You Don't Know Jack: Recent Episodes
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Lydia Savramis Matt Gilmore are talking sports, politics and everything in between. Maryland Natives, Matt and Mike will of course, talk Maryland sports in this weekly podcast!
Knicks Win It All, Caitlin Clark Gets Hit in the Throat, Serena's Back, and the World Cup Is Actually Good" | June 26, 2026 Episode Description (for Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Buzzsprout — paste here):
The New York Knicks just ended a 53-year championship drought. Caitlin Clark got punched in the throat on national television and the refs didn't call a foul. Serena Williams — at 44 — just accepted a Wimbledon singles wildcard and plays Tuesday. The Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup. The FIFA World Cup 2026 is happening in America and international fans are losing their minds over Waffle House. And your AL East standings? The Yankees are holding first at 48-32 while Boston somehow sweeps them this weekend. We break it all down on this week's You Don't Know Jack — your fast, no-filter take on everything happening in sports right now.
What We're Talking About This Week NBA — New York Knicks: 2026 NBA Champions The Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in the NBA Finals to end the longest championship drought in franchise history — 53 years since 1973. New York ran through the Eastern Conference like a freight train, sweeping both the 76ers and the Cavaliers before closing out San Antonio in five. This is one of the most significant NBA championships in the past two decades and the city of New York is still celebrating.
- Knicks defeated the Spurs in five games, winning the decisive Game 5 in San Antonio
- New York swept the 76ers 4-0 in the second round and swept Cleveland 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals
- First Knicks NBA title since 1973 — 53 years between championships
- Spurs came in as the #2 seed in the West after a brutal seven-game series win over Oklahoma City
- Notable: Knicks won Game 2 of the Finals on the road 105-104 — the type of win that defines champions
WNBA — Caitlin Clark, Fouls, and the Officiating Debate Caitlin Clark is having a historic season for the Indiana Fever — but she's also in the middle of the most-talked-about officiating controversy in WNBA history. This week she picked up her fifth technical foul of the season for clapping and was later punched in the throat during a play with no foul called in real time. The WNBA eventually suspended Phoenix's Alyssa Thomas and upgraded the foul to a Flagrant 2 — but the damage was already done, and the internet had already seen everything.
- Indiana Fever record: 10-7 — in the playoff picture
- Clark has 5 technical fouls on the season; automatic one-game suspension kicks in at 8
- Monday June 23: Clark was T'd up for clapping after a foul call — league has not rescinded it despite a Fever appeal
- Wednesday June 25: Alyssa Thomas hit Clark in the throat on a dead ball — no foul called live, later upgraded to Flagrant 2, Thomas suspended
- Clark's stat line from Monday: 24 points, 9 assists in an 86-77 Fever win over Phoenix
- Clark holds the WNBA record for most consecutive 20-point, 5-assist games (6 in a row)
- Fever coach Stephanie White: "We have a generational talent who had two cheap shots that weren't called."
- Former players and athletes across sports weighed in on social media — this is a mainstream story, not just a WNBA story
FIFA World Cup 2026 — America Hosts, America Delivers The 2026 FIFA World Cup is being hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico — and it is exceeding expectations in every possible way. The USMNT won Group D, scored 7 goals in the group stage (tying their all-time record before the knockout round), and now faces Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Round of 32. Off the field, international fans are going viral for discovering American culture for the first time — Waffle House, Big Gulps, and Buc-ee's are now internationally famous.
- USA beat Paraguay 4-1 in their opener — one of the strongest competitive performances in years
- USA beat Australia in Game 2 to clinch the group
- Final group game: Lost 3-2 to Turkey (already eliminated, Pochettino rested starters) — Christian Pulisic came on in the 58th minute returning from a calf injury
- 7 goals in the group stage ties the USMNT record before knockout play
- Round of 32: USA vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina — next up
- The expanded 48-team World Cup already set the record for most combined goals in tournament history
- International fan reactions: Scotland's Tartan Army played bagpipes in a Boston neighborhood at 6:30am — neighbors loved it
- Pre-tournament concerns about immigration enforcement, ticket prices ($11,000 for Finals seats), and boycott calls have largely given way to an overwhelmingly positive on-the-ground experience
Tennis — Serena Williams Returns to Wimbledon Singles Serena Williams, 44, has accepted a wildcard to compete in the 2026 Wimbledon singles draw — her first singles match at a Grand Slam since the 2022 US Open. What started as a doubles comeback has turned into a full singles return on the biggest stage in tennis. Wimbledon begins Monday, June 29. Serena plays Tuesday.
- Serena holds 7 Wimbledon singles titles and 23 Grand Slam titles total
- Last major singles match: 2022 US Open, third round loss to Ajla Tomljanovic
- Comeback started at Queen's Club (doubles with Victoria Mboko — won the opener 7-6, 6-2)
- Also played doubles in Berlin with Karolina Muchova before the Wimbledon wildcard announcement
- Wimbledon confirmed the singles wildcard June 21 with the Instagram post: "This is not a drill"
- Serena and Venus also received a doubles wildcard — the sisters play together at SW19
- First round opponent: Maya Joint (Australia), World No. 53 — plays Tuesday, June 30
- Unseeded and could face a top-10 player as early as the second round
- Serena's own words on returning: "I need to get to work." On pressure: "I've had enough pressure." On motivation: "It's really about my kids getting to see me play."
NHL — Carolina Hurricanes Win the Stanley Cup The Carolina Hurricanes are Stanley Cup champions, defeating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in the Stanley Cup Final. Carolina was the top seed in the East all season and backed it up all the way to a Cup-clinching shutout in Game 6. They didn't just win — they dominated, including a dominant sweep of Ottawa in the first round and a five-game win over Montreal.
- Carolina won the Stanley Cup Final over Vegas 4-2
- Game 6 was a shutout — Hurricanes closed it out in style
- Vegas made it to the Finals by eliminating top-seeded Colorado in 4 games in the Western Conference Finals — a major upset
- Hurricanes playoff run: def. Ottawa (4-0), def. Montreal (4-1), then won the Cup in 6 over Vegas
- Second Stanley Cup in franchise history for Raleigh, NC
- Carolina's defensive system and goaltending were elite all playoffs
MLB — AL East Report: June 26, 2026 The Yankees are in first place and the Rays are right behind them. Baltimore is underperforming. Boston is struggling — but they're somehow making the Yankees' weekend miserable. Here's your AL East breakdown heading into the weekend series.
AL East Standings (as of June 26, 2026):
Team W L GB New York Yankees 48 32 — Tampa Bay Rays 45 33 3.0 Toronto Blue Jays 39 42 9.0 Baltimore Orioles 38 44 10.0 Boston Red Sox 33 46 15.0 New York Yankees (48-32) — First Place
- Best record in the AL East by 3 games
- Won at Detroit Wednesday 4-2
- Lost at Boston Thursday 6-3
- Tonight at Boston: Down 5-0 in a game in progress — could be swept in the series
- Weekend series vs. Boston continues Saturday 1:10pm and Sunday 1:10pm
Tampa Bay Rays (45-33) — 3 Games Back
- Quietly one of the best teams in the American League — 3rd in the entire AL by record
- Swept Kansas City this week — beat them 5-3, then 13-2
- Tonight vs. Arizona: Up 4-1 in a game in progress
- Don't count the Rays out of the division race
Baltimore Orioles (38-44) — 10 Games Back
- Ten games under .500 and 10 back in the division — struggling to find consistency
- Lost to the Angels 7-6 on Wednesday on the road
- Tonight at home vs. Washington: Up 2-1 — a game Baltimore needs to win
Toronto Blue Jays (39-42) — 9 Games Back
- Under .500 and getting swept by Texas this week
- Lost to Houston 3-1 Wednesday, lost to Texas 6-5 Thursday
- Down 5-0 to Texas tonight — not a good series
Boston Red Sox (33-46) — 15 Games Back
- 15 games back is tough. But they're making the Yankees feel it right now
- Beat New York 6-3 Thursday and lead them 5-0 tonight — may be heading for a sweep
- The Red Sox making life hard for the Yankees is never not entertaining
AL East Games to Watch This Weekend:
- Yankees at Red Sox: Sat 1:10pm, Sun 1:10pm — this is the series of the weekend
- Rays at home vs. Arizona: Sat 6:10pm
- Orioles vs. Nationals: Sat 7:05pm, Sun 1:35pm
- Blue Jays vs. Rangers: Sat 3:07pm, Sun 1:37pm
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We start of strong with Matt's opening day recap, we talk new screens, new challange rules, and how both of our teams made out on opening day.
We are both alive in our respective brackets, Matt hanging on a dream of BIG10 sucess, at number 3 and Lydia holding firm in 5th place with Arizona cutting down the nets.
The women's tournament is not getting as much attention as in years past and it could be due in part to the lack of a stand out star player ex. Kaitlyn Clark, paige buckets, Angel Reese Mr Woods, we suggest you get a driver, and maybe consider rehab, he needs to stop flipping cars and start keeping all four wheels on the ground. Lucky as always no one was hurt in this accident, but the frequency and lack of consiquences is concerning.
Finally, we wish a very happy and well deserved retirement for Dr. Gregg Wolff
We hope you enjoy this episode, feel free to leave us a review, like the show and share!
In this week's episode we talk about March Madness, as in weather and basketball and our predictions for the Mens and Womens tournaments.
Opening Day is only a few days away, and Matt makes a strong prediciton for the AL East
The WNBA Players have secured there much deserved bag, with the starting salary going from 60K to 300K per year.
We also touch on the passing of Robert Mueller III.
We are back!
One trip to Florida later and warmer weather in the Moutnians has us very eager for spring!
While we were away a lot has happened, so we kick things off with the Ravens giving up two first round draft picks for Maxx Crosby. We then head back to Italy for the paraolympics that started on March 7th, that is not without it's own controversial decisions to allow Russians and Bulrusian olympians to compete under their own flag.
F1 has kicked off their new season, and Mercedes has rocket of a car, claiming the 1&2 spots at this weeks race, proving again that they can be a dominat team when your car is this good.
Kristi Noem is out as DHS secretary after being questioned in congress. She is being replaced with Markwayne Mullins from OK. The same guy to wanted to beat up a teamster during a Sentate meeting. We then finish things off with "operation epic fury" the conflict in Iran that has upeneded the world and has put millions of people at risk.
This week we talk Olympics, the two gold medal games for US Mens and Women's Hockey, the mindset shift to take the pressure off and find joy, Lindsey Vonn's injuries, and finally we honor Bill Mazeroski, Robert DuVall, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
We as always welome you to leave us a review and reach out to us, we will be back on the air in about a week.
We talk Daytona 500 is happening 1 hour early and it is great day for Americana, Super Bowl was the most boring game possible, and Matt killed it with the prop bet. and the olympics are saving us from the lull between football and baseball season and unitl March Madness fully kicks off.
We are over curling espcially when the Canadain Team has been accused of two touching the stones. XC country is seeing some americans in medal positiions and we have a steller speed skater Stotz with two golds under his belt and another one in his sights.
39 days until opening day, we can do it folks.
The olympics kicked off this Friday wiht a pretty spectacular opening ceremony, in three differenct locations since winter events were about 3 hours apart. It was a great way to keep the athletes close to wear they are competeing and acknolwege them with their own mini opening ceremnonies.
Vonn's comeback came to a crashing halt on her first competion run since her ACL tear. She was airlifted off the slopes and the Amercian Breezey Johnson won Gold. Matt tells us exactly how he feels about Curling....
We place our prop bets for what could be the most underwhelming Super Bowl in history.
We also morn the loss of the most fantastic sports section with the firing of 1/3 of the Washington Post.
This past week was full of new hires, transfer portal juggling and some questionable goverment arrests of notable journalists. We cover who we think will win the superbowl, what the new coaching landscape looks like in 2026, and Matt tells you how he really feels about Robert Kraft.
The Portal shuffle is upon us with a free agency style for 18-22 year olds, and Unlimited transfers... what could go wrong?
The great American pastime is almost upon us and we could not be more thrilled, 10 days until Pitchers and Catchters Report, spring training is back!
We finally made it through January and ALL it threw at us, including this past week the arrest of two notbale journalists covering and reporting on a news story in Minnesota church. We have crossed into open use of federal power against reporters, and this futher indicates trying to erode 1st ammendment rights. A lot of americans participated in the National Economic Blackout on Jan 30. 2026.No work, No School, No shopping. To encourage the withdrwal of ice agents. Thousands of people participated and showed up in sub zero temps.
Other ways you can participate is the Resist & Unsubscibe movement, the tech industry will respond when you effect their bottom line.
The Goverment is in an offical shutdown, after the Senate removed the funding for DHS, from the approparations bill, it was a bipartisan effort, the DHS will be funded at it's current level for the next two weeks and then that department will not be funded until a new reduced amount passes the house. This should come up for a vote quickly, although Johnson might delay and bring it with his very very narrow majoity. If the down ballot elections are any indication it looks like that majority will vanish at the midterm, or possibly before with speical elections in California and Georgia.
Catherine O'Hara- died suddenly at the age of 71, she was a huge talent, starting on SCTV and most well known as the mother in Home Alone and as stand out star in Christopher Guest films like, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. In more recent years she gave us the wonderful Moria Rose on Schitt's Creek. Her sublte physical comedy and unique ability to create memoriable characters allowed us all to enjoy her genius in every role she played.
The Great NFL Coaching Shake-Up, Playoff Fever, & Western Maryland's Future! This week on the podcast, we dive headfirst into all the major shake-ups happening across the National Football League, including our thoughts on the new Baltimore Ravens Head Coach, Jesse Minter, and other notable hires! We break down the NFL Playoff action and look back at the excitement of the recent College Football National Championships. We also turn our focus to Western Maryland, shining a light on some great local projects and discussing why we love our area and why we're postive about its future success! Whether you're here for the football or the local flavor, you won't want to miss this one. Subscribe to the podcast, rate, and review to never miss an episode!
This weeks episode we discuss: Two raw losses shake us this week: Bob Weir, the heartbeat of the Grateful Dead, passes at 78 after beating cancer, and in Minneapolis, 37-year-old American citizen Renee Nicole Good is dead, killed by an ICE agent.
Then we pivot to sports, where competition, chaos, and comebacks remind us what resilience looks like.
From Weir's light in dark places to Good's fight for truth, playoffs' glory to hot stove gambles, this noise is where we find hope. "Without love in the dream, it will never come true."
Keep beibg bullish on America, be Kind and use your privlage to do the right thing.
Happy NEW YEAR!
We have a BIG LONG episode for you today.
We talk the Venezuela and what tha means for the United States on the global stage and what precidents we are setting. College Football Playoffs (we both think Indiana) NFL Playoff Season with the Steelers vs, Ravens winner takes all The O's spending the dollar bills, on great players including 155 million for Pete Alonso
What we would do if we won a billion dollars and Venus still playing in down under. Follow us on socials, @JackYDK and share listien and reveiw this podcast
We talk NBA Scandal,
MLB World Series And light remodleing projects to the White House, and a philosophical question enters the chat!
The Gov't shutdown is still happening and now SNAP benefits are under threat, if you can, we encourage you to donate to your loacal food banks.
We are back after one of us went international and the other went to a canyon in the woods.
WNBA
The Las Vegas Aces Sweep the Phoenix Mercury for their 3rd title in 4 years, they are the 2025 Champions.
They are now tied with the Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury and Detroit Shock for second all-time in league history for most WNBA Championships
Wilson was named the 2025 WNBA Finals Most Valuable Player after averaging 28.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.0 steals over four WNBA Finals games. Wilson became the first player in WNBA history to win Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year (Co-DPOY) and WNBA Finals MVP in the same season. She also:
- Became the sixth player to win Finals MVP multiple times,
- Set the record for most points (set in Game 3) and rebounds in a single postseason. In Game 4
- Set the mark for scoring in a single Finals series, improving upon Cappie Pondexter's previous record of 110 points during the 2007 Finals
- Climbed to third on the all-time postseason scoring list, surpassing Catchings (1,141) and Candace Parker(1,149)
NFL
Ravens, Eagles, Bills Lost, but I have to say my Pats look pretty good this year with 23 year old Drake Maye leading the charge.
The Falcons beat the Bills
Injuries are plaguing the Ravens, and the Eagles just can't seem to get out of their own way.
The Chiefs won but Branch on the Lions was a little bitter about the loss and was not dapping up at the end of the game.
The season is wide open without super clear favorites yet.
College Football
THE Ohio State won.. Again
Maryland had a close game with Nebraska this weekend
Big Game James- was fired 55 Million buyout, and Terry Smith is the interim coach
Penn State lost to North Western
MLB
Playoffs BABY!!
Seattle and Toronto are battling it out for the ALCS and the Dodgers and Brewers are battling it out for the NLCS, The Phillies are out on an error, let's just say as a Red Sox fan I get it… so close but so far away.
Seattle leads 2-0 LA Leads 1-0
NBA
Season has kicked off with Lebron out for the first few weeks sciatica down the right side of his body, according to the Lakers, and won't be reevaluated for another two to three weeks and has been limited to light shooting in training camp thus far, sitting out every practice and preseason game. Father Time is creeping in
GOV't Shutdown-
Still ongoing and with no end in sight this is by no means a Democratic shutdown.. When the GOP controls all branches. This is getting a tad bit ridiculous and with midterms right around the corner not a good look for incumbent republicans
Diane Keaton- 79
D' Angelo- 51
Donate to the eleciton of Sarah Butler District 2 School Board Spartanburg SC!
WNBA
The semi-finals are in full effect, the Lynx's head coach was kicked out after going up the ref after one of her star player Colliers was injured, it was a clean play, but she was rushed out on the court.
Lynx and Mercury are tied in their series Aces lead the Fever 2-1
The series continues this evening.
NFL
Ravens lost, the Colts are undefeated and the Eagles blocked not one, but two field goals. The noises that came from my living room after that blocked kick I'll never forget.
NFL is still taking the games international with the Steelers and Vikings playing in Ireland. Goodell has said he would love to have an international game every week next season.
I have to say I am not hating a 10am game and I do not want to move to California.
College Football
ND beat the pants off of the razorbacks
THE Ohio State won.. Again 4-0
Maryland is 4-0
Penn State lost to Oregon, and it was a snoozefest until the end of the game with 2OT.
FL state VA game.. Rushing the field again it puts everyone at risk, the security, students, players of both teams etc..
MLB
Playoffs BABY!!
Cal Raleigh- Catcher Switch hitter- with 60 HR for the season most of all time
Otani- Really taking it to town this year with hitting and pitching.
First Ammendment-
Something we all just depend on for protections of free speech
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion; prohibiting the free exercise of religion; or abridging the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, or the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.
This is such a cornerstone of our everyday lives and people don't even realize how important it is. People should never be surprised at our current governments want to muzzle this right for everyone in this country to seek total control over what you can say, do, and how the exchange of ideas can happen.
What I find most disturbing is that these cowards hide behind the law to spread vitriol and hate speech but when the opposite happens with any push back with facts and common sense it is met with removing of rights and limitations.
The Jimmy Kimmel incident was the first attempt, do not think that this will be the last, the biggest broadcast network decided it did not like Kimmel the FCC chair said he should be removed and then the american people finally woke up that this was not ok, cancelled subscriptions called businesses to advertise with Sinclar and then 4 days later, Kimmel was back on the air, to very high ratings.
Welcome to season 6 of YDKJ
The WNBA enters the final day of its regular season tonight with the eight playoff teams set, but three of the four first-round matchups are still to be determined.
WNBA Playoff Standings
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Minnesota Lynx, 33-10**
-
Las Vegas Aces, 29-14 (5 GB)*
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Atlanta Dream, 29-14 (5 GB)*
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Phoenix Mercury, 27-16 (6 GB)*
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New York Liberty, 26-17 (8 GB)*
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Indiana Fever, 24-20 (10.5 GB)*
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Golden State Valkyries, 23-20 (10 GB)*
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Seattle Storm, 23-21 (11.5 GB)*
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Denotes clinched playoff spot
** Denotes clinched best record in league
Kaitlin Clark out for the rest of the season with a nagging groin injury
Angel Reese- was suspended after receiving her 8th technical foul of the season
Playoffs should be superb !
NFL
The season has kicked off, they went to Brazil and the Chiefs lost to the chargers, Aaron Rodgers had an okay first game but they need to protect the old man if they want him to make the ravens look great on defense and offense and Ty Johnson had a great game in Buffalo.
It should shake out to be an interesting season.
MLB Playoffs
The O’s look terrible this year, it was off but they had a glimpse of greatness in the 9th inning against the dodgers. They are still building something, and they most likely will be in for a long season next year.
News and Politics
Charlie Kirk
I did not know who he was until yesterday, so this is what I know.
White Male, Shot and Killed in Utah he was 31 married with two kids.
He was talking on a Utah college campus, he was a right wing republican whose narrative was divisive.
He was not a political candidate but a pundit, who had a right wing conservative following.
His messaging especially on gun control is and I quote
"We must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty...I think it’s worth having a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights."
In the simplest of analogies he believed that you had to break some eggs to make an omelet, and unfortunately he was one of the eggs.
I want to discuss that his life ceases to exist, but for those who were there at the event, have to live with that the rest of their lives and those who now have watched it also carry that burden. It is very widespread online and if you or people you know do not want to see it, turn off auto play on your applications that you view most to avoid seeing something you do not want to see. Here is how to do that
It is not normal to watch someone be killed and if you are experiencing trauma around this please seek help and talk with someone.
Welcome back
NBA: OKC Won the Finals of the NBA in a great series
MLB:
Trade Deadline is approaching and some teams need to make a move, any prospects i the pipeline for the O’s?
This was supposed to be the season for the O’s and they are holding down the last place in the AL Beast
Sox-
Not doing much better before or after the all start break.. I mean flippin Toronto is leading the league
WNBA
Full swing, Kaitlyn Clark is not playing, she does not have a return date to the court yet, she has a hamstring injury. H
Paige Bruckers is doing well for her first season in the league and crowds are still coming out in droves to support their teams. With the Liberty and Fever drawing record crowds. Including over 2.2 million viewers for the WNBA all Star games
Wimbledon:
Jannik Sinner;
Iga Swiatek
Venus Williams won her first match back at 45 years old
NFL:
Aaron Rodgers is a Steeler now, training camps seem to be going typical injuries abound even with QB for the jets today with a toe injury. Also the NFL is in talks to acquire 10% stake in ESPN
F1 update:
Christian Horner is out as team principal for Red Bull, over a year of controversy later the team has decided to go in a different direction with leadership that have been a partnership for over
20 years. Max Vestappan made a statement that change in principal has no effect on his career with red bull even though there are some pretty strong rumors he is looking to move to mercedes.
In Memorium:
Maclom Jamal Warner
Ozzy Osbourne
Hulk Hogan
Happy Mother’s Day!
NBA Playoffs are in full effect
The games have been great, they have been close and exciting until the end.
The Celtics came back against the Knicks last night now making the series 2-1
They won in NYC and have some good
The rest of the field is
Cavaliers vs. Pacers-Indiana leads 2-1
Thunder vs. Nuggets Denver leads 2-1
Warriors vs. Timberwolves Min leads 2-1
So if you have been sleeping on the playoffs, tune in it has been pretty exciting.
MLB:
What a crazy first month for Baseball, a lot of heartbreak for your O’s this season with injuries after last nights game they dropped 10 games below .500 for the first time since 2022.
They are in the basement in the Beast 7.5 games back.. But it is a long a season
But the stadium is getting some upgrades in 2026 including new centerfield video board, upper
The deck and field wall displays screens.
They have had some great series but seem to not be able to maintain momentum
Do you think this is just a slow start or does Elias have to go back to the drawing board and make some big moves and spend some money?
Sox-
Deavers is doing exactly what he was signed to do, 4-4 and 3 RBI’s in yesterday's 10-1 game against the royals. He is still just a DH, which might just have to be good enough for him.
Otherwise not a bad start for Boston 2.0 games behind the Yankees and 2nd in the Beast
The Masters:
Rory McIlory did it; he won the masters and did it in style, completing his career grand slam. He did as predicted by you… almost gave it away a few times but in the end grabbed that green jacket
WNBA kicks off their pre-season games and excited for another great season watching the W with their new teams.
NFL Draft:
#1 draft pick- Cam Ward to the Titans
Shadur Sanders picked 144 overall in the draft is going to the Browns competing a not so great news cycle for this player.He was called out by a NFL coach who said he was not that talented and was coming with a lot of baggage, mainly his father Coach Prime who has been very vocal about coaching his son in the NFL and is NOT, Not opinionated.
F1 update:
Oscar Piastri- is leading the 2025 drivers standings with 4 wins Mclaren
Lando Norris- is second w. McLaren
Max Vesttapen is 3rd with only 1 win so far this season
Sir Lewis Hamilton is #7 with his new team Ferrari
For the Constructors (Not surprising it is)
McLaren
Mercedes
Red Bull
Ferrari
White Smoke= a New Pope
Pope Leo the XIV Robert Prevost
First American Pope ever
From Chicago, a White Sox fan, went to villinova
He also was the one to really lecture and give our current VP the business when he went to vatican city a month ago. So he is not afraid to speak up.
How does one accomplish the art of a good weekend, easy.. put on The Masters and a Baseball game sit back and relax and enjoy the wonderful world of spring sport at its finest.
We Talk Masters, Baseball, Oveschin scoring hsi 895th goal, NCAA champs, and our beloved GMPG law firm making it's MPT debut on Finding your Roots
We are off next week for the holiday, but we will be back the following week, so catch up and tune in!
Find us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
We are back and so it Baseball!
We talk spring training games, opening day at Camden Yards, torpedo bats, and a Rockies Triple Play.
Don't worry much like you, out bracket is busted but we are both excited about the final games staring with the Women's Final betweetn two powerhouse teams Uconn and South Carolina, followed by Houston Florida, which will be pretty fast paced and eciting.
The road to the final game has had a lot of ups and downs, Maryland Womens and Mens team made the sweet 16, the Men's team is getting a new coach and Queen is hitting the NBA draft.
We finished up with a little F1 and the standings just to keep Matt in the loop.
NFL
What the Tuck?
Ravens News: Justin Tucker is up to nine massage therapists in the Baltimore area that have accused him of inappropriate behavior.
All the incidents reportedly occurred from 2012 to 2016, which were Tucker's first five seasons in the NFL. On Thursday, the Ravens issued a statement saying, "We take any allegations of this nature seriously and will continue to monitor the situation." Three years ago, Ravens coach John Harbaugh referred to the team's zero tolerance policy for domestic violence when asked about Deshaun Watson's six-game suspension following accusations of sexual misconduct with massage therapists.
We finally have the Super Bowl Teams set and it’s a little Dejvu. The Chiefs Vs. the Eagles in superbowl 59 in New Orleans. We thought the ravens might do it, but lost to the Bills, we were hopeful that they would knock out the chiefs..but here we are. Kendric Lemar featuring SZA is doing the halftime show, New Orleans' own Jon Batiste is doing the National Anthem, Lauren Daigle and Trombone Shorty, who will perform "America the Beautiful.
We love a good prop bet
Over Under 2 minuntes for the National Anthem
How many songs will Kendrick perform
What color Gatorade will be dumped over the head coach
Heads or Tails
Winner
First points score or field goal
College Basketball
With all of that fun we have to look forward to.. Who are you thinking or hoping wins this match up next week?
With football almost over.. And a little bit of a hint of spring in the air, lets turn our attention to College Basketball
We had a big loss for Kentucky vs AK last night by 10 pts. They are not having the year they thought they would with the return of John Calpari
Cooper Flagg is coming turing out to be a very powerful player as a freshman and Duke
2024 McDonald's player of the year The guard is averaging 19.9 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game while shooting 32.9% from long range in his first 20 college basketball appearances.
He is creating quite the buzz to be the #1 NBA draft pick
NCAA Women's Basketball News
LSU lost to South Carolina in a very intense game that really displayed how great of a human Kim Mulkie is slapping clipboards out of hands of her coaching staff, having two players ejected from the game
Dawn Staley signed a record-breaking contract extension in January 2025. The deal is worth $25.25 million and will keep her at the school through the 2029-30 season.
Key details
- Staley's new contract includes a $4 million annual salary, a $500,000 signing bonus, and a $250,000 salary increase each year
- The deal makes Staley the highest-paid women's college basketball coach in history
NBA
Luca the Laker in exchange for Anthony Davis for the Mavs getting a 2029 draft pick
This trade was so secret that no one knew it was happening and it left a lot of Maverick fans upset and wanting refunds.
YDKJ Season 5 Episode 8
Rickey Henderson
Talked in the third person, greatest leadoff hitter and base stealer setting the record for 1406 beating the previous record holder Lou Brock by 468 stolen bases. Henderson twas a first ballot inductee into the Hall of Fame.
Born in a Chicago snowstorm on Christmas Day 1958, Rickey Nelson Henley was named after the 1950s teen idol Ricky Nelson. According to family legend, his mother Bobbie went into labor before entering the hospital and nurses delivered the child from the car. When his father arrived frantic and late to the hospital, demanding to see his wife, nurses told him, "Calm down! The boy's already in the back seat." Over the years, Henderson would relay the story as proof of his destiny to be baseball's greatest base stealer. "I was born fast," he would say.
Former A’s manager Sandy Alderson Said “ I traded Rickey Henderson twice and brought him back more times than that. He was the best player I ever saw play. ... Nine different teams, one unforgettable player. Sandy gonna miss Rickey."
True to his reputation as an ageless showman, Henderson never officially retired from MLB; teams simply stopped calling. Pamela Henderson would say Rickey, even in his early 60s, believed he could still play if only another team would give him a chance.
College Football:
Great day of football
The Ohio State University: Beat Tenn 42-17 at the Shoe.
Texas Beat Clemson 38-24
Penn State Trampled SMU 38-10
Notre Dame beat Indiana 27-17
Florida Beat Tulane 33-8
Ohio University Bobcats beat Jax State 30-27
No surprises here, and there are sooo many bowl games, they are starting not to feel as special as they once did.
NFL
Steelers Lost to the Ravens
Chiefs beat the Texans
MVP talk is heating up between Allen and Jackson
Today we have the Eagles Commanders at 1:00
Christmas Day Games are on Netflix.. Hopefully streaming goes well..
Chiefs vs. Steeplers 1:00
Ravens vs. Texans 4:30 game
I think Beyonce is doing a mini half time show during Christmas Day..
The Grateful Dead are being honored by the Kennedy Center, brining a once counterculture band firmly into the offical fold. Their art has spanned almost 65 years, has spawned generations of deadheads and creates a culture that is unlike any other. Do yourself a favor and spin some dead and rememeber what a long strange trip it has been.
The holidays can be a tough time for people so reach out to those you know and love and if you need to talk to someone use 988 and get the help you need.
YDKJ Season 5 Episode 7
MLB- There must be a gas leak on the hot stove, cause the Mets just agreed to pay Juan Soto 765 million dollars over the next 15 years, he is 26 years old and can hit.. For the moment nothing else, with a signing bonus of 75 million dollars.
Soto's deal includes a full no-trade clause, meaning he would need to approve any deal that sees him shipped elsewhere for the third time in his career. Soto also gets to wear the No. 22 with the Mets (a number that previously belonged to third baseman Brett Baty), and a luxury suite for home games.
The O’s;
The Orioles announced the signings in free agency of outfielder Tyler O’Neill and catcher Gary Sánchez earlier today. Physicals were passed and contracts inked.
O’Neill received a three-year deal for $49.5 million and Sánchez received a one-year deal for $8 million.
Red Sox:
Red Sox Predicted To Sign 4-Time All-Star Burnes To Blockbuster $218.5 Million Deal
They also have signed a lefty white sox pitcher and have money to burn hopefully the get the deal done and invest in some solid player and make a run in 2025
FYI 59 days until pitchers and catchers report…..
College Football:
New West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez admitted Friday he made a mistake by leaving West Virginia for Michigan 17 years ago.
Based on the welcome he got from the thousands of fans who attended his introductory news conference Friday.
Rodriguez carries some baggage. His three years at Michigan, where he was fired after the 2010 season, were marred by NCAA violations for exceeding limits on practice and training time at college football’s winningest program.
He was fired after six years at Arizona in January 2018 after his former administrative assistant filed a claim with the Arizona attorney general’s office accusing him of sexually harassing her and creating a hostile work environment. The university said it couldn’t substantiate the claims but was concerned about the “direction and climate of the football program.” The lawsuit was later dismissed.
Hopefully he has learned his lesson and plays by the rules and gives WVU some wins next season.
Biggest News Bill Belichick has signed with UNC to have a fresh start in college football $10 million is his annual salary. He is going to enter into the college arena when it is starting to look more and more like the NFL landscape UNC is also giving him total control over how the funding for the program is allocated. I am looking forward to seeing what happens.
Lydia's Bucks.. Lost to those Damn Wolverines again… this has to stop, we need a new head coach who can complete the brief.. BEAT MICHIGAN. Come on Day.. do it already….
NFL
TY Johnson’s Bills
Lost their game against the Rams but a great highlight was TY running in a 41 yard TD
Baltimore Lost to Philly at home.. How was the game?
Justin Tucker missed THREE (3!!!) missed kicks, including an extra point the Ravens' uncharacteristic red-zone inefficiency, with just one touchdown on three pre-garbage-time trips inside the 20-yard line might have contributed to the loss
Philly
Jalen Hurts 49 yard six play drive
Saquon Barkley's fourth-quarter touchdown
The Eagles are 10-2 and remain just one game back of the Lions
The Ravens are now 8-5
Commanders Take on the Saints this weekend
Eagles play Pittsburgh BIG game
Raven are off,... hopefully they use it to rest up
Local sports News… Ft. Hill won again congrats to coach Alkire
F1:
Vattappan won another title this year
However Red Bull did not win the constructors cup this year instead coming in third place overall
With McClaren taking the win and Ferrari coming in Second
Looking at 2025 the grid is shaking up with Hamilton driving for Ferrari leaving Mercedes, a move no one thought would happen. Serigo Perez might be stepping down from Red Bull team with two younger drivers set to step up from the secondary red bull team Apha Tauri
2025 should be an interesting year.. Look forward to seeing how it all shakes out.
College Football:
OSU beat Indiana 38-15 ending their 10-0 streak GO BUCKS!
BYU Lost yesterday to AZ State as fans prematurely stormed the field allowing AZ State to block a hail mary play from BYU
Army Lost their 9-0 streak falling to the fighting Irish, the Knights just did not have it in them this game.
Maryland Lost to Iowa 29-13
NFL:
Last Thursday the: Eagles Beat the Commanders, which I must say, are looking pretty good for the first time in a long time. The Eagles were working on losing that game for the first half and let's just say they were losing when you fell asleep and woke up to a win last Thursday.
Ty Johnsons Buffalo Bills beat the undefeated Chiefs in front of a sold out home crowd
Raven’s lost to the Steelers on Sunday 18-16 what happened?
Then in a crazy turn of weather events Steelers lost to the Browns on Thursday 24-19 at Cleveland do you think it was the snow?
Today:
We have a classic match up the Commanders vs. the Cowboys at 1:00p, hopefully the Commies can pull out a win and keep the losing streak up for America's Team
Eagles take on the LA Rams at 8:20 and it should be a good match up
Monday the Ravens take on the Chargers, you will be sure to catch the first half of that game.
Mike Tyson took home 20 million dollars in a fight that was interesting to say the least, he was able to stay on his feet, showed his bare ass to millions of people on Live TV and retired on his terms. We were all hoping for a knockout but lets face it, it was a huge promotional gig, that had Rosie Perez and Cedric the Entertainer commentating on the fights.
There were 4 fights on the card two of them were good, and legitimate fights, the other two which bookended the evening were just two people acting like boxers, and the the finale was just that father time collecting on an overdue debt. The best I can say is it united the country for a bit, but wholly underwhelming.
Women's NCAA Basketball is back and heating up, do yourself a favor and look out for some great upcoming match ups and WATCH: like Notre Dame beating USC 74-61 the SC Gamecocks taking on UCLA and of course UCONN. Speaking of the Huskies Geno is the D1 all-time wins leader.
Power 10 Rankings are what most expect with
1 SC
2 Uconn
3 USC
4 UCLA
And MD rounding out the #10 spot nationally
MLB
Another Season ends but Free Agency has begun
The Yankees Juan Soto is a free agent: do you think he will try to beat Othani’s deal since he is only 26?
the Met’s have met with him with their deep pockets
And the Yankees, but he shot down their first offer
Red Soxs- maybe to make up for letting Mookie Betts go
Blue Jays- they are desperate they might make a move
Soto has expressed that he likes the Phillies but no official meeting
Others to note:
Austin Hays who headed to Philly from Baltimore over a deadline deal.
Could he come back to the O’s ?
Patrick Sandoval: Just coming off of Tommy John Surgery in June has been released from the Angels
Jordan Romano- Another pitcher with a bad elbow, had surgery in July but the team is not confident in his arm.
Local News:
You can now drive down Baltimore Street and you should.
It's weird but well worth it and you can now park out in front of some of your favorite spots!
Join us as we catch up on two weeks of sports, politics, and how we are rolling into the holiday season!
WNBA: We have a new national champ the NY Liberty has won their first WNBA championship in franchise history, defeating the Minn. Lynx. It was an exciting series, and the most watched WNBA season, playoff, and championships in the history of the league.
They are expanding their market from 12 to 15 teams in 2025 and another three in 2026
MLB:
Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series,
Freddie Freaking Freemen-
Was on fire in this series- driving in 12 home runs in the series and earned him MVP
The Yankees still don’t got it.. Aaron Judge was silent and the fans are as we know the absolute worst. What they did to Mookie was awful
NFL:
Ravens 7-3 going up against the Steelers this Sunday
Commanders 7-3 playing against the 7-2 Eagles this evening
Chiefs still undefeated and they take on Ty Johnson’s Bills in Buffalo this weekend which should be a great matchup of Quarterbacks
College:
OSU Beat Penn State last weekend 20-13
Maryland (4-5) take on Rugters (5-4) this weekend
Undefeated teams in college currently
Oregon 10-0
Indiana 10-0
BYU 9-0
Army 9-0
F1- Returns to Las Vegas after a horrible go of it last year with manholes that were not covered properly, drivers having issues with the streets, and overall poor ticket sales
Hopefully second time's a charm
Mike Tyson is taking on YouTube star Jake Paul in a boxing match live on Netflix tomorrow, and we are all hoping that Mike is triumphant.
Reach out to those who might need you during the holiday season just check in say hey, get together, or if you need someone reach out and always know you are loved. If you need it dial 988 to get help.
Donate to your local food banks:
Western MD Food Bank
Nokidhuungry.org
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@JackYDK
We are back and looking back at last weeks news and looking very much ahead at all the great things yet to come!
NFL
We start with NFL week one with the Ravens Chiefs with the Chiefs winning, by a toe. We are still not sure about the new kick off, I mean let's be real just start it on the 20 and keep it moving.
The Refs were flag happy about formation, but they settelted in after the first drive.
Ravens Defense looked great and they are a solid team, for the first game of the season they really held their own and will only improve.
And then we come to Thursday nights game with Ty Johnson’s Bills where he had a great game FYI they won handily over the Miami Dolphins
Which brings us to Tua: He suffered another concussion, in the 4th qtr. Tua’s body went limp and his right arm exhibited "fencing" behavior, the unnatural position following a traumatic brain injury. He stayed on the ground for a few moments. Miami's training staff helped him off the field and escorted Tagovailoa to the locker room. He was ruled out minutes later.This begs the question again… Should he hang up the cleats?
WNBA Playoffs start this week with the following teams making a run for the championship spot.
- New York Liberty, 31-6
- Minnesota Lynx, 27-9 (3.5 GB)
- Connecticut Sun, 26-10 (4.5 GB)
- Las Vegas Aces, 23-13 (7.5 GB)
- Seattle Storm, 22-14 (8.5 GB)
- Indiana Fever, 19-18 (12 GB)
- Phoenix Mercury, 17-19 (13.5 GB)
- Chicago Sky, 13-23 (17.5 GB)
- Atlanta Dream, 12-24 (18.5 GB)
- Washington Mystics, 12-24 (18.5 GB)
Caitlin Clark has the all time assit record this year at 317 beating last years record.
MLB Standings have changed:
AL bEAST - Yanks, O's, Sox
NL East- Phillys, Mets, Braves
Debate:
You knew we were going to cover it, here are the highlights.
The Most important thing to do is register to VOTE, vote early if you can, you might not get a sticker but my goodness we will give you a high five when we see you!
Be sure to follow us on IG/ Twitter @JackYDK
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We are kicking off season 5 of YDKJ with a nice little review of what we missed in the big wide world of sports while one of us we turned another year older and one is turning big pages in chapters. We have been throught a lot in the last few weeks, and we are happy to be back together and on the mics for another great season!
This episode covers: * Paris Olympics 2024 highlights * WNBA playoffs and rising stars * NBA contract updates * MLB pennant races * College football rule changes * NFL season kickoff and new regulations
Be sure to check out our our sister podcast Record Talk Listen for their 9th season
Olympics, gender parity, Canada soccer scandal, USA medal count, Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, Paralympics, WNBA expansion, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Steph Curry contract, MLB standings, college football rules, NFL kickoff, hip-drop tackle banJoin us for expert analysis and exciting discussions on the world of sports!#YDKJ #SportsNews #Olympics2024 #WNBA #NBA #MLB #CollegeFootball #NFL
For the last episode of Season 4 we had to cover the latest news of the american policial landscape. We have for the first time in our histroy the opportunity for a woman to run for office. VP Kamla Harris has sured up delegates, raised 81 million dollars in 24 hours and has managed to fire up a dormant base overnight. This campagin will last 105 days and totally changed the landscape of the race.
We found out about this massive shift during the second inning of the Phillies Pirates game at PNC Park, we immediately starting thinking through the ins the outs and what have yous, and decided we needed to talk it out as part of our last episode before our hiatus.
There are a lot of things to think about, mostly we want Kamala to shine, show her personality and really be successful. We deserve a candiate that is in the fight and younger than 78.
The olympics start this week with the breakdancing being the newest summer olympic sport, as always we will be excited how team USA and our elite athletes compete, even if they have to sleep on cardboard beds.
We have loved recording this season with you, hope you found it enjoyable and we can't wait to hit the mics once again this fall for Season 5!
Links mentioned in the show:
Plain English Podcast
We are rolling out the red carpet, filling her coffee mug and talking all things Queen City Creamery and Scoop Shop!
Today Rhiannon is on the YDKJ!
We talk baseball, frozen custard, running a business, Tori Burch Foundation, and why she feels lucky to be apart of the downtown renaissance.
We also uncover the reason Matt has his own flavor and so much more..
For more information vist the links below
Queen City Scoop Shop
This week we talk all things baseball, from the passing of the greatest living baseball player Willie Mays, to who might take up that mantel moving forward. Our great trip to Baltimore for Father's Day, Fleet Week and a great day of baseball in the shade. We then talk debates, the bad, the worse, and the ugly.
Do it up tell your friends and remember you don't know Jack
We are back on the mics!
We know you missed us, so we talk NBA Playoffs, WNBA season kick-off, Olympics, and Baseball! We are hitting Camden Yards tomorrow for a game with the Phillies and The O's to end an epic series, and celebrate Father's Day!
This week we dive into the NFL Draft, The Dapper Dan with excellent keynote speakers Katilyn Fratz and Abby Beeman, and Matt will award Defensive Player of the year to Jaylon Atkinson, Lineman of the Year to Will Bannon and Player of the Year to Carter Hess.
Doing the right thing comes a little bit harder.. but Mike Johnson finally put a bill on the floor for support of aide to Ukraine, Israel and Tawain with a tiny little Tik Tok ban for good measure.
As a side, we talk about the current protests happening on some college campuses in the US, and how they differ from college protests of the past, and how moving the needle does not involve threats to a group of people in order to achieve a positve outcome.
This week we talk, NCAA Mens and Womens tournaments, The WNBA draft, The MLB (B)EAST and the Phillies making history.
We also remember the A true LaSalle Gentleman Tom Finan, a pillar of our community, always hungry to learn, and thoughtout his life, positivley shaped our community with a calm nuturing hand. We both were privleged enought to spend time with him, and send all our love to the family.
Our brackets are done, we are 100% confident in our decisions, and will be until the games start tomorrow.
Baseball's opening day was in South Korea at 3am and it has left us wondering if that was really an openng day game. Matt is heading to Camden Yards next week to help the o's kick off what is sure to be another epic season.
Hope your Bracket is not busted!
We lost an hour and gained an episode. this week we talk retirement after 13 seasons, Clark setting an all new scoring record, Duke kicking up on the court, the O's crushing in the grapefruit league, and a little textual drama on the F1 Track.
Tune in, leave a review and remember YOU DON'T KNOW JACK
We cover Superbowl prop bets, NCAA womens basketball, return of the 5th year player, storming the court, and F1 is BACK!
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Prop Bets, Caitlin Clark, and a little politics.. we hae somehting for everyone this week!
Leave us a review, and subscribe and remember You Don't know Jack!
In this weeks episode we talk new O's ownership, Ravens loss in the AFC championship, Superbowl Predictions, and Caitlin Clark's record breaking season.
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WE ARE BACK!
Kicking off 2024 with a great catch up episode in the great world of sports.
We talk Ravens vs. Chiefs Lions vs 49er's the coaching shake up in the NFL and College, Ty Johnson's great season, and college womens basketball.
We also give our opnions on what older coaches should do in retirement.
For more episodes subscibe, leave us a review and tell all of your friends, all epiosdes are avialable on every podcast platfrom and youtube!
We are kicking off the holiday season talking NFL playoff probabilty, who is in who is out, who might make a soild run in the post season. MLB: Dodgers spending another cool 325 million on another pitcher, the small tweaks to the rules, and the O's sign a 30 year lease on Camden Yards, well done Wes!! The NBA suspends Draymond Green indefinately to work on his anger managment issues.
Legally speaking.. big discussions about FL State trying to get out of the ACC after a great season and no bowl game apperance.
CO bans 45 from the ballot, Matt breaks down the possiblities and how that might effect the political landscape moving forward.
Remember the holiday season can be a tough time, take a walk, a deep breath, and talk to someone you love. If you are still struggling 988, You are loved and You are important.
The Hot Stove is on FIRE, with the Shohei Ohtani 700 million dollar contract, ending the weeks long speculation on where he would finally sign, and it looks like he won't even have to move, but with a contract like that he could really live anywhere.
O's News: The Angelos Family still has not gotten the deal done to develop property around the stadium, and in the meantime sparked rumors of a sale to David Rubenstien a Baltimore Native. We have asusrances from the Gov. of Maryland that a deal will be happeneing to keep the O's in Baltimore, and at Camden Yards.
College Football: We predicted correctly and FL State was elminated and Michigan pulled Alabama which have been known win a few national titles. Washington vs. Texas will be a great game and as always a good football match up is all anyone wants to start off 2024.
NFL: The Cheifs learned a hard lesson, check in the the ref to see if you are offsides before implenting a beutiful play that results in no points cause you failed to check in. This call has been made 11 times this season alone and will continue to be made. Patrick Mahomes and Coach Reid really took the level of professionalism down a notch to argure that the flag should not have been thrown, that being said.. the Bills had one hell of a good game and will be great going into the post season.
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See you next week!
We kick things off with the excitement of College Football, do a circut about F1, Falcco returns with the Browns, Our local pro Ty Johnson making big plays, Ft. Hill won their 8th state title in 10 years, Cuban clearning 3.5 Billion, and finally a little expuslion of our faviorite little liar.
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Our bellies are full, Jefferson's Estate was throughly enjoyed and we got to hang out in our favorite Sunday Best.
This week we talk the BIG Game, some crazy upsets, end of season standings, and bowl game match ups.
College Women's Hoops are starting to heat up with records broken for Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese mysterioulsy being benched for the last two games.
This is a firey episode, we talk Funner Hnderson winning AL Rookie of the year, Harbaugh with a legal fight to stand on the sidelines, NBA tournament is heating up and tempers are flaring all over the league, The Blackhawks are facing another sexaual assult charge, and Bernie Sanders breaks up a fight between Markwayne Mullin and Sean O'Brien.
Will we will be back for a Wednesday Night pre-turkey day episode... you will have to tune in and see.
Baseball has wrapped up with the Rangers winning the World Series, College Football is heating up and Michigan is leading the headlines with the NCAA investigating sign stealing. THE Ohio state is still #1 without the extra help.
NFL is shaking things up with the firing of the Raiders head coach and general manager, Kirk Cousins suffered an achillies tear, and a local WV native is getting some pro playng time.
NBA started their 2024 season with a dramatic trade of James Harden to the LA Clippers from 76ers. Lebron looks strong at 39 and still dominating and setting the tone on the court.
WNBA- Las Vegas Aces repeat their championship winning two years in a row.
In Memorium: Bobby Knight died at the age of 83, this baskeball great started his coaching carrer at the young age of 24 and won three national championships including an undefeated season in 1976. Bob Knight was not perfect, but none of us are, he is the product of his era and the last of this generation of coaching.
While we will miss the crack of the bats, it is only 101 days unitl pitchers and catchers report.
We cover a lot of ground in this weeks episode..
Matt's worst sports week in recent memory with the losses from Notre Dame, Maryland Terps, Ravens, and The O's being knocked out of the playoffs.
College Football is starting to heat up, with plenty of undefeated teams in the SEC and BIg 10
Coach Prime lays an egg with Stanford, Washington Beact Oregon at home, and Notre Dame dominated USC under the watcful eye of Joe Montana.
October Baseball is back! The Phillies, AZ D-Backs, Rangers and Astros are advanceing with the Phillies looking great, our predictions are an Astros Philies world series
WNBA Finals are still happening with the Las Vegas Aces leadng the series 2-0 with big wins over the NY Liberty. The Aces could take the series today at 3:00p
We end on a low note, with the US Gov't avoiding shutdown but our now withouth a speaker of the house. This marks the first time in US history that a speaker was removed, and the replacements are not exactly ideal. For comic relief Nancy Mace is running around capitol hill wearing a scarlet letter A for voting out McCarthy... clearly she did not read the book.
We talk O's are going to the playoffs, the loss of Brooks Robinson, Camden Yards is good for another 30 years, college football is off to the races and Maryland is 5-0.
If you want to take your chance on winning some great football tickets and supporting a great cause check out these links below:
Oklahoma State vs. WVU Cincinnati vs. WVU Football Game Steelers Ravens Game
We kick off this week mouring the loss of Mark Manges, whom we were lucky enough to have on the podcast in our first season, episode 45. Mark dedicated his life to the betterment of the youth sports in our area, and he leaves a very strong leagacy in Allegany County.
College Football: Maryland vs. a battered Michigan State, OSU vs. Notre Dame, Alabama vs. Ole Miss, Florida State vs. Clemnson, and the great Coach Prime takes on Oregon on the road.
MLB: Jose Acuña Jr. is an offical member of the 40/40 club but is rapidly appriacing the 70/40 club with an already 68 stolen bases. He would be the only baseball player in that club.
The playoffs are heating up and the O's have secured a spot along with Tampa Bay this is the most exciting time of year for sports and my goodness the AL bEAST is delivering.
What happens after the first week of football... Win's Losses and Injuries.
We talk about Aaron Rodgers, US Open, NFL, WNBA Playoffs, Them O's and Men Behaving Badly.
Be sure you subscibe, rate and review!
HELLO SEASON 4!
We are back and happy to be on the mics, catching you up on everything important in the sports world. We talk Womens World Cup, the College Conference RE-alignment, NFL, US Open, and HOW BOUT THEM O's HON, #1 in the AL East and not looking to slow down anytime soon.
Be sure to like and subscribe, leave us a review and follow us on Twitter @JYDK
We took some time off for a little bit of traveling, but have not fear we are back, this week we talk, Women's World Cup, Wimbledon, Baseball at the All Star Break, Huggins, and the mess that is Northwestern's Football and Baseball Teams.
Remember to like and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
We talk NBA , Stanley Cup playoffs, NCAA Softball world series, AL bEAST still dominating the top 11 teams in the league, and how the Commanders might be stipped of their name due to a trademark issue.
We cover all the bases this week!
Happy Pride 🏳️🌈
We are back after a little bit of a break, and we cover a lot of ground.
NBA Playoffs
WNBA kick off & headlines
Preakness with a cold black eyed susan
We remember Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns
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Reach out @JackYDK.
We kick off this episode covering a lot of ground...
The O's lost their MASEN case but are looking great at a team with big wins early in the season, The Ravens secured their QB for another 5 seasons with the highest salary in NFL history, Mookie Betts takes to Shortstop like a fish to water, Beck Hammon has a head coach interview with the Toronto Raptors, Dan Prete has left has the BW boys basketball coach leaving the future of the program in uncertain times, and the community mourns the loss of Speaker Casper "Cas" Taylor.
We cover a lot of groud this week.. .
LSU and UCONN NCAA Championship Games
The WNBA Draft
NBA Playoffs
Opening Day, Tampa Bay's 13-2 Run, The O's making good cocahing decisions, Pitch Clock Violations, Stolen Bases and the AL East rankings
Dan Snyder has agreed to the sale of the Washington Football Team to the Harris Group for a cool 6 Billion. Let's hope this is the fastest approval in NFL history.
The Dapper Dan Dinner is this evening recognizing local student athletes and their achievements. Our own Matt Gilmore is presenting 4 awards this year. Always a wonderful event!
Next Week Greenway Ave Stadium is hosting a mini marathon on Saturday April 22nd starting at 9am. You can pre-register online or at the stadium. Students $10 Adults $20!
We have speical guest Nathan Price, avid sports fan, economic development offical and all around great guy on the 21st episode of Season 3.
We talk Caitlin Clark, NCAA March Madness, Opening Day, the potiental sale of the the WFT, and highlight some of the great things happening in Allegany County.
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Madness in Baskeball and Banking, we break down our brackets and this SVB banking blip.
We talk the highs and lows of Mens and Womens Baskeball.
How are your picks holding up? Bracket as busted as Lydia's or are you holding steady like Matt?
The tournament season has officailly kicked off, and we are doing all of our research before the brackets are picked for next week. We talk local sports, NCAA, Lamar Jackson, and the Jack Gilmore memorial Linemen of the year award recipients.
March is here and we are officailly talking all things ACIT, NCAA basketball, NBA finals, and last but not least BASEBALL! The crack of the bat is back and so are some new rules.
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We discuss Estonian Ambassadors in Cumberland, Ukraine one year after the start of the war, preview of the women's world cup, the college basketball heat up, WNBA Start Brittney Griner is back where she belongs, and we will be doing a nice little NBA episode next episode.
We talk Superbowl, College Basketball NCAA heating up, Pitchers and Catchers Reporting, and the importance of taking care of your health mental and physical.
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We are back on the mics on a beautiful Saturday Afternoon talking all things superbowl, predicitions, prop bets, and parites.
We also talk about NBA History being made with LeBron setting a new record, and the legacy of what it means to break long standing records.
Wes Moore comes to Lonaconing and what that means for it's local residents.
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We hit the mics again for another awesome Saturday episode, we talk Superbowl, Tom Brady, MD mens and womens basketball, and should Cumberland allow chickens.
We hit all the high water marks, be sure to like, subscribe, and tell your friends!
Finally, after a two year wait, we were able to get Robert on the mics!
This episode is full of great insight, for how Dig Deep came to be, how it is continuing to grow and what Rober invisions for the future of the business.
For more information :
Guest's Information:
Dig Deep Brewing Company
The Deep End Frostburg
If you like this episode please visit our website to view and listen to all of our previous episodes.
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We talk NFL Playoffs our predictions, Austrailain Open, Top Secret Document where's waldo, and the burtal killing of another unarmed black person by the hands of black officers.
We talk Wes Moore inaguration and what that means for Maryland, the Biden's documents, NFL Playoffs, The Austrailian Open, and the death of David Crosby.
Dive in and listen to the best Sports/Political/Maryland (really whatever we want) Podcast!
We are living through histroy again, (it is becoming exhausting) It was 9 now it is 10 times a NO for McCarthy, at this rate we will not have an acitve congress until spring.
Monday Night Football took a very humanistc turn, with the sudden cardiac arrest of 24 year old player Damar Hamlin. He is awake and writing, he asked "who won the game?" the Doctors responded "you did" In a turn of events.. we both were right about the college bowl games, with a win a piece.
TCU George is sure to be a good game that Matt will never see the end of.
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This week we talk, retirement, history making triple double, a two time female athelete of the year, college football bowl games, and the loss of the global face of soccer.
Wishing you and yours a very happy new year!
We have speical guest Adam Sterne on this weeks episode!
We cover World Cup, Allegany Girls Soccer, the importance of Dapper Dan in our community, and finally the loss of two men to early in life, Grant Whal, and Mike Leech.
This is a great epsiode and we are thankful Adam joined us on today's show!
For more information on Dapper Dan and where to purchase tickets follow this link
We are kicking of Episode 8 in style
We talk Brittnay Griner release, Democracy in action, Bob Kirk tournament, the High school Football state championship game, and the Hot Stove that is Baseball!!
We survived Thanksgiving, and we made it to December in this weeks episode...
We talk world cup, the Terps 7 game winning streak, Jerry Jones rocky past caught in black and white, and a Kraft kindess for the UVA football team.
Please like and subscibe to the podcast, tell all of your friends and we will see you next week.
We are back with a Sunday edition, we cover Mid term Elections, The World Series, the NFL and NBA some good some bad and some just plain ugly.
Also we are both still on Twitter, for now.. but we will see how it goes.
We Talk Baseball, little law, and the birth of the podcasting boom.
Be sure to tune in to the fantastic baseball on deck for today and most of all subscribe to the the show and tell all of your friends.
Want to hear a little more from Lydia? Check out her podcast Here
We cover NFL concussion protocol, JJ Watt's shocking admission, NWSL abuse report findings, and finally Baseball! We will get the best baseball of the year starting Friday and boy are we excited!
CTE Frontline
Get in touch and tell all of your friends talk it up! @rtlpod @JMGGMPG @JackYDK
Our second episode does not pull any punches and with a week off between episodes we cover a lot of ground.
Federer retires, Farve commits crimes, the Ravens defense fails, the Aces win, Roger Sarver Sells, Celtics are in head coach trouble, the MLB is amazing, and after 70 years a 96 year old Queen died, leaving quite the stats in her wake.
Be sure to like, subscribe, tell your friends, rate and reveiw!
@JackYDK
We are back for a new Season, and we are kicking it off with two powerhouses in their sport. Serena Williams and Sue Bird! They are both transitioning away from their carreres and on to bigger and brighter futures. They have left their sport better than when they started and for that we are all grateful.
The Best of Baseball Season has started and there is not a better time to be tuning in.
NFL: Eh.. it's a living, the season starts this week and we have some predicitions and guesses on who might make it all the way to the superbowl.
Remember to subscribe, rate, and review and tell your friends.
Sue Bird WaPo Article
Get in touch: @JackYDK
We are kicking off the last episode of season 2 with the annoucnement of Serena Williams evloving away from tennis after the US Open.
Brittney Griner's verdict and what her future looks like in a penal colony or with a prisioner exchange.
Baseball is starting to heat up and boy are we excited for the next 50 games.
The NFL needs to get their house in order and finally the loss of Bill Russell and Dame Olivia Newton John.
Thank you for listening! We will see you for Season 3
What happens when you break your neck not once, not twice, but three times....You write a book. Paul Casazza joins us on today and spoiler alert the word inspirational is used alot.
His journal style book, allows everyone an inside view of how Paul was able to heal, and overcome fear to get back on the skis, three times.
Paul plans to keep skiing as long as possible and will be heading west again for the best powder.
BUY THE BOOK!!
The hits keep coming, this week we talk about the reversal of Roe v. Wade, what that means for women in the country trying to access healthcare. The fundemential right to privacy, the roll back to other landmark cases as indicated by Thomas' opnion.
As mentioned in the podcast if you are looking for organizations to support womens healthcare access here is the list:
Riot GRRRL+ Spotify playlist
♀✊
It is offically Summer on Podcast Hill. We are back filling in all of the highlights from the past few weeks celebrating the victories and remembering those who we have lost.
We are happy to be back on the microphones and have dialed in a crisp episode for you to enjoy.
Remember to rate, like, subscribe!
That is what we call job security, we talk Tom Brady's Fox Sports Deal, the Kentucky Derby, the NBA playoffs, WNBA expansion, and F1 coming to Miami!
With the leak of the supreme court draft poteinally overturning Roe V. Wade we take the time to discest legally what it will mean for the women of a country already divided. We discuss Trevor Bauer suspension, how bad the Yankee fans truly are, and finally the wonderful thing that is the Dapper Dan Awards!
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We talk baseball, Wimblendon, Women's Hockey Salary increase to double salary caps and Greenway Ave, shines on Saturday for its walk/run!
@jackYDK
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25 episodes in and we are still knocking it out of the park, one week of baseball and we are so glad our old friend is back. The NBA playoffs are kicking into high gear, the WNBA drafted some excellent players and address the Brittney Griner detainment, and the untilmely death of 24 year old Dwayne Haskins.
Tweet us.. @jackYDK
We have our peanuts, cracker jacks or jills, and all is right with the world. We make our best predcitions for the upcoming season, so listen to see if you think we are on the right track or toatally off base.
Tweet us: @JMGGMPG @RTLPOD @JackYDK
This week we are all about watching great basketball, and counting down the days until baseball starts.
We also discuss the supreme court, with nominee Brown-Jackson hearings and Justice Thomas stirring some controversy.
We honor the memory of the late Sec. of State Albright, and musician Taylor Hawkins.
This week we compare brackets, baseball is back, and so is Tom Brady.
The hotstove is heating up, Freeman moving to LA and the Twins gained a platimum glove player.
The NFL has a sexual assult problem, and Dan Snyder is still the worst.
Do your best on boycottdan.com
March is in like a lion, and cover a lot of basketball. Mens, Womens, High School, ACIT's you name it we got you covered. Baseball still is locked out but there might be hope on the hoirzon. The NFL is shaking up QB's and a little advice, never bet on your own professional sport.
Our thoughts always turn to Urkraine and the amazing people of Europe who are welcoming the refugees with open arms, warm meals, and a little hope.
We are yet agian living through another once in a lifetime historic event, at this rate we have nine lives. We discuss the war between Russia and Ukraine how the world has repsonded and how the world of sports is reacting. Subscibe to this podcast and Tell your Friends.
Punches were thrown, people were suspended, Derby Wins stripped, The 2022 winter olympics were a bust, and the MLB locked out is at a stalemate.
Jessie Diggins wins silver the first woman in xc skiing to win a medal at the olympics in the 50K, Brian Flores is back coaching in the NFL for the Steelers, and the United States Womens Soccer Team was given 24million dollars in a settlement and won EQUAL Pay for international matches.
Subscribe to the podcast and send us a tweet. @JackYDK
We are back for episode 18, with a review of our Super Bowl highlighs and also check in on our prop bets. We reveiw some winter olympic controversies, wins, and losses. Lydia is still watching curling...
This a fun crisp episode and stay tuned as we pivot towards college basketball in the upcoming weeks!
Baseball get it together..
The most American thing we all do in Feb. is gather (if safe) eat too much food, drink too much beer, and enjoy hopefully a good football game. We make our best preditions and have some fun with prop bets. Tune in next week to see if we were right. Winter Olympics, the good, the dissappointing we cover all the events that have happened in the last week.
76er's gain Harden hopefully this will be a good fit for him, and Philly can make it's way into a long playoff run.
Finally we end the show with the passing of Jeremy Giambi who was part of the Moneyball team Oakland A's he played from 1998-2003.
If you our someone you love might need help do not hesitate to reach out, mental health is part of your overall health.
1-800-273-8255
Help is available 24hours a day:
If you think you are busy.. that is nothing compared to our guest Garrett Eagan. We were lucky enough to get an hour of his time to talk local sports, his predictions for this weeks NFL playoff games, and what he recommends on the Sheetz's menu.
Follow us on Twitter
Garrett: @Geaganpxp
Matt @jmggmpg
Lydia @RTLPod
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We keep this week crisp with an update from down under, our predictions for NFL playoff games, and what our honest opinions on the Camden Yards expansion and the BIG 12 restructure.
Stay Safe out there.
Leave us a review, subscribe and tweet the show!
We have hit episode 13 of Season 2, we raise a glass to our namesake the great Jack Gilmore! The Georgia Bulldogs are national champions, Novak Djokovic might get deported, and the Yankees hired a woman to manage their A Minor league team in Tampa. Matt explains what is like to be detained in the Cayman Islands and Lydia is happy the temps are above 40.
Happy New Year, we took two weeks off to enjoy family time for the holiday. We cover a lot in this weeks episode, from the increase in Covid-19 cases, one year since the insurrection. The Washington Football Team announcing their new name, College Bowl Games, Antonio Brown, MLB still on lockout, and a NBA assistant coach moving on to head up the Las Vegas Aces.
We mark the passing of two greats John Madden and Betty White both titans of their industry and leaving an incredible legacy.
Malcom Gladwell CTE discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWaPXzTDEDw
Follow us on Twitter: @jackYDK and leave us a review
This week we cover Curry crushing Ray Allen's previous 3pt record at MSG yesterday and how his playing has changed the way the game is played.
UMD- Pulled off a win with their new interim coach, FSU's head coach is heading to Southern Utah, and Nike bestows it's first UCLA soccer forward phenom Reilyn Turner.
We switch gears to discuss a little F1 with SIR Lewis Hamilton.
Remember to like and share the show, and tweet us @JYDK @RTLPOD and @JMPGMPG
The Meatloafhttps://www.avantgardevegan.com/recipes/bbq-vegan-meatloaf/
What don't we cover in this week's episode?
Matt and Lydia love a good musical interlude and that is exactly what you are getting at the top of the show. We discuss Get Back on Disney+ and also a great series on Hulu featuring Sir Paul McCartney and Rick Rubin.
Congratulations to Ft. Hill High School for winning the State Championship over Mt. Ridge.
College Payoffs are exactly what we thought they would be and all we can say is WAY TO GO CINCI!
What makes a Heisman winner and who we predict will win it.
National Women's Soccer League is expanding and there will be a team in your neck of the woods. So go out support and go see a game or two during their spring summer season!
Go Follow Dig Deep Brewing Co. on Twitter @DigDeepBrewing
We cover a lot of ground in this weeks episode, we talk about the big college coaching shuffle, with Notre Dame and Maryland Basketball.
The baseball lockout and how that might look for the upcoming season and the player's sticking points with the MLB/owners.
Ft. Hill and Mt. Ridge are heading to the state playoffs and are playing today 12/4 at 3:30pm. Go TEAM!
We end the episode discussing the tragedy in Michigan which resulted in the deaths of four students. The 15 year old shooter and his parents are being held accountable.
After a brief hiatus, we are back we discuss college playoffs, MLB Hall of Fame nominations, and MLB Comeback Players of the year.
Matt and Lydia will be celebrating Thanksgiving with family, and making our signature dishes.
We are thankful for you, and wish you and yours a very happy healthy Thanksgiving!
Matt survived his first driving lesson, The Homecoming game was played with a 42-7 win for Fort Hill, Halloween fun was had by all, and the Braves won the World Series the first time in 26 years.
In the past week our small community has experienced two tragedy in as many weeks. While the homecoming football game was played, it was with a heaviness in the air and a sense of honor that made celebrations much more subdued this year.
The NHL... well what can you say but get it together, and handle your business.
Remember Fall Back, Get Your Booster, and if you are feeling down, you are loved ask for help.
Podcast Hill is firmly still in the glorious state of Maryland, our state reps successfully became successful secessionists. Matt stays awake for a while nine innings and we discusses the upcoming homecoming game with Matt's predictions for a win.
This is homecoming week here in Western Maryland, and the rival game that has been going on for nearly a century between Allegany and Fort Hill High Schools. This will mark the return of the game after being cancelled last year due to COVID-19.
It is with a heavy heart that YDKJ is reporting breaking news of a stabbing death of a 17 year old football player from Fort Hill. This player was attacked outside of school and a suspect has been since detained. We send our sincerest condolences to the family, students, faculty, and staff.
Fall is officially starting to creep in on Podcast Hill. Baseball playoff season is in high gear, the WNBA season just ended, and the NFL is off to a great start. What a great time to be a sports fan.
We pay tribute to Colin Powell, a man who served under 4 presidents, married for 58 years and who died at 84 earlier this week.
We also touch on name image and likeness and what that will look like for college athletes this year.
Follow us @JackYDK to stay up to date and send us your questions and comments!
We keep this episode crisp and clean.
Matt goes on a long strange trip, the Boston Red Sox advance to play the Astros, the Ravens WON, the Raiders lost their head coach and The NY Nets still have to pay Kyrie Irving 19million dollars for not playing.
This week has been crazy, the Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves advance. Both teams are firing on all cylinders hopefully it continues, who knows another upset might just happen.
The Ravens won, field goals were missed, touchdowns and 2 point conversions were made and a new home game tradition was born.
Jon Gruden lost his head coaching position after the WFT investigation uncovered emails that contained all racist, homophobic, transphobic, and sexist comments. This investigation is the gift that keeps on giving for the NFL and many are calling on them to release all documents for transparency.
Who believes the earth if flat and not being vaccinated... Kyrie Irving. The NY Nets are not allowing him to participate in any team activities until he is fully vaccinated.
PSA -> GET THE VACCINE !!!
The world is alright ,because Playoff Baseball is back even though Matt can't stay awake past the 5th inning.
We talk of course MLB playoff season, The Ravens, a little Urban Meyer and Sage Steele to round things off.
What a week, HOLY TUCK, MLB playoff season is heating up with the Cardinals on the hottest winning streak and able to clench the wild card, it is changing by the hour so we will have a better view of upcoming games next week.
The Terps take on #5 Iowa and both teams are 4-0 it will be an exciting night in College Park, we are keeping our fingers crossed that Matt can stay awake long enough to enjoy it.
We take a deep dive into equity with women's sports, offer some perspectives and just basics facts to help keep people informed of what the salary gap looks like for women in professional sports in 2021.
The WNBA has been in existence for 25 years and the needle is barely moved in that time. So what can we do to help move closer and closer to equal. We have our ideas of what we think might help, What would you do ?
Send is a message and let us know!
Ed DeWitt joins us on this weeks episode to discuss, the NFL Baseball, some fantasy football. and the great dynamic duo the Manning brothers.
The weather has changed and we know that championship baseball is right around the corner, we make or predictions on who we think will be in the World Series this year.
The Ravens finally beat the Cheifs, the WFT are still doing the best with their injured leader and we try to predict what might happen for the Super Bowl.
We are back after a little time off to enjoy summer vacation and boy are we glad to be on the mics once again. We are changing things up in Season 2 and we hope you will enjoy the new format.
Subscribe and leave us a review!
We want to extend the warmest and happiest birthday wishes to the one and only Mike Burke, congratulations on your 62 trips around the sun!
Mike's best friend and long time listener Rick Hawse is on episode 49. Rich is back in town visiting his old haunts and answered the call for MD crab cakes. We are forever grateful they were delicious!
Greg Hare is our one and only 49 for YDKJ what a guy, and we were lucky to have him on a previous episode.
This episode features some of the best nicknames in the game wearing #48 Fat Jack Fisher, a Frostburg native and right handed pitcher for the O's.
We discuss a potential future olympian and current Sea Otter we wish him the best of luck in his last race in Omaha this Saturday.
The French open where you can come from behind to win Novak Djokovic has won his second major title and is on the grand slam track heading into Wimbledon.
It looks like Mike, Matt, and Lydia will not be cracking crabs, outside anytime soon. The crab prices in MD are through the roof and do not show any signs of coming down. When you can support you local fisherman/woman and buy direct.
We are almost one year into this grand adventure and we are still have fun every week. Thank you for tuning in!
This episode has been long anticipated and it does not disappoint. Detroits own Micheal Reghi joins us. His voice may be very familiar to O's fans across the nation and current Cleveland fans today.
Matt and Mike ask the questions we all have of this great broadcaster, and we find out the origin of Track, Wall, See You Later!
We were honored to have Mr. Reghi on YDKJ and hope to have him back soon!
Episode 46 is the Mike Flanagan episode! This New Englander had the gift of a dry sense of humor, a great arm, and was just an all around great guy.
Maryland Lacrosse is making waves, they beat Duke, to then take on UVA, and lost by one. We also discuss our jousting techniques, so stay tuned for our tips and tricks for this official Maryland sport.
The Maryland baseball team is a third seed in the NCAA championships, they will take on Charlotte on Friday June 4th.
The Belmont is this weekend, and we are pulling for Hot Rod Charlie, just based on the name alone we think he is a winner. Francis did not sanction this pick
We then pay tribute to one of the all time greatest football players from our area who sadly passed away last week at the age of 83. Rod Breedlove.
It is rare when you are able to have the athlete you are honoring in the room, but this week we did! Mark Manges a star athlete and all around great guy joins us for #45 The Mark Manges Episode!
He regals us with some fantastic stories and insights as well as the hard work he is doing to help maintain and improve The Greenway Ave. Stadium
This episode is not to be missed!
This week is the Steve Trimble episode this local #44 is a legend and a true success story, and what a legacy he has left.
We discuss a local olympic hopeful in Daniel Diehl and his quest to qualify for the olympics at 15 he has already smashed a Phleps record. He takes to the pool May 22, 2021 in Omaha!
MLB: Has had 6 (we count them all) no hitters so far this season, the highest in a year was 8 in 1884. We love the idea of a no hitter, but the rarity is what makes it special, it is becoming common place. Of course we all had an option to discuss.
NBA: started their playoff and the WNBA is celebrating 25 years
Preakness has a new winner in Rombauer, and Baffert has been banned from NY racing. (good riddance)
Get Vaccinated, Wash your Hands and Be Safe.
The winner for Episode 43 is Larry Brown! There are not a lot of 43's to choose from, but as a running back for the Washington Football Team from 69-76 he certainly deserves the honor!
Frances Mouse is back to talk about the Preakness, and the drama that comes along with a horse named Medina Spirit and his trainer in Bob Baffert. Francis gives us some advice on betting, and also why this controversy with Baffert gives him pause on betting the Preakness.
John Means pitched a not hitter against Seattle and at 28 years old is an excellent addition to the O's bullpen as they strive to keep winning on the road.
Episode 42 the Walt William "The Wizard" episode is coming in hot.
We discuss how we failed to pick the winning pony for the 147th Kentucky Derby, but how we live to bet another day for the Preakness.
The highs and lows of the NFL draft and how the Ravens always pick well for the team they need to win ball games.
Minor League Started tonight and again how grateful we are to have baseball back.
Coming down the stretch with number 41 The Tom Maddy episode!!
Francis Mouse joins us in studio to help us novices bet on the ponies. We learn about the odds, of a triple crown winner, how many races are actually run during the day and how you too can go for the trifecta.
Place you bets HERE
We hope you win!!
Episode 40 the Bobby Boyd episode, this great cornerback for the Colts retired early and was a part to the big seven.
We discuss the guilty verdicts in the Derek Chauvin case and the and know that the the work is just starting for justice reform.
We talk about our favorite American pastime and try to explain the kerfuffle with a super soccer league.
We have been bringing the entertainment for the past 40 weeks we hope you will stick around for many more!
This week is #39 the Eddie Watt episode, the great relief pitcher for the O's with Randy "the moose" Milligan as a strong runner up.
They both did not need the mound moved back, or abbreviated double header games and a runner starting on second base. We discuss the proposed changes to our perfect game and why we don't think they belong.
University of MD extends Mark Turgeon's contract until 2026 and hopefully builds a great national title contending teams.
Online Sports Betting will go live in the Free State before October and will complete the cycle of what was once illegal, if profitable will become legal and taxed.
Happy Spring and Thank Goodness Baseball is back!
(Please Note, this episode has some audio issues... we are working on resolving them, the content is amazing!)
Ron Cassie joins us for #38 The John Lowenstein episode.
Ron Cassie is a senior editor for Baltimore, where he’s has worked since 2012, covering the environment, education, medicine, politics, and city life. He is here discussing his latest article, The Birds are Back in Town
We discuss towards the end of the episode, the NCAA Mens and Women's 2020 season winners and everyone is looking forward to the O's opening day!
Russell Shorto a NY times best selling author based in Cumberland, Maryland joins us to discuss his latest book Small-Time A Story of My Family and the Mob.
We can not recommend this book enough, and we were sad when the book came to a close. You will find it hard to put down once you start. We encourage you to get your hands on a copy to support your local author and bookstore.
Episode 37 is dedicated to two of the best sports nicknames going. John "T-Bone" Shelby and "Prime Time" Deon Sanders.
Happy Opening Day!!
Tom Phoebus is our #36 this Baltimore native played for the O's and as Mike will point out in this weeks show with much delight, he pitched a no hitter against The Red Soxs.
Joe Carter the calls into the show to discuss the second year without the ACITs, how they arrived at the decision to cancel the 60th tournament and how they are looking forward to a modified but fun 2022 Tournament.
Keeping in theme with basketball, we all discuss our bracket picks, and surprise... it is all one big guessing game but with Illinois and Gonzaga leading the pack for sure things.
Matt discussed the disturbing fact that in 44 state in the union laws are being introduced that are actively trying to suppress the vote of people of color.
Call your senators and congress people to help stop this blatant voter discrimination.
We do not know why we are so lucky, but we won't start asking questions now. The great Johnny Holliday is joining us for this week's episode. #35 the Lonny Baxter episode. As you can imagine we talk all things Terps, including what their chances moving into tournament season and how Football will look in the fall.
Ray swings by on the one year anniversary of COVID-19 shutdown and is happy that the American Relief and Recovery act finally passed both houses; and is on Biden's desk for a signature. This bill will directly give funds to municipalities like Cumberland, to help start the process of recovery. Allegany County Vaccine Roll out is slow but is still reaching the goal of "Getting Shots in Arms" and hopefully helping us see a little light at the end of a very long tunnel.
This is the Len Bias episode, Mike's first and best assignment outlined in his beautifully written column . We have a retuning guest with Mayor Ray Morriss, Lydia finds out how expensive a beer at Memorial stadium was in the 1970's.
Super Tuesday was off to an excellent start with the WVU Balyor game that went into to OT. Illinois dominated Michigan and predictions were made for the 1's and 2's for the NCAA bracket.
We remember Mr. Baseball Joe Altobelli the manager that lead the O's to it's 1983 World Series Win.
Spring Training is off to a great start, and we are all hopeful for a long healthy baseball season.
We are having a little spring like weather and that just makes us want to head to the ballpark to hear the crack of the bat.
Episode 33 the Eddie Murray episode, the best switch-hitter in the game, Steady Eddie 504 home runs and a Baltimore Favorite.
Trey Mancini is back after taking 2020 off to win the fight against stage three colon cancer. He will be the primary first baseman in the start of spring training 2021.
We talk Tiger Woods, his car accident and subsequent injuries and how important he was in bringing golf to broader audience.
We want to just remind our listeners, if you are not feeling your best, schedule a check-up. If you do not have health insurance, the health exchange is open.. Sign up if you can!
This week we talk great Maryland #32's Steve Stone, Joe Smith and the ultimate Mike Curtis.
Another impending snow storm that will no doubt blanket Podcast Hill and surrounding areas with Matt lovingly refers to a white shroud of death. Mike has taken precautions and stocked up and has his provisions at the ready. We can all agree we are in better shape than Texas, but wish them warmth in the coming days.
Baltimore Sun gets a possible lifeline with a potential purchase by a non-profit. Maryland Basketball is looking good(especially on defense) and hopefully will beat Nebraska again after playing them back to back nights. We make some very broad predictions about he Big 10 tournament and March Madness. The point, watch more college hoops the games are great and are filling the void until we can all watch Baseball in a few weeks.
The Australian open is happening now, with great match ups and Serena going after her 24 win! So stay up late, sleep in tomorrow and enjoy a snow day if you have one.
Podcast Hill was well salted for the arrival of Mayor Ray Morriss, to join us for episode 31 the pitching coach edition!
Ray worked for the O's in the PR department with the great Bob Brown, doing all of the important work of delivering cakes, organizing bat days, and simply having the best job as a high school student.
The Mayor talks about the upcoming downtown revitalization and the River Front Project that will benefit the Queen City far into the future. We have a feeling that Ray will be cutting a lot of ribbons in the near future.
We talk the underwhelming Super Bowl, game and half time show. The only thing that was exciting about that game was the Tampa Bay defense.
College Basketball is in full swing, and the typical top teams are out of the ranking for the first time since 1964. We finally get to appreciate all the teams who having been playing and developing a great team dynamic. We are looking forward to a great March Madness season.
It is the Greg Olsen "The Otter" and Dennis Martinez "El Presidenté" Episode #30!
We have a lot of fun in store for this episode, Cumberland's own Francis Mouse joins us to discuss his life changing interaction with Henry Aron and all of the fun that comes with playing the best game in the world baseball.
What do you do with a Sunday without football?? You watch The Godfather, The Godfather II and Shaw Shank Redemption, and From here to Eternity. We throw you a slight curveball but we think our insights are worth a listen.
The NFL the TV show airs its last show of the season on Sunday during the Super Bowl. We pick our winner and look forward to some exceptional ads and Mike will finally hear what The Weeknd sounds like.
We end this weeks episode with a remembrance of Dr. Sean McCagh, he passed away this week due to complications of COVID-19. He was a giant in our community selflessly raising over 1.5 million dollars for special olympics and other programs for developmentally disabled persons in the region. The family is requesting that everyone wear a mask, keep distance, wash your hands, and get a vaccine.
Make a financial donation to The Hooley Plunge
This week we are again lucky enough to speak to Leo Mazzone, as we lost another great in the ranks of baseball history. Talent finds talent and that certainly is the case when Hank found Leo in 1979. He reminisces and always tells a great story.
We then keep with the baseball theme and discuss the broadcast both shake up in Baltimore and DC.
And then.. we gear up for next weeks episode NFL TV SHOW Super Bowl addition.
We are honoring the great Jimmy Orr for to mark episode 28!
We celebrate that the USA is finally under new management, and President Biden's and Vice President Harris' inauguration went off without a hitch, we were privileged to hear the beautiful words of Amanda Gorman, President Biden's speech for unity, truth, and healing. Matt of course was thrilled with event and even felt a cosmic connection with Lady Gaga.
We make predictions for NFL the TV show, Bills or Chiefs, Greenbay, or Tampa Decisions Decisions.
In memorium we honor the great Don Sutton who passed away this week at the age of 75.
Congratulations to the New National Champs, Alabama. No matter how much Lydia and Greg Hare wanted the National Championship to return to Columbus, Alabama is a powerhouse and Matt and Mike were right and the ultimately OSU was rolled..
Dr. Jim Zamagias is back as YDKJ's very own political expert, we ask what happens now, being back to school and how BW boys basketball is fairing in the Nike elite basketball tournament.
We review the great weekend of football games from last week and make our new predictions on who we think will continue the storyline in the NFL the TV show.
If you like what you hear, leave us a review.
Well, yesterday was quite a whirlwind, what started out as a normal podcast day, ended up being one of the worst and shameful days in American history. As always, we express our opinions and thoughts on the matter and we even managed to discuss in a little football.
Mike and Lydia were able to speak with Greg Hare, former OSU and Fort Hill QB. It was great to talk to someone who has had the experience of a national title games under his belt to offer his perspective and his prediction on who might win this years national tile game.
NFL always a delight as we head into playoff wild card season, we have a lot of games to watch this weekend. We all make our predictions
Happy New Year!
We are celebrating the end of a crazy year with you guessed it... another great episode! We are all live on Podcast Hill and happy to be back on the mics.
We kick things off with WFT and all of the craziness that Haskins, and Dan Snyder can dust up in a week.
Ravens and Steelers head into their weekly match ups.
The MLB hot stove is heating up and the Padres taking advantage.
Maryland Terps win Big against Wisconsin and Mike sends his heartfelt congratulations to the man who started his writing career Dave Ginsburg.
Finally we pay tribute to Phil Niekro a master of the knuckleball, and a long career in the MLB.
We want to wish everyone a very Happy Healthy New Year and much joy in 2021..
Thank you for listening we see you next year!
The mics were hot yet again for episode 24! We are keeping our social distance during the holiday season and hope you are too!
We touch on the BIG10 and their hypocrisy, and quickly move on to all of the headline making (for all the wrong reasons) Washington Football Team.
The Steelers need more than a pregame dance to get them to the playoffs, and for the first time ever the Ravens fans might be routing for them to win.
NBA kicked off their 72 game 20-21 season.
And Finally we talk Ledo's Pizza in College Park, end of an era and my goodness it was delicious.
We wish everyone a very happy safe holiday season, and remember
WEAR YOUR MASK!
It was a snowy day here in the Queen City, podcast hill a formidable force of nature forced Matt and Mike to do our first remote episode. Much like the post office we are determined that nothing can keep us from delivering you a fresh episode each week.
As promised, MLB was top of our list this week, even while we watched it snow outside, we are dreaming of green baseball fields the rapidly approaching date when pitchers and catchers report.. The reduction of minor league teams from 140-120 has two of our area minor league parks out of the running... we are all saddened by this news and are hopeful that something can be done. The MLB made history finally recognizing the Negro League players as professional players and part of the MLB. Stats will be changed, and finally players will be given the long over due recognition for their great accomplishments.
NFL: The Washington Football team and the Baltimore Ravens played excellent games this past week, and for the first time in a while all three of our "local" teams are in contention to be in the playoffs.
Maryland Football- Had a banner day and have signed some excellent players for the 2021 season making the loss to Rutgers a little easier to take.
Matt celebrated a birthday on Monday, Mike does his best Marylin Monroe and we talk about how Jimmy's Famous Seafood helped Matt celebrate his birthday in style, even in a pandemic!!
If you like what you hear.. leave us a review on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts... etc.
Follow us on Twitter @JackYDK
Like us on Facebook
Send us an email and YDKJack@gmail.com
This week we jam the airwaves discussing football.
We kick off the show with Cumberland's finest Ty Johnson and his amazing week with 104 yards and TD against the Raiders.
The Washington Football Club beating the 11-0 Steelers and finally we talk Big 10 and try to pin down there ever changing rules during 2020.
We know this year has been tough and we want to let you know that you are not alone, especially during this holiday season. Please if you need help reach out, talk to someone or even check in with your friends and family.
If you need help there are resources available to you, and if you are in need of support any time call 800-275-8255
We were privileged enough to speak with Dr. Ray Kiddy, about the late Tim Rowan. Dr. Kiddy is responsible for the Bishop Walsh dynasty that is Rowan soccer. Tim's love for our community and especially the students at Bishop Walsh. He leaves behind a beautiful legacy and has positively influenced thousands of lives.
Donations in Tim Rowan's honor can be made HERE
Mike Burke has a wonderful new article about Len Bias READ IT
The women's soccer team settled for equal work place conditions, they are still striving for equal pay but has Matt pointed out that progress is incremental...
We continue or normal broadcast with discussing the dumpster fire that is the NFL and their lack of planning.
In the summer of 1981, I met a shy, gangly youngster with Bambi eyes who loved to draw and, had he not died on June 19, 1986, would have been the greatest basketball player of all time.
To this day, the world knows that young man to have been Len Bias, but to those of us who were there even before the legend began to take life, he will forever be remembered as Leonard Bias. And now, over 30 years after it should have occurred in the first place, it has been announced that Hyattsville, Md.’s Leonard Bias will be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
It can be said that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player who ever lived, and the most telling words of that statement are “who ever lived.”
Leonard Bias, 6-feet, 8-inches of muscle, touch, creativity and furious flying splendor, was well on his way to equaling, then surpassing, his former rival from North Carolina when he died of cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose two days after being drafted by the Boston Celtics. If you could have caught Red Auerbach just before he went to the Great Beyond, he would have assured you of that. Better yet, ask any Tar Heels fan how No. 1 in the nation North Carolina’s first loss in the then shiny new Dean Smith Center came about over 34 (Bias’ number) years ago.
Or, just go to YouTube, where the Bias legend continues to grow with each click.
Leonard Bias never wanted to be The Chosen One. He never wanted to be known as King Bias. His friends knew him as Frosty.
When I met him he was entering his senior year at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, and as far as I knew, outside of his family and friends, the only people in the world who knew about him were my sports editor at the Prince George's Sentinel, Dave Ginsburg, Northwestern basketball coach Bob Wagner, and the head basketball coach at the University of Maryland, Mr. Charles G. “Lefty” Driesell.
Because of those three men, I met Leonard Bias and everything changed forever. I saw things I never dreamed were possible, and I saw things that summer of 1981 that I've never seen since. On the basketball court? Of course. But, most importantly, in the spector of human behavior and genuine emotional care.
Everybody loved Leonard Bias, almost in a protecting way. And once he felt comfortable enough around you to lift his soft eyes and his warm face away from his shoes, you grew to understand why.
It was the summer of 1981, and it was the most miserable time of my life. For I, as a first-year season-ticket holder for my beloved Baltimore Orioles, was in the painful process of watching my hard-earned investment be washed away by the baseball players strike that cost the season 50 regular-season games.
As my roommates at the time would tell you, I was a contemptible human being that summer (not like I am now), until Ginsburg called me with a question that would soon end my pain.
“What are you doing tomorrow night?” he asked.
“Burning two more tickets for section 41, row 3, seats 4 and 5," I said. “Unless you want to buy them.”
“The Northwestern Summer League is going on,” he said, “and Northwestern’s got some hot shot named Bias who has Lefty’s attention. He’s there every night watching him. Might be a story there.”
I arrived at the humid little Northwestern gym on Adelphi Road as ordered, and the first person I met was Wagner, who looked every bit the part of the 1980’s high school coach: weight-room toned, busy dark hair with a bushy dark mustache, polyester Bike coaching shorts and an enormous ring of keys that could conceivably open any door in Prince George’s County.
“You here to see Leonard or Lefty?” Wagner said as he crushed my right hand on the first handshake. “Or are you here to see Lefty watch Leonard?”
“Huh?”
I soon saw what Wagner was talking about as Lefty sneaked into the gym about five minutes after Northwestern's game began. I had never seen a human being fly before that night. Nor had I seen a human being devour as much popcorn as Lefty did without washing a bite of it down with something.
“Look at him,” Wagner laughed as he nodded in Lefty’s direction. “I don’t know if he’s more hungry for the popcorn or for Leonard. It’s like this every night. He’s the only (college) coach here, and he’s here every night. We’ll cover half the cost of our league with the popcorn that he eats.”
“You’re kidding?” I said.
“Yeah,” Wagner said. “We don’t charge him.”
“No,” I said, “about his being the only coach here every night.”
“He’s the only one,” Wagner said. “Leonard went to his basketball camp and Lefty’s been here ever since.”
Lefty couldn’t talk about Bias because NCAA recruiting rules prohibited him from doing so. But he would talk about everything else under the sun, from that dang loss to N.C. State seven years prior, to how he could still “whup” his former All-American John Lucas, who was also an All-American tennis player, “in straight sets.”
Bias? He didn’t say much. In fact, he talked more about his drawing than he did about his basketball. Although he once — accidentally, I believe — admitted Lefty’s nightly presence motivated him to improve his game if just to show all of the coaches who weren’t there just what they were about to miss.
The world soon found out, and in November of 1982, Ginsburg assigned me to the Maryland basketball beat — at least for games he couldn't attend when he worked nights at Giant Food.
In fact, the first Maryland game I covered was over the Thanksgiving weekend, and Ginsburg somehow found me back here in Cumberland just as I was sitting down to eat Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt’s and uncle’s.
“Maryland’s playing Penn State Saturday at the Baltimore Civic Center,” he said. “It’s Bias’ first game. I know it’s short notice, but can you make it?”
“Do you have to work?”
“No,” said Dave. “But I know you took to the kid (I had gone to about a dozen of Bias’ games by that time). And given what you've written, I know he’ll talk to you.”
“I’ll be there,” I said.
And I was there, for what would be a 20-point Maryland loss to Penn State; but it was the first game for what has finally and rightfully been recognized as a National College Basketball Hall of Fame career. And for the better part of the next two Maryland basketball seasons, I covered another dozen or so of Leonard Bias’ games, and the polite young mama's boy from Hyattsville indeed recognized my face to be a familiar one. And in time he grew comfortable enough to talk more about his game than his drawing, not only to me, but to the growing swarm of reporters who believed, just as I had, that they had discovered him.
But there was actually very little for him to say about his game; it spoke for itself. He had the highest vertical leap in the country and was the best shot blocker in the country. He could muscle with any big man in the country. He could cover any guard in the country, including Jordan. And his shooting touch from 25 feet in was as gentle as a warm summer breeze.
He was the most magnificent athlete and basketball player I have ever seen, and he was one of the nicest young men I will ever know.
Often, of course, I think about what could have been. Today, though, I once more appreciate what once was. The legend of Len Bias took life and grew before my very eyes. The wonder of knowing Leonard Bias grows more in my memory with each passing day.
All of these years later, I am grateful for that baseball players strike of 1981, and I am most grateful for the opportunity of a lifetime given to me by Dave Ginsburg. Sending me to that Northwestern Summer League game nearly 40 years ago opened the door for me not only to realizing a childhood dream of covering Maryland basketball, but to everything that would then happen for my career and for my life.
Jackie Robinson said, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
So when the talk of who has been the greatest and most influential basketball player of our lifetime is on the table, it doesn’t even evoke a second thought for me.
I’m Bias. I’ll always be Bias.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and @JackYdk. Listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
We are officially in the holiday season the turkey is in the oven, Episode 20 is hot of the press and here for your ears and help you walk off the BIG meal.
We talk sports and the lack of a decent football game on Thanksgiving day, little bit of Maryland Politics and we pay tribute to two greats in their field Ted Troxell and Deigo Maradona
We wish everyone a very and safe Happy Thanksgiving!
As soon as I read the lead to his obituary in the Cumberland Times-News, I suspected Ted Troxell had written it himself, because it was concisely and perfectly stated and evoked a genuine sense of pride in some of us who are one in the same and who helped fight the good fight in this business right along by Ted’s side:
“Edward ‘Ted’ Troxell, 83,” the lead read, “passed away Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. Ted was a proud Cumberland native and a sportswriter by trade.”
Perfect. Beautiful. And Ted Troxell to the core.
God, how we loved Teddy Ballgame, or Ballgame, or Wheatley, or “T” Texas Troxell, or T.F. Troxell, or just Troxell, or Gene Wilder, or whatever it was the person talking to him had decided to call him that day. Ted had many names to answer to, you see, including “why Ted Troxell, you no-good red-headed son of a bitch,” which was coined by former Times-News switchboard operator, the great Lois Schaidt, on the occasion of her discovery that she had been the butt of a Ted Troxell prank, which, of course, included Ted using one of his famous imitations to get one over on Lois.
Ted, you see, could push the envelope sometimes (okay, he could piss you off), and Lois was the type of person who didn’t hesitate to express her honest and extreme displeasure with something and anybody whenever she had found she had been had.
I called Ted “Teddy Ballgame” and “T.F. Troxell” because he, like the great Jim Day, was a big Ted Williams fan. Ted himself shortened that to “Ballgame,” which is the way he always signed his birthday cards to me (oh, yes, always a card, and often a good book, from Ted on your birthday).
The great J. Suter Kegg called Ted “Wheatley” because, as I was told, it was Ted’s middle name. The great Roy Lester, when he coached football and taught at Allegany High School, where and when Ted was a student, called him “T” Texas Troxell in honor of the country singer of the time, “T” Texas Tyler, who was known as The Man with a Million Friends.
A lot of great ones have come through Cumberland and Ted knew them all, and was, in fact, one of them himself. He was Cumberland’s own Man with a Million Friends. He knew everybody and, for the most part, he loved them all. Or most of them. He was, after all, as Lois so astutely pointed out, a redhead, which is to say he could be temperamental, as some talented performers are apt to be. And make no mistake about it, Ted was a talent. And, oh yes, he was a performer. He was always on.
He was a precise reporter with the ability to flare it appropriately for the feature stories he loved to write about the people he met. Yet on deadline he was all business and gave you every detail in a concise, crisp style of matter-of-fact reporting. In fact, whenever Ted would overshoot an allotted newshole on deadline (as we all did), former sports editor Steve Luse always complained, “Troxell’s stories are impossible to cut (edit), because he puts in too many facts.” Meaning, in a not-meant-to-be-a-compliment way, there was no unnecessary fat or verbiage in Ted’s copy. He was too good of a reporter for that.
I met Ted on my first day at the Times-News in March of 1984 and he promptly called me Alex P. Keaton because, fresh in from the D.C. Metro area and still just 24 years of age, I had made the mistake of showing up for my first day wearing a power tie, Members Only jacket, pinstriped business shirt with the sleeves cuffed mid-forearm, carrying a briefcase. It wasn’t, I soon learned, the way to dress for work at the Times-News without having to hear about it all day and all night long.
The humor in the newsroom was real and it was free-flowing, and Ted Troxell, as one might expect, was one of its ringleaders. Yet Ted took his job and the responsibility of being a reporter very seriously, and he expected you to do the same as well.
He was the most intense typist I have ever seen. While Jim Day was a concert pianist on the keyboard and could make even a standard typewriter sing (particularly with a hangover), Ted was a hunt and peck typist and he virtually attacked his keyboard with his index fingers to the point that you could hear him slamming the keyboard of even a newfangled word processor as you walked up the 21 steps into Times-News editorial.
They were grand days to be a newspaper person. The place was so alive with two daily print editions to get on the street. You could cut the excitement in the air with a knife and then step away from it for the night over a case of beer that had been purchased across the street at the Galen Bar as we put the paper to bed for another day.
Ted Troxell helped make my love for being a reporter much stronger. He was a taskmaster and a mentor for me. He demanded I take my job, my responsibility and my talent (his word) seriously, yet he was always willing to let the good times roll with you once our task had been completed.
Ted’s temperament led to his having two stints at the newspaper, but he actually left his second go-round about a month earlier than he had planned to so it would create an opening on the staff for a youngster by the name of Mike Mathews, who had just graduated from James Madison University.
That is the kind of guy Ted was. He could get in your way sometimes because he had some thin skin, could be a close talker, and had the loudest and most obnoxious laugh that could be heard from city blocks away (known simply as the Troxell Laugh), but he was the consummate professional who helped make possible the 35-plus years Mathews and I spent having the time of our lives writing about sports for our hometown newspaper.
Teddy Ballgame was quite the talent – writer, newspaper reporter, magazine feature writer, broadcaster, stand-up comedian, master of ceremonies, stage actor, hospital public relations guy, sports book expert, tennis player, runner, traveler. He was a great friend and was like an older brother, who loved his friends, his hometown, his work, his life, his first wife Bonnie, who remained his best friend, his twin daughters Jane and Jean and his grandson Brendan with every fiber of his being.
And, brother, every fiber of that beautiful and robust being was always on bright wherever and whenever you saw Ted, or talked to Ted. Or heard him laugh.
Yes, a lot of greats have come through Cumberland, Maryland and Ted Troxell knew them all. Ted Troxell was one of those greats. He was a proud Cumberland native and a sportswriter by trade.
I shall miss him a great deal.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and @JackYdk. Listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
Western Maryland is on fire with a record number of new COVID-19 cases, Wile we like being #1 in athletics this is not a record we would like to keep. Once again the leadership in Annapolis has failed again to take charge with aide to the outpost, and just recently offered free testing reveling how awful our numbers really are.
Not to worry we talk about sports in the episode too, OSU and MD, The game that did not happen much like our lost episode 18... Kim Ng becoming the first female GM for the Marlins and the star crossed Ravens in their bid to win another game.
Stay safe everyone, wear a mask, and wash your hands!
By Mike Burke
I knew Chuck Eirich. He saw to that.
Not that I was anybody special -- just a kid who loved to play baseball who didn’t know what the hell he was doing on the ballfield. Of course, to Chuck, perhaps that was sort of special, because in his view it was completely unacceptable. I was even on the other team, but Chuck Eirich, you see, was a fixer, no matter what team you played for.
In that regard, a lot of us knew Chuck Eirich. He saw to it. So many of us … on the opposing teams.
In one of the two beautiful eulogies delivered during Chuck’s funeral service on Tuesday, his granddaughter Taylor Eirich, speaking for all of the grandchildren, said she has always been struck by the impact Chuck has had on so many people who are not members of the Eirich family. She shared that seemingly all of these folks have their own favorite story about her grandfather Chuck Eirich, and that all of us love to tell it.
The funeral service on Tuesday was much like the man it honored – direct and to the point. During the eulogy Chuck’s oldest son Toby delivered, Toby said of his father, “If you ask him for an opinion, you better be ready to hear the truth.”
To Taylor’s point about having a favorite story about Chuck, I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite story, but it is certainly the most important story, because, otherwise, I likely would not have had the outrageous good fortune of knowing Chuck Eirich through the years the way I did.
As a lad, I played Hot Stove League baseball for the Bedford Road Optimist. On one particular day, I had played first base in the field. We had just played the Elks and had lost the game, which was no big surprise, because most teams lost to the Elks. Chuck Eirich and Jim Miller, after all, coached the Elks.
I always knew who Chuck Eirich was dating back to our days in the Midget League basketball organization on Frederick Street. His sons Toby and Todd and I grew up playing in all of those leagues in those days. Tedd was around by that time, but I don’t remember his being old enough to play. But he was always around shooting a basketball that was bigger than he was at the time.
Still, up to that day on the Penn Avenue baseball field when Chuck (I called him Mr. Eirich once) took the time to help me after the game, I had never really met him.
Chuck had baseballs in each hand and repeatedly rolled them to me to field, instructing me to field them, then throw them back to him as he rolled me another one to field and caught the ball I had thrown back with his bare hand (which impressed me very much).
Next, he stood behind the pitcher’s mound to make throws to me as though they were coming from the shortstop because he wanted to see my footwork around the bag. Well, I showed him my footwork …
“Awful,” he said between one of the early throws (Keep in mind, I had just met him).
“Not good,” he said after another throw.
“Terrible,” he added. “Where did you learn this?”
I didn’t know … Nowhere? Which, I came to learn was his point. He was going to teach me the proper, fundamental way to do things. And he did. And though I never unseated Boog Powell, Lee May or Eddie Murray as the Orioles first baseman, Chuck took the time to show me the best way, the easiest way, the fundamental way to play first base. And I will never forget that.
It's no wonder the Elks rarely lost a game in those days. Chuck was their coach. Yet he helped kids on opposing teams, during and after games, as well. In my case, it was footwork at first base.
Outside of the realm of sports, while using the realm of sports to make his point, he took kids under his wing who needed a wing without their ever knowing that was what was happening.
He made sure kids got to practice and to games. He made sure they learned how to play the game correctly and had structure. And discipline. The foundation for everything in life, he believed, was responsibility and hard work.
Chuck played tough guy sometimes, though, sometimes, not very well. He could be salty, which we thought, being kids, was pretty cool and then realized there was nothing wrong with being a little salty every now and then once we grew a little older.
Chuck would help any kid play baseball, and he did just that. He wanted toughness. The game isn’t easy; life will be harder. Rub some dirt on it -- advice he even gave Toby as he was rolling around in the dirt one day as catcher for the Hot Stove Elks after a foul ball shot off the hard ACC infield (called The Rock for a reason) and struck Toby in a very (ahem) delicate area.
As Toby was writhing in pain and screaming at the top of his lungs (for obvious reasons if you’ve ever been hit there), Chuck calmly walked out to his fallen catcher and son and said, “Where’d it get ya?”
To which Toby was able to collect a breath to scream back, “Where the hell do you think it got me!!!”
Chuck was ornery. He said what he thought. He always went through the front door. One day along the fence beside the Allegany baseball field on Sedgwick Street, where I covered baseball games while spending the days talking with Chuck and Gary Powell (Chuck used a piece of chalk to keep score on the sidewalk), Chuck looked me in the eye upon my arrival and said, “They actually pay you down there to write some of that (stuff)?”
Whatever happened to hello, right? Well, there were some days when that was Chuck’s way of saying hello, and for some reason, it always made me feel more comfortable when I was with him. It was as though he felt like I was alright after all. For a Fort Hill guy.
Once I started to watch reruns of the television series “Frasier,” I told Chuck he reminded me of Martin Crane because he loved his dogs so much, and for some other reasons that I saw to be obvious. I meant it in the order of the highest compliment, and Chuck was familiar with the show. He just didn’t seem to care for the analogy.
But he did love dogs. To Chuck, there was no such thing as a bad dog. Kind of like there being no such thing as a bad boy.
Chuck helped growing up in Cumberland be a wonderful thing for a lot of kids by extending his hand of guidance and coaching them. He helped make coming back to Cumberland to live and work pretty great too.
He coached a lot of kids and virtually every sport that was available for a kid to play in those days. And as far as we know, there was never a detail he missed. We thought he knew everything.
It was written in his obituary, “His favorite coaching position was held for 62 years, coaching his three sons from the day they were born.”
We all know how that turned out. Toby Eirich, Todd Eirich and Tedd Eirich are three of the greatest coaches we’ve ever had the good fortune to have in Western Maryland. Their careers in athletics and education speak for themselves and began to come to fruition 62 years ago when Chuck and Donna Eirich began to raise their family – a family that continues to grow even stronger through this next generation of brothers, sisters and cousins.
Yet, as Taylor Eirich said on Tuesday morning, there are a whole lot of us out here who are not named Eirich, who will always be thankful that her grandfather saw something in all of us, too, to take the time to help us see some of the best in ourselves and to do our very best along the way.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and @JackYdk. Listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
While this week is filled with uncertainty we are here to provide you with a little bit of comfort... we are thrilled at the turnout to Vote this year even if you had to wait in long lines, cast your ballot by mail, or drop them in an official ballot box. One thing we know for sure that this country is far more divided and we all need to work together to remember we have more similarities than differences and kindness should be our guiding principal.
We have the gang all back together... and then we called Leo Mazzone to kick off this great episode. We discussed the dreadful game six pitching decision from Cash that cost Tampa Bay the World Series... and should cost him his job. Analytics be dammed... zeros and ones will NEVER be able to duplicate years of instinct, coaching knowledge.
Leo has great insight as always and regals us with stories we feel privileged to record, and produce for you to hear. The best part of the this whole episode... his bid to become MLB commissioner... to bring back day games, and no more seven inning double headers among other excellent ideas.
We hope you are enjoy this episode and it brings you a tiny bit of joy in a stressful time.
Baseball has crowned a new champ, and we have several months until pitchers and catchers report for spring training(feb.16)... still that little glimmer makes the painful reality that baseball is over a little easier to swallow.
Something that is not so easy to understand is BIG10 and their decision to start playing. This mostly politically charged decision has lead to the the inevitable COVID-19 outbreak this week of Wisconsin's football team and cancellation of their game against Nebraska. Proving that this is something that you can not wave a magic wand and make disappear, on a professional or collegiate level.
NFL proved to be enjoyable to watch with. the Steelers beating the Titans and upholding their undefeated status going into the much anticipated matchup with the Baltimore Ravens. This will be a hard fought game on Sunday at 1:00 and will reflect the cities grit that they represent.
Locally we our surrounding counties are holding football games and as we have been since day one of sports, we are hoping for the best but are very much reserved on Podcast Hill that this is a good idea, when out COVID-19 numbers are increasing by double digits daily.
Mike and Lydia take the reigns on this weeks episode while Matt was exercising his right to vote by waiting in line for about 1.5 hours to get the task accomplished and obtaining the well coveted sticker.
We covered a lot of ground in this weeks episode but the most important message.... VOTE!!
Make a plan. Help people get to the polls. Find a ballot box. Discuss voting with your friends and family and VOTE VOTE VOTE
The dirty truth of it for those of us who don’t love baseball, but who need baseball, even after a season shortened by pandemic (particularly after a season shortened by pandemic), is we will never be ready for baseball to be over. Because, for those of us who are blessed with the gift of baseball love, baseball never ends. For us, and for lucky people like us, baseball is forever.
Why are we never ready for it to be over, even after all three of our local teams have muddled through losing seasons? Because bad baseball is better than no baseball, and when November comes (look straight ahead) and the nights are suddenly barren we will once again appreciate this unfortunate inevitability.
The stability of knowing there is a game every day and every night and being able to count on it, then, whether consciously or sub-consciously, adjusting your entire day and night around the first pitch provides great comfort, whether you are attending the game, watching it on TV or listening to it on the radio
Baseball is every day. In fact, Earl Weaver, in once telling the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell not to fret losing track of time during a pregame interview in the dugout that lasted into the playing of the national anthem, said, “This ain’t a football game. We do this every day.”
Baseball is every day, yet it is something new every day. During every baseball game you ever watch you will see something happen that you have never seen before. You see things that continue to provide you with childlike wonder and with goose bumps, no matter how many decades you’ve already been a baseball fan and no matter how late into a lost season that moment may occur.
As each new baseball season approaches, you are filled with great anticipation. When it arrives it lives up to and exceeds your every expectation, yet, as we are reminded every late fall, it passes in the wink of a young girl’s eye.
And when it ends, as it did on Tuesday night when the Los Angeles Dodgers won game 6 of the 2020 World Series, when it shuts down until the next time and the final tastes of what you just witnessed are remembered, you miss it.
Almost as soon as it’s over, you miss it — the day to day of the baseball season ...
It’s the companionship. It’s the companionship of the game you love and the routine you are familiar with that you never look forward to missing. Because it is companionship, particularly a lifetime of companionship, that lives in the heart of all that defines who and what we are.
Those of us who love baseball — those of us who need it — are not surprised. We’ve known all along. But hopefully, the just completed World Series, that still feels as though ended prematurely because one noodlehead manager fell in love with analytics over the game itself, will re-open eyes to others, and help them remember that baseball is the best game going.
Baseball is a far better game than football. As the world champion Dodgers and the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays showed us, even in games now marred by those blasted analytics, there is more action in baseball, there is more drama and suspense, and there is more intrigue.
Until a team runs out of outs, baseball never stops once the first pitch is thrown — not on the field, not between pitches, not in our minds and, certainly, not in our hearts.
The great Earl Weaver: “You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You’ve got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all.”
Professional football? It’s a television show (#NFLTheTVShow) controlled by a clock that runs for precisely 60 minutes and gives us a mere 11 minutes of action. And it is stretched out over almost four hours of broadcast time.
George Will said at the height of the NFL’s popularity, no less, “Football combines two of the worst things in American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.”
Yet the violence that so many fans relish is being legislated out, as the NFL continues to take every preventive measure against liability that it can. Of course, what makes the NFL any different in that regard from any other corporation in this litigation-happy day and age?
Oh, wait. There’s no liability in baseball. There’s no liability. As George Carlin so beautifully stated, “In baseball, the object is to go home, and to be safe. I hope I’ll be safe at home; safe at home.”
Each of the six games of this World Series had something of everything. It was high drama at its most unreachable peak. It was fresh, it was exciting, it was painful and excruciating; it was the far reach for unrealized joy, and it was pure mystery seasoned with unthinkable misery. In the actual moments of the actual game, it was baseball in its finest hour.
And it is during this week each year that we turn to the “The Green Fields of the Mind” and the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, who wrote, “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops ...”
We feel this melancholy; we felt it immediately and the loneliness of it on Wednesday, the saddest day of the year for a baseball fan. And with an entire winter to constantly ask themselves, “Why the hell did Cash pull Snell?” Rays fans, wherever they may be, will feel it the most and the deepest, as they brace to face what will be their loneliest fall yet.
Even Dodgers fans will feel it. For despite having their long-awaited world championship in hand, a natural sadness surrounds us with the completion of our great projects. Even though the project has been completed with their first world title in 32 years, the saddest words in the King’s English remain, “No game today.”
So, good night, baseball. Rest easy. Thank you again for our summer afternoons and evenings. We’ll miss you, but you’re always with us. See you in the spring.
We hope.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and @JackYdk. Listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
The dirty truth of it for those of us who don’t love baseball, but who need baseball, even after a season shortened by pandemic (particularly after a season shortened by pandemic), is we will never be ready for baseball to be over. Because, for those of us who are blessed with the gift of baseball love, baseball never ends. For us, and for lucky people like us, baseball is forever.
Why are we never ready for it to be over, even after all three of our local teams have muddled through losing seasons? Because bad baseball is better than no baseball, and when November comes (look straight ahead) and the nights are suddenly barren we will once again appreciate this unfortunate inevitability.
The stability of knowing there is a game every day and every night and being able to count on it, then, whether consciously or sub-consciously, adjusting your entire day and night around the first pitch provides great comfort, whether you are attending the game, watching it on TV or listening to it on the radio
Baseball is every day. In fact, Earl Weaver, in once telling the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell not to fret losing track of time during a pregame interview in the dugout that lasted into the playing of the national anthem, said, “This ain’t a football game. We do this every day.”
Baseball is every day, yet it is something new every day. During every baseball game you ever watch you will see something happen that you have never seen before. You see things that continue to provide you with childlike wonder and with goose bumps, no matter how many decades you’ve already been a baseball fan and no matter how late into a lost season that moment may occur.
As each new baseball season approaches, you are filled with great anticipation. When it arrives it lives up to and exceeds your every expectation, yet, as we are reminded every late fall, it passes in the wink of a young girl’s eye.
And when it ends, as it did on Tuesday night when the Los Angeles Dodgers won game 6 of the 2020 World Series, when it shuts down until the next time and the final tastes of what you just witnessed are remembered, you miss it.
Almost as soon as it’s over, you miss it — the day to day of the baseball season ...
It’s the companionship. It’s the companionship of the game you love and the routine you are familiar with that you never look forward to missing. Because it is companionship, particularly a lifetime of companionship, that lives in the heart of all that defines who and what we are.
Those of us who love baseball — those of us who need it — are not surprised. We’ve known all along. But hopefully, the just completed World Series, that still feels as though ended prematurely because one noodlehead manager fell in love with analytics over the game itself, will re-open eyes to others, and help them remember that baseball is the best game going.
Baseball is a far better game than football. As the world champion Dodgers and the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays showed us, even in games now marred by those blasted analytics, there is more action in baseball, there is more drama and suspense, and there is more intrigue.
Until a team runs out of outs, baseball never stops once the first pitch is thrown — not on the field, not between pitches, not in our minds and, certainly, not in our hearts.
The great Earl Weaver: “You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You’ve got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all.”
Professional football? It’s a television show (#NFLTheTVShow) controlled by a clock that runs for precisely 60 minutes and gives us a mere 11 minutes of action. And it is stretched out over almost four hours of broadcast time.
George Will said at the height of the NFL’s popularity, no less, “Football combines two of the worst things in American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.”
Yet the violence that so many fans relish is being legislated out, as the NFL continues to take every preventive measure against liability that it can. Of course, what makes the NFL any different in that regard from any other corporation in this litigation-happy day and age?
Oh, wait. There’s no liability in baseball. There’s no liability. As George Carlin so beautifully stated, “In baseball, the object is to go home, and to be safe. I hope I’ll be safe at home; safe at home.”
Each of the six games of this World Series had something of everything. It was high drama at its most unreachable peak. It was fresh, it was exciting, it was painful and excruciating; it was the far reach for unrealized joy, and it was pure mystery seasoned with unthinkable misery. In the actual moments of the actual game, it was baseball in its finest hour.
And it is during this week each year that we turn to the “The Green Fields of the Mind” and the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, who wrote, “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops ...”
We feel this melancholy; we felt it immediately and the loneliness of it on Wednesday, the saddest day of the year for a baseball fan. And with an entire winter to constantly ask themselves, “Why the hell did Cash pull Snell?” Rays fans, wherever they may be, will feel it the most and the deepest, as they brace to face what will be their loneliest fall yet.
Even Dodgers fans will feel it. For despite having their long-awaited world championship in hand, a natural sadness surrounds us with the completion of our great projects. Even though the project has been completed with their first world title in 32 years, the saddest words in the King’s English remain, “No game today.”
So, good night, baseball. Rest easy. Thank you again for our summer afternoons and evenings. We’ll miss you, but you’re always with us. See you in the spring.
We hope.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and @JackYdk. Listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
With the World Series kicking off this week, we begrudgingly congratulate Matt on his correct prediction, with the Dodgers and Tampa. With Mookie Betts playing at his best, the Red Sox might have started another curse 100 years after trading the Big Bambino.
Another Curse... the Big-10 returning this weekend with Maryland taking on a tough season, kicking it off with a game Northwestern. As always we are all predicting the worst with wins, keeping the team healthy, etc... We are all hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
Ty Johnson is the light spot in this episode of curses, he had a wonderful game, his first on the field for the NY Jets gaining 42 yards total, making it a stand out performance in an otherwise depressing game.
Remember to follow us on @JackYDK for more links to episodes and columns by Mike Burke!
It is hard to believe that we have hit 13 episodes, we are very lucky that you continue to listen to us rant and rave about our take on sports local and national. This episode is no exception, we discuss NBA finals, MLB playoffs, and the NFL season. It is with great sadness that each week we seem to do another in memorium to another sports great that has been recruited by the man upstairs. For more insight be sure to check out @mikeburkeMDT's latest columnhttps://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/16419137
We have jumped in feet first with our own Twitter handle, so follow up there for all of the latest and greatest @JackYDK
The dominant teams of Major League Baseball in the 1970s, in order, were the Baltimore Orioles, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Oakland Athletics (they were the Swingin’ A’s then), the Cincinnati Reds, and New York Yankees.
Joe Morgan was the difference maker on the great Big Red Machine world-championship teams of 1975-76, just as Frank Robinson had become the difference maker in Baltimore (1970 world champs) and Reggie Jackson would become in New York (’77-78 world champs), having already been the so-called star of the A’s (’72-74 world champs), despite Oakland having won one of its titles without him.
The Pirates, of course, a remarkable baseball team and franchise in a remarkable baseball time, were made champions by two even more remarkable men, Roberto Clemente in 1971 and Willie Stargell in 1979.
The Reds were a great and powerful team in 1970, on the verge of becoming a team for the ages, even being known as The Big Red Machine then. They had a kid named Johnny Bench catching, The Big Bopper, Lee May, playing first base; the professional Tommy Helms at second, young Dave Concepcion and veteran Woody Woodward at shortstop, Tony Perez at third, Bernie Carbo and Hal McRae in left, Bobby Tolan in center and a hustler (in many ways we would come to learn) named Pete Rose in right.
The starting pitching was decent, but a mid-season injury to Wayne Simpson threw a wrench into that. The bullpen? Pretty good, anchored by Clay Carroll (the closer before it was a title) and a kid by the name of Don Gullett.
The Reds, though, were loaded with right-handed power hitting, which helped them run away with the National League title (beating the Pirates in the second NLCS), but would prove to be their downfall in the World Series, as the Orioles had two great left-handed starting pitchers and a third baseman by the name of Brooks Robinson.
The Reds of 1970 were a great team; the Orioles were just better. And when Cincinnati struggled in 1971 (the Giants, in Willie Mays’ last hurrah in San Francisco, won the NL West), it was apparent to Reds GM Bob Howsam that his team was top heavy with right-handed power and no speed.
Thus, the trade that nobody in Cincinnati liked from the moment it was announced, and wouldn’t like until they saw what they had received -- the Reds traded May, Helms and utility player Jimmy Stewart (not that one) to the Houston Astros for outfielder Ed Armbrister, starting pitcher Jack Billingham, center fielder César Gerónimo, utility player Denis Menke and the second baseman, Joe Morgan.
The rest was history, as Morgan immediately became the difference maker on an already ready-to-be truly great team. He had left-handed pop, he had speed and could run the bases, he was a Gold Glove second baseman and he was the leader the Reds needed.
The trade for Joe Morgan, while costly (May averaged about 35 homers a year for the Reds) is what made Cincinnati the team for the times, and for the ages, as he led them to the ’72 National League pennant (falling to the dynasty A’s in the Series) and to the world titles in 1975 and 1976, beating the Red Sox in the best World Series any of us have ever seen in 1975 before making a meal of the Yankees in a 1976 sweep.
Maybe it was because we were so young and didn’t know any better, but it seems to some of us to have been the perfect decade of baseball for our delightfully imperfect lifetimes; and it came at just the perfect time as well, as the NFL had been passing up Our Great Game as the most popular sport in the culture.
I can see it so clearly. I remember entering Memorial Stadium in the splendid neighborhood of Waverly and gasping each time the way Dorothy Gale did with her first gaze of Emerald City. We lived each week for the Willetts bus trips to Three Rivers Stadium for Sunday doubleheaders when our parents just wanted their junior high-aged kids out of the house and out of their hair, and under somebody else’s supervision …
From the 1960s and the 1970s, I can see them all; I can see their faces, and I can still imitate their batting stances and their pitching motions.
Just this year – just this perfectly horrid year – we have lost Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Whitey Ford, Joe Morgan, Lou Brock, Horace Clarke, Ed Farmer, Tony Fernandez. Bart Johnson, Lou Johnson, Jay Johnstone, Al Kaline, Eddie Kasko, Matt Keough, Don Larsen, John Miller, Biff Pocoroba, Hal Smith, Ed Sprague, Tony Taylor, Claudell Washington, Bob Watson, Jimmy Wynn …
And they were just the players you went to the park, or watched The Game of the Week, to see. So many more have gone as well, and so many more had gone before.
They say baseball is a microcosmic, but real, view of real life itself. I don’t know who they are, and I don’t even know if microcosmic is really a word. But they’re right. As the great Earl Weaver said, “Everything affects everything.”
Though we should always thank our lucky stars, this year has been dreadful. Just dreadful.
But it will get better. It will because we must make it better, and we will make it better.
For you see, even in death … baseball is life.
The emerald green of the splendid infield grass in our splendid neighborhood of Waverly.
Being dumped on a charter bus by our parents for Sunday doubleheaders in Pittsburgh. Yeah, they showed us!
Hearing Chuck Thompson sing, “Ain’t the beer cold!” … Watching Curt and Tony on The Game of the Week.
Yes, baseball is life.
And we will keep and further strengthen our life; because baseball has always helped us understand just how wonderful of a life it’s always been …
And will be again.
Everything affects everything.
Please vote.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and @JackYdk. Listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
By Mike Burke
Q: What do Bill Russell, Sam Jones, Tommy Heinsohn, K.C. Jones, Satch Sanders, John Havlicek, Jim Loscutoff, Frank Ramsey, Robert Horry, Bob Cousy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, George Mikan, Jim Pollard, Slater Martin, Larry Siegfried, Don Nelson, Michael Cooper, Magic Johnson, Dennis Rodman, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr, Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher and Tim Duncan have in common?
A: They won more NBA championships during their playing careers than LeBron James has won.
Q: What do Vern Mikkelsen, Frank Saul, Bill Sharman, Gene Guarilia, Jamaal Wilkes, Kurt Rambis, Robert Parish, Will Perdue, John Salley, Horace Grant, Shaquille O’Neal, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker have in common?
A: They won just as many NBA championships during their playing careers as LeBron James has won.
Just sayin’.
It’s tough being the old guy, having grown up checking the TV Guide to see if tonight’s NBA, NHL or MLB game was going to be shown in color or in black and white. Seriously, black and white television came first just as black and white movies came first. Why do you think “Gone With The Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz” were such big deals in 1939? And, no, I wasn’t here then. Not quite that old.
But that’s where we are in today’s sports culture. There is no appreciation for history. If it happened when the film was black & white and grainy, or if it wasn’t on SportsCenter (GAK!), it didn’t happen.
As we all know by now, the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA title on Sunday and that makes LeBron James the GOAT (that means Greatest of All-Time for those of you who wisely do not watch SportsCenter). Why? Because he has won four NBA titles with three different teams and has been NBA Finals Most Valuable Player four times.
Impressive to say the least, but where do the six NBA Finals he has lost factor into the distinction? That’s right, LeBron is 4-6 in the NBA Finals. And since you asked, it puts him at No. 3 all-time, which is much higher than he stands on the titles-won list, behind Jerry West (The Logo) and Elgin Baylor with eight and seven respectively.
Bill Russell was 11-1 in the NBA Finals and those 11 titles came in a 13-year career. With one team. But that doesn’t count in this Attention Span of a Gnat sports culture because, well … it just doesn’t. It wasn’t on SportsCenter. Besides, not once did Bill Russell announce to the world. “I want my damn respect” the way the guy who has called himself King James since he was in high school did on Sunday night.
(Please. “I want my damn respect.” What does that even mean? Hardly the stuff of, “There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.”)
Now, is this to suggest that Bill Russell was the greatest basketball player of all-time? No, but he is clearly the greatest winner in professional sports history. But again, that was before shoe deals, so how does that pertain to basketball history? All we know now is the greatest player of all-time is either LeBron James or Michael Jordan because LeBron has four titles and Jordan won six.
But see? This pinhead sports culture is being taught ESPN math. Four is not greater than six or even equal to six; four is less than six. Just as six is less than 11 – and all the numbers in between, as well as all of the players between Jordan and Russell on the most-titles list if this is the criteria we are using for this.
Maybe LeBron James is the greatest of all-time, but if he is it isn’t because of the number of titles his teams have won. But maybe Jordan is the greatest, or Russell, or Wilt Chamberlain (look him up on your phone), or Kareem, or Magic, or Bird or Kobe. Who’s to say? Nobody’s to say because nobody can say as the game of basketball, more than any other game, continues to evolve daily.
And speaking of never-before-seen evolve, well done to the NBA for pulling it off. There were no positive COVID-19 cases reported during the three-month hoops convention in the Disney World bubble, which in itself is remarkable given the physical nature of the game.
The bubble’s stringent health and safety protocols apparently worked perfectly, without a single player who cleared quarantine testing positive and without a single game affected by the virus. The NBA rigorously enforced its protocols, held its breath and crossed its fingers and was able to complete the 2019-20 season.
That is the feat to me that has earned and deserves our damn respect.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
We have our first remote guest and boy did we swing for the fences. Leo Mazzone is joining us for a fantastic podcast discussing this crazy 60 game baseball season. How some changes are good, strategy is still king and throwing the heat does not a great pitcher make.
Another local starting his professional career Ty Johnson has moved to the Jets after being released from the Lions.
To say we all had fun on this episode us an understatement. Leo will be back hopefully for a great World Series Discussion.
We cover some ground this week discussing #NFLthetvshow, the Titans contracting COVID-19 and postponing the Steelers game indefinitely, it will be interesting to see how the NFL handles a situation that will surely be arising again. The Ravens laid a nice little egg on Monday night and then we will all be watching the Ravens and the Washington to see how that will all shake out.
NBA is currently playing the Finals between the scrappy Miami Heat and the Iconic Lakers. Matt and Mike say the either in 6 Lydia is hoping for 7.
MLB is having an 8 game bonanza for the playoffs, a full day of baseball is everyones dream, but it is A LOT of games. There could be some upsets and surprises as always.
High School Sports- Maryland has decided that Garrett and Allegany County will be allowed to play fall sports. It is yet to be determined what the schedule might look like.
October 27th might be the start date.
It’s an exciting time because it’s the baseball postseason and with the expanded playoffs in place for this season only (wink, wink), comes the best thing ever about baseball in October – afternoon baseball games. Yet even expanded postseasons with glorious autumn afternoon games last only a month, so you’re going to soon need your baseball fix for a long time to come (and who knows just how long given the mess we’ve created for ourselves?) beginning in November, for as Jimmy Dugan tells Dottie Hinson, “Baseball is what gets inside you. It’s what lights you up, you can’t deny that.”
Those words are spoken in “A League of Their Own,” the (spoiler alert!) greatest baseball movie ever made. Thus, to prepare you for the long, bitter offseason that will be here sooner than any of us will want it to be, here are the best so-called baseball movies ever made.
What constitutes a baseball movie? I am of the opinion that a baseball movie is not specifically about baseball. For when you set out to do a movie solely about baseball it fails miserably. Or so I’ve been told.
However, if baseball provides an undercurrent or a stream to the plot that follows a completely abstract storyline, said movie, through the evolution of time, becomes a baseball movie. Or a whatever kind of movie you happen to be looking for at the time; in this case, baseball.
If, for some reason, you have not seen any of these movies, I urge you to find them and begin watching them through the long, dark offseason.
For as Walt Whitman said on the original Game of the Week, “I see great things in baseball. It’s our game – the American game. It will take our people out of doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us.”
- A League of Their Own (1992):
An absolutely beautiful film from the late Penny Marshall, from the music of Carole King and Madonna (who also plays centerfield) to the perfect storyline and cast.
It is the story of the real-life World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and the growing rivalry that exists between two sisters (unbeknownst to the oldest sister) who join the league.
The cast features Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Rosie O’Donnell, Madonna, David Strathairn, Garry Marshall, Bill Pullman and Jon Lovitz, who steals every scene he’s in.
It’s gripping, heartwarming, heartbreaking, funny, accurate and factually based. And the actual baseball in the film is pretty darn good too. The only myth about League is that the film’s most famous line — “There’s no crying in baseball.” — is the film’s best line. Not even close.
The best line of the film is delivered by manager Jimmy Dugan (Hanks) when he tells his best player Dottie Hinson (Davis), who is about to quit because baseball has become so hard for her, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard … is what makes it great.”
And besides, everybody knows there is most certainly crying in baseball. The game, after all, as Bart Giamatti reminds us each fall, “is designed to break your heart …”
- Bull Durham (1988):
The day to day (and night to night) of minor league baseball, written and directed by Ron Shelton, a former Baltimore Orioles farmhand, and starring Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.
Costner plays Crash Davis, an aging minor league catcher who is sent down from Triple A to the “bus leagues” and the Durham Bulls to mentor Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh (Robbins), a young pitcher who has “a million-dollar arm and a 5-cent head.” Both, however, become involved with baseball groupie Annie Savoy (Sarandon), and the story goes from there.
Actually, the story and the movie begin with Annie’s brilliant sermon on The Church of Baseball.
Best line: “It’s a long season, and you gotta trust it. I’ve tried `em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in and day out, is the Church of Baseball.”
Or … “Don’t try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they’re fascist. Throw some ground balls — it’s more democratic.”
Best tune: “Sixty Minute Man,” Billy Ward and his Dominoes
- Eight Men Out (1988):
True-life drama about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal and how it nearly ruined baseball. Accurate to the word of the book written by Eliot Asinof, it has a great cast and tells a great story because, like “All The President’s Men,” it really happened, which is really scary. (Not like now … No, of course not.)
It covers, beginning to end, the game’s most disastrous scandal that nearly became its fatal one, and serves as a great reminder that, yeah, what Pete Rose did was pretty bad and that he should never be allowed back anywhere near the game.
Best line: “Say it ain’t so, Joe. Say it ain’t so.”
- The Natural (1984):
This adaptation of the Bernard Malamud novel is the one that got the 1980s baseball movies (good baseball movies) boom going.
Doesn’t stay accurate to the book, but in a movie like this one, in which Robert Redford is the star and has a gorgeous left-handed swing to boot, that’s okay. Directed by Baltimore’s Barry Levinson, “The Natural” also stars Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger and Wilford Brimley, who plays New York Knights manager Pop Fisher, but who will remind you of former Allegany football coach Jack Gilmore.
The film recounts the experiences of Roy Hobbs, a one-time phenom with great “natural” baseball talent, spanning decades of Hobbs’ life and career and the decisions he made along the way that proved costly.
Best line of the film? Roy Hobbs telling Iris (Close) from his hospital bed, “God, I love baseball.”
- The Sandlot (1993):
Any kid who was not allowed to be in the house during 1960s summer days, other than to eat and to sleep, is in this movie. It’s about growing up, being on your own and finding great adventure with your buddies. It’s about the evolution of leaders (pee wee sports had thankfully not come along yet), lifelong friendships, family, and doing the greatest thing you’ve ever done in your life — play baseball all day long with your friends.
Every character in this movie is somebody you know and somebody you grew up with. You can name them as the movie plays out.
Best line: “You’re killin’ me, Smalls!”
- Field of Dreams (1989):
A laid-back Berkeley dude from the ‘60s, played by Kevin Costner, and his former hippie wife build a baseball field in the middle of their Iowa farm and discover ghosts of baseball greats, including Shoeless Joe Jackson and the 1919 White Sox, are living in their cornfield. I mean, doesn’t this happen to everybody?
The guy also comes to discover he has Dad issues (who doesn’t?) but gets it all straightened out by finally asking his dad to play catch, as though that’s going to help anything. But since the dad is a ghost himself, it works here …
Burt Lancaster is fabulous as Dr. Archibald (Moonlight) Graham. James Earl Jones, who plays a version of J.D. Salinger, steals the show with his haunting and stirring soliloquy on baseball and capitalism.
Best line: “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.”
- Major League (1989):
Only thing you need to know — Bob Uecker as Harry Doyle.
The story is really kind of stupid, truth be told. It’s silly, it’s fun and not at all realistic. What does come through as real is how a great old city like Cleveland (even if the baseball scenes are shot in Milwaukee’s old County Stadium) will rally around and embrace its baseball team.
The movie gets off to a perfect start with the opening credits rolling to Randy Newman signing “Burn On” to panoramic shots of the great city of Cleveland.
Best line: Anything from the mouth of Harry Doyle.
- The Bad News Bears (1976):
The way little league baseball is supposed to be. Walter Matthau is perfect as the beer-drinking ex-minor league pitcher Morris Buttermaker, who agrees to coach the Chico’s Bail Bonds-sponsored Bears team, which is made up of players who are likely future clients of the team sponsor.
Tatum O’Neal plays Amanda, the team’s pitcher. Jackie Earle Haley plays Kelly Leak, a neighborhood loan shark, who happens to be the best player in the league, and Chris Barnes plays Tanner Boyle, the team’s mouthy little tough-guy shortstop.
Essentially, a coming-of-age comedy that’s about not being taken for granted, standing up to the bully and, in the end, the beauty of sticking it to The Man, even in defeat.
- Moneyball (2011):
A human look at baseball analytics during a time when the Oakland Athletics and general manager Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, were the only ones who did analytics. Now everybody lives by them. Jonah Hill is great as the organizational stat geek.
Best line: Billy Beane on the A’s 20-game winning streak, “It’s hard not to be romantic about baseball. This kind of thing, it’s fun for the fans. It sells tickets and hot dogs. Doesn’t mean anything.”
- The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976):
Two of the greatest entities of American culture can be found in this movie — the Negro Leagues and Richard Pryor.
Billy Dee Williams plays pitcher Bingo Long, who steals a group of his fellow Negro League players away from their teams so they can make their own fortune on their own terms by barnstorming. The players include slugger Leon Carter (James Earl Jones) and Charlie Snow (Pryor), a player scheming to break into the segregated major leagues of the 1930s by masquerading as Cuban player Carlos Nevada.
Best line: “You tryin’ to get my dander up, but I is unwrathable!”
Honorable mention
The Bronx Is Burning (2007):
Adapted from Joseph Mahler’s non-fiction bestseller, “Ladies and Gentlemen: The Bronx is Burning,” this production rates very special honorable mention because it’s not a movie. It’s an ESPN eight-part mini-series that chronicles the turbulent year of 1977 in New York City — the Son of Sam serial killings, Jimmy Breslin, the city-wide blackout, the New York City mayoral race, Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin, George Steinbrenner and the 1977 New York Yankees.
It also has catchy ‘70s music playing to the opening credits. We find ourselves humming it quite a bit here at “You Don’t Know Jack” World Headquarters.
Bang the Drum Slowly (1973):
In an adaptation of the Mark Harris novel, Robert DeNiro, two roles before we came to know him as the young Vito Corleone, plays the not-too-bright journeyman catcher for the New York Mammoths who learns he is dying. The story involves his relationship and unlikely friendship with the team’s sophisticated ace pitcher, played by Michael Moriarty.
61* (2001):
Billy Crystal’s period piece about the 1961 home-run record chase by Yankees teammates Roger Maris (who won, sort of) and Mickey Mantle, and how it affected both players on and off the field. Great portrayals of both Maris and Mantle by Barry Pepper and Thomas Jane.
Cobb (1994):
Tommy Lee Jones was pretty scary as the mean, hateful and bigoted Ty Cobb. And since the mean, hateful and bigoted Cobb would have approved, it must have been a realistic portrayal.
Pride of the Yankees (1942):
Gary Cooper wasn’t a very believable baseball player, much less a believable Lou Gehrig when it came to the baseball parts. But for decades this was the baseball movie of all baseball movies, and a very nice 1940s love story starring Teresa Wright as Eleanor Gehrig.
The movie also contains the only believable portrayal in motion picture history of Babe Ruth (which in itself is disturbing), as the actor who played Babe Ruth understood the part perfectly … That actor’s name was Babe Ruth.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
There hasn’t been this big of an egg laid in Baltimore since … the last time the Ravens played a nationally anticipated game on national TV and they soiled the bed in their January playoff humiliation to the Tennessee Titans.
Monday night’s 34-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, in a contest that was billed as a match-up between the NFL’s top two teams, fell a team short of realizing that lofty billing, as the defending Super Bowl champs beat the Ravens far worse than the score might indicate.
The Chiefs, in fact, destroyed the Ravens in every conceivable fashion, beginning with time of possession. The Baltimore offense could not keep the Baltimore defense off the field. Not that it would have mattered as it turned out, but as Earl Weaver always said, “Everything affects everything.”
The game turned on the very first series, as the Ravens, they of the most loaded running game in the league, marched directly down the field behind (what else?) the running game, advancing deep into Kansas City territory. However, on a second-down play, the Ravens decided to go cutie pie and passed, which failed; which set up the necessity of another pass on third down – which also failed – which set up a Justin Tucker 26-yard field goal to conclude a scoring drive that had “Touchdown Required” written all over it.
From there it was all Kansas City as the unicorn Patrick Mahomes needed less than three minutes to put his team in front, 6-3. And if Chiefs kicker Harrison Butler hadn’t had such a dreadful night, beginning with a missed extra point on the first touchdown, the score truly would have been worse than 34-20.
From there, Kansas City was off to the races (it’s Preakness Week; see what I did there?), never looking back, as every Ravens shortcoming was exposed, just as they were in last September’s regular-season loss to the Chiefs and in the last two first-round home playoff losses to San Diego and to Tennessee.
The Ravens do two things very well – run the football on offense and stop the run on defense. They have no passing game to speak of because quarterback Lamar Jackson doesn’t/can’t throw outside the numbers and defenses, as the Chiefs’ did Monday night, take away the middle routes. Then when Jackson does make the good throw, it seems that tight end Mark Andrews or the team’s lone deep threat Marquise Brown are sure to make the big drop, as they did on Monday, and as they had previously done in the playoff loss to the Titans.
Defensively, despite the expensive additions of defensive ends Calais Campbell and Derek Wolfe, neither do the Ravens have an edge pass rush. (The Ravens were close to acquiring Jadeveon Clowney in a sign and trade just prior to the season, but were blocked by the league.) The only way they are able to pressure the quarterback is to constantly blitz, which, as we saw Monday night, doesn’t work out too well against a quarterback like Mahomes. But then, what does work well against Patrick Mahomes?
Offensively, the Ravens seem to get away from their powerful running game too quickly in big games, which makes no sense. They should be taking the mindset of a high school wing-T offense and run the football first, first, first regardless if they are down early or not because they have four extremely talented running backs in rotation and their offensive line is built to run-block and not pass block.
Yet too often they get away from the running game early, perhaps feeling by doing so they are freeing up more opportunities to run. But a team cannot do that if it does not have an effective and reliable passing game, which the Ravens do not have.
Matter of fact, the only way the Ravens were even able to make a bit of a game of it in the second half was by going back to the running game.
Yes, it was only Week 3, but it will be worth following what kind of effect this catastrophe will have on the Ravens – another highly anticipated game at home with a chance to show the nation they’re all that and a pack of baseball cards, only to create the perception that they’re merely the stale stick of bubble gum coated in that white powdery stuff.
Not only that, the Chiefs are so deep into the Ravens’ collective head it’s not funny. The Ravens were out-prepared, out-smarted, out-played and out-coached on Monday night, kind of the way Michigan always is when they play Ohio State (that isn’t very nice).
Yet, just as Michigan usually has the Outback Bowl or the Alamo Bowl to fall back on after losing to the Buckeyes, the Ravens, after belching their wine while sitting at the grown-ups table, must now prepare for a trip to beautiful Landover on Sunday for the Maryland state championship game with Football Team. The series stands at 3-3, with Football Team having won the last two.
Keep your eyes peeled for the virtual pep rallies.
And play the Preakness.
Hail!
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
In this weeks episode, we hit double digits and discuss two great people who left us this past week. RBG was a woman who was all about leveling the playing field and ensuring that equal rights were at the forefront of her trailblazing law career. An avid O's fan RBG made it possible for women have the same opportunities to play sports, buy a car, a house and have credit independent of a man.
Gayle Sayers another giant in his field, is best summed up in Mike Burkes second article of the week which can be found HERE
We as alway wax poetic on the sports world with the injuries of the NFL and what the definition of a "bubble" to help out the MLB execute it correctly.
The death of Gale Sayers brought back a flood of memories from the days of our knowing what we saw during and after an NFL game was genuine and real; not contrived or part of some elaborate production. Or at least that’s what we led ourselves to believe.
It was the Wonder Years for many of us, those years of 1965 through 1971 when Gale Sayers was carrying the football for the Chicago Bears the way nobody had carried it before or has since, and doing so as the fulltime halfback, punt returner and kick returner, no less.
The Vietnam War was raging for reasons known only to Robert McNamara and the Pentagon, but we didn’t know that. Just as we had the NFL, we believed that it was for genuine cause and for real purpose; not contrived or part of some elaborate production. At least that’s what we let ourselves believe in the early years when Sayers was a mere rookie out of Kansas, yet set the professional football world on fire with a season the likes of which had never been seen before, or has been since.
Sayers scored 22 touchdowns his rookie season (just 14 games then) – 14 by rush, six as a receiver and two on kick returns. Yet it wasn’t that he found the end zone so often, it was the manner in which he found it that captured, then became the imagination of a nation of football fans. Gale Sayers was electric. He was stop on a dime fantastic; he was energizing as hell, running with speed, power and precision and insanity all at once.
He was big enough (6-0, 198 pounds) and strong enough to get the tough yards from scrimmage, and he was absolute grease lightning enough to turn the “18 inches of daylight” he said was all he needed to break out of a pile so quickly that in seemingly a second of time he was the only player on the screen as he finished his trot into the end zone.
On Dec. 12, 1965, against the San Francisco 49ers, Sayers accounted for 336 all-purpose yards and scored an NFL record six touchdowns. That’s in one game.
In a career cut short by dreadful knee injuries (68 games), Sayers rushed for 4,956 yards and averaged over five yards a carry, and scored 39 touchdowns on the ground – 56 total. As a returner, Sayers scored six touchdowns and averaged more than 30 yards per kickoff return, with two touchdowns and 14.5 yards per punt return.
For me, Gale Sayers and John Unitas were the true glamour of what pro football was meant to be – two strong and iron tough men, who could take any pounding, yet withstood and conquered those poundings with such style, grace and guile.
Sayers, Unitas and the Green Bay Packers were the pro football experience of the 1960s. Overcast autumn Sunday afternoons at Wrigley Field, Memorial Stadium and Lambeau Field were meant to be because of them.
The Packers of Vince Lombardi were so good and so respected by football fans everywhere (except Chicago) that when they beat your team in a tough playoff game – and the Baltimore Colts lost two brutal playoff games to the Packers – you still rooted for them the following week to keep winning and then to go on to win the championship. Which they did.
I’ve always believed that if there has ever been a perfect television series (and there is no such thing as perfect anything other than, perhaps, a cold glass of beer), that series would be “The Wonder Years,” which takes place between 1968 and 1973. Perhaps I feel that way because Kevin Arnold, the central character of the show, was the same age in the show that I was in real life during those years.
The writers and the producers did such an amazing job of capturing the essence and the authenticity of what that time stood as for all of us, even though we hadn’t yet realized it. They truly were the Wonder Years. Everything and everybody around us – our families, our friends, our schools, our neighborhoods, our nation and our world – really were coming of age all at once. Yet we knew then that at any time, it could all burst apart, just as it very easily could now. But at least then, there seemed to have been a purpose for it.
That included pro football, which was in full-stride of overtaking baseball as the nation’s most-watched sport (but never national pastime; get that straight) – the Lombardi Packers, Halas’ Monsters of the Midway, the Fearsome Foursome, the Purple People Eaters and the shiny new high-tech Dallas Cowboys and the head coach in the funny hat.
Then seemingly, like every other Great American Success Story, corporate greed and network television decided to make the pie bigger. Gamblers were no longer an unwelcome part of the landscape, they had become the landscape and sadly remain so to this day (why do you think the NFL demands injury reports?).
A World Championship Game, which included the upstart rival league AFL, was created, and after the third one – because of the third one (strange days, indeed) – professional football had been changed forever.
Has it changed for the better? Certainly, it has changed for the bigger, for the richer and for the greedier. But better? Let’s put it this way: I watch. But only between sagacious think points during our Tavern Mensa meetings.
Of course I’m getting older (trust me, it’s the most appealing option), but this isn’t some old guy screaming at the wind. I count my blessings as a sports fan to have seen the NFL when it was the NFL on television once a week rather than the 24/7/365 #NFLTheTVShow.
There’s nothing wrong with it now – it’s television. It was just better then when it was pro football.
“The Green Fields of the Mind,” by the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, is among the greatest pieces of baseball literature ever written. No such literature about football exists because the nature of the game itself makes that impossible. But let’s put it this way …
For those of us from The Wonder Years, the most beautiful sight to behold on any kind of a green football field of the mind, will forever remain Gale Sayers running the football.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
By Mke Burke
Anybody who says they saw any of this coming as it pertains to the 2020 Major League baseball season needs to just get off the bus right here, because nobody in the world could have foreseen any of what we’ve seen since the never-before-seen 60-game regular season opened at the end of July.
Nobody knew what to expect and the season of unknowns has not disappointed in that regard, as teams have been shut down for extended periods of time due to COVID-19 outbreaks (hard to believe with groups of 40 traveling around the country together over a two-plus month span of time), seven-inning Rec League games constituting doubleheaders and softball rules being used to start extra innings.
Yes, even for a season we were even lucky (others would say foolish) to have, Commissioner Rob Manfred has been doing his utmost to make the great game of baseball disappear before our very eyes once and for all. Too bad the same cannot be done with him.
Here in Maryland, the Baltimore Orioles originally opened work in February in Sarasota, Fla., preparing for what everybody believed would be a 162-game schedule since we had been assured from on high that there was nothing to see here, that this annoying little virus would merely disappear within a matter of days and that we should simply carry on being our old self-indulgent, greedy American selves.
In the meantime, with few if any expectations to begin with, the 2020 Orioles received an early jolt right out of the box, as their best player, right fielder Trey Mancini, was diagnosed with colon cancer and immediately left the team to begin treatment.
On Monday, Mancini completed his six-month chemotherapy treatment and he and the Orioles have maintained throughout the process that he could have a full recovery and be available for the 2021 season.
Without their best player, and with an over-under Vegas win projection of 20.5, the Orioles opened their season Friday, July 24 at Fenway Park with a perfectly dreadful, yet not unexpected by many, 13-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox.
The Opening Day beatdown by the Sawx was so brutal that it prompted Red Sox color analyst Dennis Eckersley to get a dig at his good friend Jim Palmer, who is an Orioles analyst, by saying on the NESN broadcast, “You know what would be a tough job? To be an announcer for the Baltimore Orioles.”
Sixty-one days later, on Tuesday night, as the Orioles begin the final week of their regular season with a three-game series in Boston, Baltimore stands in fourth place in the American League East with a 23-31 record, while the Sox find themselves sitting in fifth place of the five-team division with a 20-34 record.
Thus, the teams will take it down to the wire these final six games to determine whether it will be Eckersley, or Palmer, who has only been on Orioles games via a feed from his home, who will have had the tougher job this season.
That the Orioles are already 2.5 wins over their Vegas win projection (the Sawx, conversely, open the series at minus-11.5 on theirs) and find their magic number for avoiding last place (any combination of Orioles wins and Red Sox losses over the final six games) at four, is nothing to sneeze at, though there is certain to be a nip this week in the New England night air.
Manager Brandon Hyde and general manager Mike Elias have done a terrific job keeping the Orioles watchable and, most importantly, competitive this season, particularly when you consider all of their games have come against the American League East and the National League East.
Sure, there remain a couple of teams that, in the words of the great Jim Bouton in “Ball Four,” that the Orioles “have no business scheduling,” such as the New York Yankees (3-7 this season) and the Toronto Blue Jays (1-6), but, as we’ve always known, you can’t pick your family or who’s in your division.
Granted, the Orioles did end a 20-game losing streak to the Yankees a couple of weeks ago, but with the way the teams are constituted at this point, the Yankees and the Blue Jays are just not good match-ups for the Orioles and, frankly, have not been for some time.
Maybe that is finally changing, at least toward a more competitive plane, as the Orioles have finally begun to promote players from their revamped and highly improved farm system to the big-league level, including at least five young plus-tooled outfielders and four to five quality starting pitchers, all of whom have made not-bad to impressive major-league debuts over the past month.
Rome was not built in a day, of course, and the Orioles have shown throughout the season that while they are capable of hitting, they are not very good at hitting in situations – such as runners in scoring position with less than two out. Their defense is also pretty bad and their baserunning has been even worse.
So, yes, naturally, there is a way to go for this team as far as being a contending team is concerned because Elias’ plan to make the Orioles that contending organization is to do it completely from within, and that means by stockpiling as much talent as possible at all levels of the organization, not just at the major-league level.
Still, regardless of what happens over the final six games, Orioles fans have to like what they’ve seen during this miserable little shell of a baseball season. For not only has this team competed to the final out in most every game this season, there have been enough flashes of genuine, young baseball talent on display in just about every game to tempt you to get that How Many Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report countdown started even earlier than usual.
And then, I suppose, just continue to wait for this virus to just magically go away.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
We kick off this weeks episode talking about the surprise reversal of Big 10 football in a few weeks. There will be eight games in the regular season. We have to say we did not see this comings since football will be the only Big 10 sport to have a season.
Switching to the NFL, they have finally decided to embrace social justice issues in a bid to still be relevant and lets face it, help their bottom line. Our local teams all won their first game back, with the Ravens creating Mo's Rows 575 cardboard cut outs of Maryland's own Mo Gabba.
In keeping with the #NFL the tv show... Mike Burke has written his first column for YDKJ, it can be found here in the podcast feed and on our Facebook page!
The NBA in their bubbles and are firmly in play-off mode, which means excellent basketball for all of us!
Remember You Don't Know Jack
It’s just all part of the show …
By Mike Burke
“Why do they keep showing this?”
That was the most overheard question at the beginning of each #NFLTheTVShow presentation last Sunday afternoon during the reconvening of our weekly – okay, daily -- Tavern Mensa session.
It was finally football season again, such as it may or may not end up being, and all the lads in attendance carried an extra giddy-up to their step. This was, after all, our first full-fledged meeting since #NFLTheTVShow closed the curtain on yet another hit season to rave reviews and ratings way back in February with its annual season-finale, which, I understand, some people like to call … the Super Bowl?
There wasn’t a care to be had. After all, the reach of the Monday morning alarm clock was still a good 15 to 18 hours away for those currently fortunate enough to still have to answer it, and all the boys were together once more to revel in each other’s company, as well as our lies (that grow in scale with each new swig of hops) and to watch football all day long.
Our world’s troubles had been left at the door. Yet, somehow, they found their way all at once to the dozen television screens hanging in our Mensa hall, as those annoying networks persisted on showing us members of competing teams joining forces to protest racial injustices in the United States with their various forms of unified and personal demonstration.
The demonstrations had begun on Thursday night when the Houston Texans remained in their locker room for the playing of the national anthem before their game with Kansas City, a form of demonstration that was repeated by a number of NFL teams on Sunday.
Players who chose to demonstrate on the field during the national anthem took knees, raised fists and locked arms with teammates and opponents alike. There were many methods of protest on display over the weekend, and that’s what seemed to bother a select number of viewers from our little peanut gallery the most – that they were on display. “Why are the networks showing this? Politics has no place in sports!”
Politics has no place in sports? Where have you been picking up your mail for the past century, Never Never Land?
Politics has been the core fabric of sports – organized sports – since the beginning of time, starting with the original Olympic Games nearly 3,000 years ago which were held as a religious festival in honor of Zeus, the king of the gods. (Not long before Budweiser became the King of Beers.) I mean, what’s ever been more political than religion? Then throw in some organized sports and some know-it-all parents and you might as well just stage a convention.
Just since the beginning of the 20th century, we’ve had the politics of Jack Johnson, Jim Thorpe, the Black Sox, the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Jackie Robinson, The Cleveland Summit and Muhammad Ali, the 1968 Summer Olympics, the 1972 Munich Olympics and haven’t stopped since. Nor will we. For as Washington Nationals relief pitcher Sean Doolittle said in March, “Sports are the reward of a functioning society.”
Just how functioning our society stands at the moment is a matter of debate, but that politics and sports are intertwined has remained a constant and continues to stand the test of time.
This is nothing new. The only difference this time around is it’s being tolerated; actually, sanctioned and mass produced by the National Football League, which suddenly is wearing its new-found social justice on its shield as though it had been there for centuries.
Aside from the fact that the demonstrations are the news of the day – not the entertainment of the day for a functioning society – the networks are showing them because #NFLTheTVShow is their meal ticket and the NFL has sold out to the movement at hand, having five days ago launched its new brand campaign (what do you know?), “It Takes All Of Us.”
Unless, of course, your name is Colin Kaepernick or Eric Reid.
That’s right, Commissioner Roger Goodell and his 32 bosses are suddenly on board and, certainly, it’s not a bad thing that they’re on board, even if most of their cold black hearts aren’t really into being on board.
What the NFL is on board with is the brand – any brand, as long as it sells. They’ve done a 180 turn because they have no choice but to go with the brand of the players, because it is the brand of the athlete these days that sells; not the brand of the league, or even a particular team.
The heavily coveted young market – the same market Weasel Rob Manfred claims he is trying to destroy the game of baseball for – follows players first and the brand they promote and the products they sell. It’s no longer about the team with the current market – the way the Pittsburgh Steelers, Oakland Raiders and L.A. Lakers were in the ‘70s and ‘80s, for instance. The team stuff will come once the player is determined – Jordan, Kobe, LeBron, Tom Brady. Players don’t stay in one place any more for their entire careers. There’s too much money to be had wearing another team’s stuff.
And the NFL has finally caught on and, yes, Goodell admitted that, Gee whiz, maybe we should have listened to what “Kaep” was trying to tell us a few years ago. Goodell had his epiphany when he said he realized the “misrepresentation” of what Kaepernick and other players had been doing in their peaceful protests – “exercising their right to bring attention to something that needs to get fixed” – “gnawed” at him.
Then that means he didn’t understand what had been happening in communities around the country and he really was the privileged and stupid Country Club junior executive waiting in the wings for his turn at the corner office?
No, Goodell understood. He just didn’t want to see because he was afraid to cross Jerry Jones and the likes. But now the likes are following another brand, and there’s their boy Goodell leading the parade. So now what’s a little peaceful protest or two before each #NFLTheTVShow, particularly now that we’ve marketed our own brand for it?
You don’t like it? Look away. Because now it’s all just part of the show.
Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at mikeburke934@gmail.com, or YDKJackpodcast@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.
The US Open is fantastic as always with a wins for Serena and her well on her way to a final game to vie for her 24th major win. Djokovic has been DQ'd after a serious gaff when hitting a line judge in the neck. We however are excited to see what new talent emerges on the Mens side now that the #1 seed is out.
25 years ago Cal Ripkin Jr. celebrated his fantastic milestone of 2131 the most games played by any player in the MLB and still has not been broken. Mike discusses what it was like to be there on the historic 2130, and 2131 nights. Cal also disclosed that he had and was successfully treated for Prostate Cancer, encouraging anyone with a prostate over the age of 50 to get regular PSA checks.
With the NFL kicking off their season last night, we felt it only fitting to give our predictions on the over and under for the year. We all know that getting even to the playoffs will be a very difficult task to pull off with a 53 men traveling... but here we are.
Finally we talk about two baseball greats, Lou Brock and Tom Seavers who we lost this past week.
Be on the look out for Mike's First Column back from a year hiatus, you will be able to find links to his fantastic work on our Facebook page.
This week, we cover the US open, the latest with the Washington Football Club, and the loss of the great and history making John Thompson.
US open looks and sounds a lot different this year without the wonderful NYC crowd that rallies behind the players for two weeks in the late summer evenings.
NFL: Taking charge of the Daniel Snyder investigation and retained the heavy hitter Beth Wilkinson to conduct the investigation.
Finally, John Thompson the first black coach to win an NCAA championship in 1984 and opened the doors for minority coaches on the collegiate level. In his words"Big Ace is Cool"
Have questions for us. Drop us a line on Twitter
Matt @JMPGGPMG
Mike @MikeMDT
Lydia @RTLPOD
This weeks episode we talk about the fact that we are far from a functioning society that deserves sport. Washington Football has 25 more sexual misconduct allegations in a great piece in the Washington Post
As teams move toward boycotts of games in hopes that it will enhance the simple right of respecting of black lives.
We are asking that you make your voice heard this November and VOTE! If you know of someone who might struggle to make it to the polls help in anyway that is safe.
We can and we must do better.
Get in contact with us: @MikeBurkeMDT @JMGGMPG and @RTLPOD
This week we remember the great Jim Refosco and the brilliance of his coaching and the famous Wing T. We then pivot to the newly named head coach of Fort Hill Football Zach Alkire, and finally we discuss the glory of the NBA and the folly of the O's.
All that and more with Mike Burke and Matt Gilmore.
Heads up: Remember those who are less fortunate in your local community and if you can make a donation to your local food banks or community pantries.
It is becoming clear that without the use of technology we would not be enjoying professional sports during the time of COVID. The NBA and NHL have embraced the widespread use and so far it is working.
The cancellation of all fall sports in the area is putting safety first but students will be understandably are disappointed, but time marches on and we have some insight into the new football head coach of Fort Hill High School with eight candidates in the running.
We are introducing a new segment to the show this week.. YDKJ goes to the movies..
This week we are kicking it off with The Natural, in honor of Americas favorite past time.
The MLB did not make it a week without issues, NFL is allowing players to opt out, fall college sports is some leagues are cancelled. Can the NBA succeed with it's bubble??
Listen for our take on the action!
It is hard to talk about sports without mentioning the hardships of being in the throughs of a pandemic, but we are doing our best to still break down games, teams, and our outlook remains positive.
The best example of positivity was in Mo Gabba, a birdland hall of fame inductee and all around wonderful guy. Mo lost his battle with cancer this week and we join in remembering how wonderful a life he lead in his short 14 years.
Subscribe to the show and follow us on Twitter!
Matt Gilmore: @JMGGMPG
Mike Burke: @MikeBurke MDT
We cover a lot of ground in this weeks episode. We kick things off with the retirement of Todd Appel. After 12 years Todd leaves with the most wins in Allegany County football history and is added to the great legacy of coaches in our area.
We pivot to the Washington Football team and the "dumpster fire" they have created for themselves and delve a little deeper into the history of the culture of the team.
Finally, at long last Opening Day is here!!
We discuss the beauty of good scouting, healthy players, and leaving it all on the field with only 60 games to play. Matt starts our over/under tournament for this season, with our "local" teams and a few extra special ones too.
Mike and Matt would love to hear what you think, follow them on
Mike Burke: @MikeBurke MDT
Matt Gilmore: @JMGGMPG
Or send an email to YDKJpodcast@gmail.com
What will high school, collegiate, and professional sports look like in the age of COVID-19? Mike Burke and Matt Gilmore are digging into that topic on their very first podcast.
In this episode we introduce ourselves and give you are credentials to let you know, we are well worth your time!
Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBurkeMDT. Follow Matt on Twitter @@JMGGMPG