Episode 241 - Because We Didn't Do The MLB All-Star Break This Year...

...now for our long overdue look at how the baseball season has gone so far.

As of August 20 at 11:10 pm Central time, Mike has 5 of his 10 playoff picks correct - all of the division leaders save the NL West (no way in Hell would he pick the Dodgers, while his pick for the division - the Giants - are 39 GAMES BACK!!!)  He is also 0-for on all 4 wild card teams so far.

Congratulations are in order for a certain resident of the Arlington Maximum Security Penitentiary, as Adrian Beltre became the 31st member of the 3,000 hit club.  The next active player closest to 3,000: Albert Pujols (at 2,927 as of this post - 73 to go).



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Episode 240 - The Big3 and NBA Preseason Talk

Today's podcast is all about basketball.

First, we talk about a recent curiosity of basketball: the Big3

If you are not familiar with this, it is a new 3-on-3 halfcourt basketball league started by the rapper Ice Cube.  This seemed like a good topic for discussion.

Since it is a basketball league, we also talked about offseason happenings in the NBA.

At one point, Mike makes a bold pronouncement: the NBA needs to expand beyond its current 30 teams, and one of those teams needs to be a rebirth of the Seattle SuperSonics.

Fair use: Because we're talking about Ice Cube, we open with "Bow Down" by Westside Connection, which Ice Cube was part of.



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Phase 2 of Find Mike a New NFL Team

Now that we have a definitive short list of NFL teams that Mike would consider following, let's look at the following factors for the 13 teams on this list:
- age of current stadiums
- all-time win/loss records
- number of Super Bowl wins (and/or pre-Super Bowl championships)
- past relocations

Here we go:

Team	Current Stadium	First Year for Team in Stadium	All-Time W/L Record	Super Bowl wins	Pre-Super Bowl champions	Past Relocations
Arizona Cardinals	University of Phoenix Stadium	2006	542-732-40	0	2	Chicago to St. Louis 1960 St. Louis to Phoenix 1988%
Chicago Bears	Soldier Field	1971 (opened in 1924, renovated in 2003)	744-568-42	1	8	Decatur, IL to Chicago 1921
Cincinnati Bengals	Paul Brown Stadium	2000	344-408-4	0	n/a	None
Cleveland Browns	FirstEnergy Stadium	1999	462-466-10	0	8	None*
Denver Broncos	Sports Authority Field at Mile High	2001	465-393-10	3	0	None
Green Bay Packers	Lambeau Field	1957 (renovated in 2003 and 2015)	730-553-37	4	9	None
Houston Texans	NRG Stadium	2002	106-134-0	0	n/a	None
Indianapolis Colts	Lucas Oil Stadium	2008	502-441-7	2	2	Baltimore to Indianapolis 1984
Minnesota Vikings	US Bank Stadium	2016	457-387-10	0	0	None
New Orleans Saints	Mercedes-Benz Superdome	1975 (renovated in 2006)	338-427-5	1	n/a	None#
New York Giants	MetLife Stadium	2010	684-572-33	4	4	None
Philadelphia Eagles	Lincoln Financial Field	2003	555-591-26	0	3	None%
Pittsburgh Steelers	Heinz Field	2001 (renovated in 2007 and 2015)	601-535-20	6	0	None%

* Technically, the Browns were on hiatus from 1996 to 1998 as a direct result of Art Modell moving the team to Baltimore.  The Ravens - not on this list because they are not being considered - are treated as an expansion team while the "expansion" Browns are considered a continuation of the old Browns.

# During the 2005 season, the Saints - as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina - played 4 games in Baton Rouge and 3 in San Antonio.

% Not included here are two WWII temporary merged teams: Phil-Pitt "Steagles" (Eagles and Steelers) in 1943, and Card-Pitt (Cardinals and Steelers) in 1944.

Episode 239 - 2017 NFL Preview

It's about that time again: NFL preview!

This year it's Mike and Keith giving their picks.  As always, these picks are subject to batsu game.

Division	Mike's Picks	Keith's Picks
NFC North	Green Bay	Green Bay
NFC South	New Orleans	New Orleans
NFC East	NY Giants	Philadelphia
NFC West	Arizona	Seattle
NFC Wild Cards	Philadelphia Seattle	Carolina NY Giants
AFC North	Pittsburgh	Baltimore
AFC South	Houston	Houston
AFC East	New England	New England
AFC West	Raiders	Raiders
AFC Wild Cards	Denver Indianapolis	Kansas City Miami
NFC Champions	Green Bay	New Orleans
AFC Champions	New England	Raiders
SB52 Champions	Green Bay	New Orleans

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Episode 238 - #ProRelForUSA Goes to Court Part 3

This is the third and final part of our series on the recent lawsuit by two American lower-division soccer clubs to get FIFA to institute promotion and relegation in American soccer.



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Episode 237 - #ProRelForUSA Goes to Court Part 2

Today we give you the second part of our three part series on Miami FC and Kingston Stockade FC going to court to get FIFA to get USSF to institute promotion and relegation in North American soccer.



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Episode 236 - #ProRelForUSA Goes to Court

Last week, two American lower-division soccer clubs - namely Miami FC (NASL) and Kingston Stockade FC (NPSL) - approached the Court of Arbitration for Sport - the highest court on sports in the world - with the intent to force the United States to join the rest of the world football community and implement promotion and relegation.

Mike got a hold of the lawsuit and will be reading it as well as giving his thoughts on the proceedings.

Suffice it to say the Winning Side Coaches support #ProRelForUSA.  It's been a cause we've been behind since this podcast started, and it's beyond time that the United States and Canada get on board with the rest of the world.  Unless and until promotion and relegation happens, the US and Canada will continue to struggle on the world stage, both at the club and country level.  We need to STOP Americanizing the world's game and get with the program.



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