Backwards K Pod

Tris Speaker; The Grey Eagle

Today we celebrate the 125th birthday of the great but oft-forgotten Tris Speaker born April 4th, 1888. The legendary dead-ball era player who still holds the MLB record in doubles and assists from a Centerfielder. The former Hall Of Famer played for the Red Sox, Indians, Senators and Athletics and was easily a top five players of his generation. This is the story of a small town boy, who failed as a pitcher but would become an immortal with his bat, glove and legs. One of the finest ballplayers who ever lived, is now in the collection.
#TrisSpeaker #BostonRedSox #ClevelandIndians #WashingtonSenators #PhiladelphiaAthletics #TyCobb #JoeWood #BabeRuth #DuffyLewis

2023 Manager’s Death Pool Bonus Pod

The Snake makes his return to the Captain Kirk Chair, five days removed from hernia surgery, to celebrate his birthday with the fans, Opening Day to a new baseball season, as well as draw for the third Annual LTBPN Manager's Death Pool, sponsored by Lapyreaux's Crab and Fish Handcleaners.
Jake will draw names of audience members as well as names of the 30 current MLB managers... if the manager attached to your name gets fired, quits or God forbid dies during the 2023 season first,, you will win the Trophy.

Home Run Derby TV Show

In the first segment this week, International sports correspondent Abel Rosario calls in to talk second week of the World Baseball Classic. The Edwin Diaz drama, Japan's walkoff versus Mexico and the titanic matchup between Japan and the United States in the Championship Game. We will also give you the final power rankings of the Quarterfinal Field.
THe second segment, we perform an autopsy on the TV show from the 1960's, Home Run Derby. The concept was simple. Bring the best sluggers from the Major Leagues to Hollywood, and have them compete against each other, on TV, for a new concept called the Home Run Derby. The show became wildly popular and was destined to have a run, but tragedy would befall the show and it would only last one season. Even though the show was short-lived, it is still a cult classic today.
#MarkScott #HomeRunDerby #LouBreslow #WillieMays #MickeyMantle #Hollywood

World Baseball Classic

In the early 2000's baseball commissioner Bud Selig began thinking of ways to take Major League Baseball global. In May of 2005, he lays the groundwork for the ground breaking World Baseball Classic. It is the biggest international baseball tournament on the planet and it continues to grow bigger and bigger. This week we will examine the history of this baseball phenomenon, the WBC.
Show Friend and international sports expert Abel Rosario will call in the show, as we recap the current 2023 WBC tournament underway right now, and we give you our WBC Power Rankings from the first week of pool play.
#WorldBaseballClassic #WBC #BudSelig #MLB #NipponProfessionalBaseballLeague #KoreanBaseballOrganization

J.R. Richard: The Biggest Lion In The Valley

This week I honor my good friend J.R. Richard, on what would have been his 73rd birthday on March 7th.
His story, is the classic Greek tragedy, where our hero, at the height of his powers, is taken down by forces beyond his control.
Standing on the precipice of greatness and immortality, The Biggest Lion In The Valley, was nothing short of shock and awe for poor National League batters, as he overpowered his contemporaries with a dazzling array of 100 MPH fastballs. a slider that topped out at 94 MPH, and a curveball with serious bite, destroying lineups.
Shortly after, his memorable start in the 1980 All Star Game, he would collapse on the turf of the Astrodome, the victim of a stroke. From there his life spiraled downward out of control. as he lost his wife, his cars, his home, his businesses and his pride. He hit rock bottom, when it is discovered, he is living under a highway bridge, just minutes away from the Astrodome, where he once thrilled so many fans with his exploits. Eventually, JR would find himself back to living a normal life before his death in 2021, through the power of God and the small circle of friends he trusted around him. I am proud to say, I was one of those people. We had a friendship I will never forget. This is his story.
#HoustonAstros #JRRichard #BlackAces

Orioles Park at Camden Yards

This week, BKP picks up where we left off in our stadium shows to bring the history of the 10th oldest MLB ballpark, Orioles Park at Camden Yards. In order to save baseball from itself, Orioles President Larry Luchino, was convinced that the only way baseball was going to save itself, going into the 1990's, was by taking the game back to early 1900's, when baseball teams built majestic Jewel Box cathedrals, instead of multi-purpose monstrosities and artificial turf cookie cutters. Luchino was intent on making a ballpark that held all the modern technological advances, with a heavy dose of throwback idiosyncrisies and quirky playing surface.
And with that vision in mind, Orioles Park at Camden Yards was given birth and would change not only the way baseball fans would forever consume baseball live, but set the standard for every single ballpark made after her. Not only would the Yard set trends, but she sits on hallowed ground, as Babe Ruth's father once owned a bar where Center Field now stands. His father would also be murdered in Center Field. The only thing that rivals her charm and magnificence, is the story of the ground she sits on.
#BaltimoreOrioles #LarryLucchino #EdwardBennettWilliams #CalRipken #EddieMurray #OriolesParkAtCamdenYards #MemorialStadium

Honus Wagner: The Flying Dutchman

This week, Backwards K Pod says good bye to former MLB catcher and Hall Of Fame Broadcaster Tim McCarver, who died at his home in Memphis, Tennessee, on February 16, 2023, at the age of 81.As durable a catcher as you will ever find, McCarver's playing career spanned over 4 decades. During his unsung baseball career, the two time All Star, two time world champion, was the trusted batterymate of some of the finest pitchers in baseball history, including two of the best in Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton. He would then transcend baseball time, by transistioning to broadcasting when his career was over. Armed with his high baseball acumen and witty command of articulating the intracacies of the sport, McCarver became one of the most respected color analysist in baseball broadcasting, winng the Ford C Frick Award in 2001 for his induction into the National Baseball Hall Of Fame.
Afterwards, we dig into the life and times of the first MLB superstar; The Flying Dutchman, Honus Wagner.
Honus would become the embdoiment of the American Dream, at the turn of the century, in a young country, still finding her way in a quickly changing world. The son of German immigrants, from meager roots, in the coal country of west Pennsylvania. Honus would discover the still young sport of baseball, and dominate the game like no one before him and very few have done since.

Bless You Boys; 1984 Detroit Tigers

Going into the 1984 MLB season, the Detroit Tigers were optimistic about their chances, after falling just short of their goals a year before, when they finished seond in the AL East with 93 wins. After 12 years of middle of the road baseball, Sparky Anderson, the driving force behind the Big Red Machine Cincinnati teams of the 1970's, was now in Motown, putting his finishing touches on a whole new baseball machine.
With a balanced roster, a rock solid trio of starting pitchers and an offensive attack built around three players under the age of 28, Sparky, asked the front office to trade for a specific pitchers from the Phillies roster that he had a keen interest of through the years, even though his numbers were mediocre at best. He promises Tigers GM Bill Lajoie, if you trade for this guy, we will win it all. The front office captitulates to what Anderson is selling, and Willie Hernandez made Sparky look like the baseball savant, that we all know him to be.
This is the story of the Bless You Boys, 1984 Detroit TIgers. one of the most dominant single season teams in the history of baseball. With their vulgar display of productive bats and shutdown pitching, the Tigers would win their first nine games of the season, with one of those victories being a no-hitter on the NBC Game of the Week. Next think you know the Tigers are 16-1. Then they are 18-2.. On May 21st, they are 32-5. After sweeping the Angels, the Tigers are 35-5 after 40 games and they have won a record tying 17 consecutive road games. No team in the history of baseball before or since has ever seriously approached that 40 game record to start a season. But this team didn't just start strong. They ended strong. A team for the ages, that is oft-forgotten.
#SparkyAnderson #KirkGibson #AlanTrammel #ChetLemon #LouWhittaker #DetroitTigers #BlessYouBoys #AlAckerman #WillieHernandez #AurelioLopez #DarrellEvans #JackMorris #DanPetry #MiltWilcox #DetroitTigers #TigersStadium #DickWilliams #TonyGwynn #GooseGossage