The curious story of baseball’s Atlantic City (NJ) Bacharach Giants originates from a unique intersection of racism, tourism, and politics. In 1915, an independent semi-pro “Atlantic City Colored League” was formed to provide an entertainment outlet for the city’s 11,000+ black residents – with the hope being they would attend the games and stay off the boardwalk, a then-booming summer haven for white tourists. Two black businessmen active in the local Republican political machine asked an exist...
May 18, 2020•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 164
ESPN.com NFL Nation reporter Kevin Seifert stops by to help us perform a preliminary autopsy on the surprisingly sudden death of the XFL – WWE founder Vince McMahon’s second attempt at creating a viable alternative professional football league to that of the mighty NFL. A confident, but visibly mellower McMahon announced the league’s unlikely rebirth at a video press conference on January 28, 2018 (two months before a similar launch by the rival Alliance of American Football) – with resolute com...
May 11, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 163
We journey north of the border this week to get our first at-bats with the 35-year adventure formerly known as the Montreal Expos, with author and de facto team historian Danny Gallagher ( Always Remembered: New Revelations and Old Tales About Those Fabulous Expos ). Created in expansionary haste by the National League in 1969, MLB’s first-ever Canadian franchise was named after the city’s futuristic “Expo 67” World’s Fair, and expected to be domiciled in a new domed stadium by 1972 after a temp...
May 04, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 162
We mourn the unexpected passing of longtime Boston-area sportswriter & Marvin "Bad News" Barnes biographer Mike Carey ( "Bad News": The Turbulent Life of Marvin Barnes, Pro Basketball's Original Renegade ) - with our previous Episode 137 interview from November 3, 2019.
Apr 30, 2020•1 hr 59 min
From the day he first stepped into the New York Yankee clubhouse in 1962 at the age of 23, Jim Bouton was baseball’s deceptive revolutionary. Behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks and formidable fastball, lurked an unlikely maverick with a decidedly signature style – both on and off the diamond. Whether it was his frank talk about MLB front office management and player salaries, passionate advocacy of progressive politics, or efforts to convince the Johnson Administration to boycott t...
Apr 27, 2020•1 hr 50 min•Ep. 161
Film producers Tom McCabe and Kirk Rudell (“ Soccertown USA ”) join the podcast this week to discuss their newly released documentary about the modest working-class New Jersey town with an outsized influence on the history of the sport of soccer in the United States. In the mid-1980s, as the domestic pro game began to fade with the demise of the once-hot North American Soccer League, and FIFA’s passing over of the US as potential replacement host for the 1986 World Cup – it was three kids from l...
Apr 20, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 160
Industrial writer and fellow defunct sports enthusiast Tom Brucato ( Major Sports Leagues ) joins this week’s installment of the podcast to delve deep into his all-new update of what can only be described as the Encyclopedia Britannica of forgotten pro sports teams and leagues. The ultimate reference work for the discriminating sports historian, the Second Edition of Major Sports Leagues features the most comprehensive listing of (over 1600) “major league” teams to have ever played across 100+ t...
Apr 13, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 159
LA’s Dodger Stadium – opened in April 1962, and now the third-oldest home ballpark in Major League Baseball – is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills that cradle the stadium were once home to three vibrant semi-rural Mexican American communities – Palo Verde, La Loma and Bishop – collectively known as Chavez Ravine. In the early 1950s, all was condemned via eminent domain to make way for a utopian public housing project called Elysian Park Heig...
Apr 06, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 158
When 32-year-old Willy Roy and two of his NASL St. Louis Stars teammates were acquired by the still-yet-to-play expansion Chicago Sting in February 1975, the club had just four signed players and a hit movie-inspired logo to its name. No one knew what to expect, and Chicago’s twin pro soccer flame-outs less than a decade earlier – the White Sox-owned USA/NASL Mustangs (1967-68) and the Roy-led 1967 NPSL Spurs – didn’t exactly inspire confidence the Sting would be any different. Indeed, the passi...
Mar 30, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 157
Though he was born in Germany and still retains the distinctive vocal stylings to prove it, National Soccer Hall of Fame player/coach great Willy Roy has always been a Chicago kid in both heart and heritage. A post-WWII transplant to the Windy City at the age of six, Roy became a standout youth and young adult player in his adopted hometown – and by the mid-1960s, was honing his scoring skills and drawing national attention in the hard-nosed, Chicago-based National Soccer League with the multi-t...
Mar 23, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 156
With the entirety of pro sports in unprecedented lock-down mode, we offer some respite with a rewind back to the curiously borderline major league Continental Basketball Association (1946-2009), and one of its most successful franchises – the original Albany Patroons (1982-92). Video production firm owner/sports doc filmmaker/Cap City native Brendan Casey (“ The Minor League Mecca ”) helps us trace the story arc of a team that spent ten memorable seasons punching above its weight both on and off...
Mar 16, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 155
Hollywood cinematographer and documentary filmmaker Olivia Kuan ( Brick House ) joins to discuss the revealing story of the Houston "Herricanes" of the pioneering National Women’s Football League (1974-88) – and their overlooked role in the historically rich and surprisingly resilient world of women’s pro football. The modern women’s pro game started innocently enough in 1967, when Cleveland talent agent Sid Friedman launched a barnstorming “Women’s Professional Football League” in which a team ...
Mar 09, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 154
Award-winning illustrator, cartoonist and unwitting baseball historian Anika Orrock ( The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ) joins to discuss her delightfully visual take on the pioneering circuit that not only helped save America’s pastime – but also became the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the United States. With the US deep into WWII, attendance at Major League Baseball games by 1943 was dwindling and minor leagues were suspending o...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 153
Spring training is finally under way, and we celebrate the National Pastime with a return visit to the 1989-90 curiosity known as the Senior Professional Baseball Association – with one of its few dedicated chroniclers, prolific sports author Peter Golenbock ( The Forever Boys ). The brainchild of real estate developer (and former college player) Jim Morley, the SPBA was envisioned as a kind of Senior PGA golf-type circuit for ex-Major League Baseball players aged 35 and older (32+ for catchers)...
Feb 24, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 152
We gear up for this week’s world premiere of God Save the Wings – the long-awaited documentary about one of the original Major Indoor Soccer League’s most improbable success stories – with co-producers Adam Knapp ( Out Here in Kansas ) and Mike Romalis ( Make This Town Big: The Story of Roy Turner and the Wichita Wings ). The Wichita Wings were the smallest-market franchise of not only the fledgling MISL, but also of any major US pro sports circuit when they joined the league in its second seaso...
Feb 17, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 151
Baseball writer Fran Zimniuch ( Baseball's New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961-1998 ) help us sketch out a nearly forty-year survey of the major leagues’ fitful journey from a regional set of 16 teams confined to just ten US Northeast and Midwest cities, to the 30-club colossus that today stretches across 27 markets across North America. While the sport’s modern-day wanderlust began in earnest during the 1950s as the Braves moved to Milwaukee, the Browns left for Baltimore (new name: Orio...
Feb 10, 2020•1 hr 16 min
Society for American Soccer History board director Steve Holroyd returns to help us decipher the last decade of the enigmatic second incarnation of the American Soccer League (1933-1983) – the longest-lasting “professional” soccer circuit in US history prior to today’s MLS. A smaller-scaled reboot of the original ASL (1921-33) that, for a time, rivaled the fledgling sport of pro football in terms of fan interest – “ASL II” began its more-modest life playing in the urban centers of the Eastern Se...
Feb 03, 2020•1 hr 52 min
For 1970s-era NHL hockey fans who remember the eight-year adventure known as the Atlanta Flames, few are likely to forget Dan Bouchard. A tenacious, slightly eccentric and occasionally fight-prone French-Canadian goalie, “Bouch” was an immediate standout between the pipes for the NHL’s first-ever Deep South franchise (platooning with fellow Quebecois & expansion draftee Phil Myre during the club’s first five seasons) – and a survivor in a league where hard-nosed hockey was the norm and where...
Jan 27, 2020•1 hr 50 min•Ep. 148
Following the 1957 season, two of baseball's most famous teams – the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants – left the city they had called home since the 1880s and headed west to the Golden State of California. The dramatic departure and bold reinvention of the Dodgers (to Los Angeles) and the Giants (to San Francisco) is the stuff of not only professional baseball lore, but also broader American culture – brash and (especially among generations of New Yorkers) unforgivable acts of betrayal c...
Jan 20, 2020•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 147
Prolific rock/R&B drummer/musician Steve Ferrone (Average White Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) joins to delve into the backstory of helping write/craft the official theme song for the New York Cosmos – the latest chapter in our irregular series devoted to Tim’s longstanding fascination with the North American Soccer League’s most famous franchise. Pop music aficionados know Ferrone as part of the “classic” mid-70s lineup of AWB (along with Hamish Stuart, Alan Gorrie, “Onnie” McIntyre...
Jan 13, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 146
We kick off the new year with a return to the gridiron, and a revealing behind-the-scenes look at the brash, but ultimately ill-fated United Football League of 2009-12 – with its only commissioner, Michael Huyghue ( Behind the Line of Scrimmage: Inside the Front Office of the NFL ). Formed in 2007 out of big-budget dreams to establish a national top-tier, Fall-season minor league pro football circuit by high-wattage investors like San Francisco investment banker Bill Hambrecht, Google executive ...
Jan 06, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 145
We celebrate the arrival of 2020 with an archive re-release of one our favorite interviews of 2019 - New York Yankees broadcaster John Sterling. Strap in for a rollicking revisit to forgotten pro sports stops like the NBA Baltimore Bullets, WHA New York Raiders/Golden Knights, ABA New York Nets, the WFL New York Stars/Charlotte Hornets - and even the long-lost Enterprise Sports Radio network!
Jan 01, 2020•1 hr 1 min
We put the wraps on an event-filled 2019 with our first-annual holiday roundtable spectacular featuring the return of fellow defunct sports enthusiasts Paul Reeths ( OurSportsCentral.com , StatsCrew.com & Episode 46 ) and Andy Crossley ( Fun While It Lasted & Episode 2 ) – for a spirited discussion about the past, present and potential future of “forgotten” pro sports teams and leagues. It’s a no-holds-barred look back on some of the year’s most notable events and discoveries, including:...
Dec 23, 2019•1 hr 53 min•Ep. 144
Baseball biographer Jeremy Beer ( Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player ) joins the podcast this week to discuss the life and career of one of baseball’s greatest, though largely unsung, players – and provide us a convenient excuse for a deeper dive into the endlessly fascinating vagaries of the sport’s legendary Negro Leagues. Buck O’Neil once described Oscar Charleston as “Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Tris Speaker rolled into one,” while baseball historian Bi...
Dec 16, 2019•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 143
Journalist-author/Alabama native Bill Plott ( Black Baseball's Last Team Standing: The Birmingham Black Barons ) joins the show to help us discover more about the legendary Negro League franchise regarded by most baseball historians as the “jewel of Southern black baseball." The first Black Barons team began in 1920 as charter members of the Negro Southern League, an eight-member circuit that largely mirrored the all-white minor-league Southern Association – right down to the sharing of ballpark...
Dec 09, 2019•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 142
We mourn the unexpected passing of University of Arizona men's ice hockey media broadcaster & World Hockey Association history flamekeeper Tim Gassen - with our previous Episode 75 interview from August 18, 2018. RIP Tim - your passion for the WHA will be dearly missed!
Dec 06, 2019•1 hr 24 min
We hit the lanes this week to delve into the fascinating story of the nation’s first and only attempt at a professional team bowling league – a seemingly anachronistic idea by today’s standards, but a concept that made total sense in the early 1960s when pro bowling was in ascendance and the sport was seemingly everywhere on television. Bowlers Journal columnist and historian J.R. “Dr. Jake” Schmidt ( The Bowling Chronicles: Collected Writings of Dr. Jake ) joins the podcast to lay out the curio...
Dec 02, 2019•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 141
Author and unwitting pro football historian Joe Ziemba ( When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL ) help us set the record straight on the often-misunderstood history of the first incarnation of pro football’s oldest continuous club – now know as the Arizona Cardinals. Arguably the least successful franchise in National Football League history, the Chicago version of the Cardinals originated years before the start of the NFL (née American Professional Football A...
Nov 25, 2019•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 140
Veteran Missouri-area sportswriter Troy Treasure ( Icing on the Plains: The Rough Ride of Kansas City’s NHL Scouts ) joins the podcast this week to delve into the mostly forgotten (and woeful) two-season saga of the 1974 National Hockey League expansion franchise now known as the New Jersey Devils. Along with the Washington Capitals, the Scouts were the last additions in the NHL’s aggressive expansion cycle begun in 1967, and a logical progression for a metro area historically steeped in minor l...
Nov 18, 2019•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 139
You can be forgiven if you never heard of the International Volleyball Association – the mid-1970s co-ed pro circuit that aimed to draft off the rising popularity of Olympic and beach volleyball during America’s wildest sports decade – but the high-wattage media and entertainment moguls behind its creation at the time certainly cannot. The IVA was the brainchild of prolific Hollywood television and film producer David Wolper ( Roots , The Thorn Birds and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory t...
Nov 11, 2019•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 138
