Say It Ain't Contagious
Say It Ain’t Contagious is an ongoing discussion of baseball, social justice, the politics of our country, and how they are inevitably intertwined. Six scholars, activists, and baseball pundits use the game and its history as a lens into issues of race, economics, and American culture.
Episodes
July 27, 2021 • 78 mins
Greg Proops joins the panel for a wide-ranging discussion that covers the Giants, the Negro Leagues, women in baseball, the lack of poetry in baseball announcing, and much more!
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July 20, 2021 • 55 mins
The panel chats with Dr. Margaret Salazar-Porzio of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History on the new ¡Pleibol! exhibit, a journey into the heart and history of U.S. Latino baseball.
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July 6, 2021 • 37 mins
The panel reflects on the disappointing way the Dodgers and Major League Baseball have responded to harassment and domestic violence issues from Mickey Callaway to Trevor Bauer.
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June 22, 2021 • 52 mins
Jose Alamillo (Deportes: The Making of a Sporting Mexican Diaspora) joins the panel to discuss the impact of Fernando Valenzuela when he emerged as baseball's biggest star 30 years ago.
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June 15, 2021 • 55 mins
Baseball is gripped by grip-enhancements, or is it the other way around? The panel considers the way the lack of enforcement in the area of ball-doctoring has led baseball into some of the same blind alleys that now trap other areas of American culture and politics. Craig crashes Gaylord Perry's house, Steve goes for a Nazi analogy that may be a bit overwrought, and so much more.
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June 8, 2021 • 49 mins
Columbia University historian Mae Ngai joins the SIAC panel of Craig, Lincoln, Adrian, Tova, and Frank to discuss the rise of anti-Asian sentiment in the US, its long history in this country, and how it coexists with the majesty of Shohei Ohtani.
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June 1, 2021 • 39 mins
The panel looks at American race relations a year after the murder of George Floyd and wonders if today Curt Schilling could accuse Adam Jones of manufacturing an incident at Fenway Park without facing a greater backlash, plus we remember Reggie! bars and Lincoln objects to Steve's choice of ending.
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May 25, 2021 • 52 mins
Tony La Russa throwing his own player under the bus for hitting a home run off of a position player during a blowout leads to a consideration of the other places unwritten rules lurk in American life.
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May 18, 2021 • 54 mins
The SIAC panel considers the threatened move of the Oakland A's and the precarious state of players' mental health in an increasingly pressured game.
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May 4, 2021 • 49 mins
Dan Epstein joins the SIAC panel to talk about the book he co-authored with Ron Blomberg, THE CAPTAIN & ME: ON AND OFF THE FIELD WITH THURMAN MUNSON. Come spend an hour in the land of 1970s baseball where the suits were polyester, the dance was disco, and the Yankees had a catcher who should have been in the Hall of Fame 35 years ago already.
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April 27, 2021 • 56 mins
Craig, Lincoln, Tova, Adrian, and Steve look at MLB's (not "the MLB's") response to the Chauvin verdict, then examine the short-lived soccer "Super League" in the context of baseball's big- and small-market divide.
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April 20, 2021 • 74 mins
San Francisco civil rights legend Reverend Arnold Townsend joins Lincoln, Craig, Frank, and Steve to reminisce about being born into a segregated nation when there was still hope for equality, in part by meeting halfway--in the country of baseball. "If you can't appreciate Bob Gibson, you're not a baseball fan, you're a racist who watches baseball."
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April 13, 2021 • 60 mins
ESPN's Howard Bryant joins the panel to discuss MLB's relocation of the All-Star Game, baseball's future, and the great Rickey Henderson.
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April 5, 2021 • 47 mins
Opening Day has arrived and with it the 2021 baseball season, Francisco Lindor has signed an extension, and all seems right with the world... But the George Floyd murder trial and Georgia voter suppression reminds us that it's no time to feel satisfied.
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March 29, 2021 • 60 mins
The full panel crosses the streams concerning voter suppression, the Senate filibuster, and Major League Baseball's attempt to change the pace of play and stimulate action in a conversation that ranges from Laurence Olivier to beyond-Bernie baseball fans to doctored balls.
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March 22, 2021 • 49 mins
In a not very mini mini-episode, Frank, Tova, Adrian, and Lincoln discuss Frank's new book THE SPORTS REVOLUTION: HOW TEXAS CHANGED THE CULTURE OF AMERICAN ATHLETICS. It's a wide-ranging discussion taking in everything from the demise of the Washington Senators expansion team, the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, the racism of the early 1970s Houston Astros, and more.
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March 15, 2021 • 60 mins
In a wide-ranging discussion Adrian, Craig, Frank, Lincoln, Tova, and Steve note the planned full-attendance Opening Day in Arlington, the hidden power of stadium naming rights, the discarded and future name of the Cleveland American League team, and remember some retrograde men's rooms at defunct ballparks around the country.
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March 8, 2021 • 38 mins
Lincoln Mitchell discusses his new book THE GIANTS AND THEIR CITY with Tova Wang and Frank Guridy. Featuring inaccurate directions to San Jose, I left my gestalt in San Francisco, and Giants characters galore from Bob Lurie to Bobby Murcer, Kevin Mitchell to Willie Mays, and one abomination of a crustacean.
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March 1, 2021 • 62 mins
The full panel is back, taking on the Mariners' ex-president's defenestration at the rotary club, what it means to disdain your own international players, the Fernando Tatis, Jr signing, Trevor Bauer's (ahem) sensitivity, glance at the 1970s Yankees, and mark Major League Baseball's progress in responding to domestic violence perpetrators.
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February 22, 2021 • 40 mins
In our second mini-episode, Craig Calcaterra, Frank Guridy, Lincoln Mitchell, and Adrian Burgos debate what it means to be a fan. Can you be a fan without being attached to a team? Is there such a thing as toxic fandom? Does anyone like baseball on an aesthetic basis, or is it just about the winning?
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