The Baseball Bucket List Podcast

Join Anna on the concourse of Globe Life Field for the 2024 MLB All-Star Week in Arlington, Texas. In this special episode Anna interviews passionate fans from all over the country, capturing their unforgettable stories and experiences at the midsummer classic. You'll also hear from ballpark personnel about what makes the Rangers' home park unique, and hear the most famous words in Texas baseball from legendary public add...

Richard Sullivan is a Braves fan living in Louisville, Kentucky. From a young age, he had two loves in life: art and baseball. Throughout his life, he found ways to combine the two, culminating in a baseball career at one of the preeminent art schools in the country, Savannah College of Art and Design. 

Richard was drafted by the Atlanta Braves while at SCAD and would go on to spend five years in the organization before eventually b...

Mike Ritz is a Pirates fan living in New York City. Though he was born and raised on Long Island, he became a fan of the Pirates thanks to seeing Roberto Clemente play in a game at Shea Stadium back when Mike was a kid. We chat about how a marketing job once forced him to visit each ballpark several times over, what the adult softball scene is like in New York City, and which baseball adventure Mike is looking forward to next. We a...

Eugene McMahon is a Milwaukee Brewers fan from London, England. He found his love for baseball a little differently than many fans do, through a love of literature, thanks to a particularly captivating description of Bobby Thompson’s “Shot Heard Round the World” in a novel he was reading. As he continued to delve deeper into baseball journalism and non-fiction, he wanted to understand the game he enjoyed reading about so much. 

We c...

Andrew Iden is an Orioles fan living in Atlanta, GA. Originally from the Washington, DC area, Andrew became an O’s fan at a young age, and has stayed a fan of the team even after moving out of the area. We discuss the shifting of the local fandom that took place when the Nationals came to town, Andrew’s ballpark travel, and what he finds appealing about the minor leagues. We also touch on why experiencing the lean years with your t...

In this episode of Extra Innings, we welcome back father-son duo Matt and Tom Burns. We primarily discuss their 2023 summer baseball trip through the Mid Atlantic, where they saw 20 games in 21 days. You’ll hear from Matt and Tom how the pair makes sure to hit the cultural hot spots and local institutions of every town they pass through. They also share their advice for how to make your own baseball trip a success!

Follow...

Gio Fraraccio is a Rays fan from the Tampa Bay area. He got started with baseball as a kid, thanks to the 1980s Cardinal broadcast team of Jack Buck and Mike Shannon. After moving to Florida in the early 2000s, Gio became a Rays fan thanks to his kids falling in love with the local team.

Gio recently completed his journey to 30 ballparks, wrapping things up at Coors Field earlier this year. We chat about his ballpark jour...

Katie Woods is a life-long Dodgers fan currently living in Wichita, Kansas. She has worked in baseball her entire career and is currently the tournament director of the National Baseball Congress World Series. The NBC World Series is a national amateur baseball tournament for summer collegiate baseball, where champions of their respective leagues duke it out for a national title. 

The 2024 NBC World Series runs from July 2...

Ken Smoller is a Chicago White Sox fan who now lives in the Boston area. His love for baseball started as a kid thanks to fond memories at Comiskey Park, like attending the team’s photo day with his Kodak camera. Ken has now photographed over 2,300 stadiums and ballparks and shares his photos and sports travel experiences on his website, Stadium Vagabond. 

He also recently released Last Comiskey, which is a book highlighting the par...

Scott Yelle is a life-long Red Sox fan living in Cape Cod, MA who discovered his love for baseball early thanks to Little League. Scott is also the Secretary and Treasurer of the Jackson Yelle Family Foundation, which is a non-profit foundation started to honor the legacy of his son Jackson, who was tragically killed by a hit-and-run driver while in Myrtle Beach with his club baseball team.

Jackson was known for his fun-loving natur...

John Southard is a life-long Rangers fan living in Fort Worth, Texas. He works as a Brand Historian for an archival company called Heritage Werks, and works closely with the Rangers to curate exhibits and displays that highlight the team’s history. We chat about how he found what many people would consider to be a dream job, what the process of working with a new team is like, and some favorite artifacts he’s encountered. 

We also d...

Eric Vickrey is a Cardinals fan living in Seattle who has also developed a soft spot for the Mariners. He fell in love with the game thanks to growing up in the St. Louis area and developing a penchant for collecting baseball cards as a kid. Eric is also the author of two baseball books, including his latest about post World War II baseball and the tragic 1946 Spokane Indians bus crash. 

Eric chats with Anna about how the pandemic p...

David Tinnes is a Mets fan from Rochester, New York who found the game in 2017 after he was asked to chaperone a school field trip to Citi Field. Since that trip, David has jumped in head-first with baseball, including taking on his own year of playing catch every single day.  

Anna and David discuss what hooked him on the Mets, some of the lessons he’s learned through his catch playing journey, how to be a tourist in your own city,...

Since we last chatted with Matt Graifer, affectionately known as The Young Professor,  he's embarked on an extraordinary journey from the classroom to the ballpark as the in-game host for none other than The Savannah Bananas.

Just two summers ago, Matt juggled multiple roles as a full-time teacher, the on-field host for the Daytona Tortugas, and the Banananouncer. However, the Bananas' meteoric rise to fame has helped prop...

David Ostrowsky is a Red Sox fan and author from the Boston area. In this episode, Anna and David explore the nostalgic charm of Fenway Park and the early 2000 Red Sox, as well as David’s latest biography on Roberto Alomar. Alomar, a once celebrated Hall of Famer known for his remarkable career as a second baseman, has recently faced a downfall due to serious allegations, leading to a ban from baseball and erasure from its history....

Scott Bolohan grew up outside of Detroit and is a long-time Tigers fan, who also has a soft spot for the Yankees, thanks to his job as a Yankee Stadium Tour Guide. 

Scott played baseball his whole life, even after suffering a UCL tear in high school, and still travels to Italy each year to play a tournament with his grad school team the Oxford Kings of the British Baseball Federation. 

Scott and Anna discuss the importance ...

Josh Rawitch is the President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY. A long-time baseball executive, he’s spent nearly three decades in the game, primarily with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks before being tapped to run the HOF in 2021.  

Josh and Anna disucss how he got started in the baseball world, how his love for the game has changed over the years, and what it’s like to go to ...

Sandro Prosperino is a New York Yankees fan who rediscovered his love for the game through a unique journey with his son, Kori. Sandro shares how their father-son tradition of attending baseball games across the country, particularly centered around All-Star Games, became a priceless vehicle for bonding. Visit the show notes page to read Kori’s essay about how he came to realize these trips were about way more than baseball.

Anna an...

Michael Ortman is a Washington Nationals fan now living in Florida. He grew up a Senators fan and attended his first Opening Day in 1970. For the next 50 years, Michael was at every Opening Day. Even after his beloved Senators were relocated to Texas, he found a way to keep the streak alive – spanning three cities, six ballparks, and five different home teams. His half-century streak is chronicled in his book Opening Day: 50-for-50...