Regular Season

On this episode we chat with Jules Boykoff about a American pro soccer pre-1994 World Cup. A game he watched from the stands between the Portland Pride (for whom he would eventually play) and the Sacramento Knights of the long defunct Continental Indoor Soccer League.Jules is a professor of politics and government at Pacific University in Forest Grove Oregon. He writes extensively about the intersection of politics and sports, most often about international mega events like the world cup or the olympics. We talk to him about a new book “kicking,” which he covers a wide ranger of subjects including his experience of youth soccer culture, soccer fandom and playing against Brazil in his first ever international cap.You can also find me on Bluesky.

In this episode I’m joined by lawyer, comedian and podcaster Charles Star to talk about a 4-0 A’s win over the Yankees on July 4th of the strike-shortened 1994 season.Actually it turns out this is a game he conflated with another one where it was really hot but we had fun nonetheless talking about being a 33-year-old lawyer, a Pirates fan in Queens and a deadbeat dad.

Most of the people I approach to be on this podcast have to think about it for a minute, if not a couple of weeks.Craig Calcaterra was not one of those people.The baseball writer and proprietor of Cup of Coffee, a newsletter about baseball, knew instantly which game he wanted to talk about. One he was at in person, at the time an uninspired and unhappy lawyer, that featured his favorite pitcher, Greg Maddux.It’s a game he has thought a lot, and even written, about.Maddux never threw a no-hitter in his long and storied career, but on that night, at 40-years-old, he came as close as he ever would and provided one of the key inciting incidents on the way from Craig Calcaterra esq. becoming Craig Calcaterra baseball writer.Interstitial sound thanks to FSN Ohio (George Grande and Chris Welsh)Music by Bryson Elrick

This week I get out over my skis (wrong kind of Olympics, sorry) and talk competitive swimming with Professor Matt Hodler of the University of Rhode Island.A competitive swimmer himself in college, Matt chose the preliminary round of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.If you’re like Matt, then the names Nuk Surisant and Antonia Maharia mean something to you. If you’re like me, you’re knowledge of competitive swimming goes about as deep as Michael Phelps and Summer Sanders.We talk about swim culture, race and swimming, swim media and much more.

Joel Anderson of the Ringer was always someone I wanted to have on Regular Season and when I found out he spent two years at the Shreveport Times I knew, more or less, what I wanted to talk to him about.Joel is a writer at the Ringer where he also co-hosts The Press Box podcast with the delightful Bryan Curtis. Before that he worked at Slate, ESPN, Buzz Feed, The AJC, the Tampa Bay Times. He might be best known for his great work on the podcast Slow Burn where he did three seasons. One on Clarence Thomas, another on the Los Angeles riots after the Rodeny King verdict and the most well received was on the Tupac-Biggie beef..As a younger man Joel played college football, even spent one year backing up Ladanian Tomlinson at TCU.We talk about all that here but mostly we talk about Louisiana high school football, specifically St. James vs. Calvary Baptists from November 30, 2007. A game that was FAR from meaningless—for Joel who was working at the Shreveport Times, or for the fans of Louisiana high school football—but not a game that persists in the popular imagination. It was a 2007 LHSAA Class 2A Semifinal so they were playing for the opportunity to go to the Superdome where the finals are contested..it’s got plenty of Booty’s and Durons, a religious dispute, a hot shot quarterback who became a Broadway star…its’ Faulknerian for lack of a better term.

On November 30, 2007 Joel Anderson had one foot out of Shreveport, Louisiana where he had spent almost two years covering everything from city hall to high school football.Before he packed up and headed for a new gig in Tampa Bay though he had one last assignment. Travel south to St. James Parish to cover a local upstart program that seemed destined to make their first trip to the Superdome. The story of St. James 34 Calvary Baptist 14 has that faulknarian quality you tend to get whenever you travel south of Mason-Dixon line. There’s a religious rupture, a star quarterback turned broadway star and a family named Booty.Hoping to drop the full episode next week, but for now enjoy this preview.

HighlightsWhy did he choose is game (round)?: 00:04:39-00:08:28What is the work of debate?: 00:12:02-00:19:46Setting the scene: 00:28:16-00:30:33Debate Kid?: 00:58:16-01:10:46Arif the sports fan: 01:11:06-01:13:22The landscape of independent sports media: 01:13:21-01:21:33

This is the podcast about the meaningless games that matter most.Our guest this week is Seth Rosenthal of SB Nation’s Secret Base who serves up a truly meaningless November NBA game between his beloved Knicks and the (then still) Vancouver Grizzlies.00:00:00-00:04:00 - Intro00:04:15-00:06:47 - “Becoming” a Knicks fan00:07:00-00:10:43 - Dads and friends00:10:43-00:12:52 - November 23, 1997 for Seth and the World00:17:08-00:19:00 - The Clyde Frazier (and Chris Gatling) ball00:21:30-00:24:30 - What kind of fan is Seth?00:31:05 - 00:50:40 - The game00:38:12 - Seth and I say “I love Blue Edwards” at the exact same time.00:55:00 - Missing out on hook ups because the Knicks were playing00:55:45 - The golden age of blogging01:00:00 - The current sports media landscape01:05:00 - Favorite Secret Base project

We thought someone had made a TV show just for Doug and I. Turns out the rest of the world is equally smitten with our hirsute 21st President.Contents:Chet fandom origin stories - 2:50The janus face of the American Dream - 13:30Offerman as Chet - 30:00Historical nitpicking - 41:30Hidden gems (Kate Sprague and Levi Morton) - 54:10Now do Franklin Pierce (the script is written) - 1:03:36

Another in my series of never released interviews on men and friendship from 2023.This time I have the great pleasure of visiting with Matt Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell, the co-hosts of the popular podcast Know Your Enemy.Their show is known for its astute observations of the conservative movement, but has just as often been a meditation on the power and political potential of friendship.Topics:- The story of their friendship- Friendship and podcasting- Political philosophy and friendship- Friendship in the context of the conservative movement- The male friendship recession. ENJOY!

This is just a short clip of an interview from 2023 in which Matt Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell of the great podcast Know Your Enemy, explore men and their friendships in the context of politics. I’ll release the full interview in a week or so (including a two minute super cut of the 147 times Matt introduced Sam as his “great” friend), but for now enjoy this preview.

We dive further into the mysteries of male friendship and guy remembering (this time with our British cousins) with The Guardian and Talk Sport's Max Rushden.

In the coming months I will be launching a new podcast through Marist University's Center for Sports Communication called Game Stories. This is not that, but it is a little taste of what it might sound and feel like. Several years ago now I was working at the University of Vermont and slaving away on a passion project that never panned out. A documentary exploration of what has been termed the "male friendship recession." At the time (and still sort of) everyone was talking about how men sucked at making and maintaining Friendships. Part of the larger "masculinity crisis" narrative, media outlets like the New York Times, VOX and NPR were reporting on it. Saturday Night Live was doing skits about it. There were even Oscar-winning films focused on exploring the complexities of male friendships. As a part of that work I was lucky enough to sit down with Defector's David Roth in person--and at the headquarters of Topps Trading Cards no less--to talk about the history and mystery of "Guy Remembering" a practice familiar to all of David's thousands of fans, but no doubt to millions of others as well, even if they don't know what to call it.This was taped June 22, 2023.Production music by De Wolffe