By: Stocktony

If you crave smart, funny, and seamless sports radio, The Dan LeBatard Show will satisfy 67% of your hunger…on most days. If you’re looking for typical hot takes and normal sports rhetoric, you’ll be disappointed 100% of the time. And, speaking for the Miami-based broadcasters, it seems that they are perfectly fine with that. In fact, that appears to be the goal.

I started listening to the LeBatard Show about three years ago. I was thoroughly enjoying Highly Questionable (Dan’s TV show with his dad, Papi, and now Bomani Jones), but I kept finding myself wanting more of the fresh sports talk. It was different, irreverent, bold, hilarious at times. So I found the iTunes podcast of The Dan LeBatard Show and was immediately hooked.

At that time, people outside of South Florida didn’t get to listen to Dan, (co-host) Stugotz, and the boys (Mike, Roy, Billy, the Cotes) do their four-hour show unless they subscribed to the Podcast. For the last year and a half, however, ESPN has taken the reins, placing LeBatard squarely into its afternoon drive slot. Now from 4-7 Eastern, anyone with ESPN radio or Sirius Satellite Radio can listen live. The guys also do an all-local show from 3-4, staying true to their Miami roots. The Podcast, of which I am still a listener, is available each day for download…commercial free, no less. Sweet deal, Dan!

Still not convinced? Well, I highly encourage you to listen to The Dan LeBatard Show for these reasons:

1. The show is super smart. Dan makes points that few sports radio personalities make. The conversation is organic, often tangential, leading the listener to discover right along with the cast. I like this because, unlike the canned nature of most shows, LeBatard isn’t afraid to explore any topic at any time. There is little show prep, according to the guys, and this seems accurate when you listen to the scenic-route the guys take your ears on daily. It makes the show unique. They aren’t afraid to “mess up” from time to time. I like honest, pure, and unfiltered, and LeBatard delivers.

2. The show is funny. Never afraid to be self-deprecating to the point of sometimes seemingly self-hating, the guys laugh. They laugh at each other, themselves, the audience, players, coaches, owners, other broadcasters. Most of all, they thumb their noses at the sanctity of sports. Dan often refers to sports as having been built into a cathedral when, as he claims, it should, in actuality, be viewed for what it is…a game played for entertainment. Sports is entertainment; sounds good to me.

3. The show takes chances. If you’ve ever wanted to say something but didn’t have the nerve, but you admire those who do, Lebatard is for you. Some may say that he is being contrarian for contrarianism’s sake, but mostly Dan is just bringing up points that he feels are relevant and pertinent. Often these points are not the mainstream points, but there is a genuineness about them that leads you to quickly understand that the argument isn’t just to ruffle feathers. Still, some feathers will inevitably be ruffled regardless. Remember what you learned in English class, though: without conflict, there can be no plot. Every show has some conflict, thereby some plot…no matter how scattered it might be.

4. The show makes you smarter. I am making this bold claim knowing that, upon listening, many people will hear the antics of Dan, Stugotz, and the producers and think that I am crazy. But for all the silliness (part of point #2 by the way) there is an equal amount of thought required. Every episode for three years has caused me, at some point, to consider or possibly reconsider a point, and these points are often not even about sports. The show has made me revisit my thoughts on many things (my “sensibilities” as Dan often puts it) in a way that has made me truly smarter and more balanced as a person. Wow, man, that’s a lot to get from a sports show!

All that praised heaped upon Lebitz and the boys, here are a couple of warnings before you give the show a try.

1. It may take a while. Upon first blush, you will quite possibly not enjoy this sports show. Why? Because it doesn’t sound like any other sports show. Its content often isn’t directly related to a sporting event, sometimes loosely related at best. There are no “hot takes,” at least no serious ones. To be sure, Stugotz will, like Old Sports Faithful, spew a few bursts of clichéd and stale bombast, but this is done as part of the show’s counterintuitive nature–a satire, if you will. You just won’t hear a lot of the normal sports show stuff, and that, my friends, takes some getting used to. It is also, once again, the biggest reason to listen.

2. Listen for a while and you ruin other sports shows. Give it some time, and you won’t enjoy other sports shows, the ones you once adored, nearly as much. I regularly talk to a friend who has experienced this. Once a big fan of Mike and Mike, he now finds that nothing quite fills his mental plate like LeBatard. I honestly don’t watch or listen to much sports talk anymore either (save the KYSportsGuys podcast, obviously), and I once was an avid watcher/listener.

3. You will be asked to help produce content. Dan is always saying that the audience helps produce the show, and that’s true. In fact, many of the day’s best bits come from emails and tweets and the cast’s response to them. I have even had some jokes and tweets read on the show myself. Not sure how you feel about it, but I like being part of the creative process. It’s fun when your idea is broadcasted over the airwaves of ESPN. Sign me up for more.

Finally, I must admit that part of the reason I am so excited about being able to do a weekly podcast now is because of my experiences over the last three years listening to The Dan LeBatard Show. Go give it a listen (after you listen to our podcast, mind you). Sit back and let it sink in. Resist what might be your initial urge to stop listening and give it a few days. I believe you’re going to like what you hear eventually, even though you may disagree with some of the arguments being made. And if you still want perfectly polished production, there are plenty of shows like that, but I’m telling you, they aren’t nearly as good. Just trust me on this one.