Saturday, October 2, 2010

The MLB Playoffs will kick off on Sunday. Will the Phillies stay hot and go to their third straight World Series? Can anyone in the American League knock off the Yankees? Bill looks ahead to postseason baseball.

Not only did the USA Ryder Cup team have to deal with heavy rain during the opening matches, their rain suits didn’t even work. Now, with a new set of waterproof clothes, the Americans are prepared for whatever elements the Welsh weather can throw at them. Bill speaks with Sports Illustrated’s Alan Shipnuck about the wet and sloppy open to the tournament.

The NFL has become the richest and most popular professional sports league in the country. So why is it cutting off some fans from seeing their local team on TV by sticking to its blackout policy? WFAE’s Scott Graf reports from Charlotte, North Carolina, home of the Carolina Panthers.

Title IX has significantly increased women’s involvement in college sports over the last four decades. But recently, the difficult economic climate has forced colleges to play numbers games with roster sizes and cut many men’s sports. Bill discusses the recent implications of the law with John Powers of the Boston Globe.

It would be a mistake to write off John Lardner as only the son of the celebrated humorist Ring. “John Lardner was funny, but not like his old man,” Red Smith wrote. “He was funny like John Lardner, a bonafide original.” Bill speaks with John Schulian, editor of the John Lardner Reader, a long-awaited collection of the younger Lardner’s work released fifty years after the writer’s death.

Anyone know which supermarket sells that steroid meat Alberto Contador’s been eating? Charlie Pierce joins Bill to discuss the cyclist’s strange doping explanation and the rest of the week’s sports news.

Last week, either Collingwood or St. Kilda was supposed to become the league champion for Australian Rules Football. Instead, the two teams will play again after their first match ended in a tie. While some were upset by the result, Bill says in his commentary that two championship games have to be better than one.

Tommy Heinsohn has been berating referees and opposing players in his raspy voice for over 20 years as the Boston Celtics TV color man. So it may surprise some viewers to hear that Heinsohn is an accomplished artist. Bill discusses art and basketball with the NBA Hall of Famer at an exhibit featuring some of Heinsohn’s New England landscapes.