Fantasy Focus (ESPN Radio program)
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| Genre | Sports talk Comedy |
|---|---|
| Running time | ~1 hour |
| Country |
 USA
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| Home station | ESPN (2007-) |
| Starring |
Stephania Bell Matthew Berry Eric Karabell Field Yates Tristan H. Cockcroft Doug Kezirian John Cregan Tom Carpenter |
| Air dates | since 2007 |
Fantasy Focus is a sports talk podcast devoted to fantasy sports. The show is available on iTunes, and ESPN Podcenter. The baseball show is hosted by Eric Karabell and Tristan Cockcroft, along with producer Daniel Dopp and analyst Stephania Bell. The football show is hosted by Matthew Berry and Field Yates, along with regular appearances by ESPN injury analyst Stephania Bell. Nate Ravitz hosted until 2014, when he took on an internal position at ESPN, and was replaced by Field Yates]. The basketball show was hosted by Doug Kezirian, John Cregan and Tom Carpenter until its completion.
The Fantasy Focus Football podcast is ESPN's most downloaded original-content podcast (and second overall behind only the podcast version of Pardon the Interruption). It consistently ranks among the top ten podcasts on iTunes and in August 2009, was the #1 audio podcast on all of iTunes. The show has won a total of five awards from PodcastAwards.com, including "Best Sports Podcast" in 2009, 2011, and 2012, and the overall "People's Choice" podcast in 2009 and 2012.
"The Name Game" is a rapid-fire question and answer segment, in which two players' values are compared against each other, with one ultimately being deemed the better choice based upon the fantasy league being discussed. The players discussed are often requested by listeners of the show, who submit their questions via email.
Ravitz, Berry, Karabell and Cockcroft make contradicting predictions on many zany issues, including how players will fare in an upcoming fantasy season, single week performance, and pop culture issues. These predictions are tracked "on the board", with the winner being the host who has the most accurate predictions at the end of the season.
Prior to taking over as co-host of the Fantasy Focus Baseball Podcast from Matthew Berry and Nate Ravitz Cockcroft was a frequent contributor. So much so that he earned the nickname "Cousin of the Podcast." Often taking the role of analyst alongside Ravitz, Cockcroft's fondness to calling player "streaky" was made famous by an oft-used drop on the show.
In 2013, Karabell and Cockcroft took over as co-hosts of the Friday edition of Fantasy Focus Baseball Podcasts. The change led Podcast theme songwriter Eric Hutchinson to produce a modified version of the theme song to be played on days when Cockcroft and Karabell hosted the show.
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