Sports! Paul brings the case against his friend Jeremy. Paul loves to wear his favorite baseball team's gear to games, even when that team isn't playing the game. Jeremy says that this practice is in bad taste. Who's right?

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Special thanks to listener Ranjit Bhatnagar, Jason Richards and Jesse Lansner who all sent in the suggestion for this week's title!

 Culture Recommendations from Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing
 
This week's culture recommendations come to us care of Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing and the Gweek podcast, who joins us to share a pair of his top picks: The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs, as compiled by Charles Doyle, and the music video production iPhone app Video Star.
 
(Embed or share Mark Frauenfelder’s Culture Recommendations)

 

 New York Mets Pitcher R.A. Dickey
 
R.A. Dickey is a pitcher for the New York Mets, and the only man in the majors currently throwing a knuckleball. His new memoir, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest For Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, is a story of perseverance more than anything. He had a difficult childhood marked by abuse and poverty, but found his gift in baseball. Early on in his career, the Texas Rangers offered Dickey a lucrative contract but retracted it when they discovered a physical abnormality that theoretically should have kept him from playing ball. Dickey then bounced back and forth between the major and minor leagues and says he floundered, personally and professionally. But he stuck with it, and worked on mastering the wildly unpredictable knuckleball pitch (and finally found stability and peace in his relationships with his family and friends). Now, at age 37 Dickey is just hitting the prime of his career while many players of his age have long since retired. If anything, the knuckleball means his best days may still be ahead of him.
 
R.A. sits down with us to discuss his search for peace from a troubled past, the art of throwing the perfect knuckleball, and exactly why he names his bats after fantasy swords. Wherever I Wind Up is now available in bookstores now.
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 Comedy by Coyle & Sharpe: Robbing a Bank
 
To say Jim Coyle and Mal Sharpe were ahead of their time would be putting it mildly. The duo produced hundreds of man-on-the-street interviews in San Francisco during the mid-1960s, always claiming to be something they weren't, all in the name of comedy. Their efforts would go mostly unappreciated for decades, though the dedication of Mal's daughter Jennifer would ensure their work would eventually find an audience.
 
In this classic clip, the pair try to convince a Navy serviceman to rob a bank for them. You can hear more from Coyle & Sharpe right here on MaximumFun.org, where their archives have been converted to The Coyle & Sharpe Podcast.
 
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 The Outshot: The Best Show on WFMU
 
On the Outshot this week, Jesse makes the rather unconventional move of recommending a radio show that isn't this one -- but you'll want to check it out all the same. It's The Best Show on WFMU, the music show turned character-based comedy call-in program whose cryptic host Tom Scharpling can satirize the role of the radio host while perfecting it in the same breath.
 
Is there a show on the radio that you consider appointment listening? We want to hear it, so let us know on the MaxFun Forum by picking your own Outshot.
 
(Embed or share this Outshot on The Best Show on WFMU)
 
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The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program from our salad days.

Today's theme: Baseball

In this episode, Jesse first talks with Tim and Eric. They play a little amateur baseball trivia between themselves. Tim and Eric are the creators of TimandEric.com and "Tom Goes to the Mayor" on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network.

Next Jesse talks briefly with Will Carroll. He's the author of “The Juice: The Real Story of Baseball's Drug Problems," which covers the steroid scandal in Major League Baseball, and co-author of The Baseball Prospectus. They discuss local baseball, Barry Bonds, and injury and trade updates.

Jesse also talks with Bill “The Spaceman” Lee.. He's written the best-selling memoir “The Wrong Stuff” and “Have Glove, Will Travel”," which cover his career in amateur, minor, and major league baseball. He talks about getting older and still playing, pitching in senior leagues and staying passionate.

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If you don't enjoy this interview with San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson, you're not a fun person.

Go Giants!

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Our pals The Internets Celebrities bust out with another A+ video. Funny, informative, charming. KUDOS.

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via Nick Adams

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Every since I talked about watching old-tyme baseball on Jordan, Jesse Go!, I've been inundated with emails saying "Conan did that! Conan did that once!"

Luckily for us, Conan featured the clip on his last show, so we can all enjoy it.

STRIKER TO THE LINE! LEG IT!

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My friend Jules Tygiel passed this week.

Jules was a cultural historian, focusing on California and baseball. He was my professor at San Francisco State University, and wrote one of my college recommendation letters. When I hastily applied to graduate school, he came through with a letter on short notice without even a hint of complaint. He was an inspirational teacher who shared his passion for both history and baseball unreservedly.

In addition to his research, Jules was a wonderful writer. I read his book "Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and his Legacy" before I'd ever met him. In my childhood and teenage years, I read literally hundreds of books about baseball, and "Baseball's Great Experiment" was one of the best. Then as now I was impressed at its combination of academic depth and lucid, exciting prose. It's certainly the best book about Robinson, and when I sold my baseball books a few years ago, it was one of the dozen or so that I kept -- my special favorites. I have often recommended it to friends, both fans and non-fans. In Jules' San Francisco Chronicle obituatary, I was moved to read that it was Rachel Robinson's favorite book about her late husband. I'm not surprised.

Jules was also a friend, particularly close with the Weinstein-Zitrin family, with whom I spent many hours as a young teenager. He and Richard Zitrin, my childhood friend Gabe's father, would engage in heated discussions of baseball subjects -- I remember Richard having particularly strong opinions on whether Jack Morris was overrated, though I can't remember which side he was on and which side Jules was on. Jules was the commissioner of the Pacific Ghost League, the first fantasy baseball league on the West Coast, which was founded in 1981. I'm sure all the owners of the PGL have Jules in their hearts today.

Jules struggled long and hard with cancer, and his illness in recent months was very severe. I will be thinking of him, and of his family. I hope they can find peace in his passing. I also want to thank Jules Tygiel for all he did for me. He will be missed.

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Thanks to Josh for sending me this video of the greatest thing ever to happen in a baseball game ever.