A minor-league baseball interview turned into a Reggie Jackson showdown, and Bill Davis still had a comeback ready. On Episode 65 of Snackin’ & Yakkin’, the Charleston writer, comedian, performer, and former political reporter joins Big Ben Kennedy for an hour of sports stories, family history, food opinions, and sharp left turns.

Davis writes for stage and screen, performs comedy, and, as he puts it, hopes to do more of it “for money.” His conversation with Kennedy has the loose, fast-moving energy of two friends refusing to leave a good story alone.

Politics, reporting, and a White House flag

Before comedy became a larger part of his public life, Davis built a reporter career that included 11 years covering the South Carolina legislature and one year in Virginia. He also worked as a local contributor for The New York Times when major Charleston stories broke.

Politics runs through his family. Davis’s grandfather as a reporter covered the White House for the Associated Press for 20 years, then covered the State Department for another two decades. Davis keeps a flag in his home office that flew over the White House and was given to him by Richard Nixon.

That connection led to a blunt discussion of Watergate, presidential accountability, and Nixon’s earlier political problems. Davis argued that the so-called milk fund was the deeper concern, while Watergate’s lies made Nixon impossible to defend. The Nixon Library’s Watergate overview traces the early recordings and events that helped bring the scandal into public view.

Tanya Harding, tiny bats, and one dangerous caption

A RiverDogs promotion gone sideways

Davis recalled reporting on a Charleston RiverDogs appearance by Tonya Harding, whose name became tied to the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. The team booked Harding for a meet-and-greet on miniature-bat night, then apparently waited to tell her about the theme until she had arrived.

Harding was furious, but she still had to fulfill the appearance before receiving her ticket home. She refused to sign miniature bats, so fans bought full-size bats instead.

Not just any reporter, Davis used his comedy instincts to get a photo, asking Harding to sign baseballs for his children and pose with them. The resulting newspaper caption caused complaints and legal nerves:

“Assistant editor Bill Davis poses with Tanya Harding while she cradles his balls.”

Reporter vs. Carl Pavano and Reggie Jackson

While reporting on Carl Pavano’s minor-league rehabilitation assignment after Tommy John surgery, Davis asked where Pavano expected to pitch the next year given the anger directed at him. Pavano called it a “Bush League” question. Davis answered that they were in Single-A, so Bush League had already left the building.

Reggie Jackson, visiting to evaluate players, entered the reporter exchange and insulted Davis’s weight. Davis fired back that Jackson had Hall of Fame vision, while his own weight was hardly a mystery. When Jackson questioned his New York Times credentials, Davis dropped down to meet him eye-to-eye and asked, “Does it bother you that only one of us is still in the big leagues?”

Jackson laughed, admitted it was a good one, and told Davis he got only one. That was enough to avoid a much more physical ending.

The conversation also identified Shawn Eckardt and Jeff Gillooly as the men connected to the Kerrigan attack, because even a story about pretzels benefits from accurate villain roll call.

Pretzel pieces, antidepressants, and honest talk

Davis chose Snyder’s of Hanover Pretzel Pieces, especially Honey Mustard & Onion. He has Maryland roots and remembers visiting the old Hanover factory, where visitors could shape pretzels by hand. Buffalo wing was his attempted tough-guy pick, but honey mustard won by a landslide.

Kennedy called the pretzel pieces “the crack rocks of the snack world,” which feels accurate for a snack that turns one handful into an empty bag.

The pair also spoke candidly about antidepressants, medication, and growing up around addiction and recovery. Davis shared that he struggled with alcohol and drugs until his early 20s. His mother, involved with Al-Anon, once mailed him a yo-yo with a hard message: “You are on your own.”

Recovery stories can be funny without making the pain that produced them into a punchline.

Fast Five food answers and Charleston favorites

Davis’s Fast Five answers gave Kennedy a clean map of his food priorities:

• He takes Cool Ranch over Nacho Cheese Doritos.
• Oreos beat Chips Ahoy, despite their knack for lodging in teeth.
• He picks Five Guys with extra ketchup over a smash burger.
• Crunchy peanut butter wins because it has more texture.
• Barbecue beats seafood, although he cooks seafood often at home.

His Charleston food praise was equally firm. Davis singled out the burnt ends and jalapeno corn pudding at Lewis Barbecue, plus the smoked wings at Home Team BBQ. His wing move is simple: order extra sauce, then dip each wing in sauce before ranch or blue cheese so the dressing doesn’t bury the flavor.

Family stories with no clean exits

Davis moved easily from parenting stories to family lore. His son and 10-year-old daughter share a bathroom, a situation he describes as a bio-hazard zone filled with long showers and mutual blame. He also remembers embarrassing his son by opening a minivan door while the teenager changed out of a martial arts uniform beside a car full of sorority students.

Growing up with his mother, sisters, aunt, and grandmother meant Davis never treated menstrual products as forbidden grocery-store territory. As a young man, he even had to call a girlfriend from a Kroger checkout to ask which “flow” she needed, earning approving reactions from the women at the counter.

The episode ends with genealogy, his father’s Alzheimer’s disease, and a family-name joke built for a Davis family reunion. Davis’s father was Richard Akin Davis, which made “Dick Akin Davis” an unfortunate public introduction. Some families pass down silverware. The Davises passed down material.

A conversation that refuses to stay in one lane

Episode 65 works because Davis brings the same quick, unfiltered voice to politics, grief, baseball, parenting, and a bag of pretzels. Snackin’ & Yakkin’ gives those stories room to wander, and Davis always seems to find the joke before the exit.

Follow Snackin’ & Yakkin’ on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. Bill Davis is on Instagram at @billdavisissocool and on Facebook under Bill Davis.

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