Outside The Chute

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with former Team Canada National Team member and St John’s, NL native, Rob O’Brien.

OB had a fantastic career that spanned almost 20 years.  He’s a 4 time ISC All World selection, 3 time, Canadian Nationals MVP, 6 time ASA Champion, 8 time Canadian National Champ, as well as, an ISC World Title in 2010.

We’re gonna talk to Rob about getting his start growing up in Newfoundland, representing Canada at the 1993 ISF World Junior Championships in New Zealand and bringing home the gold, his storied ISC and Canadian National career and, of course, the successful Goofie Newfie Pub & Grill that OB owns in Fergus, Ontario.

Rob was an absolute pleasure to chat with and we shared a ton of laughs in this episode.  Pretty sure everyone is definitely going to love this interview.  

Outside The Chute sat down we Alabama Crimson Tide Alum and Marketing and Promotions Manager for Mizuno Fastpitch USA, Leah Majeski.

Leah had a great four years with Alabama where she would be a four time Academic All-SEC and make two trips to the Women’s College World Series in 2003 and 2005.  From there she would spend a few years with the Softball Factory before moving into her current roll with Mizuno Fastpitch USA as the head of Marketing and Promotions.

We’re gonna talk to Leah about getting her start in the game, the decision to attend Alabama, those two WCWS, as well as, still being involved in the game with Mizuno and much much more.

Leah was an absolute treat to chat with and I feel Mizuno is in fantastic hands with her being able to showcase all its amazing products.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with US Men’s National Team member and Las Vegas, Nevada native, Yusef Davis Jr.

Yuse is another one of those Baseball players that has made the transition to Fastpitch and has had tremendous success so far in doing so.  He’s already made his way onto the US Men’s National team, captured a silver medal at the 2019 Pan Am Games and been named to an ISC All World Team in just 7 years of playing the game.

We’re gonna talk to Yuse about getting his start in the game, what it was like growing up in Long Beach, California, some of the people who have helped him along the way, travelling to play down in New Zealand and, of course, much, much more.

Hopey and I had an absolute pleasure chatting with Yuse.  He’s such a positive guy, which I’m sure you’ll hear, coming through in this interview.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with Williams College Ephs alum and current Canadian National Team member, Joey Lye.

Joey had an amazing 4 year run at Williams College where she would set five all-time school records during her four seasons; batting average (.457), runs scored (150), hits (211), total bases (267) and stolen bases (62). She would also play varsity hockey as well, patrolling the blueline as part of the Ephs defence, where she tallied 41 points (18G, 23A) in 100 games.  Joey has also had international success with Team Canada as she has 3 WBSC bronze medals, 2 Pan Am Games silvers, and of course, the epic 2015 Pan Am Games gold won on home soil in Toronto.

We’re gonna talk to Joey about getting her start in the game, the decision to attend Williams College, jumping into the coaching ranks, as well as, her time with Team Canada and their mission to bring back a gold medal from Tokyo in the upcoming Olympic Games.

Joey was such a treat to chat with and I know everyone is going to love this episode with one of the greats to ever wear the red and white.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with Softball Canada Hall of Famer and Newport, Nova Scotia native, Tim Macumber.

Tim had an illustrious career as he has won an ISC World title, a Canadian Senior Men’s Championship, a gold medal at the 2003 Pan Am Games, been named All Canadian four times and to 3 ISC All World Teams, just to name a few.

We talked to T Mac about getting his start in the game down in Newport and the role his dad played in it, winning a Canadian Junior title with Lloydminster in 1991, how tough the ISC circuit was back in the day, as well as, the honor of getting inducted into the Softball Canada Hall of Fame just one year after he retired.

Tim was a pleasure to chat with and I’m sure you’re all going to enjoy this trip down memory lane with an absolute beauty from our home province.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with New Zealand Black Sox captain, and 2017 World Champion, Cole Evans.

Being 22 years of age you would figure that there wouldn’t be much to cover with Cole but he has already had as much international experience as most players have had in their lifetime.  Cole got his first taste of the Men’s game on a global scale at the 2015 ISF World Championships in Saskatoon at the ripe age of 17 and hasn’t looked back, recently being named team captain of the New Zealand Black Sox, which is incredible.

We’re gonna chat with Cole about getting his start in the game, what the minor ball scene was like growing up, of course, those 2015 ISF Worlds, as well as, what it was like being named team captain of such a storied franchise at such a young age.

Cole was awesome to chat with and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for this amazing talent going forward. 

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with Aussie Spirit Captain, and soon to be, 3 time Olympian, Stacey Porter.

Stacey has had an amazing career to date as she has won 2 Olympic medals, silver in 2004 in Athens, and a bronze in 2008 in Beijing. She was a 1st team All American in 2003 while playing at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and has also been named Softball Australia’s Indigenous Athlete of the Year on 3 occasions.  Stacey has gone on to become one of the most feared hitters in the world and will be looking to add a gold to her Olympic collection coming up in July in Tokyo.

We talked to Stacey about getting her start in the game, what the softball scene was like growing up in Australia, her time at University of Hawaii, as well as, the honor of being the first indigenous softball athlete to ever compete at the Olympic Games.

Stacey was so great to interview and I felt so privileged to be able to sit down and chat with not only such a fantastic person but one of the greats of the game as well.

Outside The Chute we sat down and chatted with Oklahoma State alum, Athlete’s Unlimited star and the Bat Flip Queen herself, Samantha Show.

Sam has had a fantastic career to date, starting her college career with Texas A&M for three years before transferring to Oklahoma State for her Senior season, where she would lead them to a spot in the Women’s College World Series and have a memorable showing.  Sam would then move onto play professionally with the Scrapyard Dawgs of the National Pro Fastpitch League and now with the This is Us program that was formed from that group.  She also got the chance to play this past summer in the inaugural season of Athlete’s Unlimited.

We’re gonna talk to Sam about getting her start in the game, her whole college experience, including the transfer to OSU, the amazing game she had at the 2019 WCWS against the Florida Gators, as well as, how fun the Athlete’s Unlimited League was, and much, much more.

Sam was a an absolute blast to chat with and she also became the first to play a new segment on here called “Quick Pitches” which was a lot of fun.

Outside The Chute we sat down and chatted with former King and his Court member and current manager of national teams and Canadian championships for Softball Canada, Mike Branchaud.

Mike had quite a career in the game as he was able to travel all over North America with the late, great, Eddie Feigner and the King and his Court and play in front of thousands of fans on a nightly basis. Mike would also be named to the ISC All World Team in 1999 while playing with the Amsterdam Spirt from New York before going onto his current position with Softball Canada.

We’re gonna talk to Mike about getting his start in the game in Cornwall, winning a silver medal at the Intermediate Eastern Canadian’s in 1993, joining the King and His Court and the amazing stories from his time there, as well as, a great story about having dinner with the legend Gordie Howe and much more.

Mike was an absolute treat to talk too and I’m sure we could have chatted for hours on end with the amount of stories he had to share with us. 

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with LMU Alum, former US National Team member and Athletes Unlimited star, Sam Fischer.

Sam has had a fantastic career to date. She had an amazing 4 year career at LMU, which led to having her number retired and inducted into their sports hall of fame. From there she would spend a few years with the US National Team, winning two World Cup gold medals and two ISF Silver’s.  Sam most recently played in the awesome new Athlete’s Unlimited League and has her eyes set on returning to play pro in Japan real soon.

We talked to Sam about getting her start in the game in California, her time at LMU, a great story on being named to the US National Team, her own awesome podcast called The Unknown Pro, as well as, much much more.

Sam was so awesome to chat with and you’ll see with some of the crazy questions I ask her just how great her sense of humor is.  This is such a fun episode that I’m sure you’re all going to thoroughly enjoy.