ROS Presents: Counterattack

Baseball still feels the aftershocks of the steroid era. Has it recovered, or has it just forgotten and moved on? And what happens when a sport that's built on nostalgia ignores its own history?

Religion of Sports and PRX present Lost In Sports, a new podcast that takes you deep into some of the greatest mysteries in sports. In this special broadcast of episode 2, host Ben Baskin takes you back to 1999, when a small apparel company named And1 released a VHS tape of streetball highlights set to a hip hop soundtrack that quickly became a worldwide craze. And1 was soon hosting games all over the world, and the players were international celebrities. But then, just as quickly as it rose, it all disappeared. Twenty years later, Ben untangles the complicated origins, unlikely rise and untimely demise of the basketball phenomenon he fell in love with as a kid.

False Idol re-examines the rise and fall of Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic sprinter who murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Journalist Tim Rohan traces Pistorius’ path to infamy, deconstructs his heroic image, and remembers the life of Steenkamp, as he tries to understand how a tragedy like her death could have happened. Launching August 26th, 2021.

Baseball has always had a murky code of ethics, a rulebook that feels more like a suggestion. Did that culture pave the way for steroids? And, in baseball and in life, where do we draw the line between advancement and cheating?

More than 100 years after banning pitchers from using foreign substances on balls, MLB is finally enforcing that rule in an effort to resurrect lagging offense. But is the league cracking down on the right culprit? In this bonus mini-episode, Joan explores the physics of ball doctoring and asks what baseball’s current scandal can tell us about the evolution of the game.