Good Seats Still Available

It's our 400th, so we're going big with a guest who's called it all, seen it all, and somehow lived to laugh about it.

Steve Albert ("A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Broadcast Booth") -- Hall of Fame broadcaster and proud member of the legendary Albert sportscasting family (including nephew/Episode 320 guest Kenny) -- joins us for a deep dive into his one-of-a-kind, 45-year ride through the wilds of professional sports. From vanished leagues to unforgettable fights, from Brooklyn bedrooms-turned-broadcast-booths to center stage at Showtime Championship Boxing, Albert's stories are equal parts history and hilarity.

In this special milestone episode, we retrace Albert's journey through memorable stops like:

• The WHA's Cleveland Crusaders, where his broadcast partner was the coach's elbow-needling wife;

• The MISL's New York Arrows, where goal-scoring was nonstop and whiplash an occupational hazard;

• The final ABA game ever played, which he and his older brother Al called from opposing sides;

• 30+ years across the NBA, including 19 seasons with the New York and New Jersey versions of the Nets, and a career-capping, Emmy-winning turn with the Phoenix Suns;

• Local New York TV sports anchor stints, where juggling 6 o'clock newscasts and rush-hour traffic to call evening games became an art;

• And, of course, his nearly quarter-century ringside seat with Showtime Championship Boxing -- including the infamous Tyson–Holyfield (II) "Bite Fight"

We also talk about growing up in a house where three brothers fought over the mic instead of the remote, how a botched bathroom door nearly derailed a broadcast, and why the strangest moments in sports often happen outside the lines of the game.

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What do you get when you mix Gen X slacker spirit, a startup sports league on wheels, and a 25-year-old Deadhead-turned-front office exec? Welcome to the wild world of Roller Hockey International (RHI) — and the improbable story of the San Jose Rhinos.

Brad Porteus, former GM of the Rhinos and author of the rollicking new memoir "Roll With It: A Trip Back to the '90s - Gen X Style," joins us to unpack one of the most absurd, glorious, and ultimately short-lived chapters in modern American pro sports history.

RHI burst onto the scene in the early 1990s during the inline skating craze, promising a legit summer hockey league full of high-speed thrills and low-rent spectacle. What it delivered was equal parts innovation and chaos.

Porteus was there from the beginning — drafting players who could barely skate; marketing a new team, league and sport on a shoestring budget; and helping San Jose win an unlikely Murphy Cup championship in only its second season (1995).

But Roll With It is about more than sports. It's also a love letter to the analog '90s, a memoir of coming of age in an ascendant Silicon Valley, and a tribute to the resilient, underdog ethos of Generation X. Porteus brings us into a time before social media, when careers were launched on little more than a mixtape, a road map, and the blind faith that you could figure it out.

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Before the Kraken. Before the Canucks. Before the NHL crossed the 49th parallel, there was the Seattle Metropolitans -- the first American team ever to win the Stanley Cup, in 1917.

This week, we uncover the forgotten saga of the Metropolitans, a team built on innovation, grit, and West Coast ambition. They played fast, they played smart -- and led by brilliant young coach Pete Muldoon, they made hockey history in a city barely known for winter sports.

But as author/guest Kevin Ticen chronicles in his acclaimed book "When It Mattered Most: The Forgotten Story of America's First Stanley Cup Champions, and the War to End All Wars," their Stanley Cup story wasn't just about sports -- it was about a country on the edge of entering World War I, about patriotism and sacrifice, and about what happens when the games we play intersect with global events we can't control.

We discuss the heroics of Bernie Morris, who scored a staggering 14 goals in the 1917 Stanley Cup Final -- and whose life took a dark turn when he was arrested for alleged draft evasion two years later. We revisit the tragic 1919 Final -- canceled due to the Spanish flu pandemic -- and the heartbreaking death of the Montreal Canadiens' Joe Hall.

And we explore how the Seattle Kraken have embraced the legacy of the Metropolitans, from commemorative banners and tribute jerseys to the modern-day Pete Muldoon Award, given annually to the current-day team's MVP.

From hockey glory to global catastrophe, this is the incredible, nearly forgotten tale of how Seattle once conquered the hockey world -- "when it mattered most."

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We use up our remaining MTA MetroCard credit this week for a sit-down with baseball author/historian Chris Donnelly — whose new book "Get Your Tokens Ready: The Late 1990s Road to the Subway Series" represents the final installment of his intriguing trilogy charting the divergent, yet intertwined sagas of the Mets and Yankees from the mid-1980s through 2000's historic "Subway Series."

Donnelly's previous works — "Doc, Donnie, the Kid, and Billy Brawl: How the 1985 Mets and Yankees Fought for New York's Baseball Soul" and "Road to Nowhere: The Early 1990s Collapse and Rebuild of New York City Baseball" — set the stage.

But now, with "Tokens," he delivers the most in-depth look ever at how the late-1990s Yankees rose to dynasty status while the Mets clawed their way back from irrelevance — culminating in a tightly contested World Series showdown that defined a generation of New York baseball fans.

We explore how the Yankees became the undisputed kings of New York, the Mets' dramatic resurgence, and what the 2000 cross-town showdown meant for the city's baseball soul -- some four decades after the Giants and Dodgers abandoned Gotham for the California coast.

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We welcome to our microphones award-winning author, cultural critic and Washington University in St. Louis professor Gerald Early, whose new book "Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America" is a sweeping chronicle of Black Americans' extraordinary influence on the game of baseball — from the sport's formative days in the wake of the Civil War, through the heyday of the Negro Leagues, to the modern era.

A leading voice in the conversation about race, sports, and American identity, Early also served as an advisor to the National Baseball Hall of Fame's landmark new exhibit, Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball. Together, the book and exhibit offer a timely and powerful retelling of baseball's past — one that acknowledges long-overlooked figures like Moses Fleetwood Walker, Rube Foster, and Cool Papa Bell, and reexamines well-known legends like Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds through a deeper historical lens.

We discuss how Play Harder arrives at a moment of renewed focus on the Negro Leagues, as Major League Baseball officially recognizes them as major leagues and integrates their stats into the game's official record.

Early explains why this recognition matters, how the Negro Leagues shaped Black identity and community, and what the story of Black baseball says about America itself.

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Lacrosse is more than just a sport; it's a mirror — one that reflects the history, tensions, and contradictions of America itself. So posits acclaimed sports journalist/renowned Sports Illustrated Senior Writer S.L. Price on this week's episode, as we explore his impressive new book "The American Game: History and Hope in the Country of Lacrosse" — a sweeping chronicle of the Indigenous origins, elite entrenchment, and modern upheaval of America's truest "oldest sport."

From its sacred beginnings among the Native American (and First Nations) Haudenosaune — where the "Creator's Game" served as both spiritual expression and a form of conflict resolution — to its adoption and reshaping by white elites in Ivy League corridors, lacrosse has long occupied a complicated cultural space. Price brings us inside this uniquely American paradox: a sport that's simultaneously expanding at lightning speed, yet reckoning with the deep scars of exclusion, privilege, and violence.

We dive into lacrosse's turbulent professional history, including the shaky rise and fall of multiple pro leagues, the game's fraught image in the wake of high-profile scandals, and the symbolic power of the Iroquois Nationals playing as a sovereign team on the world stage. Along the way, Price shares stories of legendary figures like Jim Brown, Kyle Harrison, Lyle Thompson, and Oren Lyons — voices who have reshaped what lacrosse means, and who it belongs to.

This isn't just a conversation about sports — it's about race, class, identity, and what it means to belong in America. If you think you know lacrosse, think again.

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Though it seems like only yesterday, this season marks the 40th anniversary of one of baseball's most misunderstood and overshadowed Fall Classics - the surprisingly competitive seven-game 1985 World Series.

While most remember the all-Missouri "Show-Me Series" for umpire Don Denkinger's blown call at first base in Game 6, baseball historian Marshall Garvey joins us to discuss why that single moment, while a significant turning point, shouldn't define what was otherwise a colorfully spirited battle between two well-matched in-state rivals.

In his new book, "Interstate '85: The Kansas City Royals, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Show-Me Showdown That Rewrote Baseball History," Garvey peels back four decades of myth and oversight to uncover the full, rich tapestry of the "I-70 Series" — a provincial, emotionally charged showdown between two teams forever linked by more than just geography.

Through more than two dozen exclusive interviews with key figures like George Brett, Ozzie Smith, Bud Black, and even Don Denkinger himself, Garvey explores the human stories, cultural context, and remarkable on-field drama that have long deserved more attention.

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In a surprise move that instantly reshapes the league's historical narrative, the National Football League last month announced it will now officially incorporate statistics from the upstart All-America Football Conference (AAFC), the short-lived but impactful rival professional football league that operated from 1946 to 1949.

The decision brings long-overdue recognition to the achievements of several prominent players from the mid-20th century and results in the revision of several long-standing records in the NFL's official record books.

Renowned early pro football historian Ken Crippen ("The All-America Football Conference: Players, Coaches, Records, Games and Awards" and "The Original Buffalo Bills: A History of the All-America Football Conference Team") returns to the show (after a seven-year absence) to help us break down the NFL owners' decision to finally recognize the AAFC, as well as the historical significance of the move - which further burnishes the statistical legacies of star players like Y.A. Tittle (Baltimore Colts), Mac Speedie and Otto Graham (Cleveland Browns); Cleveland's iconic Paul Brown; and, most obviously the original Browns franchise - the only league champion the AAFC ever knew.

Plus, the bizarre story of how the original AAFC statistical records were providentially rescued from a New York City dumpster shortly after the announcement of the merger with the NFL in 1949!

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This week, we're thrilled to welcome a true legend of grit and perseverance — former NFL quarterback Dan Pastorini ("Taking Flak: Life In The Fast Lane").

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Pastorini made his mark early at Bellarmine College Prep before starring at nearby Santa Clara University, where he etched his name into the school's record books and shined as the Most Outstanding Player of the 1971 East-West Shrine Game.

Drafted third overall by the Houston Oilers during the famed "Year of the Quarterback" in 1971, Pastorini became a symbol of toughness and innovation — famously pioneering the use of the flak jacket to play through brutal injuries. During his nine seasons with the Oilers, Pastorini led the team through the beloved "Luv Ya Blue" era under coach Bum Phillips, playing alongside greats like Earl Campbell and Elvin Bethea. His leadership helped fuel dramatic playoff victories and brought Houston to the brink of Super Bowl glory in both 1978 and 1979.

It's a revealing conversation, which includes Pastorini thoughts about:

• His upbringing, early sports dreams, and why he chose football over a potential MLB career after being drafted by the New York Mets.

• Life in the NFL trenches: the hits he took, the historic games he played, and the deep bond he formed with the city of Houston.

• The controversial 1979 AFC Championship loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers — and the call that still sparks debate.

• His transition to Top Fuel drag racing, where he broke barriers once again by winning major NHRA events and clocking speeds over 270 mph, AND

• His passion for giving back through the Be An Angel Foundation and reflections on a life lived at full throttle.

From quarterback to drag racer, businessman to philanthropist, Dan Pastorini's story is one of resilience, reinvention, and heart.

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Live and direct from Pottsdam, it's the one-and-only Karl-Heinz Granitza — the prolific German striker who became the face of the North American Soccer League's iconic Chicago Sting -- and a transformative figure in American soccer during his seven outdoor seasons across the late 1970s & early 1980s.

A 2003 National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee and one of the NASL's all-time leading scorers, Granitza opens up about his remarkable journey from West Berlin to the Windy City -- where his powerful left foot, fiery personality, and unshakable will to win helped ignite a soccer revolution in the US.

Granitza shares the challenges of joining the Sting in 1978, a year that began with a record-setting 10-game losing streak, only to pivot dramatically under mid-season replacement coach Willy Roy. With a new influx of German talent and a renewed sense of purpose, Granitza led a cultural and competitive shift that culminated in one of the most exciting eras in Chicago pro sports history.

Among the stops: the tension-filled triumph of the NASL's 1981 Soccer Bowl championship match, where the Sting edged the star-studded New York Cosmos in a nail-biting, scoreless encounter that culminated in a dramatic tie-breaking shootout. Granitza recounts the euphoric aftermath: Chicago's first major pro sports championship in nearly two decades, a ticker-tape parade attended by over 100,000 fans, and the moment he realized that soccer had finally taken root in America's heartland.

We dive into Granitza's reputation as both a clutch performer and a demanding teammate; with humor and honesty, he reflects on his passionate leadership style — his perfectionism, on-field outbursts, and deep loyalty to teammates like Arno Steffenhagen, Ingo Peter, and Pato Margetic.

We also explore Granitza's dominance in the 1980s indoor game (for both the NASL and MISL versions of the Sting, as well as the American Indoor Soccer Association's Chicago Power), his record-setting scoring streaks, and his perspective on the bittersweet demise of the NASL -- especially the (often overlooked) legacy it still provides today's American soccer landscape.

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