Can't Win 4 Losing

Go behind the scenes and into the background with Anthony Hembrick, the 1988 Olympian who was KO'd on national TV after a choreographed dance with his cornermen in 1990. Hembrick talks with King Kaufman about how he joined the Army almost accidentally, that awful night at Fort Bragg, where he was embarrassed not just in front of a TV audience but in front of a crowd on his old base, and about the rest of his — relatively successful! — career and his life since he retired from boxing following diagnosis of a traumatic brain injury.

"Showboating Fighters Get KTFO" — that's knocked the F out — is a popular, and delicious, YouTube genre. But even before the internet, Anthony "Hollywood" Hembrick practically invented the form. An undefeated light-heavyweight contender, Hembrick danced up a choreographed storm with his cornermen before getting KO'd in the first round of a fight on national TV. The former U.S. Olympic captain did eventually challenge for the world title twice, but he'll always be best remembered for that one humbling night. King Kaufman reports.

Diego Luke was a promising youth hockey player in Minnesota—"The State of Hockey" — until kidney disease forced him to step away from the game. His comeback was interrupted by a bout with cancer. Yet he returned to the ice again. Interviewing his mom and a teammate along the way, Luke recounts his traumatic journey back to hockey, which included a bench-clearing brawl in the hospital that brought the cops. "Every game I'm playing," he says now, "I'm winning." Plus: King Kaufman introduces a new song by his former band The Smokejumpers: "If My Heart Was an Elbow, I'd Need Tommy John."

Weight cutting. It's hard. It's painful. It doesn't really give fighters a competitive advantage. And it can be deadly. Andrew Stelzer on some fighters' toughest battle, the one fans never see. Plus: King Kaufman on Billy Conn, "The Pittsburgh Kid," who gave Joe Louis all he wanted — and then gave him a little too much.

We go deeper with Michael Porter, the Houston high school football coach whose record as a prep and college football player was 0-77. This bonus episode also features longer interviews with Chuck Arnold, who coached Porter during his senior year at Jeff Davis High, ended the 80-game losing streak and eventually hired Porter as an assistant, and Gerald Garcia, who also coached Porter as a player and now works for him as an assistant coach at Northside High, as Davis is now known.

An expanded version of a story that was featured on NPR's "Only a Game" this week: As a football player in high school and college in Houston, Michael Porter played on teams that went a combined 0-77. So what did he do next? Became a coach at his alma mater. This year was a rough one for his team, starting with Hurricane Harvey. But they've got a coach who's been through a few things. King Kaufman reports.

Football in Mexico. Not soccer. American football. Jonathan Tinajero is chasing his NFL dreams in Mexico City. How did a small-college defensive back from East L.A. end up playing pro ball south of the border? Juan Reyes reports. Plus: Paulie Soda, a loser among losers at Fat Nick's candy store in the Bronx, 1953. And: A talk with our theme song singer, Johnny Rawls.

New York Giants fans—and almost no one else—remember Trey Junkin. He was a long-snapper in the NFL longer than anyone, ever. For 19 years he was an anonymous perfectionist working in the game's trenches. Until his very last snap. In the playoffs. As host King Kaufman reports, Junkin's been living with that bad snap for 15 years. He owns it. But there's more to him than that.

Zippy Chippy ran 100 races and lost 100 times. But he was a star, one of People magazine's 50 Most Intriguing People. And so many fans bet on him that he routinely went off as the favorite. Now, in retirement, champion thoroughbreds who earned millions of dollars owe their lives to this ornery old cuss. King Kaufman reports from Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Ed Mickelson, one of 14 living former players for the St. Louis Browns, talks about driving in the team's last run and playing with the legendary Satchel Paige. Also, King Kaufman interviews author Burton Boxerman, who grew up rooting for the Brownies, and attorney Emmett McAuliffe, too young to have seen the Browns, but now among their most avid fans.

One of the most painful ways to lose in sports is a city losing its team. San Diego Chargers fans were heartbroken when their team moved to Los Angeles this year. But not all of them. Maya Kroth reports from San Diego now that the Bolts have bolted. Plus: King Kaufman on one of several teams that have left St. Louis, the Browns, who are now the Baltimore Orioles.

You spend a lifetime as the long-suffering fan of a losing team. It shapes who you are. And then: They win it all! Authors Scott Raab ("The Whore of Akron," "You're Welcome, Cleveland") on the Cleveland Cavaliers and Barry Gifford ("In the Neighborhood of Baseball," "Wild at Heart") on the Chicago Cubs. Plus: Host King Kaufman visits yet another championship parade for his once-hapless Golden State Warriors.

With the Yankees in the '50s, he had the greatest run in managerial history. But before that, Casey Stengel skippered a series of relentlessly terrible teams. Host King Kaufman asks: Did the Old Perfessor learn to win by losing? Plus: What if the worst player on the worst team in a league met the best player on the best team in that league 40 years later? And what if one of those guys was the host of a podcast about losing?

Full interviews with three members of the 1974-75 Washington Capitals, the worst team in NHL history, and the only one that ever took a twirl with the Stanley Can. Goalie Ron Low, center Ron Lalonde and defenseman Jack Lynch remember a "tough, tough" year.

The Washington Capitals were the worst team in NHL history in their inaugural year. By late March they'd played 37 road games without earning so much as a point, and they'd lost 17 straight overall. Then they got a win. "The reaction was totally frickin' crazy," says goalie Ron Low, who with teammates Ron Lalonde and Jack Lynch helps tell the story of the Stanley Can Caps. Plus: The No Whine Timeline lets you know when it's OK to complain about your lousy team.

Go deeper on this week's episode, "The Might Casey," with longer interviews and behind-the-scenes stories. Guests are official MLB historian John Thorn, Holliston, Mass. (aka the "real" Mudville) town historian Joanne Hulbert and St. Louis University English professor Hal Bush.

It appeared on Page 4 of the San Francisco Examiner one day in 1888, and yet, somehow, "Casey at the Bat" survived to become one of the few 19th century American poems most Americans have even heard of. CW4L host King Kaufman goes in search of the story behind the remarkable staying power of a poem about a guy who (spoiler alert) struck out, written by a guy who wanted nothing to do with it after it was published. For the best way to bet on sports, visit MyBookie.ag. Join now and MyBookie will match your deposit with a bonus of up to 100% Just use the promo code WIN to activate this offer! That's MyBookie.ag and promo code WIN. For the best way to play fantasy football, check out playdraft.com (or download the DRAFT app) today. For a limited time only, all new players get a FREE entry into a draft when you make your first deposit! But you have to use the promo code WIN. That’s right – play a real money game for free just for using my promo code WIN on your first deposit on draft! Just search DRAFT in the app store or go to playdraft.com and come play free

This is the trailer for the upcoming podcast series, Can't Win 4 Losing. A podcast about losing. Host King Kaufman brings you audio documentaries about losing in sports, in all its forms—including as a prelude to better things, like winning. As Tolstoy may have almost written: Every champion is the same. Every loser is a loser in their own way. Can't Win For Losing tells their stories.