Conversations with Sports Fans

Conversations with Sports Fans – Gardy Banks (aka @dudelovesfood)

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Gardy Banks
Georgia’s Gardy Banks enjoying some barbecue. (Photo from @dudelovesfood Facebook)

At some point in my life, I’m sure I’ve dreamt of hitting the road to ballparks, stadiums, and/or arenas and sampling as many concession offerings as possible.

Remember, I’m the guy who’s attempting to travel Around the World in 80 Sporting Events and, before that ever began, I Dined Detroit A-to-Z.

Food? Good!

Sports? Good!

Food and Sports? Great!

When I learned about Georgia resident Gardy Banks and his culinary conquest from the 2025 NFL season, I knew I wanted to learn more. (Cap tip to past Conversations’ guest, Ben Tolchinsky [S:5, E:44] from The SportsPulse Poll, for getting Gardy and me together.)

Gardy, who goes by the social media handle @dudelovesfood, spent the 2025 season visiting all 30 venues (remember, four teams share two stadiums) to take a taste of what each was offering its fans.

You’re able to check out his YouTube channel here for the full report.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy our Conversation where we learn how Gardy became a Green Bay Packers fan growing up in New York City, how his quest to dine in all 30 NFL stadiums began, and the logistics of pulling it off.

And, if you fancy yourself a football and food fan, he lets you know where he found some of his favorite offerings, where you might be able to eat on the cheap (or at least cheaper side), and what this anthropology series of his uncovered.

You’re able to find Gardy on the following social media accounts:

My Conversation with Gardy Banks.

Conversations with Sports Fans – Nick Lionas

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Dan Petry, Nick Lionas, and Jason Benetti
Nick Lionas, center, joined Detroit Tigers television broadcasters Dan Petry(left) and Jason Benetti to discuss The Miracle League during a Tigers telecast in August. (Screen Capture from Detroit SportsNet)

If I was looking for proof that I’m older than I’d like to acknowledge, this episode’s guest on Conversations, Nick Lionas, certainly helps drive that point home.

Nick was part of the first class of students I taught … 26-and-a-half years ago!

Yep, back in January of 2000, the principal of Rochester’s (MI) Hart Middle School, Dan Hickey, took a flyer on a freshly certified educator with a journalism background to teach English Language Arts to a group of seventh-grade students.

Nick was among them.

So imagine my surprise, a quarter century later, when I’m watching an otherwise meaningless mid-August Detroit Tigers game, and Nick’s name flashes across my television.

Nick was on the telecast to discuss the organization he works for, Easterseals of Michigan’s Macomb-Oakland Regional Center (MORC) and The Miracle League.

Nick is the Director of Miracle League Programs and Community Engagement for MORC and joined the Tigers telecast to chat about the partnership between The Miracle League and the Tigers.

What is The Miracle League, you ask?

The Miracle League⁠ is an adaptive sports and recreation program that provides children and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities the chance to play organized baseball and join other team activities.

Founded in 2000 in Conyers, GA, The Miracle League’s Mission is to:

  • Provide opportunities for children with disabilities to play Miracle League baseball, regardless of their abilities;
  • Promote community support and sponsorship of Miracle League;
  • Promote the construction of special facilities that meet the unique needs of Miracle League players and their families.

Not to be outdone, I found Nick’s contact information and sent him an email hoping that he’d want to talk sports – and The Miracle League, of course – with his seventh-grade ELA teacher.

He did!

And in this episode of Conversations, I catch up with a student from long ago who’s gone on to make this old teacher (I’m leaning into it now:-) proud.

My Conversation with Nick Lionas is found above.

Conversations with Sports Fans – Paul Shaheen

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Paul Shaheen
Paul Shaheen

It’s really just a coincidence that I’m in the midst of three consecutive Conversations episodes that take me back, literally, a few decades.

Last week, I caught up with a high school classmate, Australian baseball player Gary White, and this week it’s hockey aficionado, Paul Shaheen. As for next week, well, I’ll just say it’s one of my former students, which means I am now, officially, old.

I first got to know Paul while I was on the Michigan Ice Hockey beat for The Ann Arbor News.

Himself a University of Michigan graduate, Paul did a lot of freelance radio work during hockey season. And as the early 1990s were not exactly overflowing with dedicated media members covering college hockey, it was a small professional circle, and we all got to know each other pretty well.

After I’d left the UM beat, Paul and I even road-tripped to Cincinnati, OH, in the spring of 1996, where we witnessed the Wolverines win their first NCAA Championship in 32 years. Beyond the occasional note or Facebook message, that road trip in 1996 was the last time we had any discussion of substance.

Paul continues to ply the audio trade as a side gig and hobby with his Research on Ice (ROI) Podcast and frequent X/Twitter posts (@PaulShaheen), as well as his contributions to NHL Network Radio on Sirius/XM; as a correspondent on “The Drive with Jack Ebling” show from Lansing, MI; CHQR 770 AM in Calgary, Alberta; and TSN Radio 690 AM in Montreal, Quebec.

My Conversation with Paul Shaheen.

Conversations with Sports Fans – Gary White

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Gary White
Gary White is hoisted in the air following his 1999 pinch-hit RBI single in the
Intercontinental Cup Gold Medal Game against Cuba. (Photo by Baseball Australia)

Over 40 years ago, as I entered my senior year of high school, I heard tell that my school had a trio of international exchange students.

Three baseball players from Australia!

Color me intrigued.

While I’m sure the presence of Brett Roach, Darren Sadler, and Gary White in the hallways of Lakeview High School didn’t sit well with many prospective varsity baseball players, I was not among them. My competitive baseball career ended several years earlier when pitchers started throwing breaking balls, which I could neither hit nor catch (I was a catcher).

No, I was fascinated by their accents, their life stories, their homeland, and just about everything about this trio.

I suppose it was one of the many reasons I volunteered to be the team’s scorekeeper/equipment manager that spring.

As someone who was on the bench every game, I had opportunities to get to know each of the three. I probably got to know Brett the best but always felt a special connection to Gary, who, like me, was a catcher.

Unlike me, he was a sweet-swinging lefty and had no trouble handling fastballs or off-speed pitches.

I was able to keep in touch with Brett because, after a year or two at Purdue, he wound up at Eastern Michigan University with me before signing with the Detroit Tigers’ organization. I kept tabs on Gary, who found his way into the Philadelphia Phillies organization for a couple of seasons, but then the scent went cold as he returned to Australia in an era before the Internet.

Well, after 41 years, I reconnected with Gary, and the result is this episode of Conversations. Imagine my surprise when, doing show prep, I discovered that Gary’s basically a living legend in his homeland, being among the original Australian Baseball League‘s (1989-99) most prolific hitters, delivered one of the most famous base hits in the nation’s history (see the video below), and was a 2009 Baseball Australia Hall of Fame inductee.

Gary White’s 1999 pinch-hit RBI single in the 11th inning of the Gold Medal Game of the Intercontinental Cup against Cuba.
Listen to Gary White’s Conversation here.

Conversations with Sports Fans – Erik “The Peanut Guy” Mertens

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Erik “The Peanut Guy” Mertens as he arrives at ONT Field; his 237th – and final – MiLB-affiliated park visited. (Photo from Erik Mertens’ Instagram)

It’s good to have goals.

As someone who’s attempting to travel Around the World in 80 Sporting Events in three years, I should know.

Erik Mertens had a goal a well: Pay a visit to every MLB-affiliated ballpark (that’s currently 237 Minor League and 30 Major League stadiums).

In late July at the Ontario Tower Buzzers‘ ONT Field, it became a goal realized for Erik.

Erik is known as “The Peanut Guy” for his original role with the Tri-City (WA) Dust Devils (Class A affiliate of the Angels). Since those peanut vendor days 25 years ago, Erik has worked for the Dust Devils every year of their existence and, today, is a year-round employee and the Director of Fan Experiences and Community Relations.

To be clear, as we learn from Erik in this episode of Conversations, he didn’t set out to visit every park, but he realized about a decade ago that he was about 20% complete and realized that with what he calls “a big boy job,” he could save money and travel to visit more ballparks.

And that’s what he set off to do. Mind you, like most with sports venue visitation goals, he has his own criteria for what counts as a visit. It might disappoint some that he does not require himself to see a game, but it’s his quest, so his criteria.

As I spoke to Erik earlier this month, his tally on ballparks visited was as follows:

  • 237 MiLB parks
  • 39 MLB parks
  • 14 College wood-bat summer league parks
  • 9 Independent parks
  • 5 Negro League parks

He has some favorites and shares those and he also shares a powerful takeaway from this journey he’s undertaken.

“There is no better way to see our country (and continent) than visiting Minor League ballparks,” he said. Adding that it was because of the hidden gems spotted along the way, as well as the people you meet.

If you’d like to follow Erik’s future journey’s he’s on Instagram @erikthepeanutguy.

My Conversation with Erik Mertens.

Conversations with Sports Fans – James Rowlands

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Englishman James Rowlands celebrates his visit to Tropicana Field, marking the 30th MLB park he’d seen a game in. (Photo by James Rowlands)

The mysterious way people are connected continues to amaze me.

Nearly 13 months ago, I attended a soccer match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at River Plate‘s famed Estadio Mas Monumental. Among the fellas who were part of that tour group attending the match was Tim Walker, an English ex pat who was living St. Petersburg, FL.

During the ensuing year, Tim and I have remained in contact.

We trade occasional WhatsApp messages about whatever sporting event either one of us recently attended. Tim was even kind enough to join me on a previous episode of Conversations with Sports Fans (S:4, E:59) when he totally buried the lead by failing to divulge early in out chat that he once had a business meeting with then-International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch.

That aside, it’s been terrific to get to know Tim a bit better and, in fact, he’s joining me for the 2027 Daytona 500.

So it was a pleasant surprise when he called me late this summer about a fellow Brit he’d just met through a mutual friend: James Rowlands.

“I think he’d make an excellent guest for your podcast, Doug,” Tim began.

He then went on to inform me that, despite living in Leeds, England, James had just visited his 30th MLB ballpark with a visit to Tropicana Field. Oh yeah, Tim went on; he’s also been to FIFA World Cup finals, countless English soccer grounds, Cricket World Cups, and Rugby World Cups. And he’s seen quite a few music acts live.

What Tim didn’t disclose early in the discussion (or maybe he did and I’ve just conveniently forgotten) is that James is a long-haul pilot for a major commercial airline and thus has major logistical and financial components (flight and lodging) covered by his employer.

So Tim put us in contact with one another, and the result of that contact is the episode you find before you today.

In the event you needed any more reasons to listen, James has also attended golf’s four major championships, eight Formula 1 circuits, four European Soccer Championships, a Super Bowl, a soccer match in all 92 English soccer league grounds, and more.

Talk about a man after my own heart!

My Conversation with James Rowlands.

Conversations with Sports Fans – Dr. Aaron Mansfield

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Dr. Aaron Mansfield
Dr. Aaron Mansfield

I like to think of Conversations with Sports Fans as the little podcast that could.

When I launched it over four years ago I envisioned speaking to many of the sports fans I knew personally, and once I was finished talking to my them, I figured the show would have run its course.

Here we are 285 episodes later and I’ve most assuredly left my Rolodex a time or two.

The latest example is this episode’s guest, Merrimack College associate professor Dr. Aaron Mansfield.

Aaron contacted me about joining Conversations, and as I researched his credentials, I felt like he’d be a fine fit for this audience.

Aaron, whose Ph.D. is in Sports Consumer Behavior, works in Merrimack’s Sports Management Program and lists his areas of expertise on Merrimack’s website as “healthy fandom, sports consumer behavior, health and well-being, and sports marketing.” He focuses much of his research on the relationship between sports fandom and well-being.

I viewed my Conversation with Aaron as moving down similar paths as those with Indiana University’s Dr. Edward Hirt (S:3, E:7) and Murray State University’s Dr. Daniel Wann (S:4, E:40), a pair of academics whose roles are exploring the psychology of sports fans.

Aaron and I certainly discuss that, but we also spend a fair amount of time on one of his favorite research topics: the relationship between being a sports fan and one’s personal health. It’s a topic I hadn’t previously spent much time considering, but Aaron provides ample food for thought (pun fully intended).

If you’d like to keep the Conversation going with Aaron, I recommend connecting with him on LinkedIn where he frequently posts thought-provoking items.

My Conversation with Dr. Aaron Mansfield.

Conversations with Sports Fans – Danny Funt

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Danny Funt and his book cover
Danny Funt, author of Everybody Loses.

Few topics related to the world of sports have captured my imagination quite the same way as sports gambling has.

A couple years ago, author Michael Lewis devoted the entire season on his podcast, Against the Rules, to sports fandom and gambling. (Listen to that season’s trailer here.) I was fascinated.

I read McKay Coppins‘ amazing piece in The Atlantic (“Sucker: My year as a degenerate gambler”) chronicling his NFL season as a sports gambler earlier this year, ironically, while on my way to Las Vegas for some March Madness fun. It was riveting.

All the while, I kept seeing the name Danny Funt and, eventually, the title of his first book-length work which was published earlier this year, Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling, pop up in social media posts.

I picked up a copy from my local library and began reading and became increasingly infuriated by the words on the pages. Not Danny and his syntax, mind you, but how sports gambling’s power players were working quietly behind the scenes (with North American professional sports leagues) while the Supreme Court was deciding Murphy vs. NCAA in 2018.

The Endgame: Be ready to capitalize on a multi-billion dollar opportunity should the ruling be in their favor.

In short, the online sports gambling industry bet big on the SCOTUS outcome and won. Today, the U.S. is just beginning to realize what it may have lost. (Read this gut-wrenching piece from ESPN about a sports gambling on college campuses.)

This week I’m delighted to discuss all of it with Danny Funt. Sure, we chat about his early years as a sports fan in San Francisco’s Bay Area. Still, the crux of our Conversation is about Everybody Loses, what the consequences have been, and what the future holds for a nation that doesn’t seem terribly willing to confront a very real problem that is infiltrating all portions of its populus.

And – great news! – thanks to Danny’s generosity, we have an author-signed copy of Everybody Loses to give away. To enter, all you need to do is email me at hilldouglast@gmail.com by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, September 13.

My Conversation with author Danny Funt.

Conversations with Sports Fans – Philip Hover-Smoot

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Philip Hover-Smoot
Philip Hover-Smoot

I’ve received a few inquiries from potential guests about joining me on an episode of Conversations with Sports Fans.

Today’s guest, Philip Hover-Smoot, was one such individual.

Actually, it was Philip’s communications team checking to see if I’d be open to having the Founder and CEO of the Atlas Cup join Conversations.

The Atlas Cup, I learned, plans to be the first orbital racing league. Yes, you read that correctly: space racing.

The race vessels (think satellite or similar) will be unmanned with a cadre of racing teams controlling the dials and levers from the Earth. It’s sort of like FIRST Robotics meets America’s Cup meets NASA.

The goal, I read, was for competition to be up (and up and up;-) and running by the second half of 2028.

As I read that initial email, my first thought was that someone was surely yanking my chain.

But then, as I began doing more research on the Atlas Cup and Philip, they both seemed legitimate.

I told the communications team “yes,” and what you’re about to listen to is the resulting Conversation. And – good news! – you don’t really need a rocket scientist degree to understand all of what’s being discussed.

My Conversation with Philip Hover-Smoot.

Conversations with Sports Fans – Scott Michaels

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Scott Michaels
Scott Michaels

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.

My Conversations with Scott.