April 15, 1947. Jackie Robinson stepped onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, forever changing baseball by breaking the color barrier. But while Robinson made history, Phillies manager Ben Chapman made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

In this episode of the Pastball Podcast, we examine one of the ugliest yet most pivotal moments in baseball history—when Chapman and the Phillies taunted Robinson with relentless racial slurs. But here’s the twist: Chapman’s cruelty didn’t break Robinson. It backfired.

We’ll cover:

⚾ How Jackie Robinson’s composure under fire united his Dodgers teammates.

⚾ Why the Phillies’ actions forced Major League Baseball to take notice.

⚾ The infamous PR stunt where Chapman was forced to pose with Robinson—and how history truly judged them both.

⚾ The lasting impact of this moment on baseball and society.

Jackie Robinson is a legend. Ben Chapman? A cautionary tale. Baseball has a long memory, and this is one chapter it won’t forget.

🎧 Tune in now to the Pastball Podcast on [Spotify/Apple Podcasts/Your Preferred Platform]

🔗 Follow & Subscribe for more deep dives into baseball history!

Before the Mets. Before MLB expansion. There was The Continental League—a baseball league that never played a single game but reshaped the sport forever.

In this episode of the Pastball Podcast, we take a deep dive into the forgotten story of the Continental League, the brainchild of Branch Rickey in 1959. This ambitious attempt to create a third major league sent shockwaves through baseball, forcing MLB to confront the future of the game.

You’ll learn:

⚾ How Branch Rickey, the same man who broke baseball’s color barrier, led the charge for a new major league.

⚾ Why the Continental League posed a serious threat to the American and National Leagues.

⚾ How MLB responded—not by fighting it, but by expanding for the first time in decades.

⚾ The lasting impact of the league that never played, shaping the modern landscape of baseball.

Baseball could have looked very different without the Continental League. Want to know how it all went down? Tune in now to the Pastball Podcast!

🎧 Available on [Spotify/Apple Podcasts/Your Preferred Platform]

🔗 Follow & Subscribe for more deep dives into baseball history!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to the Pastball Podcast, the podcast where baseball's bigots moments live forever. Today we're going to rewind to October 17th, 2004, when Dave Roberts turned a stolen base into Red Sox immortality. It's game four of the ALCS Yankees. They're up three nothing in the series. Bottom of the ninth, the Sox are three outs away from being swept again. But then Kevin Millar walks. Enter pinch runner Dave Roberts.

Everyone in Yankee Stadium knows he's running. Mario Rivera, the best closer potentially ever, throws over once, throws over twice, three times to keep him close. Then on the first pitch, Roberts takes off. Orhepasata fires the second, too late, safe. Fenway erupts. Bill Mueller singles home, tying the game. The Sox go on to win an extra innings, then rattle off three more to complete the greatest comeback in baseball history. The curse of the Bambino erased, but for the Yankees, a new curse began. Since that collapse, they've won just one World Series. Meanwhile, the Sox, four. One stolen base changes everything. That's baseball history for you. This has been the Passball Podcast, where even every play has a past, and every past has a story. We'll see you next time.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to the Passball Podcast, where old grunges come back to haunt the diamond. And today we're going to rewind it back to May 29th, 2017, when Hunter Strickland finally got his revenge on Bryce Harper. Over something that happened three years earlier? Yes, back in 2014, the NLDS Harper took Strickland yard, not once, but twice. Both no doubt bombs. Strickland, then the Giants reliever.

He didn't forget. let's fast forward to 2017. Harper's on the national. Strickland still fuming and boom! First pitch, a 98 mile an hour fastball straight to Harper's hip. Guess what? Harper wasn't having it. He chucked his helmet pretty badly. Charged the mound, landed a couple of wild swings, benches cleared, chaos erupted and Strickland got six games while Harper, he sat for four. The kicker of it all, they weren't even in the same division.

Strickland had to wait three years just to settle the score. Some call it payback, others, well, they call it petty. So let me know, what do you think? And ladies and gentlemen, that's the Passball Podcast of the day where baseball grudges, well, they never die.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beard Laws (00:14)

Welcome back everybody to the Passball Podcast, a podcast where history steps up to the plate. And today we're going to dive into a baseball legal battle that changed the game forever. The Federal League's fight against Major League Baseball. The Federal League, which was a short-lived third major league, as called by some people, that was from 1914 to 1915 and it actually dared to challenge the national and American leagues. They offered higher salaries, they poached players and operated as

arrival. But after just two seasons, financial struggles and legal battles forced most teams to fold. 1915, the Federal League filed an antitrust lawsuit against Major League Baseball, accusing it of a monopolizing professional baseball. The case, Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore v National League, made it all the way to Supreme Court. The 1922 court, led by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, ruled that baseball was not

interstate commerce and therefore wasn't subject to federal antitrust laws. This decision gave MLB a unique legal shield that still exists today. The federal league disappeared, but its challenge shaped baseball's business forever. A legal swing and a miss, or the biggest missed call in sports history. I'll let you make the call. But that's it for the Passball Podcast. Feel free to subscribe and stay tuned for more history from the diamond.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🚨 Injuries happen in baseball—but a sneeze? In this episode of Pastball, we dive into one of the strangest DL stints in MLB history. It was 2004, and Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa, known for launching baseballs into the stratosphere, found himself sidelined by an unexpected foe… his own sneeze.

💨 One mighty achoo! and Sosa strained his back so badly he had to miss games. How does something like that even happen? What’s the science behind a “sneeze strain”? And is this the weirdest baseball injury ever—or does Pastball have an even stranger one up its sleeve?

⚾ Tune in as we break down the absurdity, the aftermath, and where this ranks among baseball’s wildest, most bizarre injuries.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts! Don't forget to subscribe, review, and share—but maybe cover your mouth when you sneeze.

#SammySosa #MLB #WeirdBaseball #PastballPodcast #BaseballHistory #SportsInjuries #ChicagoCubs

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pastball Podcast – Episode 123: Glenallen Hill’s Arachnophobia Nightmare

What happens when one of baseball’s most feared sluggers comes face-to-face with his greatest fear? In Episode 123 of Pastball, we dive into one of the strangest, most terrifying injuries in MLB history—the time Glenallen Hill literally ran from a nightmare… and ended up on the injured list.

Hill, a power-hitting outfielder, suffered a freak accident in 1990 when a sleep-induced panic over his severe arachnophobia (fear of spiders) sent him crashing through a glass table—while unconscious! He woke up with cuts, bruises, and a trip to the disabled list, earning him the legendary nickname “Spiderman.”

How did this bizarre incident impact his career? What did his teammates and the media think? And was this truly the weirdest baseball injury of all time? We break it all down with humor, history, and some wild facts you won’t believe.

Subscribe to Pastball for more unbelievable baseball stories, and don’t forget to share this episode with a fellow baseball fan—unless they’re afraid of spiders. 🕷️😱

#BaseballHistory #MLBStories #PastballPodcast #GlenallenHill #Arachnophobia #WeirdBaseball

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pastball Podcast – Episode 122: Marty Cordova’s Tanning Bed Mishap

Baseball injuries are common—pulled hamstrings, sore shoulders, even the occasional fastball to the ribs. But getting benched because of a tanning bed? That’s a whole different ballgame.

In Episode 122 of Pastball, we dive into the sunburnt saga of Marty Cordova, the former MLB Rookie of the Year who made headlines for an off-the-field injury that still has baseball fans shaking their heads. One fateful morning in 2002, Cordova dozed off in a tanning bed, only to wake up with burns so bad the team doctors had to sideline him—because sunlight would make it worse.

How does this rank among baseball’s weirdest injuries? And was this just bad luck, or the universe’s way of telling him to stick to the dugout and not the tanning salon?

Join us as we relive this bizarre baseball moment, compare it to other legendary sports mishaps, and ask the ultimate question—was Marty Cordova the victim of bad judgment, or did the baseball gods simply have a twisted sense of humor?

⚾️ Hit play and let’s talk Pastball!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.