Despite being largely forgotten today, Oscar Charleston was perhaps the greatest and most popular Negro Leaguer of his day and one of the best players in baseball history. With special guest Jeremy Beer, whose biography of Charleston just won the Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal, Mike and Bill learn about who Charleston was on and…
There has never been an infield that has played together longer, more often, or perhaps better than the Dodgers’ incredible combination of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey, a dynamic foursome that lasted 9 years and 833 starts together. But it all came to an end 38 years ago this week, when…
By far the most successful attempt to create a third major league began in earnest 107 years ago this week in a hotel in Indianapolis. It fizzled out after two years, but left a legacy that still governs the professional game today. Mike and Bill leaf through the short life of the Federal League, and…
It was a punchline across the country 47 years ago this week, when Yankees pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich announced they had decided to switch families the previous winter. Like many trades, this one turned out to be pretty one-sided, as Kekich’s life and career were upended in the aftermath. Mike and Bill look…
You’d be hard pressed to find a better combo in baseball’s Golden Age than Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, the twin aces of the LA Dodgers. But the pair also were also shrewd negotiations who realized their power together when they announced 54 years ago this week that they’d be holding out. Mike and Bill…
In a slight departure this week, Mike and Bill take a listener suggestion to focus on the influenza epidemic that swept across the globe in 1918 and lingered into 1920. That epidemic did have some effects on the game and played a role in further driving a wedge between the players and the owners that…
There is no denying that Pete Rose is one of the biggest figures in baseball history, and one of the greatest players of all time. There is also no denying, 31 years after Sports Illustrated revealed that he had gambled on his own team multiple times over multiple seasons, that he is one of the…
Baseball does not belong to one country or to one people, and hasn’t since the game was exported to and adopted by Japan in the late 19th century. With special guest Robert Fitts (@robfitts), author of the new book Issei Baseball, Mike and Bill trace its movement across the Pacific and back again to the…
Sadly, baseball lost one of its brightest stars this week, Tigers icon Al Kaline. Mike and Bill devote this episode to the underappreciated virtuoso with the bat and in the field, who accomplished pretty much everything a person can on a ballfield and spent the rest of his life solidifying his status as Mr. Tiger….
Baseball is vastly richer because of the characters who have become part of the game’s legend. And no one was more of a character than Mets pitcher Hayden “Sidd” Finch, who was unveiled by Sports Illustrated 35 years ago the day this episode drops. Mike and Bill go through the mysterious and surprising career of…
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