Hooks & Runs

Jerry Grillo, author of "Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize," (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2024) joins us this week for a wide-ranging, fast-paced interview about this legendary Cardinal, Giant and Yankee first baseman. Grillo was an energetic guest and Mize's amazing life provides plenty of material to talk baseball. Grillo's book, by the way, is fantastic -- click the bookshop.org link below to order.

Jerry Grillo's official website:  https://jerrygrillowriter.com/
Jerry Grillo - Earthling, on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jerry.grillo.94
Johnny Mize on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BigCatMize

Episodes Mentioned:
45A - Shavermetrics w/ Scott Russell and Bill "Spaceman" Lee (Radio Edit)
106 - Baseball Rebels w/ Professor Peter Dreier
107 - Bert Shepard, Lou Brissie & Baseball During World War II
169 - John Glenn, Ted Williams and the Power of Friendship w/ Adam Lazarus

Errata/Omissions: Mickey Mantle popped out immediately prior to Johnny Mize's 3-run home run in the 1952 World Series, Game 5. The Brooklyn Dodgers traded Sam Nahem (Ep. 106) with 3 other players and cash to St. Louis in exchange for Hall of Famer Joe Medwick and pitcher Curt Davis in June 1940. Nahem and Mize were teammates in 1941 - Nahem was 5-2 with a 2.98 ERA in 26 appearances for the Cardinals  that year.

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-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)    
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.  

Author Dan Helpingstine has written several books about baseball in Chicago, including, "South Side Hitmen: The Story of the 1977 Chicago White Sox," and "The Cubs and the White Sox: A Baseball Rivalry, 1900 to the Present." Helpingstine is a life-long White Sox fan - his 2023 essay about Bill Veeck's second tenure as the White Sox owner is the subject for this show.

Check out our bookshop.org affiliate link below for links to Helpingstine's books

In Part 2, Rex and Craig consider the Astros' plight, examine a challenge facing the WNBA stemming from a Caitlin Clark interview gone horribly wrong (we removed the reporter's name as he's milked this for enough clicks, but IYKYK), remember the last Boy of Summer, pitcher Carl Erskine, who died last week at age 97, and review the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductions.

Dan Helpingstine's website is here (https://danhelpingstine.com/).
Helpinstine's essay in SABR's The National Pastime Journal is here (https://tinyurl.com/veeck042824).

Selected sources:
"Dave Portnoy blasts ‘pervert’ Indy Star columnist Gregg Doyel for creepy Caitlin Clark exchange," by  Andrew Battifarano, New York Post, April 17, 2024.
"Columnist's awkward exchange with Caitlin Clark gets creepier as second comment surfaces," by Scott Thompson, .foxnews.com, April 18, 2024.

Episodes mentioned:
196 - If You're Going to Let Foreigner in You Might as Well Let Them All In
191 - Hound Dog: The Song that Changed Popular Music and America w/ Ben Wynne 

-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN
-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)    
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.    

On this Rex and Craig agree -- Foreigner is a boring band.  And it is an outrage that Foreigner is nominated for induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame while Iron Maiden and Soundgarden are not.  Then again, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has been a joke for a long time. Why stop now?

Rex and Craig review this year's nominees and cast our (imaginary) ballots. Oh, and that Peter Frampton, Jack Bruce video is here.

Also this episode, Caitlin Clark and the WNBA, Coachella woes, injured pitchers everywhere and the Astros woes.

Errata: There is, in fact, a Hip Hop Hall of Fame and it's located in New York City. 

Past Episodes Discussed:
152 - R.E.M.'s Murmur at 40 w/ Tony Fletcher

-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN
-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)    
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.   

The Houston Colt-.45's started an all-rookie lineup on September 27, 1963, the one and only time in Major League Baseball history a team has done this. Houston eventually played a remarkable 16 rookies in the game, another MLB record unlikely to be challenged any time soon. Rex and Craig take a look this week at this lineup to see which rookies panned out and which did not. They found a wide range or careers, from the brilliant to the disappointing to the tragic.

Errata: The Las Vegas Golden Knights were an expansion team. It was the wife of the Kansas City Royals' owner that made public statements critical of Jackson County MO voters.

Sources:
For player statistics as always, Baseball-Reference.com
Steve Glassman, "September 27, 1963: Houston Colt .45s start a lineup of all rookies" at the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR.org) https://tinyurl.com/45allrookie1.
Rory Costello, "Jay Dahl" at https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jay-dahl/
Rex and Craig also pulled information from Wikipedia and Astros Daily (http://www.astrosdaily.com/).

-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN
-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)    
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.  

Kristin Cavness is the general manager of the Alpine Cowboys, the only truly independent team in the independent Pecos League (the other 15 teams are owned and operated by league). The Cowboys are owned and operated by a locally-controlled non-profit that keeps Alpine's strong baseball history alive. The team plays their home games at historic Kokernot Field, dubbed by Sports Illustrated's Nicholas Dawidoff in 2016 as the "Yankee Stadium of Texas." Cavness gives us a fun behind the scenes look at independent baseball in West Texas.

In Part 2, Rex and Craig discuss the Astros' dreadful start, the team's knack for throwing no-hitters and our favorite music releases for the first quarter 2024.

Episodes referenced in this episode:
34 - If You Take Batting Practice There You're Gonna Have to Fight Rattlesnakes w/ Bill Rogan 

Links: Alpine Cowboys 2024 schedule

-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN
-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)    
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.   


 

Bayleigh Von Schneider co-hosts Soxy Chicks, a podcast about Red Sox and White Sox baseball. She returns this week to Hooks & Runs for our annual American League preview. Von Schneider also shared some thoughts on Jordan Montgomery's landing spot (we didn't know yet it would be Arizona), Shohei Ohtani's gambling woes and the perils trying to compete in the hyper-competitive American League East plus more. Join us for this fast moving conversation.

Bayleigh Von Schneider on Twitter
Bayleigh Von Schneider on Soxy Chicks at YouTube

-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN
-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)    
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.  

Sara Sanchez, who writes and podcasts at Bleed Cubbie Blue, BaseballHQ and the Fantasy Feud podcast, returns to be Hooks & Runs' first three-time guest for our 2024 National League outlook. Sara is a talented, engaging baseball journalist and analyst who deserves your attention. She always delivers the goods.

A lot happened between the recording on March 18 and the release on March 25 including Blake Snell signing with the Giants that evening and a few days later, a shocking and somewhat confusing gambling scandal -- can we call it a scandal yet -- involving mega-involving Dodger superstar Shohei Ohtani broke.

Sara Sanchez on BlueSky
Sara Sanchez on Twitter
Sara Sanchez on Bleed Cubbie Blue and BCB podcast
Sara Sanchez on BaseballHQ
Sara Sanchez at Fantasy Feud

-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN
-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)    
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.      

Dr. Ben Wynne, Ph.D. (Univ. of N. Georgia) is our guest this week to talk about his latest book, "A Hound Dog Tale: Big Mama, Elvis and the Song that Changed Everything"  (Louisiana State Univ. Press 2024). This is a fascinating interview about a song that was a major rhythm & blues hit for Big Mama Thornton and a ground-breaking success for Elvis Presley a few years later. Through his research, Wynne is able to explain how this song through is many incarnations and having spurred two major lawsuits defined and re-defined the culture and business of popular music in the years that followed and to this day. This book is highly recommended!

Errata: Craig got the title wrong both times ... it's "A Hound Dog Tale...," not "Hound Dog...."

-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN
-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)    
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.     

Former Houston Astro Jason Lane is one of 21 pitchers in MLB history that have pitched or pitched at least 10 innings in the big leagues with a career ERA below 1.00. The list includes both Negro League players and players that played in the National Association (1871-75).

We are looking at the background and history for all 21 players in this episode -- stories that include unfortunate injuries, bad luck, military service, returns home and other fates.

Oh, believe it or not, one of the 21 players is a Baseball Hall of Fame inductee!

In Part 2, Rex leads a review and discussion about the new motion picture, "Dune, Part Two."

Errata: The correct name of the Negro League baseball database is Seamheads.com.

Episodes Mentioned:
189 - Baseball, Chemical Warfare and The Great War w/ Jim Leeke
180 - When Your Cosplay Turns Into the Truth
142 - The 1919 Black Sox w/ Jacob Pomrenke
107 - Bert Shepard, Lou Brissie & Baseball During World War II
106 - Baseball Rebels w/ Professor Peter Dreier

-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN
-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)      
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.  

This week's guest is Jim Leeke, author of the new book, "The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I" (Potomac Books, 2024). This is the Leeke's fifth book about baseball and the Great War authored by Leeke, a retired journalist, copywriter and U.S. Navy Veteran. We thoroughly enjoyed this chat.

This interview discusses players such as Hall of Famers Eppa Rixey, Christy Matthewson and Ty Cobb that served in the Army's Chemical Warfare Service during the "The Great War."

Leeke's other books on Baseball and The Great War are:
"Ballplayers in the Great War: Newspaper Accounts of Major Leaguers in World War I Military Service" (2013) (co-edited);
"Nine Innings for the King: The Day Wartime London Stopped for Baseball, July 4, 1918 (2015);
"From, the Dugout to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War (2017); and
"The Best Team Over There: The Untold Story of Grover Cleveland Alexander and the Great War" (2021)

-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN
-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)      
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.