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Ace New York politics reporter, all around culture writer and crazed baseball fan Ross Barkan objected to my “Is Baseball Dying?” article. Naturally I had him here to say his piece and boy did we hit on a range of other topics.

* Contra conventional wisdom, is baseball more international than basketball?

* Why might baseball survive the future?

* Pete Rose was insanely famous in the 1970s, and we’ve forgotten

* Is household name sports celebrity over, post LeBron James and Steph Curry?

* Is Patrick Mahomes anywhere near as famous as prime Tom Brady was?

* Taylor Swift and parasocial fandom

* Will Swift exist outside her time?

* Travis Kelce’s obvious bid for fame

* Tucker Carlson vs. Bari Weiss on Israel

* Campus fight over Israel