The Ringer

cromulence

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You guys ever check out Talkin' Baseball? It's Jomboy (probably my least favorite because he can be kind of whiny), Jake, and Trevor Plouffe, both of whom I really like.

Oh man, just beaten.
 

Leather

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You guys ever check out Talkin' Baseball? It's Jomboy (probably my least favorite because he can be kind of whiny), Jake, and Trevor Plouffe, both of whom I really like.

Oh man, just beaten.
Ok, thanks for the rec!
 

Mugsy's Jock

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Listened to the first Off the Pike pod which was a good reminder that one-man podcasts are a tough listen. Brian Barrett is perfectly three-dimensional and reasonable and does his research, but when he’s talking by himself for long slogs about a topic where I already feel reasonably well-informed I just don’t have a reason to listen. Which I blame more on the format than on Barrett (though Barrett doesn’t have the humor or strong point of view to rise above it).

The pod included a 15-minute interview with Chad Finn which was easily the best part of the pod. It was fine.
 

JCizzle

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Listened to the first Off the Pike pod which was a good reminder that one-man podcasts are a tough listen. Brian Barrett is perfectly three-dimensional and reasonable and does his research, but when he’s talking by himself for long slogs about a topic where I already feel reasonably well-informed I just don’t have a reason to listen. Which I blame more on the format than on Barrett (though Barrett doesn’t have the humor or strong point of view to rise above it).

The pod included a 15-minute interview with Chad Finn which was easily the best part of the pod. It was fine.
I thought it was a solid start, but mostly agree with your one-man podcast opinion. I did like the tone of the podcast in terms of mixing stats with his argument. There's so many Boston sports media personalities to choose from, so hopefully he grabs solid guests for the four teams to rotate through after his monologues. It will also be nice if he keeps the Sox and Bruins in the discussion since those teams are somewhat neglected on the Ringer relative to the Celtics and Patriots. I'll be tuning in for the foreseeable future.
 

Auger34

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Having just listened to the pod, let me now say I am interested in hearing your stock picks.

(Not that you made the boldest prediction, but it was letter-perfect accurate)
I just listened to this podcast and it is one of the most fucking embarrassing things I have ever listened to.

My god, when Big Wos (who not only works for Bill but cackles every time he makes any sort of attempt at humor like he’s prime Chris Rock) is checking you because your defenses of Durant are absolutely fucking insane, that should be a sign that it’s time to pick a new slant
 
Listened to the first Off the Pike pod which was a good reminder that one-man podcasts are a tough listen. Brian Barrett is perfectly three-dimensional and reasonable and does his research, but when he’s talking by himself for long slogs about a topic where I already feel reasonably well-informed I just don’t have a reason to listen. Which I blame more on the format than on Barrett (though Barrett doesn’t have the humor or strong point of view to rise above it).
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is an awesome one-man podcast, FWIW. And some of his episodes run for six hours. (It can be done.)
 
Right, but he releases a handful episodes per year, with months in between. That's hardly an apples to apples comparison.
Sure, but I was just saying it can be done. Also, getting back to The Extended Ringerverse, I gather that a lot of people like Ryen Russillo's solo work (when he chooses to go off on a soliloquy)? And there are shows like Keith Olbermann's new podcast which get around the solo thing by being heavily produced. (And so on.)
 

JCizzle

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Sure, but I was just saying it can be done. Also, getting back to The Extended Ringerverse, I gather that a lot of people like Ryen Russillo's solo work (when he chooses to go off on a soliloquy)? And there are shows like Keith Olbermann's new podcast which get around the solo thing by being heavily produced. (And so on.)
I definitely agree it can be done, but Russillo has years and years of experience to draw from with the cache to take a gamble on a segment like 'Life Advice'. Plus he's simply a top-tier talent. Barrett can grow into the solo role, but it's going to take lots of time. Barrett's first attempt at a stand-alone closing segment seems to basically be the whiner-line (kinda weak IMO). Hopefully he develops something a bit more unique in the coming months once he gets reps under his belt.
 

Mugsy's Jock

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Sure, but I was just saying it can be done. Also, getting back to The Extended Ringerverse, I gather that a lot of people like Ryen Russillo's solo work (when he chooses to go off on a soliloquy)? And there are shows like Keith Olbermann's new podcast which get around the solo thing by being heavily produced. (And so on.)
Maybe the first ten minutes of Russillo’s podcast are a one-man show, and that he manages to be so entertaining and informative in that time speaks to his experience and talent. After that typically are 1-2 extended interviews, followed by Life Advice where he usually has at least one supporting player and usually two.
 

Bongorific

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60 Songs, The Cranberries is an all timer for me. Starting with Ferris Bueller, moving on to The Smiths and The Cranberries hits me right in the nostalgia feels, covering some of the most important movies and albums of my early teens years.

“Nobody was doing their best work in 1999 except for Brittney Spears and Mariano Rivera” is a fantastic line.
 

pjheff

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The Sundays were a nice touch as well. I expected more Sinead and would have preferred “Linger” to “Zombie.”
 

Bongorific

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The Sundays were a nice touch as well. I expected more Sinead and would have preferred “Linger” to “Zombie.”
Oh yeah.

It almost doesn’t matter what song he picks, he ends up going over most of the hits.

I think zombie and ode to my family are their two best singles and that’s what he spent the most time on. Plus Zombie makes sense for him. I mean, that’s how I really got into the Cranberries. Zombie made it’s way between Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam on the radio and that brought you to Empty, The Icicle Melts, Sunday, and a bunch of other stuff teenage boys wouldn’t have given a second listen. My first 10 CDs were from one of those BMG / Columbia House rackets and 2 of my 10 picks were the first two Cranberries albums because of Zombie.
 

pjheff

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I think zombie and ode to my family are their two best singles and that’s what he spent the most time on. Plus Zombie makes sense for him. I mean, that’s how I really got into the Cranberries. Zombie made it’s way between Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam on the radio and that brought you to Empty, The Icicle Melts, Sunday, and a bunch of other stuff teenage boys wouldn’t have given a second listen. My first 10 CDs were from one of those BMG / Columbia House rackets and 2 of my 10 picks were the first two Cranberries albums because of Zombie.
I’m a bit older — a junior in college when the Cranberries broke through — and will always think of “Linger” and “Dreams” as their best two singles, regardless of current streams.
 

Bongorific

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I’m a bit older — a junior in college when the Cranberries broke through — and will always think of “Linger” and “Dreams” as their best two singles, regardless of current streams.
Yeah that’s interesting. Even though the albums were released only a year and a half apart, there’s a difference in your “adult” music exposure whether you were in elementary school when the first album came out or middle school when the second did. Could be why Zombie has a lot more streams. Do old people like you know how to steam music? I assume you’re still listening to the Cranberries on cassette tapes.
 

johnmd20

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ha, it comes up briefly but mostly Mal doesn't want to go to the dentist, or brush her teeth, but also wants to eat candy all the time
It definitely comes up and it didn't feel too brief because of Ryan's reaction. "I KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO SAY THAT."

Hottest take is a really fun little podcast. I vividly remember plowing through it during the earliest earliest days of the pandemic.
 

Kliq

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There are no words. Basically the worst thing that can happen to someone; I hope he and his family can find some peace.
 

Mystic Merlin

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It’s really hard to read the progression of the journal entries. You can also feel bone-deep the hopelessness and hurt of his friends and colleagues even in tweets.

The vulnerability and courage he’s displayed in public has been inspiring, and it seems like The Ringer management and staff have been very supportive and respectful of when and how he wanted to engage the audience about his illness.
 

Shelterdog

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It’s really hard to read the progression of the journal entries. You can also feel bone-deep the hopelessness and hurt of his friends and colleagues even in tweets.

The vulnerability and courage he’s displayed in public has been inspiring, and it seems like The Ringer management and staff have been very supportive and respectful of when and how he wanted to engage the audience about his illness.
So I think we spend a lot of time bashing Bill here--and I'm guilty as charged--but something i find pretty fascinating about him is that in running the ringer he really does seem to have taken a lot of positive leadership lessons from sports. They really do seem to be generally very supportive and respectful of the talent and have handled such a hard situation as well as anyone could; he really does give a lot of his talent room to be themselves and be supported in doing so (we can make fun of the rewatchables but the midnight boys, for example, have a very fun black nerd culture podcast which is pretty far from what Simmons does). He lets his staff experiment; he's given a ton of people a pretty good start and seemingly been quite gracious when they've left for "free agent money" to other outlets.

I'm sure there are issues, and I know there were problems with the union etc. But from a distance it seems that while he's, in my opinion, a doofus as a cultural commenter who just has relentlessly stupid takes on every pop culture or sporting event he looks at, he's also a heck of a boss.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Fuck, he was not my favorite at the Ringer early on but really grew on me. After hearing his story up until cancer I found myself personally invested and hoping for his well being for as long as possible. For a young family this can't be easy, but it seems his wife has at least as equally a strong heart as he did and will do a great job keeping herself and the kids living their best life as Jonathan wished.
 

Auger34

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I really appreciate how The Ringer has handled this with both Chris Ryan and Bill Simmons giving heartfelt tributes before the latest BS Report and specifically mentioning the gofundme that’s been set up. I would hope and expect that they’ve already donated handsomely to help out Tjarks wife
 

Shelterdog

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Very minor point.

Russillo has dilfer on as a guest sometimes. Man DIlfer has some world class dumb takes. The dumbest of which was AJ Green was a good wide receiver but not an "Alpha".

He didn't explain it of course--based on the discussion it maybe had something to do with blocking?--but my lord AJ Green was an absolute beast his first five or six years in the league.

Dilfer also likes Tua because he's a winner, and some guys just know how to win, and had their teams win at every level. Which made me wonder are there any QBs whose teams weren't actually huge winners at each step along the way? And I'll bet you that among recent starting quarterbacks Brees, Rodgers, Josh Allen and Mahomes have some of the _worst_ collegiate records.
 

luckiestman

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Very minor point.

Russillo has dilfer on as a guest sometimes. Man DIlfer has some world class dumb takes. The dumbest of which was AJ Green was a good wide receiver but not an "Alpha".

He didn't explain it of course--based on the discussion it maybe had something to do with blocking?--but my lord AJ Green was an absolute beast his first five or six years in the league.

Dilfer also likes Tua because he's a winner, and some guys just know how to win, and had their teams win at every level. Which made me wonder are there any QBs whose teams weren't actually huge winners at each step along the way? And I'll bet you that among recent starting quarterbacks Brees, Rodgers, Josh Allen and Mahomes have some of the _worst_ collegiate records.
Dilfer's NFL stories are pretty good but he says dumb shit with such concussed authority that it is somewhat amusing.
 

jezza1918

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Very minor point.

Russillo has dilfer on as a guest sometimes. Man DIlfer has some world class dumb takes. The dumbest of which was AJ Green was a good wide receiver but not an "Alpha".

He didn't explain it of course--based on the discussion it maybe had something to do with blocking?--but my lord AJ Green was an absolute beast his first five or six years in the league.

Dilfer also likes Tua because he's a winner, and some guys just know how to win, and had their teams win at every level. Which made me wonder are there any QBs whose teams weren't actually huge winners at each step along the way? And I'll bet you that among recent starting quarterbacks Brees, Rodgers, Josh Allen and Mahomes have some of the _worst_ collegiate records.
I hear you on the Tua/winner thing...I got some intense Tim Tebow vibes (I do think Tua is way better than Tebow, not that it takes a rocket scientist to think that...but that doesnt change how annoying that take is). WRT AJ Green, the way I took it was AJ Green now, not prime AJ Green. But if he was indeed referring to prime AJ that's like Max Kellerman level awful hot take
 

Shelterdog

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Dilfer's NFL stories are pretty good but he says dumb shit with such concussed authority that it is somewhat amusing.
Good way of putting it. It's also almost hysterical when the talks about how he talks with other great players about how the game really works, like he and Steve Young and Montana and Brady are Manning are all peers.

But then this is the guy who thought Sanchez would be great because all the QBs of the 2009 would throw their car keys to him.

I hear you on the Tua/winner thing...I got some intense Tim Tebow vibes (I do think Tua is way better than Tebow, not that it takes a rocket scientist to think that...but that doesnt change how annoying that take is). WRT AJ Green, the way I took it was AJ Green now, not prime AJ Green. But if he was indeed referring to prime AJ that's like Max Kellerman level awful hot take
If he's saying Green now isn't an "alpha" whatever that means fine, Green aint' crudite any more.
 

JCizzle

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Good way of putting it. It's also almost hysterical when the talks about how he talks with other great players about how the game really works, like he and Steve Young and Montana and Brady are Manning are all peers.

But then this is the guy who thought Sanchez would be great because all the QBs of the 2009 would throw their car keys to him.



If he's saying Green now isn't an "alpha" whatever that means fine, Green aint' crudite any more.
I liked the part where he figured out Lincoln Riley's secrets and basically equated himself as an offensive mind. Ryen got done (correctly) blasting Russell Wilson for saying he watched every WR for 2 hours pre-draft, but then Dilfer comes on and says he studied Riley for 8 hours every day for six weeks while on vacation. Mhhhhhmmmmmmm. Sure you did. I believe Dilfer studied him - just like I'm sure Russ watched some tape - I don't believe he did it to nearly that extent.
 

JerBear

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Had Dilfer's anecdote about the Patriots picking up play calling cues based on where McVay was standing on the sidelines been out before? I don't remember hearing/reading that one.
 

JCizzle

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I thought the Off the Pike interview with Cora was really good. Very informative, easy flowing discussion. Overall, I think the podcast is still trying to find its voice. I'm not a Pats fan, but I imagine it comes off a touch negative for most listeners. Granted the negativity is normally coming from a somewhat informed/thoughtful opinion, not the generic 985 hot-take. Barrett still needs to find his own segment to close the show.
 

semsox

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I thought the Off the Pike interview with Cora was really good. Very informative, easy flowing discussion. Overall, I think the podcast is still trying to find its voice. I'm not a Pats fan, but I imagine it comes off a touch negative for most listeners. Granted the negativity is normally coming from a somewhat informed/thoughtful opinion, not the generic 985 hot-take. Barrett still needs to find his own segment to close the show.
Very much agree about the Cora interview. I don't go out of my way to listen to manager interviews, so was somewhat surprised at the candor from Cora on many of the topics. Great interview.
 

ManicCompression

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I feel like people don't talk about it much, but the The Ringer Fantasy Football show is a very pleasurable listen. I have no idea how good their advice is (but whose fantasy advice is ever accurate anyway?) but their rundown of football each Sunday to me surpasses most football podcasts - they just have a lot of fun with each other and don't take much of anything seriously. I'd rather listen to it than the Ringer NFL Show even though it's fantasy focused.
 

johnmd20

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I feel like people don't talk about it much, but the The Ringer Fantasy Football show is a very pleasurable listen. I have no idea how good their advice is (but whose fantasy advice is ever accurate anyway?) but their rundown of football each Sunday to me surpasses most football podcasts - they just have a lot of fun with each other and don't take much of anything seriously. I'd rather listen to it than the Ringer NFL Show even though it's fantasy focused.
Their advice is decent and it is a truly funny and enjoyable show. Danny H is argumentative and crazy, Craig is simply hilarious, and Danny K is the straight man. It's a perfect combo.

And their advice is definitely worthy of being listened to.
 

Auger34

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Their advice is decent and it is a truly funny and enjoyable show. Danny H is argumentative and crazy, Craig is simply hilarious, and Danny K is the straight man. It's a perfect combo.

And their advice is definitely worthy of being listened to.
Have you seen what Craig looks like? Let me just say that it’s WAY WAY different than I thought. I was picturing someone middle aged, kind of like a Fisher Stevens maybe maybe
 

luckiestman

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Have you seen what Craig looks like? Let me just say that it’s WAY WAY different than I thought. I was picturing someone middle aged, kind of like a Fisher Stevens maybe maybe
Once I got fooled by Verno I always assume it’s younger people. I swear the first time I heard Verno, I thought he was a middle aged heavyset black guy.
 

JCizzle

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I also really enjoy the fantasy podcast. Might be my favorite ringer NFL show to be honest!
 

Shelterdog

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Have you seen what Craig looks like? Let me just say that it’s WAY WAY different than I thought. I was picturing someone middle aged, kind of like a Fisher Stevens maybe maybe
The Ringer staff are overwhelmingly young and fairly good looking. The good looking part is actually kind of hard to do when you're hiring a ton of pop culture/sports writers/podcasters so go sportsguy.
 
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