Hang Up and Listen is sponsored by Fanduil.com, the leader in one-week fantasy football leagues.

And right now, Fanduel will match the first deposit dollar up to $200 for the first 50 people who use the promo code hang at fanduel.com.

The following podcast contains explicit language.

Hi, this is Josh Levine, and this is Slate Sports Podcasts, hang up and listen for the week of

October 27, 2014.

On this week's show, we'll talk about Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner's playoff dominance,

San Francisco's tenuous three-two lead over the Kansas City Royals in the World Series

and attempts to assess baseball's health by looking at playoff TV ratings.

We'll also be joined by Mary Willingham, the whistleblower in the North Carolina academic scandal

to talk about how student athletes at UNC benefited from a shadow curriculum of phony courses.

Slade Long of ProBullStats.com will be here to discuss the life, the legacy, and the highly valuable semen of Bushwacker, the most decorated

animal in the history of professional ball riding. In our bonus segment for Slate Plus members,

we'll talk about Japanese baseball's

bizarre playoff system and whether the major leagues can learn anything from it.

Joining me in Washington, D.C., is Stefan Fatsis, author of the book's Word Freak and A Few

Seconds of Panic, the Friday Sports correspondent friend Pairs All Things Considered, and a man

who looked a little concerned when I said the phrase highly valuable

semen without knowing what the noun referent of that phrase was. Hello, Stefan. Hi, Josh. I just

want to know the value of this. I hope we get into that. I hope we do too. It remains to be

seen. Mike Pesca. Yes. What are your thoughts on highly valuable semen?

For it?

I would like to read on this, the birthday, the hundred, the centenary of Dylan Thomas,

...