PODCAST · sports
Good Seats Still Available
by Tim Hanlon
"Good Seats Still Available" is a curious little podcast devoted to the exploration of what used-to-be in professional sports. Each week, host Tim Hanlon interviews former players, owners, broadcasters, beat reporters, and surprisingly famous "super fans" of teams and leagues that have come and gone - in an attempt to unearth some of the most wild and woolly moments in (often forgotten) sports history.
Episodes
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466: "This One Will Be Different": The Stadium Subsidy Game - With J.C. Bradbury
Publicly financed stadiums have been sold for generations as civic investments, economic engines, and catalysts for growth. Yet again and again, the promises change while the underlying economics stubbornly refuse to cooperate. This week, sports economist and longtime baseball fan J.C. Bradbury...
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465: The WNBA At 30 - With Tamryn Spruill
For nearly three decades, the Women's National Basketball Association has survived expansion, contraction, indifferent media coverage, shaky ownership, low salaries and repeated questions about whether women's professional basketball could ever become a sustainable American sports business. And...
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464: Baseball's First All-Star Game? - With Scott Reich
On September 27, 1917, some of baseball's greatest stars descended on Fenway Park for a game that has largely disappeared from the sport's collective memory. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker and others came together not for a pennant or championship, but to...
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463: Fort Wayne's Forgotten Sports History - With Logan Wiening
Fort Wayne, Indiana has spent more than 150 years quietly accumulating one of America's richest—and strangest — collections of sports history. The city hosted what is widely regarded as professional baseball's first league game in 1871, became home to the celebrated Fort Wayne Daisies of the...
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462: The Original American Soccer League - With Mark Franek
A century before MLS, decades ahead of the NASL, and long before American soccer became a regular part of the sports landscape, the United States already had a thriving professional league capable of attracting big crowds, paying real salaries and even luring talent away from Europe. Author Mark...
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461: Baseball's Texas League - With William H. Brewster
Long before the Texas League became one of minor league baseball's most enduring institutions, it began as a decidedly shaky experiment in a state still trying to prove it belonged on the national sporting map. In 1887, a barnstorming New York Giants club swept through Texas crushing local…
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460: "Honolulu Blues" - With Joel Walkowski
In Detroit, loving the Lions has rarely been about winning. For author, comedian and Motor City native Joel Walkowski, it became something much deeper: a family inheritance, a language shared with his father, and eventually a way to understand his own struggles with addiction, recovery,...
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459: CNN "Sports Tonight" Pioneer Fred Hickman - With Harrison Golden
Long before ESPN's SportsCenter became a cultural institution, Fred Hickman was helping define what sports television could be. One of the fledgling Cable News Network's original on-air personalities, Hickman became nationally known alongside Nick Charles on CNN Sports Tonight, where "Nick and...
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458: "Finding Renée Richards" - With Julie Kliegman
For decades, Renée Richards lived with an intensely private struggle over her gender identity while building an accomplished life as an athlete, physician, husband and father. Through it all, tennis remained one of the few constants. Before transitioning in the mid-1970s, Richards - then known as...
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457: Boxer Michael Spinks - With Jack Hirsch
Boxer Michael Spinks was one of the most accomplished fighters of his generation, even if his career has never received quite the recognition it deserves. A gold medalist at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Spinks became the dominant light heavyweight of his era before doing what no reigning light...
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456: Ted Rhodes & The United Golf Association - With Dan Taylor
Before Tiger Woods transformed golf, before Charley Sifford broke the PGA Tour's color barrier, there was Ted Rhodes — a remarkably gifted player whose career unfolded largely outside the spotlight because the game itself refused to let him in. This week, return guest Dan Taylor joins to discuss...
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455: The Chicago Charities College All-Star Game - With Warren Rogan
For more than 40 years, the Chicago Charities College All-Star Game occupied a singular place on the annual football calendar. Each summer, the nation's top graduating college players took on the reigning NFL champions before packed crowds at Chicago's Soldier Field and a national television...
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454: Baseball's Most Misunderstood Commissioner - With Dave Bohmer
Ford Frick's name may be familiar to baseball fans, but his story — and his impact on the game — have largely faded from view. Yet for more than four decades, Frick occupied a front-row seat to some of the most transformative moments in baseball history, first as a journalist and publicist, then…
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453: The USFL's Memphis Showboats - With Keith Wood
For generations, the city of Memphis chased something bigger than a winning football team. It chased major league status. When the USFL arrived in 1984, the Memphis Showboats became far more than a spring football franchise. For one unforgettable moment, they embodied a city's belief that it...
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452: The USFL's San Antonio Gunslingers - With Greg Singleton
The original USFL produced its share of unforgettable franchises. None was more entertaining — or more unbelievable — than the San Antonio Gunslingers. On the field, they were gritty, competitive and remarkably resilient. Off the field? Pure chaos. Bounced paychecks. A front office operating out…
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451.5: The 1970s - With Michael MacCambridge [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]
[While Tim runs up and down the East Coast this week to take in some World Cup knockout matches in person, please enjoy this ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE of our tribute to pro sports' most innovative decade - with award-winning sports history chronicler Michael MacCambridge - from 2023.] + + + After an...
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451: Baseball's History By Design - With Todd Radom
Baseball history is often told through championships, statistics and the tales of legendary players. Todd Radom sees it differently. One of sports' foremost designers, branding experts and visual historians, Radom has spent decades exploring the artifacts that tell baseball's deeper story: logos,...
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450: NASCAR Champions - With Herb Branham & Holly Cain
From Red Byron's pioneering 1949 title to the modern playoff era, NASCAR's Cup Series championship history is really the story of the sport itself: its birth on the dirt tracks of the South, its rise through the Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon and Johnson dynasties, and its continuing evolution into...
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449: Nine World Cups, One Changing World - With Simon Kuper
For billions of people around the globe, the FIFA World Cup is the ultimate sporting event. But what does the tournament reveal about the world beyond the pitch? This week, we welcome Financial Times journalist and New York Times bestselling author Simon Kuper to discuss his latest book, "World…
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448: "A Life's Calling" - With Horse Racing Track Announcer Tom Durkin
For more than four decades, Tom Durkin's voice was synonymous with the biggest moments in horse racing. From the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes to the Breeders' Cup and Saratoga, his soaring calls helped transform great races into unforgettable theater. But as Durkin reveals in his new memoir,...
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447: The US Men's National Team's Rise to Soccer Relevance - With Leander Schaerlaeckens
We dive deep into the strange, fragmented, often unbelievable history of American men's soccer with acclaimed journalist and author Leander Schaerlaeckens, whose new book, "The Long Game: U.S. Men's Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts," chronicles the U.S. Men's...
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446: The People's Team: The Strange History of New York's Mets - With Andy Gittlitz
For more than six decades, baseball's New York Mets have occupied a singular place in American sports culture: eternally overshadowed, perpetually chaotic, strangely lovable, and deeply woven into the identity of New York itself. Born in the aftermath of the departures of the Brooklyn Dodgers and...
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445: "Dos a Cero" & The US/Mexico Soccer "Sibling Rivalry" - With Hal Phillips
Next month, the FIFA World Cup returns to North American soil, marking a transformative moment for the sport of soccer on this continent. But to understand the current state of the US Men's National Team as they prepare to host the world, one must first examine their complex and often turbulent...
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444.5: John Sterling [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]
[We mourn the passing of legendary sports broadcaster John Sterling with an ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE of our memorable conversation from 2019.] + + + Legendary New York Yankees baseball play-by-play man John Sterling joins host Tim Hanlon for a cavalcade of career memories from his 50+ year journey in...
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444: Baseball's Pioneering Nashua Dodgers - With Bill Ranauro
Author Bill Ranauro joins the podcast this week to discuss "The Chosen City," his captivating new book on the 1946 Nashua Dodgers and the New Hampshire community that became the first integrated team in "organized" baseball. Ranauro's book shines a light on a pivotal but often overlooked moment…
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443: The Tri-Cities Blackhawks - With Don Doxsie
In the early years of professional basketball, before the bright lights and global reach of today's NBA, the game was held together by grit, geography, and a patchwork of teams fighting to survive. Few franchises capture that fragile, formative moment better than the Tri-Cities Blackhawks — a…
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442: "Baseball's Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore" - With Adam Henig
Ron LeFlore's trajectory from a maximum-security prison cell to starting in Major League Baseball's All-Star Game is a narrative of improbable survival and self-inflicted exile. In this episode, we sit down with Adam Henig, author of "Baseball's Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore", to unpack the...
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441: The NASL's Detroit Express (& More!) - With Roger Faulkner
From wartime England to the rise — and fall — of pro soccer's first big American boom, Roger Faulkner has seen it all — and now, he's telling that story in his new memoir, "You Can't Get There from Here: My Soccer Journey from Derby to Detroit." In this episode, we sit down with the Detroit…
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440: "Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN" - With Greg DeHart & Mike Soltys
ESPN didn't begin as a media giant — it started as a gamble. In 1979, a cash-strapped startup bet on an unproven proposition: a 24-hour sports cable TV network delivered by satellite, built largely on programming no one else wanted and live coverage that barely existed. By any conventional…
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439: "Moses and the Doctor" - With Luke Epplin
Nonfiction author extraordinaire Luke Epplin joins the pod this week to unpack the intertwined legacies of basketball legends Julius Erving and Moses Malone, as chronicled in his acclaimed new book, "Moses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship, and the Birth of Modern Basketball." What…
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438: From Bleacher Seats to Luxury Suites - With Seth Tannenbaum
Manhattanville University sports studies professor Seth Tannenbaum joins the show to unpack the provocative ideas behind his new book, "Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites: Democracy and Division at the Twentieth-Century Ballpark" — a sweeping reexamination of the American ballpark and the myth of...
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437: World Cup History & What's Ahead - With Clemente Lisi
This week, we dive into the remarkable history — and uncertain future — of soccer's greatest spectacle: the FIFA World Cup. Our guest is veteran journalist and soccer author Clemente Lisi, whose newly updated (and eminently essential!) book, "The World Cup: A History of the Planet's Biggest...
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436: "Court Queens" - With Emma Baccellieri & Jordan Robinson
Women's basketball is enjoying a remarkable surge in popularity — but it also stands at a pivotal moment. As the Women's National Basketball Association and the WNBA Players Association remain locked in difficult negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, the sport faces a paradox:...
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435: Death in the Strike Zone: Baseball's First Superstar - With Tom Gilbert
Before Cy Young, before Babe Ruth, before baseball even had a strike zone, there was Jim Creighton — a 21-year-old phenom whose brilliance and tragic death helped create the modern game. This week, we explore the extraordinary life, myth, and enduring legacy of baseball's first true superstar...
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434: US Soccer World Cups, National Teams & Pro Leagues - With Alan Rothenberg
Few figures have shaped modern American soccer more profoundly than Alan Rothenberg ("The Big Bounce: The Surge That Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer") — and in this revelatory conversation, he tells the story in his own words. Best known as the founding architect of Major League Soccer and the...
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433: Sports, Marketing & Mayhem - With Bob Wilber
*:first-child]:mt-0 gmail-[&_>*:last-child]:mb-0"> Sports lifer. Road warrior. Straight shooter. In this no‑holds‑barred conversation, veteran sports marketer, former minor‑league ballplayer, and acclaimed author Bob Wilber opens up about a wildly unconventional career that somehow connects the...
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432: World Team Tennis & The Boston Lobsters - With John Schwarz
In the spring of 1974, a bold experiment arrived on the American sports scene: World Team Tennis (WTT) — a mixed-gender professional league co-founded and championed by Billie Jean King, who envisioned a more inclusive, fan-friendly, and forward-looking version of the sport. WTT challenged tennis...
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431: "Return of the King" - With Tom Aiello
Valdosta State University history professor (and Episodes 334 and 244 guest) Tom Aiello is back — this time for an intriguing look at one of the most politically and culturally charged nights in American sports history: Muhammad Ali's comeback fight against Jerry Quarry on October 26, 1970, in...
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430: "Everybody Loses" - With Danny Funt
This week, we pull back the curtain on one of the most seismic shifts in American sports and culture: the explosive rise of legalized sports gambling. Once condemned as a corrosive menace to the integrity of competition, betting on games is now a pervasive part of how fans watch, interact with…
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429: The Negro Leagues' Memphis Red Sox - With Keith Wood
*:first-child]:mt-0"> Author and baseball historian Keith Wood ("The Memphis Red Sox: A Negro Leagues History") joins the show to explore the rich yet often overlooked story of the Memphis Red Sox, one of Black baseball's most resilient and community‑rooted franchises. From their semi-pro origins...
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428: "Stadium City" - With Helen Morgan Parmett
Sports stadiums are often framed as engines of civic pride, economic development, and shared spectacle. But what if they are something more consequential — and more complicated — than that? In this episode, we're joined by University of Vermont professor Helen Morgan Parmett, author of "Stadium...
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427: "Baseball in the Roaring Twenties" - With Thomas Wolf
Baseball's 1926 World Series was more than just a championship showdown — it was emblematic of America in a decade defined by financial excess, social rebellion, and societal reinvention. We explore that dramatic showdown through "Baseball in the Roaring Twenties: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and...
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426.5: The NASL Players' Strike of 1979 – With Steve Holroyd [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]
[We say goodbye to a crappy 2025 with a fond remembrance of frequent guest and long-time friend-of-the-show Steve Holroyd - whose untimely passing earlier this year still stings mightily. In this classic ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE from April 2019, we tapped Steve's encyclopedic knowledge of US soccer...
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426: The 6th Annual(-ish) Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular!
It's our year-end Holiday Roundtable Spectacular, featuring a look back at the year's newest additions to "what used-to-be" in big-time sports (RIP Pro Volleyball Federation, Utah Hockey Club, three UFL teams, half of Major League Rugby, and the NCAA's LA & Bahamas Bowls); AND semi-educated…
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425: Fox Sports Soccer Rules Analyst Dr. Joe Machnik
He's been called "American soccer's renaissance man," and in this episode, Dr. Joe Machnik returns to trace the remarkable arc of a life spent pushing the sport forward in the United States. When Machnik first joined us for Episode 24 back in 2017, he brought a rare, firsthand view of American...
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424: Baseball's Most Outrageous Promotions - With Joseph Natalicchio
Baseball has long been America's pastime — and the stage for some of the wildest, most outrageous marketing stunts in sports history. From the postwar era through the 1970s, team owners and promoters pushed the limits of spectacle to fill seats, generate buzz, and entertain fans, often blurring…
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423: Philadelphia's "Broad Street Bullies" - With Sam Carchidi & Jeff Hare
The Philadelphia Flyers didn't just win hockey games in the 1970s — they changed the sport, the city, and the culture around them. In this episode, we dig into the rise, reign, and mythology of the "Broad Street Bullies," the decade-long era (1971–1981) when the Flyers transformed themselves from...
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422: The "Super Bowl Shuffle" - With Jeff Cameron
Few sports moments have left as lasting a mark on pop culture as the 1985 Chicago Bears' recording of the "Super Bowl Shuffle." This week, we go behind the music, the madness, and the myth with NFL Films Senior Producer Jeff Cameron — director of HBO's new documentary short "The Shuffle" — who...
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421: "There Is No Place Like Dome" - With Bruce Reynolds
Baseball may be a game of numbers, but Tampa Bay's Tropicana Field is a place of stories — and no one knows those stories better than Bruce Reynolds, longtime Rays "fan host" and author of "There Is No Place Like Dome." In this delightfully off-beat episode, we venture under the famously tattered...
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420.5: "Banned" - With Michael Ray Richardson & Jake Uitti [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]
[We mourn the passing of pro hoops great Michael Ray Richardson with an archive re-release of our conversation with the former Nets/Knicks star from last year, featuring his biography co-author Jacob Uitti.] + + + Former NBA All-Star Michael Ray Richardson and his co-author Jacob Uitti (Banned…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
"Good Seats Still Available" is a curious little podcast devoted to the exploration of what used-to-be in professional sports. Each week, host Tim Hanlon interviews former players, owners, broadcasters, beat reporters, and surprisingly famous "super fans" of teams and leagues that have come and gone - in an attempt to unearth some of the most wild and woolly moments in (often forgotten) sports history.
HOSTED BY
Tim Hanlon
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Good Seats Still Available have?
Good Seats Still Available currently has 505 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Good Seats Still Available about?
"Good Seats Still Available" is a curious little podcast devoted to the exploration of what used-to-be in professional sports. Each week, host Tim Hanlon interviews former players, owners, broadcasters, beat reporters, and surprisingly famous "super fans" of teams and leagues that have come and...
How often does Good Seats Still Available release new episodes?
Good Seats Still Available releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 505 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to Good Seats Still Available?
You can listen to Good Seats Still Available 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 Good Seats Still Available?
Good Seats Still Available is created and hosted by Tim Hanlon.
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