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Herschel

I’ll never get to interview Ty Cobb, but his grandson Herschel is still around. He’s still got quite a few grandchildren around from what I understand, but Herschel was willing to talk to us.  Now you can have Ruth, Gehrig, Johnson or even Mathewson. Sure, Wagner would’ve been cool to maybe ask about the whole t206 / tobacco controversy; and Shoeless Joe would make for a hell of a conversation on where his life was currently and what he still felt about the Black Sox scandal. But after that, my deepest curiosities about them are done. To me, Ty Cobb is a mythological figure. But to this guy, he was just this sweet old man. While I was enamoured with the countless stories and folklore behind the Georgia Peach, this was really just somebody’s grandfather.  Now if you told me I could go back in time and interview Ty Cobb, I still wouldn’t believe you… I’d find it beyond surreal. Just to give you an idea, that’d be like saying, “would you like to interview Paul Bunyan?” It just do...
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Vaudeville

Imagine you live in a different time. Same planet, different world… if that makes sense. There’s less to worry about because we know most of us aren’t living past 50. The threat of disease or war surrounds you but you’re not fully aware of that. Maybe you make a living working at a gas station, or you own a grocery store, or maybe you’re a master of a trade. Electrician or plumber or something mundane. And you’re happy.  Talking to girls is fairly easy. You meet her at a dance, tell her she’s beautiful, propose to her on maybe the first or second date, because you know she’s the one and you both know there’s not much time. And she believes in you. Life is pretty simple.  You’re an average sized guy, but you’re young so you’ve got a lot of energy. You decide to try your hand at this new game they call “baseball.” It’s fun because you get to entertain people. There’s pranks, there’s hijinx, there’s fun and games within the game. And they pay you a little for this nonsense. Not...
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Pay-To-Play: The Gruesome World Of Paying For Interviews.

I have always been ignorant of Pay-To-Play. I just don’t get it. Especially when I used to play in bands. Why would I pay you to play for your audience? Just because you have four walls, lights and a stage? It doesn’t make sense… you make your money off the drinks. I keep them interested and sticking around to buy more drinks.  It’s an old-fashioned model. Sometimes you pay me at the end of the night, if you think I did a good enough job, and other times you don’t.  But when I don’t get paid, you waive certain rights. You don’t really get to tout yourself as a professional establishment anymore. We can talk. You lose credibility. And when it comes time to expect reciprocity, you lose that too. Because the truth is that you were never really supportive of the talent to begin with. I’ve never paid for an interview before. Now you might say, hold on, that’s hypocritical. But I have a different take. Journalism is another is a similar relationship, except it’s talent exploiting ...
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The Thin Line Between Being Cool And Being Obnoxious.

  I think the biggest problem with collaborating with me is that I give homework. To a fault, I often expect people I work with to read articles, watch videos, read a book or maybe watch a movie to gain perspective. The difference between working with Andy Witucki and most other people I’ve worked on a project with is that he actually does that. He’s unabashedly invested in subject matter. Natural curiosity is an underrated trait in society these days. One of the first times I met Witucki, he told me he was helping a friend’s band with promotion. He was printing off flyers and papering local businesses with their upcoming gigs and basically preaching the gospel of how great these guys were. I didn’t buy it. Just another local metal band as far as I was concerned. Yet, he was this regular guy toting the talents of another man. Just cause they were friends.   And I was jealous. Because I’m a musician too and I wanted a dude like him on my team. I wanted someone willin...
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Brandy.

  We were incredibly excited to talk to the voice of the Michigan Wolverines - how Witucki landed this interview, I have no fucking idea. But Jim Brandstatter was willing to talk to us and we couldn’t wait to do this thing. I don’t remember being real nervous for this one, but I think Andy was.  I think he was more concerned with the technology aspect of the interview because he wanted to record video of the Zoom interview itself. That ended up being the least of our concerns. Two hours before our interview with Mr. Brandstatter, shit hit the fan.    The NCAA announced the cancellation of college sports for the 2020 season. Now what were we going to talk to him about?  This threw us quite the curve-ball, but we managed to roll with it and eek out an hour-long discussion with the Michigan Broadcaster's Association Hall of Famer. The man could not have been any nicer or more accommodating. He was so pleasant in fact, that I probably got too comfortable with h...
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Jason. F---ing. Wirtz.

              Having a guest on our show is what I live for. I feel like it pushes us forward and gives us a little professionalism.     After the exhaustive experience that was booking, scheduling and having Denny McLain on our show - It had to get easier. And it did. Jason Wirtz was the anti-primadonna. I originally was just friends with his girlfriend Katie. I only met him in the course of them dating. Jason was always quiet, but cool and accommodating to any stupid questions I ever had about baseball. He works for a local minor league baseball team, so I usually have a lot of stupid questions for him. This is how kind the guy is: one time, Jason saw me by myself at a baseball game while he was doing production and he pulled me away to give me a tour of the facility. He let me see the behind the scenes activity of the scoring crew - it was by far one of the coolest experiences EVER. We had a beer after the game ...
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The Last Man To Have Ever Won 30 Games. And Why I Didn't Want To Hear About The Mick Again.

Witucki’s stepson, a young man I’ve literally watched grow up, is now a sharp-tongued 19-year-old. “I guess it wasn’t such a smart idea to start a sports podcast this year, huh?”  We were feeling quite proud of ourselves though - very Westendorfian, if you will. But how do you create and continue to do a show when your subject matter comes to a screeching halt?  Not only did the entire world stop, but all of our pleasant distractions stopped too. Including sportsball. So, needless to say, it got tough coming up with things to talk about. Really tough. Now we had no choice. We had to get creative. Denny McLain is the last man to have won 30 games in Major League Baseball. He was the first to do it since Dizzy Dean. He won two Cy Young awards, a World Series and an MVP along with 55 wins all in the span of two years. Can you imagine what he could have achieved if only he didn’t have the same disposition as a mouthy 19-year-old?  Youth, arrogance, naivete and straight-up r...
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