Fred Frommer is an author, journalist, editor and sports and politics historian. He is a regular contributor to The Washington Post, where his stories often top the paper's "most read" sports and history sections. This week, for our 200th episode, Frommer joins us to discuss how Major League Baseball and its teams responded to the June 1968 assassination of New York Senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. We were honored to have Frommer on the podcast and hope you enjoy th...

This week Craig and Rex review three newish releases -- Beyonce's brilliant "Carter Country," Pearl Jam's not so bad "Dark Matter" and Motley Crue's ugly new single "Dogs of War." Also this episode, some trivia answers, how AI impacts music from both a creator and fan perspective, black light baseball, the Rangers' big inning, Astro woes continue, and a blockbuster trade involving the Marlins and Padres. Sources include: Rocket, "Industry Source: Bob Rock Used AI Technology to Compose Songs f...

Jerry Grillo, author of "Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize," (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2024) joins us this week for a wide-ranging, fast-paced interview about this legendary Cardinal, Giant and Yankee first baseman. Grillo was an energetic guest and Mize's amazing life provides plenty of material to talk baseball. Grillo's book, by the way, is fantastic -- click the bookshop.org link below to order.Jerry Grillo's official website: https://jerrygrillowriter.com/Jerr...

Author Dan Helpingstine has written several books about baseball in Chicago, including, "South Side Hitmen: The Story of the 1977 Chicago White Sox," and "The Cubs and the White Sox: A Baseball Rivalry, 1900 to the Present." Helpingstine is a life-long White Sox fan - his 2023 essay about Bill Veeck's second tenure as the White Sox owner is the subject for this show.Check out our bookshop.org affiliate link below for links to Helpingstine's booksIn Part 2, Rex and Craig consider the Astros' p...

On this Rex and Craig agree -- Foreigner is a boring band. And it is an outrage that Foreigner is nominated for induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame while Iron Maiden and Soundgarden are not. Then again, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has been a joke for a long time. Why stop now?Rex and Craig review this year's nominees and cast our (imaginary) ballots. Oh, and that Peter Frampton, Jack Bruce video is here.Also this episode, Caitlin Clark and the WNBA, Coachella woes, ...

The Houston Colt-.45's started an all-rookie lineup on September 27, 1963, the one and only time in Major League Baseball history a team has done this. Houston eventually played a remarkable 16 rookies in the game, another MLB record unlikely to be challenged any time soon. Rex and Craig take a look this week at this lineup to see which rookies panned out and which did not. They found a wide range or careers, from the brilliant to the disappointing to the tragic. Errata: The Las Vegas Golden...

Kristin Cavness is the general manager of the Alpine Cowboys, the only truly independent team in the independent Pecos League (the other 15 teams are owned and operated by league). The Cowboys are owned and operated by a locally-controlled non-profit that keeps Alpine's strong baseball history alive. The team plays their home games at historic Kokernot Field, dubbed by Sports Illustrated's Nicholas Dawidoff in 2016 as the "Yankee Stadium of Texas." Cavness gives us a fun behind the scenes...

Bayleigh Von Schneider co-hosts Soxy Chicks, a podcast about Red Sox and White Sox baseball. She returns this week to Hooks & Runs for our annual American League preview. Von Schneider also shared some thoughts on Jordan Montgomery's landing spot (we didn't know yet it would be Arizona), Shohei Ohtani's gambling woes and the perils trying to compete in the hyper-competitive American League East plus more. Join us for this fast moving conversation. Bayleigh Von Schneider on...

Sara Sanchez, who writes and podcasts at Bleed Cubbie Blue, BaseballHQ and the Fantasy Feud podcast, returns to be Hooks & Runs' first three-time guest for our 2024 National League outlook. Sara is a talented, engaging baseball journalist and analyst who deserves your attention. She always delivers the goods. A lot happened between the recording on March 18 and the release on March 25 including Blake Snell signing with the Giants that evening and a few days later, a shocking and somewhat...

Dr. Ben Wynne, Ph.D. (Univ. of N. Georgia) is our guest this week to talk about his latest book, "A Hound Dog Tale: Big Mama, Elvis and the Song that Changed Everything"  (Louisiana State Univ. Press 2024). This is a fascinating interview about a song that was a major rhythm & blues hit for Big Mama Thornton and a ground-breaking success for Elvis Presley a few years later. Through his research, Wynne is able to explain how this song through is many incarnations and having spurred two...

Former Houston Astro Jason Lane is one of 21 pitchers in MLB history that have pitched or pitched at least 10 innings in the big leagues with a career ERA below 1.00. The list includes both Negro League players and players that played in the National Association (1871-75). We are looking at the background and history for all 21 players in this episode -- stories that include unfortunate injuries, bad luck, military service, returns home and other fates. Oh, believe it or not, one of the 21...

This week's guest is Jim Leeke, author of the new book, "The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I" (Potomac Books, 2024). This is the Leeke's fifth book about baseball and the Great War authored by Leeke, a retired journalist, copywriter and U.S. Navy Veteran. We thoroughly enjoyed this chat. This interview discusses players such as Hall of Famers Eppa Rixey, Christy Matthewson and Ty Cobb that served in the Army's Chemical Warfare Service during...

Life got in the way this week so we reached back into the archives for this interesting interview with Prof. Levy in January 2022. Here are the show notes from that episode: This week we discuss Hall of Fame southpaw, Rube Waddell with his biographer, Professor Alan Levy. Levy, a professor of history at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, published, "Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist" in 2000. Waddell was not only one of baseball's most talented pitchers in...

Rex and Craig are on the case, from Luke Combs' "Fast Car" cover and performance at the Grammy Awards Show with songwriter Tracy Chapman; to our review of this year's Super Bowl halftime show starring Usher and friends; to our inquiring why some people get so triggered by Taylor Swift to Houston Astros pitchers and catchers reporting. Also, Craig has a couple of Tik Tok stories. Errata: Not really an error, but the quote from the Whatever Podcast is, "It's very convenient that women waited...

Harris Cooper, Ph.D. is the  Hugo L. Blomquist Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University and for our more immediate purposes author of "Finding America in a Minor League Ballpark: A Season Hosting for the Durham Bulls" (Skyhorse, 2024). He is our guest this week to talk about his book and the joys of baseball. Errata: Ron Shelton wrote and directed "Bull Durham." Episodes Mentioned 148 - Baseball Is the Story of America w/ Derick McDuff -->Join...

This week Craig and Rex conclude the three-part series ranking the first generation concrete and steel ballparks build prior to the Great Depression. This episode includes the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium in New York City, Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston. Episodes Mentioned 127 - The Old Ballparks Project, Part I 184 - Class Warfare in Detroit!: The Old Ballparks Project, Part 2 Sources: Philip J. Lowry, "Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of...

Professor Katherine Rye Jewell (Fitchburg State) joins us this week to discuss her new book "Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio" (Univ. North Carolina 2023). Jewell relates in her wonderful book and this interview how college radio progressed from a sleepy "left of the dial" collegiate training ground to a major force in the popular music business, and the struggles and controversies students and administrators confronted along the way. Professor Jewell on Twitter/X,...

It's been a minute but Rex and Craig this week pick up the old ballparks project started in Episode 127. Andrew, Craig and Rex ranked the 14 brick, concrete and steel ballparks build between 1909 and 1923 (with the Baker Bowl, built in 1895 thrown in for good measure) based upon several factors we don't remember and didn't exactly follow. This episode includes the middle tier - the ballparks that emerged from the process ranked 6-10. Also this week Hooks & Runs remembers Merv Connors, a...

Bill Lamb is our guest this week to discuss the sad and tragic Len Koenecke. Koenecke played three seasons for the Brooklyn Dodgers during the Great Depression. The Dodgers released Koenicke in September, 1935 while the team was in St. Louis and sent him home to New York by plane with two other players. Koenecke never made it home in a story filled with both mystery and tragedy. Bill Lamb, an award-winning researcher and writer with the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) and...

Julia Simon's book, "The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson," is new in paperback via Penn State University Press. This book, originally released in late 2022, examines the life and times of New Orleans blues and jazz great Lonnie Johnson through his music, from his first cut, "Mr. Johnson's Blues," on Okeh Record in the mid 20s to his unforgettable ballads and jazz songs in the 1960s. Simon describes the traits that make Johnson inconvenient for scholars and music fans alike in her book and in...

We are closing the books on 2023 and that means it is time for the eagerly anticipated Hooks & Runs Best of 2023. This year we do not disappoint - here is a list of artists mentioned in the show, more or less in order: Brothers Osborne, Waxahatchie, Little Nax X, Saxon, The Weather Station, Nothing More, Michael Schenker Group, Gregor Barnett, Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver, Rosanne Cash, Sufjan Stevens, Guns & Roses, Hollywood Roses, Boris, Iron Savior, Primal Fear, Metal...

In this episode, Carolina Panther attendance woes; the Houston Oilers are back, baby; what are the Kansas City Royals up to; Shohei Ohtani's most unusual opt-out; a game of chicken in Tampa/St. Pete; plus Craig and Rex review the brilliant Sam Pollard documentary, "The League" (2023) about Negro League baseball. Past episodes referenced: 46 - A Journey Through the Negro Leagues w/ Larry Lester 76 - A Baseball Season When Hitters Reigned Supreme w/ Lee Freedman 142 - The 1919 Black Sox w/...

This week Rex and Craig discuss Shohei Ohtani's record contract to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers and decision time for Houston in the  wake of an SB Nation article that ranks the Astro farm system 30th out of 30 teams going into 2024. The co-hosts also muse on Florida State's omission from the college football playoffs and the KISS farewell tour, which to nobody's surprise was no farewell at all. Other relevant links - On Shohei Ohtani's endorsement income. Errata: Chris Caupano was an...

Zak Ford released a fascinating book this fall, "Called Up: Ballplayers Remember Becoming Major Leaguers" (McFarland Press 2023). Ford's book is an oral history that includes interviews with 109 former and curren tMajor League players from the 1960s to the present. The players related their experiences and memories being called up for the first time to the big leagues. Ford revisits some of these stories in this interview while also discussing the process to write an oral history and the...

Craig and Rex riff on New Mexico State beating Auburn, Texas A&M is really proud of beating Abilene Christian and Sam Houston, the 2024 Hall of Fame ballot, who might be the baseball equivalent to Journey, MLB owners approve Oakland's move to Las Vegas and the Rolling Stones are going on tour. Episodes Mentioned: 143 - The Rays Are Getting Their New Stadium w/ Dr. Elizabeth Strom 163 - A Journey Through Mallparks w/ Prof. Michael T. Friedman -->Join our Discord:...