Sports With Friends

In November 2024, longtime baseball announcer Dave Sims was named the new radio play-by-play voice of the New York Yankees. Sims replaces John Sterling who held the position since 1989. Sims has been the TV/Radio voice of the Seattle Mariners from 2007-2024. Sims has an extensive career and is one of the first voices on WFAN radio, the flagship station of Yankee games.

In this episode, Sims tells the story of leaving Seattle for New York, and how this is all full circle for him. He discusses all of his stops along the way, having grown up in Philadelphia, and worked primarily in New York. Dave has called NFL football and NCAA college basketball in addition to baseball. He's also one of the original voices of MLB Radio in 2000/2001 and was instrumental in helping Seth leave Seattle ironically, and head to MLB.

The southeast United States was impacted heavily by two hurricanes in October 2024. Hurricane Helene and Milton affected lives and property in many states, including Florida. On October 9th, Hurricane Milton destroyed the fiberglass roof of the ballpark this month, leaving it open to the elements. With the Rays set to open the season at home on March 27, there's unlikely time to put on a new roof. Adding to the issue is a plan for a new ballpark, tentatively scheduled to open in 2028. That begs the question, why repair the Trop just to tear it down? If the Rays cannot play there in 2025, where could they play?

Tampa Bay Times reporter Marc Topkin joined the podcast to discuss the facts of the situation and present all the options for the baseball team. Topkin has covered the Rays for the Tampa Bay Times (formerly St. Petersburg Times) and http://tampabay.com since the very beginning. He offers a unique perspective on the problem facing the ballclub and has insight as to what options the team actually has and why.

Disclaimer: This conversation is about a sports topic and it is not intended to put the needs of a baseball team ahead of the numerous people who have been impacted by both hurricanes. Donate to the American Red Cross here: https://www.redcross.org/

The southeast United States was impacted heavily by two hurricanes in October 2024. Hurricane Helene and Milton affected lives and property in many states, including Florida. On October 9th, Hurricane Milton destroyed the fiberglass roof of the ballpark this month, leaving it open to the elements. With the Rays set to open the season at home on March 27, there's unlikely time to put on a new roof. Adding to the issue is a plan for a new ballpark, tentatively scheduled to open in 2028. That begs the question, why repair the Trop just to tear it down? If the Rays cannot play there in 2025, where could they play?

Tampa Bay Times reporter Marc Topkin joined the podcast to discuss the facts of the situation and present all the options for the baseball team. Topkin has covered the Rays for the Tampa Bay Times (formerly St. Petersburg Times) and http://tampabay.com since the very beginning. He offers a unique perspective on the problem facing the ballclub and has insight as to what options the team actually has and why.

Disclaimer: This conversation is about a sports topic and it is not intended to put the needs of a baseball team ahead of the numerous people who have been impacted by both hurricanes. Donate to the American Red Cross here: https://www.redcross.org/

Chad Finn is a sports and sports media columnist for the Boston Globe. He is the editor of “The Boston Globe Story of the Red Sox” and the recently released “The Boston Globe Story of the Celtics.'' Finn joined the Globe from the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire in 2003 as a sports copy editor and page designer before moving to the writing side and taking over the sports media beat in 2009. He has won multiple Associated Press Sports Editors awards, including for a multimedia project in 2018 on LeBron James's time in the NBA summer league in Boston.

In this episode, Finn discusses the process of gathering archival coverage of the Celtics and putting together the recent book. He also talks about the emergence of former Patriots greats Tom Brady and Bill Belichick on television. He also discusses the state of sports radio, specifically in Boston, and the future of Major League Baseball on television with upheaval surrounding the regional sports network and an upcoming negotiation with ESPN.

Order The Boston Globe Story of the Celtics here: https://a.co/d/flWtNwW

Former NBA Center Etan Thomas makes his second appearance on the show. At the time of this episode's release, the NBA season will commence in six days. This is the final season of the NBA on TNT, as there is a new television contract starting next season.

Thomas played in the NBA from 2000 to 2011, mostly with the Washington Wizards. In college, he was a star at Syracuse. Now, he is a television commentator, blogger, author, and political and social activist.

In this episode, Thomas discussed the unique situation in Los Angeles where LeBron James is playing with his son Bronny. He commented on the importance of the New York Knicks being competitive and if the Boston Celtics are primed for a repeat championship. He also discussed the emergence of the WNBA in popularity and ratings.

Kevin Brown recently completed his 6th season calling Orioles games on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN). Brown is a graduate of Syracuse University and worked in Syracuse with the AAA-baseball team, the Syracuse Chiefs. He is also a play-by-play announcer for ESPN.

In this episode, Brown tells the story of his ascension to his current position with the O's. He also addressed the controversy last year where he was removed from the booth for a short time and the outpouring of support from the baseball, broadcast, and fan community. He also talked about the unique brethren Syracuse alums are in the broadcast industry, and comments on the various Cuse alums in the baseball broadcast industry.

In 2024, longtime New York Yankees radio announcer John Sterling announced his abrupt retirement, effective immediately. With three-quarters of the season left, the Yankees decided to split the play-by-play duties among three broadcasters. Emmanuel Berbari is one of the three and called dozens of games this season. Sterling announced that he was returning to the booth for the final week of the regular season and playoffs through the potential World Series.

Berbari is the youngest of the three broadcasters. In this episode, he explains his background calling games for Siena and filling it on WFAN radio. He was assigned Yankee post-game shows, and last season was given the opportunity to call three Yankees games in Pittsburgh. He explained how he was chosen, and offered insight as to the future for himself and the Yankees booth.

Wesley Walker played wide receiver for the New York Jets for 13 seasons from 1977-1989. He was an NFL All-Pro, a 2x Pro Bowl representative, the NFL receiving yards leader in 1978, and a member of the New York Jets Ring of Honor.

In this episode, Walker recounted the many highs and lows of his illustrious career. He speaks candidly about making the NFL without vision in one of his eyes. He discusses the passionate fan base the Jets have, and their recent decision to go back to the uniform and logo that Walker helped make famous.

In 2024, HBO and MAX released a new four-part docuseries that chronicles the life, career, and scandal of baseball legend Pete Rose. “Charlie Hu$tle & the Matter of Pete Rose” examines all the intricacies of the Pete Rose story. Rose is heavily involved in the documentary but did not have creative control. Instead, the show is a deeply detailed count of all aspects of his betting on baseball, and subsequently being banned for life by the sport.

Greg Grunberg is an actor who has been in countless movies and TV shows. He is best known for Heroes and has also been in both Star Wars and Star Trek. He came on the Hall of Justice podcast and mentioned his role as executive producer of the Pete Rose documentary.

In this episode, Grunberg tells elaborate stories about the making of the documentary, and how they convinced Pete Rose to take part even when he couldn't control the subject matter. He also gave insight as to how MLB was involved in this film.

As the 2024 NFL season has begun, questions are being answered about who the best and worst teams will be. This episode focuses on the financial value of the 32 NFL teams. Michael Ozanian makes his second appearance on the podcast after he released the valuations on the new CNBC Sport platform. Ozanian is the Senior Sports Reporter for CNBC, based at the network's Global Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. He is a lead reporter for CNBC's business of sports vertical, CNBC Sport. Ozanian focuses on the intersection of sports and money and provides his unique rankings of the most valuable sports leagues and teams. He reports on breaking news, insights, and analysis of the inner workings of the sports industry across all CNBC platforms.

Before CNBC, Ozanian was with Forbes where he began in the statistics department in the mid-1980s and later transitioned into writing about high-priced stocks. He was the co-host of Forbes SportsMoney, a four-time Emmy Award-winning television show on the YES Network. In 2016, he made his first appearance on the podcast, Episode 64. Eight years and a new title later, he returned to the show.

Check out CNBC Sport at https://www.cnbc.com/sports/.