Episode 178 - NFL LA Relocation Hearings

This week saw the NFL hold public hearings in each of the cities whose teams have threatened a move to Los Angeles.

This was of particular interest to Mike, a lifelong St. Louis Rams fan (whose fandom started when the team was in LA).  If you're a regular listener to the podcast, you know that Mike is adamantly opposed to the idea of his favorite team moving back to LA.

That said, Mike's Rams, along with the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders, are among the teams threatening a move to LA, a city that once housed all three of these teams - and all fled for the same reason, and the reason the city has now gone two decades without NFL football: it's a terrible football city.

Per NFL bylaws, public hearings were held in all three cities this past week.  Mike watched all of the St. Louis and San Diego hearings and part of the Oakland hearing.

Mike gives a brief summary of each hearing, as well as his thoughts on the LA situation in general, and issues a strong warning to the NFL.

WARNING: This is the first episode of the WSC podcast to carry an "Explicit" label for very strong language.

This episode includes audio from the St. Louis meeting, courtesy of 101 Sports in St. Louis.  And Ned Beatty returns to warn the NFL owners - and especially the Rams' owner - that they are "meddling with the primal forces of nature."

You can watch the three hearings here:
- St. Louis hearing (October 27)
- San Diego hearing (October 28)
- Oakland hearing (October 29)



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This is why Mike hates a certain Dodgers pitcher.

Photo credit to Michael Rinke on Facebook.

World Series 2015 is set.

For the first time ever, the World Series will feature two expansion teams.

Also, Back to the Future Part II was dead wrong.

The 2015 World Series will feature the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals.

A friendly reminder: Tim's adjusted pick to win the World Series (Kansas City) is still alive and well.

The Royals go into this World Series 1-2 all-time, winning in 1985 (over St. Louis) and losing in 1980 (Philadelphia) and last year (San Francisco).

The Mets are 2-2 in the Series all-time, winning in 1969 (over Baltimore) and 1986 (over Boston).  Their loses were in 1973 (Oakland) and 2000 (Yankees).

This is indeed the first time two expansion teams have met in the Fall Classic. 

The Mets started play in 1962 (same year as the then Houston Colt .45's [today's Houston Astros]), effectively replacing the California-bound Giants and Dodgers (which explains their blue and orange color scheme) and when they finished with 120 losses, still the mark of single-season baseball futility. 

The Royals started in 1969 (along with the San Diego Padres, the then-Seattle Pilots [now Milwaukee Brewers], and the then-Montreal Expos [now Washington Nationals]) as a replacement for another Cali-bound team, the A's.

Episode 177 - MLB 2015 Batsu Games

Mike and Tim discuss their 2015 MLB picks and issue their batsu games.

For the Washington team batsu game, Mike decided (by coin flip) to have the guys do karaoke.

Other possibilities included: doing background voice work for Mike's in-production web series or playing a game of Twilight Imperium (a sci-fi board game notorious for taking 6-8 hours to play a single game).

For Mike's bad picks: he's simply getting a pie in the face.

Tim still has Kansas City alive in the playoffs.  Good luck to the Royals this postseason.

Mike also announced that for their NBA picks, because picking division winners has proven pointless and tedious, will now be handled similar to NHL: at the start of the postseason.

Lastly, we talk at length about the NFL LA situation, the league's owners' meetings happening this week in New York, and what the likely outcome will be for LA.  Simply put, the very influential six-owner panel on all things LA seems to be siding with us: Chargers (and possibly Raiders) in LA.  Let's hope that does wind up being the case.



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2015 MLB Prediction Check

How are the guys doing with their 2015 MLB picks?

Division	Mike's Original	Tim's Original	Mike's Adjustments	Tim's Adjustments	Actual
AL East	Baltimore	Boston	Tampa Bay	NY Yankees	Toronto
AL Central	Detroit	Kansas City	Kansas City	Kansas City	Kansas City
AL West	LA Angels	LA Angels	Houston	LA Angels	Texas
AL Wild Cards	Kansas City Toronto	Seattle Toronto	Minnesota LA Angels	Minnesota Houston	NY Yankees Houston
NL East	Washington	Washington	Washington	Washington	NY Mets
NL Central	St. Louis	St. Louis	St. Louis	St. Louis	St. Louis
NL West	San Francisco	LA Dodgers	San Francisco	LA Dodgers	LA Dodgers
NL Wild Cards	Pittsburgh San Diego	Miami Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh Chicago Cubs	Pittsburgh NY Mets	Pittsburgh Chicago Cubs

Mike's Original: 4/10
Tim's Original: 5/10
Mike's Adjusted: 5/10
Tim's Adjusted: 7/10

Mike gets the batsu game for his original set of picks.

The team batsu game for Mike and Tim as a result of picking Washington to win the World Series has already been announced.