A Baseball Story: Chapter 2: The First World Series

Episode 2: The First World Series 

Before we get started, I want to explain my thinking, and rationale with trying to do a podcast of this nature. Trying to create a single narrative on the history of baseball, is incredibly difficult to do. Make no mistake, I am not Baseball Historian by title, no one would ever get me confused with Joe Thorn, or a Bob Costas. I am a history teacher by trade, and the history of baseball has always been a subject that I have been incredibly interested in and it is something that I like to think I am well read in. I am not an expert, by any means, but I like to fancy the notion that I may know a little more than the average fan. And I am disclaiming that because the story I am telling may not fall in conventional approaches to doing something like this. 

A Baseball Story: Chapter 1: The Beginning of Baseball

Episode 1: The Beginning of Baseball

  Since as early as the the 18th century, America, and even prior to that, the British colonies in North America, has had some form of the game of baseball. Townball, a popular New England game, which looked more like a game of Cricket than our game today, was one of the most popular team sports the country had to offer. While horse racing and boxing had more of a national notoriety, both sports focusing on the individual, either man or horse, Townball was a chance for people to come together on Sunday afternoons, after church and take part in a community affair. Townball and other game’s like ‘Rounders’ consisted of bat, ball and base type games. But then how did the game of baseball get created? 

Sports and Covid-19 on The Cooldown Podcast

Five Foot Nothin tackles sports during Covid-19 on The Cooldown Podcast with host the TheLongRun_.

Oh, Odell: Is Time Running Out On This Former Phenom?

Five Years Ago, Odell Beckham Jr. gave us this…

After one of the greatest catches in football history, Odell Beckham’s status exploded as one of, if not the, one of the greatest talents in football. Many were quick to put Odell at the top of the list, of best receivers in the NFL, and soon afterwards the production would follow. 

The NFL's COVID Season

This past Thursday, the NFL released their schedule for the 2020 season. Much like this past NFL Draft, it was met with great enthusiasm and a much needed distraction from the day to day, doom and gloom of living in a quarantined world. Again, that’s the beauty of sport it could provide for us a different world to dive into, to get away from, or at the very least a distraction from every day’s peril. 

Here’s the problem: While it was nice to be able to get excited for the up and coming season, figure the night game’s your team has, and how many times your team has to travel across the country (sorry San Francisco, but who did you piss off?). However there is one thing the NFL schedule did not provide us.

How are you going to have a full season with COVID-19? 

Podcast: NFL Draft Special

It has been awhile since you have heard Coach K and Coach Dubs and I'm sure you have been missing it terribly.  

We have started up again with the help of TheLongRun_ who hosts a podcast called The Cooldown.  

Check it out below:

Starting A New, Old Hobby: Card Collecting As An Adult

“Hey hun, I was thinking, I am 35 years old now, I think its time I stopped playing video games in my free time.”

“Are you serious?” 

“Yeah you know, being married, paying a mortgage and having a child really puts things into perspective, and as much as I love playing video games…it’s time to grow up.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Absolutely not.”

“So what are you going to do instead?”

“I am going to start collecting baseball cards again.”

“Oh, god…”

NFL Draft Grades

The NFL Draft is over, and for a few days, it gave us, enough entertainment to distract us from the mundane of quarantine life, or at the very least, kept us from trying to talk ourselves into watching another reality show on Netflix. The NFL Draft, not surprisingly, broke every previous draft record for viewership as nearly five million people tuned in to get their sports fix. It provided lots of intrigue, especially in how it would all work, gave us a fun insight into players, coaches and personnel’s homes (including pets), and some relative surprises. The NFL draft was fun, especially when you consider the circumstances, but it’s aftermath provides us a little bit of a warped picture. 

2020 NFL Mock Draft (With Special Guests)

The week, and almost the day, is upon us! The 2020 NFL Draft happens this Thursday, and for the first time in what feels like forever, we have something sports related to look forward to. The NFL world is buzzing with one of the most anticipated drafts in memory (partly because there is nothing else to talk about). So what we decided to do, was invite some experts, each of whom, has an allegiance to a different team, then we gave each participant three additional teams and we held a mock draft over zoom to simulate what could happen this weekend at the 2002 NFL Draft.