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Fans of Americana music may recognize the name Bob Carlin as one of the country's leading practitioners of the classic "clawhammer" style of banjo. His myriad recordings, historical writings and frequent performances across the US and around the world have won him plaudits from old-time banjo scholars and aficionados alike. But when he's not downpicking in the studio or performing on stage, Carlin is likely to be found elsewhere on the road, obliging one of his life's other passions - chronicling the histories of North American "lost" baseball parks. Carlin's new book, "New York's Great Lost Ballparks," gives us the perfect excuse to delve into both ends of the Empire State's (and the Big Apple's) sizable trove of past professional baseball diamonds - from the iconic and memorable (like the Bronx's original Yankee Stadium, and the four versions of Manhattan's fabled Polo Grounds), to upstate Binghamton's oft-forgotten Johnson Field (RIP: 1968), the decades-long home of the Parlor City's various minor league league teams (e.g., Bingos, Brooms and Triplets). And, of course - everything in between! + + +

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​​Pittsburgh-native sports historian (and previous Episode 242 guest) Dave Finoli ("Where Pittsburgh Played: Oakland's Historic Sports Venues") returns to the pod for a deep dive into the notable histories of the Steel City's important first generation of modern-day sports venues. We dig into some of the memorable (and many not-so) professional teams and leagues that called the city's Oakland neighborhood home, in places like: Pitt Stadium (NFL football's Steelers); the Duquesne Gardens (the early NHL Pirates & numerous minor-league hockey clubs; the BAA basketball Ironmen); and of course, the legendary Forbes Field - which not only housed baseball's Pirates, but also the same-named (pre-Steelers) sister football franchise, two WWII-era NFL contractions (1943's "Steagles" & 1944's "Card-Pitt"), the Negro Leagues' iconic Homestead Grays, and even the 1967 one-and-only season of the NPSL soccer Phantoms. PLUS: we "send in" a special collegiate nod to the still in-use Fitzgerald Field House !

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​The Hartford Whalers were a beloved hockey team from the​ moment of their founding in 1972 as the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers. Playing in the National Hockey League's smallest market and arena after the 1979 WHA merger/absorption/expansion, the Whalers struggled in a division that included both the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens - but the club's fans were among the NHL's most loyal. In 1995, new owners demanded a new arena - and when plans fell through, moved the team to Ralegh, North Carolina - where they became today's Carolina Hurricanes. Astonishingly, the Whalers remain as popular as ever in their former home town and previous incarnation. Even though more than two decades have passed since Connecticut's only professional sports team relocated, nobody has truly forgotten the team, its history, or its uniquely memorable (and still highly profitable) logo. And while the NHL continues to thrive without them, the Whalers' impact stretches far beyond the ice and into a still very-much-alive cultural phenomenon. Boston Globe sportswriter Christopher Price ("Bleeding Green: A History of the Hartford Whalers") grew up in Connecticut as a diehard Whalers fan, experiencing firsthand the team's bond with the community. Drawing from all aspects of the team's past, he shares an uncensored history of ​the region's still-favorite professional sports franchise. PLUS: Listen for your chance to win a free copy of "Bleeding Green"!

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He's enshrined as a member of the College Football Hall of Fame for his record-breaking, two-time consensus All-American fullback rushing career at Syracuse in the mid-1960s.

He's an inductee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, most notably for his dominant rushing prowess with the Don Shula-coached Miami Dolphins of the early 1970s - and his leading role in the club's three consecutive Super Bowl appearances, two back-to-back NFL titles, and its unparalleled perfect undefeated season in 1972.

But in our conversation this week with legendary gridiron star Larry Csonka ("Head On: A Memoir"), we digress (and obsess) into some of the lesser-known chapters of an impressively unique career - including his first professional years with Miami as part of the old American Football League in the late 60s; a bombshell move (along with Dolphin teammates Paul Warfield and Jim Kiick) to the upstart World Football League's Memphis Southmen (née Toronto Northmen) in 1974; and front office roles with the original USFL's Jacksonville Bulls (1984-85).

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We welcome budding sports historian - and previous Episode 190 guest - Alan Bass ("Ed Snider: The Last Sports Mogul") back to our microphones this week, this time to delve into the life and times of modern-day Philadelphia's patron saint of professional sports.

The dustjacket for The Last Sports Mogul makes the case:

"Most sports team owners make their money elsewhere and purchase a team as an extravagant hobby - but that is not the story of Ed Snider. One of the few owners in history to get control of a franchise by mortgaging nearly everything to his name, the longtime Philadelphia Flyers chairman would go on to form the billion-dollar empire of Comcast-Spectacor and cement his standing as one of the most influential businessmen in the city's history.

"Snider was ambitious and entrepreneurial, though extraordinarily demanding of those who worked for him. He was affectionate with his loved ones, yet often showed a surprising lack of emotional intelligence. His staunch capitalist beliefs contrasted his progressive-minded views on the business of hockey and in sharing his wealth with those in need.

"The Last Sports Mogul embraces all sides of Snider to form a complex portrait of the unparalleled figure once named Philadelphia's greatest mover and shaker of the millennium."

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Fans of the original NHL version (1979-96) of the Winnipeg Jets, as well as the first ten seasons (1997-2007) of their subsequent incarnation as the Phoenix Coyotes, will surely remember the dulcet tones of team radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster Curt Keilback (Two Minutes for Talking to Myself: Jets, Coyotes, Tales, Opinions).

For 27 seasons - spanning some 2400+ games - ​Keilback was the signature voice of the since-rebranded Arizona franchise, a seemingly lone constant amidst the club's steady stream of existential change from 1970s World Hockey Association dominance, to NHL small-market competitive frustration, to (supposedly) "greener pastures" in the Valley of the Sun.

Keilback takes us on clear-eyed journey back through some of the more memorable moments of his Jets/Coyotes broadcasting career, including: the original (and much-copied) "Winnipeg White Out;" the ill-fated 1996 "Save the Jets" campaign; how he kept his job despite the Jets' impending move; the not-so-great coaching tenure of "The Great One;" and his call of "The Goal" - then-Washington Capital rookie Alexander Ovechkin's impossible-to-describe, body-prone, behind-the-back score against the Coyotes in 2006.

PLUS: we debate the current wisdom and likely future of the current Arizona-labeled version of the franchise - and whether it will EVER work!

​Author/team biographer Steve Guinan (We Are the Troopers: The Women of the Winningest Team in Pro Football History) helps us celebrate the return of football this week - with a look back at ​​the unheralded story of the most dominant women's team of the 1970s -the Toledo Troopers.

Winners of seven consecutive championships across two different leagues - Sid Friedman's barnstorming Women's Professional Football League (1971-72), and the pioneering true-pro successor National Women's Football League (1974-77) - the Troopers compiled an astounding 58-4-1 record over its nine years of life, including six seasons of undefeated play.

Led by the league's most recognizable star Linda Jefferson and overseen by its hard-charging owner/head coach Bill Stout - the Troopers' roster was an unlikely assemblage of housewives, factory workers, hairdressers, former nuns, high school teachers, bartenders, mail carriers, pilots, and would-be drill sergeants - whose combined spirit, tenacity and simple "love for the game" helped create what even the hallowed Pro Football Hall of Fame officially recognizes as the "winningest team in professional football history."

As a young girl growing up in tiny, rural Throckmorton, Texas in the mid-1950s, memoirist Addie Beth Denton ("108 Stitches: A Girl Grows Up With Baseball") had only a vague understanding of what her father and uncle did for a living - except that they seemed to always be talking about baseball.

Only as she grew older did she come to realize all that discussion - not to mention her bevy of annual summertime excursions to professional parks all over the country - was much more than just a passing family curiosity.

In fact, she discovered that her uncle Harry Craft had not only been a respectable big-league outfielder with the Cincinnati Reds for nearly six seasons (1937-42) before joining the Navy in the war effort - but was now in the midst of a fledgling managerial career that saw him skippering numerous New York Yankees farm clubs, as well as two of the majors' newest: the 1955 Kansas City As (relocated from Philadelphia) and the 1962 expansion Houston Colt .45s.

Along the way, Denton recalls innumerable childhood brushes with baseball greatness - Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Billy Martin, Rusty Staub - all of whom credited Craft for his valuable tutelage during their careers.

And unwittingly willed a lifetime of memories and love for the game for a certain Texas farm girl.

The Athletic Major League Soccer staff writer Pablo Maurer steps into our vortex of what-used-to-be in professional sports this week, with a look back at some of the more confounding and overlooked stories of the not-so-distant past of US pro soccer.

It's our deepest dives yet into memorable North American Soccer League gems like 1977's one-year wonder Team Hawaii; 1983's divisive US Men's National Team-as-pro-franchise Team America; the curious Stateside detours of world greats like Bayern Munich superstar Gerd Müeller, Dutch legend Johan Cruyff and Manchester United icon George Best - plus, of course, the NASL's inventive ahead-of-its-time 35-yard-line Shootout tie-breaker.

We also tackle some of the already forgotten early days of Major League Soccer - including its own version of the Shootout; LA's ill-fated "first" second franchise Chivas USA; and impossible-to-forget franchise monikers like Wiz, Burn, Clash, and MetroStars.

PLUS: the unheralded pre-MLS rules experiments of the mid-90s USISL minor league pyramid.

AND: the incomparable (if not incomprehensible) Socker Slam!

Obscure trivia answers abound this week, as we return to the pro rinks of the 1970s with Twin Cities sports fan extraordinaire Dan Whenesota ("A Slap Shot in Time") for a look back at the not one, but two World Hockey Association franchises known as the Minnesota Fighting Saints.

The first team was one of the WHA's original twelve franchises, playing from 1972 until mid-1976; the second was the rebirth of the league's hastily relocated Cleveland Crusaders, and played for part of 1976-77 season. Neither incarnation completed its final season of play.

Save for a few games in the early months of the first version's inaugural season, both Fighting Saints played in the uniquely configured St. Paul Civic Center - where clear acrylic glass dasher boards offered fans completely unobscured views of all the action.

As for action, there was plenty - both in terms of fan-friendly uptempo offensive play, and aggressive, often penalty-drawing physicality - befitting of the team's name and iconic logo.

If you remember the WHA, the cross-town rival NHL North Stars, the movie "Slap Shot" (not-so-loosely based on the Saints and its minor league affiliate Johnstown [PA] Jets), or even simply where you were on June 27, 1972 when Bobby Hull stunned the sports world by signing with the upstart league - this is the episode for you!