Completely Conspicuous 103: Put Me In, Coach

The podcast's back with part 2 of my conversation with special guest Phil Stacey about the decade in sports. This time around, we discuss baseball, the NFL and the Internet's influence on the sports world. Click here to listen to the show in streaming audio or download it directly here (right click and "save as").

The show notes...

Topics:

- Big story in baseball was steroids

- Big names were caught cheating: McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Clemens, A-Rod

- Baseball's tough to watch beginning to end: games are so slow

- Red Sox vanquished curse with two World Series wins

- Drawback of excellent play is abundance of bandwagon-jumping fans

- Sports talk radio rehashes same stuff over and over

- NHFL has surpassed MLB in popularity

- Patriots are team of the decade

- Football's better to watch on TV than in person

- XFL came and went

- XFL's lasting legacy: He Hate Me

- Gambling is big part of NFL fandom

- Fantasy football is big business

- Internet's role in sports looms large

- Local papers trying to own their market with blogs, podcasts

- Blogs can run gamut from good analysis to gossip to fanboys

- Twitter's good for breaking news

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:

- Soulsavers - You'll Miss Me When I Burn

- St. Vincent - The Strangers

- Deer Tick - Baltimore Blues No. 1

- Carbon/Silicon - What's Up Doc?

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The Soulsavers song is on the band's album Broken on V2 Records. Download the track for free here.

The St. Vincent song is on the album Actor on Beggars Group USA, where you can download the song for free.

The Deer Tick song was released as a free download in honor of Veterans Day. Find out more at and download the song for free at Partisan Records.

The Carbon/Silicon song is on the album The Carbon Bubble. Find out more and download the entire album for free here.

The show is sponsored by Budget, the country's premier car rental service with 900 locations. Go to Budget and save 10% off any reservation or $30 off a weekly rental. Help out the show by patronizing my sponsors and rent like a genius with Budget.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell. Thanks to Bob Durling for the album art; find out more about his photography here.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.