In October of 1985, 20 states had not yet raised their minimum drinking age to 21, A-ha’s “Take on Me” was No. 1 on the Billboard music charts, the University of Iowa was the top-ranked team in college football and the eventual computer giant Microsoft was a month away from releasing Windows 1.0.
Also at that time, the Kansas City Royals won their one and only World Series title, though that might change in the manner of a couple of weeks. We start our latest episode of The A Lot of Sports Talk Podcast, by focusing on the Royals, who have yet to lose a game in the playoffs on their way to the Fall Classic for the first time in 29 years. Mark Gubicza, a member of the starting rotation of Kansas City’s 1985 World Series team and current TV color commentator for the Los Angeles Angels on Fox Sports Net, joins us to talk about his experience as a second-year professional on that championship squad, including what future Hall of Famer George Brett told the 22-year-old Gubicza prior to starting – and winning – Game 6 of the American League Championship Series game against the Toronto Blue Jays to calm his nerves. Also, Gubicza talks about how a young pitching staff back in 1984 bonded with the veterans on the squad so quickly to form great team chemistry, how this year’s Royals compare to the 1985 version and his emotions seeing the team he grew up with as a player (13 years as a Royal) defeat the team that he’s employed by (Angels) in the 2014 Division Series.
Although we don’t mention Iowa football, like in our opening graph, the second interview in our latest podcast tackles the 2014 college football season, as we review the first half of the season and preview what’s to come in the second half with Lisa Horne, national college football writer and the founder of PigskinGrind.com. Although the Mississippi schools have dominated a large portion of the headlines this season on the gridiron, Lisa explains why she’s not yet a total believer in both the top-ranked Bulldogs and the No. 3 Rebels, along with her opinion on how both Georgia and Florida State are handling the autograph controversies surrounding its star players, Todd Gurley and Jameis Winston. In addition, Lisa goes into detail about her issues with the current Associated Press poll, which currently has Oklahoma ahead of TCU despite the Horned Frogs’ head-to-head win against the Sooners, and also has Michigan State ahead of Oregon despite the Ducks beating Sparty back on Sept. 6. (On a related note, she gives props to our latest A Lot of Sports Talk‘s College Football Top 25 for taking into consideration those head-to-head match-ups in our rankings.)
Please enjoy the podcast, and leave us any and all comments that you have. Click here to go to the A Lot of Sports Talk podcast page on iTunes, and from there, you can download this show as well as subscribe to our podcast page and receive new episodes on your device the second it is posted. You can also open iTunes, and in the Podcasts section, type in “A Lot of Sports Talk” in the search box to find our shows.
Interview Order: Intro (0:00-3:26); Mark Gubicza (3:29-33:52); Lisa Horne (33:58-1:12:43); Wrap-up (1:12:48-1:16:15)
[Cover photo (Dak Prescott) courtesy of Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images]
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