Wrecking the Toy Department

Jul 25 2023 1

Wrecking the Toy Department Podcast artwork

We don’t just "stick to sports" because we don’t have the privilege of doing so. This podcast is about wrecking the toy department – the name derisively foisted on sports – where it’s supposedly all fun and games. It’s not and never has been. There’s no shut up and dribble here. We want to hear what athletes, and people from all walks of sports – have to say, because they’re public figures with a platform. What they say and do, or don’t say and do, matters whether we agree with them or not. And it matters a lot. We use sports to pull back the covers on society - culture, politics, race, civi

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From Winning Ugly to Ugly as Sin: Part 3 of 3

Jul 25 2023 38 mins

As if 2021 weren't bad enough, the White Sox experience was about to get exponentially worse. As the team makes its heel turn, we'll explore the real time experience a fandom's divorce from their team. It's ugliness in full bloom, and there's nothing winning about it. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jake-williams5/message

From Winning Ugly to Ugly as Sin: Part 2 of 3

Jul 11 2023 35 mins

They were contenders, and likable ones at that. Until... In this episode, we'll explore how owner Jerry Reinsdorf went rogue on his organization by attempting to rectify what he considered a nearly 35-year-old personnel mistake. We'll examine the error of attempting to turn back time, and its fallout - not only what it cost the team's chances to be perennial World Seri

From Winning Ugly to Ugly as Sin: Part 1 of 3

Jun 27 2023 32 mins

Want to know why men, women, boys and girls are madly cheering for their team and all you see is laundry? This is how I fell in love, not just with baseball, but with the Chicago White Sox. For two decades, I lived the ups and downs, glory and tragedy, and saw someone step into immortality, it allowed me to smile, to hope, to dream. But how do you deal with your first love doing so

The Drama King of Green Bay

Apr 19 2023 37 mins

On this episode, we'll take a deep dive into how and why Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback who's arguably the best player in Green Bay Packer history, is the same guy the team can't wait to let go. Listen as we take a look at his 18-year one-man dramatic production-slash-revenge tour to prove that everyone who overlooked or passed him by was actively, egregiously wrong in

Djoker's Wild

Mar 07 2023 28 mins

Rules? Where we're going there are no rules. For world number one men's tennis player Novak Djokovic, it has been as startling a descent over the past three years as it was an ascent for the previous decade-plus. How did such a great sportsman, once a poor kid who grew up in a a war-torn nation hitting tennis balls or shrapnel blasted tennis courts become a caricature of the worst

The Best People Money Can Buy

Feb 21 2023 2 mins

You can't walk through this world without stepping on a few feet. You can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. Okay, but what if there's nothing left in the kitchen but the bad apples that spoil the whole bunch? On this season, a look at those bad apples in sports, why they're rotten to the core, and what to do ab

The Ultimate Model Employee

Feb 03 2023 35 mins

The last shoe dropped on the relationship between Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets, as Kyrie forced his way out of Brooklyn. The first time he was introduced at Barclay Center after the trade request, he was roundly booed. It is everything he deserved on the way out, and actually, he let the Nets off the hook. They no longer have to strike the balance between on court wizardry an

Our Faltering War on Drugs

Jan 12 2023 36 mins

Why is the War on Drugs constantly faltering or stalling out? In this episode, we'll explore why've let so many opportunities to gain the upper hand against drugs, be it cocaine in the 1980s or fentanyl and opioids over the past decade, slip through our fingers. And take a look at how Major League Baseball continues to miss the moment when national crisis and national pastime colli

Trailer: Our Faltering War on Drugs

Jan 10 2023 2 mins

Remember when we were told drugs would cook your brain as fast as it takes to fry an egg? And then the commercial ended, almost on a dare, with, "Any questions?" Well, here we are 35 years later and there are news headlines about fentanyl and opium deaths nearly every day. In this episode of Wrecking the Toy Department, we'll examine the questions we should have asked l

Add to Resume: I'm a Dad

Mar 24 2022 34 mins

How do sports talk radio people react when they find out an afternoon drive host won't be going on a work trip to Las Vegas because of the possible impending birth of his child? The answer might surprise you. This episode will explore why even though the United States is one of just two nations in the world that doesn't provide federally mandated paid parental leave, there's