205 - Baseball at War: Working and Playing Ball in the Bethlehem Steel League w/ William Ecenbarger

205 - Baseball at War: Working and Playing Ball in the Bethlehem Steel League w/ William Ecenbarger

Author: A podcast about baseball, music and culture. June 20, 2024 Duration: 44:48
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author William "Bill" Ecenbarger is our guess this week to discuss his latest book, "Work, Fight, or Play Ball: How Bethlehem Steel Helped Baseball's Stars Avoid World War I" (Temple University Press 2024). The book chronicles how Bethlehem Steel's "safe shelter" industrial league in 1917 and 1918 helped Major League players like "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Dutch Leonard and a young Babe Ruth avoid the draft and military service during World War I. In part ...

You might find yourself wondering how a perfect double play and a classic guitar riff are connected, or what a stadium anthem says about the year it topped the charts. That’s the kind of territory explored on Hooks & Runs. This isn't just a series of interviews, though you’ll hear conversations with fascinating figures from the sports and music industries. It’s also a place for thoughtful commentary, where the co-hosts draw lines between the crack of a bat and a cultural moment, between a legendary concert and a legendary season. They dig into both current headlines and forgotten history, finding the stories where pop culture and the national pastime intersect. Each episode feels like a relaxed, insightful conversation that could start with a baseball statistic and end with a music theory debate. New installments of this podcast arrive roughly every Thursday, offering a consistent dose of their unique blend. If you’ve ever felt that the narratives of baseball and the rhythms of music speak a similar language, this podcast provides the commentary to translate.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Hooks & Runs
Podcast Episodes
282 - On Baseball's First Superstar w/ Thomas W. Gilbert [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:33
Our guest this episode is Thomas W. Gilbert. His new book, "Death in the Strike Zone: The Mystery of America's First Baseball Hero" (David R. Godine, 2026), is the story of James Creighton, a young pitcher who pitched fo…
281 - "A Most Dramatic Diamond Struggle" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:17
On July 10, 1932, after playing 3 double headers in 3 days, Connie Mack's Philadelphia A's faced the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland's League Park. Craziness ensued. The game and players set records that have never been,…