200 - Baseball and National Tragedy: The RFK Assassination w/ Fred Frommer

Hooks & Runs

Fred Frommer is an author, journalist, editor and sports and politics historian. He is a regular contributor to The Washington Post, where his stories often top the paper's "most read" sports and history sections. This week, for our 200th episode, Frommer joins us to discuss how Major League Baseball and its teams responded to the June 1968 assassination of New York Senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. We were honored to have Frommer on the podcast and hope you enjoy this journey back to a tumultuous time in both baseball's and our nation's history.
In part two, Rex and Craig follow-up on last week's Mötley Crüe discussion; consider Craig's thoughts on the recent Slowdive concert he attended in Houston; analyze the nice neat bow into which the Shohei Ohtani gambling scandal has apparently been wrapped; and commiserate Rex over the Texas Rangers getting swept this past weekend by the lowly Colorado Rockies.
Fred Frommer's official website: https://www.fredfrommer.com/
Fred Frommer's Washington Post article on the assassination: https://tinyurl.com/rfkep200
Fred Frommer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ffrommer
Episodes Mentioned:
199 - The Good, the Not Really That Bad and the Ultimately Ugly
104 - When Sport Defeated Law: The Curt Flood Case w/ Prof. Jeremi Duru

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Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)
This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024, all rights reserved.

Chapters

1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. Pete Rozelle's worst mistake. (00:01:42)

3. June 4-6, 1968 (00:04:53)

4. Baseball in the weekend of mourning (00:11:34)

5. "Kennedy would have wanted us to play." - Spec Richardson (00:14:36)

6. Baseball and national tragedy: lessons learned (00:19:14)

7. The Washington Nationals' curse (00:28:33)

8. From and aging Willie Mays to an ageless Tom Brady (00:32:42)

9. Mötley Crüe redux (00:40:39)

10. Slowdive in concert (00:45:14)

11. Such a neat little bow - Rex knows why (00:52:18)

12. Colorado sweeps Texas (00:57:18)