to Atlanta to go to Hank Aaron's house. I was interviewing him for my Hank Aaron biography, so I remember the date clearly. And I was on the phone with a friend of mine who I had known since we were in middle school, and she was--you know, she's a white woman, and I'm driving to the airport, and we were talking, and at some point she sort of said out loud that Sarah Palin was far more qualified to be president than Barack Obama, and that stopped me--I almost drove off the road.Zach: That would've stopped me dead. [laughs]Howard: Right? So that was the first moment where it was like, "You know what? You can't assume anything," and it really started to begin this reassessment. And it wasn't simply that we had differences of opinion. You can vote for whoever you want to vote for and I can vote for whoever I want to vote for, but the issue was more about values, and it was more about what's being said and how white people are able to balance these viewpoints and the values of these people that they're supporting and still be able to consider themselves great, great, close friends with black people, and it struck me that the reason why they're able to do this is because for them race and politics and these things, they're just topics. It's just a subject, and--Zach: They're like thought exercises, right?Howard: Well, exactly. And it may be more to them on some level, that it's not just a topic because you care about the dolphins or you care about the environment or you care about whatever, but what it is is that they're able to co-exist. They're not line-in-the-sand "I can't hang out with you" issues. It's like, "Okay." The thing that had struck me was the number of times that you've had people talk about, during the impeachment, the end of democracy, and they would use these apocalyptic terms. You know, January 21st, 2020, the day democracy died, and then in the very next sentence talk about, you know, "I can't believe how my Trump-loving friends are--" You know? I'm like, "Well, wait a minute. If you're able to break bread with these folks, and you're able to just flip the switch that it's a difference of opinion, then it's not apocalyptic." Apocalyptic means I need to make life and death choices here. I need to make survival or non-survival choices. That's what apocalyptic means to me. It means the apocalypse is coming, right? And so for me I was realizing that as a black man and as a writer and somebody who thinks about these issues as more than just topics, I wanted to re-assess the people in my life, and I wanted to re-assess these issues, and I wanted--and I think one of the things in the book that was so important to me was in that re-assessment I couldn't help but keep coming back to the importance of where Colin Kaepernick fit in this in the first chapter. I remember right when the election hit I said to a bunch of friends, "A lot of relationships are gonna change after this day," and I was really in some ways talking about myself. But what I meant about Kaepernick is here was a guy who hadn't played football since 2016 and yet he still finds himself completely at the center of the culture. He still creates or elicits such an enormous physical response from people, and my question in that first essay, what Colin Kaepernick taught us, was really to ask one major question. I mean, there's a bunch of different ideas in that essay, but one of the overarching questions for me was why is it so important for this culture to destroy this man? It's bad enough that he's not playing football, the fact that when Nike rehabilitated him with just a commercial, one 90-second commercial, you had people trying to boycott Nike. Zach: Burning it. Burning clothes.Howard: Exactly. You had people--and they weren't just people, they were law enforcement, retailers, people in the mainstream. People in positions of authority.Zach: Institutions, yeah.Howard: Exactly, going out of their way to make sure that this man didn't have anything. So you didn't want him--so it's bad enough that he's not gonna play, right? Okay, so he lost his livelihood there. You don't even want him to have a source of income.Zach: "We gotta destroy his character."Howard: Yeah. Well, I wanted to ask this question - "Why is this so important?" I mean, supposedly this is America where everybody is able to have their opinions and that's what makes us different from these other countries, you know? They don't lock you up and kill your family and do all of these different things for disagreeing with government or disagreeing with institutions, and yet you're trying to destroy him. You're not trying to take his life, but you're trying to take his livelihood, and that struck me as important.Zach: Howard, it's interesting, you know--the line you just said, "Why is it so important that we destroy this man?" That was something that you actually said--you said it on air, [laughs] and so--Howard: Yeah, on Stephen A.'s show. Zach: Yeah. [laughs] It seemed like you were, like, the--it was, like, you and I'ma say Bomani Jones were, like, for me, the only black men I saw in media initially, right? So people came back. Like, other folks--Shannon Sharpe came back and he said, "I was wrong," but initially you and Bomani Jones were the only black male voices that I heard in the sports space, like, either defend or objectively discuss Kaepernick when the whole workout situation came up. Was there tension there because of that? It just seemed--and maybe because of me, I'm on the outside looking in as a consumer, 'cause I really--I was watching, and it was your tweet thread that I was sharing with all of my friends and my colleagues and my network and everything about "Hey, this is what's going on. Look at what Howard Bryant is saying. He was there at the workout," but it seemed as if you were, like, one of, again, two voices really not kind of following the same cadence of questioning Kaepernick's content, questioning his motivations, questioning his ability. Am I off-base by saying that?Howard: No, you're not, and I was concerned--and let's be honest, you know? I'm concerned about the direction of this country, and if you are concerned about the direction of the country, you have to be triply concerned about the position of black people. Because if things are going bad, you know we're gonna get it worse. And so to me, one of the areas where I had the most concern is in our journalism. It's very basic stuff, and I was concerned, and disappointed in so many ways, during, you know, my time down there in Atlanta and the coverage that followed, because I didn't do anything remarkable. I did what we're trained to do. It's simply journalism. But it shows you where we are in the culture. It shows you where we are as a country. If people treated that like there was some--like I went above and beyond the call of my job. I just did my job. That was it. The job was to go down there and find out what was happening and talk to people and find out what the deal was. That's it. It wasn't like it took any great deal of courage to go do that. You went down there, you talked to both sides, you found out what both sides' positions were, and you recognize--because we're not, you know, stenographers, you don't [write?] them both equally. You also put your brain in the middle of it, and you filter out what is accurate, what is inaccurate, and sort of how this deal and how this workout fell apart. The problem was, and the problem is of course, that Colin Kaepernick is a lightning rod in so many ways, but you also have a media that is so tilted towards the powerful. You've got rights holders. You've got relationships. You've got business relationships that, you know, are going to overwhelm, in some ways, the journalism. I had an interview the other day and somebody said to me, "Well, I think on balance, when you look at everything, Colin Kaepernick has really been lauded and appreciated and celebrated by media," and I was like, "Are you out of your mind?"Zach: That's not true at all.Howard: I said, "I find Colin Kaepernick's position to have been distorted from Day One."Zach: Absolutely. Yes.Howard: Because every person that goes out there and talks about the military when Colin is talking about policing is inherently distorting his message. If you're talking about, you know, being American or un-American, you're distorting his message. I never felt like he was being treated fairly in any of this because the message kept getting distorted, and we're supposedly very, very smart people, so it's not that complicated a message. Zach: You know, and it's interesting because--so to your point around distorting the message, even from the jump when he said, "Look, I'm protesting police brutality and white supremacy in this country," I don't recall anyone ever zooming in on the white supremacy part, like, in the punditry or the media talking heads, right? Like, we would zoom on--Howard: Well, why would they? They're the bulls-eye. He's indicting them. He wasn't indicting police only, he was indicting them as well, and I think that one of the big issues that struck me in this entire sort of story, and also one of the reasons for writing the book, was the fact that the idea--over the course of my lifetime, all 51 years of it, the American flag was always a symbol of aspiration, just like the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of aspiration. "Come here and you can do better. Come here and you can improve. Come here and you can go as far as your ability and talent takes you," and it was always aspirational when it came to race. Even, you know, your white friends would look at you and go, "Yeah, I know it's not fair, but we're better than we were," and "I know it's not--you know, this isn't right, and we've got a long way to go, but we're better than we were," right? That was always the message that was sent to me. Today the flag is no longer aspirational. The flag is a symbol to be obeyed, and if you don't obey it, you're un-American, you're a traitor, you don't deserve anything, and that is a fundamental shift. And that is a fundamental shift that I would point back to 9/11. And so when you start looking at what this country is, if the attitude is "If you do not obey, then you are a traitor," then what does that mean for black people, where the rules and the laws have needed to be changed just to give you a shot at what we call the American Dream? It puts us in an incredibly difficult position and, in a lot of ways, a position where--you hear what the president has done along the Kaepernick story, which is to essentially say "Well, maybe he doesn't belong here." It's to say that you aren't American. It's a very dangerous place.Zach: Well, you're absolutely right, and going back a second, I know one thing--one thing that trips me out is when folks say, you know, "We're not what we were. We've come a long way." It's like, "Look, if where you started was y'all can't sit at a lunch table with us, y'all can't use the bathroom with us, and now we can... that's not a long way," and, you know, it's almost like if your team was--I feel like Bomani Jones said this example, like, years ago. Like, if your team was, like, 0-16 last year and now y'all are, like, 2-14, it's like... there's been progress, but is that really something that we want to celebrate? Like, we still have--we have so much further to go that why are we even talking about this? Let's just continue--Howard: And also do I consider it progress because you're willing to treat me like a human being? What did I actually earn?Zach: That part.Howard: What have I done? I mean, what has been earned here? What has been gained? So this conversation isn't between you and me. This conversation is between you and you, you know? This conversation is between you not giving me rights and you creating a culture that denied my rights and you relenting a tiny bit so now I get a little bit of rights, but my situation hasn't really changed. This is between you and the mirror. Zach: So in your book you talk about the role that fear played in NFL players not supporting Kaepernick in his protest, right? And this was interesting to me in real-time, because I am--I'm a younger professional. I can't say I'm young, Howard, 'cause I'm 30. So I'm not, like, young, but you know what I mean. Like, I'm younger.Howard: Yeah, you're pretty young.Zach: I'm pretty young, right? So I'm moving around, and this was a few years ago, so I'm in my mid-20s, and I'm looking at all this in real-time and I'm like, "Dog, these guys got--these are millionaires, right? Why are they not--you know, they have acc--" In my mind, 'cause I'm--again, I'm in my mid-20s. I'm making, like, I don't know, like, 60, $70,000, so I'm a quote-unquote "average guy," and I'm confused because I'm trying to figure out why it is that they're not speaking up, but in your essay you highlight some of the differences between, like, power and money. Can we talk about that a little bit more? Because I think it's easy for folks to presume that if you have money you naturally have some amount of power.Howard: Yeah, absolutely, and I think that what we've got here--there's a couple of things that take place, right? And you can think about this as aspirational and think about it as progress, or you can assess it in any way that you'd like, but the question that I've been asking myself is--sports is the only industry that I can think of, and that includes music and entertainment, where there is famous men and famous women who are labor but still make millions of dollars. Tom Hanks makes $20 million per picture. Samuel L. Jackson, you know, $20 million per picture, and so--you know, Scarlett Johansson it's $15 million per picture, however much she makes per movie. So these are enormous, ball player-level sums of wealth, but sports is the only occupation that I can think of where we have this assumption or this instinct that management and the front office is supposed to resemble the workforce. It really is curious in that way, because if you look at farming, and you go fly out to California, there's a whole bunch of brown, Mexican strawberry pickers out there, and nobody is looking at them and saying, "Well, damn, the workforce is 70% or 80% Latino. How come the management isn't 70 or 80% Latino?" If you go to a strip club, there's a whole bunch of women out there making a whole bunch of money for the building, but nobody is saying, "Well, how come the women don't run the business?" But we do in sports. You know, 80% black men in the NBA, 70% black men in the NFL, and we say, "Well, why aren't they running the show too?" And the reason to me is the enormous over-estimation of money. It's because they make so much money we think they have power, but they're still just labor. They're incredibly well-compensated labor, but they're still labor, and sports is the one place, you know, where we over-estimate money, and we recognize, when we get to situations like Kaepernick's or you get to situations like hiring and you recognize, "Oh, there's a limitation to the money," that they're still paying you to provide a service to them. You're still a worker. You're still labor. There isn't, in their mind, the expectation that that's gonna translate into a pathway to management or ownership. It doesn't work that way, and I think people are finding out the hard way. Like, for example, you had asked me earlier the reason for the title "Full Dissidence," and the title, you know, simply comes from this feeling of recognizing that, you know what, it's not gonna necessarily happen for me the way they've told me if I do all these right things, and I think the NFL coaches are sort of having that full dissidence moment in their occupation. They're realizing that no matter, you know, how many Rooney Rules you have or how many assistant coaching jobs and how much experience I have that "that pathway may not exist for me," and I think from a working labor, occupational standpoint, it's a cold bucket of water in the face.Zach: I agree, of course. I think it's interesting because we have been--I know that I was, by my teachers, by black, brown, and white folks alike, that, you know, if you're good enough you can out-perform racism. You can out-perform--Howard: Yeah, exactly. Bomani brought up that point as well, that nobody has ever out-performed racism.Zach: And that, you know, if you get enough dollars, that financial capital will eventually translate into some form of white capital that you can, you know, leverage to get--Howard: To get a seat at the table. I remember when I was working on The Heritage I had a fantastically honest and frank conversation with Al Sharpton about this. So we're in his office in New York, and we're talking about this, and, you know, it's a despairing conversation in some ways because you're realizing, "Okay, well, where is the pathway?" And I finally said to him--I said, "Well, you know, Rev, maybe Michael Jordan had it right. Maybe, you know, for all the criticism that Michael Jordan gets, maybe Michael Jordan realized, even though he is an owner, you know, he recognizes that there's not an open pathway to ownership and you're not necessarily gonna get a seat at the table, so maybe the goal is to simply get as much money as you possibly can, that money is the one thing that they're willing to give you. They're not gonna share the power, but they will give you the cash. So maybe you should work on getting as much of that as you can, and that's gonna buy you at least the individual and the family freedom to live a better life." And Sharpton said, "Well, you're right, you're right... but you're still a coward. Even though you may be right, that still makes you a coward." [Zach laughs] Zach: I'ma keep it a bean with you, 'cause I was talking to my people, right? And I just said--I said, "Dog, Howard Bryant is a real one, dog. Like, he's out--" And you're right, you're right. You were saying that you were just doing your job. You were just doing your job by going out there and reporting the facts, but doggone it, man, you was looking like Fred Hampton in these streets, man. Like, you were the only--Howard: Well, and that shows you where we're at though. It says less about me and more about us.Zach: Yeah, the system. No, you're absolutely right. I do feel like we're able to see the capitalistic jig really clear in sports, but do you believe that it's exclusive to sports, or do you think that, like, the patterns that we see in terms of how these systems are all--how they work together in certain ways transcends just, like, the sporting arena?Howard: No. I think that--one of the reasons why I did Full Dissidence was because there's so much overlap that you needed to pull outside of sports, that what was happening in sports is the exact same thing that's happening in the culture, and the difference is--the reason why it was important to pull some of these ideas out of sports is because people treat sports like it's the toy department. They don't treat it seriously, but yet if you took some of these exact same ideas and brought them into the workplace, into the corporate, into the white collar, then people might look at them differently, and people might view it as, "Oh, now this is serious." You know, the reason why you don't look at it very seriously in sports is because 1. sports is entertainment for a bunch of people, and 2. we dismiss sports because the players make so much money. So it's almost as if "Well, because they make money, they can't have any grievance, any gripes, any concerns, any thoughts, any contributions." So absolutely I think that things are overlapping each other, and one of the most important ways that they're overlapping is the way that the corporate side and the military side know how important sports is because you've got so many bazillion channels on TV now. You've got so many different ways that the culture is separated. Sports is the one place where everybody's watching the same thing. You watch the Super Bowl, you still got 100 million eyeballs on one event, and you don't--it's not The Tonight Show anymore, you know? Or it's not the old days where everybody's watching MASH or Happy Days or All in the Family, but when it comes to sports people are still watching, so they know that's where the eyeballs are. So sports becomes actually more important. There's a reason why, when you're watching the NFL, you see all of the flags and the fly-overs and the military and all that, because the military is actively using sports as a recruiting tool because there are so many people looking at it.Zach: So you talked about 2008. That was certainly a pivotal year. I think about 2008, and I also think about 2016, right? You had the end of an era with Obama, of this [sarcastically] post-racial utopia, and this--Howard: Which it wasn't.Zach: [laughs] Thank you for--I appreciate that, because there will be folks, Howard, who won't pick up on the sarcasm, so thank you.Howard: Mm-hmm.Zach: And then we had the formal election of Trump, right? And Kaepernick was in the forefront in the concept of his protest, the ongoing discussions about policing--a lot of those discussions came more in the center. Ta-Nehisi Coates and his writing also became more, like, actual talking points. Like, it was an interesting year for black folks, and as someone who is in professional services as a consultant, I can say that you could really see the tone of the workplace shifting too because, again, we don't live compartmentalized lives, right? Like, you know, you just talked about sports permeating and everyone looking at it, and even if you're not a sports fan, those topics are becoming more and more mainstream, and I believe that all of these things came together, and even just the tone--just the way that black and brown folks were working and showing up and even, like, topics around diversity and inclusion, they changed, right? Like, those conversations became more on the forefront. You talked about a conversation you had with Reverend Al Sharpton. Can we talk about any other shifts that you've been seeing--you know, again, we talked about even your appearance on different shows and things of that nature. Do you feel as if you've felt shifts as a black journalist dealing with either white journalists or other black journalists as it comes to concepts around dissidence?Howard: Oh, absolutely, absolutely, and I think that the problem that you have in sports is that sports has been telling you one of the biggest lies for pretty much all of our lives, that sports is the place of the meritocracy, sports is the antidote to racism, that it doesn't make a difference if you're black or white, it doesn't make a difference if you're Latino or Asian. If my score beats your score, I win, and that's the American Dream right there, right? That's why sports was at the center of integration, you know? If black people can fight in a war, how come they can't hit a baseball? Right? And whoever's got the fastest 40 time or the fastest 100 time, they win. There's your meritocracy, and yet you find out in sports, when you look at what's been taking place in this business, that it's really no different from anywhere else, and I think that the hard part that people of color, you know, especially black people find in the workforce is they're finding that that shift is hitting them directly, and it's hitting them in places where they may not have anticipated. I'm very nervous for your generation. I'm very concerned about young, black professionals in the business today, for some of them whose first election was Obama, you know? That was the first year they were eligible to vote, and the expectations that they have, and even the elites, you know? The black students who are going to the Ivy League schools and to the Harvards and also to the Dukes and the Stanfords and the rest of these--you know, Vanderbilt and these other elite schools, and then they get into the workforce, and then they find out that things haven't changed, that they thought they were different. They thought that these old ideas didn't apply to them because we had treated the Obama election as such a demarcating line, and in retrospect it turns out to have not been such a demarc--in fact, what it did was it was a retrenchment. It was a reminder historically that whenever black people receive some form of victory, the backlash is harsh and swift and very severe and very clear, and in discovering that, I wonder what your generation and what that generation of black professionals, how they're gonna deal with it, this expectation of equality, this expectation that they are going to be that first black generation where merit actually does count. And then you find out in the corporate world, you walk in, and whether we're talking about sports with the Selig Rule or the Rooney Rule or the lack of black college coaches, or then you walk into the white collar world and you realize who's getting promoted and who's not and the diversity and inclusion initiatives and all of that, and you do have to ask yourself the same question over and over again, and that is if you need a policy to tell your bosses to even--not even hire, but just to interview people, you've got major, major, major problems, and you're not anywhere near as ahead as you think you are. Zach: Howard, and that's why--and, you know, I'm not a sports journalist, right? So I would say I am a casual consumer of sports, but that's--the Rooney Rule, just from, like, a human capital, change management--'cause that's my space, right? So just from, like, a business perspective, I found the Rooney Rule to be disingenuous at its heart, because it's like, "Okay, you're just saying that we have to interview people." I don't believe that correlates to you actually hiring more people, and we have tons of evidence--and, like, it's like the Rooney Rule continues to come up every handful of years about, you know, how effective is it really, and yet we haven't changed it. But it's like, "You creating some formal rules to interview typically black men for these coaching roles doesn't actually address the heart of the matter, which is that you don't inherently see these individuals as leaders of people."Howard: The question is, for the corporate world, and I've asked this question numerous times when I do these types of stories, are you grooming me to replace you? Because if you're not grooming me to replace you, then all of this is performative. Do you look at me and are you willing to have me be the face of your institution? You know, that is not a hard question to answer, but it's a very hard question to acknowledge, because the answer is generally no. I have made this argument to people, and people don't like it because, you know, they think it's too political because they don't want to confront their own history, but you can just look it up. It's not hard. I've always told people that if you are anti-big government you are anti-black, and people say, "No, no. I'm just a libertarian." And I'd say, "No," which is also my way of being direct, because anti-big government is a clear Republican platform. Whether you're black or white, if you are a Republican who supports the shrinking of government, chances are you're a racist. And why would I say that? I say that because historically, if you look at hiring patterns since the end of World War II, the federal government built the middle class, the black middle class. The federal government, you know, in terms of hiring, in terms of civil service jobs, the federal government built the black middle class, and as you start to shrink those positions, you shrink the black middle class. Whether you're doing it by design or whether indirectly, the end result is the same, and what I'm getting at here, for your space, is that the private, corporate sector still does not routinely and prominently hire and promote black people. It still doesn't, and so if you're going to cut the number of government jobs, whether it's state, whether it's federal, post office, whatever you want to call it, you are actively crushing the black middle class. This is the reason why these diversity and inclusion initiatives are so important, because this corporate world is not making those hires, and because they're not making those hires and because they can't be compelled to make those hires, you are at the mercy of what you may what you want to call progress or what we know to be lack of progress. So at some point--like, for example, you know, I went--and I think there's an anecdote... yes, there's an anecdote in the book about this, that I was at a diversity and inclusion event in Boston, and all of these CEOs sat down, and it was amazing. The first panel had a group of really well-prepared women making their pitches about, you know, some of their initiatives they're working on, and they were all so prepared, and it was crazy because they were incredibly polite. So they were incredibly well-dressed. They knew this was a shot to be on a major stage talking to major players in their industry at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. And they didn't interrupt each other, and they all did their presentations, and it was--you know, I understood it. It made sense. And then the next panel were the CEOs, and it looked like a country club. They were all wearing their suits, but they weren't necessarily--I don't even know if they were ironed. I mean, they just showed up because they're the bosses. They were in charge. Some of them wore ties and some of them didn't. They did not look at this like they were showing to this audience of black and brown women, you know? They weren't. It was very chummy. And they sat down, and they yucked it up with each other, and they cracked jokes and interrupted each other, because they were the bosses. They were in charge. And one of the most remarkable things that came across this entire event was when one of them talked about diversity and inclusion and promotions and talked about how it was easier for them to promote white men, because if white men in their offices didn't get jobs they were gonna make the biggest noise. They were gonna complain the most. They were gonna be the most disruptive. And the black women and the white women in the business were less likely to complain, which made it easier to pass them over for jobs. And it was a stunning, absolutely stunning, admission at a diversity and inclusion seminar.Zach: At an actual--targeted for this particular space.Howard: Exactly. Here was the beauty of this, which was obviously heartbreaking and painful, but it was the beauty of it. It was said so matter of factly that they didn't even know what they were admitting. They were essentially admitting that "No, we're not--" You know, "We'd like to hire you, but we know--" Because they were taking the path of least resistance. If I promote this guy or this woman, then this guy's gonna complain and be disruptive, so I might as well give him the promotion so at least I can have harmony. I can have the appearance at least of order. It's essentially almost like the corporate indictment of Martin Luther King, Jr. [?] white moderate, "order over justice." As long as nobody's mad and nobody says anything, everything's cool. And it's like, "No, wait a minute. You're contributing to this by having no courage. And by the way, if you're the boss and you've got a disruptive employee, he's insubordinate. You've got the power to do something about that." And that's the reason why that chapter in the book is called The Mediocre White Boy, because these guys are protecting each other at the expense of your advancement.Zach: Man. You know, your book collects a series of pieces, all of them powerful. The bylines of many of them I read was this concept of, like, self-erasure, right? So there were multiple instances where athletes would say, you know, "I'm not black, I'm this," or "I'm not anything, I'm just me," and, you know, I see a similar pattern for well-to-do black professionals, like, executives. I've literally met folks who will say, "Well, I'm not just black. I'm also a tennis player." [laughs] Or "I'm just me," you know? "That's part of who I am, but I'm a complex person," or--Howard: One of the biggest problems that we have in business and when we talk about ourselves is the idea of what blackness is, and we do this to ourselves, and when we do it to ourselves, then that gives white people license to do it ten times worse to us. And when you watch, you know, film, and you watch Hollywood and you watch everything, they essentially assume there's one black experience, because we attack each other so often on authenticity. And, you know, one of the reasons why I did this book was because I felt like there was an opportunity to talk about certain elements of the black experience that never get discussed. I mean, one of the beauties of Ta-Nahesi Coates' writing is that he writes very specifically about a very specific black experience, his experience, you know, in Baltimore and as a professional, and he writes about being black in black communities. The same is true for a bunch of other writers, but one of the areas that we never really talk about is that post-1960s, post-1950s aspirational, you know, black families who made that decision--the same decision that white people made, whether it was white flight or black flight--that "I'm going to take my kids out of the black community and move them into the white spaces." And what happened to those black kids who grew up immediately and always as the only black kid in class? You're the only black kid in the first grade. You're the only black kid in the twelfth grade. You essentially live in a world of whiteness, and why are we asking you to live in this world of whiteness? For education. Your parents are doing this for you. They're doing this because--like, in my case, when we left Boston, we were trading the physical violence of a tough, tough neighborhood for the emotional violence of being the only black kid in a room full of white people. So eventually as that toll begins to mount on you, you enter these white corporate spaces, and you recognize very quickly the price of being black and the anti-blackness that you're surrounded by. And sometimes you hear, or a lot of times this becomes the price for you to advance - not to be black, not to talk about being black, not to be proud of being black. You hear black people say this all of the time. "Well, I don't want to be a black writer. I just want to be a writer who happens to be black." What on earth does that mean? "I'm not a black doctor. I'm a doctor that happens to be black." And what you're really saying is that "I can't carry this anymore. I don't want to carry this, because if I carry this with me I may not advance and I gotta answer questions I don't feel like answering." And you see it in sports especially where sort of this deal is they're going to trade your blackness for money, okay? "We're gonna pay you millions of dollars, but we don't want you talking about issues that are important to black people." So I began to think about this in two of the chapters. One is called "The Worst Thing in the World" and the other one is called "The Lost Tribe of Integration," which is that when I started thinking about the arc of my own life, that the arc is that your life will improve the faster and quicker you get away from black people. If you get away from the black community, your schools get better. If you get away from talking about black issues, then you're not a troublemaker at work anymore, you know? If you don't advocate for black people, then people will look at you and tell you that you've transcended race, as if looking in the mirror is something that you should not want. Zach: You know, what's really interesting about that is even in the diversity and inclusion, like, corporatized space--and I've noticed this as me as a black man, like, the more that I'm able to say things like, "It's not just about race and ethnicity, it's also about diversity of thought--" If even in the space that was supposedly built so that we can have equity for black and brown people and historically marginalized and oppressed groups--even in this space, if I, in my rhetoric, in my general language, if I eschew ethnicity, that is also [?]--Howard: If you advocate directly for black people, you are putting your entire career in danger. And I say this now, and people look at me, and they don't like to hear it, but I'll say it now, I'll say tomorrow, and I said it yesterday - diversity is anti-blackness, because what we're really talking about here when you look at the statistics and when you look at the reasons for the Rooney Rule--you're not looking at the Rooney Rule because Asians are underrepresented, but when you're having your diversity and inclusion initiatives, especially if you're talking about technology--if we're going to Silicon Valley, you're not looking at the Middle-Eastern or the Indian or the Asian and say, "Gee, they're not advancing." What you're looking at is a white space that has no black people, and so many of these D&I initiatives began with black people. It was about black people. It was for black people. But when you do something directly for black people, people get offended. They get mad. They don't want to hear it. They feel like, "Well, what are you giving them special treatment for?" Because you gave us the special treatment of not letting us play. You've been giving us special treatment since we got here. It's just not the special treatment that is a positive special treatment. It's negative, but it's still special. So what has happened in these spaces now is to minimize the idea that you're giving black people special treatment, now you just talk about non-white male treatment. But non-white male treatment does not necessarily address the inequities for black people specifically. So D&I suddenly becomes hiring white women, and so white women--who are often part of the patriarchy, who are always second on the food chain, who can marry into wealth faster than everybody, and if you look at your statistics, marrying into wealth is still the fastest way to become wealthy. The most reliable way to become wealthy isn't going to college, it's to marry into it. So now when you start to look and your demographics change, now all of a sudden--we had 89% white men in a given position, now it's 69% white men in a given position, but it's 29% white women. What does that actually do for black people? So you've got your diversity, but you haven't helped black people. You haven't helped the people on the bottom who were supposedly the target of this initiative. But you've got your diversity, you know? You've got seven white men, two white women, and one--you know, one Asian man, but what does that do for the person on the bottom? It didn't help them at all, yet your numbers are different and you can say, "We've improved diversity by 30%," but what happens to me? You haven't helped me at all. Zach: So we typically have sound effects, Howard, but you've been so fire that I'm not even trying to, like, dilute what you've been saying. So do you ever imagine a world where marginalized communities collectively go full dissidence in their places of work? And, like, if so, what in your mind would that look like?Howard: Well, the answer's no because you've got to eat. I mean, the answer's no because eventually, you know, when you start looking at the actual numbers, the numbers tell you that--they're so overwhelming, that there's only a few of us that are gonna be able to succeed, and so very few people are going to be willing to risk that. I mean, I look at myself and I look at the numbers and I say to myself, "There's nothing special about me," and then you look at the actual number of black people who have my job and you go, "Oh. On second thought, there is something special," because you're one of the few people who actually has a platform, who actually has a chance to say something.Zach: Howard, man. I'm serious. I'm telling you, man. I'm not joking. When you got up on there and you started talking like that, me and all of my friends were like, "Yo... this is gonna be the last time we see this dude up here." [laughs]Howard: Exactly, right? But see, I look at it this way. ESPN hired me to do this. They didn't hire me to act like Bill Simmons or to act like Rick Reilly or to act like Stephen A. They said, "You go out and do what you do best." Now, obviously when you're gonna do this, when you're going to say these different things, it goes back to what you were saying earlier about "Do you want diversity of color or diversity of thought?" Normally, what a lot of corporations want is they want diversity of color, but they don't want diversity of thought because diversity of thought challenges them way too much. So what they would really like is they would like a gigantic, pretty rainbow of different colors who are all represented who all think the same way so the company's not challenged. I understand that part. I don't always subscribe to that part, because as a journalist, you're asking me to represent people who don't have the opportunity to speak, and so I try to do that. That's part of the job, or at least it was part of the job and it should always be part of the job. So the issue is, to answer your question, what needs to happen and how do I envision that? What does that look like? Well, how it looks to me is I think it's more of a mental liberation than a physical one. I think to me, when I think about full dissidence as an idea--and I think I end the book with it--is it's the recognition that you can find your own living space and not let people lie to you or not feel like you have to buy in. You've got to be willing to see through what's happening right now. Look at what's happening to your situation, and then you need to discover your own strategies to find your own peace within it. But the problem that I see is the number of black people in the business who were so [?] and so happy that they get in that they buy into it and they think they're different and they're like, "Okay, everything's changed," and then they get punched in the face. And then they get punched in the face and they had their hands down, and what I'm trying to say is if you're gonna navigate this environment, navigate the environment, but make sure your hands are up and know that punch is coming, because that punch always comes. Ask your parents. Ask your grandparents. That punch always comes. So what you're really asking me in some ways, whether you're doing it directly or not or intentionally or not, is do I see white people changing so there's no need for this, and the answer is no, I don't see that. What I see--and that's one of the reasons why in the book I say it's not a survival guide, it's simply what I see--what I see is the necessity for black people to hold on to their blackness, to keep it and to not trade it and not sacrifice it under this idea that "If I do the right things and if I say the right things I'm gonna get accepted as an American," because it hasn't happened yet, you know? That's the big thing for me, that you look at the--you know, you go watch a movie like Gloria or go read the history of, you know, black participation in warfare, that if you fight for your country or if you win the medals or if you build the charter school or if you, you know, give the money to whatever foundation, that you are finally gonna get accepted, and it goes back to what you were saying. It's that whole idea of outperforming racism. I guess the best way to say it is--what is full dissidence? Full dissidence is the recognition that you cannot outperform racism. That's what it feels like to me.Zach: Man, thank you so much for being on the podcast. This has been incredible. Y'all, make sure y'all check out his--everything's in the show notes. The author, his name is Howard Bryant. The book is called Full Dissidence: Notes from an Uneven Playing Field. Make sure y'all check it out. This has been Zach with the Living Corporate podcast. Make sure you check us out on Instagram @LivingCorporate, Twitter @LivingCorp_Pod, and we're on Google, man. Look, we're all on Al Gore's Internet, man. Livingcorporate.co, .us, .net. Howard, listen, man, we understand how theses SEOs work. We've got all the domains, Howard, except for LivingCorporate.com. Australia has that domain somehow. I don't know what's going on. We're gonna try to get it, but look, [Howard and Zach laugh] y'all make sure y'all hit us up. I can't thank you enough, Howard. Until next time, we'll catch y'all, man. Peace.

Author Anne Keene began her career as a writer after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism degree.Anne’s father was a batboy for the Cloudbuster Nine, a World War II team of fighter-pilot cadets at an elite Navy training school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After her father’s passing, Anne began researching the Major League Baseball players who attended the training school that shaped the lives of many well-known individuals. Her book, The Cloudbuster Nine, was named as a finalist for the 2018 CASEY Award for "Best Baseball Book of the Year.”Mrs. Keene shares incredible stories and lessons learned from her conversations with surviving Major League Baseball World War II veterans. Common values of these individuals include fearlessness, pride in the military and service, generosity, service-oriented, modesty, humility, appreciation of freedom, clarity of beliefs, and respect for authority and leadership. Anne’s research reminds listeners of the importance of positive values and a desire to help others and make the world a better place.Podcast image: Anne Keene's father receiving lessons from Boston Red Sox Ted Williams and Johnny PeskyTo learn more about Author Anne Keene and her work on baseball and the military, please visit her website: https://www.annerkeene.com/To learn more about the Bob Feller Act of Valor Foundation, please visit: http://www.actofvaloraward.org/Hosts: Nathaniel Cameron and Colin KirkEditors and special thank you: Tyler Buchholz, Jack Metcalfe, and Galen OdellSupport the show (https://customcoinholders.com/product/walk-of-heroes/)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Jane Leavy, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax, comes the definitive biography of Babe Ruth—the man Roger Angell dubbed "the model for modern celebrity." A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Boston Globe | Publishers Weekly | Kirkus | Newsweek | The Philadelphia Inquirer | The Progressive Winner of the 2019 SABR Seymour Medal | Finalist for the PEN/ESPN Literary Sports Writing Award | Longlisted for Spitball Magazine’s Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year | Finalist for the NBCC Award for Biography “Leavy’s newest masterpiece…. A major work of American history by an author with a flair for mesmerizing story-telling.” —Forbes He lived in the present tense—in the camera’s lens. There was no frame he couldn’t or wouldn’t fill. He swung the heaviest bat, earned the most money, and incurred the biggest fines. Like all the new-fangled gadgets then flooding the marketplace—radios, automatic clothes washers, Brownie cameras, microphones and loudspeakers—Babe Ruth "made impossible events happen." Aided by his crucial partnership with Christy Walsh—business manager, spin doctor, damage control wizard, and surrogate father, all stuffed into one tightly buttoned double-breasted suit—Ruth drafted the blueprint for modern athletic stardom. His was a life of journeys and itineraries—from uncouth to couth, spartan to spendthrift, abandoned to abandon; from Baltimore to Boston to New York, and back to Boston at the end of his career for a finale with the only team that would have him. There were road trips and hunting trips; grand tours of foreign capitals and post-season promotional tours, not to mention those 714 trips around the bases. After hitting his 60th home run in September 1927—a total that would not be exceeded until 1961, when Roger Maris did it with the aid of the extended modern season—he embarked on the mother of all barnstorming tours, a three-week victory lap across America, accompanied by Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig. Walsh called the tour a "Symphony of Swat." The Omaha World Heraldcalled it "the biggest show since Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, and seven other associated circuses offered their entire performance under one tent." In The Big Fella, acclaimed biographer Jane Leavy recreates that 21-day circus and in so doing captures the romp and the pathos that defined Ruth’s life and times. Drawing from more than 250 interviews, a trove of previously untapped documents, and Ruth family records, Leavy breaks through the mythology that has obscured the legend and delivers the man. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/steve-richards/support

Author Jonathan Eig joins us to discuss his Casey Award-winning biography of legendary Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig. Eig conducted dozens of new interviews and relied on hundreds of pages of previously letters to tell the story off baseball's Iron Horse. Featured song: "Lucky Man," the Verve. 

This week is going to be a treat we have America's number one source for authoritative Negro League and Black MLB Data 1900-1999 Phil S Dixon he's a Historian,Author & Speaker winner of the Casey Award as well as the SABR MacMillian Reseach Award Winner.He's on the least leg of a 200 city tour lets talk about him, his work, how he got into this as well as the great mean and women that are part of the Negro League History

Author Mike Sowell joins us to discuss his Casey Award-winning account of Ray Chapman's on-field death in 1920. Sowell's classic book takes an in-depth look at Chapman, Carl Mays, the 1920 pennant race and more. Featured song: "It's a Shame About Ray," by the Lemonheads. 

Ken Burns calls Jonathan Eig a "master storyteller." Eig is the author of five books, three of them New York Times best sellers. He was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.Eig is a former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, where he remains a contributing writer. Eig has also written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post, among others. Prior to The Wall Street Journal, he worked as a feature writer for Chicago magazine and as a news reporter for The Dallas Morning News and The New Orleans Times-Picayune.Eig's books have been published in 13 languages. His first book, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, won the Casey Award for best baseball book of the year. Ali was named winner of PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting; best book of the year by Sports Illustrated; and one of the ten best non-fiction books of the year by The Wall Street Journal. Ali won best biography and best overall book in the British Sports Book Awards. It also won the award for best biography or memoir from the Society of Midland Authors. It was a finalist for Mark Lynton History Prize; the Plutarch Award; the William Hill Award; the James Tait Black Award for biography; an L.A. Times Book Award for biography; and an NAACP Image Award.Eig has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and in two Ken Burns documentaries: Prohibition and Jackie Robinson. He is currently working with Burns and Florentine Films on a Muhammad Ali documentary. His next book will be a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.