Media

I’m often asked to speak about all aspects of baseball — modern, historical, or statistical. If you’re a reporter working on a story, a student working on a paper, or a fan with a baseball question, please feel free to contact me. Here are a few recent interviews and clips:

Midnight Meets: The 100th anniversary of the Black Sox trial

BBC Radio 5 Live logoBy Colin Murray
August 2, 2021
Colin Murray discusses the story behind one of the most controversial betting scandals in history, the Black Sox Scandal, with Jacob Pomrenke on the BBC Radio 5 Live’s “Midnight Meets” show. Click here to listen to the interview (MP3) or click here to hear the replay online at BBC.co.uk (where available).

Baseball Risks Irrelevance If It Doesn’t Adapt

The Economist article, July 15, 2021By Aryn Braun
July 15, 2021
Many baseball fans assume a defensive posture when it comes to rule changes or adopting new technology to make the game more entertaining. Click here to read the article (JPG download) or click here to read online (subscription required).

Baseball’s Big Swing At Sports Betting: How It’s Shaping The Future Of MLB

8073A05C-B1F4-4A6B-87F8-924351276CF8By Jonathan Chang and Meghna Chakrabarti
May 21, 2021
Major League Baseball’s embrace of the billion dollar American sports betting business. Will it sully the game? Or could it save it? Click here to listen to the full show at WBUR.org.

Why I can’t wrap my head around baseball’s embrace of sports betting

EE014798-0629-42AB-914E-92ED261722CBBy Micheline Maynard
May 10, 2021
Even though baseball spent decades seeming to abhor the very idea that anyone would bet on games, current MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has been inching toward an association between baseball and betting for years. Click here to read the full essay at WashingtonPost.com.

Effectively Wild podcast: The Masked Swinger

effectively-wild-logoBy Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley
July 11, 2020
In this episode of EW, Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley talk to SABR’s Jacob Pomrenke on how the 1918 flu pandemic affected baseball, his research into a 1919 California Winter League game in which players (including a number of big leaguers) wore masks on the field, and the parallels between past and present pandemic responses in the United States. Click here to listen at FanGraphs.com.

How MLB is navigating the coronavirus pandemic to play ball

ESPN-logoBy Tonya Malinowski
May 19, 2020
ESPN examined the challenges facing MLB as it struggles to get back on the field. What emerges is like nothing that has been attempted in the history of American sport, less a baseball season than a military-style operation in which any number of variables could derail the plan, or, worse, contribute to the spread of the deadly disease. Click here to read the full article at ESPN.com.

Joseph ‘Sport’ Sullivan’s Little-Known Role In The Black Sox Scandal

NPR-Only-A-Game-logoBy Shira Springer
October 18, 2019
Just weeks before the 1919 World Series began, gambler Joseph “Sport” Sullivan and White Sox first baseman Chick Gandil looked out at the same view from the same windows at the Hotel Buckminster near Fenway Park in Boston. But who was Sport Sullivan, the man who helped hatch the biggest scandal in baseball history? How did he get in the middle of it, then essentially get away with it? Click here to listen to the full interview at NPR’s Only A Game.

The Sunday Edition: Revisiting the 1919 Black Sox Scandal

cbc-radio-logoBy Michael Enright
October 12, 2019
One hundred years ago this past week, eight Chicago White Sox, players took bribes from gamblers to fix the World Series. The heavily favoured White Sox lost the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, the conspiracy was revealed, and the eight White Sox players — thereafter known as the Black Sox — were banished from baseball for life. Jacob Pomrenke joined The Sunday Edition‘s Michael Enright for a conversation about the 1919 World Series and how historical research has debunked a number of myths about the Black Sox scandal. Click here to listen to the full interview at CBC.ca.

The baseball obsessives correcting the record about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal

the-athletic-logoBy Zach Buchanan
October 4, 2019
To the extent that you know any of the real history of the Black Sox, it is because of SABR’s Black Sox Scandal Research Committee. They, more than anyone else over the last 20 years, have chipped away at the bastardized version of events popularized by “Eight Men Out” in print and on film. Together and individually, committee members have written at least a dozen books on the subject, examining the scandal from various angles. They are the authorities. And if you still believe the myths of “Eight Men Out,” well, they would like your attention. Click here to read the full article at TheAthletic.com (subscription required).

Infamous America: The Black Sox Scandal

InfamousAmerica-BlackSox-logoBy Chris Wimmer
September 25, 2019
Season 2 of the Infamous America podcast series on the Black Sox Scandal hit No. 1 on Apple Podcasts’ history charts and more than 250,000 listeners tuned in to hear about the 1919 World Series in the summer of 2019. Produced and hosted by Chris Wimmer of Black Barrel Media, Infamous America debuted in August with a weekly six-episode narrative arc of the Black Sox Scandal, plus two bonus interviews with Jacob Pomrenke of SABR and Mike Nola of BlackBetsy.com. Listen to the series on your favorite podcast app or streaming service, or online at BlackBarrelMedia.com.

Here are some other interviews I’ve done:

Television

Radio/Podcasts

Online