Long before Mark Davidson petitioned the DMV for a "Le Magnifique" vanity license plate, someone else in Pittsburgh claimed that moniker as his own. Unfortunately for Mark, that individual was a lot bigger, wealthier, and more handsome. Mario L...

Clear eyes, full hearts, clean brackets, can't lose! Behold these magical hours of March Madness when every player is a champion and every fan is a genius. But dreams die fast in March -- except when they don't. In 2006, George Mason engineered...

A funny thing happened when America's pastime set its sights on global supremacy in 2006. It turns out the rest of the world is pretty good at baseball, too. That was the enduring lesson from the inaugural World Baseball Classic, a surprisingly...

"It's Kobe Freakin' Bryant!" Those four words said it all after Bryant scored 81 points vs. the Toronto Raptors on a January night in 2006. But Josh and Mark are contractually obligated to say more than four words every episode -- time to get n...

Imagine a bizarro NBA All-Star world where the game is a nail-biter, the smallest guy wins the Dunk Contest, the biggest guy wins the Three-Point Contest, and superstar musicians clamor to be a part of it. Could that type of sorcery ever happen...

The Take A 20 crew loves awards season, even if they haven't won anything...yet. Speaking of cherished national treasures that never received the critical acclaim they deserve, this week's episode celebrates the 2006 film "Rocky Balboa." The Os...

Josh Green and Mark Davidson are no strangers to flying tomatoes -- they are usually on the receiving end of those saucy projectiles. But in this episode, the Take A 20 hosts pay tribute to THE "Flying Tomato," Shaun White, the long-locked snow...

It's Super Bowl week, and Take A 20 looks back at an extremely rare football phenomenon: the New England Patriots NOT advancing to the Big Game. Shocking, we know. But it actually happened in 2006, when the plucky Pittsburgh Steelers rode The B...

It's as if we never left! Josh Green and Mark Davidson return from their extended hiatus to kickoff a brand new season of Take A 20. Throughout this season, we will focus on 2006, and this debut episode re-examines one of the greatest college f...

In 2003, ESPN had it all: the NBA returned to the network, the "embrace debate" era was booming, poker became a TV sensation, and they almost hired an exceptionally gifted sports anchor named Josh Green. Ultimately, ESPN chose NOT to hire Josh,...

It's a special Rosh Hashanah episode of Take A 20! The boys return from their summer hiatus to ring in the new year with legendary broadcasting voice Gary Thorne. Gary was on the mic for the 2003 ALCS between the Red Sox and Yankees, and he rel...

John Gagliardi won more football games – 489 – than any college coach, ever. Gagliardi set the wins record in 2003, which was his 51st season as the head coach at St. John’s College of Minnesota. Gagliardi was famous for his list of “No’s," ...

Take A 20 is taking the "L" to the North Side of Chicago. And speaking of "L’s," we are embracing the pain to discuss the Chicago Cubs and everything that went wrong on October 14, 2003. To this day, one word comes to mind when you mention the ...

Take A 20 makes its triumphant return for Season 4! We are deep in our bag(gy suits) to break down the 2003 NBA Draft, which featured LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and countless fashion violations. Ben Osborne, former e...

It's a first for Take A 20: a surprise ending! In this episode, we talk about Tom Brady’s very first Super Bowl in 2002. And his very first retirement -- and unretirement -- 20 years later. Boston Globe sport columnist Chris Gasper joins us to ...

Josh Green and Mark Davidson are rolling deep into Season 3 of Take A 20. And speaking of #3, we are “Talking About Practice.” That’s the phrase that Allen Iverson passionately repeated 22 times 20 years ago. It’s one of the most famous press c...

Welcome to Season 3 of Take A 20! All season long, Mark Davidson and Josh Green will take you back to 2002. And we begin by going for gold. It's the 2002 Olympic Men's Hockey Gold Medal Game between Team USA and those darn Canadians. It was a m...

In this episode, we celebrate some amazing "firsts" in the history of New York sports, beginning with Venus and Serena Williams facing-off in the 2001 U.S. Open Final, their first time meeting for a Grand Slam title. ESPN tennis analyst and Hal...

We miss stadiums! So much so that we dedicated an entire episode to them. The retro stadium boom was in full bloom in 2001, highlighted by the opening of PNC Park in Pittsburgh -- a really great place to watch really bad baseball. Journalist an...

In this episode of Take A  20, we honor the Hall of Fame career of Ray Bourque, who finally hoisted the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche, after spending 20 Cup-less years with the Boston Bruins. Our cups overfloweth with hockey expe...

In this episode of Take A 20, we confirm that defense does, indeed, win championships, as evidenced by the Baltimore Ravens’ dominating Super Bowl 35 victory. We celebrate the hard-hitting champs from Charm City, and ask the hard-hitting questi...

It’s back, back, back to the Bay Area, as we make a splash landing in McCovey Cove to revisit the exploits of the Home Run King, Barry Bonds, who went deep a record-breaking 73 times in 2001. Longtime San Francisco Giants broadcaster Dave Flemm...

Fear the Deer! And the Thunder! On this episode of Take A 20, we blow the whistle on the whistleblowers of the 2001 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, who ripped the sausage-stuffed hearts out of Milwaukee sports fans. Wisconsin sports media mainst...

It’s Daytona 500 week for NASCAR, and Take A 20 reflects on the moment when time stood still at the superspeedway. We revisit the surreal scenes of the crash that took the life of Dale Earnhardt, Sr. on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. An...

We're Going Streaking! Take a 20 is back! In our Season 2 debut, we have double the fun taking a look at two baseball legacies that intersected in 2001. We celebrate the man of the iron streak, Cal Ripken, whose Hall of Fame career came to a cl...