30 for 30 Podcasts

The 1999 Women’s World Cup transformed Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, and the National Team into celebrities overnight. They used their newfound fame to launch the world’s first women’s professional soccer league: WUSA, the Women’s United Soccer Association. But mismanagement and tension with the U.S. Soccer Federation put the league’s future in jeopardy. This is the story about how the stars of the ‘99 World Cup Team built a league from scratch and fought to keep it alive.

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At age 46, legend Rickey Henderson refused to walk away from the game of baseball. Unsigned by major league clubs, Henderson instead joined up with the independent league San Diego Surf Dawgs. Rickey Won’t Quit tells the story of a baseball legend doing everything he can to keep playing the game he loves, whether or not it will ever love him back. 

This episode is narrated by The Undefeated’s Clinton Yates.

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In 1995, star pitcher Hideo Nomo attempted to do what no Japanese player had done since 1965 – join Major League Baseball. Nomo and his agent hatched a plan to overcome the legal and cultural barriers that stood in his way, risking Nomo’s career and reputation in Japan. The Loophole reveals how they pulled it off, launched “Nomo-mania,” and transformed both American and Japanese baseball forever.

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Before the 1970s, women were not welcome at the world’s great marathons, but a few brave pioneers sought to challenge that system. Six Who Sat tells the story of two iconic moments in women’s running, both captured in photographs. The first, from 1968, is of a race director trying to physically restrain a woman from running the Boston Marathon. The second, from 1972, is of a protest at the New York City Marathon that forever changed women’s ability to participate in the sport they loved.

• See the photos from 1968 and 1972.

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The 2003 World Series of Poker should not have been a success. Its host casino teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, internet qualifiers knocked out the most marketable stars, and the production company tasked with showing the event on TV knew nothing about the game. All In explores how the 2003 tournament overcame the odds to spark a poker boom and forever change poker’s place in America. Reported by Keith Romer.

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At the end of his career, Jose Canseco, the self-proclaimed “godfather of the steroid era,” was effectively forced out of baseball. As revenge, Canseco conceived a tell-all memoir in which he would call out his fellow players for steroid use. Within a month of its publication, Juiced sparked a congressional hearing. This is the story of the book’s wild ride from idle revenge fantasy to publishing sensation.

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