Good Seats Still Available

The date: June 14, 1974   The place: Cleveland's venerable Municipal Stadium   The event: an evening regular-season game between MLB's Cleveland Indians & Texas Rangers   The added attraction: "Ten Cent Beer Night"   The result: one of baseball history's (and American sports') most notorious promotional fiascos   Cleveland native Scott Jarrett ("Ten Cent Beer Night: The Complete Guide to the Riot That Helped Save Baseball in Cleveland") joins the show this week to go deep into the night that changed baseball in The Forest City forever - and is still vividly remembered 50 years afterward with equal parts revulsion and amusement by those who were there (and many more who were not!).   + + +   SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable "Good Seats" Show & Defunct Team Merch:  http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY SPONSOR THANKS: Old School Shirts.com (promo code: GOODSEATS) https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats Royal Retros (promo code: SEATS): http

We raise our sports history IQ a few points this week with an enlightening conversation around the broader cultural importance and underlying social significance of the very venues in which our favorite games are played - with Columbia University professor Frank Guridy ("The Stadium: An American History of Politics, Protest, and Play").   The book's promotional intro sets it up best:   "What comes to mind when we think of stadiums in the United States? For most of us, it’s entertainment: football games, Taylor Swift concerts, monster truck rallies, and rodeos. But as historian Frank Guridy reveals in The Stadium, over the past 150 years, they have also been where people gather to wrestle over defining the soul of America.    "From the wooden ballparks of the 19th century to today’s glass and steel mega-stadiums, these buildings have been the public squares where Americans push and pull over issues of race, class, gender, and sexual inequalities. In The Stadium, Guridy writes of its remarkable role a

Buckle up for a wild ride through some of the most forgotten franchises in recent minor league hockey history - with a colorful lifer who literally fought his way to becoming the NHL's oldest (32) opening-day rookie (with the Boston Bruins), only to see it all fall apart to a concussion after just three games.   This is the raw and savage story of Bobby Robins ("Sex, Drugs, Pucks, and Souls: A Savage Memoir"), whose decade-long odyssey across minor league outposts in places like Binghamton, NY (AHL Senators); Jesenice, Slovenia (HK Acroni); Bakersfield, CA (ECHL Condors); Hoffman Estates, IL (ECHL Chicago Express); and most notably, the Bruins' AHL affiliate in Providence - reveals a troubled, often tortured, personal journey that threatened to derail not only a promising career on the ice, but also his life off of it.   + + +   SUPPORT THE SHOW: "Good Seats" Show & Defunct Team Merch:  http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable   SP

We head back to the diamond this week for a look into the "extraordinarily ordinary" baseball life of 1950s-era infielder Danny O'Connell with biographer Steve Wiegand ("The Uncommon Life of Danny O'Connell: A Tale of Baseball Cards, "Average Players," and the True Value of America's Game"). Wiegand's story is a rich exploration of a player often overlooked in history due to his status as a "common" card in the world of sports memorabilia. However, the book delves far deeper than his on-field statistics, offering a comprehensive look at his life and contributions. O'Connell's story spans from his upbringing in Paterson, NJ, through his professional baseball career during the sport's "Golden Era" - including notable stops with forgotten franchises like the Milwaukee version of the Braves, the New York Giants (including the franchise's move to San Francisco in 1958), the first two seasons of the second version of the Washington Senators (now today's Texas Rangers), and even a 1963 managerial stint wit

New York sports broadcast veterans Scott Orgera and Howie Karpin ("976-1313: How Sports Phone Launched Careers and Broke New Ground") join to help us wax nostalgic about the ground-breaking 1970s telephone service Sports Phone.   From the dust jacket of "976-1313": "Sports Phone set out to change the way scores and breaking news were consumed, and in turn ended up setting the tone for the up-to-the-second updates we take for granted today. Found among those who called the service home are some of the most well-known broadcasters, reporters, public address announcers, and other prominent media figures — as well as several who’ve been successful in Hollywood and the music industry. A veritable breeding ground for these now-polished professionals, the dial-up platform that once handled 50 million calls in a year churned out talent at a level likely not seen before or since. "Brought to you by media veterans Scott Orgera and Sports Phone alum Howie Karpin, "976-1313: How Sports Phone Launched Careers an

[One last dip into the vault before a flood of new episodes beginning next week; from 2020, our revealing conversation with a pro hockey great - and Atlanta Flames original!} For 1970s-era NHL hockey fans who remember the eight-year adventure known as the Atlanta Flames, few are likely to forget Dan Bouchard.  A tenacious, slightly eccentric and occasionally fight-prone French-Canadian goalie, “Bouch” was an immediate standout between the pipes for the NHL’s first-ever Deep South franchise (platooning with fellow Quebecois & expansion draftee Phil Myre during the club’s first five seasons) – and a survivor in a league where hard-nosed hockey was the norm and where good goalies were at a premium. Bouchard’s big-league call-up to the Flames in 1972 came amidst a frantic period of NHL franchise expansion and relocation driven in large part by the arrival of the challenger World Hockey Association – which debuted alongside Atlanta (and the NY Islanders) that season.  And while the collective memory of the ori

[By popular request, an archive re-release from August 2018, featuring our extraordinary conversation with one of the central figures of the original North American Soccer League - from its chaotic formation in 1968 to its untimely demise in 1985.] + + + Soccer America columnist (and Episode #6 guest) Paul Gardner summed up this week's National Soccer Hall of Fame guest in his May 2015 commentary: “The debt owed by American soccer to Clive Toye is a vast one. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say, flatly, that without Toye’s blind faith in the sport in the 1970s, pro soccer in the USA would have withered and died. Yes, Phil Woosnam and Lamar Hunt and Bob Hermann were there too. But in those unpromising years it was Toye’s voice -- it came in a steady flow of ridiculously optimistic press releases and grandiose plans for a future that few others even dared to ponder -- that called loudest. “The New York Cosmos general manager credited with turning that league’s fortunes around when he signed Pele to a c

[An archive re-release favorite from September 2017, featuring one of professional baseball's most enigmatic leagues!] Inc. Editor-at-Large David Whitford (Extra Innings: A Season in the Senior League) joins host Tim Hanlon to retrace his journalistic odyssey covering the inaugural season of the short-lived, Florida-based Senior Professional Baseball Association (SPBA) in the winter of 1989-90.  Whitford recalls the early-career events leading up to his plum writing assignment, and the process by which he went about chronicling this unique, but ultimately ill-fated eight-team circuit for former pro players over the age of 35 (32 for catchers).  Despite half the franchises folding after the first 72-game season (and the rest of the league mid-way through the second), the Senior League afforded dozens of former big-league players and managers what Whitford dubbed a "life-after-death fantasy" – one that attracted both stars and journeymen alike for a chance to either stay fresh for one last shot in the Show, rec

Most US and Canadian domestic soccer fans are certain that the second incarnation of the North American Soccer League (2011-17) officially met its untimely demise in early 2018, just a few months after the first-year San Francisco Deltas beat the New York Cosmos in the 2017 Soccer Bowl - and amidst a seemingly desperate/last-minute antitrust lawsuit alleging collusion between US Soccer and Major League Soccer to keep the league down.   While the NASL hasn't played another game since, the lawsuit - largely ideated and funded by spurned billionaire/Cosmos owner Rocco Commisso - is still very much alive, and now officially headed to trial beginning January 6th of next year.    At issue: whether the governing body of soccer in the US and/or its officially designated top-tier professional league conspired to exclude the NASL from Division I-sanctioned play, and schemed to monopolize the market for men’s pro soccer.   At stake: the future direction, competitive landscape and legal structure of American

We celebrate the legendary career and outsized influence of one of baseball's most recognized voices, with veteran LA sportswriter Tom Hoffarth (Perfect Eloquence: An Appreciation of Vin Scully). From the "Early Days" dustjacket:   "When Vin Scully passed away in 2022, the city of Los Angeles lost its soundtrack. If you were able to deliver a eulogy for him, what might it include? What impact did he have on you? What do you carry forward from his legacy?    "Sixty-seven essayists—one representing each season of his career calling games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, from 1950 through 2016—reflect on the ways his professional and private life influenced them. The contributions include a range of stories and remembrances from those who knew and followed him. The consensus of the contributions is that Scully’s actions spoke louder than his well-recognized words. "This collection includes fellow broadcasters as well as historians, players, journalists, celebrities, and others connected to the game of bas

It's time to fire up the old Jerrold cable box for a trip back to the pre-launch and early first on-air days of cable TV's pioneering Entertainment and Sports Programming Network - better known as ESPN - with founding producer and channel memoirist Peter Fox ("The Early Days of ESPN: 300 Daydreams and Nightmares"). From the "Early Days" dustjacket: "The tales of early ESPN people who gambled their careers while critics carped that “all-sports television will never work” are full of guile, luck, fear, fun, and unbridled optimism. As ESPN’s founding executive producer, Peter Fox was privy to some spectacular professional efforts by a cadre of Connecticut locals who made the dream real.  "The first 300 days of the fledgling network were filled with mayhem, on-air gaffes, and the slowest instant replay in television. What started as a humble idea in the late spring of 1978 to capitalize on the brand-new mania for UConn men’s basketball soon morphed into ESPN and a plan to begin airing a series of “test

First-time sports historians Tom Delise and Jay Seaborg ("Foxy Ned Hanlon: The Baseball Life of a Hall of Fame Manager") join the podcast for a biographical look at one of baseball's most innovative managerial minds - and who just may be related to your humble host! "Foxy" Ned Hanlon was one of the major leagues' earliest tactical visionaries, who recognized the value of speed and strategy in generating runs long before the term “small ball” became popular.  Starting as a fine outfielder, Hanlon played 13 professional seasons with the Cleveland Blues, Detroit Wolverines, the Federal League's one-year Pittsburgh Burghers, Pittsburgh Pirates (neé Alleghenys), and (original American Association-then-National League) Baltimore Orioles - stealing 329 bases after stolen bases were first recorded in 1886.  Despite a modest .260 batting average, Hanlon was renowned for his speed and daring on the bases, as well as his defensive prowess, leading the National League in putouts in 1882 and 1884. Hanlon’s manag

Cultural historian and best-selling British author Kassia St. Clair ("The Secret Lives of Color"; "The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History")  joins the podcast for a look back at the fascinating, improbable and culturally paradigm-shifting 1907 Peking-to-Paris Motor Challenge - as featured in her new book "The Race to the Future: 8,000 Miles to Paris - The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century":   From the "Race to the Future" dust jacket:   "The rise of the automobile as told through its Rubicon moment―a sensational, high-risk race across two continents on the verge of revolution. "The racers―an Italian prince and his chauffeur, a French racing driver, a con man, and several rival journalists―battle over steep inclines, through narrow mountain passages, and across the arid Gobi Desert. Competitors endure torrential rain and choking dust. There are barely any roads, and petrol is almost impossible to find. A global audience of millions follows each twist and turn, devouring reports t

[An essential fan favorite from 2018 - with the dean of "forgotten sports" promotion!]  If someone ever decides to build an American sports promotion Hall of Fame, the inaugural class will undoubtedly be led by this week’s special guest, Doug Verb.  In a career spanning more than 40 years in professional sports management, Verb’s remarkable career has included spearheading marketing, promotion, publicity, and television for some of the most innovative and memorable leagues and franchises of the modern era.  One of the founding executives of both the pioneering Major Indoor Soccer League (along with sports entrepreneurs Earl Foreman, Ed Tepper, and previous podcast guest Dr. Joe Machnik), and the frenetic Arena Football League (with the sport’s inventor [and past two-part guest] Jim Foster), Verb additionally  served as president of pro soccer’s legendary Chicago Sting from 1982-86 – which, incredibly, drifted between playing in two separate leagues during his tenure (for one year, simultaneously) – the outdoo

Baseball historian and Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) contributor Eric Vickrey ("Season of Shattered Dreams: Postwar Baseball, the Spokane Indians, and a Tragic Bus Crash That Changed Everything") joins the podcast for a look back at one of the worst tragedies in the history of US pro sports.   From the dust jacket of Vickrey's new book: "On June 24, 1946, a bus carrying the Spokane Indians baseball team crashed to the bottom of a deep ravine in Washington state’s Cascade mountains, killing nine players. To this day, it remains the deadliest accident in the history of American professional sports. "In Season of Shattered Dreams: Postwar Baseball, the Spokane Indians, and a Tragic Bus Crash That Changed Everything, Eric Vickrey details the series of events that occurred before, during, and after the heartbreaking accident. Vickrey chronicles the often-overlooked impact that the end of World War II had on the major and minor leagues, now crowded with players returning from military servi

We celebrate the 94th birthday of legendary Soccer America columnist Paul Gardner (The Simplest Game: The Intelligent Fan's Guide to the World of Soccer; Soccer Talk: Paul Gardner on Soccer) with this special archive re-release (and our 6th-ever episode!) from 2017. The universally acknowledged "dean" of American soccer writers waxes nostalgic on his unlikely journey from fledgling British pharmacist to the States' most persistently influential commentator on the "beautiful game."  Gardner: Recounts the chaotic formation of the modern professional game in the U.S. during the 1960s; Recalls how ambitious sports entrepreneurs like the International Soccer League’s Bill Cox, and greedy corporate owners like the United Soccer Association’s Madison Square Garden were quickly chagrined by the machinations of soccer’s international governing body; Describes how a complex Welsh-born, player-turned-NASL-commissioner curiously nudged him into national TV game commentating; Remembers when he first recognized pro soccer

During the late 1960s, Dean Tolson ("Power Forward: My Journey from Illiterate NBA Player to a Magna Cum Laude Master's Degree") emerged as a standout prep basketball talent during his junior and senior years at Central High School in Kansas City, Missouri. His prowess on the court attracted the attention of a bevy of college recruiters, leading him to accept a full scholarship offer from the nearby University of Arkansas. Despite literally not knowing how to read or write, Tolson defied significant odds, and became one of the most renowned players in Razorbacks history. In 1974, Tolson was drafted by both the NBA's Seattle Supersonics and the ABA's New York Nets - eventually joining the Sonics to play under the tutelage of the legendary Bill Russell in Seattle, and showcasing his talent on a national stage.  An 11-year journeyman career followed, with stops in the Eastern Basketball Association (Hazleton Bullets), the CBA (including a 1980 league championship with the Anchorage Northern Knights),

It's our first journey into the chaotically exciting history of "professional" roller derby with former skater and long-time keeper-of-the-flame Scott Stephens ("Rolling Thunder: The Golden Age of Roller Derby & the Rise and Fall of the L.A. T-Birds"). From the moment he laced up his first pair of roller skates at age six in mid-1960s Los Angeles, roller derby became more than just a sport to Stephens – it became his passion. In the midst of the craze sweeping through the city, Stephens found himself captivated by the electrifying energy of the Los Angeles Thunderbirds, whose thrilling matches were locally (and nationally) televised, and whose star performers rivaled the fame of players on established sports teams like the Dodgers, Rams and Lakers. As he honed his skills at the T-Bird Rollerdrome in Pico Rivera,  Stephens' love for skating soon transformed into an unexpected opportunity as he discovered the team's urgent need for new talent. From 1978-81, Stephens dove headfirst into the exhilarating wo

It's a special mea culpa episode this week, as we welcome back Szczecin University (Poland) history professor and Episode 289 guest Łukasz Muniowski (Turnpike Team: A History of the New Jersey Nets 1977-2012) for a deep dive into the drama of the NBA's Vancouver Grizzlies move to Memphis in 2001 - and an assessment of the winners and losers some 23+ years since.   While Muniowski's current title on the topic (The Grizzlies Migrate to Memphis: From Vancouver Failure to Southern Success) has been out since October, your humble host not only lost track of the book's publishing date, but also the entire audio file of our conversation (originally recorded back in August 2023) - until a recent cloud backup surfaced a redundant version.   It's worth the wait, as we tackle the origin story of the Grizzlies' move from Vancouver's GM Place (now Rogers Arena) to Memphis' Pyramid (and eventually FedEx Forum), the numerous other destination cities rumored in the process, the outsized personalities involved, the mot

[A dip into the archives for a one of our first-ever episodes from 2017 - by request!] Author Matt Algeo (Last Team Standing: How the Steelers and the Eagles – "The Steagles" – Saved Pro Football During World War II) joins Tim Hanlon all the way from Maputo, Mozambique to discuss the marriage of convenience that literally saved the National Football League from collapse in 1943. Algeo describes how a desperate Art Rooney scrambled to save his Pittsburgh Steelers franchise, depleted by wartime military call-ups; how a hastily assembled squad of ragtag draft rejects practiced football at night while maintaining defense jobs by day (including one player who worked on the eventual war-ending Manhattan Project); why the "Phil-Pitt Combine" wore Eagles colors and played more home games in Philadelphia than in Pittsburgh; and, in a PODCAST EXCLUSIVE, why the story of the Steagles just might soon be coming to a theater near you.