If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know my affection for the NPR news quiz, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. And every now and then, they’ll throw me a bone my including some baseball content. Examples include an interview with Moose Skowron which led me down a rabbit hole when it comes […]
Long-time followers of this blog know of my love for the NPR news quiz, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Once in a while they’ll have some baseball-related topic or guest, as was the case this week in the opening segment, “Who’s Bill This Time?” (The transcript is as accurate as I care to spend the […]
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Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
About the World Series. Haven’t done one of these in a long time. I think I even neglected to write when Keith Hernandez was a guest back when his latest memoir — I’m Keith Hernandez: A Memoir — was published last year. But with the Washington Nationals winning the first championship for the nation’s capital […]
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Wait Wait Don't Tell Me,
Washington Nationals,
World Series
Don’t get me wrong. I love all my guests. But once in a while I get to chat with someone outside the usual baseball literary mainstream. That was the case with Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition. Yes, Simon, a lifetime Cubs fan, had previously published two books on baseball among his oeuvre: Home […]
NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]
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baseball statistics,
Chicago Cubs,
Chipper Jones,
David Ross,
Michael Lewis,
Oakland As,
Rick Ankiel,
sabermetrics,
Scott Simon,
Ted Williams,
Theo Epstein,
World Series
NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]
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baseball analytics,
baseball history,
baseball statistics,
Cal Ripken Jr.,
Chipper Jones,
Fantasy baseball,
instructionals,
managers,
Michael Lewis,
Mike Matheny,
Oakland As,
St. Louis CardinalsKeith Law,
Ted Williams,
Tom Verducci
Not exactly sure why this is relevant a year after his book was published, but here he is talking with WAMC, the NPR affiliate of Albany, NY about his book, Game 7, 1986: Failure and Triumph in the Biggest Game of My Life. Save
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NPR,
Ron Darling
When I saw this segment pop up in my iTunes podcast list, I was surprised. Surprised that Leonard Lopate would want Lenny Dykstra on as a guest, and surprised that Dykstra would appear. I do not know him at all other than the profiles I’ve read about him but my impression is that he’s not […]
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Lenny Dykstra,
Leonard Lopate,
National Public Radio,
New York Mets,
NPR,
s
Jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding was the guest for Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me‘s Not My Job segment last week. So the writer thought it would be cute… PETER SAGAL: Second base is baseball, the great American pastime. SPALDING: Oh no. SAGAL: One of the worst baseball players ever was one Smead Jolley. Mr. Jolly was […]
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National Public Radio,
Smead Jolley
Ken Burns was on the show yesterday to discuss his upcoming documentary on Jackie Robinson, to be aired next month on PBS. If they’d just done this a few days earlier, it would have been a perfect feature for Black History Month. But I can also understand that you don’t want to publicize something […]
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Brian Lehrer,
Jackie Robinson,
Ken Burns,
PBS
Been a bit busy lately with the two author events, so I know I’ve fallen behind. You never know where inspiration will come from. According to this public radio story, Haruki Murakami came up with the idea for his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, as the result of a 1978 pro game in Japan, […]
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Ball Four,
Bruce Bochy,
David Halberstam,
Derek Jeter,
Fritz Peterson,
Haruki Mirukami,
Jackie Robinson,
Jim Bouton,
Jimmy Breslin,
Jorge Posada,
New York Yankees,
Steohen Kings,
Washington Nationals
The Brian Lehrer Show conducted this great interview with former Mets pitcher and current TV broadcaster Ron Darling. Despite a number of sports media writers criticizing the way FOX handled its coverage, Darling would not pile on. But I appreciated his honesty as he spoke about the disappointment for himself and his booth-mates Keith Hernandez […]
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Brian Lehrer Show,
Extra Hot Great,
Fox Sports,
Joe Posnanski,
National Public Radio,
NPR,
Ralph Kiner,
Ron Darling,
Sarah D. Bunting,
Toronto Blue Jays,
World Series
Usually I listen to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, hosted by my Jersey homeboy Peter Sagal, on Mondays on the way to work. But my schedule was a bit altered due to Jewish holidays, so I just got to this today. In the opening segment — “Who’s Bill This Time?” — we were treated to […]
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NPR,
Yogi Berra
Been following the adventures of Brad Balukjian, who’s traveling the country in search of his baseball heroes for a book project. He was a guest on a recent edition of Slate’s excellent sports podcast, Hang Up and Listen. We had a Bookshelf Conversation prior to his departure and I hope to have another one upon his […]
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Andi Dorfman,
baseball history,
Brad Balukjian,
Game of Thrones,
George R.R. Martin,
Joe Girardi,
John Klima,
Josh Murray,
Lonnie Wheeler,
Matt Nadel,
minor leagues,
NY Yankees,
The Bachelorette
Since I posted the first of these on a Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. These are kind of fun; it’s like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get. (Actually, I never understood […]
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Bardball,
Dirk Hayhurst,
Harvey Araton,
James Bailey,
Judy Lynn Johnson,
Pitchers and Poets,
Susan Petrone,
Yogi Berra
I love it when worlds collide, that is when two or more of my favorite things meet. In this case, I’m talking about the July 17 edition of the Pop Culture Happy Hour, one of my go-to podcasts. It’s what I always listen to on my way home from work on Fridays (on my way […]
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All Star Game,
Kansas City Royals,
NPR,
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Another in a series of feeble attempts to catch up on older items. You will forgive the possible occasional duplication from previous entries. First off, well, this is kind of insulting to baseball and books. * Ed Lucas received a lot of attention for his recent memoir, and rightly so. I had a great conversation […]
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baseball fiction,
Bergino Baseball Clubhouse,
Bill Pennington,
Billy Martin,
Charlie O'Brien,
Doug Wedge,
Gary Cieradkowski,
Jack Zanger,
Mike Matheny,
minor leagues,
National Public Radio,
New York Yankees,
sabermetrics,
Sandy Alderson,
Steve Kettmann,
W. P. Kinsella,
Wins Above Replacement
You know a current event has gravitas when a pop culture entity like The Daily Show or Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me includes it in its weekly program. WWDTM referred to the recent computer hacking “scandal” by the St. Louis Cardinals in their most recent episode: PETER SAGAL: All right, here, sir, is your last […]
As much as I love listening to interview with authors, it gets to a point where they’re pretty much the same. I don’t know whether that’s a function of publicists sending out “talking points,” ostensibly to make the hosts’ jobs easier. I don’t know if the interviewers actually read all the stuff they get in […]