Saturday, October 24, 2009

Midway through college football’s season, Bill and Los Angeles Times football writer Chris Dufresne discuss the recently released Bowl Championship Series rankings, which teams are living up to their preseason hype, and which campus will be celebrating come January.

This year the University of Wisconsin celebrates the 100th birthday of “On Wisconsin,” the university’s fight song.  Only A Game’s Kirk Carapezza has the story of one of the nation’s most storied school ballads.

Perhaps the most talked-about story in baseball’s postseason has been the astonishing number of bad calls made by umpires.  Bill talks with former Major League Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent and Bryce Miller of the Des Moines Register about the state of baseball’s umpires.

Until his son grew too old, Jesse Katz was a Little League dad.  He coached his son’s teams and was even the all-powerful baseball commissioner of the Monterey Park Sports Club in Southern California.  But while Katz’s memoir, The Opposite Field, is set against the backdrop of Little League dreams, the book is really about Katz’s own growth as a parent.

From Marcus Jordan’s footwear to Mark Cuban’s view on steroids and the Mets’ financial windfall, Bill and Only A Game commentator Charlie Pierce discuss all of the week’s top sports stories.

Unless you’re an avid huntsman, you probably don’t know much about the sport of beagling.  Reporter Sarah Montague spent weekends with beagling enthusiasts and found more than tweed hats, Wellies, and Snoopy.