Listen to Hang Up and Listen with Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:
Subscribe in iTunes ∙ RSS feed ∙ Download ∙ Play in another tab
Slate Plus members: Get your ad-free podcast feed.
Become a fan of Hang Up and Listen and join the discussion of this episode on Facebook here:
In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca are joined by Yahoo’s Jeff Passan to discuss how Major League Baseball became the sport of labor peace and to talk about Japanese hitting and pitching superstar Shohei Otani. They also assess the most interesting man in the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ J.R. Smith. Finally, George Dohrmann joins the show to discuss whether it’s a scandal that the NFL is marketing itself to children.
Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:
- Follow Jeff Passan on Twitter.
- Passan’s column for Yahoo on Major League Baseball’s new collective-bargaining agreement.
- Eric Stephen of SB Nation on Shohei Otani, the Japanese star who might be coming to MLB after the 2017 season.
- FanGraphs’ Dave Cameron asked, “How Good Is Shohei Otani?”
- The Cleveland Cavaliers’ J.R. Smith gave up an easy dunk when he gave an opponent a hug during a game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
- Deadspin’s collected coverage of J.R. Smith.
- The Ringer’s Jason Concepcion says LeBron James is not letting Smith out of his sight.
- Read profiles of Smith by Devin Friedman in GQ and by Charles Bethea in the New Yorker.
- Watch Smith’s daughter talk about her dad, and listen to his comments about how much he loves his parents.
- Follow George Dohrmann on Twitter.
- Read George Dohrmann’s piece for Huffington Post Highline, “Hooked for Life: Inside the NFL’s relentless, existential, Big Tobacco–style pursuit of your children.”
- In Slate, Daniel Engber wrote, “The NFL Is Not Big Tobacco.”
- For Vice Sports, Patrick Hruby asked whether high-school football should be abolished.
Hang Up and Listen’s weekly Real Tahirys:
Mike’s Real Tahiry: Former Philadelphia 76ers exec Sam Hinkie listens to audiobooks at three times the speed. What does that sound like?
Stefan’s Real Tahiry: On a D.C.-area youth football team’s quest to play in something called the American Youth Football National Championships.
Josh’s Real Tahiry: Enough with columnists and commentators getting angry about college football coaching searches.
On this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Josh and Mike quiz Stefan about the secrets he’s learned as an award-winning girls’ soccer coach. Should the courts get involved? Visit slate.com/hangupplus and try it free for two weeks.
Podcast production and edit by Mickey Capper.
Our intern is Shane Monaghan.
You can email us at hangup@slate.com.
