The Chicago Cubs official podcast was great. The official Cubs beat reporter, Carrie Muskat, would give great insight into the team. They aren’t super long—just 7 to 15 minutes. The perfect length. Most other Cubs podcasts are too long. The hosts end up chatting and bla bla BLA BLA.
Carrie got to the point. But then in March, the podcast just stopped. No more updates. I’ve tried looking around online for a reason why there are no more podcast episodes from the Cubs. But I haven’t found anything. No explanation. Just nothing.
A total of 14 MLB teams haven’t updated their official podcast since the end of March.
- Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast: 3/20/18
- Atlanta Braves Podcast: 3/23/18
- Boston Red Sox Podcast: 3/20/18
- Chicago Cubs Podcast: 3/23/18
- Cincinnati Reds Podcast: 3/28/18:
- Colorado Rockies Podcast: 3/23/18
- Kansas City Royals Podcast: 3/20/18
- Los Angeles Angels Podcast: 3/23/18
- Los Angeles Dodgers Podcast: 3/23/18
- New York Mets Podcast: 3/20/18
- Oakland A’s Podcast: 3/23/18
- Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast: 3/20/18
- San Francisco Giants Podcast: 3/23/18
- Toronto Blue Jays Podcast: 3/22/18
Weird. Spring Training is over, and the regular season is about to start. But then, there are no more podcastss. Wouldn’t you want to continue your podcast into the regular season?
Podcasts are increasing in popularity and becoming more and more mainstream. Compared to other professional sports leagues, the MLB tends to be on the cutting edge of technology trends. MLB would license out their video service to other sports leagues. So you’d think MLB would be totally wanting to keep up with the podcasting popularity.
Or maybe the MLB podcasts weren’t popular. MLB didn’t want to spend the money producing them.
There are 16 teams that do continue to produce their podcasts.
Each of the team’s podcasts no longer use the “MLB Extras” name. Instead, each has their own format and name. As of today, July 5, 2018, here are the most recent podcast episodes from the teams that are continuing:
- Baltimore Orioles Podcast: 7/3/18 – Orioles Radio Recap: BAL 2, PHI 3
- Chicago White Sox Podcast: 4/8/18 – PILOT: Benetti and Davidson’s untitled podcast
Matt Davidson and co-host Jason Benetti begin their new podcast adventure, while trying to figure out a title, discussing walk-up songs and Justin Timberlake. - Cleveland Indians Podcast: 6/23/18
- Detroit Tigers Podcast: 6/27/18 619: Episode 4
- Houston Astros Podcast: 7/4 Astros Podcast: Hinch, Federowicz
- Miami Marlins Podcast: 7/4/18: Rays vs. Marlins
- Milwaukee Brewers Podcast: Brewers on Tap – Episode 124
- Minnesota Twins Podcast: 7/1/18: Inside Twins
- New York Yankees Podcast: Yankees Magazine Podcast: Episode 30
- Phillies Backstage with Brazer and Burgoyne: (7/3/2018) Phillies Backstage #13 | Scott Franzke
- San Diego Padres Podcast: (6/22/2018) Ep. 5: Beyond the Booth with Jesse Agler: Life on the Road with Mark Grant
- Seattle Mariners Podcast: (7/3/2018) No. 512: Angels Are Here
- St. Louis Cardinals Podcast: 7/3/18: Cardinals Insider | 10K Wins and Kurt Warner
- Tampa Bay Rays Podcast: 7/1/18: This Week in Rays Baseball
- Spitballin’: 6/28/18: Spitballin’ | Ben Rogers & Jared Sandler (Texas Rangers)
- Washington Nationals Podcast: 5/15/18: Curly W Live | Episode 16
It’s a little unnerving that the Cardinals—of all teams—are updating their podcast, but not the Cubs.
What really disappoints me is that in 2010 the Cubs forced fan-created Cubscast to end. As @CubscastHosts twitter bio states, “3x a week podcast delivered by 2 die-hard Chicago Cubs fans. Well, not anymore, but that used to be the case before MLBAM gave us an atomic wedgie.”
From 2005 to 2010, the Cubscast guys produced the best sports podcast ever. With over 600 episodes, I loyally listened to them every week. They made me a better Cubs fan. But the Cubs shut them down.
I’m not sure when the Cubs started to produce their own podcast. The iTunes store has 278 episodes dating back to September 9, 2015. Carrie Muskat appears to be in most of the episodes.
Archive.org has a record of the official Cubs podcast going back to 9/9/2014. Carrie had a great run of around three or four years.
Now that the MLB or the Cubs are no longer producing an official podcast, maybe they’ll hire the Cubscast guys to continue their great work.
But why did half of the MLB teams stop producing their podcasts in March? If you have any insight or theories, please leave a comment.
The Cubs podcast has new hosts. On 11/29/18 Dani Wexelman and Cubs reporter Jordan Bastian took over the podcast.
Carrie Muskat did come back after the 2018 season to do a couple more podcasts on 10/16/2018, 11/1/2018, and 11/8/2018.
I’m still getting warmed up to Dani Wexelman and Jordan Bastian. I miss Carrie Muskat’s perspective and experience.