A podcast about baseball, music and culture.
255 episodes listed below
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Hooks & Runs is a podcast about baseball, music and culture. Our podcast includes interviews with news makers in the sports and music world plus commentary from the co-hosts on interesting current and historical events. Hooks & Runs releases a new episodes every Thursday (more or less).
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Hooks & Runs connects baseball's current controversies to its historical record through detailed host exchanges and focused guest conversations.
Hooks & Runs lets Craig and Rex move between today's baseball questions and the sport's historical record without changing their conversational footing.
An air conditioner hums while Craig talks roster rules: exactly your kind of baseball weather?
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A conversational Astros what-if built around Roger Metzger, Joe Pepitone, Mike Cuellar, and Cesar Cedeno's early slump.
Hooks and Runs ties a guest conversation with Samuel Barrett to a Houston Astros what-if set in 1971, and it works best when it keeps its focus on the baseball machinery.
A lived-in baseball portrait shaped by pitching, ballparks, and detail.
The episode treats Sipio Spinks as a baseball lifer, moving from pitching to coaching and scouting, with enough bat and speed to round out the picture. It also tracks his major league time with Houston and St.
A baseball scandal told with patience, memory, and measured doubt.
Benny Koff's story is handled as a baseball scandal with steady attention to who said what, when it was said, and why it mattered. Craig and Rex follow McGraw's changing testimony, Zimmerman, Chase, the bribe allegation, and Koff's own defense without sanding down the…
A steady baseball memory piece built around Wise's no-hit stretch and the details around it.
Rick Wise's 18-season major league run, mostly in Philadelphia and Boston with stops in St. Louis, San Diego, and Cleveland, gives Hooks and Runs its center.
A loose baseball conversation that moves from All-Star break chatter to a tentative Rays note and a world-versus-USA exhibition idea.
Craig and Rex work through a baseball conversation that ranges well beyond the All-Star break, with Astros injuries and a careful mention that the Rays look sold, though that point stays tentative.
A careful tour of Negro Leagues pitching and the wider baseball and cultural world around it.
Hooks and Runs uses its Native Texans in the Hall of Fame series to follow three Negro Leagues pitchers who were regarded as among the best of their time. Thomas Kern gives each career its own shape, while Craig and Rex keep the talk loose and easy to follow.
Dave South's stories land best when the booth, the book, and Kyle Field details stay in focus.
Craig and Rex spend the episode with Dave South, the longtime voice of Texas A&M Aggie Athletics, and the material is strongest when it stays close to the numbers: 50 years in the business, 35 in the booth, and the 2019 book You Saw Me on the Radio.
A Yankees story that moves from roster rules to a tense Ebbets Field start.
This Yankees tale follows Bill Bevins from long minor-league work to a wartime opening, then back through the control trouble that shadowed him.
Cubs recaps with bleacher-level patience.
Daily Tigers tension, sorted fast.
Nebraska athletics, close up and week by week.
Craig and Rex spend this stretch on Joe Morgan and the trade that sent him from Houston to Cincinnati.
Hooks & Runs links Shohei Ohtani’s $240 million Maui real-estate lawsuit to Mike Trout’s .238 season, 30% strikeout rate, and the Angels’ long run of losing records.
Craig and Rex take up Benny Koff's place in the Giants' gambling-era mess.
Hooks & Runs opens with baseball-adjacent banter about coaching buyouts and a Padres retirement before introducing Samuel Barrett.
Craig and Rex welcome Bill Nowlin, co-founder of Rounder Records and a writer with a deep baseball catalog.
Craig and Rex settle in at Crazy Carl's Music and Portions in Midtown Bay City for a guest-free conversation built around one-and-onlys.
Craig and Rex sit down with Hubbard.
September means roster math.
Craig opens solo while Rex is on tour with Loose Helmet.
The hosts discuss a gambling investigation involving Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz and suspicious microbet spikes, analyze the Washington Nationals' poorly timed management firings, and open 1980s baseball cards while sharing stories about players like Pete Rose and George Brett.
Craig and Rex open with a shift from college football arguments about Texas A&M, Texas, and Lane Kiffin to a baseball-heavy rundown of offseason moves.
Bob Mitchell, author of Ralph Branca and the Meaning of Life, explains why the 1951 Giants-Dodgers playoff game stayed with him from a Dumont 12-inch TV in 1951 to a book published by McFarland Press.
Dan Taylor traces baseball gambling from the National Association through the 1919 Black Sox scandal and says low pay and competition kept it common across major, minor, and amateur baseball.
Hooks & Runs opens with Craig and Rex trading stories about a Connie Mack Stadium urinal, then moves into a New York trip that includes Chicago, the Rockettes, the Jackie Robinson Museum, and a complaint that Manhattan prices make a 16-ounce Diet Coke cost $5.
The hosts discuss the sale of the Tampa Bay Rays for $1.7 billion and stadium challenges, then explore gambling risks with Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose.
The hosts discuss baseball topics including All-Star game controversies, the pine tar incident involving George Brett, and a deep dive into Frank Robinson's career, focusing on his underrated status and one of MLB's worst trades.
Justin Klugh discusses his book "Summer of the Cheap Wieners," which follows the 1941 Philadelphia Phillies during Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak.
Rob Miller, co-founder of Bloodshot Records and author of The Hours Are Long, But The Pay Is Low, traces how a Chicago label grew from a few thousand dollars, a bar napkin of artists, and a punk-to-country taste shift.
Thomas W.
Dr.
Craig and Rex open with playoff energy and a Cubs loss before bringing on Sipio Spinks.
Hooks & Runs tells the story of a July 10, 1932 game between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Cleveland Indians that turned into an 18-inning, 18-17 Cleveland win.
Craig opens with a Texas high school football controversy in Bay City and Port Lavaca, where an inadvertent whistle, a lateral, and a reversed touchdown helped decide a 7-6 final.
Joseph Natalicchio's book, Baseball's Most Outrageous Promotions from Wedlock and Headlock Day to Disco Demolition Night, traces how baseball used spectacle to fill seats from 1883 ladies' day to the early 1980s.
Craig and Rex welcome Dave South, the longtime voice of Texas A&M Aggie Athletics.
Craig and Rex return to their Native Texans in the Hall of Fame series and bring in Thomas Kern to guide the conversation.
Hooks and Runs welcomes Rick Wise for a baseball conversation that treats memory like a working tool, not just nostalgia.
Craig and Rex are back in the gig room and start by catching up on the heat, the AC hum, their first proper Loose Helmet tour, and a recent TV Dolls show they both enjoyed.
Co-hosts Craig and Rex discuss mid-season baseball updates, including an Astros injury and a historical feat by Guy Hecker.
An interview with music writer Jonathan Gould about his new biography of Talking Heads, exploring the band's history and the New York music scene.
Co-hosts Craig and Rex discuss the history of baseball, focusing on minor leagues and old ballparks, with a humorous anecdote about a pitcher drinking at a bar.
A baseball and music podcast revisits a 2021 interview about a documentary on Texas songwriters and reflects on Hank Aaron's legacy.
Co-hosts Craig and Rex discuss the Kyle Tucker trade between the Astros and Cubs, analyzing its impact on both teams.
The hosts discuss recent MLB games, focusing on the Houston Astros' performance and upcoming series.