The Owner's Box: Recent Episodes
Mark Farinella
The podcast of former NFL writer Mark Farinella. He talks sports, news, food, fun, and just about anything within the human condition. And not always by himself.
For the first time since 2019, host Mark Farinella welcomes long-time friend, mentor and international shipping and delivery magnate Cristoforo Cringlione to the podcast. The CEO of KringCo Overnight Delivery shares opinions about international commerce, consumer trends, Donald Trump, Greenland, Taylor Swift, Boston sports and so much more. It's an absolute must-listen.
Host Mark Farinella returns from a four-month hiatus to update listeners about an outstanding high school football season in his area, and look ahead at the coming basketball season with the help of unofficial co-host Lisa Downs, coach of the Foxboro (Mass.) girls' basketball team. And for the first and last time on this podcast, he comments on the result of the presidential election.
Host Mark Farinella welcomes Amy Dolores, the coach of the state Division 1 champion girls' basketball team from Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Mass., for her first visit to The Owner's Box. They talk about the Shamrocks' path to a state title, what it means to Dolores to be a part of the Feehan community, and the recent upswing in interest in women's basketball thanks to Caitlin Clark and the rest of an outstanding WNBA rookie class. Mark also offers a remembrance of former Attleboro High basketball star Leland Anderson, 43, who succumbed to lung cancer recently.
Host Mark Farinella welcomes special guest co-host Alex Salachi for another "Mansfield Memories" episode, in which both 70-year-old gents try to recall important and interesting aspects of how their hometown of Mansfield, Mass., has changed over their lifetimes. Alex talks about the butcher shops that served the unique tastes of the once predominantly Italian community, while Mark chronicles the seeming overpopulation of gasoline stations in the community.
Host Mark Farinella sounds off on the latest controversy surrounding WNBA star Caitlin Clark, and the upcoming, star-studded Patriots Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Tom Brady, as well as offering some coming attractions.
Host Mark Farinella chats about hie recent eye injury and recovery status, a terrific and just-concluded high school basketball season for his local teams, and much more in his first podcast of 2024. Special guest appearance by Foxboro (Mass.) High School girls' basketball coach Lisa Downs, whose team just won its fourth state title in the last six years.
Host Mark Farinella presents his preview of the high school basketball teams for which he'll be doing play-by-play this year, and his guests are the five coaches of those teams -- Mansfield (Mass.) High boys' coach Michael Vaughan and girls' coach Heather McPherson, Foxboro (Mass.) girls' coach Lisa Downs, and King Philip Regional High (Wrentham, Mass.) girls' coach Jeff Miszkiewicz and boys' coach Dave DeStefano.
Host Mark Farinella is joined by college hockey play-by-play announcer John Leahy, a native of Stoughton, Mass., who went back to his roots on Thanksgiving to broadcast a high school football rivalry game. He and Mark chat about the current state of high school football in Massachusetts, and then Mark recaps the results of all the local holiday games played in his home area.
To celebrate the 50th episode of "The Owner's Box." host Mark Farinella and guest Alex Salachi take a stroll down the Memory Lane of Mansfield, Mass., their long-time hometown. Each looks back to the Mansfield of the 1960s, Alex recalling the town's abundance of barbershops and Mark taking a drive to all the new car dealers located in the relatively small town of 60 years ago
Kristen McDonnell, the coach of the Norwood (Mass.) High School girls' basketball team, joins host Mark Farinella for the fourth time to discuss her transition back to coaching girls from a successful stint with the boys' team. She also explains her innovative summer program of "pickup basketball" for high school girls, and she offers Mark a few tips on what to expect if he gets a knee replacement.
Host Mark Farinella calls an audible and goes solo after a planned guest had to postpone. Topics include a controversial plan to install a video scoreboard at a local high school football field, hurricanes and earthquakes in California, the failed bid for the Pro Football Hall of Fame by Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and much more.
Host Mark Farinella takes on a bevy of topics, including his fall schedule of King Philip Regional High School sports telecasts on North TV, the controversial Big Blue A that now stands in front of the new Attleboro High School, and whether Patriots fans have Malik Mania or Cunningham Colic after the first preseason game.
Foxborough (Mass.) High School girls' basketball coach Lisa Downs makes her sixth appearance on the podcast. She and host Mark Farinella talk about her team's third state championship, her approach to coaching and maintaining a strong rapport with her athletes, and her fundraising efforts to send the team to a tournament in Florida in December.
Host Mark Farinella returns to regular podcasting with a solo episode, checking in on topics such as the Northwestern University football controversy, Patriots training camp, backyard bunnies, the US Women's National Soccer Team, and much more.
Host Mark Farinella returns with his first all-new episode since October 2021. Topics for the third-season debut include what in the heck he was doing all that time when he should have been podcasting, trash-talking in women's basketball and a new national holiday -- Indictment Day!
Host Mark Farinella dusts off what he calls "the lost episode" -- Episode 43, which was recorded on Nov. 1, 2021, and then promptly lost when his computers melted down. The topics are two years old, but it won't be too long before the content is fresh and new again.
Host Mark Farinella welcomes his broadcast partner on North TV high school sports telecasts, Glen Farley, to chat about the new season for Massachusetts high school football and the team they cover, the King Philip Regional High School Warriors of Wrentham, Mass. Recorded on Sept. 11, 2021, before their first TV game of the year, Mark and Glen also offer remembrances of the 9/11 attacks on the 20th anniversary of that fateful day.
Host Mark Farinella talks with Brian Lee, the two-time state-champion head coach of the King Philip Regional High School (Wrentham, Mass.) football team, as he prepares his Warriors without the oppressive COVID-related restrictions from the hybrid "Fall 2" season that ended in April. also, in his Final Rant, Mark examines the circumstances that led to the departure of QB Cam Newton from the New England Patriots.
Lisa Downs, the two-time state champion coach of the Foxborough (Mass.) High School girls' basketball team, meets up with host Mark Farinella at a nearby year-round basketball facility to chat about the return of summer-league ball to post-pandemic Massachusetts. In her fifth appearance on the podcast, Downs also looks back at the rigors of dealing with pandemic-related restrictions during her team's 2021 season, and looks ahead to what everyone hopes will be a more normal campaign next year.
Host Mark Farinella chats with new Army women's basketball coach Missy Traversi, a native of Attleboro, Mass., about how she made the move to West Point from Division II Adelphi University, what she is learning about the tradition and culture of the U.S. Military Academy, how she believes her style of coaching will dovetail with the mission at West Point, and the personal challenge and commitment it takes to move up the ladder in the NCAA coaching ranks.
Mansfield (Mass.) High School boys' basketball coach Michael Vaughan visits The Owner's Box for the second time (after a 17-month hiatus) to chat about a myriad of topics with host Mark Farinella. Among those are what it took to go from pandemic panic to a basketball season this past January; how Vaughan's Hornets were able to win 15 of 16 games and ensure that their best player, senior guard Matty Boen, would score his 1,000th point; how the summer leagues at Vaughan's basketball emporium (Mass Premier Courts) are being received enthusiastically after a year off; and what the future may hold for the team and for live streaming of its games that became so popular during the pandemic.
Host Mark Farinella flies solo to explain why it's been more than a month since his last podcast. It's been a rough patch around The Owner's Box lately as a result of a personal tragedy and some nagging health issues, but things are looking up. Farinella also talks about the end of his third season as a play-by-play announcer and hints at what may be in store for the podcast.
Ray Martel, the executive producer of New York Mets baseball broadcasts on WCBS in New York City, visits host Mark Farinella to talk about the changes in sports broadcasting -- including announcing games from remote locations instead of the ballparks -- that were wrought by the year-long coronavirus pandemic. They also tackle the question of whether some of these cost-saving methods might become permanent.
Host Mark Farinella and his North TV football broadcast partner Glen Farley exercise their lungs before a recent high school game by shouting over the pre-game music to discuss the state of school sports in Massachusetts after the "Fall II" season created as a response to COVID-19. There's also a Final Rant about the upcoming NFL Draft.
Host Mark Farinella speaks with two football coaches in southeastern Massachusetts, North Attleboro High's Don Johnson and Attleboro High's Mike Strachan, about how the communities rallied to support their football teams following the cancellation of the 100th annual Thanksgiving game in November. The teams will play in North Attleboro on April 24 to celebrate the Rocketeers' football centennial, and then meet in Attleboro in November to officially mark the 100th holiday meeting. Also, Mark offers a rare Final Rant.
Host Mark Farinella welcomes Norwood (Mass.) High School boys' basketball coach Kristen McDonnell on her third visit to The Owner's Box. McDonnell, a four-time state champion girls' basketball coach who took over Norwood's boys' team last year, talks about the progress the 9-2 Mustangs made in the recently-concluded, COVID-shortened 2021 basketball season, as well as various other basketball-related topics -- including the continuing challenge she faces as a female coach in a man's world.
Host Mark Farinella gets a different perspective on the pandemic from Foxborough (Mass.) High School's Katelyn Mollica, one of the best basketball players in Massachusetts. Starting in March with the cancellation of a state championship game, the senior guard and her teammates were faced with the unique challenges of losing personal contact with each other, worrying if their careers would end a year ahead of time because of the raging COVID-19 virus, and then playing a shortened schedule of games before empty stands.
Host Mark Farinella welcomes former Xaverian Brothers (Westwood, Mass.) High School basketball coach Alex Salachi, his broadcast partner for King Philip Regional High basketball cablecasts om North TV and select Mansfield games on Mansfield Cable Access, to preview the upcoming season for the four teams they regularly cover and to discuss some of the changes in the game wrought by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Host Mark Farinella chats with Adelphi University women's basketball coach (and Bishop Feehan High School alumna) Missy Traversi about her efforts to get a new season underway while still coping with the ongoing threat of the coronavirus pandemic -- the same one that called an abrupt halt to a 27-3 season back in March.
Host Mark Farinella welcomes Foxborough (Mass.) High School girls' basketball coach Lisa Downs to The Owner's Box for the fourth time to talk about the uncertainty surrounding plans for a winter sports season in Massachusetts, and how that is impacting her athletes.
Host Mark Farinella flies solo to address the issues that formed his decision in the 2020 presidential election. Then he shifts gears and discusses the alarming possibility that the resurgence of the COVID-19 crisis may sidetrack plans for high school sports in Massachusetts' winter season.
Host Mark Farinella kicks off the second season of "The Owner's Box" with a discussion of the dumpster fire that is the 2020 Boston Red Sox with baseball reporter and author Maureen Mullen, a return guest. They talk baseball and the current state of journalism, and we get an update about Maureen's athletically gifted nephews and niece.
Host Mark Farinella dusts off the archives and finds quotes from Foxboro High girls' basketball coach Lisa Downs, former Xaverian Brothers High coach Alex Salachi and Norwood High boys' coach Kristen McDonnell that hinted to a recent action by the state's governing board for high school sports to delay putting MaxPreps in charge of power-seeding Massachusetts tournaments. Also, Mark adds a Final Rant to wrap up Season One.
Athlete, coach and musician Paul Souza, a former resident of Mansfield, Mass., talks with host Mark Farinella about his recent battle with and recovery from the coronavirus. Souza, now living in Indianapolis, also talks about his plans to get back behind the microphone with a new band.
Author Christopher Price, a former beat writer covering the New England Patriots and current Boston Globe web editor, stops by The Owner's Box to chat with host Mark Farinella about his published works, including "The Blueprint" and "Drive for Five" about the Patriots, and a forthcoming work about the history of the Hartford Whalers, due at booksellers in 2022.
Foxborough (Mass.) High School girls' basketball coach Lisa Downs returns to the podcast to talk with host Mark Farinella about her team's state Division 2 championship, the effects of the coronavirus lockdown on her preparation for a new season, and her work with her community's food pantry during this time of crisis.
Host Mark Farinella chats with Mike Redding, veteran head football coach and former head girls' basketball coach of Mansfield (Mass.) High School, about football, roundball and his new job as the school's athletic director. Plus, a special remembrance of a former MHS football coach, the late E.B. Cunningham.
Host Mark Farinella chats with a long-time friend, Ed Berliner, the former host of a trend-setting nightly show called "Sports Pulse" on Comcast-New England's CN8 channel. A veteran news and sports anchor in several cities, Berliner now runs a media consulting firm and is the host of the video podcast, "The Man in the Arena."
Host Mark Farinella is visited by Holy Cross basketball standout Lauren Manis, the only player in school history regardless of gender to score 2,000 career points and grab 1,000 career rebounds. Manis talks about her dedication to self-improvement, her reasons for not transferring midway through her career, and the bittersweet ending of her senior season when the COVID-19 crisis canceled the Patriot League tournament.
Adelphi University women's basketball coach Missy Traversi joins host Mark Farinella to talk about the abrupt, coronavirus-related cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournaments, and also what changes are being made in recruiting plans and procedures during the ongoing crisis.
The television "voice" of the Boston Bruins, Jack Edwards, stops by The Owner's Box to talk with host Mark Farinella about the interruption in the National Hockey League season, what ramifications that could have for the Bruins and NHL going forward, and he offers Farinella some tips on doing play-by-play.
Norwood (Mass.) High School boys' basketball coach Kristen McDonnell returns to The Owner's Box, chatting with host Mark Farinella about her first season at the Mustangs' helm, as well as touching on other big news from the recently concluded season.
NFL Network producer Lisa Edwards led one of just two reporting crews allowed inside Gillette Stadium on St. Patrick's Day when Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady announced he would not return to the team after 20 seasons. Edwards returns to the podcast to tell host Mark Farinella about the unique experience, made even more difficult by the COVID-19 crisis.
Host Mark Farinella welcomes Alex Salachi, former head coach of the Xaverian Brothers High School basketball team and current treasurer of the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Association, to discuss the role of the coaches' group. They also chat about some of the sweeping changes coming to Mass. high school sports in the future.
Foxborough (Mass.) High School girls' basketball coach Lisa Downs pays her second visit to The Owner's Box, where she and host Mark Farinella talk about the upcoming state tournament, as well as several controversial proposals that would change how champions are crowned in Massachusetts.
NFL Network field producer Lisa Edwards is host Mark Farinella's guest, explaining what it takes to get the news of the league into your homes, as well as much, much more.
Red Sox writer Maureen Mullen joins host Mark Farinella in tackling some hot-button baseball issues before the equipment truck pulls out of Fenway Park.
Host Mark Farinella chats with Jackie Pepper, former Boston TV sports reporter and anchor, about her time in the Hub, her move back to her native Los Angeles, her new job with Yahoo Sports and her deep commitment political activism.
Host Mark Farinella takes the show on the road to visit Missy Traversi, head coach of the nationally-ranked Adelphi University women's basketball team following a game on the Garden City, N.Y., campus.
Host Mark Farinella chats with another former NFL writer, Glen Farley, about what went wrong with the New England Patriots' 2019 season after a 10-0 start, leading to their elimination in the AFC Wild Card round by the Tennessee Titans.
Host Mark Farinella talks with Michael Vaughan, the veteran coach of the Mansfield (Mass.) High School boys' basketball team and a Mansfield High alum, about how over a 16-year coaching career his Hornets went from perennial doormats in their league to appearing in the state Division 1 championship game twice in the 2010s, and winning the crown in 2018.
Host Mark Farinella is visited by an old friend and a holiday legend, overnight shipping magnate Cristoforo Cringlione, to chat about their long associations and changes that can be expected in the holiday gift-giving landscape in a digital age.
Host Mark Farinella chats with Kristen McDonnell, who coached the Braintree (Mass.) High School girls' basketball team to four state titles and has switched gears to coach the Norwood (Mass.) High School boys' basketball team.
Host Mark Farinella goes solo to discuss his memories of the JFK assassination in 1963, his viewing of the impeachment hearings and his thoughts about Thanksgiving high school football.
Host Mark Farinella talks with Foxboro (Mass.) High School girls' basketball coach Lisa Downs about basketball, gender equity and community service.
Host Mark Farinella chats with another former NFL writer, Glen Farley, about some of the joys of the pro football beat as well as their new roles as local football announcers.
In the second installment of his new podcast, former NFL writer Mark Farinella talks about a career change after retirement, and also shares a 2009 audio interview with a Boston broadcasting legend, the late Gil Santos, former radio voice of the New England Patriots.
The inaugural podcast of Mark Farinella, a retired former NFL writer with plenty to say about football, sports, food, politics and whatever the heck pops into his mind. No guests tonight, but there will be in the future.