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 Podcast, hang up and listen for the week of October 20th, 2014.

On this week's show, we'll talk to Grantland's Jonah Carey about the World Series matchup between the Royals and the Giants and what it says about the state of baseball and the American way of life, perhaps even the European way of life.

We'll see where the conversation takes us.

We'll also discuss the rise of biometric testing in the NBA and other sports and the ethical questions raised by ownership monitoring players' sleep and precious bodily fluids.

We'll then interview longtime Boston Globe writer Bob Ryan about his

pioneering journalism career and his new book, Scribe, My Life in Sports. In our bonus segment

for Slate Plus members, we'll talk about Percy Harvin's surprise departure from Seattle and the

trope of the clubhouse bad guy villain enemy. Joining me in Washington, D.C. is Stefan Fatsas, author of the book's Word Freak in a few seconds of Panic, the Friday Sports correspondent friend pairs all things considered, and a man who's going to be rooting against Haiti at RFK Stadium on Monday night. How does that make you feel, Stefan? How do you know I'm going to be rooting against Haiti? I've already established that I don't like... You're wearing a shirt right now that says I hate Haiti? I don't... I don't like hope so. Hello, lady. I've already established that. I like the Haitians. They've had a tough row. Does it make you feel bad that you're rooting for the U.S. and this women's World Cup qualifying against... Again, you're assuming I'm rooting for the U.S. I have seen Team Haiti play in men's World Cup, not World Cup, but men's international soccer in a game in Miami against the Spanish team. And this Haitian scored a goal. And that was it. That's the greatest accomplishment.

It was, they lost like whatever by a lot, but oh my God, they couldn't have been happier. Hey, it's Mike Peska. Hey, talking Haitian soccer. The Hades and the Trinidad and Tobago story, both very nice stories. People rallying to support these teams, get them money. They had nothing going on. They were desperate for funds to train.

And these women came to the United States, and they've been, they've been supporting. Wow.

Makes you have... these teams, get them money. They had nothing going on. They were desperate for funds to train. And these women came to the United States and they've been, they've been supporting. Well, makes you seem like even more of a jerk for not. Not rude for them. Yeah. And yourself further. Go Haiti. I just said it. There, fine. Mike, you're the host of the Justin Mike Pesco. I got to mention that. And maybe a recurring banter feature. We'll see how it goes. But you made the great point in our interview with Roy Blunt Jr. the other week that the thing that's missing from pro football is whimsy. So I want to inaugurate a whimsy watch. Ooh. I think, well, you're going to tell me. It's your feature. Whimsie watch. Peyton Manning throws 509th career TD Pass against 49ers. Teammates play keep away from him with the ball. It turns out they had practiced it that Peyton was in on it and that he taught them how to, like, pretend to be keeping the ball away from them. So. Anti-whimsy. Whimsie or not whimsy? You should see the drilling. You should see the all-22 tape of them doing the drill. This was, yeah, this was quasi-whimsy. Also, two of those players got cut and put on the practice squad the next day. Well, we've got to have a ceiling. So you don't want to go whimsy in week one of Whimsie Watch.

You're going to go quasi-Wimsy.

Then maybe make people work for it. Week 12, we'll have Wednesday. You've got to earn your whimsy in the NFL. It's like anything else in the NFL. You got to demonstrate? You don't hand out whimsy on day one. No. No. Whimsy is earned. It's not given.

All right.

Now it is time for our first topic of the day.

The World Series will start on Tuesday night in Kansas City, which is a crazy thing to say for a couple of reasons. First, the Royals have been terrible for 30 years. And second, while the Giants have a recent history of postseason success. Neither San Francisco nor Kansas City were particularly

close to being the best teams in baseball during the regular season. Each one notched the fourth

best record in their respective league. So here to talk to us about what it all means and perhaps

whimsy and whether whimsy is earned or given in baseball. It's Grantland's Jonah Carey.

...