Sports With Friends

Diane Shah is a trail-blazing sports columnist. Her career took off in the 1970's as one of the few female sportswriters in California, let alone the country. She worked primarily for the Los Angeles Herald, but also wrote stories for GQ and Playboy.

Her new book, "A Farewell to Arms, Legs, and Jockstraps" is Shah's new memoir.

She tells stories of her days covering the Los Angeles Raiders, the Dodgers, and much more. She developed a friendship with Carey Grant. She predates other women sports reporting pioneers and is one of the first in her field.

Truly an iconic landmark person, and a wonderful chat to hear her stories.

David Samson is a longtime President of the Miami Marlins, but there is so much more. Currently, is working with CBSHQ, and hosts his own podcast, "Nothing Personal."

David was asked to come on the show to talk about Major League Baseball's 2020 season and all the issues with COVID-19. However, that doesn't happen until near the end of the show. Samson illustrated some key moments in his longtime career. First, his days as a VP with the Montreal Expos, and the "trade" of franchises where Jeffrey Loria sold the Expos to MLB, bought the Florida Marlins, and John Henry sold the Marlins and bought the Boston Red Sox.

He also goes into great detail on the life and career of Jose Fernandez. There is also a deep dive into the drama behind the eventual construction of Marlins Park, and his dismissal when CEO Derek Jeter took over the club.

Then, they go into detail on what isn't working with the MLB restart.

Follow David Samson on Twitter @DavidPSamson

Longtime New York Sportswriter Peter Botte has been a journalist in New York City for over 20 years. He joined the show to discuss his illustrious career and the current state of sports.

Peter started with the NY Daily News, then on to the NY Post. He covered the Yankees for over a decade and has been a part of the entire New York sports scene.

He's also the author of a new book, The Big 50: New York Yankees. During this episode, they talk about the return to sports. Peter also discusses his personal connections to COVID-19. The conversation then goes into the changes in baseball before the pandemic, and how social media and the internet makes it easy to root for any player and any team and how New York teams must learn to compete with that.

John Halama pitched for 8 big league seasons for seven big league teams. In 1998, he was part of a blockbuster trade between the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners involving ace Randy Johnson. He joined the Mariners in '98, when Seth joins KJR to cover that same team.

They discuss their longtime friendship, and also stories about Alex Rodriguez and manager Lou Piniella. He also discusses his new job as a pitching instructor in the San Diego Padres organizations.

This episode was recorded live on Twitch. For the video, visit www.twitch.tv/setheverett.

This week's episode stems from a column that longtime columnist Marcus Hayes wrote in the Philadelphia Daily News/Inquirer. That article is about Zack Wheeler and Mike Trout considering opting out of the shortened 60-game MLB season. The article was posted here: https://www.inquirer.com/phillies/phillies-mike-trout-zack-wheeler-mlb-coronavirus-20200707.html

Hayes contends that the players should be able to play and protect themselves. Seth adamantly disagreed, suggesting that the irresponsibility of other players will make it unsafe and any player who wants to opt-out, should.

This is a lively but very friendly debate.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the sports media industry in awful ways. There have been numerous layoffs, furloughs throughout the television, radio, and print media industries. In a stunning turn of events, Penske Media launched a new sports business website, Sportico.

In this episode, Sportico CEO Dick Glover explains how the timeline allowed for them to launch amidst the pandemic, and what the new sports journalism site is all about. Glover has also worked for Funny or Die, NASCAR, and ESPN, and he discusses those experiences as well.

This is another episode focused on the amazing sport called Formula E. 'And We Go Green' is a feature-length sports documentary directed by Fisher Stevens and Malcolm Venville, and produced by environmentalist and Oscar-winning actor, Leonardo DiCaprio. Stevens and Venville join the podcast. They discuss the idea behind the documentary, and how they wove in the personal stories of the personalities behind the sport into the main thesis of this being a sport where technology is invented to win races, and how that technology can save the environment.

The first few minutes of the episode revisits the 2018 Paris, France interview with Formula E founder Alejandro Agag.

The doc follows the 4th season of Formula E and includes races where Episode 138 was recorded in Paris, France featuring Sir Richard Branson, Alejandro Agag, actor Idris Elba, and FIA President Jean Todt. Other Formula E-centric guests include Sam Bird (Ep. 185), Lucas di Grassi (Ep.194), a season 5 wrap-up (ep. 206), and play-by-play voice Jack Nicholls (Ep. 208), who coined the phrase, And we go green.

This is part 2 of a long conversation with the great radio engineer for the New York Mets, New York Giants, New York Knicks, New York Rangers, St. John's Basketball, Westwood One, and more. Chris Majkowski is waiting like many in 2020 for sports to return.

This conversation ranged from the lack of personalities in baseball and what has changed int the way we consume sports. The chat also was about the things in life Maj may have missed give his enormous work schedule. Plus, he talks about the creation of the popular Twitter account @metsbooth.

Chris Majkowski is the longtime onsite radio engineer for the New York Mets, New York Giants, New York Knicks, New York Rangers, St. John's Basketball, and countless other sporting events. In normal times, "Maj" could work an average of 300 nights a year.

Maj hasn't missed a Mets game since 1993, a streak of over 4,000 games. With that much experience, he has worked (literally) with everyone and has more stories than could fit in one episode. The conversation includes all the announcers, so many players, and occasional wrestler, and much more. He also explains the creation of his Twitter account, @Metsbooth.

This episode is dedicated to George Floyd. Rest in Peace.

In this episode, former NBA player and current social activist Etan Thomas returns to the show to discuss the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests and riots that have followed. Then, longtime NBA Insider David Aldridge joins the show to discuss Michael Jordan's recent statement on the issues, and how the NBA deals with social activism. They also discuss the NBA's plan to return to play and the potential pitfalls it faces.

Then, Emerald Garner joins the show. She is the daughter of Eric Garner, a black man who in Staten Island, NY was killed in 2014 by police officers in an all-too-similar fashion.