Posted on 02 May 2012 by Justin
Maybe it’s because the topic of his book is a bit off the wall. Maybe it’s because he makes me laugh. Maybe it’s because his name sounds like the main character in a Fox procedural where the main character is a former doctor/novelist/psychic who helps the police solve crimes while also running a successful taco restaurant. But, for whatever reason, I didn’t think a traditional interview would do the trick for Hart Seely.
His new book, The Juju Rules: Or, How to Win Ballgames from Your Couch: A Memoir of a Fan Obsessed, should remind all of us what complete idiots we are. Watching sports shouldn’t be a participatory event. But, of course, it is. Interviewing can be too.
A couple of weeks ago, I took to twitter (@Justin_SCP, Follow me!) and collected stories of ridiculous sports superstitions from some of our readers. Thousands were tweeted. Not that many responded. But, enough readers responded for me to share the stories with Hart Seely and get his expert impressions of just how ridiculous the SCP community truly is.
We discuss horrible beverages, mid-90′s hip hop and the Large Hadron Collider.
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Posted on 19 April 2012 by Justin
Last week, the world marked 100 years since the sinking of the Titanic. Today, we mark the centennial of another disaster. On April 20th, 1912, The Boston Red Sox played their first game at Fenway Park.
I’m kidding. Fenway is fine. It’s just the players and fans that are the problem.
John Powers and Ron Driscoll are out with a new book on the beloved Boston Ballpark, called Fenway Park: A Salute To The Coolest, Cruelest, Longest-Running Major League Baseball Stadium In America. We spoke to Driscoll about Fenway’s neighborhood appeal, a possible replacement and the other Diamond that makes it such a remarkable place.
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Posted on 10 April 2012 by Justin
If you’re a Yankee fan, you know Marty Appel. He’s one of the franchise’s great historians. So, who better to write an account of the franchise’s long history?
Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss will be released next month.
We talk about the monumental task of writing a team history, his personal experiences in Pinstripes and what he likes to watch for on the Yankee Stadium Scoreboard.
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Posted on 09 April 2012 by Justin
Todd Zolecki is the Phillies beat writer for MLB.com, so he had a first hand look, last year, at one of the most talented pitching rotations in history. He’s sharing that first hand look with the rest of us in the new book, The Rotation, co-written with Jim Salisbury.
We talk about the 2011 Phillies place in history, whether Roy Oswalt is Chris Bosh and whether a football mad city can catch baseball fever. (Spoiler alert: YES. Yes it can.)
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Posted on 27 February 2012 by Justin
Like sand through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives. Which is a nice way of saying, “Damn, we’re getting old.” Here’s the latest proof. In the next few weeks, we’ll mark 20 years since Christian Laettner hit the shot against Kentucky, to lead Duke into the 1992 Final Four.
ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski has written a new book about the game. “The Last Great Game” dissects both coaches, teams and the circumstances that led up to one of the most iconic moments in NCAA history. We discussed the book, the game’s lasting impact and Gimel Martinez’s hall of fame mustache. He also does a great job of convincing you to buy his book.
Posted on 23 February 2012 by King Ing
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series opens up the 2012 season this weekend with the Daytona 500. While a lot of eyes will be focused on the favorites like Harvick, Busch, and Stewart…SCP is backing “The Cuban Missle,” Aric Almirola.
This year has already brought us the story of Jeremy Lin. A guy who bounced around from team to team, league to league before finally finding his place wit the New York Knicks. Here is hoping that the same story will hold true for a guy like Almirola. Early in his career he moved from Joe Gibbs Racing to Dale Earnhardt, Inc to numerous other teams before settling in with JR Motorports and riding the 2011 season in the Nationwide Series. After finishing forth in the series, Aric signed a one year deal to have his first full time ride in the Sprint Cup Series driving the famous 43 car.
Now with the backing of his new team. Richard Petty Motorsports Aric Almirola looks focused and ready for this new challenge. The man even took time out of his busy schedule to answer a few of our questions. Listen below.
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Posted on 27 October 2011 by Justin
If you haven’t read Luke O’Brien’s great story about Howie Spira at Deadspin, take a few minutes and do that now. I read it yesterday, and in my capacity as a radio producer, decided to piggy back O’Brien’s hard work and turn the story into some radio news gold. I emailed Deadspin for permission to use some audio that accompanied the story. Turns out, Spira was still sitting at their office (when you read the story, you’ll see that’s not so surprising,) so he called and offered to do an interview with me.
Here is that interview
Posted on 24 October 2011 by Justin
Here’s the way this usually works. I get an email from a publicist about an upcoming book or project that one of their clients is working on. If I’m interested, I send a list of questions to that publicist, who then passes them on to the client, who answers them and sends them back to the publicist. Then, the publicist sends them back to me. Voila! We have an interview.
Jimmy Petrosino cut out the middle man. He got in touch with me a few weeks ago to tell me about his new novel, “The Dean’s List,” which is about a college Fraternity that operates as an organized crime syndicate. We exchanged a couple of emails, set up an interview and then it was done. No fuss. No muss.
We talked about his first foray into novel writing, his taste in movies and why I’m not more popular on the internet.
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Posted on 10 October 2011 by Justin
Last week marked 60 years since Bobby Thompson hit “the shot heard round the world,” sending the New York Giants to the World Series and sending the Brooklyn Dodgers home for the winter. Ralph Branca is the other half of that equation, having thrown the pitch that Thompson hit out.
In the subsequent 6 decades, Branca’s embraced his role in history with a mix of perspective, good humor and class. Now, he’s written a book, called “A Moment In Time,” which focuses on how that moment shaped his life and how his life helped him deal with that moment.
During our conversation, we also discussed his views on some baseball legends, his quiz show domination and his utter fearlessness in the face of superstition.
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Posted on 29 July 2011 by Justin
A little over a year ago, We spoke to former Cub and Phillie Doug Glanville. That’s our leadoff hitter. Today, we’ve got some middle of the order power. Shawn Green spent 15 years in the majors, making 2 all star teams and finishing in the top 5 in the MVP voting three times. He’s out with a new book, called “The Way of Baseball,” about the mental side of the game. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.
We spoke about facing down the Big Unit, his role as the best Jewish player of his era and the film, “Mulva 2: Kill Teen Ape!”
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