Talkin' Chicago Cubs Baseball

Remember how cool "Pump Up the Volume" was? When I first saw this movie as a young tweener I thought Hard Harry was the coolest mother fucker on the planet. He said a big "GFY" to everyone with his pirate radio station, alludes the police and FCC, gets the girl, and no one is wiser to the fact that he's the shy, loser, new kid at their school. Nowadays, anyone can have their own radio show, and instead of broadcasting to a small town, you can reach anyone with a computer and an internet connection.

During my day when I'm not listening to the Chicago Cubs, I often times head over to the iTunes Store and checkout the Cubs Podcasts. What's a podcast you say? A podcast is like a blog, only in audio format. Consider it an audio blog. It's hosted by random fans like you and me. They often times don't have the facts exactly correct, but that's okay. If you want Al Yellon talking to you for an hour, then go stick a 3 inch construction nail in your ear. It would be like that. They also don't feature all the bells and whistles of your regular radio programming. It's usually just 2-4 guys talking Cubs baseball, from the perspective of Cubs fans. Most are held weekly, some feature regular segments, and others even have call-ins via Skype.

So here is a short review of the podcasts which I listen to on a regular basis, and others that for some reason or another I have skipped over.

Ivy Envy:
From the guys at IvyEnvy.com, Andy, Kurt, Corey and Paul are regular Cubs fans and mostly know their shit, sometimes don't, but it's all usually funny. They are actually one of the regular podcasts, posting an hour long episode every week recapping the Cubs games, players, Lou, fans and other random happenings. It's obvious they do watch all the games and can hold their own opinions. At times they feel a little lost, but it's mostly entertaining. They also have a running "feud" with the ChiTownLouCrew, another podcast with a similar format.

A League of Her Own Podcast:
Featuring cubbiejuilie and Matt from the A League of Her Own blog on the ChicagoNow network, this blog recaps the week of Cubs baseball. It's recorded on Sundays and also features call-ins, usually from the regular authors and commenters of the site. Cubbiejulie talks a lot about how hot the Cubs players are, how much this team would be better off with DeRosa and other aspects of the current Cubs. Matt usually plays the "sidekick" of the show and often disagrees with her. He is the point of reason. Personally, she annoys me, but she is a usual reader of blogs and news, so her and Matt know their stuff. They even talked about when I called their show out for bashing on Andy White. Unfortunately, for some reason they have stopped with new episodes since the end of June. They also have a couple regular features of Cub of the Week, Goat of the Week, and Cubs BFF, in which they name a non-Cub player that has helped the Cubs.

Chi Town Lou Crew:
The Chi Town Lou Crew is also a regular weekly podcast by a group of Cubs fans: Alex, Paul and Dan. It's the most amateur podcast of the group, as the intro/exit music is obviously played from a boombox and the sound quality is horrible. That being said, it's actually pretty funny most of the time. They seem like they would be your usual "doucebag" Cubs fans, but they actually are pretty interesting, and I really like this podcast. They have pretty strong opinions which is good, and hate anything that's not the Cubs. They have regular features of Dan's Tidbit and Douchebag of the Week. Check out their awesome website at chitownloucrew.com. Oh, and they also have that "feud" with the IvyEnvy podcast.

Desipio/Hire Jim Essian Podcast:
Honestly, I don't know why I listen to this podcast, formerly named "The Other 15%". While both Andy (desipio) and Bad Kermit (HJE) are hilarious in their blogs, it fails to translate into a podcast. But then again they are probably the most educated podcasters that I listen to, so it's a give and take relationship. When they aren't sucking off Paul Sullivan, they are bashing on the Cubs players, management and especially fans. For a couple of fans who haven't been to the bleachers since the 90's, they sure do know a lot about the fans out there. It's a pity that the great writing (most of the time) over at desipio and HJE couldn't come through over the air waves (internet waves?), but most people would probably actually enjoy this podcast... that is if you're over 60, keep a perfect scorecard during every game, and hate rooting for your team.

Cubscast:
I don't listen to Cubscast, but from their description they podcast 3 times a week and have shows that are usually around the length of your average tv show. Listening to my first episode that recapped the sweep of the Nats, the two podcasters sounded very informative, although are pretty monotone and have really no interesting facts, stories or humor involved. It goes a little bit along with why I hate game recaps. Since I listen or watch all the games, I already know what I heard/saw, so nothing was new. But if you do miss the occasional game, this podcast might be for you.

Len and Bob's Podcast:
You watch the pre and post games, so you already know what it's like.

CCO Radio:
From Chicago Cubs Online, this fairly often internet radio show I also don't listen to regularly. They do take calls though, so it's a little like a call-in radio show. I managed through about 15 minutes of the latest episode, although I've been listening to the podcasts all day for these reviews, so it could be that I'm just burnt out. They sound pretty informed, but there is again little humor, so it's just not keeping my attention. I'm sure it's pretty good though.

The Heckler's Podcast:
This new's update show is similar to the Heckler with short, fake news clips. Really funny stuff.

Well, there you have it. As many of the readers are probably living in or around Chicago, this post was pretty much pointless for you, as you get Chicago sports news on a daily basis. But for those of you who don't live around the Chicagoland area like myself looking for Chicago sports updates, this might help you out to keep up with the opinions of other Cubs fans.

This just in, the other members in the Saloon have just informed me that the Score and ESPN 1000 both stream their radio feeds, so I actually can listen to these stations. Well fuck, forget everything I just wrote about then.

Go Cubs!