Life Around The Seams

Episode 14 -- Steve Lyons

Steve Lyons played professional baseball for 13 years and has broadcasted Major League Baseball for over 20 years. On a personal level, the former Red Sox and White Sox utilityman had a major influence on my wardrobe, especially the socks I wear. 

On Episode 14 of the “Life Around the Seams” podcast, Lyons tells hilarious stories about his life, on and off the field. It starts with why the Boston Red Sox couldn’t find him the day he was drafted in the first round. Then how, on his first roadtrip in the minors, the bus driver died, a player nearly fell out of the bus, and the bus caught fire. Welcome to Steve Lyons' career.

We discuss playing center field on the night Roger Clemens struck out 20 batters, the demons Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd faced, getting traded for Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, getting sent back to the minors, playing in Hawaii, and of course, the night he dropped his pants on the field during a game. Mostly, we just giggle and laugh, as Lyons tells fascinating stories for over 90 minutes. 

Episode 13 -- Dominic Latkovski of Zooperstars!

Dominic Latkovski has seen the world through huge inflatable animal characters based on famous professional athletes. He's the founder of the Zooperstars!, one of the most enduring touring acts that is approaching its fourth decade entertaining fans before games, between innings and at halftime of sporting events.

 

In Episode 13 of the Life Around the Seams podcast, we learn how Dominic got his start with triple-A Louisville, recruiting younger brother Brennan to join his act, creating BirdZerk to start touring outside of Louisville, and then stumbling upon legendary characters like Harry Canary, Cow Ripken, Jr. and Roger Clamens.

 

Dominic scalped tickets to a Garth Brooks concert to raise money to attend his first Trade Show at the 1992 Baseball Winter Meetings. He hasn't missed one since. We chatted about injuries, appearing on America's Got Talent, which athletes love their alter egos most, and why the Zooperstars! have stood the test of time. 

Episode 12 -- Reid Ryan

Reid Ryan wanted to be a pitcher in the major leagues, just like his Hall of Fame father Nolan Ryan. But when his career stalled in the minor leagues, Reid forged his own path as a baseball executive, first in bringing minor league baseball to Round Rock and Corpus Christi, and currently as the President of the Houston Astros. 

In Episode 12 of the “Life Around the Seams” podcast, we trace Reid’s life growing up around baseball, in the clubhouse with his dad played, the heckles he received playing youth baseball, a famous exhibition game when he pitched against his father, running two of the most successful minor league teams in the country, and then getting his own “callup” to the majors.

Reid tells us when he realized his father was kind of a big deal, the famous fight between his father and Robin Ventura, when his kids realized their grandfather was a big deal, and how he uses his children to learn how to reach the next generation of baseball fans.  

 

 

Episode 11 — Dan Hayes & Matt Hurst

Dan Hayes  and Matt Hurst joined me for our annual Bucket List football weekend recently. We decided to record a Podcast where we talked about out time as either former newspaper ball scribes (Hurst, myself) or current ball scribe (Hayes).

Between the three of us, we've been the beat reporter for all five California teams and seven total teams, with a combined 25 years of experience.

We discuss our initial "I can't believe they're paying me to do this" moments, the story behind the story of how a few scoops came to fruition, the scoops that got away, what it's like eating with Mike Scioscia, writing two stories about two potential new managers (just in case), and why one of us exited the journalism world. 

Episode 10 -- Sean Maddison

Sean Maddison does not understand the term “offseason.” He’s the lead producer for the San Jose Sharks television broadcasts on NBC Sports Bay Area. Then after the grind of a grueling season, Maddison makes documentaries. Not simple easy documentaries, but emotional stories about the intersection of sports and society.

In episode 10 of the “Life Around the Seams” podcast, we find out why Sean Maddison won’t just rest and enjoy the offseason. He’s produced over 10 documentaries, but we’ll focus on three: OUT, the Glenn Burke story; TOMBOY, elevating the conversation about gender in sports; and LETTERS TO 87, a tribute to 49ers legend Dwight Clark.

We’ll also discuss why he moved to New York when his producing career was just getting established in the SF Bay Area, producing VH1’s “50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs” and how that experience shapes his work to this today.

Episode 9 — David Feldman

David Feldman is not somebody that sports fans see. He’s not somebody who sports fans hear very often. But his fingerprints are all over a lot of the live sporting events that are viewed my thousands, if not millions.

In episode 9 of the “Life Around the Seams” podcast, our guest is David Feldman. Not the David Feldman who is an on-air host for NBC Sports Bay Area, but the David Feldman who is a producer for numerous live sporting events across multiple networks, and an official scorer for Major League Baseball games. We discuss growing up in the left field bleachers of the Oakland Coliseum with a diverse group of characters, how a chance encounter with A’s play-by-play announcer Greg Papa led to a prediction that launched his career, and how we trace how he rose through the ranks in the production truck.

We also learn how Reggie Jackson learned to trust him, get his advice for up-and-coming sportscasters, how you produce a sport that has never previously been televised, and find out the pros and cons of sharing a name with somebody who is on television almost every night.

Episode 8 — Mike Capps

Mike Capps enjoyed the type of career than most journalists could only dream they could attain, winning awards, and covering some of the biggest stories in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. But he gave it all up to become a minor league baseball play-by-play announcer.

In episode 8 of the “Life Around the Seams” podcast, we learn how walking out of his tryout with the Montreal Expos in 1969 led Capps to a career in journalism. He was honored with the George F. Peabody Award for the investigation over a three-year period that resulted in the downfall of the SMU football program. He covered 16 Space Shuttle missions, two tours of duty in the first Gulf War, Hurricane Alicia, the Midwest Floods, the overthrow of the Haitian government, and earned a National Emmy Nomination with CNN for a 10-hour-long live broadcast for the fiery end of the Branch Dividian Siege in Waco. 

But one morning, he woke up with a bedpost in his right hand and blood on his forehead. And that’s when Capps knew that he needed to leave television journalism, change his life, and it was baseball that saved his life.

Episode 7 — Tim Dillard

When you think of somebody who has spent their entire career playing for one organization, you usually think of Tony Gwynn with the Padres, or Cal Ripken, Jr. with the Orioles, or Chipper Jones with the Braves. The name Tim Dillard probably doesn’t come to mind.

Yet in many ways, it’s even more remarkable that Dillard has only played for the Milwaukee Brewers organization: 16 years total, parts of four years in the majors (73 appearances), 12 years in the triple-A Pacific Coast League, eight in Nashville, four in Colorado Springs. [He’s also played very briefly for an independent team.]

In episode 7 of the “Life Around the Seams” podcast, we discuss how and why Dillard has stayed with one organization, how at age 34 his value now is just as much as a quasi-coach and therapy dog as it is reliever, the 500+ videos he’s made and posted on social media, growing up around the ballpark when his father was a minor league manager, his initial “callup” to the majors, his conversion to sidearm pitcher, his next “callup” to the majors, and his most recent “social media callup” to Milwaukee.

Episode 6 -- Pat Venditte

Pat Venditte is the most unique pitcher in professional baseball. He's ambidexterous. He's not a switch hitter. He's a switcher pitcher. Yes, he throws left-handed *and* right-handed, usually in the same game.

In episode 6 of the “Life Around the Seams” podcast, we learn the story of how Pat's father had this idea of making him a switch-pitcher, when he realized throwing with both arms was not normal, the confusion it caused to some, the challenge of learning to pitch with both arms, the advantages it creates, how few options he had leaving high school, getting a chance at Creighton with both arms, his hilarious professional debut that inspired a rule to be named after him, when he nearly quit baseball in the minors, why he needed to reinvent himself after injuries, and what it was like making a Major League debut that was unlike anything we've seen in decades.

 

 

 

 

Episode 5 -- Tim Hagerty

Tim Hagerty is the play-by-play announcer for the El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres AAA affiliate), the author of a book titled “Root for the Home Team,” and a correspondent for Sporting News specializing in unusual tales from minor league baseball’s colorful past.

In episode 5 of the “Life Around the Seams” podcast, it’s not an interview. It’s just two baseball nerds talking baseball history – unusual stories that you can’t believe are true, and stories that you thought you knew but didn’t completely know.

We learn about a very dangerous foul ball, the earliest attempts to speed up baseball, how to play a game when the infield is saturated, why the Detroit Tigers didn’t want to tag out a baserunner, what happens when a ball is split in half, and when did Pete Rose actually break the all-time hits record?