Cheapseat Baseball

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

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

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

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

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

Apologies for ending 2022 with a fizzle -- between the holidays and other stuff in real life, we didn't post any new episodes, but we'll make it up for you in 2023!

We discuss Nolan Ryan and Bo Jackson a bit more before launching into the meat of today's episode on the history of the minor leagues.  Over time the minors have gotten more standardized and smaller.  This episode was also recorded as the news broke of the MLB Players Association deciding to allow minor leaguers to join... so we kinda blew that one by not posting episodes forever.

Though we do discuss some fun moments of the history, talk about fun team names, and some of the records set in MiLB history.  Join us.

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

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

Join us to talk 'dem Bums.

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

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

If you'd like to purchase The Last Folk Hero, it's now available for purchase at the publisher's website or from your local or online bookseller.

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

Join us for our take, before we have a special guest join us to continue the story next week.

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

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

Let's find out how the opening rounds go...

Josh takes Tom to the OC in the mid-90's where we talk about No Doubt and the 1995 California Angels.  We cover the origin story of the Angels, their move from Los Angeles proper to Orange County early in their existence, and the long run of mediocrity through their first 30-odd years -- a solid run in the late 70's to mid-80's notwithstanding.

The 1995 Angels showed up after the strike, having rocked the worst record in baseball in 1994, and got off to a scorching 56-33 start and a 11 game lead in the AL West.  Then things happened... Join us to find out.

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

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

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

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

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

Join us.

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

Come join us.