We never thought we’d be channelling our inner-Karl Marx here at the #FanTeaser, but when considering this week’s subject, baseball player Mo’ne Davis, Marx’s philsophy that “we make our own history” comes to mind.
Davis made history 12 years ago when she was became the first girl pitcher in the history of the Little League Baseball World Series to throw a complete-game shutout, when she spun a 2-hitter for her Mid-Atlantic Region squad against the Southeast during a 4-0 victory. Among her eight strikeout victims that day was future Major Leaguer, Robert Hassell III. (Hassell later logged one of his team’s two hits against Davis.)
The Mid-Atlantic Region representative at the 2014 Little League Baseball World Series hailed from Philadelphia. One of its pitchers that year was Mo’ne Davis, then the first girl on a U.S. roster since 2004. (Photo by Gene J. Puskar/The Associated Press)
Then, earlier this summer, Davis again made history. Leading off and playing centerfield for the Los Angeles Queens of the newly formed Women’s Pro Baseball League, Davis she scored the first run in league history following a 2-run single by Maggie Foxx.
This year’s Little League Baseball World Series began on Wednesday and concludes on Sunday, August 30
Davis’ 2-hit, eight strikeout shutout of the Southeast Region’s Nashville team was the first LLBWS shutout by a girl.
Highlights of Mo’ne Davis scoring the first run in WPBL history via the Women’s Sports Now.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.
Today’s Conversation comes courtesy of the “You Never Know Who’s Reading and Listening” department.
What seems like a lifetime ago, I worked in the sports department at The Ann Arbor News for a few years in a position known as “permanent part-time.”
Which, upon reflection, is as demoralizing as he!!.
One of the stringers and occasional scoreboard page editors there was a fella named Scott Michaels. I got to know Scott a bit because he was also a childhood friend of Martin Frank, whom I wound up succeeding on the Michigan Hockey beat.
A couple of months ago, when I was looking for The Sports Fan Project supporters to join the $80 for 80 Circle of Champions (you’re still welcome to join, by the way:-), I received a notice of support from a faintly recognizable name and completely unfamiliar email address.
Turns out it was Scott Michaels!
He’d listened to an episode featuring Martin Frank (S:1 E:23) and then listened to a few more, said he liked what I was doing, and wanted to support my endeavors.
As we began corresponding, it became evident to me that Scott would make an enjoyable Conversations guest.
And, in this episode, you’re able to determine that for yourself.
Joe Flynn, at left, is the creator of the Fantasy Football for Good Draft Guide that includes over 210 player profiles like this one of Saquon Barkley.
I looked at my calendar recently and realized I needed to contact Joe Flynn to see if he’d be up for rejoining Conversations.
In an effort to “… highlight the human under the helmet so hopefully you can use it to learn a little bit more about who’s on your team this year,” Joe created the Fantasy Football for Good Draft Guide. It documented 180 likely fantasy football draft picks’ charitable work.
Realizing it was just about fantasy football draft time, I wanted to get Joe back on the show to discuss any updates. There have been a few, including a couple dozen of this year’s NFL Rookies who are likely to see some action in fantasy drafts. He’s also updated player’s philanthropy if he was aware
Which brings me to one final thought: I really like what Joe’s doing and, as I tell him on the episode, if I was still a fantasy player I could very easily see myself leaning toward players whose philanthropic endeavors align with mine, but as he noted to me, he’s a 1-man band and many of these charitable acts are highlighted in local media which he doesn’t have access to. If, after reviewing the Draft Guide you notice something is missing for a player, let Joe know so that he can update it.
My traveling partner, Fran, and I in UConn’s Gampel Pavilion.
First, a mea culpa.
As I set out on this journey Around the World in 80 Sporting Events, I had, I believe, the best intentions to try and get to more women’s athletic events. As I compose this post, I’ve been to exactly two women’s events:-(
Women’s sports, you might have noticed, are having a moment. Business in the WNBA is booming (and expanding), there are women’s sports bars popping up across the U.S. (I even had the owner of Austin’s 1972 Women’s Sports Pub on Conversations with Sports Fans), there’s now a Women’s Pro Baseball League, the Professional Women’s Hockey League is expanding, and the women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament continues to attract a wider audience.
A few paragraphs below, I’m going to write about my third dedicated women’s event, seeing a University of Connecticut women’s basketball game at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, CT, and it was glorious for all the reasons you’d expect. I have two more women’s events scheduled: the 2027 Women’s NCAA Final Four in Columbus, OH, and the 2027 Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, OK, and maybe a third as another mulligan in the event I get priced out of the Super Bowl, as one of those PWHL teams is coming to Detroit.
Maybe, just maybe, if I decide another 80 are in order or some fraction thereof, I’ll craft a list of events that include a majority of women’s events to absolve myself of this guilt I’m feeling.
Storrs is UConn and UConn is Storrs
At left, the exterior of Huskies, remnants of an ice storm that hit the area a couple of days earlier, the menu at Huskies, and part of the 1999 NCAA Championship floor from Tropicana Stadium in which the UConn men won their first championship.
Admittedly, I knew nothing about Storrs before I began planning this trip. Well, aside from the fact that an absurd number of college basketball championship trophies were housed there (12 by the women and six by the men)!
What I discovered is the reason I didn’t know a lot about Storrs is that there’s not a lot to know.
It’s classified as a village, comprises just 5.7 square miles, and received its name back in 1881 when brothers Charles and Augustus Storrs (founders of UConn, then known as Storrs Agricultural College) donated 170 acres and $6,000 to develop the community.
I also learned that as of the 2020 Census, there are just under 16,000 residents, and the median age was a mere 20.6-years-old. With 21,000 undergraduate students, it certainly seems plausible that many of them are full-time residents who help drive that median age down.
That all said, my traveling partner on this trip, Fran, and I did manage to find ourselves a spot for a pregame bite to eat: Huskies Restaurant & Bar. And after flying into Boston from Detroit and then driving the hour-and-a-half to Storrs, this spot featured all the pub fare we could ever hope for and UConn memorabilia aplenty for us to admire.
That Championship Feeling
Clockwise from upper left, the 12 UConn Women’s National Championship banners hang in Gampel Pavilion’s rafters; longtime men’s coach Jim Calhoun has his Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction honored; Fran and I with a championship trophy; the six men’s banners hang on the opposite side of center court; the amount of success the women’s program has enjoyed is astounding; fortunately there’s a bit more room to add to this display; women’s coach Geno Auriemma’s Hall of Fame banner flies next to the names of the UConn alumni who are in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
I’d really hoped there might be some UConn Hall of Fame or Legends Concourse or even a Trophy Case around that highlighted the many notable accomplishments by the men’s and women’s teams.
Alas, Gampel Pavilion is not such a place for that. The concourses are tight, and there’s not a lot of surplus space to be lauding the school’s oodles of hardwood championships (one need only look to the rafters for that, I suppose).
That said, an NCAA Women’s Championship Trophy was on display and welcoming photo opportunities, and Fran and I were sure to grab a moment with the hardware.
Beyond that, Gampel was a bit of a throwback. That is, a place that hosts sporting events and not much more.
While the other major college basketball gyms I’d visited before, Butler’s Hinkle Field House and Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse, and shortly thereafter, UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, all leaned into the building’s history with expansive displays of artifacts and highlights of past accomplishments.
Shortly after the 2025-26 season, it was announced that a nearly $100 million improvement to Gampel would begin. I hoped maybe something similar to what I experienced in the other college basketball shrines might be part of those plans … nope:-(
UConn was Good … Scary Good!
The Irish offense goes to work during its first possession of the game.
When I first identified this game as an event, Notre Dame was coming off a 28-6 overall record and won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title with a 16-2 record. Of course, that team featured the double-barrelled attack of Olivia Miles (currently tearing up the WNBA) and Hannah Hidalgo. That team handed UConn just one of its three defeats during the 2025 NCAA Championship season when the Irish won, 79-68, at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center.
What a difference a year makes.
Miles spent her final year of college at Texas Christian, and Hidalgo was pretty much left to her own devices against a Husky team that was determined to not let her beat them. Notre Dame had lost three of its previous five games and had fallen completely out of the national rankings when it arrived for the MLK Day showdown in Storrs.
In addition to tormenting Hidalgo all game (she finished with just 16 points, nearly 10 off her season average), UConn featured a balanced attack led by All-Americans Azzi Fudd (15 points) and Sarah Strong (18 points [including the 1,000th of her career], 11 rebounds, three blocks, and three steals) and raced to a 16-7 lead following the first quarter and then used a 27-12 third quarter to leave no doubt en route to an 85-47 shellacking. If UConn had shot even moderately well from 3-point range (just 6-for-24), it could have been far worse.
Fran, who is an inductee in the Michigan Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Hall of Fame for his decades leading the Rochester Adams Highlanders girls’ team (including former Irish player Jeannine Augustin, who played with current Notre Dame coach Nielle Ivey for one season), walked out of Gampel impressed by the relentless defensive pressure and physicality of the Huskies.
I think he and I were in lockstep that it would be a tough team to beat in the NCAA Tournament.
We wound up being wrong.
The Gampel Vibe
From left, UConn’s Ashlynn Shade rises for a jumper; the Huskies lean into their wealth of basketball titles; the exterior of Gampel Pavilion; and Sarah Strong is recognized for her 1,000th career point.
This was my first major women’s college basketball game … ever.
I had zero preconceptions walking in. Having said that, the environment exceeded anything I could have imagined.
First, there was a full house of 10,244 crammed into the place! And the fans get extra credit for arriving early.
Second, this was every bit the equal of my time at Kansas or UCLA or Butler for men’s games. There was a full pep band, cheer squad, dance team, and sizable student section. And the crowd was – at least before it got out of reach – into the game and responding to the cues from the band and the cheer team.
Finally, this was truly a women’s basketball experience. And by that I don’t simply mean the product on the floor and fans in the stands, but even the television screens near the concession stands aired other women’s games in the lead up to tip-off. Fran and I were part of a small group who cared not at all about the popcorn and hot dogs but rather the final moments of the 7th-ranked University of Michigan versus 10th-ranked Vanderbilt University game from Newark, NJ. The Wolverines trailed by 17 at the half, but had opportunities to tie or take the lead down the stretch before falling, 72-69.
Fifty seasons ago, a weekly Major League Baseball highlight show debuted. Its name, fittingly, was This Week in Baseball.
How about that!?!
Regular viewers of TWIB will recognize the previous sentence as one of longtime This Week’s host, Mel Allen‘s, catchphrases. Allen, the 1978 recipient of the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting, was the show’s original host (and an excellent choice, in my opinion) and continued in that role until he died in 1996.
The logo for “This Week in Baseball.”
He was succeeded by the then-recently retired Ozzie Smith, who took over in 1997, but the show’s waning viewership led to its ultimate cancellation following the 1998 season.
Many may not be aware of it, but This Week in Baseball relaunched this season via MLB’s Twitter/X account. A weekly show of about 12 minutes has been relaunched this season by MLB on Twitter/X. Hosted by Kait Maniscalco, you’re able to find episodes at this link.
“This Week in Baseball” from August 16, 1986. Forty years ago today. Enjoy!
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning, with the reveal coming to you Sunday.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.
During our recent trip to the United Kingdom and France, my wife and I enjoyed a dinner with high school friend, Colin, and his wife, Tia.
Somewhere between bites of pasta and refilling wine glasses, Tia mentioned that their nephew, Joey, would be a good guest for Conversations.
“He’s an avid sports fan,” she said. “He works in the business and has plenty of stories to share, I’m sure.”
No sooner had Tia mentioned this, I noticed Colin pecking away on his phone.
“He says he’d love to do your show, Doug,” Colin said. “I’m sending you his contact information now.”
And today, you get to enjoy the dare I say, the leftovers, from our evening out in Knightsbridge, an egaging Conversation with Colin and Tia’s nephew, Joey, who does, in fact, have some stories to share including recollections from attending University of Michigan football games with his dad to pursuing a career in sports broadcast media that’s taken him to ESPN’s campus in Bristol, CT, to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and, now, to North Carolina’s Queen City.
You’re able to follow Joey on the following social media platforms:
There’s no way this can be 50-years-old already!?!
The Bad News Bears arrived in theaters just in time for the start of the Major League Baseball season in 1976.
It debuted on Wednesday, April 7, one day in advance of the Cincinnati Reds’ season-opening 11-5 victory over the Houston Astros.
While the Big Red Machine rolled to a 102-60 regular-season record, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers by 10 games in the National League West, and then swept the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Championship, and the New York Yankees in the World Series, it’s unclear who had a better summer, the Reds or the Bears.
Produced with a budget of $9 million, The Bad News Bears wound up earning $42.3 million at the box office, which is a pretty solid return on investment.
Coach Morris Buttermaker, portrayed by Walter Matthau, sits in the dugout during one of the Bears’ games. (Paramount Studios Photo)
The film starred Walter Matthau as Morris Buttermaker, an ex-ballplayer turned drunk with a gambling habit, who took the job as coach of this ragtag group of kids to earn some pocket change from a busy father who didn’t have time to do it himself.
Mathau’s co-headliner on the movie poster was Tatum O’Neal, who, at just 12-years-old, already had an Academy Award to her credit as supporting actress in 1973’s Paper Moon. She portrays Amanda Whurlizer, who is the daughter of Buttermaker’s ex-girlfriend. He taught her how to pitch, and she’s brought aboard to shore up the pitching staff.
The film, which was written by Bill Lancaster (son of Hollywood luminary Burt Lancaster), skewered the competitive nature of youth sports and parental behavior in particular. (How prescient it was, right?) As the Motion Picture Association of America didn’t have a PG-13 rating for nearly another decade, The Bad News Bears was awarded a PG rating despite the drinking, smoking, and coarse language throughout (from the adults and the children).
So, if you’re just biding your time until the annual Little League World Series ramps up later this month in South Williamsport, PA, crack open a cold beer of your choosing (any will do, just ask Coach Buttermaker!) rewatch The Bad News Bears and let me know what you think.
The original theatrical trailer. (Some language may be offensive.)
The cast reunites at Turner Classic Movies’ 2026 Film Festival.
Some little-known facts from The Bad News Bears.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.
