Episoder
-
Ana, Janice, and Jesse share their reactions to the WNBA draft, from Caitlin Clark officially becoming the face of the Indiana Fever to the Las Vegas Aces putting together a sparkling draft class without a first-round pick. Did the Liberty outsmart everyone, including their own fans? What are reasonable expectations for Clark, not just adapting to the WNBA level, but playing the most basketball of her life -- especially if she's on Team USA for the Olympics? Finally, something good happened for long-suffering Chicago Sky fans. And is the balance of power in the league shifting westward?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
The "win or bin" concept is not our own, but Addy, Jesse, and Katie do find some similarity between their faves here, whether it's at Ferrari, in NASCAR, or on the baseball diamond. On a between-races episode in the F1 season, there's plenty of room to speculate about silly season ahead, and lots of fun scenarios to imagine as we get ready for the first Chinese Grand Prix since 2019 -- a rare race on the calendar that's never been won by Max Verstappen.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Mangler du episoder?
-
Jesse and Youppi go for a walk in Prospect Park with Jennie Egerdie, the author of Frog And Toad Are Doing Their Best and the upcoming Oh, Bother: Winnie the Pooh is Befuddled, Too, to enjoy a beautiful spring day and talk about the Sesame Street atmosphere of Park Slope, trees growing in Brooklyn, monster trucks, and, of course, the biology of Mr. and Mrs. Met as relates to their old SportsCenter commercial. There was also discussion about the metric system and tricking Michiganders about Canada, but there were sound problems with that part. If you want to hear that part through the sound of microphone rubbing on hoodie, it's available on the dedicated Youppi Show podcast feed, because Youppi sure didn't mind.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Ace, James, and Jesse are back together to transition from the NBA regular season to the playoffs, tackling all the big questions. Could the bracket have worked out any better in the East for the Celtics? Is Dame Time already up in Milwaukee? Can the Knicks really make a run without Julius Randle? Is Oklahoma City for real as a top seed? Is Denver inevitable as a repeat winner of the West, if not the whole thing? Can the Clippers avoid going full Clippers? We've got a lot of thoughts and a lot more basketball to watch.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Ace, Jesse, and debuting guest Martin Rickman ready for the playoffs by examining potential intriguing matchups and what might come to pass as the regular season winds down toward its conclusion. We now know all 20 teams that will be involved in the play-in and playoffs, but not their seeding order. Is it as simple as being a two-month march to an inevitable Denver-Boston collision in the Finals? Maybe, but that’s why they play the games, and Nuggets-Celtics would be a heck of a matchup if that’s how it does wind up.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
After a snooze of a racing weekend between F1 at Suzuka and NASCAR at Martinsville, Addy, Britt, and Jesse are tackling big questions, like whether Max Verstappen or Mike Trout is a more interesting person, what's going on with Lance Stroll's hair, and whether Charles Leclerc would get designer glasses made for viewing a solar eclipse. Oh, and does Williams have enough cars to actually make it through the season?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
It’s never a good thing when Pete Rose is back in the news, and he has been lately because of the alleged theft of $4.5 million from Shohei Ohtani to cover gambling debts. That story has yet to fully unfold. Rose’s has, to the point where the Washington Post ran not one, but two big stories looking back at it… 10 years ago. This year is the 35th anniversary of the death of then-commissioner Bart Giamatti, who banned Rose, even though so much of what happened feels so recent. Nope, it was 1989. It’s just that Rose, who agreed to his own lifetime ban, has never once shut up about it, and he probably never will.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Walking in Riverside Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with Sophie Vershbow and her dog, Simon. It's a great park for dogs, a great place for walking, and little did we know, a great place to look across the river to New Jersey right before an earthquake, which struck less than an hour after we finished recording. That would have been some kind of conversation topic. As it is, a great time was had by all!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Ana and Jesse are joined by one of women's basketball's best writers, Jackie Powell, to celebrate a momentous NCAA Tournament won by South Carolina, and to look ahead to the 2024 WNBA draft, which of course will be headlined by Caitlin Clark after she led Iowa to the national title game against the Gamecocks. If "reality is coming," as Diana Taurasi said, what does that mean? The challenges that WNBA rookies face are enormous, starting with making it to a roster in a league where, every year, incredibly talented players don't make it out of training camp. While one player was driving the headlines and one team was driving to a championship, who drove their draft stock in the right direction? One thing is for certain: we all love Dawn Staley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Addy, Britt, and Jesse spent the week between F1 races diving into the start of baseball season, which has gone for the Mets about the way we usually expect things to go for Ferrari. But remember how the last F1 race was won by... Ferrari? Wild. Ferrari won the last F1 race. That is a thing that happened. This is a mixed racing/baseball episode, as we've got NASCAR highlights from Richmond to discuss. Addy also wrote about the Mets to go with this episode, you can find that on our website.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
In episode 2 of Dugout of History, Chrystal and Colleen dig into the Pittsburgh drug trials, the scandal that many people know because the Pirate Parrot mascot was implicated as a coke dealer, but that had far-reaching impacts across major league baseball, including shaping the sport’s drug policy into the Steroid Era.
For me (producer Jesse, writing the show notes), it’s a very interesting episode because I was a little kid at the time. I remembered Rod Scurry as a Yankee, for instance, and remember him dying young – though I definitely didn’t put it together as an 11-year-old that his death was drug-related. Lonnie Smith wound up having a very interesting second act with Atlanta, leading the National League in on-base percentage in 1989 and hitting three homers in the 1991 World Series before blundering on the basepaths in Game 7. Keith Hernandez, obviously, was and is Keith Hernandez.
So, I knew some of the details for this one, remembered others, and learned plenty for the first time. The story of the Pittsburgh drug trials also echoes through the way baseball has dealt with subsequent scandals, including in the sport’s powers that be making the same mistakes. Thank goodness that’s all history, though, and vice-related scandals involving superstars are… ah, dang it.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Ana, Janice, and Jesse assemble after the opening weekend of the NCAA women's tournament and continue waiting for what must be the biggest Washington Post story since Watergate for all the hype it's gotten from its subject. The basketball has been excellent, and the regionals bring potential matchups of Kim Mulkey's LSU against Caitlin Clark and Iowa, the rejuvenated Paige Bueckers and UConn against the new hotness JuJu Watkins and USC, and star-studded Stanford against top-seeded Texas. Oh, yeah, and South Carolina is still mowing down absolutely everybody in sight, with an average margin of 49.5 points so far in the tournament. Now, who's going to tell Kim about her jacket?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Addy, Britt, Jesse, and Katie are over the moon after the Australian Grand Prix and the rare occasion of not only a race not dominated by Max Verstappen, but won by Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari, two weeks after his appendectomy and a few months before he cedes the Scuderia seat to Lewis Hamilton… who was one spot ahead of Verstappen in the running order as Mercedes’ disaster start to the season reached a nadir. We’re glad George Russell is okay after his crash, amused by Lando Norris flipping off a fan, and wondering what Charles Leclerc has to do to get a win for the first time in almost two years. Some stuff does stay the same even when there’s a Max DNF, after all. There's also plenty of drama through F1's midfield (we'll use that term generously) and not so much this week in NASCAR from Circuit of the Americas, which is fine because the European boys delivered so much for us in Australia, and the stock cars are going back home to short tracks fort he next couple of weeks.
Visit us at casualdiehard.com!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Addy, Britt, Chrystal, and Jesse are caught up in the Shohei of it all, and the scandal-embroiled superstar isn't a clubhouse cancer, but a clubhouse Cancer. That's his zodiac sign. And we are talking astrology in a big way, too, because Jesse made a full fantasy baseball league on ESPN (it's publicly viewable) where the teams are divided by the stars. Who's got the best roster?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
On the premiere of Dugout of History, Colleen and Chrystal go deep into history for the story of Merkle's Boner, a dramatic turn of events in 1908 that to most folks now is just a funny name for an incident more than a century ago. There's so much more to it than just the boner.
From Wikipedia:
Merkle's Boner refers to the notorious base-running mistake committed by rookie Fred Merkle of the New York Giants in a game against the Chicago Cubs on September 23, 1908. Merkle's failure to advance to second base on what should have been a game-winning hit led instead to a force play at second and a tied game. The Cubs later won the makeup game, which proved decisive as they beat the Giants by one game to win the National League (NL) pennant for 1908. It has been described as "the most controversial game in baseball history"
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Jared and Riann from Dunks and Donuts join Ace, James, and Jesse for a Celtics-themed episode that is specifically about love for Derrick White, and nostalgia for Marcus Smart, because the regular season might still have about 10% of the way to go, but business is settled, and business for Boston has been great -- they've already got that "x" next to their name in the standings. So, when it does get to playoff time, who might actually be an interesting matchup for what looks more and more like a juggernaut in the East?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
The field of 68 is set and it looks like a lot of chalk at first glance. Certainly, Barack Obama felt that way with only five lower-seeded teams winning in his women's bracket for the entire tournament. Ana, Janice, Jesse, and Lyndsey scan the regionals and see where upsets might be waiting to happen, because you know they will -- that's tournament basketball. After our last women's college episode two weeks ago, our projected Final Four is viable, with each of our picks sent to different regions. Do we still think it'll be South Carolina, Stanford, LSU, and Ohio State? Is there room for Texas, Iowa, and USC now that they're top seeds? Test your prediction powers against us in the Casual Diehard pool, and you could win a hoodie!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Ryan Ellis joins Addy, Britt, and Jesse to talk about driving the No. 43 Chevrolet, Washington Capitals fandom, and texts from grandma to turn on the Cup series. Also, since this is regularly an F1-themed hour… what would it really be like if Max Verstappen came over to drive in the truck series?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
Shaun joins Ace and Jesse to talk Knicks basketball. It’s great. We are loving the Knicks. Jalen Brunson is a superhero. Isaiah Hartenstein put up a historic night in Sacramento. OG Anunoby is back and transformative. In a fandom defined by failure, how do we stay positive? And who are we most negative about, because Knicks fans are, after all, world class haters? Is it the Hawks, the Heat, or even Indiana? One thing’s for sure: the Knicks sweep em with a broom, cause our season don’t end til the middle of June.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com -
This is the first episode of The Youppi Show (it'll have its own feed by the time the next episode drops -- now that spring is springing, we can schedule more walks for Youppi and for other New Yorkers and their dogs to enjoy) with Jesse Spector (Youppi's person) and Laura Albanese (our fabulous guest). Laura is a lifelong New Yorker, and like Jesse a Brooklyn kid who moved to Astoria. This episode's walk goes from Make Believe Bakeshop to Astoria Park and back over toward the Triboro Bridge, talking about the city and sports and their creative pursuits. Youppi got several treats upon arriving home after the show.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willetspen.substack.com - Se mer
