30 With Murti

Starting pitching made a comeback in the World Series. Did it ever really go away? Not really. But there has certainly been an evolution of pitching and the use of technology and data to maximize performance. You could say it started as part of "Moneyball," but now it's a lot more than that.

Rick Peterson, longtime major league pitching coach with the Oakland A's "Moneyball" teams of the early 2000s and later with the New York Mets, is as educated on this side of pitching as anyone who has been in baseball this century. Now retired from coaching, Peterson co-authored the book "Crunch Time: How To Be Your Best When It Matters Most."  

On the latest "30 With Murti" podcast, Peterson gives some of his thoughts on the state of pitching in 2019 along with the data, technology, and philosophies that are instrumental in developing major league pitchers.  

Sports and politics collide sometimes, but hardly ever in Washington, D.C. And then the Washington Nationals won the World Series.

Chelsea Janes spent four years covering the Washington Nationals for the Washington Post sports pages before switching to the paper’s coverage of the 2020 Presidential campaign. In October, she jumped back into the sports world for a short time, helping the Post’s coverage of the World Series. 

In this latest episode of “30 With Murti,” Chelsea Janes gives her unique perspective on the Nationals run to the World Series championship and how her years on the baseball beat have helped her political coverage.

Thirty years ago today — Oct. 17, 1989 — the World Series was interrupted by an earthquake. It measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and rocked the Bay Area just as the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants were minutes away from starting Game 3 of the Fall Classic at Candlestick Park.

The quake shook the stadium, but did far more damage in the surrounding areas. Thousands were injured, and 63 people died. The World Series didn’t resume until 10 days later.  

WFAN’s Suzyn Waldman was there reporting on the scene, in an instant going from sports reporter to news reporter. On this episode of “30 With Murti,” Sweeny and Suzyn talk about her memories of the earthquake and its aftermath 30 years later.

There is probably no popular song more widely associated with one team in baseball history than “We Are Family” and the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. This marks the 40th anniversary of the last World Series championship celebrated in Pittsburgh.

On this episode of “30 With Murti," WFAN's Sweeny Murti talks to the rubber-armed closer of that Pirates team, Kent Tekulve. He tells us about the leadership of Willie Stargell, the man known as “Pops,” and how he brought the team together.

Tekulve also tells us how and why a team of such diverse people found a theme of “Family,” identified itself with the working class population of the 1970s steel city of Pittsburgh  and took it all the way to a World Series championship when they beat the Orioles in a seven-game series for the second time in the decade.

Also listen for the moving story of how the Pirates rallied from a 3-1 series deficit behind their manager, Chuck Tanner, who led his team hours after the passing of his mother.

“We Are Family” and the Pittsburgh Pirates are tied together forever.  This is their story.

The 1969 Mets still maintain a special place in New York sports history. The Miracle Mets are one of the best stories in baseball history, too. This month marks the 50th anniversary of their stunning turnaround from laughing stock to World Series champions.  

In the latest episode of the “30 With Murti” podcast, outfielder Ron Swoboda recounts the Mets' rise to the top, including his highlight reel catch in the World Series against Baltimore, still one of the most iconic moments in Mets history.

Swoboda also talks about playing with the Yankees in the early 1970s alongside a young Thurman Munson, as well as his thoughts on the latest Mets phenom, Pete Alonso.  

Tim McCarver has seen just about everything in his 60-plus years in baseball. It’s impossible to fit all of that into one 30-minute conversation, but we did our best to hit some highlights.  

McCarver is our guest on the latest “30 With Murti” podcast. McCarver, a two-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion as a player, went on to become a Hall of Fame broadcaster. He was the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award presented at Hall of Fame Weekend in 2012.  

McCarver’s major league playing career began 60 years ago this month at the age of 17. And this week he will be honored with the Vin Scully Award for Sports Broadcasting Excellence from Fordham University radio station WFUV.

For stories about everyone from Bob Gibson to Aaron Boone, Joe Buck to John Madden, take a listen to this conversation with the great Tim McCarver.

You know actor Timothy Busfield from the baseball movies "Field of Dreams" and "Little Big League." And you know him from so many other roles in "Thirtysomething," "The West Wing," "Revenge of The Nerds" and more.

Now Busfield is a director for such shows as "This is Us" and "Law & Order: SVU." And he is also a huge baseball fan, which is why he is Sweeny’s guest on a brand new "30 With Murti."

Busfield talks about growing up a Tigers fan and attempting to play college baseball before going the theatre route. He also shares stories about some of his famous roles, including facing Randy Johnson for the climactic final scene in "Little Big League," playing White House reporter Danny Concannon on "The West Wing," and appearing in his first-ever screen role as the soldier who blew up Sgt. Hulka in "Stripes."

His latest on-screen turn is in the Fox drama "Almost Family," which premieres this fall.  

The Yankees have battled injuries throughout 2019 seemingly like they have at no other time before.  Some of these injuries have had fans question players' training methods.

On this new episode of “30 With Murti,” Sweeny talks about the injury crisis with Dana Cavalea, who spent 8 years as the Yankees Strength and Conditioning Coach from 2006-2013.  

Cavalea, who has been featured on Good Morning America for his book “Habits Of A Champion,” offers his unique insight into how baseball players train, what some of the causes for various injuries might be, and what players can do to stay on the field more often.

Two of the finest sports institutions in New York that boast a great deal of history and tradition are the Yankees and the United States Military Academy at West Point, known in the world of college athletics simply as Army.

Last May, Army hired Mike Buddie as its new athletic director. If that name sounds slightly familiar to Yankees fans, it’s because Buddie was a pitcher in the Yankees organization for eight years in the 1990s and made his major league debut in 1998. He went on to pitch in 24 games that season for the most dominant team of the late-'90s Yankees dynasty that won 114 regular season games and the first of three consecutive World Series titles.

In this episode of “30 With Murti,” Buddie reminisces about his days as a Yankees pitcher coming up the ranks with Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. He also discusses his new role and the challenges of being the athletic director at West Point.

One of the great rivalries in baseball history is renewed this weekend when the Yankees meet the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Going back to the days when the Dodgers played in Brooklyn, these two franchises met in 11 Fall Classics from 1941 and 1981. The Yankees won eight of the 11 matchups.  

Former Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey -- a 10-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove Winner and 1974 National League MVP -- played in the last three of those World Series, losing to Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson and company in 1977 and ’78 before Garvey’s Dodgers won the crown in ’81.  

On this new “30 With Murti,” Garvey shares his memories of those great chapters in baseball history and his thoughts on the current Dodgers team which could be headed to its third straight World Series.