Libsyn Directory

403: "Cincinnati Soul" - With Al Lautenslager

Release Date: 07/14/2025

426.5: The NASL Players’ Strike of 1979 – With Steve Holroyd [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]

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[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 history for an essential look at an oft-overlooked event in the life of the original North American Soccer League (1968-1985), that arguably marked the "beginning of the end" of that influential circuit.] + + + Professional union labor lawyer and Society for American Soccer History sports historian...

426: The 6th Annual(-ish) Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular!

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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 guesses as to what might be ahead for 2026 - with three of our favorite fellow defunct sports enthusiasts: Paul Reeths (, ; ); Kenn Tomasch (, ; ); and Scott Adamson (; & ). Buckle up for our annual mashup of amusement and bemusement at the fringes of the pro sports establishment, as we...

425: Fox Sports Soccer Rules Analyst Dr. Joe Machnik

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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 back in 2017, he brought a rare, firsthand view of American soccer’s highs and lows. Today, with his new memoir, "" freshly in hand, we revisit that conversation with even richer context and perspective. Dr. Joe’s story began in Brooklyn, where an immigrant neighborhood and a love of the game planted the seeds for a career that would — like the domestic...

424: Baseball's Most Outrageous Promotions - With Joseph Natalicchio

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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 the line between creativity and chaos. This week, "" author Joe Natalicchio joins for a wild ride across some of the sport’s most infamous attempts to spice things up at the ol' ballpark - where good marketing intentions went mightily awry. Natalicchio takes us behind the...

423: Philadelphia's "Broad Street Bullies" - With Sam Carchidi & Jeff Hare

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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 an NHL expansion afterthought into the toughest, most polarizing, and most beloved champions in league history. To unpack how a group of gritty, bruising, blue-collar players became civic folk heroes, we sit down with long-time Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter Sam Carchidi and...

422: The "Super Bowl Shuffle" - With Jeff Cameron

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Few sports moments have left as lasting a mark on pop culture as the 1985 Chicago Bears’ recording of the “.” 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 "" — who takes us inside the making of the iconic rap video that transformed a championship football team into cultural icons. "The Shuffle" reveals never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes footage and fresh interviews with Bears legends Mike Singletary, Jim McMahon, Willie Gault, and Gary Fencik, who recount...

421: "There Is No Place Like Dome" - With Bruce Reynolds

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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 fiberglass roof — currently undergoing repairs and slated to reopen next spring — to explore the quirks, characters, and quiet magic of a ballpark that has been loved, mocked, misunderstood, celebrated, and everything in between. Reynolds shares 16 seasons’ worth of memories: the oddball fan...

420.5: "Banned" - With Michael Ray Richardson & Jake Uitti [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]

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[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 () join the show to discuss Richardson's riveting new memoir that chronicles his extraordinary journey on and off the basketball court. Hailed as “the next Walt Frazier” coming out of the University of Montana as a first-round pick (fourth overall) in the 1978 NBA Draft, "Sugar" was a force to be reckoned...

420: America's "Cricket Odyssey" - With Beth Simpson & Mark Greenslade

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Cricket and America - two words that rarely appear in the same sentence without a smirk or a shrug. Yet, as authors Beth Simpson and Mark Greenslade reveal in their new book "," the game’s roots here run deeper than most realize — and its revival is one of the great under-told stories in modern sport. We trace the sport’s improbable journey - from its 19th-century heyday, when Philadelphia was a global cricket power; to its near extinction after baseball gained popularity; and finally to its 21st-century rebirth, fueled by immigrant passion and the game's modern-day incarnation,...

419: Basketball "Prophet" Moses Malone - With Paul Knepper

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The story of Moses Malone is one of basketball’s most remarkable - and underappreciated - journeys. Rising from poverty in segregated Petersburg, Virginia, in the early 1970s, Malone became the first modern player to jump straight from high school to the pros, quickly establishing himself as one of the game’s most dominant forces. A three-time NBA MVP, relentless rebounder, and driving presence behind the rise of the early 1980s Houston Rockets and the Philadelphia 76ers’ 1983 league championship, Malone redefined greatness - quietly, humbly, and unstoppably. This week, biographer Paul...

More Episodes

Our summer roadtrip rolls on this week with a deep dive into one of the Queen City's most overlooked sports stories with baseball author Al Lautenslager - whose new book "Cincinnati Soul" explores the remarkable but brief legacy of the Cincinnati Tigers, the city's first official Negro Leagues baseball team.

Discover how DeHart Hubbard, America's first Black Olympic gold medalist, founded the Tigers as a dual-circuit minor league (Indiana-Ohio League & Negro Southern League) outfit in 1934 - eventually joining as a charter member of the 1937 Negro American League - now an officially recognized as "major league" by Major League Baseball.

Lautenslager shares fascinating details about the team's home at Crosley Field, where they wore hand-me-down Cincinnati Reds uniforms and drew crowds that sometimes exceeded that of their benefactors.

Also:

The Tigers' historic 44-36 record and second-place finish in 1937
Five All-Star selections including legendary manager Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe
Key players like submarine pitcher Porter Moss and future Brooklyn Dodgers MLB signee Roy Partlow
The team's cultural impact on Cincinnati's African American community during segregation
Why the franchise folded despite on-field success and community support