4 Quarters Radio: April 15 1st Quarter

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The first-quarter curriculum for April 15:
--Scott and Mack are joined by MTSU head men's basketball coach Kermit Davis. They discuss new recruits like forward Jacquez Rozier and the potential for other newcomers to change the team's offensive focus.
--Scott asks the coach to compare the size of next year's roster to any other he's coached over his career.
--New assistant coach Monte Towe is brought up for discussion, and Coach Davis breaks down what Towe's experience will bring to the staff.
--Davis discusses how this season will resonate in his mind, noting missed opportunities and the youth of the squad.
--Coach Davis discusses a NCAA-or-nothing mentality among the fan base and how they need to put less stock in what they read online.
--Once the coach is off the line, Scott and Mack stroll into baseball talk. Josh Hamilton's broken arm is the Injury of the Week, and the Prof and the Intern disagree on who's to blame for the overaggressive play.
--Finally, the discussion concludes with rankings of the top up-the-middle groups in baseball. Scott has a surprising reaction to the Braves being in the conversation, and Mack's equally surprising about Boston being out of the top 9.

Featured music: "The Afterlife" by Paul Simon. Stick around at the end for a brief snippet of the track, and help the show out by purchasing the full download if you like it.

4 Quarters Radio: April 8 3rd Quarter

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The third-quarter curriculum for April 8:
--Scott asks Bobby who he'd book to replace Jon Fitch against B.J. Penn. Surprisingly, Bobby's most fearful for B.J.'s job. Also, Bobby expresses little surprise that ex-WEC fighters are getting headline slots, but he's also got an opinion on how those PPV's will sell. He gets himself into a bit of trouble along the way...you'll have to listen to find out how.
--Moving on to MLB, Scott and Mack ponder which teams are having meaningless starts to the season and which ones are actually signs of things to come. Of course, Mack's anxious to defend his Sox.

Excised music: "Future Starts Slow" by The Kills.

4 Quarters Radio: March 18 3rd Quarter

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The third-quarter curriculum for March 18:
--Mack offers advice for anyone who may have to take a Wonderlic test, as his score ultimately gets released.
--Scott offers a little information on the Georgia Lady Bulldogs, MTSU's opponent for Sunday.
--The final installment of 4QR's Big-Ass Baseball Preview shines the light on the NL and AL East. The Phillies' Wrath of God rotation and the Red Sox' Wrath of God lineup get examined most closely.

Excised music: "Yeah" by Usher, Ludacris, and Lil' Jon.

4 Quarters Radio: December 16 4th Quarter

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The fourth-quarter curriculum for December 16:
--Scott gloats a bit about the New York Spankees not getting all the free-agents this offseason. Appreciations of the loaded Red Sox batting order and Phillies rotation follow.
--Wondering what the Spanks have left to look forward to, Scott expresses fear for a pitcher with documented emotional baggage if he would ever end up in the Bronx.
--The rent-a-player system gets some blame for fan apathy in most baseball cities, especially when compared to the NFL's constantly shifting landscape.
--Comparisons between Cliff Lee's decision and LeBron James's Decision are examined and mostly debunked.
--In the Epic Fails, Scott marvels at the fall of a former Pro Bowler reduced to stealing his ex's unemployment checks.

Excised music: "Strung Out" by Wendy & Lisa.

4 Quarters Radio May 4: 2nd Half

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Bit of a late start to the second half of the May 4 episode, as we come in midstream on a comparison of a Roethlisberger and a Mettenberger. Scott, Trent, and Joseph move on to some baseball, pondering which of three washed-up Hall of Famers they'd keep and whether they'd rather close baseball games or kick field goals for a living. In the fourth, the guys talk Dez Bryant's mom and some alleged bad mojo ruining the Saints' feel-good story. Kids and beer figure in the Epic Fails, and yes, in the same story. Excised music: "Trick Pony" by Charlotte Gainsbourg and "Moves" by the New Pornographers.

The New York Galacticos?

$200-plus million is a lot of money. And yes, there is a point to this rather obvious statement.

The transfer fees agreed to by Real Madrid last week for Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka were stunners, even by the inflated standards of world football.

Real's approach for much of the past decade has been the signing of veritable dream teams of world-renowned talents, known as "galacticos." Names like Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Raul, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham, and now Kaka and Cristiano.

It's easy to spot the American equivalent in the one sport that enables its teams to spend whatever they can afford.

Names like CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Mark Teixeira, Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, and Gary Sheffield indicate that the New York Yankees can spend what they want, when they want.

But what if Major League Baseball were to adopt the world football transfer system?

For those not familiar with it, one club offers a fee to a player's current team simply for the right to negotiate a new contract with him. Once the player agrees terms with the new club, the deal is concluded and the player relocates.

Think of it as in-season free agency, but with a player's current team being enriched rather than letting him leave for nothing.

The system would greatly enrich the players, as they'd be getting paid like superstars while their breakthrough seasons are still happening, rather than having to wait until the expiration of their current contracts.

Would baseball adopting this system lead to greater economic equality, as smaller-market teams would actually be able to receive large sums of cold hard cash for their top talent, instead of prospects who may be marginal at best?

Or would it simply be one more factor tilted in the favor of baseball's "Evil Empire" large-market teams?

The fact that the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Cubs, et al. would have to pay the player a superstar's wage rather than what is quite likely a bargain of a salary may give the big-market clubs a little bit of a pause.

As an example, Zack Greinke's salary is listed at $3.75 million this season, which coincidentally, is the exact amount dug out of Hank Steinbrenner's couch after a drunken weekend bender.

That figure computes to $23,148 per game. If the Yankees wanted to pursue a cash transfer deal for Greinke, it stands to reason that they'd have to pay him like an All-Star with a sub-2.00 ERA immediately, in which case Greinke could easily double or even triple his salary overnight.

Dig, if you will, the picture of a tense Yankees-Red Sox division race coming down to the "transfer deadline."

Suddenly, the entire fate of the AL East could rest on the shoulders of, say, the Kansas City Royals, as both Boston and New York launch a frenzied bidding war for Greinke. Or they try to knock down the Marlins' door for Josh Johnson.

For sums that could conceivably exceed these small clubs' entire ticket revenue for the season, one player could ensure his former team's financial solvency for a decade.

Unfortunately, unlike some world football clubs who have long ago come to terms with their roles as farm clubs for the Premier League/La Liga big guns, fans of the Royals and Marlins (all 12 of them) would like to think their club is in business to win.

Frequent selling of the top talent could help enrich the club, but is there a guarantee that that cash would get put back into the payroll and stadium?

Are there current owners unscrupulous enough to simply ignore the current fan experience and sit back to light a cigar with a hundred-dollar bill brought in by the sale of a Cy Young Award candidate?

Nothing's impossible with exceedingly wealthy men, but if teams had the option between a trade for young players and a trade for dead presidents, which one would they choose?