Who remembers that I do a podcast every four to 65 weeks? Inside of 24 hours before the 2022 Dodgers’ first playoff game, I lay down some tracks — well, thoughts, anyway — looking at the team’s strengths and weaknesses and of course, all the potential fan joy and despair. We also revisit — ideally for the final time — the Kershaw Chart, talk about sports fan purity tests, and finally offer a quick update from the book world. Search for Word to the Weisman in your podcasty places, and give us a listen, will ye?
Category: Podcast
As the 20th anniversary of Dodger Thoughts approaches (though admittedly, I haven’t been writing here this year), Eric Stephen has posted an interview with me at True Blue L.A. looking back at those two decades.
It’s always a pleasure and an hour to talk to Stephen, who in my view has set his own standard to become the definitive Dodger writer.
I do hope to write more here in regards to the anniverary on July 21, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
Micah Johnson working on a collaborative piece with fellow former major leaguer Matt Sczzur, with George Floyd as the subject. (twitter.com/Micah_Johnson3)
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
Over the weekend, I was fortunate enough to have a conversation for the Word to the Weisman podcast with Micah Johnson, the former Dodger who at the age of 29 has transformed into a full-time artist with growing success. He’s a really interesting guy, and I think you’ll enjoy our 30-minute chat about his unique career journey as well as his thoughts about the landmark year of 2020.
You can listen above, or find Word to the Weisman on your favorite podcast app.
And for more about Johnson, including a look at his artwork, check out his Instagram and Twitter accounts, as well as his website and this one, The Arthlete.
Enjoy!
This is the first episode of Word to the Weisman that I’ve posted in more than a year, so check it out. You can also get it on Apple, Spotify, etc.
So, maybe Episode 4 is a little early for a very special episode of the Word to the Weisman podcast, but we’ve got one.
For the newest installment, I interviewed my father, Wally Weisman, specifically about his experiences growing up as a sports fan in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. My dad was born in Chicago in 1935 and became a huge sports fan almost immediately — then moved to Los Angeles in 1951 and had to adapt to a West Coast sports scene that was still in the early stages of development — no Dodgers, no Lakers, and a Rams team that itself was relatively new.
He shared some great stories from as early as 1940 all the way to when I was born in 1967, including a couple of interesting ones outside the world of sports. It’s obviously personal, but I think many of you will find it interesting. It’s not every day that you hear someone talk first-hand about Sid Luckman and Bronko Nagurski, or seeing the Bears play at Wrigley Field, or seeing the Globetrotters play the Minneapolis Lakers when the games really meant something. And a number of his recollections impressed me — for example, knowing that his hero, Stan Musial, absolutely destroyed Dodger pitching at Ebbets Field.
As a bonus, and in keeping with the family theme, Episode 4 debuts the new Word to the Weisman podcast theme song, “Citrus Skies,” from lamekids, with the music composed and performed by my 14-year-old son — known in these parts as Young Master Weisman. You can find lamekids’ music at several spots including YouTube, Spotify and more.
Listen below, or click here to listen on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify. I also recommend you subscribe to the podcast, so you know the moment a new episode is available — especially helpful now, since I don’t have a set schedule.
Buzzsprout
If you enjoyed this or would like to hear other interviews from me, please let me know in the comments below, or reach out to me @jonweisman on Twitter. Thanks!
Hey, guess what — the third installment of the Word to the Weisman podcast is already up! Following in the footsteps of Carl Erskine and Burt Hooton is my interview of Charlie Hough, the knuckleballing great who pitched professionally from 1966 to 1994.
Because there was only a couple of pages worth of space for Hough in Brothers in Arms, there are memories galore in this conversation that didn’t make it into the book, including his journey from position player to knuckleballer, comparing and contrasting Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda, and his thoughts on several Dodger pitchers from across the decades. Hough’s career in baseball as a player, coach and instructor covers roughly 50 years, so trust me, it’s great to hear from him.
Listen below, or click here to listen on iTunes. You can also listen on Spotify. I also recommend you subscribe to the podcast, so you know the moment a new episode is available — especially helpful now, since I don’t have a set schedule.
If you enjoyed this or would like to hear other interviews from me, please let me know in the comments below, or reach out to me @jonweisman on Twitter. Thanks!
Slowly and unsurely, I am sharing some of the conversations I had while writing and researching Brothers in Arms: Koufax, Kershaw, and the Dodgers’ Extraordinary Pitching Tradition, on what I have christened the Word to the Weisman podcast. Having already posted my chat with Carl Erskine, we now move exorably but enthusiastically to Burt Hooton, whom I consider to be one of the two or three most underrated pitchers in Dodger history.
Whether or not you have already read about Hooton in Brothers in Arms, I think you’ll enjoy hearing him talk about his life in baseball in his own drawl. I recommend this both for older fans like myself who saw him pitch and younger fans who might not be aware of his talent, given that the way he was overshadowed in the public eye by the likes of Don Sutton and Fernando Valenzuela.
Listen below, or click here to listen on iTunes.
If you enjoyed this or would like to hear other interviews from me, please let me know in the comments below, or reach out to me @jonweisman on Twitter. Thanks!
In November 2016, Carl Erskine, who pitched for the Dodgers from 1948-59, spent an hour with me on the phone for my first interview after I signed the deal to write Brothers in Arms: Koufax, Kershaw, and the Dodgers’ Extraordinary Pitching Tradition. The conversation was wonderful — something for all baseball fans to enjoy — and offered so much more than I could present in the book. Carl offers incredible detail about what it was like to come up with the Dodgers at the dawn of the Boys of Summer era.
Here is an opportunity for you to hear the conversation in full. It is, technically, the first episode of a podcast that I planned to start about four years ago (but obviously, never got around to) called Word to the Weisman. You can listen to it below, or you can click here to find it on iTunes.
If you enjoyed this or would like to hear other interviews from me, please let me know in the comments below, or reach out to me @jonweisman on Twitter.
Enjoy!
