The Sports Casters on the Dream Team, Wimbledon, and the All Star Game

On the twenty-sixth episode of the second season of The Sports-Casters, hosts Steve Bennett and Don Russ welcome Jack McCallum (Author, Pro Basketball Hall of Fame), Gary Smith (Sports Illustrated), and Ben Reiter (SI, SI.Com) to the podcast. Kicking off the show with 3Things, Steve and Don talk about Roger Federer winning Wimbledon, the MLB All-Star Game, and the Minnesota Wild signing Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Also on the program, an update of the book club, the return of the five on fantasy segment, and the show closes with a baseball heavy version of Pick4.

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Jack McCallum makes his first appearance on the podcast to chat about his new book “Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever.”  Jack chats about why he decided to write this book, explains why Isaiah Thomas deserved to be on the Dream Team, and shares why he decided to write some of this book in first person. Also, Jack talks about the Dream Team losing their first scrimmage to a group of college all-stars, explains why Christian Laettner was the biggest pain in the ass on the Dream Team, and closes the interview by explaining his relationship with Twitter.

Gary Smith makes his first appearance on the podcast to chat about his unique roll at Sports Illustrated as a feature writer. Smith explains his role at the magazine, discusses what subjects interest him enough to turn into an 8,000 word magazine article, and explains why he has never turned one of his features into a book. Smith talks in detail about his latest column that focuses on why athletes have become less politically active in the last couple of decades. Smith explains why he has avoided Twitter, talks about his favorite stories, and reacts to being called, “the greatest sports-writer of all time.”

Ben Reiter is making his second appearance on the podcast to discuss the first half of the Major League Baseball season and looks ahead to the second half. Ben gives out his first half awards, explains how he would fix the All-Star game, and talks about what surprise teams could make the playoffs. Ben also talks about the surprising Pirates, the new stars of Major League Baseball, and explains the impact parity will have on the Major League Baseball trading deadline.