Bat Flips And Nerds

Russell and Darius break down the first proper baseball brawl for years before marvelling at Aaron Judge and the Yankees. They then go in-depth on the All-Star voting and, more importantly, All-Star cap designs.

Pitcher Tate Gillespie joins the show to discuss his trip from D1 hyped high-school pitcher to pitching in Europe, taking in recovery from a ball-induced head-injury, help from Brock Holt and Brandon McCarthy and his enduring friendship with London Mets stud Andy Cosgrove.

We also touch on Tate's new job in the world of 'NIL' and discuss its impact on college baseball.

This is a brilliant baseball story. Don't miss it!

Charlie Hill, the brains behind the MLB London Series, is back for his first appearance in 5 years! We chat about the new partnership between MLB and London, the ideas behind Home Run Derby X and MLB's renewed commitment to grassroots baseball and a talent pipeline for European players, working with BSUK.

In our mega preview of Home Run Derby X - which is coming to London on Saturday July 9th - John chats to Yankees legend Nick Swisher about renewing the sport's oldest rivalry, his pivotal role in baseball's greatest book and what's changed for the juggernaut 2022 Bombers; to Spencer Owen about training to convert from semi-pro footballer to professional bomb blaster, and about the lessons MLB can learn from his guerrilla approach to soccer; and finally from Paige Halstead about translating from softball to baseball and the importance of visibility and opportunity for women in the latter sport.

We'll have another great pod for you on Friday covering both HRDX and the future of MLB and the wider sport in Europe - watch this space!

Two podcasts in a week! In this one, Darius is back and joined by Rob and John to dissect the newsworthy elements of the last few weeks in MLB and hear in minute detail how an old woman ruined Rob's trip to Tampa Bay.

They go deep on #slapgate and on the Rays handling of their recent Pride event, and find time to dissect what went wrong for Maddon and Girardi in Anaheim and Philly.

Russell and Darius are left unsupervised and take the opportunity to talk about the biggest statistical surprises from the season so far, from Detroit's dreadful lineup to that incredible Yankees rotation. Also featuring Kevin Gausman, Ty France, Alex Cobb, Christian Walker and many, many more!

Riley Breckenridge, drummer with post-hardcore band Thrice, joins John to chat about his lifelong obsessions with baseball, the intersectionality of baseball and heavy music, and his many baseball related side projects - including his much-missed podcast Productive Outs and his burgeoning baseball clothing brand, Classic Grit. He also comes clean on which baseball stars are secret music pseuds, and shares their tips for life on the road.

RHP Robert Stock joins John to chat about his new life as staff ace of the KBO's Doosan Bears, and his circuitous path to the bigs with San Diego, Boston, the Mets and Cubs, which took in catching lessons from Yadi Molina and pitching tips from Kirby Yates. We also cover his love of Radiohead and his political activism - including how that's been received in MLB locker rooms.

Nine year big leaguer across seven franchises, Cory Gearrin, joins John to talk about his storied career in the bigs and his re-birth as a baseball and mental health guru on Twitter. His path includes a journey through the minors with Freddie Freeman and Craig Kimbrel to a Braves clubhouse dominated by his idol Chipper Jones, playing on a Giants team benchmarked by the incredible Buster Posey and irrepressible Hunter Pence and being an early adopter of bespoke pitcher training under the tutelage of Yankees guru Eric Cressey.

This is one to listen to very closely!

John is joined by Darius and Russell for some serious baseball chat, before they are gate crashed by an idiot called Tom. After all the serious stuff is done, the gang decide which fictional characters they would like to bring into the world of baseball. Clearly, it's dumb.