Hang Up and Listen: The Whore No More Edition
Slate’s sports podcast on LeBron’s return to Cleveland, the NFL in London, and ESPN’s documentary Brothers in Exile.
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In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca talk to Whore of Akron author Scott Raab about LeBron’s return to Cleveland, the Cavaliers’ slow start, and whether it matters if King James wins a title for his home state team. They examine the NFL’s obsession with London and the viability of locating a team in England. Finally, they review ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary Brothers in Exile, on Cuba’s baseball-playing Hernandez siblings, Livan and Orlando.
Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:
- Scott Raab’s book The Whore of Akron.
- Raab welcomed LeBron James back to Cleveland.
- ESPN’s Brian Windhorst says James is adopting a new leadership style, and James says the team needs to break bad habits and learn to be unselfish.
- LeBron says everyone needs to RELAX.
- The NFL is making teams play in London if they want to host the Super Bowl.
- The NFL has said it would like to have a team in London by 2022.
- ESPN UK sees at least three problems with the plan to have a team in London.
- NFL UK head Alistair Kirkwood talked to the NPR show Here and Now about the prospects for a team in London.
- The English Football Association is open to playing national team games outside of Wembley Stadium if London gets an NFL team.
- Last year's 49ers-Jaguars game got very little coverage in the British media.
- The cast of the Golden Girls spent Thanksgiving 1988 in London, performing for the queen, who was a huge fan.
- Watch a trailer for Brothers in Exile, the newest 30 for 30 film.
- In 2001, the New York Times reviewed the Duke of Havana by Steve Fainaru and Ray Sanchez.
- This summer in Grantland, Jonah Keri wrote about the evolution of the Cuban baseball pipeline.
- FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan explores the width of the strike zone in Livan Hernandez’s 1997 NLCS win over the Atlanta Braves.
- A 1996 New York Times story on agent Joe Cubas.
- The Wall Street Journal’s Christopher Rhoads on Juan Ignacio Hernández Nodar, who spent 13 years in prison for trying to help baseball players leave Cuba.
- Last month, Jorge Arangure Jr. wrote in Vice about Cuban defectors who don't make it in Major League Baseball.
- In April, Jesse Katz wrote in Los Angeles Magazine about Yasiel Puig's journey from Cuba to America.
Hang Up and Listen’s weekly Linareses:
Mike’s Linares: Toy Talk Radio debates who should be inducted to the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Stefan’s Linares: Remembering the creator of the egalitarian but slightly confusing game of speedball.
Josh’s Linares: An 1883 baseball match-up between teams of one-legged and one-armed men.
On this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca discuss the etiquette of tearing down goalposts and rushing the court. Slate Plus members get an ad-free version of this podcast with bonus segments. Visit slate.com/hangupplus, and try it free for two weeks.
Podcast production and edit by Mike Vuolo. Links compiled by Chris Laskowski.
You can email us at hangup@slate.com.