Just Spitballin'

In Episode 12, we started with a little bit about Yogi Berra, who passed away a few days ago at the age of 90. Josh and Jeff each shared there favorite Yogi stats: Josh: In five different seasons, Yogi had more home runs than strikeouts, and another season with the same number of each. Jeff: Yogi had 26 fewer career strikeouts than 22-year-old superstar Bryce Harper, and he had three top-five MVP finishes before he had struck out as many times in his career as Harper has struck out this season. At about 13:11, we jump into the interview with Los Angeles Dodgers minor leaguer Jeremy Kehrt. Among the topics discussed: Kehrt just became a father for the first time. His son Maddux was two weeks old the day of the interview. Being teammates in the minors and fall leagues with players like Mike Trout, Yasiel Puig, Anthony Rizzo, Andrew Miller, and others. The differences between being a 29-year-old minor leaguer and a younger minor leaguer. The fact that the round of the draft in which the Boston Red Sox took Je

In Episode 11 of Just Spitballin', we talked with Zack Hample (@zack_hample on Twitter), the "ball hawk" who caught the home run Alex Rodriguez hit for his 3,000th hit earlier this season. We talked about A-Rod's homer and the controversy around it, as well as Zack's more recent ball-hawking efforts, including a two-homer night in Philadelphia the night before we recorded. Before our talk with Zack, Jeff and Josh discussed the National League Cy Young Award race that they both wrote about last week. Both agree that Zack Greinke will probably win the award by a relatively wide margin. The interview with Zack Hample comes in around the 14:46 mark. We bounced around to quite a few topics, all of which were pretty fascinating. At about 51:16, we played a little bit of Elvis (Presley, not Andrus) as walkup music for Josh's wife Madeline. We talked with Madeline about ballplayer hair (Jayson Werth, Bryce Harper, Greinke, and John Jaso were mentioned by name), Kenny Chesney syndrome (guys who look really good with a

In this episode, we talked with Matt Stoltz, who has been riding his bike since Opening Day in Seattle on April 6. He has since gone to games in 22 additional stadiums (including two more since the interview was conducted), and he will wrap things up on October 3 with his hometown Milwaukee Brewers. We talked with Matt about why he's doing it, the challenges he has faced along the way, and plenty of other topics. Josh was absent for the interview, but he was present for the rest of the podcast, albeit slightly inebriated. He referred to Craig Kimbrel as Drew Storen and Tim Salmon as Randy Salmon, and we had to edit out at least one inappropriate joke he made. Jeff was perfectly sober, but we had to edit out an inappropriate joke on his part, too. Enjoy episode 10, and go to www.bikingforbaseball.org to follow Matt's progress or to donate to his cause. Thanks for listening!

Barry Svrluga is a writer for the Washington Post who has covered the Washington Nationals and the Washington Redskins. His latest book is called "The Grind: Inside Baseball's Endless Season." Barry joined Jeff and Josh to talk about his book and the 2015 Nationals. We opened with some discussion of Jeff's recent trips to Southern California, including his brush with Vin Scully, throwing out the first pitch at a minor league game, and Ariana Grande licking donuts in his hometown. At about 18:28, we move into the interview with Svrluga. We had a really interesting discussion about his book, including the toll a Major League season takes on players, their wives and kids, scouts, and others in the organization. We discussed the clubhouse team and travel coordinators who work like Harry Potter's house elves to make sure the players never have to think about anything other than doing their jobs, because their equipment and travel and everything else is handled for them. We touched on a ton of topics in a relativel

In Episode 8 of Just Spitballin', Jeff and Josh talked with Jon Pessah, author of the book The Game: Inside the Secret World of Major League Baseball's Power Brokers. The interview, which begins at 13:25, covers a range of topics, including how the world would be different if George W. Bush, and not Bud Selig, had replaced Fay Vincent as commissioner of baseball. We talk about the five long years of interviews and research that went into Pessah's book, and how the only hero in the book is the game of baseball itself. Jon Pessah was a founding editor of ESPN the Magazine. He has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, managed the sports departments for Newsday and the Hartford Courant, and edited, wrote, and ran the investigative team for ESPN the Magazine. He is also a diehard baseball fan -- the New York Yankees, to be specific -- whose genuine love for the game comes through in this interview. In the opening segment this week, Jeff and Josh discuss several topics, including the Royals' All-Star voting dominati

In this episode, we talked with former Major League catcher Todd Greene, who played ten seasons with the Angels, Rockies, Rangers, Giants, Yankees, and Blue Jays. We talked about: Todd's minor league career, including his struggles when he was first converted to catcher. His time with the Yankees in 2001, including catching the first pitch from President George W. Bush before Game 3 of the World Series, the first World Series game played in New York after 9/11. Being run over by Prince Fielder in a home-plate collision that ultimately ended Greene's career. Why catchers make the best managers. His current job as a special assistant to the general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks and his future managerial aspirations. And plenty of other things. It was a very interesting conversation with a very intelligent, insightful former Major League player (and future manager). Before we got to Todd, we opened with a discussion about Royals fans stuffing the All-Star ballots, the MLB draft, and who will hit the most

Episode 6 is the first one to have multiple interviews. After missing a few weeks due to Mothers Day, anniversaries, laziness, and computer problems, we thought we owed you a jam-packed episode. In the opening segment, we talk a little bit about Alex Rodriguez's future as the manager of the Miami Marlins, as well as Jeff's brush with fame when Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies talked about him on TV during a Cubs/Pirates game. At the 9:10 mark, we jump into an interview with Greg Durfee (@YCBT2014Greg), the founder of the Youth Cancer Baseball Tour. Greg's group takes kids who are battling cancer, along with their families, to Major League Baseball games to take their minds off their troubles for a few hours. Check out what Jeff wrote about the group a few weeks ago, and go to their GoFundMe page to donate to this great cause. At 27:49, we talk with Alan Jaeger (@jaegersports) of Jaeger Sports. Alan has worked with high school, college, and professional pitchers to build arm strength and avoid injuries. The intervi

We ran into some technical issues with this episode. We recorded our interview with Jesse Spector on Saturday night, and then we recorded the rest on Monday evening. Unfortunately, Monday's recording only picked up Jeff's voice, so it sounds like Jeff is just talking to himself, which is not actually very entertaining, believe it or not. So we re-recorded our parts today, Tuesday, but we had to do it on Josh's lunch break over the phone, and Jeff was up half the night with a crazy three-year-old. So Josh sounds phone-y, and Jeff sounds sleepy. But if you can get past that, it was pretty entertaining. In the first segment, we discuss the Brewers firing Ron Roenicke, hiring Craig Counsell, and breaking MLB's minority rules; the Orioles and White Sox playing a game with no fans; two games in the same day ending on a baserunner being hit by a batted ball; the defense of Kevin Pillar and Nolan Arenado; the surprise stories of the first month of the season; and a very important question: what is the most unpleasant

In Episode 4 of Just Spitballin', Jeff and Josh talked with Jaye Chapman, a minor league pitcher in the Milwaukee Brewers organization who pitched in the big leagues for the Cubs in 2012. We talked about living the dream of being traded by your childhood favorite team for Paul Maholm, monkeys riding dogs, and his recovery from surgery on both hips that temporarily put his Major League dreams on hold. In the first segment, before the interview, we talked about the Royals and their attitude problems, Jeremy Guthrie as Spanish interpreter, Josh Hamilton's fresh start in Texas, Alex Rodriguez's pursuit of Willie Mays, the possibility of the designated hitter coming to the National League, and the riots in Baltimore that caused the cancellation of the Orioles/White Sox game. We then touched on Dusty Baker's desire to manage again and discussed things we would like to do that we are woefully unqualified for. After the interview with Chapman, we played a great round of Six Degrees of Kevin Stocker. It was a hard-fou

We've got ourselves a streak: three straight episodes with absolutely outstanding guests! This week, we have Todd Blyleven, who has lived at least four different interesting lives in baseball: the son of a Major Leaguer (Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven); a pitcher who spent several seasons in the minors and had highlights such as playing in big league spring training and meeting Jeff Snider; a Major League scout for the Angels and Rockies who signed superstar Troy Tulowitzki; and now working hard at a job he loves in an awesome blend of the sporting world and corporate America. Todd is fascinating and intelligent and all sorts of other positive adjectives, and he just casually mentions Juan Berenguer, which is pretty boss. Interview starts at about 15:30. In our first segment, we talk a bit about the Sadlock Curse, where Josh wrote on Baseball Essential about Jonathan Schoop, and then later that day Schoop suffered a knee injury that might have ended his season. We also talk about the bad blood brewing between th

In this episode, Jeff and Josh talked with Jacob Hannemann, a center fielder in the Chicago Cubs organization currently playing for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in the High-A Carolina League. They discussed Hannemann's childhood in sports, his decision to serve an LDS mission instead of signing with the Royals after being drafted out of high school, and how his eyes look in his baby blue Pelicans uniform, among other things. Topics discussed outside of the interview included Opening Day, the Josh Hamilton saga with the Angels, and Bert Blyleven's tweets about the city of Detroit. Probably some other stuff, too. This week's Six Degrees of Kevin Stocker was an epic battle of weak-hitting shortstops vs. funny-named old-timers. For music this week, we brought back "Talkin' Baseball" and "Baseball Boogie" from last week, plus a couple songs from Israel Kamakawiwo'ole in honor of our Hawai'ian guest. Enjoy!

In our first episode, we introduce ourselves, talk with ESPN the Magazine writer Molly Knight, and play a few games. We look forward to looking back on this episode when we're much more comfortable and just cringing.