Backwards K Pod

When most people think of the Netherlands, they think Amsterdam, the Red Light District. the Devil's Lettuce and windmills. And while soccer is by far the number one sport in the country, the Dutch have become a powerful European baseball force.

As more and more quality players arrive from the Kingdom every year to the majors, I take a historical look at the oldest baseball league outside of the Americas, as well as the bright future of Dutch baseball.

A bonus show, solemn tribute to arguably the greatest baseball play by play announcer who ever lived, Mr Vincent Edward Scully.

With his golden throated delivery, powerful command of the English language and impeccable timing, he deployed his oratory skills in a true art form. With a 67 year Dodgers career on his impressive resume, nearly all living baseball fans today, can mark a passage of time in their own lives, with the acknowledgement of his steady and familiar presence. Scully was the soundtrack of my sport's life when i was a mere boy and then when I became an old man. He was inherited art, handed down to me by my grandfather.

This is a bonus show tribute, to the remarkable life of Vin Scully

#VinScully #BrooklynDodgers #RedBarber #MelAllen #SandyKoufax #LADodgers #BranchRickey #WalterOMalley

In a career that spanned over decades and generations, and with the constantly evolving nature of baseball, Branch Rickey was an innovative mind that changed the game forever.

He invented the Minor League farm system and batting helmets. He created the first Spring Training complex and advanced metrics like On Base Percentage and Total bases. Of course, he is most notably known for facilitating the arrival of Jackie Robinson, to the Brooklyn Dodgers, to smash the color line. His impact on the game is unparalleled even to this day and he is arguably the greatest baseball General Manager who ever lived. This is his story....

#BranchRickey #StLouisBrowns #StLouisCardinals #GasHouseGang #BrooklynDodgers #JackieRobinson #PittsburghPirates #RobertoClemente #Mahatma

The 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, after a dreadful 4-10 start, makes some savvy trades and adopt the Sister Sledge hit song We Are Family as the team's motto. After a furious streak of winning baseball, the underdog Buccos, would work their way out of last place to finally overtake the Expos and Phillies for the NL East Pennant. After destroying the Reds in the 1979 NLCS, the Pirates would take on the favored Baltimore Orioles in the World Series, for the second time during the 70's.

Down three games to one in the World Series, patriarch Willie Stargell would galvanize his family and lead them to achieve the impossible.

#PittsburghPirates #BaltimoreOrioles #ChuckTanner #BillMadlock #DaveParker #WillieStargell #EarlWeaver #EddieMurray #KenSingleton #MikeFlanangan #OmarMoreno

The MLB All Star Game is an American Institution. It is rich in legend, folklore and history.

It is a never ending story, where every year we get to see a whole new 9 inning chapter, written before our eyes. Every player in the game has the same opportunity to be the hero or the goat.

Throughout time, every team has had their share of franchise superstars. Players that stood above the rest. They are the ones that fill the stadiums and only one game brings them together, at the same time every year.

This is the history of the MLB All Star Game

#AddieJoss #EdwardKelly #Tribune #ArchWard #ConnieMack #JohnMcGraw #BabeRuth #TedWilliams #HankAaron #WillieMays #StanMusial #BanJohnson #BowieKuhn #FredLynn

Backwards K Pod Bonus Show #30 going into the 2022 MLB All Star break,

Jake Robinson sits down with world renowned baseball artist Graig Kreindler.

Thw two discuss juggling kids, marriage, work and baseball. Graig also reveals some of the tricks of his trade, such as the inspiration for any given picture, as well as the timely process it takes for him to complete a mastepiece. A veritable baseball historian, who has painted pictures set in the 1860's, all the way up to today's modern players and game.

#GraigKreindler

In 1912, three magnificent jewel box baseball stadiums come to life. One of those stadiums was the ball yard from yesteryear known as Crosley Field, located in Cincinnati, Ohio. From her innovative drainage system, scoreboard format and lush Kentucky Bluegrass field, Redland Park/Crosley Field would not only set the standard for stadiums of her day, but pass her legacy down to ballparks as templates that are still being used today, in the modern game.

#CrosleyField #CincinnatiReds #GarryHerman #PalaceOfTheFans #RedlandField #MattyScwab #JohnnyVanderMeer #JoeNuxhall #BoboNewsom #LarryMacPhail #PowelCrosley

This week's topic is about the amazing path Ron LeFlore took to the Major Leagues, which is unlike any other before or since. After a botched armed robbery in 1970. LeFlore would play the game of baseball for the first time in his life, for the Jackson State Prison baseball team, where he would be discovered by Tigers manager, Billy Martin.

Within three years of his release from prison, he would find himself as the starting Center Fielder for his hometown Detroit Tigers, on his way to what appeared to be a top shelf caliber career. He had developed himself into one of the most dangerous hitters in the American League. And he excelled at what else? Stealing of course.

This is the incredible story about Ron LeFlore.

#RonLeFlore #JacksonStatePrison #BillyMartin #JimLeyland #MontrealExpos #ChicagoWhiteSox

Unless you are a seamhead living under a rock, you have probably seen or at least heard about the Savannah Bananas, turning the baseball universe on it's head, down in Georgia.

Attending a Bananas game is tantamount to going to the circus, and a baseball game, or something that closely resembles one, breaks out. From ballplayers playing on stilts, to the Banana Pep Band banging out music in the stands, to the 60 year old and over senior citizens dance crew called the Banana Nanas, you never know what you are going to experience in Historic Grayson Stadium, but you know the focus will be entirely on exciting baseball and non stop entertainment.

The Savannah Bananas have become a viral sensation with over 52 million followers on Tik Tok alone.

How did this happen? This is the story of how Jesse and Emily Cole built this exploding empire from the ground up, in a highly skeptical city, where the Coles were not looked at as baseball saviors, rather the next group of owners who were coming to town to fail. Boy were they wrong....

This is the story of the Savannah Bananas

At elevation levels ranging from 400 too 700 feet and after 31 months of relocating 8 million cubic yards of Earth, 13 million pounds of reinforced steel used and an army of construction men who literally moved mountains to build this modern day marvel of engineering. The third oldest stadium in the majors was born,

The legendary ballpark also has a sad and sordid backstory, that saw three Mexican-American neighborhoods in the ravine, razed to the ground by the government, for an eventual failed public housing plan. Paving the way for the Dodgers to take advantage of the almost empty plot of land.

This is the amazing story of Dodgers Stadium at Chavez Ravine.

#DodgersStadium #ChavezRavine #WalterOMalley #VinScully #LaPoloma #PaloVerde #TommyLasorda #BlueHeaven