ESPN

Everybody who watches TV and movies knows J.K. Simmons, because he's been in about a billion different roles, and he's pretty much always awesome. The new face of Farmers Insurance is perhaps best known for playing white supremacist Vern Schillinger on "Oz," the father in "Juno," Will Pope on "The Closer" and the eccentric editor J. Jonah Jameson in the "Spiderman" trilogy. He's also a lifetime Detroit Tigers fan, which made watching the Yankee empire crumble on Thursday even more sweet.

Friday, Simmons joined us for a fun conversation about baseball and acting. You can listen to the entire show here, or if you want to jump around to specific parts listed in the breakdown below, click on the links.

- (2:25) After sharing the inside story for a running joke on "Oz," Simmons celebrates the Tigers' opening round victory over the Yankees. We talk about how he became a lifelong fan of the team, and later the merits of Cy Young lock Justin Verlander as AL MVP. Like me, Simmons feels a pitcher having such an exceptional season shouldn't be met with so much resistance.

- (6:55) Life, art and sports met at a wonderful intersection for Simmons when he was cast as the manager of the Tigers in the 1998 film, "For Love of the Game." Simmons originally read for the smaller role of team trainer, but after shooting the breeze about baseball with director Sam Raimi, he got to try out for the meatier part. They've since worked on four other films together, including the Spiderman trilogy. And beyond the professional benefits, he got to play the manager of his favorite team in sports!!! How awesome is that?

- (11:44) Simmons explains the process of tapping into a reprehensible character like Vern Schillinger, along with his effort to avoid being typecast as Hollywood's go-to racist. Thankfully, he caught a break in quickly getting cast in a recurring role of psychiatrist "Dr. Skoda" on "Law & Order." Thus, audiences and casting agents were constantly seeing him in polar opposite roles.

- (19:58) We discuss how a show like "Oz" helped pave the way for the explosion of quality basic and pay cable television shows. Believe it or not, it were efforts, thankfully short-lived, to shoot episodes of "Oz" with language suitable for network syndication. Simmons also talks about the luxury of having strong relationships with directors like Raimi, Jason Reitman, and the Coen Brothers.

- (28:21) Simmons is commonly described as "a character actor." What does that label mean? According to us, that he's extremely talented and versatile. According to Simmons, that he's not terribly good looking.

Ursula Coyote/AMC
Things have gotten pretty messy for Walter White and the Dodgers.

For my money, there's no drama currently on the air better than AMC's "Breaking Bad." There also may be no better lead performance than Bryan Cranston as "Walter White" on that same show. He won three consecutive Emmy awards from 2008-2010 and his career has exploded as a result of his outstanding portrayal of a high school chemistry teacher turned meth cook. Cranston is also a Canoga Park native and a life-long die hard Dodger fan who's gone through this season's whirlwind like everyone else in L.A.

With "Breaking Bad's" season finale airing this Sunday, we talked with Cranston about the show, the Dodgers and acting in general. You can hear the entire show by clicking here, or if you want jump to specific parts in the breakdown below, click on the links:

- (4:18) Cranston shares how he fell in love with the Dodgers as a five year old watching Wally Moon hit "Moonshots" out of the Colosseum. These days, however, the Blue spark messier, uglier visions as the McCourt saga drags on with no end in sight. However, as Cranston notes, there's reason for optimism in the forms of Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp, his respective picks for the NL Cy Young and MVP. This led to a brief debate over the merits of Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander for AL MVP, plus Cranston's suggestions to create "The Kamenetzky Award" for the best performance on a bad team, as well as Razzie Awards in baseball.

- (7:58) Cranston discusses the moment Walter White truly "broke bad," and how show creator Vince Gilligan created the character with the goal of putting him through a radical transformation. A shift from "Mister Chips to Scarface," as Gilligan put it. Cranston's response: "I don't even know if that's possible, but if it is, how magnificent of a ride would that be?"

By leaps and bounds, they've pulled it off.

- (15:34) Cranston was once quoted as saying, "Actors basically are the type of person that with three seconds left, we want the ball. Give us the shot to make it or miss it." He describes it as "the actor's arrogance." We discuss the commonality of that mindset for an athlete like Kobe Bryant.

- (21:55) In his fantasy world, Cranston would become the next owner of the Dodgers. Were fantasy to become reality, would he spend money this offseason Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols or more pitchers?