Episode Seventy-Three - Castle (Pay) Walls

The dear, departed National. Is The Athletic its spiritual successor? 

The podcast returns after a medically-related hiatus to a jam-packed sports calendar. To help discuss it, we are very honored to have on the show Stephen Brunt from Sportsnet and the Fan 590 in Toronto.

First, we discuss Stephen's return to co-host Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown, the genesis of his return, sharing the co-host chair with former pod guest Richard Deitsch and more. That segues into a discussion about sports journalism in 2018, the pay model of things like The Athletic and Second Captains, sportswriters moving to TV and and radio, the late, lamented National Sports Daily and what demographics will pay for content, sports or otherwise. 

Then, we talk about a variety of sports topics, including the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Maple Leafs struggles vs the Bruins, playoff predictions, the CONCACAF Champions League final between Toronto FC and Chivas de Guadalajara, the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, Arsene Wenger leaving Arsenal, the recent HBO documentary on Andre the Giant, the passing of Bruno Sammartino and more. 

You can hear Stephen on Prime Time Sports (when he is the co-host) 5-7 PM weekdays on the Fan 590 and read him on Sportsnet.ca. You can also get his books on Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Muhammad Ali and more at Amazon and the other usual places they are sold. 

Episode Seventy-One - Rock Me Salieri

Pep and Jose, the prequel

The podcast returns before the holiday season kicks in discussing the world of futbol and more with Ken Early (@kenearlys) from the Irish Times and the Second Captains podcast (@secondcaptains). 

We start with how Ireland is dealing with their elimination from the World Cup and what the future holds for coaches Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane. That segues into a discussion about why they and the Irish national team have such a poor relationship in recent years with Everton.

Then, it's onto a chat about the Champions League, which resumed with Match Day Five when this episode debuted. From there, we talk about two of Ken's favorite subjects: Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola.  We examine the relationship between the two in Spain and now in the Premier League. To which historical rivals does Ken compare the two managers? And just how of The Special One's wrestling heel persona is a work?

Lastly, we talk about the Second Captains World Service podcast network, their move to becoming a paid subscription model earlier this year and the decision for Ken to a political podcast as one of their shows and the whole "stick to sports" opinion held by a segment of the sports fans around the world.

Note: The political chat starts around 34:30 and includes a number of current events.  If that's not your cup of tea, please feel free to give that section a pass. No offense taken.

You can join the Second Captains World Service at Patreon.  For US subscribers, it's (at current exchange rates) $5.35 a month for at least six podcasts a week. 

Episode Seventy - Here Come De Judge

Will the Cubs be able to defend their World Series crown? 

Just in time for playoff baseball,, we welcome back to the podcast the Managing Editor of Awful Announcing Joe Lucia (@joe_TOC).  We start with the news of the day, the resignation of Atlanta GM John Coppolella and which managed might get the pink slip this offseason.  We then give our picks for the American and National League Cy Young and MVP awards.  Then, it's a series-by-by-series breakdown of each round of the playoffs, culminating with who we each think will win the World Series. 

After that, it's some quick Premier League chat. As a Manchester City supporter, Joe is flying high at the moment, with his team top of the table when the podcast was recorded. Conversely, my Everton is under-performing and plenty of folks calling for the manager's head. We also give our thoughts on who may or may not end up in the relegation dogfight. 

Episode Sixty-Seven - Campeones, Campeones

Hot balls. The UEFA Champions League draw happened this week in Monaco.

With all sorts of news going on in the futbol word, we welcome ESPNFC journalist Gabriele Marcotti (@marcotti) to the show. We start with an analysis of the draws for the Champions League and Europa League, held this week in Monaco.  Which groups look the toughest and what are the prospects for the Premier League teams.  Then, we discuss the flurry of transfer activity this summer, including news just today that Ousmane Dembele is headed to Barcelona and Kylian Mbappe could be on the verge of joining Neymar at Paris St-Germain. That leads to a talk about PSG and Financial Fair Play, something Gab has written about over the last couple weeks.  We end the futbol talk with a look at Week Three in the Premier League, including the match at Stanford Bridge between Chelsea and Everton.

The rest of the show, we talk about how Gab became an ECW hardcore regular in the mid to late 1990s while a student at Penn.  What was his first trip to ECW Arena like? What angles does he remember seeing at the shows? Does he still keep up with the business in 2017?

We really want to thank Gab for his time, as the pod was recorded after he flew back this afternoon to London from Monaco. You can read Gab's work at ESPNFC.com, The Times (of London) [paywall] and you can hear him as the host of The Game podcast every Monday during the futbol season, on Soundcloud, iTunes, or most listening platforms.

Episode Thirty-Two - Fantastic Foxes

That's not Old Hickory. From the Lazarus Source book. (C) 2016 Greg Rucks & Michael Lark.

1:19 - the return of Greg Rucka (@ruckawriter). First up, comics chat, including the new Gotham Central omnibus (co-written with Ed Brubaker) (@brubaker), the Lazarus HC (co-created by Michael Lark (@michaellark66) and Lazarus source book, the Black Magick TPB (co-created by Nicola Scott (@nicolascottart), returning to Wonder Woman with Scott and Liam Sharp (@liamrsharp) and doing Star Wars books and comics. (20:36) Then futbol talk recorded during the Bayern Munich vs Atletico Madrid Champions League semi-final. We talk Leicester City winning the Premier League, improper winners, Champions and Europa League predictions, the Portland Timbers and other MLS news and more.

Episode Twenty-Four - Touchez Pas Au Chocolat

In the second of our Author Theory series, (01:19) Colleen Coover (@colleencoover) and Paul Tobin (@paultobin) join the show to talk about their award-winning comic Bandette, its origins and influences. We also talk about all-ages comics and their work on them, past work including Batman '66, Marvel Adventures and I Was the Cat. We also talk about Paul's forthcoming novel, The Genius Factor: How to Capture an Invisible Cat, out March 1.  Then we talk soccer, including the MLS Champion Portland Timbers and NWSL Portland Thorns, Barcelona vs Real Madrid, the pantomime villain behavior of Jose Mourinho and the dilemma of liking players on teams you can't stand.

(47:35) In the second segment,  we have reviews of two new outstanding Marvel titles: Illuminati by Josh Williamson (Williamson__Josn) and Shawn Crystal (@shawncrystal) and The Vision by Tom King (@TomKingTK) and Gabriel Hernandez Walta (@ghwalta).

Episode Twenty - Beside the Seaside

An extended vacation over the holidays means extra podcasts. Today, we're joined by Iain Hepburn, host of the From the Sublime (@fromthesublime) podcast to talk about (3:50) Partick Thistle Football Club and their potentially nightmare-inducing mascot Kingsley, (7:55) the NXT UK tour (he was at the Glasgow and Blackpool house shows), (17:13) contemporary comic book TV shows including Arrow, the upcoming Heroes of Tomorrow and the recently-released Jessice Jones. We also chat about classic British TV, both (24:02) British Sci-Fi and (35:55) British comedy and all the connections between the shows (Is there really an episode of Randall & Hopkirk, Deceased featuring Brian Blessed, Nick Courtney and Roger Delgado?) and (41:18) season 9 of Doctor Who.  There's even talk about Iain's former podcast, the gone-but=not-forgotten (47:40) Thumbcast  and the year-end episode of From the Sublime.

Episode Eighteen - The Author Theory 1

Hopeless Savages Break (C) 2015 Jen Van Meter

1:20 - Comics writer Jen Van Meter (@hopelessjen) discusses her @Onipress graphic novel Hopeless Savages Break. We talks about working with artists Meredith McClaren (@inquitousFish) and Christine Norrie (@christinenorrie) on the new book, past volumes of the series drawn by Norrie, Chynna Clugston Flores (@chynnasyndrome) and Bryan Lee O'Malley (@radiomaru), future stories, (9:56) her @ValiantComics series drawn by Roberto de la Torre The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage and (14:00) writing the Injustice Gang back in 2006 in JSA Classified. (17:00) We also talk about the MLS championship won last week by the Portland Timbers & the crazy plays in the match, (24:45) the Timbers being featured in Greg Rucka's (@ruckawriter) Stumptown and (28:10) life as a comics pro living in Portland.

30:55 - Yahoo Sports hockey editor of the Puck Daddy blog and the co-host of Marek vs Wyshynski podcast Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) discusses his new book Take Your Eye Off the Puck, its origin and contents, including chapters on fancy stats and cutting edge technology. (43:09) We also talk the current NHL Season, the hot start by Dallas, the slow start by Pittsburgh and Anaheim and Detroit post-Mike Babcock. Then we talk nerd culture, featuring (47:16) the just-finished season of Doctor Who, (57:19) binge TV watching and spoiler culture, (1:01:15) the resurrected MST3K and (1:07:15) new comics, including Saga, Batman and the new Marvel Star Wars books.