Bat Flips And Nerds

John is back in the UK and talks about an eventful trip to Boston, including a recreation of the Lion King in the stands. He and Tom discuss Terry Collins vs the Umpires and answer listener questions about the Twins, Harper and Machado.

Dom Clarke (A's), Tom Young (Mariners), George Martin (Astros) and Nick Wright (Angels) join Darius on the second of our divisional roundtables to discuss the AL West, most notably whether the Mariners can push the Astros for the division, if the Angels and A's can stick around in the wild card race, and just how bad the Rangers are.

John heads to the wrong cafe to meet the wonderfully accommodating Evan Drellich. They chat about the 2018 Red Sox and Evan's new book 'The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the Boston Red Sox', including Evan's path to writing the book as a childhood Mets fan, and how he sought to bring new angles to some of the game's most famous stories. We have a signed copy of Evan's book to give away - watch this space! Or download it for your Kindle right now, here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-50-Boston-Moments-that-ebook/dp/B074VCT112/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528401219&sr=8-1&keywords=evan+drellich

 

Tom gets a short notice call to get his ass up to the bigs, as John is a late notice scratch from the lineup. Without any prep, Tom welcomes back Darius.

Tom attempts (Badly) to update Darius on all the baseball news he missed whilst he was on holiday.

They answer listener questions on Josh Hader, Manny Machado, Justin Verlander, Yu Darvish, Anthony Rizzo and his recent antics, and finally Twitter burner accounts for Manfred and the Steinbrenners.

Tom is joined by Matt Clough (Orioles), Mike Shipley (Blue Jays) and Rob Noverraz (Rays) to talk all about the AL East and the "exciting" division that it is.

Matt starts us off and makes us feel like we're kicking a puppy by making him talk about his beloved Orioles. We also spend time wondering what the Orioles could get for Machado now.

Mike then continues the sombre chat when discussing his Blue Jays, but ends on a high when we discuss those exciting prospects (you know exactly who we mean) on the fringes.

Rob then completes the guest round-up in the only manner he knows. Happiness. He's delighted with his Rays so far but is absolutely, positively, in no-doubt this mini surge won't last. We also discuss the exciting new trend (Used twice, is that a trend?) of the OPENER.

Tom concludes by discussing the well rounded Red Sox, before ending on a low looking at the Yankees and how much they could dominate baseball. Mike makes a great point about Stanton and staring into the future.

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It’s double interview trouble! Ben is joined by Gloucestershire cricketer Benny Howell to discuss his passion for baseball, his unconventional ‘knuckleball’ and what the two sports could learn from each other. Then, Tom chats to author Brian Wright about his new book on the New York Mets and the highs and lows of the storied franchise. The pod even ends with a super easy giveaway to win a free copy of Brian’s book: ‘Mets in 10s - Best and Worst of an Amazin' History’.

 

Buy Brian's book here.

The guys break down the huge announcement of a Red Sox v Yankees series in London in June 2019. Tom recounts tales of shading Sadiq Khan and explaining baseball to the UK press corps, Ben talks about the return of MLB UK on Twitter and John rants about something for a change.

John is joined by the London Mets' Ryan Turtill to discuss their baseball for beginners programme, and by GB coach Liam Carroll to talk about GB players at elite level.

The whole gang are back, picking their MLB breakout stars and discussing rough starts for Stanton and Votto. They also chat about Tom's first ever pro baseball game, and the international currency of Green King IPA.

John is joined by 'BaseballBrit' Joey Mellows to discuss his plans to attend 73 baseball games in 2018, and to jump head first into the world of 'Indy' baseball. He also interviews the General Manager of one of the biggest franchises in Independent Baseball - Brian Lyter of the Gary Southshore Railcats.

John and Joey then preview and 'seed' the 16 teams for our upcoming 'UK Indy Affiliate' bracket. Who's your team