Backwards K Pod
An educational and biographical look, at the moments and personalities, that have been woven into the fabric of baseball. Backwards K Where We Collect Ballplayers And Their Stories
Episodes
July 9, 2024 • 80 mins
I've had to re-learn the Ty Cobb story, that I've heard all of my life, because a fraudulent, hack sportswriter had always set the false narrative. This week i will do a deep character profile study of the great Tyrus Raymond Cobb. Discern between the researched facts and the myths, that made up this most complex man. And hopefully i can be but a piece of justice, for the Ty Cobb legacy, that has been unfairly maligned, in the gene...
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July 1, 2024 • 55 mins
At every level of baseball, Jim Abbott had doubters and skeptics. They doubted him in grade school little-league, high school, college, and the major leagues. He had model size, and a 95 MPH fastball. By any standard, he would be considered great. What made Abbott stand out during his amateur and pro career, were the challenges he overcame to compete at the highest level. Jim was born with a deformed right arm, and ostensibly playe...
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June 23, 2024 • 65 mins
This week we dive into the history of the Baker Bowl, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1887-1938. There were two versions of the ballpark. While both were considered state of the art engineering marvels of their day, both would be beset by tragedy, and both would devolve from sugar to shit. #BakerBowl #NationalLeaguePark #PhiladelphiaPhillies #AlfredReach #ColonelRogers #WilliamBaker #ReadingRailroad #PhiladelphiaAthletic...
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June 16, 2024 • 70 mins
This week we do a deep dive into the legend of the Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig.
While the roaring 20's was the perfect age, for the larger than life, overindulgent, and bombastic Babe Ruth. The 1930's saw the country headed for dark times, and economic collapse. Baseball now needed a hero who was solid, dependable and dignified. The baseball universe would find that hero in Lou Gehrig. #LouGehrig #NewYorkYankees #EleanorGraceTwitchell #...
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June 8, 2024 • 75 mins
Milwaukee has a rich baseball tradition, and a legacy that goes back to the 1870's. Granted, it's never been the center of the mid-west baseball universe, and never will, considering Chicago's close proximity. But the last quarter of the 19th century, and the first half of the 20th century, often found the city of Milwaukee, in the thick of major league baseball, but never quite able to sustain a big-league club, for the long term....
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June 1, 2024 • 67 mins
Denton True "Cyclone" Young left a baseball legacy behind that is ulikely to ever be matched. He won 511 games, which is almost 100 more than Walter Johnson. His resume of records also include, most starts, complete games, innings pitched, hits surrendered, earned runs allowed, losses and batters faced, as statistically speaking, he stands head and shoulders, above any pitcher who has ever played the game. This is the story of the ...
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May 25, 2024 • 83 mins
In 1966, a fresh-faced. twenty year old kid arrives on the baseball scene, and puts the immortal Sandy Koufax on the shelf, when he beats the icon, in his last baseball appearance; Game three of the World Series, 17 years later, he's beating Hall Of Famer, Steve Carlton in game three of the 1983 World Series. In between those amazing book ends, Jim Palmer became the most consistent, and dominant pitcher, in the American League, dur...
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May 18, 2024 • 78 mins
According to legendary Negro Leagues pitcher Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Belll was so fast, he once hit a line drive up the middle, that hit him in the ass, when he was sliding into second base.
This week we do a case study on the great speedster. Just the mere mention of his name, would conjur up, many fantastical stories, by teammates and opponents alike, about his blazing speed. Some true, some no doubt exagerated. This week we ex...
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May 11, 2024 • 86 mins
Even though the San Francisco Giants have won three chips in the past 14 years, the fan base has seen it's share of cold days and hard times. There were the windy, foggy days, out at Candlestick Park. The happless teams of the1980's and 90's. Being seductively wooed by Toronto in the 1970's, and by the city of Tampa in the 1990's. As well as the two years of watching Armando Benitez as their closer. This week we examine the baseba...
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April 27, 2024 • 103 mins
It's another year, which means another round of the Manager's Dead Pool.
Jake will pull listener's name from a hat and pair it with an MLB manager's name, that is pulled from another hat' and if that manager loses his manager's gig first, for any reason, be it retirement, getting fired, or for any reason, the listener paired with that manager's name will win this years trophy. Last year's winner was Adam Hebbel, a schoolteacher fro...
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April 18, 2024 • 65 mins
The enduring history of baseball is filled with accomplishments that strain credulity, and force us to rethink the limits of human potential. Whether it's Babe Ruth calling his shot in the 1932 World Series vs the Cubs, or Reggie Jackson hitting three homeruns on three swings in the 1977 World Series, or Nolan Ryan tossing no-hitters in his 40's. But on June 12th, 1970, Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis, does the impossible when he throws...
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April 12, 2024 • 99 mins
Tom Seaver was one of the greatest right-handed power pitchers, the game has ever known. He won 311 games, for four major league clubs, most notably for the Mets, whom he led from last place laughingstocks to an "Amazin" and improbable world championship in 1969. Seaver at work, was a mechanical picture of kinetic grace. He had a smooth, tight windup, and a stride so long and explosive off the rubber, that his right knee often graz...
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April 4, 2024 • 61 mins
The world of Major League Baseball, has seen more than it's share of of controversies and scandals. Among the most significant of these, was the collusion of team owners during the 1980's. A period of time that impacted the sport's integrity and it's players. This week we dive into the deep waters, of the intricate history of this collusion unraveling; how it unfolded, and the lasting impact it had on the National Pastime. #KirkGib...
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March 29, 2024 • 76 mins
Paul Molitor's path to baseball immortality took many strange twists and turns along the way. Hamstrung by a series of injuries early in his career, and a horrific cocaine addiction, Molitor developed a reputation for fragility, and at one time, it appeared as though his career was cursed and snake-bitten. But the soft-spoken native from St. Paul, Minnesota would persevere to achieve numerous milestones and baseball accolades. The ...
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March 21, 2024 • 71 mins
For 50 years, 1939-1989, Red Sox Nation had three successive Hall Of Famers, guarding the Green Monster of Fenway out in left-field. Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice. With the Splendid Splinter's story already in our collection, and Jim Rice on the horizon, this week we take a dive into the life and career, of the man New Englanders would affectionately call Yaz. The two things the Polish immigrant Yastrzemski family kno...
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March 14, 2024 • 76 mins
This week, we examine the life and career, of the forgotten Hall Of Famer, the greatest southpaw pitcher of the dead-ball era, Eddie Plank. From the humble beginnings of a farming family, born just twelve years after the bloody conclusion of the Civi War battle, bearing his hometown name. Plank would develop his game, on the battleground farms of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, before moving on to the major leagues, and becoming a major ...
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March 8, 2024 • 88 mins
A tragic situation exist, when virtue doesn't triumph, and it is felt when our hero is nobler, than the forces that conspire against him and ultimately destroy him. This week we will look at the amazing career and life of Ken Griffey Jr. A player who would usher in the 1990's brand of major league baseball, and become the decade's face of the National Pastime. He had everything. The physical genetics, he inherited from his father; ...
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February 29, 2024 • 77 mins
This week we head out to Mowtown, U.S.A,, to learn about the rich tradition of baseball in Detroit. A history that goes all the way back to 1867, just two years after the conclusion, of our nation's bloody civil war. Professional baseball dates all the way back to 1884, when the Detroit Wolverines were winning National League pennants, before becoming a part of the Western League's American Association. By 1901. the Tigers have bec...
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February 21, 2024 • 81 mins
This week, we cover the life and career of Eddie Murray, who grew up in the gang infested, crime riddled streets of Watts, California. Eddie and his five brothers, who would all go onto professional baseball careers, would escape the allure of drugs and crime by spending their summer days playing baseball throughout East L.A. Eddie was a phenomenal, championship high school pitcher, but he would teach himself how to switch-hit, and...
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February 14, 2024 • 90 mins
This week we dive into the story of Pedro Martinez. The little skinny kid, who grew up in abject poverty in Manoguayabo, Dominican Republic, who use to follow his older brother Ramon around from sandlot to sandlot playing baseball. The same kid who couldn't afford baseballs and he would chop the heads off his sister's baby dolls, to use as a cheaper option. From the outhouse to the penthouse, and ultimately the baseball king of his...
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