Hang Up and Listen: The Two Guys Punching Each Other in the Face Edition
Slate’s sports podcast on Mayweather–Pacquiao, Alex Rodriguez and Kobe Bryant, and rules for making baseball games faster
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This episode is brought to you by The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, the new documentary series from HBO, airing Sundays at 8 p.m. only on HBO.
In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca are joined by Grantland’s Eric Raskin to discuss the long-awaited boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. They also talk about Alex Rodriguez and Kobe Bryant, both of whom are aiming for media makeovers as their careers come to an end. Finally, they look at new rules designed to make baseball speedier, and whether faster games will be any more exciting.
Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:
- Follow Eric Raskin on Twitter.
- After five years, the Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight is finally going to happen.
- Mayweather and Pacquiao not fighting was the 2010 Ring Magazine event of the year.
- Grantland’s staff discusses the Mayweather–Pacquiao fight.
- In 2011, Raskin wrote about Mayweather protecting his undefeated record.
- Bill Simmons called the 2007 fight between Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya “boxing’s swan song.”
- Boxing’s next big star could be Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan.
- Daniel Roberts’ 2014 Deadspin piece “The Trouble With Floyd Mayweather.”
- Alex Rodriguez wrote a hand-written apology letter to his fans.
- A transcript of Rodriguez’s PED admission news conference from 2009.
- J.R. Moehringer’s long feature for ESPN, “The Education of Alex Rodriguez.”
- Suzyn Waldman says A-Rod is “impossible to dislike.”
- Ben McGrath’s 2014 New Yorker profile of Kobe Bryant.
- Chuck Klosterman’s interview with Bryant for GQ.
- Clips from the Showtime documentary Kobe Bryant’s Muse.
- Major League Baseball has introduced new rules designed to speed up games.
- The minor leagues will experiment with a pitch clock this season.
- ESPN.com’s Buster Olney says a pitch clock is inevitable.
- Back in 2011, Josh wrote that he’s no longer capable of watching a baseball game without DVR.
Hang Up and Listen’s weekly Human Rain Delays:
Mike’s Human Rain Delay: Thanks in part to some terrible competition, UConn women’s basketball is as dominant as ever.
Stefan’s Human Rain Delay: A history of the four corners and an infamous low-scoring college basketball game.
Josh’s Human Rain Delay: The Princeton professor who invented a gun that shot baseballs.
On this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca discuss the latest twists in the ongoing, weirder-by-the-day Deflategate saga. 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.
You can email us at hangup@slate.com.