Replacement Players

During the 1992 NCAA basketball tournament, Duke and Kentucky matched up in a regional semifinal that has come to be regarded as one of the best college games ever played, if not the best. It was an overtime thriller, with innumerable lead changes and palpable tension from start to finish. With mere seconds to go in overtime, righ after Sean Woods of Kentucky had seemingly sealed victory with his own impossible back-breaking shot, the game was won on an even more improbable Christian Laettner buzzer beater that sent Duke onto the Final Four, and eventually their second championship in a row. Daniel Ralston is best known as one of the folks behind the great Low Times podcast, where he and co-hosts Tom Scharpling and Maggie Serota interview musicians from every conceivable genre. If you have not heard their show yet, you still have time to rectify your error. Daniel is also a huge basketball fan who was in the building for that legendary Duke-Kentucky battle (the building in this case being Philadelphia’s

In 1985, Doc Gooden had a season for the ages, thrilling Mets fans and putting up numbers that still qualify as weapons-grade saber-porn: 25-3 W-L record, 1.53 ERA, 268 strikeouts, 276 innings pitched! Of course, we all remember Doc Gooden being awesome once upon a time, but does a his magical 1985 campaign stand up to a repeat viewing? To answer this question, I asked Wendy Thurm of Fangraphs and The Score to watch a Doc Gooden start from that year. Specifically, August 20, 1985, when Doc fanned 16 Giants and barely broke a sweat doing it. These days, Wendy’s more on the Giants beat, but she grew up in the New York era and saw many a Doc Gooden start in her day. So Wendy and I talk about seeing Doc pitch again, we discuss the weird bygone folkways of the Shea Stadium crowd, and we contemplate the oddly smalltown feel of a vintage WOR broadcast. You’ll also get to hear my story about my quasi-religious childhood encounter with Doc himself. Listen below or, even better, subscribe to Replacement Pla

I am legally obligated to say that today we’re gonna party like it’s 1999! You guys like that song, right? In episode 5, I talk with Greg Prince–one half of Faith and Fear in Flushing and the author of The Happiest Recap, a look back at the best Mets wins of the franchise’s first 50 years–about the last scheduled regular season game of the 1999 season, henceforth referred to as the Melvin Mora Game. The 1999 Mets are a particular love/obsession/obsessive love of mine, and Greg has forgotten more about the Mets than most of us will ever know, so it was a treat and a thrill to talk to him about this bizarre, epic end to a bizarre, epic season. Greg saw this game in person, so you’ll hear about how the stadium experience compares to the preserved broadcast. You’ll also hear how Greg was surprised to find the broadcast dredge up an old memory of a friend’s quixotic quest. In addition, we discuss the crumminess of Fran Healey, the generally second-rate quality of Fox

Today’s episode has been legally certified as a doozy! I talk to Josh Wilker, the man behind the amazing Cardboard Gods, about game 5 of the 1999 American League Division Series. In that game, Pedro Martinez threw 6 hitless innings against the Cleveland Indians, one of the most potent offenses of all time. This allowed the Red Sox to crawl out of an early hole and complete their stunning comeback. Oh, and Pedro was nursing a shoulder injury at the time. ‘Tis the stuff of legend. Josh watched this game under a rather unique set of circumstances, which you will hear all about. You will also hear us talk about Pedro as Odysseus and/or Seinfeld character, the lost golden age of Nomar, and the speedbump of Troy O’Leary. You will also get to hear me, your humble host, talk about the time when I helped defeat the forces of evil at Six Flags: Great Adventure. All of this and much more awaits you, so what are you waiting for?! Listen with that there player below or subscribe on iTunes. If you go the

Episode 3 is a wild one. Literally! Jokes! I’m pleased to welcome Jason Fry, who makes up one half of Faith and Fear in Flushing, “the Mets blog for fans who like to read.” Along with Greg Prince, Jason makes one of the best and best-written baseball sites in existence. Regardless of your fandom, if you’ve never read FAFIF, seriously, what are you doing with your life? In today’s episode, Jason and I gab about game 2 of the 2000 NLCS between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets. This game contains what might be the ugliest meltdown that has ever occurred on a major league field. Before the 2000 playoffs, Rick Ankiel was a serious rookie of the year candidate, spoken of in the same breath as Sandy Koufax in terms of his talent and potential. In this game, you see his career as a pitcher disintegrate before your eyes. I can’t think of a quicker, uglier fall from grace in any sport. In our talk, Jason and I talk about Ankiel’s fall from grace, the origins of Jas

Episode 2 is here! I talked with Dan Epstein, writer for Rolling Stone and author of the great chronicle of 1970s baseball, Big Hair and Plastic Grass, one of my favorite books about the game in recent memory. Dan and I watched a game between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees from June 28, 1976, started by rookie sensation Mark “The Bird” Fidrych. Fidrych enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top and became an enormous celebrity that transcended the sport (appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone before the Bicentennial year was out, for instance). He was kind of a kook, but a genuine kook, the kind you don’t seen in any sport anymore, let alone baseball. This game was only his ninth major league start, but since it aired on ABC’s Monday Night Baseball, it was his coming out party of sorts, and the atmosphere at Tiger Stadium was almost playoff-like. Watching The Bird do his thing in this game was a treat, and it was even more of a treat to talk to Dan about it.  He shared his memori

Episode 1 of Replacement Players is go! And we start off with a bang as I talk with Will Stegemann–the man behind the hilarious and poignant A Year of Billy Joel–about the infamous Rick Camp game between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves that took place on July 4, 1985. Or, technically, July 4 and 5, 1985. Guys, this might be the craziest baseball game ever played. Nineteen innings! Pitchers batting for themselves and homering! Dangerously wet outfields! Dangerously fat relief pitchers! Protests! Multiple ejections! A barely noticed instance of hitting for the cycle! A barely racist mascot! And much much much and also much more! There’s a billion things to talk about in this game, and Will and I discuss as many of them as humanly possible. The primal kid-joy of Staying Up Late, dangerous firework displays, the disappearance of P.O. boxes and fat athletes, the decline and fall of Spencer’s Gifts, and the possible existence of TBS After Dark. It was a hoot to talk about with Will, and

Oh, hi! Didn’t see you there. Welcome to the beginning of the start of the origin of the inception of Replacement Players, my brand new podcast. What is this and why am I doing it? Questions I often ask myself, about everything. But I will explain the true meaning of Replacement Players as efficiently as I can. As you probably know if you’ve ever read anything I’ve ever written, I have tons of video tucked away in the Vast and Dusty Scratchbomb Video Archives. A good chunk of these archives consist of broadcasts of old sporting events. I love to rewatch these games because I love the sensation of witnessing a narrative unfold in real time. You can see things being “decided” about these games–their place in history, the legacy of the players involved–as they happen. You can also see how what we remember about certain players and teams clashes with how they were regarded at the time. And you can laugh at weird old commercials and outdated graphics, too. So, like any goo