The titanium backbone of the Long Time Texas, these fellas make everyone's day better when they visit. This is the one you've been waiting for.

Howard and Topaz interview the always-entertaining Texas Tallboys leadership.

Jerry Cohen- Founder & Chief Baseball Historian of Ebbets Field Flannels. As a vintage sportswear aficionado, Jerry has been trailblazing the athletic apparel scene since the late 80’s. His epic journey to find and discover teams of the past & bring them to life for a modern consumer has made Ebbets the powerhouse it is today.

Mark Champion – Texas Oil Dawgs leader & creative Swiss army knife at Flint Field. Mark has been following Jerry’s journey at Ebbets since his discovery of the brand in 2010. His previous endeavor, Ninth Inning, was a lifestyle brand centered the game of baseball. Through that, he was able to collaborate with Ebbets early on in 2014 & 2017. This opened the bullpen gate for more opportunities for Mark & Ebbets in the future, including a few projects on the horizon.

Arts & Crafts, and Sandlot Kids

Really great convo. Talked some college baseball, sandlot moments in the big leagues, the Matt Chapman trade (he was a piece of it), and the future of baseball.

Berndt Mader is an Emmy Award-winning film, television and commercial director. The son of a prominent Dallas photographer, Berndt spent the majority of his childhood running from cameras, only to now find himself most at home behind one. Berndt’s vast portfolio includes Chop & Steele (2022), a comedy documentary that he co-directed with The Bear’s Ben Steinbauer. The film premiered to great acclaim at the Tribeca Film Festival. His hybrid narrative-documentary, Booger Red (2016), led him to co-direct a television series for Discovery+, based on his original film. Berndt has directed award winning advertising work for notable brands like Budweiser, RAM, Fritos, Alfa Romeo, Dodge, Indeed, Yeti and many others.

Ben Steinbauer grew up wanting to be an author and astounded his preschool teacher when he made a book at age four. In college at KU (Rock Chalk!), a gruff creative writing professor told him to pursue film classes and there’s been no looking back. Since then, he has become an award-winning film, television, and commercial director. His feature documentary, Winnebago Man, Michael Moore called, “One of the funniest documentaries ever made!” and Roger Ebert named it one of his favorite films. His most recent documentary film, Chop & Steele, premiered to outstanding reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival and stars David Cross, Reggie Watts, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Howie Mandel. He has directed commercials for Yeti, Crate & Barrel, Shiner, Whole Foods, LinkedIn, Popeyes and Indeed

Sandlot old-timers and ad men these two have been the backbone of the Grackles and Austin sandlot community for almost a decade.

Jay Russell has been chief creative officer of GSD&M in Austin, Texas, since 2015.

He began his career at DDB, working on brands such as Bud Light, PBS and American Airlines. He spent time at Square One and TM Advertising before joining GSD&M the first time, where he ran the global BMW business.

He helped to launch the Windows phone at Crispin Porter + Bogusky before returning to GSD&M in 2011. 

An advertising and marketing veteran, Bo has led agency partnerships with for-profit, non-profit, government and higher education clients that have allowed him to work on behalf of some of America’s most respected brands. This includes GSD&M’s United States Air Force and United States Space Force partnership which is tasked with recruiting women and men to defend the nation in air, space and cyberspace. He is responsible for all aspects of the engagement which spans strategy, communications, lead management, mobile tours, digital properties and analytics. Prior to joining GSD&M, Bo held account management and market research positions at Ogilvy & Mather and Fogarty Klein & Partners, and he received a B.B.A. in Marketing from Texas A&M University and an M.B.A. from the University of Houston.

An OOOOOOOOOG Playboy, Stephen L. Ross has taught at the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin for over 20 years. Among the five classes he teaches is one involving students in “artful design-build” projects that partner with nonprofits to address the needs of under-served communities and individual families. In addition to teaching, he is also a founder and director of Design Build Alliance (DBA), a develop, design, build nonprofit which involves students in the entire process of realizing low-income housing.

By day I am a Traditional Sign Painter/ Designer, Family man, Full time knucklehead and die hard Phillies fan. By night I’m one of the the invasive minds behind the Carolina Kudzu Baseball Club based out of Raleigh , North Carolina.

I grew up in and blue collar Italian/ Irish neighborhood in a small place known today as New Jersey. Heard of it ? Moving down south during my Highschool years skateboarding, chasing around raver girls, turntables and graffiti took front seat to my Wrestling/Baseball career. At the ripe age of 40, my midlife crisis drew me back to baseball and showed me how amazing it could be to get back in the saddle after 25 years.

As a bootleg professional sandlotter there is nothing more special to me besides my beautiful wife, my amazingly talented little girl, and my paint brush.

Baseball really is for everyone !!!