Today’s selection of “Podcast Picks” examines the new-school venture of TGL which is trying to shake up traditionally conservative golf and give it a tech makeover with simulated shots in an indoor venue and access to the players like never before in attempt to draw in younger, hipper fans. We then look at another example of “what is old is new again” as cricket will return to the Olympics at the 2028 L.A. Games with a history lesson on the sport, as well as a basic tutorial of how the game works for an American audience. Finally, we go really old-school with a look at the Negro Leagues and how for decades the many great players who competed there were barred from the Baseball HOF.
The pending launch of TGL was discussed on “No Laying Up” with co-host DJ Piehowski saying he is “weirdly obsessed with this and really care what happens” because it is a “big deal” in terms of all the big names involved in the venture. Piehowski: “There aren’t a lot of big swings like this, and this is going to take the place of a big swing in another area.” Piehowski said he feels like “instead of addressing” the issues facing the PGA Tour, including “trying to fix” the schedule, the telecast and “creating more stars,” the Tour is “doing this and I don’t think that they’re necessarily doing anything to help the bottom of the funnel. They’re just consistently trying to get more people into this giant funnel.”
LEARN A NEW SPORT: With cricket set join the Olympics at LA28, Cricket Europe writer Andrew Nixon sat down with “Keep the Flame Alive” to explain the sport to an American audience and its long, often painful colonial history. Nixon said having the sport back in the Olympics “has been a long time coming” but the response from the cricket world has been “mixed.” Nixon: “Part of that is because it doesn’t necessarily have much of an impact on those countries at the top of the game ... (and) they don’t really need the Olympics as such.” But for “those countries at the bottom” being in the Olympics could have a “transformative impact.”
CAN'T BE OVERLOOKED: The “30 for 30” podcast aired an episode about the legendary Negro Leagues and the stars who competed in them, with host Vanessa Ivy Rose asking, “Can baseball truly be the best game of them all if it won’t acknowledge all of its best players?” The Negro Leagues players were excluded initially from the Baseball HOF “when segregation was the standard and the gentleman’s agreement still ruled the game,” but beginning in the 1960s “America started to change, and the Hall of Fame had some catching up to do.”
Know of a podcast we should keep tabs on? Send an email to mboylan@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Also, check out SBJ's podcast home.
