Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun Times joins the show to talk about his career as a feature writer, columnist and author. Oh yes, we talk a little baseball too.  And oh yes, Jay Mariotti’s name comes up.

Did you know that Telander has written eight books? Eight. We ask him about the balance of holding down a day job as a writer at the same time as writing a book.  He gives a glimpse into the mindset of writing a two different styles at the same time.  Great stuff.

We use one of his books, The Hundred Yard Lie, to talk about the BCS rankings (we’re saved) and get his thoughts on the corruption in college football 18 years after his book came out.

We also talk about his time at SI and compare that to being a columnist. At SI, one can dictate the storylines but as a columnist, the storylines are dictated for him. How different is that process of writing and does he ever find himself writing differently – even using different verbiage – for a more colloquial audience?

We spin to the ridiculous, and in this case, it’s LA Times writer TJ Simers. Simers is a bully and took his shots at Philly this week, so we ask Telander if he respects that style of journalism, or if it’s even journalism at all?

Speaking of bullies, we get his thoughts on Jay Mariotti. It turns out, an hour before this interview Telander was in a sauna and Mariotti walked in.  That’s all I’m giving you.

We delve into sports writers becoming pundits and what he thinks about the medium having been one of the first.  And oh yes, we talk baseball. The Cubs were awful, so we ask what the city thinks about that team, the upcoming World Series - do they even care about baseball anymore - and which curse is worse, 100 years without a WS title or 25 years without any team winning a title?

We end with a prediction for the World Series.  Well, sort of.