The Bridge Ep. 44: John Perrotto, an MLB writer, joins the show live from Game 1 of the World Series to breakdown each team and predict a winner

The first two games of the 2016 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians didn’t disappoint. A strong pitching performance propelled the Tribe to a Game 1 victory before the Chicago’s bats came alive to tie up the series, 1-1. There’s obviously plenty of storylines in this Fall Classic, and we’ll deal with some this show and the next.

Before we get into that and the rest of Episode 44, as a reminder, The Bridge is now broadcast as a one hour radio show every Wednesday night on Sports Radio America, starting at 7 ET. Once the dust settles from that live broadcast, the show is released as a podcast on iTunes and this website on Friday night. You can listen to the live show every Wednesday on Sports Radio America here or through the TuneIn app.

  • Sports News Read Like Real News focused on sports curses from both the past and present, including the now broken Madden Curse, the curse of William Penn’s statue in Philadelphia and the Curse of the Bambino, as well as the current curses, including the Curse of the football Cardinals, the Curse of Rocky Colavito (Indians), the Curse of the Billy Goat, Black Cat and Steve Bartman (Cubs) (2:16).
  • “Wait, Who?!” tells the story of a Cleveland Indians rookie pitcher who helped lead his team to victory in Game 5 of the ALCS to clinch the pennant, and how his wedding registry was flooded with fan purchases because of it (7:40).
  • The Bridge Question of the Week is: Who ya got in the World Series and why? Call or text in your answer to 929-BRIDGE7, that’s 929-274-3437, and you’ll make it on the next show (16:41).
  • This week’s guest is John Perrotto, an MLB writer for Today’s Knuckleball and several other outlets, who was kind enough to do an interview from the press box of Progressive Field in Cleveland, one hour before the start of Game 1 of the World Series. Though Game 1 and Game 2 have ended and the series is headed to Chicago tied 1-1, our chat is still timely in that the discussion doesn’t center around just one game, but the series as a whole. As I said, the interview was done from the press box before a World Series game, so please bear with some background noise here and there in the interview.
  • You can click the links to read some of John’s work for Game 1 and Game 2 and find out more about him here, and follow him on Twitter @JPerrotto. The interview starts right after the 24 minute mark.
  • In the interview, we discuss:
  • What the atmosphere in Cleveland was like for Game 1 of the World Series (24:41), if the game was sold out, even with outrageous ticket prices (25:53), if there’s any surprise to the Indians and Cubs making it to the World Series (27:07), how important the pitching has been in helping the Indians make the Fall Classic (28:57), how important Andrew Miller has been for Cleveland (31:15), how important Terry Francona has been for Cleveland (32:37), how important Joe Maddon has been for the Cubs (34:42), what has made this Cubs team so special (37:38), the job Theo Epstein has done building this Cubs team (39:25), what do the Indians need to do to win the World Series (41:18), if Francona will continue to hold a short leash with his starting pitching staff to get to the bullpen (42:57), what do the Cubs need to do to win the World Series (43:48), if there’s any role players or unsung heroes we should keep an eye out for to impact this series (44:52), if the past curses of either team will play any factors in this series (46:10), what this series means to the game of baseball (47:56) and who he has winning the World Series (49:47) and the MVP (50:37).

Call in or text the show any time and any day at 929-BRIDGE7, that’s (929) 274-3437. Contact the show with your questions, comments, stories or hot takes and you might be featured in the next installment of The Bridge.

Subscribe to The Bridge Sports Podcast on iTunes (please leave a positive rating and review if you enjoy the show) so you’ll immediately be notified when new episodes are posted each week. You can also find The Bridge Sports Podcast on Google PlaySoundcloudStitcher and TuneIn.

You can listen to the show live on Wednesday nights at 7 ET via Sports Radio America or the TuneIn app.

Visit www.lundinbridge.com/email to subscribe to The Bridge Sports Podcast newsletter, which will provide weekly updates and behind-the-scenes information about the next show and who the featured guest(s) might be.

Email the show at media [at] lundinbridge [dot] com and follow the host on Twitter @lundinbridge.

Show music: ‘Actionable’ and ‘Epic,’ courtesy of www.bensound.com.

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