• When was the last time Les was nervous for a shift on radio?
• Les’ history in the radio business after Ohio State
• Jasper Indiana near French Lick Indiana
• Les’ career playing with the Jasper Red semi-pro baseball club
• Cleveland Indians attendance discussion
• The hatred of the Dolans and whether it’s fair or not
• Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti and whether or not they get a fair shake from fans anymore
• Matt LaPorta was a really desirable commodity
• The Cleveland Indians need to make the playoffs
• It’s all about playoff appearances
• Browns tailgating culture and how the Browns are going to attack that
• Happy hour in order to get fans in earlier
• The really “off-the-rails” fans
• The new Browns executives and how they’re not from Cleveland at all
• The drum corps but not the cheerleaders

This week with Scott Raab talking Cleveland sports we talked about the trade deadline, the training camp storylines and Jimmy Haslam. Here's what else we discussed.

• The pear trees in my yard and the dogs that eat them
• False memory studies in MIT
• Training camp storylines
• Tape recorders vs. audio recorders
• Training camp storylines and how the “summer superlatives” have begun
• The obsessed sports fans and how little was available in the past
• Pat Shurmur’s year-over-year change
• Pierre Garcon thinks the Redskins can be the best offense ever
• Over 4400 Browns fans at Training Camp yesterday
• Chris Antonetti’s sales job to the Cleveland fans
• Lonnie Chisenhall’s performance since being brought back up
• Defining “all in” at the trade deadline
• Lefty relievers and using Joe Smith against lefties
• The Indians are a good fun team and that’s why they should add talent
• How much of this is Chris Antonetti’s bad sales job?
• Managing expectations with the fanbase and what the Indians need to do
• Is this the last gasp of Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti?
• The NFL, and elusive parity with the Cleveland Browns
• The Browns cap space and what it means for Browns fans
• McFadden should be a player
• Dick Jauron can be good even while you pine away for Ray Horton
• Getting after the quarterback
• Joe Namath and his iconic figure status
• Frank Ryan and his PHD in mathematics
• Chip Kelly and giving all the credit to Pat Shurmur
• HGH testing and blood tests
• Biogenesis lab and how young people were to get in there
• Jimmy Haslam’s cases and trying to settle everything

After a week off, I caught up with Denny for another casual Friday podcast. We had no real agenda other than drinking a few beers and talking about food and music and movies and stuff. It was fun.

• Dogfish head IPA 90 minute IPA
• 21st Amendment Brew Free or Die IPA
• Milton Delaware where Dogfish Head is
• 120 Minute IPA
• Portland Oregon and the cans that you have to open with an opener
• Lebowski and how Craig isn’t as big a fan as everyone else
• Zoolander and how hysterical it really is
• Blades of Glory starring Will Ferrell
• Redbox pressure and renting movies
• Generation Um starring Keanu Reeves
• Chasing Amy recommended to my mom
• Thom Yorke dismissing the loud soft loud song structure
• Creep and whether or not Radiohead should dismiss it
• Marc Maron’s interview with Thom Yorke
• Mumford and Sons and how their “growth” isn’t really growth
• The Lumineers and the flatness of “Slow it Down”
• “Fever Dream” by Iron and Wine
• Iron and Wine with Calexico maybe should have been a one-off
• Home brewing beer
• Distilling at home is illegal
• Prosciutto takes a year to make
• Steak and whether or not it’s really good
• Bone Sucking BBQ Sauce
• Vacuum sealing storer called “mealsaver”
• Making BBQ Sauce from scratch
• Making spaghetti sauce from scratch
• Dogs + Habanero
• The media vs. the appetite for that thing
• Ohio Things
• Dan Devine and Allston Mass

One of my buddies from college is a comedian, actor and personal trainer in New York City. He's headlined Caroline's Comedy club a number of times, been in Saturday Night Live sketches and has also been one of a miniscule number of clean bodybuilders in the world. I've been looking for a reason to talk to him, and I figured talking about Ryan Braun was as good a reason as any.

You can get his most recent comedy special on iTunes called "Pumping Irony."

• Natural bodybuilding is an oxymoron
• PEDs and whether it is really clear to steroids
• The Red Sox vs. the Indians
• Black ballplayers and having the “O’Leary” name
• Giambi getting forgiven
• Alex Rodriguez and how much everyone hates him
• Alex Rodriguez has no home fans anywhere in the world
• Rafael Palmeiro and his lies in front of congress
• Creatine and other GNC supplements
• Whey protein shakes
• Gay Spartan warrior in a Gerard Butler sketch
• Carolines on September 17th
• Making fun of Yoga

A nice little journey that had very little to do with RIPD.

• RIPD and Kevin Bacon being hidden from the trailer
• Hippies and why anyone would choose to be an archetype
• Hipsters and hippies and emos and punks
• Brian judges Craig unfairly
• Town Hall in Ohio City
• Brian’s judgement of his people in the theater
• Kid making phone calls in a movie theater and begging for a tongue lashing
• The movie will be on TNT for years to come
• Leans on the same jokes throughout the film
• Looking at Men in Black comparisons, making them and still feeling badly about it
• Envy starring Jack Black and Brian’s script that got him an agent
• Ryan Reynolds in The Proposal
• The movie looked very good but I thought they were in Washington D.C.
• Mary-Louise Parker and having a crush on her
• Orange is the new Black and how much Brian liked it
• Orphan Black on BBC America
• Christian Slater and how he can’t carry a TV show
• Craig loves Untamed Heart
• Fringe and Jen’s appearance
• British shows knowing how to end
• The X-Men movies and how much Craig liked them
• X-Men first class
• Captain America
• Citizen Kane and the Magnificent Ambersons
• The blood spatters on the camera during Children of Men

Scott Raab is talking this Monday morning about the Tribe mostly. The weekend series against the Twins, Matt Underwood, Superstition, Jason Kipnis, Lonnie Chisenhall and getting excited about the Browns.

• Jinxes and whether or not we believe them
• Matt Underwood and why Indians fans hate him so much
• Superstition on the field and how it has leaked into the stands and in front of the TV
• Man rules and whether or not you’re allowed to carry a glove to the game
• Gun culture and how it interacts with man rules
• People hate Nickelback for the same reason people hate gloves at the game
• Matt Underwood conspiracy theories
• Justin Masterson’s no-hit bid
• Jason Kipnis blundering the next ground ball after the bloop hit
• The meaningful nature of the games out of the break
• What is the decision to decide whether to buy today vs. plan for the future
• Chisenhall for Matt Garza and whether it’s worth it
• Is Lonnie Chisenhall the next Casey Blake?
• Miguel Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta making up for defense with offense
• Mark Reynolds and how excited people got interested in extending him
• Mark Reynolds bat control with two strikes vs. hitting free throws in basketball
• Would you rather trade Asdrubal Cabrera or Francisco Lindor?
• We vs. they in Cleveland sports
• John Oliver from The Daily Show noticing the Chief Wahoo tattoo
• Joe Banner and his aggressive play style
• Talent is going to win or lose, but how much does risk taking impact
• It’s legitimate to get excited about the Browns on defense
• Phil Dawson and how embarrassing his dominance was to offensive coordinators
• Steelers home games in Cleveland
• Sports talk and how difficult it is to fill time

Always good to catch up with Jon. He had a night available and I was starting my vacation, so I had to log in and fire up the notebook to do it. It was a typical meandering podcast.

• Being a creature of habit and a bit of a completist
• The summer movie podcast and whether it would have continued
• The Lone Ranger and how quickly I would have wanted to turn it off
• The All-Star game and the Mariano Rivera entrance
• Neil Diamond was bad but it didn’t matter. He’s Neil Diamond.
• The All-Star game could be missing the star power
• Interleague play and how it changes the All-Star game
• Access to players on TV has ruined the spectacle of the All-Star game
• Start times aren’t the target. Game ending times are the target.
• Who is the star of MLB?
• Omar Vizquel being the best means something because I say it
• Slow pitch softball on TV
• Baseball vs. Soccer as a game for kids
• Socioeconomics and football. Will privileged kids play football forever?
• The future of football and what it just might be
• Front offices and how they aren’t really connected to the history of their teams
• Salary caps and where they are good and bad
• Parity in baseball
• Bud Selig and how the history books will look back on him
• What are the chances that Mark Shapiro could be the next commissioner of baseball?
• Indians trade deadline piece by Jon

Something a little different today to start. We talked about the business of writing, specifically Esquire's decision to experiment with asking readers to pay for a feature rather than giving it away for free.

• “The Prophet” by Luke Dittrich and the fact that Esquire was charging for it

• Scott has been at Esquire since 1997

• How do you delineate between what’s worth charging for?

• Tom Junod’s three movie star cover story series with Matt Damon, and Leonardo DiCaprio

• My Rolling Stone subscription and my wall of covers

• Nate Jackson’s book called “Slow Getting Up” about the NFL

• Nate Jackson’s take on Eric Mangini and his reign in Cleveland

• Willie McGinest and what he would say about Eric Mangini and Romeo Crennel and Bill Belichick

• Andrew Bynum and the tone of the coverage

• How can you criticize the Bynum move without the alternative?

• The Jimmy Haslam story and the continuing coverage

• The Aaron Hernandez picture taken down in the Pro Football HOF

• The World Trade Center and the fetishization of tragedy

• The Indians heading into the all-star break

• Danny Salazar and his performance in his debut

• The four foul ball guy and the one in a trillion odds

• If a guy can catch four foul balls maybe we can all see a championship

This week's movie was Pacific Rim by Guillermo del Toro. It stars the cast of Sons of Anarchy and also reunites del Toro with Hellboy himself Ron Perlman.

• Guillermo Del Toro and the Hell Boy movies
• Kaiju and how Brian loved the film
• Pacific Rim is a movie for ten year old boys
• This movie understands what it means to have heroes
• The world building was amazing in Pacific Rim
• You get a sense of geography in this film
• Character development that is effective and makes you like them better
• Mako Mori as a strong female character
• When movie characters look alike
• The marketing failed this movie
• Were they trying to keep us away from the characters in the marketing?

Another casual Friday with Denny where we talked about anything and everything. If there's anything you want discussed in future episodes, recommend it and we'll consider it.

• Denny and not writing about sports anymore
• Originally stopping for real life reasons overall
• Denny’s own “The Decision” in July 2010
• The NBA vs. the rest of the professional sports
• The Decision maybe ended Denny’s NBA fandom and Brian Spaeth’s too
• The relief of finding that you’re done with a project and that it’s time to move on
• Getting addicted to the WFNY email chain
• The podcast has given me a richer relationship with the people from the site
• Back to Work podcast on productivity and stuff
• Scheduling a rotation of phonecalls with your friends is weird but it works
• How the real world changes us and departing the site
• Writing about culture vs. pop culture
• Sharknado and whether or not anyone should watch it
• In the 20s and 30s people would go out and watch people sit on flagpoles
• Hipster culture and honoring older culture
• The departure from video games in our older age
• Getting less judgmental with age
• The difference between being entertained and being engaged
• Blues Clues and the pauses for interactivity
• Scooby Doo meets Batman from 1972
• Facebook kid photos
• The reckoning for Facebook someday
• The brain pattern studies of people who use Twitter
• The point where the phone becomes a distraction instead of a useful tool
• Photography and the justification for things
• Shipping pallets as a free source of wood
• The Man Cave Arms race

Andrew Bynum signs with the Cavs and Scott and I were planning on talking anyway so we talked about it and everything else.

• Andrew Bynum and Craig Robertson’s tweet about Britney Griner in Dallas
• Choosing vs. money and basketball reasons
• $6 million guaranteed with incentive based money at $6 million
• Nobody is guaranteeing Andrew Bynum is going to be a success
• The Alonzo Gee theory of roster building for depth
• There will be no naysayers for this free agency signing tomorrow
• Byron Scott going backwards
• The Browns and the PR and game experience news
• The Josh Cribbs Soulja Boy thing
• Do you think the fan experience changes the crowd enough that it could affect the game on the field?
• Cleveland Browns PSLs and why the team got rid of them
• The league and how PSLs are pretty standard around the league
• Cliff Lee and if there’s any chance at bringing him back
• Scott blames Twitter for everything

I decided to try something for the first time. I decided to turn the mic on and just record my own solo podcast. Let me know what you think. 

• Andrew Bynum and whether or not it is a good idea to sign him
• Spending Dan Gilbert’s money
• Browns fan obituary and the Browns’ response
• Browns gameday improvements report from WKNR
• Nick Cannon and the drumline factor
• Upgrading the music
• Female drumline
• Ray Donovan kind of stinks
• Slow selling a show instead of overhyping it
• Homeland, Dexter, Weeds, House of Lies
• Do Jon Voight fans exist?
• The Indians and their trade prospects
• Needing to do something now

Scott is on deadline and holed up in a hotel because the power has been spotty at his own house, but he made time for me anyway. 

• Writing to a deadline
• Can anyone call you chief without pissing you off?
• The players only meeting
• Going through the motions in the first few games against the Tigers
• Don Zimmer and Ricky Ledee and how he was too frightened to do well
• Is this Indians team worthy of investing in at the trade deadline?
• Record against the AL East is bad
• Corey Kluber was the first one to pitch past the sixth inning in fourteen games?
• Jarrett Jack signing is good for the Cavaliers
• Earl Clark and his giant small forward status
• Joe Lull talking wingspan “does he block shots with his forehead?”
• Has anyone ever had a team this loaded with draft picks?
• Flirting with D-League players over the last three years
• David Dellucci, Trot Nixon, and Semih Erden
• Scott Kazmir and Brett Myers
• Jimmy Haslam and the NFL being concerned about Jimmy Haslam
• Tony Rizzo and his anonymous email about the Browns being for sale again
• Roger Goodell and his penchant for being crazy
• The Plain Dealer as the voice of the city’s sports fans
• UFC and how Jen and I watch
• Scott’s next project writing about the opening of The Freedom Tower

Brian and I were in catch-up mode today as the summer movie schedule has raced past us. Brian helps talk through White House Down and The Lone Ranger.

• Quitting caffeine
• Monster Energy Drinks
• Diet Coke addiction
• White House Down
• Throwback action movie calling to the 90’s
• Another movie that was too long
• Roland Emmerich and what he’s done
• The effects in the movie was pretty good
• Basically a Die Hard remake
• Toy Soldiers starring Wil Wheaton and Sean Astin which Brian has never seen
• The building has no character and it could have
• Cutting some of the repetitive mis-direction
• Channing Tatum’s a Capitol policeman in charge of a congressman
• The Rock and Con Air achieved what WHD should have
• Jamie Foxx’s character’s defining characteristic is that he’s played by Jamie Foxx
• Michael Jordan IV’s and how it was a non-sequiter
• Was there a good bad guy in this film?
• The marketing for WHD was all over the NBA playoffs?
• The Lone Ranger
• It was an awful awful awful movie according to Brian
• Brian’s pre-movie experience with the nachos
• The surroundings in a movie can just end a movie experience
• Brian slept through portions of this film
• Armie Hammer was in the Social Network and was in the Lone Ranger
• Gore Verbinski and his descending movie
• Mocking out the Lone Ranger for wanting to follow the rules
• The action movie and length needs to be adjusted
• The William Tell Overture
• Johnny Depp and his career feels like a mess
• The Green Hornet is the Lone Ranger’s grandson
• Despicable Me 2
• Pacific Rim and Guillermo del Toro
• Man of Steel
• Fast and Furious 6 again...

It has been way too long since I caught up with Jon. So, naturally we talked about everything from TV and sports and stats to the Browns and whether or not Jon can ever be an NBA fan. Hint. Probably not.

• Old stores like Children’s Palace, Kiddie City, Best, Fretter, Bernie Shulman’s
• K-Mart, Wal-Mart and Target
• Would a drunk podcast worthy of listening to?
• Talking about everything but football when talking about the Browns
• Talking about optimizing strategies and contract language
• Barkevious Mingo and how it would be refreshing to just talk about him
• When your team doesn’t make the playoffs you really get short-changed as a fan
• Enjoying the aesthetics of the sport vs. water cooler fandom
• Watching the end of a basketball game without watching the early part of the game
• Which sports are you willing to watch no matter who is playing?
• Watching sports as a stakeholder is a totally different thing
• Keeping timelines free and clear
• Kyrie Irving and if he’s actually one of the superstar types
• How good is Kyrie Irving and how good will he be by the end of his career?
• Scott Raab’s question about if the Cavaliers have a plan or not
• Would Dan Gilbert follow through with his feeling that he would trade a guy that wouldn’t commit?
• The Indians and having actual athletes and baseball players on the field
• Kipnis = Pedroia = Eckstein
• Guys who put up numbers who are not entertaining to watch
• Guys who don’t put up numbers who ARE entertaining to watch
• Moneyball and analytics
• The analytics of movements in basketball and soccer
• Do we ruin sports with the way we analyze them?
• Sports stats and analytics are like Bobby having a train set in the Sopranos
• Mad Men finale and Don Draper. Is he redeemed?
• Taking people down with the ship is the antithesis of redemption
• If you find yourself as an artist then you need to let the art speak for itself
• If The Sopranos are Nirvana then Ray Donovan is Limp Bizkit
• What will life be after Mad Men and Breaking Bad