Episode Highlights:

- The biggest bleachers in baseball

- The most infamous beer belly in Michigan

- “Riot night” at the Corner

- Jim Campbell, the heart of the Tigers

- Bleacher Anthropology 101: Jerks, Their Manners and Habits

- A twi-night doubleheader goes bad

- Be sure to tip your center fielder!

If you spent time out in the bleachers at old Tiger Stadium, we’d love to hear your memories…or how you hid your rum:

Support Us

You can support Clear the Field by following the show on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

Give a Rating, Like, or Restack

If you enjoyed an episode on a platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, can you give it a quick rating and let folks know? A 5-Star rating helps our podcast appear as suggested and helps people find us.

Here on Substack, restacking an episode is one click that really helps us, so if you had fun, please click that button up there on the far right of the episode that has two circling arrows on it.

Email

If you have comments or details that add to our stories or ideas for future installments, send us an email at clearthefieldpod@gmail.com. Gentle corrections are also welcome.

Warning: If a comment is particularly enlightening and/or funny, we might read it during a future episode.

On Social Media

Paul: Substack Instagram Facebook

Ted: Substack

Original Research and Writing: Paul Jackson

Production and Music: Ted Walker

Design: Ketaki Kulkarni

- Paul is the new Etsy Witch

- What you get for catching a foul ball in a major league park

- The origins of the ABS head-tap

- Ted wonders at the WooSox

- Aaron Judge and the power of a few “choice words

- Hazardous jewelry

- The perfect custom jersey idea

What’s This?

Every few weeks in “Slap Hits,” Ted and I cover whatever has delighted us from present-day baseball (or sometimes things even further afield) in a lightning round.

There will be news (of a kind), opinion, banter when we agree, and arguing when we don’t. We’re looking at items big and small, obscure or viral, we’re going quick, and we’re not stopping to fact-check.

Got a Slap Hit?

Send us an amusing, baseball adjacent item (interpretation is up to you) you’d like us to mention, bonus points for weird and obscure. Listen to a few episodes of “Slap Hits” and you’ll get the sense of what we like to cover, and it’s often things that don’t get covered elsewhere that delight us the most. If we use it, we’ll credit you for the submission during the show!

Email tips and suggestions to clearthefieldpod@gmail.com or leave a comment here on the episode.

Episode Highlights:

- The Houston Astros make money by giving it away.

- Bill Giles’ Philadelphia Phillies lean into boz woz.

- Cleveland scrambles for a million fans in 1974.

- Paul submits a dark-horse candidate for greatest moment in baseball history.

- A surprise winner of a fake money contest in San Diego.

- Giving away tiny amounts of money falls out of favor in cash-strapped America.

- The end of the line—in Canada.

Support Us

You can support Clear the Field by following the show on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

Give a Rating, Like, or Restack

If you enjoyed an episode on a platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, can you give it a quick rating and let folks know? A 5-Star rating helps our podcast appear as suggested and helps people find us.

Here on Substack, restacking an episode is one click that really helps us, so if you had fun, please click that button up there on the far right of the episode that has two circling arrows on it.

Email

If you have comments or details that add to our stories or ideas for future installments, send us an email at clearthefieldpod@gmail.com. Gentle corrections are also welcome.

Warning: If a comment is particularly enlightening and/or funny, we might read it during a future episode.

- Paul’s unplanned solo podcasting career (3 mins)

- Ted “inadvertently” joins Emo Night in Seattle

- Paul Skenes and the quiet mind of the modern ace

- The joy of the family reaction shot

- The Minnesota Twins’ war on nostalgia (prepare to be outraged)

What’s This?

Every few weeks in “Slap Hits,” Ted and I cover whatever has delighted us from present-day baseball (or sometimes things even further afield) in a lightning round.

There will be news (of a kind), opinion, banter when we agree, and arguing when we don’t. We’re looking at items big and small, obscure or viral, we’re going quick, and we’re not stopping to fact-check.

Got a Slap Hit?

Send us an amusing, baseball adjacent item (interpretation is up to you) you’d like us to mention, bonus points for weird and obscure. Listen to a few episodes of “Slap Hits” and you’ll get the sense of what we like to cover, and it’s often things that don’t get covered elsewhere that delight us the most. If we use it, we’ll credit you for the submission during the show!

Email tips and suggestions to clearthefieldpod@gmail.com or leave a comment here on the episode.

Episode Highlights

- The Colavito family reunion

- The case of the odd, old-fashioned hat

- Rip Collins, conscience for the Tigers

- Thrown out for a most unexpected reason

- The Yankee Killer strikes (it’s not who you think)

- Baseball Ethics 101

- A father’s tough love

Support Us

You can support Clear the Field by following the show on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

Give a Rating, Like, or Restack

If you enjoyed an episode on a platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, can you give it a quick rating and let folks know? A 5-Star rating helps our podcast appear as suggested and helps people find us.

Here on Substack, restacking an episode is one click that really helps us, so if you had fun, please click that button up there on the far right of the episode that has two circling arrows on it.

Email

If you have comments or details that add to our stories or ideas for future installments, send us an email at clearthefieldpod@gmail.com. Gentle corrections are also welcome.

Warning: If a comment is particularly enlightening and/or funny, we might read it during a future episode.

- A teaspoon of loose bodies

- Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania is going to the Squonks: https://www.milb.com/lehigh-valley/team/theme-nights

- Ted’s idea for saving baseball

- A baseball Pokemon mystery

- Pittsburgh hosts the world’s most famous marmot

What’s This?

Every few weeks in “Slap Hits,” Ted and I cover whatever has delighted us from present-day baseball (or sometimes things even further afield) in a lightning round.

There will be news (of a kind), opinion, banter when we agree, and arguing when we don’t. We’re looking at items big and small, obscure or viral, we’re going quick, and we’re not stopping to fact-check.

Got a Slap Hit?

Send us an amusing, baseball adjacent item (interpretation is up to you) you’d like us to mention, bonus points for weird and obscure. Listen to a few episodes of “Slap Hits” and you’ll get the sense of what we like to cover, and it’s often things that don’t get covered elsewhere that delight us the most. If we use it, we’ll credit you for the submission during the show!

Email tips and suggestions to clearthefieldpod@gmail.com or leave a comment here on the episode.

Highlights

- An overflow crowd and the one rope to wrangle them all

- The seat cushion falls into the wrong hands once again (”the boys from the stockyards”)

- Joe Sewell singlehandedly finishes the baseball game

- Translating 1920s baseball idioms

- Ray Knode’s big moment in history

- The fans on the field party their way into a forfeit

Support Us

You can support Clear the Field by following the show on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

Give a Rating, Like, or Restack

If you enjoyed an episode on a platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, can you give it a quick rating and let folks know? A 5-Star rating helps our podcast appear as suggested and helps people find us.

Here on Substack, restacking an episode is one click that really helps us, so if you had fun, please click that button up there on the far right of the episode that has two circling arrows on it.

This week’s lineup:

- A Minute of Actual Baseball Information (and why we’ll never discuss the Astros again)

- Ted Reports from an Out-of-Print Baseball Book Paradise

- Brad Lidge’s Second Act:

- Enjoying the Origin of the Immaculate Grid on My Baseball History

- Pokemon Gloves:

- Appreciating the Home-Run Fakeout:

- Alva Noë and the Philosophy of the Strike Zone

- ABS Update: Itchy Heads and Accidental Challenges

What’s This?

Every few weeks in “Slap Hits,” Ted and I cover whatever has delighted us from present-day baseball (or sometimes things even further afield) in a lightning round.

There will be news (of a kind), opinion, banter when we agree, and arguing when we don’t. We’re looking at items big and small, obscure or viral, we’re going quick, and we’re not stopping to fact-check.

Got a Slap Hit?

Send us an amusing, baseball adjacent item (interpretation is up to you) you’d like us to mention, bonus points for weird and obscure. Listen to a few episodes of “Slap Hits” and you’ll get the sense of what we like to cover, and it’s often things that don’t get covered elsewhere that delight us the most. If we use it, we’ll credit you for the submission during the show!

Email tips and suggestions to clearthefieldpod@gmail.com or leave a comment here on the episode.

Episode Highlights:

- Christy Mathewson explains sign-stealing

- Morgan Murphy and Pearce Chiles, baseball’s Butch and Sundance

- An anonymous informant reveals a hi-tech operation

- A puddle, a board, and a telegraph buzzer

- The only King Ralph reference you’ll hear this week

- Schemes proliferate throughout the “noble” National League

Support Us

You can support Clear the Field by following the show on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

Give a Rating, Like, or Restack

If you enjoyed an episode on a platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, can you give it a quick rating and let folks know? A 5-Star rating helps our podcast appear as suggested and helps people find us.

Here on Substack, restacking an episode is one click that really helps us, so if you had fun, please click that button up there on the far right of the episode that has two circling arrows on it.

Email

If you have comments or details that add to our stories or ideas for future installments, send us an email at clearthefieldpod@gmail.com. Gentle corrections are also welcome.

Warning: If a comment is particularly enlightening and/or funny, we might read it during a future episode.

- A Minute of Actual Baseball Information

- Tatsuya Imai’s “Wrong-Way” Slider

- Ketel Marte and Freddie Freeman Hug It Out

- Nelson Cruz’ Very Fine Display

- The Brewers’ Clubhouse “Turtle”

- A Home Run Call Legacy

- Pittsburgh’s Blue-Collar Home Run Celebration

What’s This?

Every few weeks in “Slap Hits,” Ted and I cover whatever has delighted us from present-day baseball (or sometimes things even further afield) in a lightning round.

There will be news (of a kind), opinion, banter when we agree, and arguing when we don’t. We’re looking at items big and small, obscure or viral, we’re going quick, and we’re not stopping to fact-check.

Got a Slap Hit?

Send us an amusing, baseball adjacent item (interpretation is up to you) you’d like us to mention, bonus points for weird and obscure. Listen to a few episodes of “Slap Hits” and you’ll get the sense of what we like to cover, and it’s often things that don’t get covered elsewhere that delight us the most. If we use it, we’ll credit you for the submission during the show!

Email tips and suggestions to clearthefieldpod@gmail.com or leave a comment here on the episode.

Highlights

- A game for Luddites

- Ted Turner’s wonderful toys

- Ask for permission or forgiveness?

- Why we didn’t replay balls and strikes for 50 years

- The fallible machine and the "busher" in the box

Support Us

You can support Clear the Field by following the show on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

Give a Rating, Like, or Restack

If you enjoyed an episode on a platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, can you give it a quick rating and let folks know? A 5-Star rating helps our podcast appear as suggested and helps people find us.

Here on Substack, restacking an episode is one click that really helps us, so if you had fun, please click that button up there on the far right of the episode that has two circling arrows on it.

- A Listener Introduces Us to New York’s Panfluencer

- Baseball and the Quiet Mind

- Checking in on Ballpark Stunt Food

- Remembering Fantasy Baseball’s Good Old Days

- Candy Bar WAR

- ABS Update: Don’t Flinch

What’s This?

Every few weeks in “Slap Hits,” Ted and I cover whatever has delighted us from present-day baseball (or sometimes things even further afield) in a lightning round.

There will be news (of a kind), opinion, banter when we agree, and arguing when we don’t. We’re looking at items big and small, obscure or viral, we’re going quick, and we’re not stopping to fact-check.

Got a Slap Hit?

Send us an amusing, baseball adjacent item (interpretation is up to you) you’d like us to mention, bonus points for weird and obscure. Listen to a few episodes of “Slap Hits” and you’ll get the sense of what we like to cover, and it’s often things that don’t get covered elsewhere that delight us the most. If we use it, we’ll credit you for the submission during the show!

Email tips and suggestions to clearthefieldpod@gmail.com or leave a comment here on the episode.

Highlights

- Pat Santarone, a feared and fighting groundskeeper

- Two competitors find each other in the minor leagues

- The ballpark as a nursery: more light, more water, and more beer

- The Tomato Wars claim Boog Powell and Billy Martin

- A Spectacular secret ingredient for growing tomatoes

Support Us

You can support Clear the Field by following the show on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

Give a Rating, Like, or Restack

If you enjoyed an episode on a platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, can you give it a quick rating and let folks know? A 5-Star rating helps our podcast appear as suggested and helps people find us.

- Team Randy or Team Cal?

- Daikin Park Name That Guitar Instrumental

- Hall-of-Fame Photographers

- Ballpark Thin Lizzy

- Reviewing the World Baseball Classic Policy on Musical Instruments

What’s This?

Ted Walker and I decided we couldn’t do a baseball podcast without discussing present-day baseball, so we’re mixing in a new format. We’ll still have our “A format,” where we tell a sideways story from baseball history, but every few weeks in “Slap Hits,” Ted and I will share whatever has delighted us from present-day baseball (or sometimes things even further afield) in a lightning round.

There will be news (of a kind), opinion, banter when we agree, and arguing when we don’t. We’re looking at items big and small, obscure or viral, we’re going quick, and we’re not stopping to fact-check. The first one was a lot of fun to make, and we hope you enjoy listening.

Got a Slap Hit?

We’d also love it if some of you listening out there send us an amusing, baseball adjacent item (interpretation is up to you) you’d like to see us cover, bonus points for weird and obscure. Listen to a few episodes of “Slap Hits” and you’ll get the sense of what we like to cover, and it’s often things that don’t get covered elsewhere that delight us the most. If we use it, we’ll credit you for the submission during the show!

Email tips and suggestions to clearthefieldpod@gmail.com.

Highlights

- Back to the (18)90s, complete with a Friends reference

- Angry Ladies Day in Cleveland in 1940

- Where all the ballpark fruit and vegetables come from

- A bench ruling on tomatoes

- Gardening on the warning track at Tiger Stadium

- Miracle tomatoes promise to change Detroit’s season

Please Support Us

You can support Clear the Field by following the show on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

Give a Rating, Like, or Restack

If you enjoyed an episode on a platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, can you give it a quick rating and let folks know? A 5-Star rating helps our podcast appear as suggested and helps people find us.

Highlights

- A “wildly eccentric” owner goes to the library and gets a history of the base-on-balls

- A visiting Nippon Professional Baseball team beats the A’s at their own game

- The A’s owner puts words into the commissioner’s mouth to force the Angels to play

- Charlie Finley pivots to somebody else’s idea, the designated hitter rule, and finds what he was looking for all along

Highlights

- Vin Scully, aeronautics expert

- A blurb of a bombardment in 1970

- Animals on the grounds, flour from the skies

- Siege weapons at the ballpark? Really?

- Post-game speculation worthy of a ‘90s action movie

- Another unexpected target across the country? Paul asks questions.

Highlights

- Let’s Play Eight at the Polo Grounds

- Highlights from New York City’s Junk Drawers

- A youth movement as the Giants head off to war

- A mostly inexplicable crowd surge

- How America used “stuff” to win World War II

Highlights

- FDR nationalizes the National Game

- What scrap metal meant to the war effort

- Dispatches from the Junk Drawer War

- The Dodgers pitch in to help New York meet its quota

- A scramble at the Ebbets Field “scrap gate”

- Next time: Metal mania moves to Manhattan

Highlights

- The Bleacher Bum org chart

- The most special fan relationship

- A funereal end to 1969

- Mistakes were made, sayeth the Cubs' owner.

- The vibes shift at Wrigley Field in 1970

- Big Brother at the ballpark

Further Reading:

https://www.project-318.com/p/the-break-up

Highlights

- Some surprising HBP trivia

- Breaking down early 20th century noisemakers

- Verbal managerial subterfuge through the ages

- Instruments proliferate and umpires deteriorate

- The first-ever World(‘s) Series ejection goes to...you guessed it!

Further Reading:

Support Us

You can support Clear the Field by following the show on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

Give a Rating, Like, or Restack

If you enjoyed an episode on a platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, can you give it a quick rating and let folks know? A 5-Star rating helps our podcast appear as suggested and helps people find us.

Here on Substack, restacking an episode is one click that really helps us, so if you had fun, please click that button up there on the far right of the episode that has two circling arrows on it.

Email

If you have comments or details that add to our stories or ideas for future installments, send us an email at clearthefieldpod@gmail.com. Gentle corrections are also welcome.

Warning: If a comment is particularly enlightening and/or funny, we might read it during a future episode.

On Social Media

Paul: Substack Instagram

Ted: Substack

Original Research and Writing: Paul Jackson

Production and Music: Ted Walker

Design: Ketaki Kulkarni

Highlights

- Lawn Dart Day is cancelled.

- Corking 101

- Whitey Herzog’s haphazard investigation.

- Howard Johnson’s suspect bat.

- Unsatisfying allegations and extrajudicial acquisitions.

- Holding your feelings in your mustache.

- A harassment campaign leads to a new rule.

Highlights

- The rivalry that Bud Selig forgot.

- Great moments in name-calling.

- Lunar charts and ballpark giveaways.

- Is Jack Clark the K-Mart of baseball players and what does this mean?

- A sprinkle of seat cushions becomes a blizzard.

- Tommy Herr sends ‘em home happy and sans posterior support.

Highlights

- A pitching career that just kept going

- A sting operation in Anaheim

- Caught with red hands and perfect cuticles

- Following in Gaylord Perry’s footsteps (and getting lost)

Highlights

- Opening Day traditions at the turn of the century

- What people did to amuse themselves before cell phones

- A surprising lack of police protection leads to a forfeited game

- The reformer/crusader who decided to make an example out of baseball

Further Reading

Support Us

You can support Clear the Field by following the show on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

Give a Rating, Like, or Restack

If you enjoyed an episode on a platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, can you give it a quick rating and let folks know? A 5-Star rating helps our podcast appear as suggested and helps people find us.

Email

If you have comments or details that add to our stories or ideas for future installments, send us an email at clearthefieldpod@gmail.com. Gentle corrections are also welcome.

Warning: If a comment is particularly enlightening and/or funny, we might read it during a future episode.

On Social Media

Paul: Substack Instagram

Ted: Substack

Highlights

- What’s a forfeit and why didn’t Ron Artest cause one?

- An introduction to the Godfather of forfeit scholarship

- Ted makes a morbid but very apt comparison

- Examples of games that have failed: Missing teams, collective tantrums, and daylight fights

Highlights

-Khrushchev’s first hot dog

-The 1959 “Go Go” White Sox and the team’s historic pennant drought

-Victory in “Baseball Thunderdome”

-Sirens interrupt celebrations

-Atomic terror in the 1950s

-Chicago flunks its civil defense pop quiz

-Robert Quinn, the man who thought this was a good idea

Further Reading/Viewing

The Duck and Cover Pennant - Project 3.18

Civil Defense Instructional Video

On the Beach (featuring Fred Astaire!)

A Day Called X

Highlights

-The scene of the crime: Arlington Stadium in Texas, the hottest park in America

-The robbery and aftermath

-Raiding the souvenir stand for replacements

-The details of a similar crime from 1977…and a possible suspect

Further Reading

The Seattle Mariners Go Thrifting - Project 3.18

Highlights

-The devastating 1937 beaning of Mickey Cochrane

-Frederick H. Rahr, inventor and possible flim-flam man

-The inside man: Larry MacPhail, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers

-The yellow ball’s debut at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn

-The results of the test and Rahr’s surprising baseball legacy

Further Reading

Of Apples and Lemons - Project 3.18

Hall of Fame Feature

Highlights

-The comings and goings of gangsters at Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field

-Al Capone’s favorite player (and how we know)

-The day Hartnett ended up in a controversial picture (that helped bring down Capone)

-The baseball commissioner’s effort to crack down on players fraternizing with “unsavory characters” (like their wives)

Further Reading

Snapped - Project 3.18

To Kiki from Al