The Bears drafted some players and so it's time for a spring edition of the Bears Podcast with Mike Pusateri. The guys take a look at the Bears picks, their strategy of not doing much to fix the offense, but how they did draft Velvet Jones. They also talk about the free agents the team has signed and discussed if the Bears really seem invested in Justin Fields. And then, it's time to talk TV. So they dig into Better Call Saul (and recommend a great podcast), Bob Odenkirk's book, Robert Evans' audiobook and the Paramount Plus series The Offer, Brian Cox's book, WeCrashed, The Dropout, The Staircase, Severance, Central Park, We Own This Town, F1 Drive to Survive, The Great Pottery Throwdown and more.

The season is nearing the tenth pole (that's not a thing) and so it's a good time to check in on the Cubs insistence on hitting everything on the ground, what's going on with the ball, what's the sticky stuff in the rosin bags these days, why are people still freaking out about Joe Maddon like he hasn't been doing this stuff forever, Javy's giant thumb, Aaron Boone intentionally walking a guy with 2,999 hits, April trades, guys getting struck by lightning and crushed by satellite dishes, great moments in Beloit Snappers history, quirky uniform stuff and former Bears receiver Roy Williams. 

Now, THAT's a podcast. 

The 1981 Cubs season was so bad that fans were relieved when baseball took two months off right in the middle of the season. The Cubs record was so lousy that they ended up with the first pick in the 1982 draft, but they didn't have the worst record in the league and they only finished in last place in one of the two halves! They somehow had an interim manager for an entire season, the Wrigley family sold the team, the neighborhood was crap, the park was falling apart and one of our hosts went to his first game and liked it all so much he's never considered rooting for anybody else. Oh, and Bill Buckner was really good and Rick Reuschel got traded so he could pitch in a World Series for the Yankees and instead he got hurt. 

The 1984 Cubs were mostly still around in 1986 only they were older and mostly injured and pretty bad. The Cubs got off to a hot start, if 2-8 is hot, Lee Smith pitched a lot, like a lot a lot, nobody won 10 games, Jim Frey got fired. The Cubs fielded a dream twosome of Shawon Dunston and Brian Dayett. A dream I guess if you were Andy and you were 13. Things were just as bad on other side of town, so actually that was fun. Jerry Mumphrey was pretty good, so there's that. A few of the 1989 Cubs started showing up, so that was fun. Anyway, sit back and enjoy as we tell you everything you ever wanted to know (and a lot more) about the '86 Cubs. On, and Ed Lynch got what he deserved. 

Baseball games have been played, the Cubs are the greatest team in the land, Seiya Suzuki can't be stopped and MLB is putting games on at weird times on weird channels, and blackouts are dumb. Andy and David take a look at the first week of games. They hand out the Jitterbug Call of the Week (and a Cubs' announcer gets nominated twice), they figure out why the center field camera at Kauffman Stadium is always wet, why nobody can figure out what to do with Katie Nolan, why Jim Belushi should never be allowed to sign the stretch again, and other very important baseball things.

The Cubs were "Building A New Tradition" in 1982 with a new general manager in Dallas Green and a new manager in Lee Elia (no, it's not THAT Lee Elia season). If there were Prospect Perverts forty years ago they were excited about a trade that brought some kid named Ryne Sandberg over from the Phillies. Fergie Jenkins was back, the draft would yield the number one overall pick in Shawon Dunston and Eric Gregg would blunder his way into one of the longest games in franchise history. Some of the bones of the 1984 Cubs were showing, but these guys still had a lot of work to do.

It's time for the 2022 Baseball Preview Podcast and Andy finally gets his co-host's name right. David Brown, National Baseball Writer for Bally Sports is back and after they get done making fun of the Marquee Sports Network Cubs Season Preview, they break down every division and all of the major awards. David makes a couple of very disturbing predictions along the way. 

It was the dawn of a new era for the Cubs with Andy MacPhail, Ed Lynch and Jim Riggleman wandering into town. They traded for Brian McRae, grabbed Howard Johnson off the scrapheap, and once they found out what a juggernaut they had they traded in-season for Todd Zeile, Luis Gonzalez and Scott Servais. Frank Castillo almost threw a no hitter, Randy Myers almost killed a guy, Shawon Dunston, Scott Bullett and Mark Parent came up big down the stretch (no, really), and when faced with elimination they refused to lose until almost the very end. Join us as we relive the 1995 Cubs. 

Against his better judgement Bally Sports National MLB writer Dave Brown returns for another week and the guys discuss the Cubs signing Seiya Suzuki, great commercials in Mariners history (it's a thing), the new DH rule and what Joe and Shohei can do with it, will pitchers ever learn to hit ever again, why the Cubs are still wasting time with Jason Heyward, how good is Bobby Witt Jr., players to be named later, what's left of the 2016 Cubs and where it all went wrong, and more. 

The wheel of crap lands on the earliest possible season and we break down the 1980 Cubs. Preston Gomez. Tim Blackwell. Lenny Randle. Dave Kingman. Dennis Lamp. Two Hall of Fame closers, two Cy Young Award winners in the bullpen, Bill Buckner won the batting title and the Cubs won 64 games. Ouch. You want stories about Steve Howe, Jay Johnstone pranking Bill Russell, the TV show Makin' It with Nick Offerman and Amy Poehler, Dave Kingman being a jerk in junior high, and the ten pitchers who have won the Cy Young and MVP in the same season? You're in luck.