PODCAST · sports
Cheapseat Baseball
by TSB & JJK
A weekly baseball history podcast from two friends who had the completely original idea of starting a podcast together. Each week we'll do a dive into a great ballplayer, great ballteam and great baseball stories... and some not so great ones as well.
Episodes
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Episode 78 -- The 1987 St. Louis Cardinals
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.
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Episode 77 -- Pranks in Baseball
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...
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Episode 76 -- Glenn Burke and Billy Bean
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…
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Episode 75 -- The Bad News Bears
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…
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Episode 74 -- The 1986 Boston Red Sox
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.
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Episode 73 -- Minor League Baseball
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…
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Episode 72 -- The All-90's Showdown
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...
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Episode 71 -- The 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers
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…
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Episode 70 -- Moneyball (The Movie)
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...
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Episode 69 -- The Last Folk Hero with Jeff Pearlman
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...
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Episode 68 -- Bo Jackson
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...
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Episode 67 -- We Continue Our Own Playoffs
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?...
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Episode 66 -- We do our own playoffs
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...
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Episode 65 -- The 1995 California Angels
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…
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Episode 64 -- Larry Walker
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...
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Episode 63 -- The MLB All-Star Game
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…
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Episode 62 -- The Battle of Ohio
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?...
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Episode 61 -- The 2001 World Series
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.
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Episode 60 -- The 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks
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...
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Episode 59 -- Tony Gwynn
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…
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Episode 58 -- The Deadball All-Stars
What better way for Josh and Tom to celebrate being together and recording together for the first time than firing up the WhatIf simulator and drafting all-star teams out of the Deadball Era? Tom's voice is clearly dead from the Jawbreaker concert the night before, both of us are clearly hung…
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Episode 57 -- Homer at the Bat
Tom and Josh discuss the greatest episode about baseball (or more accurately, softball) ever created: The Simpsons' "Homer at the Bat." We fanboy out about the Simpsons, before getting into the episode, the premise to get so many athlete cameos into a single game, the stars featured, the stars…
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Episode 56 -- Lyman Bostock
In this episode Josh takes Tom on a journey that combines baseball history with true crime: the tragic story of Lyman Bostock. I'd offer a summary, but I wouldn't want to spoil our first true crime adventure...
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Episode 55 -- The College World Series
Just in time for the real CWS, Josh tells Tom about the biggest annual sporting event that takes place in the city of Omaha, Nebraska: the College World Series. We discuss the ping of aluminum bats, it's evolution into a big annual event, various stars that made it into the majors, and the…
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Episode 54 -- All-time Royals vs. All-time Blue Jays
We break out the WhatIf simulator with Tom assembling an all-time Royals roster and Josh an all-time Blue Jays roster. Two expansion teams, two two-time World Champions, two-time ALCS opponents, with all-stars and Cy Young winners (and shoulda been winners) up and down the rosters. Will Tom's...
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Episode 53 -- Jennie Finch
This week Josh tells Tom about arguably the greatest softball player ever, Jennie Finch. We talk about her absolute dominance of college and professional softball, how she was a trailblazer for women's sports, and we also make fun of what white people name their children and go down a few other...
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Episode 52 -- The Naked Gun
After a bit of a lull, Josh and Tom return to discuss the most baseball-packed baseball movie ever to feature baseball: the slapstick police parody The Naked Gun. We discuss Leslie Neilsen's performance, the totally-not-awkward-to-talk-about-now performance of O.J. Simpson, Encrico Pallazzo and…
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Episode 51 -- Merkle's Boner
We should probably apologize for the sheer amount of dick jokes at the top of this episode. You see, we're talking about Merkle's Boner -- boner in this instance being an old-timey word for blunder or mistake. That said, this was a major early incident in baseball history. It turns out that it's...
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Episode 50 -- The 1985 Kansas City Royals
This is without question the most important episode we've done yet. Tom revisits the Kansas City Royals and tells Josh about their momentous 1985 season. After nearly a decade of excellence that saw them repeatedly falling short, they finally broke through in 85, taking on an up and coming Blue...
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Episode 49 -- The 1992 Toronto Blue Jays
Josh takes Tom to our great neighbor to the north, Canada, to tell us about the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays. We talk Gerry Ford, Exhibition Stadium, Letterkenny, and the Blue Jays' run of futility starting in the mid-80's and how it all came together for a magical run in 1992. Come join us!
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Episode 48: All-time Yankees vs. All-time Red Sox
After moving up our four-part series on the MLBPA and labor relations... we kick off the episode by talking about a triumph of the Kansas City Chiefs and the imminent retirement of Tom Brady? Yeah, we recorded this one a while ago folks... After repeated losses in our WhatIf sports simulator…
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Episode 47 -- The MLBPA Pt. 4
The conclusion of our series on MLB labor history brings us to the infamous 1994 strike, which cancelled the World Series, and was only brought to its resolution by court order of a future Supreme Court Justice. Josh also tells Tom about developments in labor relations up to just before the…
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Episode 46 -- The MLBPA Pt. 3
We talk St. Patrick's Day before launching into part three of our series on the MLBPA and baseball labor relations. This week Josh covers the first strike that cancelled a significant amount of games in 1981, the collusion scandal and the build up to the infamous 1994 strike. Tom makes wise@$$...
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Episode 45 -- The MLBPA Pt. 2
This week we continue our series on the MLBPA, which takes us through the first CBA in MLB history, the tragic story of Curt Flood, the first work stoppages in MLB history, and the advent of free agency. Along the way we talk about Ben Verlander, Gussy Busch, the owner's undying love of Marvin...
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Episode 44 -- The MLB Players Association Pt. 1
A timely episode of a baseball history podcast? That's right, we're hitting hard here at Cheapseat Baseball. We call Rob Manfred Doug for some reason. The Josh tells Tom about the early history of the MLB Players' Association. At first there was no players' union, then failed efforts to unionize,...
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About the Lockout...
So, we started recording a series of episodes on the history of MLB labor relations recently, and with the lockout actually coming to a head and cancelling games... we're airing episodes in a different order than we recorded them. So this is a way of saying sorry that there won't be a Yankees /…
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Episode 43 -- The 1991 Minnesota Twins
Josh tells Tom the story of the 1991 Minnesota Twins. How the Twins came to Minnesota after being the Washington Senators, how they won the 1987 World Series, only to fall back to last place by 1990 only to rebuild themselves into a World Series squad in 1991. The team was built with home grown...
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Episode 42 -- Frank Robinson
This week Tom tells Josh about the Judge: Frank Robinson. We discuss his rapid rise to the majors, his time as a franchise player in Cincinnati, his being a cornerstone of Baltimore's 60s-70s dynasty, and him becoming the first black manager in MLB. Along the way he overcame racial prejudice,...
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Episode 41 -- Tom Buttry vs. Joshua Keller
Sometimes we fire up the Whatif? Sports simulator to have fun with great sports debates. Who's better all-time: The Dodgers or the Giants? Can you come up with the greatest team of base stealers? This is not one of those episodes. Josh assembles a team of people who share a name with him. As does...
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Episode 40 -- The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers
This week Josh tells Tom about the greatest triumph of his favorite team, the Milwaukee Brewers. A team with great facial hair, nicknamed after a shitty cocktail, and even though they didn't win it all, the city of Milwaukee loved them. Also, our theme of identity theft returns and we end this...
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Episode 39 -- Yankee Appreciation Night
We're shooting the breeze in this one, fam. Josh talks about playing a computer game. We talk about how great the Yankees are with complete and utter sincerity. Seriously, Tom goes over franchise history, and we appreciates it very deeply. This is a 100% serious episode.
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Episode 38: The 2016 Chicago Cubs
The team that lifted the curse of the Billy Goat. We go through the history of the White Stockings became the Orphans became the Cubs. After a history-making season from 1906-08... the Cubs started losing. They lost some World Series until 1945... when they kicked a man and his billy goat out of...
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Episode 37 -- The Waner Brothers
Paul and Lloyd Waner. The men. The myths. The legends. Not only did the Waner Brothers star for Josh's Boggstars team, not only did they also star for the 1920's and 30's Pittsburgh Pirates, not only are they both Hall of Famers, they have some of the best nickname duos ever in Big Poison and...
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Episode 36 -- Field of Dreams
Is this heaven? No. It's a podcast. In this episode, Tom and Josh discuss the classic 1989 film Field of Dreams. We talk Iowa, Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones' comedic chemistry, boomer hippie stuff, the choice to cast Ray Liotta as a left-handed southerner, daddy issues, and dead baseball...
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Episode 35 -- The Integration All-Stars
Josh and Tom fire up the WhatIf Sports simulator again as a follow-up to our episode on integration. We draft teams of players that wouldn't be in MLB if it weren't for integration and put match-up in another best-of-seven series. See who gets drafted first in center: Willie Mays or Ken Griffey...
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Episode 34 -- The 1919 Chicago Black Sox
We discuss the 2021 World Series briefly before Josh tells Tom about the 1919 Chicago White Sox... a team notorious for eight of its players taking money from gamblers to throw the world series. Their story was kept alive by the movie Eight Men Out and star leftfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson was...
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Episode 33 -- MLB Integration
While Jackie Robinson is rightfully remembered as a groundbreaker, MLB integration is a story that spans almost a century, involving Moses Fleetwood Walker, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, a gentleman's agreement, and the players who integrated every single MLB franchise of the era. Josh takes Tom...
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Episode 32 -- Artie Lange's Beer League
We watched Artie Lange's Beer League so you don't have to. It's tempting to have that be the entire episode's description, but hopefully our misery about having to watch this is amusing to all of you. Artie Lange decided to make a movie with Ralph Macchio and a bunch of bit players from the...
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Episode 31 -- Mario Mendoza Y The Mendoza Line
We discuss identity theft, mention the greatest player of all time, and look at the embodiment of mediocrity before stat geeks turned us onto the fictional "replacement player" -- Mario Mendoza. Mendoza was a glove-first shortstop who made it to MLB from the Mexican Leagues but was most famous…
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Episode 30 -- The All-Suck Teams
Friends of the pod Todd Van Popple and Bob Uecker! Cliff Politte! Jim Levey! Pat Rockett! These are just a few of the luminaries of the absolute worst rosters Josh and Tom could throw together in an effort to see who could lose a series in the WhatIf Sports simulator, the last of which I promise...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A weekly baseball history podcast from two friends who had the completely original idea of starting a podcast together. Each week we'll do a dive into a great ballplayer, great ballteam and great baseball stories... and some not so great ones as well.
HOSTED BY
TSB & JJK
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Cheapseat Baseball have?
Cheapseat Baseball currently has 80 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Cheapseat Baseball about?
A weekly baseball history podcast from two friends who had the completely original idea of starting a podcast together. Each week we'll do a dive into a great ballplayer, great ballteam and great baseball stories... and some not so great ones as well.
How often does Cheapseat Baseball release new episodes?
Cheapseat Baseball has 80 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Cheapseat Baseball?
You can listen to Cheapseat Baseball on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Cheapseat Baseball?
Cheapseat Baseball is created and hosted by TSB & JJK.
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