Wrecking the Toy Department
by Jake Williams
We don’t just "stick to sports" because we don’t have the privilege of doing so. This podcast is about wrecking the toy department – the name derisively foisted on sports – where it’s supposedly all fun and games. It’s not and never has been.There’s no shut up and dribble here. We want to hear what athletes, and people from all walks of sports – have to say, because they’re public figures with a platform. What they say and do, or don’t say and do, matters whether we agree with them or not. And it matters a lot. We use sports to pull back the covers on society - culture, politics, race, civi
Episodes
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From Winning Ugly to Ugly as Sin: Part 3 of 3
As if 2021 weren't bad enough, the White Sox experience was about to get exponentially worse. As the team makes its heel turn, we'll explore the real time experience a fandom's divorce from their team. It's ugliness in full bloom, and there's nothing winning about it.
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From Winning Ugly to Ugly as Sin: Part 2 of 3
They were contenders, and likable ones at that. Until... In this episode, we'll explore how owner Jerry Reinsdorf went rogue on his organization by attempting to rectify what he considered a nearly 35-year-old personnel mistake. We'll examine the error of attempting to turn back time, and its...
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From Winning Ugly to Ugly as Sin: Part 1 of 3
Want to know why men, women, boys and girls are madly cheering for their team and all you see is laundry? This is how I fell in love, not just with baseball, but with the Chicago White Sox. For two decades, I lived the ups and downs, glory and tragedy, and saw someone step into immortality, it...
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The Drama King of Green Bay
On this episode, we'll take a deep dive into how and why Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback who's arguably the best player in Green Bay Packer history, is the same guy the team can't wait to let go. Listen as we take a look at his 18-year one-man dramatic production-slash-revenge tour to prove that...
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Djoker's Wild
Rules? Where we're going there are no rules. For world number one men's tennis player Novak Djokovic, it has been as startling a descent over the past three years as it was an ascent for the previous decade-plus. How did such a great sportsman, once a poor kid who grew up in a a war-torn nation...
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The Best People Money Can Buy
You can't walk through this world without stepping on a few feet. You can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. Okay, but what if there's nothing left in the kitchen but the bad apples that spoil the whole bunch? On this season, a look...
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The Ultimate Model Employee
The last shoe dropped on the relationship between Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets, as Kyrie forced his way out of Brooklyn. The first time he was introduced at Barclay Center after the trade request, he was roundly booed. It is everything he deserved on the way out, and actually, he let the…
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Our Faltering War on Drugs
Why is the War on Drugs constantly faltering or stalling out? In this episode, we'll explore why've let so many opportunities to gain the upper hand against drugs, be it cocaine in the 1980s or fentanyl and opioids over the past decade, slip through our fingers. And take a look at how Major…
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Trailer: Our Faltering War on Drugs
Remember when we were told drugs would cook your brain as fast as it takes to fry an egg? And then the commercial ended, almost on a dare, with, "Any questions?" Well, here we are 35 years later and there are news headlines about fentanyl and opium deaths nearly every day. In this episode of...
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Add to Resume: I'm a Dad
How do sports talk radio people react when they find out an afternoon drive host won't be going on a work trip to Las Vegas because of the possible impending birth of his child? The answer might surprise you. This episode will explore why even though the United States is one of just two nations…
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Add to Resume: I'm a Dad Trailer
Professional sports have shown us why the United States still has yet to enact federally mandated paid parental leave. But, could sports talk radio - known for the most lowbrow of Cro-Magnon guy talk - end up being the beacon we follow to eventually enacting just that into federal law? It's a...
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Billionaires Lives Matter trailer
When it comes to the reasons behind the resignation of Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, don't buy what the NFL is trying to sell you. Even though he had to go for the racism, homophobia, misogyny and sexism that ran rampant through his work emails with league executives, he was forced out...
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Billionaires Lives Matter
The NFL can laud itself for doing the right thing in forcing Jon Gruden to resign as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders because of his racist, homophobic and mysoginistic emails. But, in this episode, we'll look at how and why the NFL did the right thing - partially - for entirely the wrong reasons -...
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Field of White Dreams Trailer
Should Major League Baseball be using Field of Dreams to celebrate its sport? On top of not being a good movie, it revels in the nostalgia of a time when Blacks couldn't play baseball and women couldn't vote. Despite that, MLB's Field of Dreams game between the White Sox and Yankees was a box...
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Field of White Dreams
Why is Field of Dreams the movie Major League Baseball has chosen to celebrate its sport? Sure, August's Field of Dreams game between the White Sox and Yankees was a dream game - a ratings bonanza with a Hollywood ending - but it could have been so much more. It was a moment baseball could have...
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The Motherhood Penalty trailer
Today, Canadian boxer Mandy Bujold will learn whether or not she's headed to the Olympics. She earned the right to go, having made the Canadian team that was to participate in the Olympic qualifying tournament last year. But when it was cancelled due to Covid, the International Olympic Committee...
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The Motherhood Penalty
Heading into what the International Olympic Committee has billed as the Gender Equity Games, Canadian boxer Mandy Bujold’s fight just to qualify for the Summer Olympics next month has served notice of how far we still need to go to achieve actual gender equity in the world. In 2017, Bujold, then...
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Sports Gets It First
There’s no such thing as, “just stick to sports.” To paraphrase Oscar-winning film director Spike Lee: If you read the sports section, you’ll know what’s happening in the world. Sports gets it first… Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James, Megan Rapinoe, the courageous women of the WNBA… and most…
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Florida Man Strikes Again
“Florida Man” isn’t just a meme or a jokey news story including a mugshot of a white man looking like he has no idea he’s done something wrong. Personified here by newly minted Jaguars coach Urban Meyer, “Florida Man” is also a culture, one that can help explain a disturbing lack of diversity…
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Living the Dream
Because of the courageous and heroic work of her employees, the mostly Black women who play for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, a team named after Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous speech, Dream co-owner and former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler lost her re-election bid to Raphael Warnock, the…
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The Old Boys Club
Why would the Chicago White Sox organization make the exact wrong hire at the exact wrong time? The Old Boys Club, of course. What’s that, you ask? Take a listen and learn about all the benefits this club bestows on its members. And remember, you’ll never get to be a part of it, and neither will…
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It's OK to Say You're Depressed
Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott showed true leadership when he admitted to having suffered from depression and sought treatment. His story and those like his are a meaningful strike against what’s called “toxic masculinity,” the outdated notion that men should hide or otherwise cover up their...
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College football is broken
It's time to stop pretending that the "student" in the NCAA's student-athlete model is anywhere near as important as the 'athlete" part to those in charge. This structural imbalance in college sports has been exposed and magnified by the desire of those in charge to do everything they can to play…
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A Capital Disgrace
Go Football Team! Yes, that's the new name of the Washington Football Team, formerly the 'Skins. On this episode, we take a look back at the team's last two decades under owner Daniel Snyder, and why the Washington football organization during that time can best be referred to as A Capital...
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Sports to the Rescue
It's on! Major League Baseball is back, but is bringing sports back in the midst of a global pandemic a good idea? Are we ready? Is professional sports ready? Or could it be that sports are the Covid cure we've been searching for all this time? Content Warning: There is a graphic interview in…
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Exploring an Empty Stadium
Professional team sports are coming back in bubbles, to be played in completely empty arenas and stadiums. Until the coronavirus pandemic ends, it's probably we won't get any further than partial crowds in the stands. But there is a second, and larger cloud casting a pall over these fan-less...
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The forgotten World Series champions
In the season following the Boston Red Sox breaking "The Curse," there was bound to be a shadow hanging over the 2005 World Series champions. But what if I told you the 2005 White Sox, broke an 88-year championship drought, two years longer than the Red Sox, but that their achievement has been...
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When electric orange was the coolest color
We re-live the best season in Illinois basketball program history - how the Illini and coach Bruce Weber were ahead of their time, and we discuss the greatest moments of the season - a demolition of Chris Paul and then-#1 Wake Forest, the greatest comeback in NCAA Tournament history and the first...
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The Beauty of Winning Ugly
We miss sports. A LOT. But why? Why does it feel, during this time, that there is such a void in our life? This season is an exploration of the sports touchstones of my life, why sports became so meaningful to me that I made a career of working in sports journalism. This episode is the start of...
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The Legend of Patrick Mahomes
What's the secret to Patrick Mahomes' incredible popularity? Why does he seem to have become a national spokesman for so many companies so quickly? Hint: It's not just his on-field play; it's what he does off the field that's made him, at just 24 years old, a transcendent star. Music Credits…
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A closer look at the Cubs' new cable network
With the end of the regular season came the final days of being able to watch the Chicago Cubs on the public airwaves - WGN and WLS. They're not the first team to create its own cable network, but their decision to partner with noted conservative broadcast company Sinclair Broadcasting is worth...
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Bat Flips vs the Baseball Police
Why spontaneous celebrations in basketball and football aren't given a second glance but the same actions in baseball, like flipping your bat, spur conversations about showing up your opponent and respecting the game. Who are the ones being told they're not respecting the game and why? MUSIC...
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Making White House Visits Great Again
Ever wonder why the World Series or Super Bowl champion visits the White House? How did this tradition get started? Well, it wasn't always the joyous tradition it felt like when the New York Giants visited President Reagan or the Golden State Warriors went to see President Obama. No, the original...
About this show
We don’t just "stick to sports" because we don’t have the privilege of doing so. This podcast is about wrecking the toy department – the name derisively foisted on sports – where it’s supposedly all fun and games. It’s not and never has been.There’s no shut up and dribble here. We want to hear what athletes, and people from all walks of sports – have to say, because they’re public figures with a platform. What they say and do, or don’t say and do, matters whether we agree with them or not. And it matters a lot. We use sports to pull back the covers on society - culture, politics, race, civi
Hosted by
Jake Williams
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