The new Yankee Stadium infield is shown in this aerial photo Sunday, March 22, 2009 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Manny didn’t say it wasn’t so when the news broke on Thursday that he’d be suspended for 50 games for violating Major League Baseball’s substance abuse policy.  Bill Littlefield talks with ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian about Manny Ramirez and other baseball news.

About 32 acres of public parkland were lost when the Yankees built their new stadium in the Bronx, and so far, the team and city haven’t made good on promises to replace them.  Only A Game’s Kirk Carapezza visits with the varsity baseball players at the All Hallows School in the shadows of Yankee Stadium, as they hold baseball practice in the cafeteria.  View photos of All Hallows School and the new Yankee Stadium.

On Tuesday, the Phoenix Coyotes filed for bankruptcy.  The NHL says the league, not titular owner Jerry Moyes, has had control of the team since November.  At issue is whether the team will be sold to a Canadian billionaire and moved north of the border.  Bill speaks with Ray Ratto, who’s been following the story for the San Francisco Chronicle.

About 150 years ago, Williams College and Amherst College played the first intercollegiate baseball game.  Only A Game’s Doug Tribou was present last weekend for a commemorative reenactment.  View photos of the 1859 baseball reenactment.

Our games are many things to many people.  For one of commentator Elissa Ely’s relatives, sport is a matter of life.

Bill and Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce discuss:  Manny being Manny, a basketball punishment that fits the crime, and all the Queen’s horses aren’t quite what they seem.

Cricket is popular in places like the United Kingdom, India, and Pakistan. It is not especially popular, or even much evident, in Bulgaria, Slovakia, or Serbia.  That circumstance didn’t stop author Angus Bell from traveling around Eastern Europe in search of great cricket stories.  Bill talks to Angus Bell about the result, Batting on the Bosphorus:  A Liquor-Fueled Cricket Tour Throughout Eastern Europe.

The New York Giants are currently 7-1 in their NFL midseason and look fit to repeat another championship year. Bill Littlefield talks with FoxSports.com’s Alex Marvez on the AFC and NFC highlights and disasters of this fall’s NFL season so far.

The Tennessee Titans are the only undefeated NFL team at the midpoint of the 2008 season and only seem to be getting stronger as the season goes on. What’s their secret and can they be stopped? Only A Game’s Ron Schachter reports from Nashville, Tennessee with the answers.

With powerhouse teams like the University of Kansas Jayhawks and the North Carolina Tar Heels coming back strong in the 2009 college basketball season, college hoop fans will be glued to their T.V. sets awaiting the arrival of March Madness. Bill Littlefield talks with ESPN’s Pat Forde on this spring’s college basketball favorites.

The game of cricket has been absent from the U.S. sports scene long enough, and the Longwood Cricket Club in Chestnut Hills, Massachusetts, agrees. Only A Game’s Ken Shulman reports from the first exhibition cricket match at the Longwood Cricket Club in 75 years.

Bill Littlefield answers questions from listeners.

Bill and Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce discuss: President-elect Barack Obama throwing for the Chicago White Sox, a former Phoenix Sun in the Sacramento mayor’s office, and how America’s favorite pastime might be British.

Imagine living in Prague and playing semi-professional basketball. Now imagine not speaking Czech or knowing how to mesh North American basketball style with a Czech team. Bill Littlefield talks with author Dave Fromm about his new book, Expatriate Games: My Season of Misadventures in Czech Semi-Pro Basketball.

Bill Littlefield comments on author Dave Fromm’s cleverly written, Expatriate Games: My Season of Misadventures in Czech Semi-Pro Basketball , a personal account of Fromm’s experience playing semi- professional basketball in Prague. From dealing with the language barrier to trying to adapt to life in the Czech Republic, Expatriate Games, promises to be an entertaining read. 

After graduating from Boston College in 1993, Dave Fromm moved to Prague to play semi-pro basketball.

It was a curious decision.
 
Dave Fromm was a good enough player to have tried out as a walk-on at B.C. twice. He was bad enough to have been cut both times.

Then there was the little matter of communication. Fromm had visited Prague as a tourist, but he didn’t speak any Czech.

Beyond that, he had no idea whether there were any semi-pro basketball teams in Prague.

Otherwise his trip was a great idea.

As it turned out, Fromm found a team. His free-lancing U.S. style never quite fit into that team’s plans, but the members of TJ Sokol Kralovsk Vinhorady kept him around anyway, and it’s fair to say he did them some good. That, the pursuit of a graduate degree at a school for which accreditation was a long-term goal, and an up-and-down romance were enough to keep Fromm in Prague for the duration of the Czech basketball season, after which he and his teammates made one of the most agonizing road trips any team has ever undertaken.

Dave Fromm’s account of what he cheerfully calls his “misadventures” is entertaining and funny. You won’t necessarily find yourself wishing you had been there, but you’ll be glad he was, and that he remembers the season so well – or so creatively – and that he finally decided to write it all down.