December 24, 2024 • 45 mins
It’s time for the first annual Slice-ee Awards!! Sarah, Misha and Alex announce the nominees in each category and ask YOU to cast ballots. Plus, Jane McManus, editor of The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2024, joins Sarah to share her favorite pieces from this year, and chat about her upcoming book The Fast Track: Inside the Surging Business of Women's Sports. Then a *unique* In Memoriam, and some delights and comforts to offset your New Year’s dread.
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Submit your ballot for the first ever Slice-ee Awards here!!
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Nominees for the Sam Kerr Tackling The Pitch Invader Video We Can’t Stop Watching Award can be viewed here:
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Jonquel Jones & Sandy Brondello’s collision
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Angel Reese & NaLyssa Smith’s free throw line moment
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Cat offering support on the balance beam
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Nominees for the Serena Williams Catsuit Fit of the Year Award
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Pre-order Jane McManus’ book The
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Where we know y'all heard the shout out to the
shy from Penn State coach Katie Schumacher Cally after her
team's NC Double A volleyball title win Chicago Stand Up.
It's Tuesday, December twenty fourth, and on today's show, we'll
be bringing you the first annual slices our Good Game
End of the Year awards and calling on you to
vote for the winners. Plus a tribute to those who
have left us, a conversation with professor and author Jane
(00:24):
McManus about the best sports writing of twenty twenty four,
and a reminder to delight and comfort in the small things.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's all coming up right after this welcome back. Here's
what you need to know today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Penn State won the NC DOUBLEA Volleyball Championship on Sunday,
defeating Louisville three sets to one. And here's a crazy stat.
In leading her team to victory, Penn State coach Katie
Schumacher Cally became the first woman head coach to win
a national title since the NC DOUAA tournament began in
nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yep, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
The previous forty three titles were all one with men
serving as head coach.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Schumacher.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Cawley was diagnosed with breast cancer in September and said
she was inspired this season by the young children she's
seen who are also dealing with cancer. Sunday's match also
set an NCAA Volleyball Championship attendance record, with a sellout
crowd of twenty one thousand, eight hundred and sixty filling
the KFC Young Center in downtown Louisville. Shout out to
Donny Peaks Picks one and the Governor MFB thirteen for
(01:29):
tying for first in our Volleyball Bracket Challenge. Producer Alex
finished forty fourth and I came in forty ninth. Wow.
In Pro Hoops news, the Dallas Wings have hired USC
assistant Chris Coclanis as the franchise's new head coach. Cole Clanis,
who's in his second season on Lindsay Gottliebs staff at USC,
may not be the most recognizable name, but he's bringing
(01:50):
plenty of experience to the role. He spent eight seasons
working under Kurt Miller with the Connecticut Sun and the
LA Sparks, and he's well known for his player development
work and focus on the.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Koklanis has stepping in after the Wings fired Letricia Trammel
back in October. She amassed a thirty one and forty
nine record in two seasons in Dallas, and the team
missed the playoffs this past season for the first time
since twenty twenty. The Wings hold the number one pick
in the twenty twenty five WNBA draft. Remember, they're hoping
that pick, along with this hire and moves in other
parts of the organization, will breathe a little life back
(02:21):
into the franchise. Asmore WNBA coaching news, the Washington Mystics
have hired former Chicago Sky assistant and USA basketball coach
Sidney Johnson as their next head coach. They also announced
that Jamila Widman will take over as the team's next GM.
The duel will take over for Eric Tebow and Mark Tebow,
who were both fired in October. Washington Mystics wentches fourteen
and twenty six last year. They finished ninth in the league,
(02:42):
missing the playoffs for the first time since twenty twenty one.
Elsewhere in Pro hoops news, Sabrina Yonescu is Unrivaled the
New York Liberty Guard and twenty twenty four WNBA. Champ
was announced as the third and final wildcard player on
the league's thirty six player roster Monday. She'll be a
member of the fan To Basketball Club alongside her former
Oregon teammate Satusabai. More Unrivaled news, the league announced its
(03:06):
first ever trade.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, they haven't even played a game yet, they already
have a trade. It's a little complicated, but stick with
me here. It's a three team deal. The Laces Basketball
Club traded Courtney Williams to the Lunar Owls Club in
exchange for Natasha Cloud. The Laces subsequently traded Natasha Cloud
and the league's final wildcard spot, later announced as Sabrina
and Escu to Phantom Basketball Club in exchange for Jackie
Young and Tiffany Hayes. Oh One note here ahead of
(03:31):
the inaugural Unrivaled season, which tips off on January seventeenth
in Miami, we're going to bring a whole episode dedicated
to the league's founding rules and unique game.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Format early in the new year.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
In fact, we'll be kicking off twenty twenty five, with
a whole week of episodes dedicated to the new women's
sports leagues that are launching next year, So get pumped
for that to the p WHL on Saturday night, Laura
Stacy's breakaway goal fifteen seconds into overtime gave the p
WHL's Montreal Victoire a four to three win over the
Toronto scepters. Toronto led to nothing and three to two
(04:00):
at the period breaks, but dropped its fourth in a
row to waste a thirty five save performance by goalie
Reagan Kirk in her first p WHL start. It was
an emotional night for both teams as they honored former
Toronto goaltender Erica Howe after the game. The thirty two
year old how announced her retirement after last season, and
then announced publicly that she's battling breast cancer.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
To college hoops.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
In one of the most anticipated regular season games of
the year, number seven USC defeated number four ranked Yukon
and Juju Watkins poured in twenty five points in the
seventy two to seventy victory. USC led by as many
as eighteen in the third quarter, but Yukon put together
a late comeback and the game came down to the
final minutes. Husky's freshman stand out Sarah Strong put the
team on her back for stretches, netting twenty two points
(04:42):
and tying with Page Beckers for Yukon team high honors
in the game, but Strong missed key free throws late
that would have tied the game and forced overtime. Becker
stood up for her teammate after the loss, leading her
presser by saying, quote, just to be clear that game
was not one or lost with those three free throws
end quote. Also over the weekend, South Lorida women's basketball
upset ninth rank Duke sixty five to fifty six on Saturday.
(05:04):
The seven and six unranked Bulls led by as many
as twenty three points in the first half before the
ten and three Blue Devils cut the lead to just
three early in the fourth quarter, but South Florida's Sammy
Puissis scored nine of her twenty three points in the
last seven minutes of the game to help her team
hold on for the upset win.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
To Alpine skiing Lindsay Vaughn.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Made her first World Cup start since ending her nearly
six year retirement, finishing fourteenth in the Super g at
a World Cup stop in Saint Maur's, Switzerland. By finishing
in the top thirty, Vaughan, at age forty, became the
oldest woman to ever record World Cup points. Austrian skier
Cornelia Hooter won the race, finish in one point one
to eight seconds ahead of Vaughn.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
We got to take a quick break. When we come back.
The inaugural slices stick around. Welcome back everybody.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
It's time for the Slices, the first annual Good Game
with Sarah Spain Awards, which celebrate success, style and stumbles
in women's sports. Here's how it works for each category. Misha,
Alex and I have nominated one honoree, but it is
up to you our slices to determine the final winner.
We've included a Google form in the show notes and
you can use that to vote for the winner or
(06:20):
even write in a candidate if you think we missed someone.
First up, drum roll please the Brandy Chastain Sports Brass
Seen Around the World Award for the Sports Moment of
the Year. My nominee the US women's national team returning
to glory winning gold in Paris. We love to see
us women's soccer back on top. What you got, Mish,
(06:43):
I gotta.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Give it to the New York Liberty getting its first
championship since the league's inception. They were one of the
original teams. I was just so happy for that franchise
and for the City Alex.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I am going with the pwhll. It's hard to believe
that the first puck trop was on January first, and
so seeing Kendall Coointschofield, who is instrumental in getting this
league off the ground, celebrate by putting her son Drew
in the Walter cop just an incredible moment.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
So good, so good. Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
The Billy Goat Award spelled b I L l I E, named,
of course for Billy Jean King and Goats new and old.
This is our Athlete of the Year award, and I'm
gonna go with the Queen of the first thousand point
season unanimous MVP. She ruled all summer long. Asia Wilson
is my Athlete of the Year.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Who you got me?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I gotta give mine to Sydney McLaughlin Lavroni, who smashed
her own world record to win gold in the four
hundred meter hurdles at the Paris Olympic Games. Also won
gold with the four x four relay team as well,
made everybody else look just like they didn't even practice
before the Olympics, like they just decided a week before.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
You know what I'm gonna run. She's just incredible.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Alex, here you got.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I'm going with someone biled because I don't think you
cannot pick Simone Biles when Simone Biles is in the running.
A few years ago, when she competed in Tokyo ended
up having the twisties, I thought that we would be
lucky if she came back as an event specialist for Paris.
And she came back as an event specialist, but also
as an all around specialist too, winning gold in the
(08:18):
all around, helping the US back on top of the
podium in the team event, and then also winning gold
on vault. Just insane stuff. And I think we have
to make sure that we never take for granted that
living in the age of Simone Biles is a great
time to be alive.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Very true.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Up next our very unseerious Sid Colson Award for Excellence
in Social Media Trolling. You of course know face of
the league, both the w and athletes unlimited Sid Colson
of the Las Vegas Aces, who excels in every way
at social media and has since the day her existence
was made clear to us. So she is the reason
for this award and the reason for the season to
(08:55):
be fair.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
So who was serving it up best on social media?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
I'm going with the Parisians behind the eyes shit in
the sin On June twenty third viral campaign, they encouraged
a mass defecation into the famed Parisian River just before
French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris mayor and Hidalgo were
scheduled to take a swim to prove that the river
was safe for the games. Spoiler alert, it wasn't also
a spoiler eco lie, just an incredible campaign.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Misha definitely enjoyed that.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I also enjoyed the lesbians in a tizzy this whole
WNBA season behind Dja Carrington and Melyssa Smith. Everybody wanted
to know are they together?
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Are they not?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Are they the cutest couple in the league? Are they
secretly hating each other? And I just love the way
they continued to stoke the flame, stoke the coals and
the fire, posting videos with the dog without each other
just stir in the pot.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
It was peak peak entertainment.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, hoops and gay shit. They ruled that Alex all right.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Just like Marta won the inaugural Marta Award, I am
giving the inaugural Sid Coulson Award to Sid Coulson, and
I am picking the moment when after Kathy Engelbert showed
up to the WNBA Finals wearing a New York themed dress,
Sid Coulson made sure that she went to the department
store and tried that thing on herself and it was just.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Perfect, Yeah, perfect, perfect host of the photo and everything
so good. Our next award is the Justin Brown Everybody
Watches Women's Sports Marketing Moment of the Year. Now, this
is our award for the best women's sports campaign or
conceit and this is in honor of former TOGETHER VP
of Creative Development and Talent Relations, Justine Brown, also former
basketball manager at Tennessee General, Lady about Town in the
(10:38):
women's sports world, her innovative game changing T shirt campaign
that became a movement. She is the woman behind Everybody
Watches Women's Sports. So my award for my favorite campaign
or conceeat this year is Ellie the Damn Elephant. I
swear she's sold more Liberty tickets and Sabrina Ganescu this year.
Absolutely genius in every way. Hands down, it's Misha Ah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I gotta give it to Flage Johnson. Her insane. First
of all, folks who have competed in college athletics are
parented maybe a college athlete. You know how grueling that
schedule can be, especially at the power for level that
she's playing out at LSU. She's not only doing that,
she had an incredible music promo run for her rap career.
(11:21):
If you haven't listened to her music, I'm telling you
go listen to it. But this whole year she had
The Eagles used came Out a Beast for one of
their in game videos. Lil Wayne was featured on that song.
He was in the music video with her, brought her
out during one of his shows. She performed the BT
Awards at WNBA All Star at the sb's like she's
a masterclass in being a multi hyphen and following all
(11:44):
your passions unapologetically.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Love it, Alex, what you got.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I'm going with the WNBAS Welcome to the w commercial
and I want to be super clear here. This is
the pick from May when the commercial was still new
and it seemed super innovative and not from September in
October when we were watching it about ten times per
playoff game and it felt like it was the WNBA's
only strategy to welcome new fans to the league. But
(12:09):
when it first came out, I thought it was great,
so well produced a really fun intro.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, the Kaitlin Clark Award for Kaitlyn Clarking aka the
Breakout Star of the Year. This, of course in honor
of last year's runaway Breakout Star Kaitlyn Clark, an award
for the athlete who became a household name. This year,
I'm going with rugby star turned social media darling turned
dancing queen alone Omar.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I mean, what didn't she do this year?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
And from the first time we mentioned her and I
said her name incorrectly, she captured my heart.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I learned how to say her name and a lot
more about her. She is my breakout star. Misha.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah, I remember that we were struggling. All three of
us are struggling. Oh my goodness, if you only know
behind the scenes. I've got to give my nominee to
Barbara Banda. This was her first season in the NWSL, Folks,
Let's not forget that she was literally a rookie. Scored
thirteen goals and six assists in the regular season, second
in the Golden Boot race, tied the league single season
(13:06):
record for braces, scored it every round of the playoffs,
and in the championship she scored the game winning goal.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
She's the Championship MVP.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
That's just in the NWSL, though, because internationally she became
the first women's footballer to record three hat tricks in
the Olympics and had four goals for Zambia and was
named to the World Best eleven the FIEFT Pro Women's
World eleven. So she had an incredible year and I
want to give her flowers because people are trying to
attack her transphobes. It's always the transphobes, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Yeah, Alex, who you got?
Speaker 4 (13:38):
I'm going with cyclist Christian Faukner, mostly because I'm a
sucker for late bloomers and sports seeing someone who started
cycling after she graduated from college go on to win
two gold medals at the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Love it pretty good and using her platform for great
stuff ever since. Up next to Sam Kurr tackling the
pitch Invader video.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
We can't watching award now.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
If you remember, during a Chelsea Juventus Champions League match,
a man entered the field and was dicking about and
holding up play until the legendary Sam Kerr dropped her
shoulder and laid him out. We have watched these clips
almost as many times as that one. For me, it's
Liberty Star John Quell Jones taking out her head coach,
Sandy Brundello mid playoff game. John Quell falls against the
scorer's table. She's real fired up and pissed. She gets
(14:23):
back up like elbows up, like she's gonna get back
into the field of play and really pick some shit up,
and runs directly into a head coach and both of
them go down like bowling pins. Please watch it over
and over and over again. Meish what you got?
Speaker 5 (14:36):
It's actually my pin tweet on X.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
I know my profile looks like a ghost town right now,
but this video is the one that's worth it. It's a
video of Melissa Smith and Angel Reese at the free
throw line from towards the beginning of the WNBA season,
and they're going back and forth a little bit, and
a ref kind of steps in and is like, hey,
there's no video, but you can tell it's more of
a let's calm down kind of policing them vibe, and
they both it look like we're good and gesture as
(15:02):
though you know we're friends.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
We've played against each other. This is what competitors do.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
And to me, I love that video because it signaled
just the general mentality shift that we need folks to have, like, yeah, okay,
it can get chippy and okay, some players might even
hate each other, not them specifically, but there's just no
need to over police.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
And that was just such a great matchup.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I agree, Alex who you got.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
One of the things I love about the Olympics is
all of those videos of cats watching the Olympics. And
there was this fantastic video of a cat who was
helping a gymnast stay on the balance beemount of if
you guys remember this, but a gymnast was crossing the
balance theme she started to stumble and the cat just
raised the paw kept her on And so you'll love
a good feline friend like that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Love that.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And if you haven't seen any of these videos, we've
watched over and over. Don't worry, we'll link to them
in the show notes for you, all right. The next
award the Serena Williams Cat Suit Award for best Fit
on or off the Court. This is, of course, the
Fit of the Year, inspired by a black cat suit
in red belt combo so fire, it was banned from
Roland Garros. Like Serena's twenty eighteen French open look, these
fits went off. There were so many to choose from,
(16:06):
but the one that kept coming into my mind so
I could not push it away was Kelsey Plum's leather
assassin style Alexander Wang black leather mini vest with the
molded bra cups and the matching baggy low rise trousers
cattie glasses. She wore on the Aces Ring night. It
was giving architectural feet. I don't know how she stayed
in there and it was giving. I can't believe Darren
Waller fumbled the bag.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
That fit went off means what you got so rue. Ah.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
I gotta give some love to Courtney Williams.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Back in September, she put together this all black leather
shaft fitting a lah Richard Rowntree. That's just it brought
such a big smile to my face. I think in
terms of the mass presenting folks that are in the
w she's got to be at the top of that list.
Like her Keina, Charles Tiffany, There's just a immaculate.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
Style, Alex.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
I'm going with light T shirt, Ashes says. Back when
the Aces hit a rough patch over the summer, she
starts showing up in a white T shirt. She was like,
I've got a job to do. I don't need to
spend any more energy on my fit.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And it sure worked for her at least, maybe not
the team, but for her. The Minnesota Links Black T
Shirt Award for Social Justice. This was named for the
four members of The Links, Maya Moore, Rebecca Brunson, Simone Augustus,
and Lindsay Whalen, who wore black T shirts in twenty
sixteen that read change starts with US justice and accountability.
Following the deaths of Toilando Castile and Alton Stirling, who
(17:30):
were both fatally shot by police officers, WNBA initially find
the Links players and the players from other teams who
followed their lead, before rescinding the fines after player backlash
and public outcry, and this award honors someone who has
spoken up about.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Social justice issues.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I'm going to go with Olympic runner Nicki Hilts, using
their platform and success to advocate for LGBTQ plus causes
and for just embodying and displaying trans joy with every race,
every win, every TikTok dance. Every time I see Nikki,
I smile, and so while they're advocating for major serious things,
they're also doing it with such joy.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, Niche, I gotta give mine to Mercury Gard Natasha Cloud,
who has been and continues to be a huge, huge
advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Palestinian Ministry of
Health says more than forty six thousand Palestinians have been
killed in Israeli attacks, and Cloud is one of very
few American athletes who I've seen be steadfast.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
And speaking out about the genocide. So hats off to
her and more power to her.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Alex, who you got?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
I'm going with breakdancer Menisa Talache, who competed for the
refugee Olympic team in Paris. The twenty one year old
is originally from Afghanistan, but she was disqualified from the
competition in Paris after she wore a cape that said
free Afghan women during her opening battle.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Up next the Megan Rappino I've yieaded my achilles in
the Final Game award for the most Unbelievable injury. Rappino's
final professional game, getting cut short by an achilles tear
was an all time kicking the lips. Here are this
year's I'm Going with actress Aubrey Plaza tearing her ACL
during the WNBA All Star weekend while playing pickup.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
At the New Mercury Practice Facility.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
It is truly legendary stuff to tear your ACL as
a spectator, even if you were playing when you did it,
sitting courtside like you had done something serious in a game.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Just so good mesh, how about you?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
First of all? Kicking the lips?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Is I just invented that? I just invented that. I'm like,
I didn't get kicked in the junk.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
That's taking me out, So my nominee, it might be
too soon. It might be too soon, But Louisville's star
in hometown euro volleyball player Annada Beer, who suffered a
high ankle sprain landing on a teammate's foot in the
college Vib's semi final and was unable to play in
the championship. I felt terrible, horrible, no good, very bad
(19:51):
on her behalf. She was playing fifteen minutes down the
road from where she grew up or where she used
to play, and couldn't suit up in the national championship
in the he loses.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
That's heartbreak.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, on a whole other level, Alex, here you got.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
I'm going with kroib thin. It feels like an athlete's
worst night. There that after she was named an alternate
to the US Olympic team, got called up to the
main roster, helped them win gold, and then was invited
to throw out the first pitch at a Washington Nationals
game and went on to tear hermaniscus just so cruel.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Brutal stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Our final award the Bobby Riggs Biggest Jackass of the
Year Award. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows this year,
so in honor of legendary Chauven's pig Bobby Riggs, this
award goes out to the people or things that shit
in our Sunday. I'm gonna go with transphobes and obviously
you know transphobes in general, but specifically ruining Iman Khalif's
Olympic moment. All of the conversation around him on Kliff
(20:47):
and the boxing event was just so disappointing, so uninformed
by so many people, and it just made me sad
to see her living out this dream and despite going
on to win it all, and despite many good things
happen afterwards from folks who did want to support her
and her success during that time, I just can't imagine
what she was going through and it made me extremely angry.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Means, what about you.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Oh, this should come as no surprise to anyone, but
I gotta go with the absolutely unhinged, unjust couth discourse
around the WNBA and especially during the rise of Caitlin
Clark her Wookie year, all the attention was taken away
from the excellent product that was happening on the basketball
court because people wanted to be racist, especially that lady
(21:32):
who had the nails was trying to mock Dje Caring.
That's really ground my gears. But yeah, anybody who had
anything negative to say and wasn't pouring into the wonderful
discourse about how awesome of a season she had in
the WNBA had and former stars have had to lead
us to this moment.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
Yeah, big fuck you.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Agreed on that one, Alex, I'm.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Going with Riley Gaines. I know she can fit under
that Transfobe umbrella, but feels like she's just brought things
to a whole different level, the fact that she took
finishing fifth in an NCAA race and has made her
entire career about that one thing, and how she can
make life worse for trans people as part of it.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Agreed.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I almost want to bleep out her name and not
give her credit, but I guess for those who don't
know Kurr And now you know, all right, you get
to vote on all of these slices. We'll include a
link to vote in the show notes, so make your
voice heard. And of course, while we're looking back on
twenty twenty four, we can't forget those who left us too. Yep,
it's time for the twenty twenty four Good Game with
Sarah Spain in memoriam for people who aren't actually dead
(22:40):
but literally killed us by stepping away from sport.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Now, this is not an exhaustive list.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
This is just the folks who killed us with their
retirement announcements.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
What's that phrase? Put it on a gravestone.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, if we were in charge of carving the granite
markers for the gravestones of these athletes careers, here's what
we would write.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Music. Please, Sam Ewis still having an okay time.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Candice Parker, good luck pushing me out of the record books.
Kelly O'Hara led the league in laughs, provided Shaneade fairly.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Because you knew me. The league is changed for good.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Christine Sinclair, I wasn't afraid to block my enemies. Lesia
Clarendon left on top without their top wink Merritt Matthias,
I came, I saw, I shipped up.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Alex Morgan. Oh wait, this one's just a QR code.
One second. Hold on, let me skip.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Becky Souerbrun remembered but not missed. If you know you
know Ray Gun the breakdancer, Olympic sized meme. Lord Sky Guy,
the Chicago Sky's former mascot. I know you didn't like me,
but I loved you. Simone Biles, your Chenko double pike
(24:20):
the only skill to get its own funeral. And by
the way, speaking to Simone, she's one of a couple
folks whose stones we've kind of started carving, but we're
not sure if we're gonna need him this year. Now
hers reads what music Please, waiting for y'all to just
rename the whole sport the Biles and also Diana Tarassi, bitch,
(24:42):
did I say I was retiring? I'll see you in
the hotel lobby. There are also a few gravestones were
taking out of the ground, like Lindsay Vaughn, Lauren Jackson,
and Tiffany Hayes, who all unretired.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
There's all just say psych to all of you who
literally killed us by announcing your retirement. Thank you very little.
We got to take another break.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
When we come back, we give you some reading recommendations
to take into twenty twenty five with Jane McManus.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Joining me now.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
She's the editor of the Year's Best Sports Writing twenty
twenty four and NYU professor and author of the upcoming
book The Fast Track Inside the Surging Business of Women's Sports.
She's one third of the greatest ESPN radio show that's
ever existed, The Trifecta.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
She was on House Hunters.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
International, and she got thrown in the drunk tank at
an NWA concert and couldn't go to the after party.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Easy E invited her too. It's Jane McManus.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Wow, all my titles and a skeleton. Really well done intro.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Honestly, one of my all time favorite stories is you
driving across multiple states to go to NWA, easy inviting
you to a party and you not making it to
the end of the show before getting thrown in the
drunk tank and therefore missing your opportunity to party with end.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
Yeah, Kansas City cops were not letting me back there.
That's that's just the way it was going to go.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I think it's for the best team.
Speaker 7 (26:07):
Okay, it may have worked out. O, you.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Know, it might have worked out.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Okay, we are going to do a Trifector reunion in
twenty twenty five on this show. You and Kate Fagan
and I will be reunited on this show. But for now,
I'm going to take this quickie with you while we
coordinate to get all three of us in the same
place at the same time. And you are here to
give us a couple of great things to read over
this holiday break. We need some good material for when
we're lounging on the couch at our parents' place. Or
(26:31):
maybe driving to and fro for the holidays, for dinners
and celebrations, sitting in the backseat board, maybe just when
we're chilling in bed, welcoming in the new year with
some R and R. And you edited the Year's Best
Sports Writing twenty twenty four anthology, which means you have
a beat on some of the best stories from female
authors or about women's sports that we can find.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
So give us a couple of good ones.
Speaker 7 (26:51):
Yeah, well, thanks for that, Sarah.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
I didn't set out to put more women as authors
or as athletes into the volume, but when I started
reading what had been, you know, written and published in
twenty twenty three, it was just apparent to me that
there was a lot of really good writing that that
was kind of being elevated. And it totally makes sense
in this moment that you would find more of these stories.
But the cream of the crop is Sally Jenkins piece
(27:13):
on Chris Evert and Martina Neverchelova going through cancer together
and this was a multimedia treatment in the Washington Post,
and the way that she describes their relationship, it is
definitely Sally Jenkins as the third character in the story.
She has so much depth and she goes back so
far with these two athletes. I think it just speaks
to a lot of things, you know, in our business
(27:34):
right now, as like there are few and fewer outlets
doing less and less long form. The ability for somebody
who has had a lifetime, you know, in this space
as a sports writer, being able to write about these
two women. You know, it's just so compelling. And I
you know, that story led the Washington Post, which I
think goes to speak to how important good sports writing is.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Also that one.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I think what's fascinating about it is it not only
gives us this look at these to athletes who are
competitors for so long, but knew each other for so
long that then when they experienced this traumatic thing, they
came together around it instead of still being you know,
in opposition. But also you know, there's some complicated nuances
to both of those people in the current time, in
this current time, as we're trying to deal with trans
(28:18):
athletes and inclusion, to have these pillars of women's sports,
and to be complicated in our feelings about how they're
using their platform post retirement, and so they have this
traumatic event, there's so much empathy and sympathy there and
also at times very frustrated to see, you know, support
for banning trans athletes and you know, not allowing that
(28:40):
inclusion that we wish that they would be on the
forefront of.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
And you know, Sally Jenkins actually wrote a column just
a couple of weeks ago about this very issue, arguing
for more inclusion in sports, which is I think, you know,
I don't want to speak for you, but it's certainly
where I think, you know, we should live a little
bit more. Is thinking about like how are we including people?
Do we have to exclude? Is it always the case
at every single level?
Speaker 7 (29:01):
Do we have to.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
Adopt the language of the final in the Olympics? You know,
but in an individual sport to you know, ASO soccer,
does that make sense? And I think, you know, I
think thinking about this in a multi layered way, You're right.
There are a lot of women who kind of came
in and played in the seventies and eighties wh've adopted
this exclusionary stance. There are people who came in during
the women's movement when it was just starting and really
(29:23):
fighting for even you.
Speaker 7 (29:24):
Know, when Title nine wasn't even well established.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
And I think it is disappointing that they have these
views that are then going to limit women in sports.
Speaker 7 (29:32):
Let's be honest, like, you know.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It does make for a good and interesting profile, though
to not always have to heroize people or demonize them.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
It's it can be both. We can feel different ways about.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
Them, and I think complicated people and complicated storytelling is
part of what I loved about so many of the
stories in the Year's Best Sports Writing.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
And the other one I'm going to point.
Speaker 6 (29:50):
To then in that vein is Steve Poladi's piece on
Olivia Dunn, and I think there are kind of, you know,
the way she's been portrayed in NILS.
Speaker 7 (29:58):
You know, she's clearly leading the in terms.
Speaker 6 (30:00):
Of women getting an IL deals, and part of that
is because she is appealing to advertisers in the way
women have always been appealing to advertisers.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Sex sells.
Speaker 6 (30:10):
She's a beautiful woman, she's very good at what she does.
She's not the best gymnast in the world, but she's good,
and she's very good, and she's got real talent. And
so I think, you know, but he is able to
deal with this, you know, not kind of casting shade
on her or being a bit blamey or being like
you know, I mean, I think you know, look, you've
been in this business a long time too. We take
(30:31):
advantage of whatever advantages we have, and that's kind of
the way you have to do it. I think this
was a very frank and matter of fact look at that,
and also the backlash that has come her way because
of that. She's had stalkers, she's you know, she does
she has to endure I think a certain level of
talk about her endorsements as well, So, you know, I
think this was a frank treatment of a multi layered
(30:52):
character quote unquote, And I thought that was a really
good story too well.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
And that is particularly interesting because we've talked about this
a lot over the course of our years hosting the
Trifecta and doing other work. Is how do you balance
like hate the game, not the player, right, if the
system operates the way that it does, where it holds
women back in almost every way and then gives you
this one way. It's a conversation we've had about Danika Patrick,
It's a conversation we've had about so many women. You know,
(31:16):
on a corner Cova, you know, Maria Sharipova, If you're beautiful,
you can both get more publicity and attention because of
it and also get criticized for it. But if you're
not beautiful and you're super talented, you often don't get
the opportunity. So what do we want from women? And
the answer is to go away most of the time.
But yeah, I mean that having those nuanced conversations about
someone like Livy Dunn is really fascinating. Okay, So we've
(31:38):
got to get the year's Best Sports Writing twenty twenty four.
There are countless stories in there, some of the best
of the best that Jane McManus herself got to pick out,
which what an honor. Incredible that you edited that. That's
just really fantastic.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
You're also here to tell us by your upcoming book,
which I am super excited. I can't believe that somehow
in the year twenty twenty five, all three members of
the Trifecta will have their book on the shelves. We
need to go into every bookstore and put them next
to each other.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
So you should do it a little book tour.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Ooh so fun.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Let's do it. Let's manifest that for twenty twenty five. Okay,
So tell us about fast Track.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
So, I mean, I think it was a story that
I had to tell, you know, just and I think,
you know, you and Cater both doing stories, I think
that you feel really drawn to. And for me it
was really you know, kind of having a front row
seat to the business of women's sports for so long,
and also the industry and how it treats women's sports,
you know, like you, I didn't get into being a
sportswriter because I wanted to start a revolution or be
(32:31):
you know, the feminist icon.
Speaker 7 (32:33):
Sports writer speaker. But once you get in, you kind
of see what's happening.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
And it kind of sensitizes you to think I just
wanted to cover the next but here we are so
but so I wanted to tell the story not only
of where women's sports are going at the moment with
so much investment. And I pitched this book in twenty
twenty I could kind of see that it was the
tide was coming in a little bit. But it's also
about the things that have held women in the space back.
It's about you know, choosing windows for broadcasts, windows for
(33:00):
WNBA games, It's about all these little decisions that also
held them back.
Speaker 7 (33:05):
Maline necklect if you will, And so I wanted to.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
Tell both those stories side by side because I really
don't think that the you know, getting out the pom
poms and going go women's sports, go women's sports, is
the full story. And also I think in this particular
moment that we're in right now, Sarah, you have to
be aware of the forces that are ready to kick
back in again.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, that's so true, and we try to talk about
that on this show, where we say, let's also look
back when we say this is the highest ratings since
two thousand and five, What was going on in two
thousand and five, Why was it getting so much attention?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
What happened between then and now that it dipped?
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Because if we don't pay attention to what's being done
with intention to women's sports at various times, we run
the risk of leagues taking a step back of attendance
and view viewers not continuing to go up. Like right now,
it feels like such a complete trajectory, straight up, like
a rocket ship. But there are any number of things
that can send us backwards if we're not paying attention
to them, calling out how they happen to the past.
(34:00):
And that's why I'm just so, so so psyched for
your book. You're such an incredible researcher. You are so honest.
I always say that we did gifts for each other.
Mine was to sometimes make you lighten up a little
and have a little more fun, and yours was to
knock me out of my rainbows and sunshine and tell
me like, hey, this is the real shit here Spain
like radicalizing me in a way that would have happened anyway,
(34:22):
but you got me there a little faster and got
me working on the on the right side of things
to start telling these stories which are so necessary.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Where can we get the book?
Speaker 6 (34:30):
You can pre order it a good Reads or Amazon
or any of the places where you can pre order books,
and you know, get it, for get it for somebody
in your life who's going to enjoy the history and
the future.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I love that you can also get it from any
local bookstore that you love that has an online portal
the pre order. I love Volumes Books in Chicago and
Semichael and you can also do Powace Books, famous bookstore
in Portland. But it's available for pre order now. Fast Track.
We're so excited about that, And Jane, we're so excited
to chat with you. We're manifesting the Three Way Book Tour,
the Threesome Book Tour, the Trifector Book Tour, or at
(35:03):
least at least one appearance that will make in twenty
twenty five, but also getting you both on the shop.
Speaker 6 (35:06):
So thanks for the time, one hundred percent, Thanks Sarah.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Thanks again to Jane for joining us, and thanks to
you all for listening all year. You know we love
that you're listening, but we want you to get in
the game every day too, So here's our good Game
Play of the Day by the year's best sports writing
twenty twenty four, and pre order FastTrack inside the Surging
Business of Women's Sports and vote for the slices.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
And because this is.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
A very official election, we made a Google form to
ensure fairness and accuracy. The link is in our show notes,
so make your voices hurt. Results are coming in the
new year, and of course we always love to hear
from you, so hit us up on email Good Game
at wondermedianetwork dot com or leave us a voicemail at
eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy and finally,
don't forget to subscribe, rate and review, it's easy watch
(35:52):
my list of delights and comforts, rating five out of
five things that will help us survive the existential dread
we feel about the start of twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Five review so slices.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
At the end of the year, I get particularly contemplative,
and at the end of this year, in particular, after
several months of putting on blinders for what's to come
January twentieth, I'm now being forced to look ahead to
twenty twenty five for work and life and schedule, and
that's been pretty upsetting, to say the least. So my
contemplativeness turned toward finding comfort and delight ways to stop catastrophizing,
(36:26):
even just for brief moments.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
And if you'll indulge me for a minute.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Here, I would like to share three words and two
people that I think will help us in the coming
months as reminders that delight can be found in even
the smallest of things, like a very specific and deliciously
ridiculous word, or the grandest of human expressions, like a
poem about choosing to live with joy even when things
feel super dark.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
So let's start with the silly stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
We're starting with a finished word purunkusema now This is
a word born from the fact that reindeers are unable
to walk.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
And pee at the same time. Did you know that
because I didn't.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yep, they had to take a bathroom break roughly every
five to seven kilometers, and the finish created a word
based on this form of measurement. Purunkussema is a distance
of about five to seven kilometers, the distance equel to
how far a reindeer can travel before stopping and taking
a piss literal translation a reindeer's piss. And it became
an old fashioned description of distances in the countryside. So
(37:21):
take the road all the way past the red farmhouse,
over a hill, keep driving about two reindeer pisses. Then
you'll see their place on the right, just past the
big dead tree. Now I think we should use this
measure of distance for road races. Yes, perfect number two.
The second word that delights me I learned this past
spring when I went to Japan for the first time,
and I was right smack in the middle of cherry
blossom season.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Now you want to talk about delighted.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
There are pink blossoms everywhere above and below you. There
are even rivers and streams entirely pink with fallen blossoms,
and this happens every single year, and it has for
literal centuries, but the Japanese still treat it like it's
a once in a lifetime event. There are countless festivals
and art pieces, and there's a whole vocabulary dedicated to
(38:04):
sakura cherry blossoms. And my favorite word dedicated to these
beauties is sakura fubuki, which means basically when the cherry
blossoms are falling off the trees like snow. The literal
translation is cherry blossom snowstorm. To have a whole word
just for the moment that August of wind grabs a
handful of blossoms and pulls them from their branches, sending
(38:25):
them down to the ground like snow.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Come on.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
That is so lovely, and it actually reminds me of
these lines from this poet. I went to go see
cave Akbar and he wrote about wishing that the awesome
occasions of the every day would never feel ordinary.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Some days we can see venus in mid afternoon, then
at night, stars separated by billions of miles light traveling
years to die in the back of an eye. Is
there a vocabulary for this one to make dailiness amplify
and not diminish wonder end quote. I feel like finding wonder,
finding delight, finding magic, and even the ordinary, even something
(39:02):
that happens every single year, making whole words for that
that is going to be very important in the coming
months and years. Number Three my favorite word of all
time apricody the warmth of sunlight in the winter, which
again sort of feels important for the next four years
or so because we'll be going through existential winter trying
to find patches of sunlight, bits of warmth, any sort
(39:23):
of feeling of brightness. And this reminded me of my
personal motto acquired during COVID. The Very Dark existentialist Albert
Camu wrote beautifully quote in the midst of winter, I
found there was within me an invincible summer end quote.
And ever since I came across those lines, invincible summer
has been sort of my personal motto through COVID, through disappointment,
(39:44):
finding sunshine inside of myself when there's darkness or winter,
anything else outside of me. So we're going to have
to find our invincible summer and our apricity. Four there
is a quote that I shared multiple years in a
row embarrassingly on social media Every New Year's attributed to
f Scott Fitzgerald, or should I say misattributed because it
(40:04):
is actually lines from the movie Benjamin Button. Was I
horrified to learn that every year I had very dramatically
and artfully shared f Scott Fitzgerald lines that were not
written by f Scott Fitzgerald.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (40:14):
I was. But did I start sharing it and just
cropping off the bottom that said f Scott Fitzgerald every
year anyway? Because it is my favorite thing to share
every New Year's? Yes I did. And here's what it is,
for what it's worth. It's never too late to be
whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, start
whenever you want. You can change or stay the same.
There are no rules to this thing. We can make
(40:34):
the best or the worst of it. I hope you
make the best of it. I hope you see things
that startle you. I hope you feel things you've never
felt before. I hope you meet people who have a
different point of view. I hope you live a life
you're proud of. And if you're not, I hope you
have the courage to start over again.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
End quote.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Now, this fact that I continually shared a misattributed quote
to a famous author that was actually from a movie
where Brad Pitt ages backwards reminded me of another quote
that I've seen many times and I can't for sure
find the exact truth behind it. Is mostly shared on
blog posts and pinterests, but it's still moving to me,
and the words can move me even if I don't
(41:11):
know if they're one thousand percent true and related to
the person that they allegedly were spoken by.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
But there's a man named aj Must.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
He is real a social activist who during the Vietnam
War stood outside the White House night after night, and
a reporter once asked him, quote, mister Must, do you
really think that you're going to change the policies of
this country by standing out here alone all night with
a candle?
Speaker 1 (41:30):
End quote?
Speaker 2 (41:31):
And he said, Oh, I don't do this to change
the country. I do this so the country won't change me,
whether or not he actually said that. I am taking
that message into the next year and the year after,
and the year after and the year after, and.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Hopefully only those four years. God please, but we need.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
To remind ourselves going forward that we might not be
able to change the whole country, but we do need
to make sure the country does not change us, at
least in bad ways. Finally, Number five, another person to
move you Andrea Gibson, Colorado's poet, laureate, activist, author, performer,
teller of the most painful and honest of truths.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Their work is so beautiful and so devastating.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
It will take you all the way from joy to
pain and then back to joy again because of what
it reveals in you and in all of us. And
every single time I listened to their work, I'm like, Okay,
we're going to be fine because they are dealing with
the devastating terminal diagnosis, and they somehow find beauty and
every single little thing, even the worst of things, like,
for instance, listen to this.
Speaker 8 (42:32):
This year, everyone I know had a broken heart. Everyone
I know cried in private on their way home from
a party, and not everyone I know woke up the
next morning, and not everyone I know wanted to, even
though they did. And this year I stood inside of
(42:55):
a red witch tree and thought, this is the sweetest
day of my whole life. And a couple of months later,
I was screaming in a parking lot thinking this is
the worst day of my whole life. And a few
months later I was dancing in my living room, thinking,
this is the best day of my whole life. Have
(43:17):
you ever seen the seed of a red tree?
Speaker 1 (43:22):
So tiny?
Speaker 8 (43:23):
And all of that, everything inside of it, all of this,
everything inside of us.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
So read Andrew's work, watch their performances, Take in their words,
things like this quote. Because I don't want to be
a witness to this life. I want to be charged
and convicted, earlifted to her song like a bouquet of yes.
Because my heart is a parachute that has never opened
in time, and I want to fuck up that pattern,
leave a hole where the cold comes in, and fill
it every day with her son. Because anyone who's ever
(43:54):
sat in lotus for more than a few seconds knows
it takes a hell of a lot more muscle to
stay than to go.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
End quote.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
So we gotta stay. We got to use all our
muscles to stay. We've got to find our invincible summer.
We got to find our pricity. We got to find
our delight in our comfort. We got this, people, We
got this. Now it's your turn, rate and review and
thanks for listening. This is our final episode of this week,
but we'll be back next week with our favorite episodes
from twenty twenty four. We'll see you then. Enjoy the holidays,
(44:23):
however you celebrate them. Good Game, Jane, Good Game, Slicies, You,
anybody who's shitting our Sunday this year. Good Game with
Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership
with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Alex Azzie and Misha Jones.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan,
and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez,
Grace Lynch, and Lindsay Crawdowell. Production assistant from Lucy Jones
and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Where we know y'all heard the shout out to the
shy from Penn State coach Katie Schumacher Cally after her
team's NC Double A volleyball title win Chicago Stand Up.
It's Tuesday, December twenty fourth, and on today's show, we'll
be bringing you the first annual slices our Good Game
End of the Year awards and calling on you to
vote for the winners. Plus a tribute to those who
have left us, a conversation with professor and author Jane
(00:24):
McManus about the best sports writing of twenty twenty four,
and a reminder to delight and comfort in the small things.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's all coming up right after this welcome back. Here's
what you need to know today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Penn State won the NC DOUBLEA Volleyball Championship on Sunday,
defeating Louisville three sets to one. And here's a crazy stat.
In leading her team to victory, Penn State coach Katie
Schumacher Cally became the first woman head coach to win
a national title since the NC DOUAA tournament began in
nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yep, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
The previous forty three titles were all one with men
serving as head coach.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Schumacher.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Cawley was diagnosed with breast cancer in September and said
she was inspired this season by the young children she's
seen who are also dealing with cancer. Sunday's match also
set an NCAA Volleyball Championship attendance record, with a sellout
crowd of twenty one thousand, eight hundred and sixty filling
the KFC Young Center in downtown Louisville. Shout out to
Donny Peaks Picks one and the Governor MFB thirteen for
(01:29):
tying for first in our Volleyball Bracket Challenge. Producer Alex
finished forty fourth and I came in forty ninth. Wow.
In Pro Hoops news, the Dallas Wings have hired USC
assistant Chris Coclanis as the franchise's new head coach. Cole Clanis,
who's in his second season on Lindsay Gottliebs staff at USC,
may not be the most recognizable name, but he's bringing
(01:50):
plenty of experience to the role. He spent eight seasons
working under Kurt Miller with the Connecticut Sun and the
LA Sparks, and he's well known for his player development
work and focus on the.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Koklanis has stepping in after the Wings fired Letricia Trammel
back in October. She amassed a thirty one and forty
nine record in two seasons in Dallas, and the team
missed the playoffs this past season for the first time
since twenty twenty. The Wings hold the number one pick
in the twenty twenty five WNBA draft. Remember, they're hoping
that pick, along with this hire and moves in other
parts of the organization, will breathe a little life back
(02:21):
into the franchise. Asmore WNBA coaching news, the Washington Mystics
have hired former Chicago Sky assistant and USA basketball coach
Sidney Johnson as their next head coach. They also announced
that Jamila Widman will take over as the team's next GM.
The duel will take over for Eric Tebow and Mark Tebow,
who were both fired in October. Washington Mystics wentches fourteen
and twenty six last year. They finished ninth in the league,
(02:42):
missing the playoffs for the first time since twenty twenty one.
Elsewhere in Pro hoops news, Sabrina Yonescu is Unrivaled the
New York Liberty Guard and twenty twenty four WNBA. Champ
was announced as the third and final wildcard player on
the league's thirty six player roster Monday. She'll be a
member of the fan To Basketball Club alongside her former
Oregon teammate Satusabai. More Unrivaled news, the league announced its
(03:06):
first ever trade.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, they haven't even played a game yet, they already
have a trade. It's a little complicated, but stick with
me here. It's a three team deal. The Laces Basketball
Club traded Courtney Williams to the Lunar Owls Club in
exchange for Natasha Cloud. The Laces subsequently traded Natasha Cloud
and the league's final wildcard spot, later announced as Sabrina
and Escu to Phantom Basketball Club in exchange for Jackie
Young and Tiffany Hayes. Oh One note here ahead of
(03:31):
the inaugural Unrivaled season, which tips off on January seventeenth
in Miami, we're going to bring a whole episode dedicated
to the league's founding rules and unique game.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Format early in the new year.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
In fact, we'll be kicking off twenty twenty five, with
a whole week of episodes dedicated to the new women's
sports leagues that are launching next year, So get pumped
for that to the p WHL on Saturday night, Laura
Stacy's breakaway goal fifteen seconds into overtime gave the p
WHL's Montreal Victoire a four to three win over the
Toronto scepters. Toronto led to nothing and three to two
(04:00):
at the period breaks, but dropped its fourth in a
row to waste a thirty five save performance by goalie
Reagan Kirk in her first p WHL start. It was
an emotional night for both teams as they honored former
Toronto goaltender Erica Howe after the game. The thirty two
year old how announced her retirement after last season, and
then announced publicly that she's battling breast cancer.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
To college hoops.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
In one of the most anticipated regular season games of
the year, number seven USC defeated number four ranked Yukon
and Juju Watkins poured in twenty five points in the
seventy two to seventy victory. USC led by as many
as eighteen in the third quarter, but Yukon put together
a late comeback and the game came down to the
final minutes. Husky's freshman stand out Sarah Strong put the
team on her back for stretches, netting twenty two points
(04:42):
and tying with Page Beckers for Yukon team high honors
in the game, but Strong missed key free throws late
that would have tied the game and forced overtime. Becker
stood up for her teammate after the loss, leading her
presser by saying, quote, just to be clear that game
was not one or lost with those three free throws
end quote. Also over the weekend, South Lorida women's basketball
upset ninth rank Duke sixty five to fifty six on Saturday.
(05:04):
The seven and six unranked Bulls led by as many
as twenty three points in the first half before the
ten and three Blue Devils cut the lead to just
three early in the fourth quarter, but South Florida's Sammy
Puissis scored nine of her twenty three points in the
last seven minutes of the game to help her team
hold on for the upset win.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
To Alpine skiing Lindsay Vaughn.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Made her first World Cup start since ending her nearly
six year retirement, finishing fourteenth in the Super g at
a World Cup stop in Saint Maur's, Switzerland. By finishing
in the top thirty, Vaughan, at age forty, became the
oldest woman to ever record World Cup points. Austrian skier
Cornelia Hooter won the race, finish in one point one
to eight seconds ahead of Vaughn.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
We got to take a quick break. When we come back.
The inaugural slices stick around. Welcome back everybody.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
It's time for the Slices, the first annual Good Game
with Sarah Spain Awards, which celebrate success, style and stumbles
in women's sports. Here's how it works for each category. Misha,
Alex and I have nominated one honoree, but it is
up to you our slices to determine the final winner.
We've included a Google form in the show notes and
you can use that to vote for the winner or
(06:20):
even write in a candidate if you think we missed someone.
First up, drum roll please the Brandy Chastain Sports Brass
Seen Around the World Award for the Sports Moment of
the Year. My nominee the US women's national team returning
to glory winning gold in Paris. We love to see
us women's soccer back on top. What you got, Mish,
(06:43):
I gotta.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Give it to the New York Liberty getting its first
championship since the league's inception. They were one of the
original teams. I was just so happy for that franchise
and for the City Alex.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I am going with the pwhll. It's hard to believe
that the first puck trop was on January first, and
so seeing Kendall Coointschofield, who is instrumental in getting this
league off the ground, celebrate by putting her son Drew
in the Walter cop just an incredible moment.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
So good, so good. Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
The Billy Goat Award spelled b I L l I E, named,
of course for Billy Jean King and Goats new and old.
This is our Athlete of the Year award, and I'm
gonna go with the Queen of the first thousand point
season unanimous MVP. She ruled all summer long. Asia Wilson
is my Athlete of the Year.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Who you got me?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I gotta give mine to Sydney McLaughlin Lavroni, who smashed
her own world record to win gold in the four
hundred meter hurdles at the Paris Olympic Games. Also won
gold with the four x four relay team as well,
made everybody else look just like they didn't even practice
before the Olympics, like they just decided a week before.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
You know what I'm gonna run. She's just incredible.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Alex, here you got.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I'm going with someone biled because I don't think you
cannot pick Simone Biles when Simone Biles is in the running.
A few years ago, when she competed in Tokyo ended
up having the twisties, I thought that we would be
lucky if she came back as an event specialist for Paris.
And she came back as an event specialist, but also
as an all around specialist too, winning gold in the
(08:18):
all around, helping the US back on top of the
podium in the team event, and then also winning gold
on vault. Just insane stuff. And I think we have
to make sure that we never take for granted that
living in the age of Simone Biles is a great
time to be alive.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Very true.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Up next our very unseerious Sid Colson Award for Excellence
in Social Media Trolling. You of course know face of
the league, both the w and athletes unlimited Sid Colson
of the Las Vegas Aces, who excels in every way
at social media and has since the day her existence
was made clear to us. So she is the reason
for this award and the reason for the season to
(08:55):
be fair.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
So who was serving it up best on social media?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
I'm going with the Parisians behind the eyes shit in
the sin On June twenty third viral campaign, they encouraged
a mass defecation into the famed Parisian River just before
French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris mayor and Hidalgo were
scheduled to take a swim to prove that the river
was safe for the games. Spoiler alert, it wasn't also
a spoiler eco lie, just an incredible campaign.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Misha definitely enjoyed that.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I also enjoyed the lesbians in a tizzy this whole
WNBA season behind Dja Carrington and Melyssa Smith. Everybody wanted
to know are they together?
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Are they not?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Are they the cutest couple in the league? Are they
secretly hating each other? And I just love the way
they continued to stoke the flame, stoke the coals and
the fire, posting videos with the dog without each other
just stir in the pot.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
It was peak peak entertainment.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, hoops and gay shit. They ruled that Alex all right.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Just like Marta won the inaugural Marta Award, I am
giving the inaugural Sid Coulson Award to Sid Coulson, and
I am picking the moment when after Kathy Engelbert showed
up to the WNBA Finals wearing a New York themed dress,
Sid Coulson made sure that she went to the department
store and tried that thing on herself and it was just.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Perfect, Yeah, perfect, perfect host of the photo and everything
so good. Our next award is the Justin Brown Everybody
Watches Women's Sports Marketing Moment of the Year. Now, this
is our award for the best women's sports campaign or
conceit and this is in honor of former TOGETHER VP
of Creative Development and Talent Relations, Justine Brown, also former
basketball manager at Tennessee General, Lady about Town in the
(10:38):
women's sports world, her innovative game changing T shirt campaign
that became a movement. She is the woman behind Everybody
Watches Women's Sports. So my award for my favorite campaign
or conceeat this year is Ellie the Damn Elephant. I
swear she's sold more Liberty tickets and Sabrina Ganescu this year.
Absolutely genius in every way. Hands down, it's Misha Ah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I gotta give it to Flage Johnson. Her insane. First
of all, folks who have competed in college athletics are
parented maybe a college athlete. You know how grueling that
schedule can be, especially at the power for level that
she's playing out at LSU. She's not only doing that,
she had an incredible music promo run for her rap career.
(11:21):
If you haven't listened to her music, I'm telling you
go listen to it. But this whole year she had
The Eagles used came Out a Beast for one of
their in game videos. Lil Wayne was featured on that song.
He was in the music video with her, brought her
out during one of his shows. She performed the BT
Awards at WNBA All Star at the sb's like she's
a masterclass in being a multi hyphen and following all
(11:44):
your passions unapologetically.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Love it, Alex, what you got.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I'm going with the WNBAS Welcome to the w commercial
and I want to be super clear here. This is
the pick from May when the commercial was still new
and it seemed super innovative and not from September in
October when we were watching it about ten times per
playoff game and it felt like it was the WNBA's
only strategy to welcome new fans to the league. But
(12:09):
when it first came out, I thought it was great,
so well produced a really fun intro.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, the Kaitlin Clark Award for Kaitlyn Clarking aka the
Breakout Star of the Year. This, of course in honor
of last year's runaway Breakout Star Kaitlyn Clark, an award
for the athlete who became a household name. This year,
I'm going with rugby star turned social media darling turned
dancing queen alone Omar.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I mean, what didn't she do this year?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
And from the first time we mentioned her and I
said her name incorrectly, she captured my heart.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I learned how to say her name and a lot
more about her. She is my breakout star. Misha.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah, I remember that we were struggling. All three of
us are struggling. Oh my goodness, if you only know
behind the scenes. I've got to give my nominee to
Barbara Banda. This was her first season in the NWSL, Folks,
Let's not forget that she was literally a rookie. Scored
thirteen goals and six assists in the regular season, second
in the Golden Boot race, tied the league single season
(13:06):
record for braces, scored it every round of the playoffs,
and in the championship she scored the game winning goal.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
She's the Championship MVP.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
That's just in the NWSL, though, because internationally she became
the first women's footballer to record three hat tricks in
the Olympics and had four goals for Zambia and was
named to the World Best eleven the FIEFT Pro Women's
World eleven. So she had an incredible year and I
want to give her flowers because people are trying to
attack her transphobes. It's always the transphobes, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Yeah, Alex, who you got?
Speaker 4 (13:38):
I'm going with cyclist Christian Faukner, mostly because I'm a
sucker for late bloomers and sports seeing someone who started
cycling after she graduated from college go on to win
two gold medals at the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Love it pretty good and using her platform for great
stuff ever since. Up next to Sam Kurr tackling the
pitch Invader video.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
We can't watching award now.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
If you remember, during a Chelsea Juventus Champions League match,
a man entered the field and was dicking about and
holding up play until the legendary Sam Kerr dropped her
shoulder and laid him out. We have watched these clips
almost as many times as that one. For me, it's
Liberty Star John Quell Jones taking out her head coach,
Sandy Brundello mid playoff game. John Quell falls against the
scorer's table. She's real fired up and pissed. She gets
(14:23):
back up like elbows up, like she's gonna get back
into the field of play and really pick some shit up,
and runs directly into a head coach and both of
them go down like bowling pins. Please watch it over
and over and over again. Meish what you got?
Speaker 5 (14:36):
It's actually my pin tweet on X.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
I know my profile looks like a ghost town right now,
but this video is the one that's worth it. It's a
video of Melissa Smith and Angel Reese at the free
throw line from towards the beginning of the WNBA season,
and they're going back and forth a little bit, and
a ref kind of steps in and is like, hey,
there's no video, but you can tell it's more of
a let's calm down kind of policing them vibe, and
they both it look like we're good and gesture as
(15:02):
though you know we're friends.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
We've played against each other. This is what competitors do.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
And to me, I love that video because it signaled
just the general mentality shift that we need folks to have, like, yeah, okay,
it can get chippy and okay, some players might even
hate each other, not them specifically, but there's just no
need to over police.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
And that was just such a great matchup.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I agree, Alex who you got.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
One of the things I love about the Olympics is
all of those videos of cats watching the Olympics. And
there was this fantastic video of a cat who was
helping a gymnast stay on the balance beemount of if
you guys remember this, but a gymnast was crossing the
balance theme she started to stumble and the cat just
raised the paw kept her on And so you'll love
a good feline friend like that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Love that.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And if you haven't seen any of these videos, we've
watched over and over. Don't worry, we'll link to them
in the show notes for you, all right. The next
award the Serena Williams Cat Suit Award for best Fit
on or off the Court. This is, of course, the
Fit of the Year, inspired by a black cat suit
in red belt combo so fire, it was banned from
Roland Garros. Like Serena's twenty eighteen French open look, these
fits went off. There were so many to choose from,
(16:06):
but the one that kept coming into my mind so
I could not push it away was Kelsey Plum's leather
assassin style Alexander Wang black leather mini vest with the
molded bra cups and the matching baggy low rise trousers
cattie glasses. She wore on the Aces Ring night. It
was giving architectural feet. I don't know how she stayed
in there and it was giving. I can't believe Darren
Waller fumbled the bag.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
That fit went off means what you got so rue. Ah.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
I gotta give some love to Courtney Williams.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Back in September, she put together this all black leather
shaft fitting a lah Richard Rowntree. That's just it brought
such a big smile to my face. I think in
terms of the mass presenting folks that are in the
w she's got to be at the top of that list.
Like her Keina, Charles Tiffany, There's just a immaculate.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
Style, Alex.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
I'm going with light T shirt, Ashes says. Back when
the Aces hit a rough patch over the summer, she
starts showing up in a white T shirt. She was like,
I've got a job to do. I don't need to
spend any more energy on my fit.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And it sure worked for her at least, maybe not
the team, but for her. The Minnesota Links Black T
Shirt Award for Social Justice. This was named for the
four members of The Links, Maya Moore, Rebecca Brunson, Simone Augustus,
and Lindsay Whalen, who wore black T shirts in twenty
sixteen that read change starts with US justice and accountability.
Following the deaths of Toilando Castile and Alton Stirling, who
(17:30):
were both fatally shot by police officers, WNBA initially find
the Links players and the players from other teams who
followed their lead, before rescinding the fines after player backlash
and public outcry, and this award honors someone who has
spoken up about.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Social justice issues.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I'm going to go with Olympic runner Nicki Hilts, using
their platform and success to advocate for LGBTQ plus causes
and for just embodying and displaying trans joy with every race,
every win, every TikTok dance. Every time I see Nikki,
I smile, and so while they're advocating for major serious things,
they're also doing it with such joy.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, Niche, I gotta give mine to Mercury Gard Natasha Cloud,
who has been and continues to be a huge, huge
advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Palestinian Ministry of
Health says more than forty six thousand Palestinians have been
killed in Israeli attacks, and Cloud is one of very
few American athletes who I've seen be steadfast.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
And speaking out about the genocide. So hats off to
her and more power to her.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Alex, who you got?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
I'm going with breakdancer Menisa Talache, who competed for the
refugee Olympic team in Paris. The twenty one year old
is originally from Afghanistan, but she was disqualified from the
competition in Paris after she wore a cape that said
free Afghan women during her opening battle.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Up next the Megan Rappino I've yieaded my achilles in
the Final Game award for the most Unbelievable injury. Rappino's
final professional game, getting cut short by an achilles tear
was an all time kicking the lips. Here are this
year's I'm Going with actress Aubrey Plaza tearing her ACL
during the WNBA All Star weekend while playing pickup.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
At the New Mercury Practice Facility.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
It is truly legendary stuff to tear your ACL as
a spectator, even if you were playing when you did it,
sitting courtside like you had done something serious in a game.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Just so good mesh, how about you?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
First of all? Kicking the lips?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Is I just invented that? I just invented that. I'm like,
I didn't get kicked in the junk.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
That's taking me out, So my nominee, it might be
too soon. It might be too soon, But Louisville's star
in hometown euro volleyball player Annada Beer, who suffered a
high ankle sprain landing on a teammate's foot in the
college Vib's semi final and was unable to play in
the championship. I felt terrible, horrible, no good, very bad
(19:51):
on her behalf. She was playing fifteen minutes down the
road from where she grew up or where she used
to play, and couldn't suit up in the national championship
in the he loses.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
That's heartbreak.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, on a whole other level, Alex, here you got.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
I'm going with kroib thin. It feels like an athlete's
worst night. There that after she was named an alternate
to the US Olympic team, got called up to the
main roster, helped them win gold, and then was invited
to throw out the first pitch at a Washington Nationals
game and went on to tear hermaniscus just so cruel.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Brutal stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Our final award the Bobby Riggs Biggest Jackass of the
Year Award. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows this year,
so in honor of legendary Chauven's pig Bobby Riggs, this
award goes out to the people or things that shit
in our Sunday. I'm gonna go with transphobes and obviously
you know transphobes in general, but specifically ruining Iman Khalif's
Olympic moment. All of the conversation around him on Kliff
(20:47):
and the boxing event was just so disappointing, so uninformed
by so many people, and it just made me sad
to see her living out this dream and despite going
on to win it all, and despite many good things
happen afterwards from folks who did want to support her
and her success during that time, I just can't imagine
what she was going through and it made me extremely angry.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Means, what about you.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Oh, this should come as no surprise to anyone, but
I gotta go with the absolutely unhinged, unjust couth discourse
around the WNBA and especially during the rise of Caitlin
Clark her Wookie year, all the attention was taken away
from the excellent product that was happening on the basketball
court because people wanted to be racist, especially that lady
(21:32):
who had the nails was trying to mock Dje Caring.
That's really ground my gears. But yeah, anybody who had
anything negative to say and wasn't pouring into the wonderful
discourse about how awesome of a season she had in
the WNBA had and former stars have had to lead
us to this moment.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
Yeah, big fuck you.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Agreed on that one, Alex, I'm.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Going with Riley Gaines. I know she can fit under
that Transfobe umbrella, but feels like she's just brought things
to a whole different level, the fact that she took
finishing fifth in an NCAA race and has made her
entire career about that one thing, and how she can
make life worse for trans people as part of it.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Agreed.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I almost want to bleep out her name and not
give her credit, but I guess for those who don't
know Kurr And now you know, all right, you get
to vote on all of these slices. We'll include a
link to vote in the show notes, so make your
voice heard. And of course, while we're looking back on
twenty twenty four, we can't forget those who left us too. Yep,
it's time for the twenty twenty four Good Game with
Sarah Spain in memoriam for people who aren't actually dead
(22:40):
but literally killed us by stepping away from sport.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Now, this is not an exhaustive list.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
This is just the folks who killed us with their
retirement announcements.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
What's that phrase? Put it on a gravestone.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, if we were in charge of carving the granite
markers for the gravestones of these athletes careers, here's what
we would write.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Music. Please, Sam Ewis still having an okay time.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Candice Parker, good luck pushing me out of the record books.
Kelly O'Hara led the league in laughs, provided Shaneade fairly.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Because you knew me. The league is changed for good.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Christine Sinclair, I wasn't afraid to block my enemies. Lesia
Clarendon left on top without their top wink Merritt Matthias,
I came, I saw, I shipped up.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Alex Morgan. Oh wait, this one's just a QR code.
One second. Hold on, let me skip.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Becky Souerbrun remembered but not missed. If you know you
know Ray Gun the breakdancer, Olympic sized meme. Lord Sky Guy,
the Chicago Sky's former mascot. I know you didn't like me,
but I loved you. Simone Biles, your Chenko double pike
(24:20):
the only skill to get its own funeral. And by
the way, speaking to Simone, she's one of a couple
folks whose stones we've kind of started carving, but we're
not sure if we're gonna need him this year. Now
hers reads what music Please, waiting for y'all to just
rename the whole sport the Biles and also Diana Tarassi, bitch,
(24:42):
did I say I was retiring? I'll see you in
the hotel lobby. There are also a few gravestones were
taking out of the ground, like Lindsay Vaughn, Lauren Jackson,
and Tiffany Hayes, who all unretired.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
There's all just say psych to all of you who
literally killed us by announcing your retirement. Thank you very little.
We got to take another break.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
When we come back, we give you some reading recommendations
to take into twenty twenty five with Jane McManus.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Joining me now.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
She's the editor of the Year's Best Sports Writing twenty
twenty four and NYU professor and author of the upcoming
book The Fast Track Inside the Surging Business of Women's Sports.
She's one third of the greatest ESPN radio show that's
ever existed, The Trifecta.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
She was on House Hunters.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
International, and she got thrown in the drunk tank at
an NWA concert and couldn't go to the after party.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Easy E invited her too. It's Jane McManus.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Wow, all my titles and a skeleton. Really well done intro.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Honestly, one of my all time favorite stories is you
driving across multiple states to go to NWA, easy inviting
you to a party and you not making it to
the end of the show before getting thrown in the
drunk tank and therefore missing your opportunity to party with end.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
Yeah, Kansas City cops were not letting me back there.
That's that's just the way it was going to go.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I think it's for the best team.
Speaker 7 (26:07):
Okay, it may have worked out. O, you.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Know, it might have worked out.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Okay, we are going to do a Trifector reunion in
twenty twenty five on this show. You and Kate Fagan
and I will be reunited on this show. But for now,
I'm going to take this quickie with you while we
coordinate to get all three of us in the same
place at the same time. And you are here to
give us a couple of great things to read over
this holiday break. We need some good material for when
we're lounging on the couch at our parents' place. Or
(26:31):
maybe driving to and fro for the holidays, for dinners
and celebrations, sitting in the backseat board, maybe just when
we're chilling in bed, welcoming in the new year with
some R and R. And you edited the Year's Best
Sports Writing twenty twenty four anthology, which means you have
a beat on some of the best stories from female
authors or about women's sports that we can find.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
So give us a couple of good ones.
Speaker 7 (26:51):
Yeah, well, thanks for that, Sarah.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
I didn't set out to put more women as authors
or as athletes into the volume, but when I started
reading what had been, you know, written and published in
twenty twenty three, it was just apparent to me that
there was a lot of really good writing that that
was kind of being elevated. And it totally makes sense
in this moment that you would find more of these stories.
But the cream of the crop is Sally Jenkins piece
(27:13):
on Chris Evert and Martina Neverchelova going through cancer together
and this was a multimedia treatment in the Washington Post,
and the way that she describes their relationship, it is
definitely Sally Jenkins as the third character in the story.
She has so much depth and she goes back so
far with these two athletes. I think it just speaks
to a lot of things, you know, in our business
(27:34):
right now, as like there are few and fewer outlets
doing less and less long form. The ability for somebody
who has had a lifetime, you know, in this space
as a sports writer, being able to write about these
two women. You know, it's just so compelling. And I
you know, that story led the Washington Post, which I
think goes to speak to how important good sports writing is.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Also that one.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I think what's fascinating about it is it not only
gives us this look at these to athletes who are
competitors for so long, but knew each other for so
long that then when they experienced this traumatic thing, they
came together around it instead of still being you know,
in opposition. But also you know, there's some complicated nuances
to both of those people in the current time, in
this current time, as we're trying to deal with trans
(28:18):
athletes and inclusion, to have these pillars of women's sports,
and to be complicated in our feelings about how they're
using their platform post retirement, and so they have this
traumatic event, there's so much empathy and sympathy there and
also at times very frustrated to see, you know, support
for banning trans athletes and you know, not allowing that
(28:40):
inclusion that we wish that they would be on the
forefront of.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
And you know, Sally Jenkins actually wrote a column just
a couple of weeks ago about this very issue, arguing
for more inclusion in sports, which is I think, you know,
I don't want to speak for you, but it's certainly
where I think, you know, we should live a little
bit more. Is thinking about like how are we including people?
Do we have to exclude? Is it always the case
at every single level?
Speaker 7 (29:01):
Do we have to.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
Adopt the language of the final in the Olympics? You know,
but in an individual sport to you know, ASO soccer,
does that make sense? And I think, you know, I
think thinking about this in a multi layered way, You're right.
There are a lot of women who kind of came
in and played in the seventies and eighties wh've adopted
this exclusionary stance. There are people who came in during
the women's movement when it was just starting and really
(29:23):
fighting for even you.
Speaker 7 (29:24):
Know, when Title nine wasn't even well established.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
And I think it is disappointing that they have these
views that are then going to limit women in sports.
Speaker 7 (29:32):
Let's be honest, like, you know.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It does make for a good and interesting profile, though
to not always have to heroize people or demonize them.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
It's it can be both. We can feel different ways about.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
Them, and I think complicated people and complicated storytelling is
part of what I loved about so many of the
stories in the Year's Best Sports Writing.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
And the other one I'm going to point.
Speaker 6 (29:50):
To then in that vein is Steve Poladi's piece on
Olivia Dunn, and I think there are kind of, you know,
the way she's been portrayed in NILS.
Speaker 7 (29:58):
You know, she's clearly leading the in terms.
Speaker 6 (30:00):
Of women getting an IL deals, and part of that
is because she is appealing to advertisers in the way
women have always been appealing to advertisers.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Sex sells.
Speaker 6 (30:10):
She's a beautiful woman, she's very good at what she does.
She's not the best gymnast in the world, but she's good,
and she's very good, and she's got real talent. And
so I think, you know, but he is able to
deal with this, you know, not kind of casting shade
on her or being a bit blamey or being like
you know, I mean, I think you know, look, you've
been in this business a long time too. We take
(30:31):
advantage of whatever advantages we have, and that's kind of
the way you have to do it. I think this
was a very frank and matter of fact look at that,
and also the backlash that has come her way because
of that. She's had stalkers, she's you know, she does
she has to endure I think a certain level of
talk about her endorsements as well, So, you know, I
think this was a frank treatment of a multi layered
(30:52):
character quote unquote, And I thought that was a really
good story too well.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
And that is particularly interesting because we've talked about this
a lot over the course of our years hosting the
Trifecta and doing other work. Is how do you balance
like hate the game, not the player, right, if the
system operates the way that it does, where it holds
women back in almost every way and then gives you
this one way. It's a conversation we've had about Danika Patrick,
It's a conversation we've had about so many women. You know,
(31:16):
on a corner Cova, you know, Maria Sharipova, If you're beautiful,
you can both get more publicity and attention because of
it and also get criticized for it. But if you're
not beautiful and you're super talented, you often don't get
the opportunity. So what do we want from women? And
the answer is to go away most of the time.
But yeah, I mean that having those nuanced conversations about
someone like Livy Dunn is really fascinating. Okay, So we've
(31:38):
got to get the year's Best Sports Writing twenty twenty four.
There are countless stories in there, some of the best
of the best that Jane McManus herself got to pick out,
which what an honor. Incredible that you edited that. That's
just really fantastic.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
You're also here to tell us by your upcoming book,
which I am super excited. I can't believe that somehow
in the year twenty twenty five, all three members of
the Trifecta will have their book on the shelves. We
need to go into every bookstore and put them next
to each other.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
So you should do it a little book tour.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Ooh so fun.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Let's do it. Let's manifest that for twenty twenty five. Okay,
So tell us about fast Track.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
So, I mean, I think it was a story that
I had to tell, you know, just and I think,
you know, you and Cater both doing stories, I think
that you feel really drawn to. And for me it
was really you know, kind of having a front row
seat to the business of women's sports for so long,
and also the industry and how it treats women's sports,
you know, like you, I didn't get into being a
sportswriter because I wanted to start a revolution or be
(32:31):
you know, the feminist icon.
Speaker 7 (32:33):
Sports writer speaker. But once you get in, you kind
of see what's happening.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
And it kind of sensitizes you to think I just
wanted to cover the next but here we are so
but so I wanted to tell the story not only
of where women's sports are going at the moment with
so much investment. And I pitched this book in twenty
twenty I could kind of see that it was the
tide was coming in a little bit. But it's also
about the things that have held women in the space back.
It's about you know, choosing windows for broadcasts, windows for
(33:00):
WNBA games, It's about all these little decisions that also
held them back.
Speaker 7 (33:05):
Maline necklect if you will, And so I wanted to.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
Tell both those stories side by side because I really
don't think that the you know, getting out the pom
poms and going go women's sports, go women's sports, is
the full story. And also I think in this particular
moment that we're in right now, Sarah, you have to
be aware of the forces that are ready to kick
back in again.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, that's so true, and we try to talk about
that on this show, where we say, let's also look
back when we say this is the highest ratings since
two thousand and five, What was going on in two
thousand and five, Why was it getting so much attention?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
What happened between then and now that it dipped?
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Because if we don't pay attention to what's being done
with intention to women's sports at various times, we run
the risk of leagues taking a step back of attendance
and view viewers not continuing to go up. Like right now,
it feels like such a complete trajectory, straight up, like
a rocket ship. But there are any number of things
that can send us backwards if we're not paying attention
to them, calling out how they happen to the past.
(34:00):
And that's why I'm just so, so so psyched for
your book. You're such an incredible researcher. You are so honest.
I always say that we did gifts for each other.
Mine was to sometimes make you lighten up a little
and have a little more fun, and yours was to
knock me out of my rainbows and sunshine and tell
me like, hey, this is the real shit here Spain
like radicalizing me in a way that would have happened anyway,
(34:22):
but you got me there a little faster and got
me working on the on the right side of things
to start telling these stories which are so necessary.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Where can we get the book?
Speaker 6 (34:30):
You can pre order it a good Reads or Amazon
or any of the places where you can pre order books,
and you know, get it, for get it for somebody
in your life who's going to enjoy the history and
the future.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I love that you can also get it from any
local bookstore that you love that has an online portal
the pre order. I love Volumes Books in Chicago and
Semichael and you can also do Powace Books, famous bookstore
in Portland. But it's available for pre order now. Fast Track.
We're so excited about that, And Jane, we're so excited
to chat with you. We're manifesting the Three Way Book Tour,
the Threesome Book Tour, the Trifector Book Tour, or at
(35:03):
least at least one appearance that will make in twenty
twenty five, but also getting you both on the shop.
Speaker 6 (35:06):
So thanks for the time, one hundred percent, Thanks Sarah.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Thanks again to Jane for joining us, and thanks to
you all for listening all year. You know we love
that you're listening, but we want you to get in
the game every day too, So here's our good Game
Play of the Day by the year's best sports writing
twenty twenty four, and pre order FastTrack inside the Surging
Business of Women's Sports and vote for the slices.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
And because this is.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
A very official election, we made a Google form to
ensure fairness and accuracy. The link is in our show notes,
so make your voices hurt. Results are coming in the
new year, and of course we always love to hear
from you, so hit us up on email Good Game
at wondermedianetwork dot com or leave us a voicemail at
eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy and finally,
don't forget to subscribe, rate and review, it's easy watch
(35:52):
my list of delights and comforts, rating five out of
five things that will help us survive the existential dread
we feel about the start of twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Five review so slices.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
At the end of the year, I get particularly contemplative,
and at the end of this year, in particular, after
several months of putting on blinders for what's to come
January twentieth, I'm now being forced to look ahead to
twenty twenty five for work and life and schedule, and
that's been pretty upsetting, to say the least. So my
contemplativeness turned toward finding comfort and delight ways to stop catastrophizing,
(36:26):
even just for brief moments.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
And if you'll indulge me for a minute.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Here, I would like to share three words and two
people that I think will help us in the coming
months as reminders that delight can be found in even
the smallest of things, like a very specific and deliciously
ridiculous word, or the grandest of human expressions, like a
poem about choosing to live with joy even when things
feel super dark.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
So let's start with the silly stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
We're starting with a finished word purunkusema now This is
a word born from the fact that reindeers are unable
to walk.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
And pee at the same time. Did you know that
because I didn't.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yep, they had to take a bathroom break roughly every
five to seven kilometers, and the finish created a word
based on this form of measurement. Purunkussema is a distance
of about five to seven kilometers, the distance equel to
how far a reindeer can travel before stopping and taking
a piss literal translation a reindeer's piss. And it became
an old fashioned description of distances in the countryside. So
(37:21):
take the road all the way past the red farmhouse,
over a hill, keep driving about two reindeer pisses. Then
you'll see their place on the right, just past the
big dead tree. Now I think we should use this
measure of distance for road races. Yes, perfect number two.
The second word that delights me I learned this past
spring when I went to Japan for the first time,
and I was right smack in the middle of cherry
blossom season.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Now you want to talk about delighted.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
There are pink blossoms everywhere above and below you. There
are even rivers and streams entirely pink with fallen blossoms,
and this happens every single year, and it has for
literal centuries, but the Japanese still treat it like it's
a once in a lifetime event. There are countless festivals
and art pieces, and there's a whole vocabulary dedicated to
(38:04):
sakura cherry blossoms. And my favorite word dedicated to these
beauties is sakura fubuki, which means basically when the cherry
blossoms are falling off the trees like snow. The literal
translation is cherry blossom snowstorm. To have a whole word
just for the moment that August of wind grabs a
handful of blossoms and pulls them from their branches, sending
(38:25):
them down to the ground like snow.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Come on.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
That is so lovely, and it actually reminds me of
these lines from this poet. I went to go see
cave Akbar and he wrote about wishing that the awesome
occasions of the every day would never feel ordinary.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Some days we can see venus in mid afternoon, then
at night, stars separated by billions of miles light traveling
years to die in the back of an eye. Is
there a vocabulary for this one to make dailiness amplify
and not diminish wonder end quote. I feel like finding wonder,
finding delight, finding magic, and even the ordinary, even something
(39:02):
that happens every single year, making whole words for that
that is going to be very important in the coming
months and years. Number Three my favorite word of all
time apricody the warmth of sunlight in the winter, which
again sort of feels important for the next four years
or so because we'll be going through existential winter trying
to find patches of sunlight, bits of warmth, any sort
(39:23):
of feeling of brightness. And this reminded me of my
personal motto acquired during COVID. The Very Dark existentialist Albert
Camu wrote beautifully quote in the midst of winter, I
found there was within me an invincible summer end quote.
And ever since I came across those lines, invincible summer
has been sort of my personal motto through COVID, through disappointment,
(39:44):
finding sunshine inside of myself when there's darkness or winter,
anything else outside of me. So we're going to have
to find our invincible summer and our apricity. Four there
is a quote that I shared multiple years in a
row embarrassingly on social media Every New Year's attributed to
f Scott Fitzgerald, or should I say misattributed because it
(40:04):
is actually lines from the movie Benjamin Button. Was I
horrified to learn that every year I had very dramatically
and artfully shared f Scott Fitzgerald lines that were not
written by f Scott Fitzgerald.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (40:14):
I was. But did I start sharing it and just
cropping off the bottom that said f Scott Fitzgerald every
year anyway? Because it is my favorite thing to share
every New Year's? Yes I did. And here's what it is,
for what it's worth. It's never too late to be
whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, start
whenever you want. You can change or stay the same.
There are no rules to this thing. We can make
(40:34):
the best or the worst of it. I hope you
make the best of it. I hope you see things
that startle you. I hope you feel things you've never
felt before. I hope you meet people who have a
different point of view. I hope you live a life
you're proud of. And if you're not, I hope you
have the courage to start over again.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
End quote.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Now, this fact that I continually shared a misattributed quote
to a famous author that was actually from a movie
where Brad Pitt ages backwards reminded me of another quote
that I've seen many times and I can't for sure
find the exact truth behind it. Is mostly shared on
blog posts and pinterests, but it's still moving to me,
and the words can move me even if I don't
(41:11):
know if they're one thousand percent true and related to
the person that they allegedly were spoken by.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
But there's a man named aj Must.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
He is real a social activist who during the Vietnam
War stood outside the White House night after night, and
a reporter once asked him, quote, mister Must, do you
really think that you're going to change the policies of
this country by standing out here alone all night with
a candle?
Speaker 1 (41:30):
End quote?
Speaker 2 (41:31):
And he said, Oh, I don't do this to change
the country. I do this so the country won't change me,
whether or not he actually said that. I am taking
that message into the next year and the year after,
and the year after and the year after, and.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Hopefully only those four years. God please, but we need.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
To remind ourselves going forward that we might not be
able to change the whole country, but we do need
to make sure the country does not change us, at
least in bad ways. Finally, Number five, another person to
move you Andrea Gibson, Colorado's poet, laureate, activist, author, performer,
teller of the most painful and honest of truths.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Their work is so beautiful and so devastating.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
It will take you all the way from joy to
pain and then back to joy again because of what
it reveals in you and in all of us. And
every single time I listened to their work, I'm like, Okay,
we're going to be fine because they are dealing with
the devastating terminal diagnosis, and they somehow find beauty and
every single little thing, even the worst of things, like,
for instance, listen to this.
Speaker 8 (42:32):
This year, everyone I know had a broken heart. Everyone
I know cried in private on their way home from
a party, and not everyone I know woke up the
next morning, and not everyone I know wanted to, even
though they did. And this year I stood inside of
(42:55):
a red witch tree and thought, this is the sweetest
day of my whole life. And a couple of months later,
I was screaming in a parking lot thinking this is
the worst day of my whole life. And a few
months later I was dancing in my living room, thinking,
this is the best day of my whole life. Have
(43:17):
you ever seen the seed of a red tree?
Speaker 1 (43:22):
So tiny?
Speaker 8 (43:23):
And all of that, everything inside of it, all of this,
everything inside of us.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
So read Andrew's work, watch their performances, Take in their words,
things like this quote. Because I don't want to be
a witness to this life. I want to be charged
and convicted, earlifted to her song like a bouquet of yes.
Because my heart is a parachute that has never opened
in time, and I want to fuck up that pattern,
leave a hole where the cold comes in, and fill
it every day with her son. Because anyone who's ever
(43:54):
sat in lotus for more than a few seconds knows
it takes a hell of a lot more muscle to
stay than to go.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
End quote.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
So we gotta stay. We got to use all our
muscles to stay. We've got to find our invincible summer.
We got to find our pricity. We got to find
our delight in our comfort. We got this, people, We
got this. Now it's your turn, rate and review and
thanks for listening. This is our final episode of this week,
but we'll be back next week with our favorite episodes
from twenty twenty four. We'll see you then. Enjoy the holidays,
(44:23):
however you celebrate them. Good Game, Jane, Good Game, Slicies, You,
anybody who's shitting our Sunday this year. Good Game with
Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership
with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Alex Azzie and Misha Jones.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan,
and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez,
Grace Lynch, and Lindsay Crawdowell. Production assistant from Lucy Jones
and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain
Host
Sarah Spain
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