The Sports Lunatics Show

In this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie discuss the life and career of Baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda and they also examine the greatness of football and baseball star, Bo Jackson. A lot of great memories in this episode.

In the latest episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie discuss their levels of happiness with the outcome of the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals, Connor McDavid's decision not to come out to receive the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Hockey Hall of Fame selections for 2024. They don't necessarily agree on everything either. It was a spirited and interesting discussion.

On June 18, 2024, Willie Mays passed away at the age of 93. Mays was unquestionably one of the greatest ever to play the game. So many tremendous exploits and highlights in his career. He played with Birmingham in the Negro Leagues and had the opportunity to play with the Red Sox, but ownership and upper management didn't want a Black player on their roster. At a major league game in Birmingham, held the same week as Mays' passing, Reggie Jackson talked openly on FOX-TV about the spectre of racism that hung over the game and the country at the time Mays (and Jackson) came into the major leagues. It was an incredible and fascinating week in baseball.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, life has taken both Shawn and Howie away from doing what we love, and that is talking about sports history. NBA great Jerry West passed away as did Chet Walker. The boys talk about the two men and their basketball legacies.

June 2024 - Sports Lunatics - Reggie Jackson's Response to Alex Rodriguez' question on MLB on FOX about coming back to Birmingham, Alabama, where he played his minor league ball. His response is frank, honest and he talks directly and openly about the racism he encountered while there.

This is long overdue. A rebroadcast of the interview Howie did with the 13-year veteran of the Edmonton Eskimos, Jed Roberts. Jed was a defensive end, linebacker and special teams stalwart through his CFL career from 1990-2002. He is incredibly frank as he discusses his time in the league. He talks about teammates and coaches like Henry "Gizmo" Williams, Randy Ambrosie, Signor Mobley, Rod Smart, also known as 'He Hate Me' from original XFL fame. He also talks about former coaches Ron Lancaster, Don Matthews and Kay Stephenson. He talks about playing during the "American Experiment", playing in Las Vegas in the dead of summer, Shreveport, Birmingham and never playing in Baltimore. He talks about the city of Edmonton and how it was like "a small town disguised as a big city", and the wonderful things that come with that. He tells amazing stories about having the Grey Cup and then forgetting where it was. He also talks about his father, star Ottawa Rough Rider, Jay Roberts, and what it was like being the son of a CFL great. He also talks about the time his dad drove him to the home of ex-CFLer and amputee Karl Hilzinger and leaving him there for a day. He also talks about life as a hearing-impaired man playing in the Canadian Football League. It's an incredible conversation. We hope you enjoy it.

In this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn asks Howie about Connor McDavid's legacy in getting to the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals and the Oilers' possible victory. The boys assess McDavid's place among the all-time greats at this point in his career. They also discuss Major League Baseball's decision to integrate the statistics from the Negro Leagues of Baseball with those of the National and American Leagues and the furor that erupted from that decision. Lastly, they talk about the life and career of one of the greatest offensive linemen in NFL history, Larry Allen who passed away while on vacation with his family at the age of 52.

Wow! This is one from the archives! A show from the first few months of our podcast. It's from April of 2020 and we talk about Henry Aaron's 715th home run versus Barry Bonds' 756th and other records. We talk about Jackie Robinson Day and what it means to us, and we also discuss some of the heroes we lost from that time. At the beginning of the show, we talk about some of the new platforms we were on at that time and the dawning of our then-new Facebook page. There are a few things in this one that date it but it's a compelling (and fun) classic episode of The Sports Lunatics Show. Shawn and Howie both hope you enjoy this golden oldie......

In this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie look at the life and career of Bill Walton. Walton was an amazing basketball player, a one-of-a-kind broadcaster, and a man who was so loved by everyone who met him. Shawn and Howie engage in such a spirited conversation and Shawn employs his skills as a producer to include so many great audio clips. This episode will leave you with goosebumps. As Shawn said, "I'd want to run through a wall for Bill Walton." As Howie said, "As we pass away, all we are are the stories that people tell about us." If that's the case, Bill Walton was so much to so many people.

It's NHL Playoff time and conversations generally turn to which great star has yet to win a Stanley Cup. In this edition of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie discuss a few great players who went through their careers without ever sipping from Lord Stanley's Mug. In this particular episode, you'll hear stories about Marcel Dionne, Jarome Iginla, Dale Hawerchuk, Mike Gartner and Peter Stastny. Enjoy the show, everyone.

In the spring of 2022, Bodog put out a list of what they thought were the Top 10 Canadian athletes of all time. Immediately, Shawn and Howie took issue with the composition of the list. They discuss the integrity of the Bodog list and which athletes might be valid and which are not as well as who they thought were missing from it. It was a fun and a lively episode.

Former Toronto Maple Leafs' forward Ron Ellis, one of only five men who have played over 1,000 games while wearing the blue and white, passed away on Saturday, May 11, 2024. He was 79. He played his entire 15-year career with the Leafs. Ellis was a stellar defensive forward while at the same time, scoring twenty goals in eleven different seasons. In this edition of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie examine the life and career of one of the most popular Maple Leafs ever.

In April of 2023, I got to sit down with Lisa Bowes. Lisa was a field reporter and sports anchor for The Sports Network in Canada. She is now a successful author. Her Lucy Tries Sports series of children's books is not just a story of success though, it's also a story of persistence and never giving up on a dream. Enjoy this classic Sports Lunatics Show rebroadcast!

After yet another gut-wrenching Game 7 loss in the opening round of the NHL Playoffs, the eternal question looms large over Toronto: Are the Maple Leafs cursed? It's been 57 long years since the franchise hoisted the Stanley Cup in 1967, and with each passing season, the weight of expectation seems to grow heavier. The Sports Lunatics' Shawn Lavigne and Howie Mooney delve deep into the tumultuous history of the Maple Leafs, exploring six decades of organizational missteps, playoff heartbreaks, and the tantalizing prospect of a new era in Toronto.

In Part 5 of their series on NHL Forgotten Stars, Shawn and Howie go over another group of names that were submitted by members of The Sports Lunatics Show's Facebook group page. In this episode, they discuss Danny Gare, Terry O'Reilly, Craig Janney, J.C. Tremblay and a couple more players that some may have lost track of over time.

We lost Bob Cole on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. In this Sports Lunatics Show episode, Shawn and Howie look back at Bob's life and career, from his trip as a 23-year-old who went to Toronto to meet Foster Hewitt unannounced to play his audition tape to working on Hockey Night in Canada to becoming their top play-by-play man. They also discuss many of the amazing things Cole did outside his work as the preeminent personality on Canadian hockey broadcasts for more than four decades. When you think about the principal men who have called games on Hockey Night in Canada - Foster Hewitt, Danny Gallivan, Bob Cole, Jim Hughson and Chris Cuthbert - you have a string of hockey royalty that runs almost a hundred years. There are plenty of audio highlights from his career.

On April 22, 2022, former Montreal Canadiens great Guy Lafleur passed away after a battle with cancer. Howie sat down with the noted and often-published hockey historian Liam Maguire to talk about the life, career and legacy of The Flower. Liam talked about what made Guy Lafleur so great, so revered and so admired. It was a spirited and a visceral conversation. Liam had been asked to do many media requests in a very small window of time and we were thrilled to be able to have him on the show.

It seems that every year, somebody has an outstanding playoff performance that extends through their team's entire run. They may not win the Stanley Cup, but they capture the imagination of hockey fans everywhere for as long as their club is alive. Shawn and Howie discuss a number of great playoff performances from over the past fifty years. From Chris Kontos in 1989 to Ken Dryden in 1971 to John Druce in 1990 to Reggie Leach in 1976 to Dwayne Roloson, Fernando Pisani and Chris Pronger in 2006. The boys take us on a trip through some memorable moments in hockey history.

A few weeks back, Shawn posted a question on our Sports Lunatics Show Facebook page asking members to mention a former NHL star whom they feel has been forgotten. Our listeners responded incredibly. Here's the fourth in our series in which Shawn and Howie discuss a few more former players. In this episode, we talk about Adam Oates, Bob Baun, Mats Naslund, Jason Blake, Ray Bourque and Pavel Bure. Thanks to Jason Radey, James Perry, Denise Karl and Rick Jones for their suggestions. We hope you enjoy the conversation.

The Sports Lunatics Show can be heard on CKDJ 107.9FM in Ottawa. In honour of their being included in their rotation, Shawn and Howie recorded a special episode of The Sports Lunatics Show for the National Capital Region. In it they discuss their Ottawa sports memories and what it meant to each of them growing up there.