Under the Hood with Evan Drellich
A new episode of The Other 51 looks at the Houston Astros cheating scandal
Many of you may know this, many of you may not, but in addition to the Sports Media Guy newsletter, I also host The Other 51. It’s a nerdy little podcast where I talk to writers of all genres about their work, their craft, whatever’s on our minds that day. I hope you don’t mind me sharing links to new episodes here.
Full episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Evan Drellich joins Brian to talk about his new book, Winning Fixes Everything, about the Houston Astros' cheating scandal.
Evan — who worked with Brian at the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y. another lifetime ago — discusses how he and Ken Rosenthal broke the story of the Astros cheating scandal for The Athletic, what it's like when your reporting becomes the biggest sports story in the country, and how this is much more about players banging trash cans with bats.
Evan also talks about how this is much more than a sign-stealing scandal, how it's a book about corporate cut-throat culture that captures a lot of what was happening in industry in the 2010s, and how he developed those themes. He also talks about the writing lessons he drew from Bernard Malamud (and the late Charlie Jaworski) and his favorite Killers songs.
Winning Fixes Everything by Evan Drellich on Amazon
The original story on the Astros' scandal
The Complete Stories by Bernard Malamud