A couple of odds and ends here, including using すき and きらい, and having adverbs modify adjectives.
Genkier, Lesson 5, Grammar Note 2
So the book gives us 「ＸはＹが好きです」 as a drop-in formula for "X likes Y", although deep down it is just an adjective construction and shouldn't really be treated as a special case.
Here's my where I get confused. Liking and disliking (and I bet there are others like this) are transitive activites; there is a person doing the liking, and a thing or person that is liked. With what I know at the moment, I am forced to use the topic particle if I want to name both of those in a sentence. The English-object gets the Japanese-subject particle, and we're left putting the English-subject as the Japanese-topic. What happens if the topic is needed elsewhere?
In this example I'm trying to "pry" the topic out of the expression. I am trying to say "As far as sports go, Takeshi likes baseball.":
スポーツは、たけしさん＊やきゅうが好きです。
The ＊ indicates a spot where I would expect a particle to go. But what particle? From the podcast, a better rendering to emphasize the "adjective-ness" of 好き might be "As far as sports go, baseball is liked by Takeshi." Is there a way to indicate "by somebody" here? Or would a native speaker punt in this situation and choose a verb instead?
@iulius— Actually, in this case you could use two はs:
たけしさんは、スポーツは野球（やきゅう）がすきです。
or
スポーツは、たけしさんは野球がすきです。
There's a slight difference in nuance between the two. In the first case, you're probably saying something like "Takeshi? His favorite sport is baseball." The implication is that you're talking about Takeshi, and giving his liking of baseball as an example feature of him.
In the second case, you're saying "Sports? Takeshi likes baseball." Here, you're talking about the sports preferences of various people, and started with Takeshi.
To flesh those examples out, let's add a second sentence to each case:
１）たけしさんは、スポーツは野球がすきです。食べものは、おすしがすきです。
２）スポーツは、たけしさんは野球がすきです。メアリーさんはサッカーがすきです。