Thanks to, 503 Sports, Streaker Sports & SportsHistor圜 for their support of this week’s episode! Masquerading as the “local” voice of the Washington, DC-based Team America – the de facto US National Team that played as an NASL franchise. Returning home to call Steamers MISL indoor games at the often-packed St. The “invisible hand” of Anheuser-Busch’s soccer-mad executive Denny Long & his Bud Sports production division Leveraging national exposure from the NASL into soccer-centric gigs with the fledgling USA & ESPN cable networks The Roughnecks’ gritty road to the 1983 NASL title as the league’s smallest-market team Louis Cardinals – is rich in anecdotes, and we (naturally!) drag the versatile Carpenter back to some of the more “forgotten” stops made along the way, including:Ī serendipitous segue from minor league baseball to “big time” pro soccer in Tulsa His springboard into TV sports broadcasting’s “big leagues” – including 15 years of nationally televised baseball with ESPN, plus lead announcing duties for the Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, and his hometown St. Louis Steamers – as well as some less-than-memorable ones, like 1983’s ill-fated US Soccer/NASL hybrid, Team America. You know him today as the long-time television play-by-play voice of Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals.īut before becoming one of the baseball’s most admired and durable broadcasters, Bob Carpenter cut his professional teeth in the burgeoning (but ultimately fleeting) American pro soccer scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s as the lead “man-behind-the-mic” for such iconic teams as the NASL's Tulsa Roughnecks and the MISL's St. Show some love for the show by making a purchase from one of our great sponsors: Streaker Sports, Old School Shirts, 503 Sports, SportsHistor圜, and/or Audible! PLUS: The origin of the twi-night doubleheader!ĪND: The ceremonial first-pitch ambidexterity of President Harry Truman! The Negro Leagues’ constant struggle for recognition, solvency, and integration. The continual uncertainties clubs faced as things like the military draft, national resources rationing and other wartime regulations affected both the sport and American day-to-day life AND How a strong friendship between Senators owner Clark Griffith and Roosevelt kept the game alive during the war years, often in the face of strong opposition for doing so Roosevelt, organized baseball continued uninterrupted – despite numerous calls to shut it down.Īuthors David Hubler and Josh Drazen ( The Nats and the Grays: How Baseball in the Nation’s Capital Survived WWII and Changed the Game Forever) join host Tim Hanlon to discuss the impact of World World II on the two major professional teams in Washington, DC – the American League’s Senators (aka Nationals), and the Negro National League’s Homestead Grays – as well as the impact of the war on big league baseball as a whole, including: But with the carefully cultivated support of President Franklin D. League owners were immediately worried about the players they were likely to lose to military service, but also feared a complete shutdown of the looming 1942 season – and perhaps beyond. For the owners, the dramatic news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor earlier that morning was not only an assault on the United States, but also a direct threat to the future of the national pastime itself. On a cold and ominous Sunday, December 7, 1941, Major League Baseball’s owners were gathered in Chicago for their annual winter meetings, just two months after one of the sport’s greatest seasons.
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