The World Series begins Tuesday night, so my regular Monday appearance on Asheville’s WISE Sports Radio was a preview of the match-up between the Washington Nationals and heavily favored Houston Astros.
Last week, guest host Jordan DeVere (filling in for the vacationing Pat Ryan) asked me for an early prediction and I said the Astros would win in six games. Jordan gave me the opportunity to reconsider that pick. My rational mind says Astros, but my heart — my gut — says Nationals.
If I’m hearing from Canadian friends Matthew Iwanyk and Dave Jamieson from TSN 1260 in Edmonton, something big must be happening on the baseball calendar. Sure enough, the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros begins Tuesday night.
In addition to looking at the match-up in which the Astros are heavily favored, Dave also highlighted a couple of players from each team to discuss. We also dug into the differences between Astros manager A.J. Hinch and Nats skipper Dave Martinez.
We’ve been sports-heavy on The Podcass this week. Hey, October is packed with playoff baseball, college football and NFL, along with the beginnings of the NHL and NBA seasons. So I guess that’s reflected here.
But we break up that sports talk with a review of Will Smith’s double-take in Gemini Man (23:38). And it’s a week with two segments from WISE Sports Radio on our Friday show. First, we preview the big storylines going into Week 7 on the NFL schedule, including Jalen Ramsey getting traded to the Los Angeles Rams (04:37). Then, we close out with baseball talk, focusing on the amazing, improbable run of the Washington Nationals and the Yankees-Astros ALCS (33:59).
We know one of the two teams that will play in the 2019 World Series, following the Washington Nationals’ 7-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 4 of the NLCS. A four-game sweep was a surprising result, considering the path that the Nats took to the postseason, through the Wild Card playoff against the Milwaukee Brewers, then a shocking NLDS win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had the best record in the National League.
Naturally, the Nats led off our baseball segment on WISE Sports Radio, with the Los Angeles Angels hiring manager Joe Maddon, and the ALCS between the New York Yankees and Houston Astros also among our topics. Wednesday’s show was hosted by producer Jordan DeVere, filling in for the vacationing Pat Ryan, along with Asheville High coaching legend Charlie Metcalf.
Glad The Podcass is on a Tuesday-Friday schedule, so we could have some near-instant response to the Detroit Lions’ 23-22 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football. What a debacle, with the referees making several terrible calls that cost the Lions a chance to win at Lambeau Field and move near the top of the NFC standings.
We break down and complain about those terrible calls, two in particular against Detroit’s Trey Flowers (0:32). Then, our WISE Sports Radio baseball segment covers big wins by the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals in the MLB playoffs over the weekend (16:21). Did you miss those amid all the football action?
Ian Casselberry 