The weather is oppressively hot, but MLB pennant races are still lukewarm. Need a pick-me-up before the dog days of August? Only A Game has you covered with some of our favorite stories from the past year, including stories on Rome’s controversial swimming pool at Foro Italico; hangin’ with the dudes at the Big Lebowski Fest; the Pan-Mass Challenge and more.

Only A Game Senior Producer Gary Waleik offers his weekly thoughts on the music we use for the show.

Fueled by superstar Josh Hamilton and ace Cliff Lee, the Rangers are serious World Series contenders. But their success is clouded by complications in the proposed sale of the team. This week on Only A Game, Bill talks to Ken Belson of the New York Times about Texas’s financial troubles. Plus, the story of Tennessee Titans draftee and Rhodes Scholar Myron Rolle, and surfing kook Peter Heller looks for the perfect wave, but finds quite a bit more.

Only A Game Senior Producer Gary Waleik offers his weekly thoughts on the music we use for the show, including some classic rock, classic hip-hop and classic….banjo music?

At first glance, Peter Heller’s new book, Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave, may seem like a typical story about a man dealing with his mid-life crisis by hopping on a surf board to feel young again. But Bill discovered that Heller’s story is anything but typical. He explains in his review of the book.

Although Steve Ralston played 36 international matches for the USA in his career, he never made a World Cup appearance. However, that doesn’t mean his retirement from the MLS should pass unnoticed. In his weekly commentary, Bill says goodbye to a player whose professionalism and knack for setting up his teammates made him one of the best in the MLS.

This week on Only A Game, Lance Armstrong may not be wearing his customary yellow jersey at this year’s Tour de France, but the race has still provided plenty of fireworks (and even some flying fists). Plus, Greg Echlin reports on Marion Jones’ comeback not on the track, but on the basketball court. Also, author Dave Zirin speaks about how George Steinbrenner changed the business of sports ownership, and Bill talks to Esquire writer Chris Jones about the man who figured out “The Price is Right.”

Only A Game Senior Producer Gary Waleik offers his weekly thoughts on the music we use for the show.

Fans of professional sports have never exactly held a high opinion of the owners who control their favorite teams, but in the past the flaws of owners were harmless sideshows that didn’t affect the product on the field. Now, that’s changed, says Dave Zirin, author of Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love. Modern owners that threaten to uproot teams if taxpayers don’t shoulder the burden of building palatial stadiums crammed with luxury boxes are guilty of more than just selfishness, Zirin argues, they are actually driving fans away.

George Steinbrenner, the owner who bought a declining New York Yankees team and turned them into perennial World Series favorites, passed on Tuesday morning. Steinbrenner was loved by many and hated by even more in his lifetime, but Bill says “The Boss” will be remembered as a man who simply loved to win.