We ran into a rather significant technical issue with this week's scheduled episode so, in an effort to keep our Ironman streak alive, rather than Conversations with Sports Fans we present a Monologue with a Sports Fan (in this case, our host, Doug Hill).

Doug reflects on his two encounters with Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton. The most-recent - a chance meeting at PHX Sky Harbor Airport in 2017 - is chronicled in this post at The Sports Fan Project. The first one occurred about a decade prior and involved Walton calling Doug at an inopportune time to discuss his Portland Trail Blazers' teammate, Johnny Davis.

We promise to be back next week with a full episode that's a true conversation.

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We're joined this week by Doug Pratt, Director of the Michigan Education Association's Communication and Public Engagement.

Beyond having a fabulous first name, Doug is a native of Chicago, a big baseball fan (White Sox) thanks to his father and grandfather, an ardent Michigan State University supporter, and a former sports journalist who tells us the most unusual thing he discovered in a touring pro's bag while covering the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club.

Doug also shares one of his most cherished memories of his fandom/journalism career at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics when he was in the stands as a fan for Team USA's Gold Medal win over Cuba, 4-0, in baseball.

It's quite a journey that also includes (we're quite sure) the first reference of Equatorial Guinea and Eric "The Eel" Moussambani. Check out this wonderful retrospective on "The Eel" by NBC's Jimmy Roberts.

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We're joined in this episode by the Artistic Director of the Dayton Philharmonic, Neal Gittleman.

Neal is the son of a former baseball who played catcher on his Navy base while serving. Born in Brooklyn in 1955, Neal recalls accompanying his father to a trio of New York Mets' games in their 1962 debut season in the Polo Grounds. And, miracle of miracles, Neal saw three of the team's 40 victories that season. He was a Mets fan until 1977 when the team made, in Neal's mind, a questionable personnel move. At that point he switched allegiance to the crosstown New York Yankees just in time for their success.

Well traveled, Neal shares tales of his time in Connecticut, Wisconsin, Oregon, France, and points in between.

We also chat about his recent iteration of a pops concert with the Dayton Philharmoic, "Huddle Up: Music of Sports." We learn of his inspiration for the performance and some of the shoulders he stood upon to conduct it.

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Our guest in this episode, Scott Heller, is an old church nursery school mate of the host. Saying the two go way back is, in fact, quite accurate.

Scott takes us on a journey from his early years as a baseball fan when he chose the Pittsburgh Pirates to be a bit contrarian with the rest of his Cincinnati Reds-loving family.

Scott also has a heartwarming recollection of how his NFL football allegiance leaned away from the Steel City in favor of the Windy City. (Hint: It involves a made-for-TV movie.)

Scott touches on this love of boxing, especially the heyday in the 1980s when Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, and Wilfred Benitez ruled the sport.

Finally, he also shares how important and memorable 1980's ⁠Miracle on Ice⁠ was to this landlocked adolescent in basketball-crazed Indiana.

In this episode we're joined by Detroit-based journalist Tom Stanton. Tom's been a lifelong fan of the Detroit Tigers as well as history which led him to author five works of historical sports (primarily baseball) non-fiction:

During our discussion Tom shares how he became infected with the sports bug, where he finds his inspiration for his books, and how sports inpact our lives, especially generationally.

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We're joined this week by Michael O'Connell Jr., a math teacher from Loudoun County, VA, who also does a bit of blogging, podcasting, authoring, and parenting to his 9-year-old son. (All but the parenting are linked at the bottom;-)

Michael's also an avid sports fan. So much so that he regularly embeds as much sports as he can in his math instruction which is music to this educator's ears.

We learn about his sports fan origin story (1989 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game), his early years in greater New York City, his family's connection to Binghamton, NY, and the Yankees' Binghamton Triplets where Whitey Ford and Thurman Munson once played, and the town's long-defunct Broome Dusters minor league hockey team that played a role in inspiring the film "Slapshot."

There's quite a lot of Syracuse and Carrier Dome talk - including a wild 1991 game against Notre Dame in which the Irish won, 101-98, on a buzzer-beating triple by Elmer Bennett - as well as all that there is to offer sports fan in the Beltway these days.

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Our guest this week, high schooler Jane Meinecke, is the daughter of previous guest, Derek Meinecke (heard in S:2, E:37). She clearly comes about her fandom honestly, but she split from her father's love of Manchester City and instead chose upstart, Brentford, as her EPL club of choice.

Both Jane and Derek share a love of the Detroit Lions and she credits her father's hunch to by season tickets prior to the 2022 season for an even deeper devotion with the Lions' recently completed NFC Championship Game-run.

During our discussion Jane shares stories of her three times seeing the Brentford Bees in person as well as of that magical Lions' playoff run. Jane's favorite players on Brentford include defenders Ben Mee and Ethan Pinnock and forward Bryan Mbeumo. Her favorite Lions are offensive lineman Penei Sewell and tight end Sam LaPorta.

We also learn that some day she hopes to see an Olympics live including her favorite athlete, hurdler Sidney McLaughlin-Levrone, as well as her beloved Bees in the UEFA Champions League.

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This week's guest is Larry Lester, a co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and one of America's foremost historians on all things Negro Leagues.

A native of Kansas City, we learn about Larry's youth and his early interest in the hometown Athletics and the heartache when they moved west following the 1967 season.

Larry notes his interest in the Negro Leagues was borne out of those former Kansas City Monarchs and their families who remained in the area (Buck O'Neil's wife was one of his teachers) as well discovering author Robert Peterson's Only the Ball Was White.

Before we let Larry leave, we asked him for some of the ex-Negro Leaguers who are worthy of consideration for enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Those include:

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Before 2024 March Madness fades to black Monday night, we catch up with Evan Blanchard, a student manager of Oakland (MI) University's men's basketball team, who was seated courtside for the 14th-seeded Golden Grizzlies' first-round upset of third-seed, Kentucky.

And, as we all prepare to watch upstart North Carolina State University in the Men's Final Four, Evan had a front row seat for the Wolfpack's victory over OU as well and tells us the the big guy, D.J. Burns Jr., is both big and fundamentally sound.

Beyond talking Greg Kampe, Jack Gohlke, Blake Lampman, and Trey Townsend, Evan shares what it's like to be a student manager at Division I basketball school, recollections of time spent with dad watching Michigan State University football, his love of the Detroit Tigers, and thoughts about the Detroit Lions' coming season.

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In this episode we're joined by Mike Veeck, a member of one of baseball's most notable families. His grandfather Bill Veeck Sr. was President of the Chicago Cubs, his father Bill Jr. was an owner of the Milwaukee Brewers (then a Triple A team), the Cleveland Indians, the St. Louis Browns, and the Chicago White Sox (twice) and was immortalized in bronze in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

Along the way, Mike's worked for four MLB franchises and 20 Minor League affiliates. His most noteworthy recent run occurred as part of the ownership group with the St. Paul Saints who were played in the Independent Northern League at the time. The Saints provide the name of the 2023 Netflix film about Mike and his family, "The Saint of Second Chances."

Currently, Mike and his son Night Train, have ownership stakes in the Joliet Slammers, the Charleston RiverDogs, and a minority ownership stake in the Larne F.C. in Ireland.

Buckle up for this fast-paced episode, as Mike brings the sort of energy that led to over 700 sellouts in a row in St. Paul.

Along the way, Mike talks jai alai, Larry Doby, Satchel Paige, Disco Demolition Night, Bill Murray, and a plethora of promotions from his life selling tickets.

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