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PODCAST

Hooks & Runs

A podcast about baseball, music and culture.

Hooks & Runs is a podcast about baseball, music and culture. Our podcast includes interviews with news makers in the sports and music world plus commentary from the co-hosts on interesting current and historical events. Hooks & Runs releases a new episodes every Thursday (more or less).

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All Episodes

56:25

244 - Power Outage! The 1979 Houston Astros

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/04/04

This week, Craig and Rex take a deep dive into the 1979 Houston Astros, the only team since 1947 to hit fewer than 50 home runs while posting a winning record and also the last team to hit more triples than home runs in a single season. Also, The Sex Pistols are back on the road, without Johnny Rotten. Even punks get nostalgic. Errata: The Cardinals in 2024 went 8 straight games without a home run, not 18. A&M defeated Yale by 6 points in the NCAA first round, not whatever it was Craig sa...

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47:52

243 - Trouble in Tampa Bay: Maybe the Rays are not...

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/03/27

Maybe we spoke too soon. Dr. Elizabeth Strom, a professor of urban politics and policy at The University of South Florida and an editor at DRays Bay, a Tampa Bay Rays blog on SB Nation, returns to our podcast this week. Two years ago, Episode 143 to be exact, Dr. Strom appeared to discuss what then looked like a solid deal for a new ballpark in St. Petersburg. A lot has happened since - most of it not good for Rays fans, at least Rays fans that want the team to stay in the Tampa/St. Pete area...

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50:15

242 - Disturbed Concert Stories, 2025 MLB...

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/03/25

This week, Disturbed declares war on the Bulls' championship banners during a show at United Center, plus Motley Crue at MinuteMaid (Daiken) and the greatest Journey concert ever. Craig makes his 2025 MLB predictions - try not to laugh. The podcast concludes with the boys reviewing "Tommy," the 1975 Ken Russell film based on The Who's 1969 album of the same name. The film stars Roger Daltry, Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed and other many actors (Jack Nicholson) and rock stars (Tina Turner). The revi...

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46:39

241 - The Hard Luck 11: Pitchers that threw 9+...

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/03/13

Since 1901, in the American and National Leagues, 11 pitchers have thrown 9+ inning, complete game 1-hitters and lost. These include a pitcher that pitched both games of a double-header on the day, a pitcher that took a perfect game into the 13th inning only to lose and a pitcher that gave up an extra-inning, walk-off home run to lose. This week, a tale of the hard luck pitchers who pitched their best game only to come up short. Errata: In 1988, 46.5% of starting pitchers threw 100 or more pi...

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45:25

240 - Texans in the Hall: Greg Maddux, plus, Arenado,...

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/03/07

This week Craig and Rex continue their series on native Texans in the Baseball of Fame with 355-game winner Greg Maddux. Also, the Nolan Arenado trade talks will not go away, Pete Rose's family petitions the Commission to lift the all-time hits leader's lifetime ban now that his life is over, the Golden State Warriors own a record label and what do you know - some baseball players lie about their height. Notes on the show: The Travis Stern episode about baseball and theater in the deadball er...

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54:36

239 - Willie McCovey: Remembering a Forgotten...

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/03/01

Author Chris Haft's new book, Willie McCovey: A Giant Among Giants (University of Nebraska Press, 2025) adds to the baseball literature by examining the life and baseball times of perhaps the most forgotten member of the 500-home run club. Haft's look at this great Giant superstar is long overdue. He joins us this week to discuss the great and powerful Willie Mac. In Chapter 2, Craig and Rex consider what impact Alex Bregman signing with Boston will have on both teams. In Chapter 3, the Rock ...

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53:35

238 - Artie Shaw's Nightmare: The Big Band Sound Goes...

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/02/21

Author and journalist Michael Doyle's new book, Nightmare in the Pacific: The World War II Saga of Artie Shaw and His Navy Band (Univ. of North Texas Press, 2025) is an adventurous tale and a must read. Shaw, a leading big band leader into the early 1940s, joined the Navy a few months after Pearl Harbor. He formed a Navy big band of accomplished and to varying degrees roguish musicians and led them across the Pacific during the war, entertaining troops, finding trouble and dealing with grueli...

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51:35

237 - Bugs Raymond, the Overlooked for Cooperstown,...

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/02/15

Bugs Raymond battled alcoholism while pitching for the Tigers, Cardinals and Giants as well as several minor league teams during the early Deadball Era -- this week we discuss Raymond's difficult and tragic life in baseball and afterwards. In Chapter 2, Craig and Rex have six players they believe ought to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame but are not. They'll tell you who those players are. They also have some thoughts on Kendrick Lamar's halftime show and Beyonce's Best Country Album GRAMMY Aw...

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45:06

236 - Jim Gilliam: Replaceable in March,...

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/02/06

Stephen W. Dittmore's book, "Jim Gilliam: The Forgotten Dodger," (August Publications, 2025) hit bookstores this week and it's a good one. Dittmore joins us this week to talk about the man who won the 1953 National League's Rookie of the Year Award and who played key roles on four World Series championship teams for the Dodgers. Gilliam later coached the Dodgers on Managers Walter Alston's and Tommy Lasorda's staffs until he passed away in 1978. You can support Hooks & Runs by...

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53:45

235 - Texans in the Hall: Ross Youngs w/ David King

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/01/31

Journalist and author David King joins us in part 1 to talk about Ross Youngs, who was born in Shiner, Texas, in 1897, and later played 10 seasons for John McGraw's New York Giants. In that time he was a key player on four National League pennant and two World Series title teams. A career .322 hitter, Youngs fell ill during the 1926 season and later died at age 30 from kidney disease. The Veterans' Committee elected Youngs to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.King is author of Ross Youngs: In...

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45:19

234 - The Miracle Braves of 1914, part 2

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/01/23

This week concludes our two-part series about the Miracle Braves of 1914 and concludes with Rex and Craig discussing Billy Wagner and the recent Hall of Fame balloting results.Episodes mentioned:157 - R.E.M.'s Murmur at 40 w/ Tony Fletcher.You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com Email: hooksandruns@protonmail...

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39:11

233 - The Miracle Braves of 1914, Part 1

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/01/20

This week Craig and Rex begin a two-part series on the Miracle Braves of 1914.The early 20th Century was not kind to the Boston Braves (previously, the Beaneaters, the Doves and the Rustlers). Mired in the second division for years with frequent ownership changes, an outdated ballpark and few prospects, Boston entered the 1914 season with second year manager George Stallings, some promising new ballplayers and faint hopes to crack the National League's first division. However, after being swe...

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55:47

106 - Baseball Rebels w/ Professor Peter Dreier (From...

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/01/09

Rex and I are taking two weeks to recover from the holidays and holiday travel and will be back January 16 with the first episode of Season Six. Here are the show notes from our Episode 106:-------------------------------------------This week Professor Peter Dreier (Occidental College) joins Hooks & Runs to discuss his new book, "Baseball Rebels: The Players, People and Social Movements That Shook Up the Game and Changed America" (Univ. Nebraska Press, 2022), co-authored with Prof. Robert...

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55:46

46/50 - From the Vault: Our Interview with Larry...

Hooks & Runs ·

2025/01/02

Craig and Rex are taking two weeks off so we reached into the vault this week to present two segments from shows past.The first segment is our January 2021 interview with Larry Lester, baseball historian and co-founder of the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. This interview took place just a few short weeks after MLB officially recognized seven leading Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1948 as Major League Baseball. We talked about the process for researching and certifying Negr...

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53:15

232 - It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over: The 1973 New York...

Hooks & Runs ·

2024/12/26

Len Ferman's new book, The 1973 Mets - You've Got to Believe, is a day to day saga about a Mets team that that rallied from last place with a 61-71 record on August 31 to win the National League East with an 82-79 record. The Eastern Division race that year saw five teams still in the hunt for the title in the season's final week. In the end, the Mets won the title outright on the season's final day with just 5 games separating the champs from the fifth place Chicago Cubs. The Mets shocked th...

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32:58

231 - The 2024 Hooks & Runs Year End Music Review

Hooks & Runs ·

2024/12/21

Craig & Rex review their favorite albums of 2024 while Craig mourns Kyle Tucker being traded by Houston to the Cubs.Errata: The MJ Lenderman lyric on "Wristwatch" is " a wristwatch that tells me I'm on my own," not "I'm all alone." Col. Mandrake is a character in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Bob Hunter, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, first referred to the Cincinnati Reds as "the Big Red Machine" on July 4, 1969. The moniker stuck as...

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30:35

230 - Lou Gehrig Goes to Hollywood

Hooks & Runs ·

2024/12/15

This week Craig and Rex look at Lou Gehrig's lone Hollywood film, "Rawhide" (1938), filmed in January 1938. The film stars Gehrig (playing himself) and Texas native Smith Ballew (Palestine), Hollywood's first singing cowboy as the film's protagonists. Evalyn Knapp plays Gehrig's sister (part protagonist) and Ballew's love interest in the film. Errata: There is a car shown in the very first scene in Rawhide after all.This movie is available to view on YouTube at no charge. https://www.yo...

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52:45

229 - Texans in the Hall: Willie Wells, "El Diablo,"...

Hooks & Runs ·

2024/12/07

Dr. Bob Luke, author of "Willie Wells: 'El Diablo' of the Negro Leagues," joins us this week as Hooks & Runs begins a new series featuring native Texans that have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. We begin with Willie Wells, "El Diablo," an all-time great shortstop born in Austin in 1905, give or take, and who played and managed in the Negro Leagues, in Cuba, in Canada and in Mexico for over 20 years. In part 2, Craig and Rex talk about Blake Snell's and Yusei Kikuchi's new co...

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26:47

228 - Close But No Cigar III: Sam Rice, 2,987 career...

Hooks & Runs ·

2024/11/28

Outfielder Sam Rice played 20 seasons in the Major Leagues - all but one with the Washington Nationals (later, the Senators). Rice retired from the game with 2,987 hits, 13 shy of the coveted mark of 3,000, making him the player that came the closest to reaching that milestone. In this episode, we look at Rice's sometimes tragic, often triumphant life.Selected Sources:Stephen Able, "Sam Rice," Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org).Stanley Milliken, "White Sox Win 6-2," Washington ...

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62:49

227 - Gavy Cravath: The Deadball Era's Home Run King...

Hooks & Runs ·

2024/11/22

Rick Reiff is our guest this week to discuss his essay in the Fall 2024 Baseball Research Journal, "Gavy Cravath's Hall-Worthy 200 Home Runs." Cravath, a late arrival, played 11 seasons in the Major Leagues and led the National League in home runs in six of those seasons, from 1913 to 1919. Cravath also led the Senior Circuit in RBI twice, in on base percentage twice and slugging percentage three times. Despite being the preeminent home run hitter in the Deadball Era, Cravath remains on...

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234 results

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