Life Around The Seams

Jim Rushford is one of the most improbable players to ever reach the major leagues. Undrafted out of college, he played for two independent league teams, took a year off, then played two more years of independent baseball before even reaching affiliated minor league ball.

Along the way, Rushford worked numerous odd jobs, including pizza delivery guy, which is the inspiration for the title of his new book, "The Pizza Guy Delivers."

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Wynton Bernard is the feel-good story right now in baseball, a guy who spent the last 11 years playing minor league baseball, including two years of independent ball, who made his Major League Debut at age 31 on Friday, August 12, 2022 for the Colorado Rockies. The video of Bernard telling his mother Janet, via FaceTime, that he was going to the major leagues went viral with millions of views in just a few days.

Over the last 16 mo...

Longtime baseball reporter Jeff Fletcher enjoyed an up-close view of Shohei Ohtani's magical 2021 season, and also the two previous disappointing seasons, that made it all the more remarkable to watch this two-way player perform in ways we've never seen before.

Fletcher just published a new book that details the entire life story of Ohtani, from Japan, to the decision of which team to join in the United States, why comparison to Ba...

Ken Levine and I worked together for three years on Post Game Dodger Talk, where Vin Scully introduced our show. When I heard that Vin Scully died, I immediately wanted to talk with Ken about his life. Then I realized we should record a podcast so that others can hear our stories and memories.

This is a special episode. No fancy intros. Just straight to the point. Ken and I swapping stories about Scully, the greatest baseball play-...

Tom Drees pitched three no-hitters in 1989 for Triple-A Vancouver, including back-to-back starts. He pitched three no-hit innings in the Triple-A All-Star Game. He was an integral part of the team that won the Pacific Coast League title. But the Chicago White Sox never called him up to the majors and many believe there was an ulterior motive.

On July 6 of that year, when their paychecks had not arrived, the Vancouver Canadians play...

Dave Stewart never won a Cy Young award, but between 1987-1990, he was the best pitcher in baseball: four straight 20-plus win seasons; the ace of his hometown Oakland A's team that went to three straight World Series (and who started Game 1 of every series); the starter of the 1989 All-Star Game; a no-hitter in 1990; and the guy who always beat Roger Clemens.

Stewart's rise to the top didn't come easy. We discussed how close he wa...

Rickey Henderson is one of the greatest baseball players of all time, unquestionably the greatest leadoff hitter ever, yet the Hall of Fame outfielder is known just as much for Rickey Stories (both fact and fiction) as he is for his on-field dominance.

Author Howard Bryant spent five years exploring this complex individual in his 10th book: "Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original."

We detail the career arc of how the c...

Minor league baseball is filled with new experimental rules: the strict enforcement of a Pitch Clock, a minimum of two pickoff attempts per at-bat, the Automated Ball Strike (ABS) in the Pacific Coast League, a challenge system of the ABS in the Florida State League, bigger bases, and a ban of the shift (in Low-A, High-A and Double-A).

To understand why these rules are being studied, we interviewed former Major League pitcher Joe M...

Suzie Hunter did what a lot of baseball fans dream of doing. She quit her job, and visited every ballpark in Major League Baseball in 2021, despite no guarantee of a job when the ultimate roadtrip ended.

On episode 45 of the Life Around the Seams podcast, we ask Hunter why she did it, if she regrets the decision, the challenge of traveling the country during a pandemic, the necessary precautions to keep herself safe when she was ...

Talking into a microphone on radio comes very easily for Alex Cohen. He's the radio play-by-play announcer for the Iowa Cubs, triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. But appearing on camera, along with his girlfriend Tessa, for the reality TV show "House Hunters" on HGTV? That was a much different experience.

On Episode 44 of the Life Around the Seams podcast, we shake off the dust after an extended hiatus and return to talk house ...

Kalin Boodman is one of the co-founders of Baseballism, a lifestyle company started by four former college baseball teammates that created catchy slogans and has become a must-own for baseball fans. The four friends come from different backgrounds and Boodman's is the most unique as a former military lawyer.

We discuss Boodman's multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, jumping out airplanes and landing at 17 mph, returning t...

Dave Edlund, better known as McCovey Cove Dave on social media, is one of the few people to watch a Major League Baseball game in person in 2020. Of course, Dave is not sitting in the seats watching his beloved San Francisco Giants. He's in a kayak, beyond the right field fence, in the San Francisco Bay, listening to the game on radio and looking up into the sky.

On Episode 42 of the Life Around the Seams podcast, Edlund explains l...

Johnny Doskow returns to the Life Around the Seams podcast to discuss his new book: "GOODNIGHT EM: Baseball and Life Through Haiku."

Doskow is the voice of the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Dosky explained how he always enjoyed writing haiku poems, then used the pandemic to get serious about writing hundreds that could be turned into this book.

I picked out some of my favorites, read...

On Episode 40 of Life Around the Seams, it’s a Father’s Day inspired podcast. We talk fathers and sons, baseball and broadcasting, calls on the air and calls on the phone, with Tim Neverett and his oldest son Matt Neverett. 

Tim currently broadcasts Dodgers games on the radio and TV. Before that, he was with the Red Sox and Pirates. Tim worked for nearly a decade in Las Vegas, broadcasting minor league baseball, hockey, basketball,...

Dave Raymond was the senior class President at Stanford University and he was homeless. It was by design, somewhat, because it was practical. He was a stand-up comedian on the side. His articles for Forbes magazine are widely cited as bursting the internet bubble in the early 2000s. These days, Dave and his wife are the owner of a nanny and tutoring business.

Oh yeah, he's also the TV play-by-play announcer for the Texas Rangers.

R...

Josh Whetzel has spent 25 years broadcasting baseball games in the minor leagues, from Albany to Kinston to Binghamton and at Triple-A Rochester since 2003. He also calls games for the University of Buffalo men's basketball team and was named Broadcaster of the Year in 2015 by Baseball Digest.

And his career was launched due to a serious illness as a teen-ager.

On Episode 38 of the Life Around the Seams podcast, Whetzel explains th...

Author Brad Balukjian, a biology instructor by day, came up with an absurdly delightful idea. Buy one pack of baseball cards (he chose 1986 Topps), then track down all the players on those cards, interview them about their life after baseball, and write a book about them.

The idea was born in 2014. The roadtrip was in the summer of 2015 and spanned 48 days and 11,341 miles. Then the real work was beginning ... trying to find a publ...

If you were a young baseball player and were told that you would reach the Major Leagues one day -- but you would only play one game, and only one game -- would all the years of playing and sacrificing be worth it?

On Episode 36 of the Life Around the Seams podcast, our guest is author Jacob Kornhauser to discuss his latest book, "A Cup of Coffee." Kornhauser identifies 11 players who are just like "Moonlight" Graham from the movie...

John Shea first approached Willie Mays about collaborating on a book 15 years ago. Why did it take so long to finish? “Are you saying I missed deadline?” Shea asks, with a laugh. Actually, Shea wanted to make sure the book wasn’t missing anything, and it was definitely worth the wait.

On Episode 35 of the Life Around the Seams podcast, Shea details the 100-plus hours he spent with Mays in order to compile this book, “24: Life Stori...