Sports podcasts

The Game Room
1

I listen to quite a few sports podcasts.

Baseball

ESPN’s Baseball Today is about 30 minutes. M-F during the season and once or twice a month in the off season. It features news, trade rumors, and previews of the day’s games. Usually sticks to the face, although there are some ‘rants’

Rangers Podcast in Arlington runs about an hour. It is usually once or twice per month. Pretty good coverage of the Rangers. There are some opinions expressed but they tend to avoid the full blown rant.

Baseball History Podcast. A short ten minute or so podcast giving a biography of a player from the past. I really like this one, they cover a lot of players I’ve not familiar with. Sometimes they’ll cover a historical stadium. Usually runs about once a week.

Football

ESPN’s Football Today has undergone a lot of changes in the 3 years. I like it as it is now. It runs M-F in the season and about once a week in the offseason. Right now, there is about 20 minutes of news and then one or two interviews. The previous host, Jeremey Green, was very opinionated and the show used lots of drops. I really got sick of it after a while. A little sarcasm can go a long way. 45 minutes of it with cute drops every 5 seconds was too much.

Arizona Cardinals podcasts. There are usually 2 per week in the season and whenever they feel like it in the off season. One of the podcasts is just a recording of a weekly radio show covering the Cardinals. The other one is a weekly recap/look ahead. Fun to listen to if the Cardinals won.

**Fantasy
**
ESPN’s Fantasy Focus has both baseball and football versions. They’re usually daily in season and once or twice a month in the off seasons. They run about 30 minutes. The problem is that there is usually only about 10 minutes of useful information in the podcast. The snark factor and inside jokes get very annoying very quickly. They spend way too much time talking about their Man’s league. There is NOTHING more boring that listen to someone else talk about their fantasy team.

CBSsports.com fantasy baseball usually runs 4 times a week. Straightforward, just the facts type approach. Unfortunately, their advice is usually geared to those playing in weekly head to head leagues. There is usually a recap of the previous day’s games and then some information on players to keep an eye on.

MLB.com Fantasy 411. I think this is a recording of a radio show. The sound quality isn’t the greatest so I have to turn up my ipod to max volume to hear it. Runs daily during the season, not sure about the off season since I just added it. Gives a 20 minute breakdown of what’s going in fantasy baseball.

Hockey.

Puck Podcast is my favorite sports podcast. Runs close to 2 hours long and is weekly throughout the year. Extensive coverage of everything in the NHL with game recaps taking up the first half of the podcast. The hosts are Kings and Ducks fan, but the podcast is pretty unbiased.

Blue Line Hockey Talk. Another lengthy podcast. Runs over an hour and is weekly. The hosts gives his opinion about everything going on in the NHL. I enjoy it, I can always skip ahead if I get tired of one of the rants. There is precious little hockey coverage on sports radio here, so I’ll take what I can get.

The Hockey News podcast. A recording of a radio show for XM radio. Pretty decent summary of what happened in the NHL that week with some interviews tossed in as well. 45 minutes in length, weekly during the season, monthly in the off season.

Defending Big D. Runs about an hour and usually monthly during the season. Coverage of the Dallas Stars. Another podcast with poor recording quality and I have to turn up the volume. About half news and half commentary on the Stars.

College Sports

ESPN college football podcast seems to change every season. Last season ran about 3 times per week during the season and every other week in the off season. The hosts vary, the hosts on Wednesday and during the off season focus more on the history and nostalgia of college football. During the season there was a recap show on Monday and a preview show for the upcoming week released on Thursday or Friday. I really got sick of the endless bitching about not having a college football playoff during some of the podcasts last year. I’m sure they’ll probably harp on conference realignment this year.

ESPN college basketball has a podcast. It changes all the time. There really hasn’t been a regular podcast which covers the whole sport in the past couple of years. Most of the time it is just an interview with a player or coach.

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Usually sticks to the facts of the game. LOL, not the face.

3

I’m not sure what you’re looking for with this thread, but if you’re looking for ideas or opinions, I used to like the stuff from www.mysportsradio.com. Unfortunately, a number of owner decisions made it gradually worse over a couple years and as far as I can tell the site has been dead for something like 15 months. However, there were some podcasts started by former employees, though I’m not sure how many of those are still up and running.

For general sports, both Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption have daily audio podcasts that are available fairly quickly after the shows air. There’s also an audio version of the Best of Mike and Mike that airs on one of the other ESPN channels later in the day.

4

I started the thread to be a discussion on sports podcasts. Figured it would do better here than in the Cafe.

5

Dave Dameshek on Demand (on ESPN) was my favorite sports-related podcast until Dameshek’s contract ran out with the Worldwide Leader at the end of last year. He has a new podcast that is much less sports-focused, but still highly entertaining, called Daves of Thunder (available on iTunes).

The other sports podcasts I listen to include ESPN’s The B.S. Report and the 30 for 30 series, both of which are hosted by Bill Simmons.

6

There is an English “F1 Sidepodcast” that has kind of dwindled with only a lap around the track from the upcoming race. But there are some “An aside with Joe” Saward, a journalist who has an online magazine that I haven’t checked out, GP+

It’s on hiatus now but NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s weekly call-in and interview show does give you a chance to hear a commissioner give you the straight BS. Two years ago it was “The Phoenix Coyotes are in no trouble, these rumors are false”, then it was “Yes, we advance them some money, there is nothing to it, we do this all time” and eventually it was “The Coyotes are in bankruptcy, but we are reorganizing. We support our fans”. His music choices are good, though. At least the calls about when Versus will be on DirectV have stopped. Now if only Cablevision will allow others to pick up the MSG HD feeds.

Also on hiatus is Don Cherry’s Grapeline with Brian Williams. Short and more succinct than his “Coach’s Corner” ramblings. Love him or hate him, the man voted the Seventh Greatest Canadian of all time always has some interesting anecdotes.

For the few remaining open wheel fans (thanks for nothing, Tony George) “Trackside Live” with Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee. Better during May is the “Talk of Gasoline Alley” with Indy 500 historian Donald Davidson. Mention some driver from the 1920s and most times Davidson can give you all kinds of stories about him, his life and what he did at Indianapolis

Touching more on cars but some racing it’s “Road and Track Live” with Ed Justice Jr and in the second hour on joined by David Miller. See if Ed can say “You Bet” more than David can say “You’re exactly right”. I am waiting for the trifecta when Swiss Miss Simona di Silvestri joins with “For Sure”. Don’t take it wrong Simona, you are talented, attractive and speak English better than me. Not to mention French, German and Italian as well.

I’ve started listening to “The Hockey Guys”. It seems pretty good. Can’t say if it is better than “Puck Podcast” Line of the year by Doug Stohlhand “The New York Islanders always listen to me. I told them it was a great idea to make their backup goalie Garth Snow their general manager”. Actually it was the first subject they ever covered and denounced.

7

There is an English “F1 Sidepodcast” that has kind of dwindled with only a lap around the track from the upcoming race. But there are some “An aside with Joe” Saward, a journalist who has an online magazine that I haven’t checked out, GP+

It’s on hiatus now but NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s weekly call-in and interview show does give you a chance to hear a commissioner give you the straight BS. Two years ago it was “The Phoenix Coyotes are in no trouble, these rumors are false”, then it was “Yes, we advance them some money, there is nothing to it, we do this all time” and eventually it was “The Coyotes are in bankruptcy, but we are reorganizing. We support our fans”. His music choices are good, though. At least the calls about when Versus will be on DirectV have stopped. Now if only Cablevision will allow others to pick up the MSG HD feeds.

Also on hiatus is Don Cherry’s Grapeline with Brian Williams. Short and more succinct than his “Coach’s Corner” ramblings. Love him or hate him, the man voted the Seventh Greatest Canadian of all time always has some interesting anecdotes.

For the few remaining open wheel fans (thanks for nothing, Tony George) “Trackside Live” with Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee. Better during May is the “Talk of Gasoline Alley” with Indy 500 historian Donald Davidson. Mention some driver from the 1920s and most times Davidson can give you all kinds of stories about him, his life and what he did at Indianapolis

Touching more on cars but some racing it’s “Road and Track Live” with Ed Justice Jr and in the second hour on joined by David Miller. See if Ed can say “You Bet” more than David can say “You’re exactly right”. I am waiting for the trifecta when Swiss Miss Simona di Silvestri joins with “For Sure”. Don’t take it wrong Simona, you are talented, attractive and speak English better than me. Not to mention French, German and Italian as well.

I’ve started listening to “The Hockey Guys”. It seems pretty good. Can’t say if it is better than “Puck Podcast” Line of the year by Doug Stohlhand “The New York Islanders always listen to me. I told them it was a great idea to make their backup goalie Garth Snow their general manager”. Actually it was the first subject they ever covered and denounced.