Bat Flips And Nerds

The team go deep on Great Britain Baseball's historic qualification for the 2023 WBC, including the tensest game of baseball we have ever watched and hat tips for a bunch of new heroes as well as some old ones. Oh, and we talk about two blokes called Aaron and Albert. Who are they? They're no Anfernee.

In this episode we give a bumper intro to GB at this week's World Baseball Classic Qualifier, including: - John and Russ breaking down the rules and the GB roster - Chris Knoblock checking in with players Alex Crosby and Vance Worley - A feature length interview with Head Coach Drew Spencer #LetsGoGB

In a change to our normal programming schedule, we've let the gruesome twosome loose for a two-hander. They pick up on everything we've missed during our summer holiday, dig into the news about the MLBPA looking to unionise the minors, consider the two front runners for AL MVP and look at the playoff picture.

John, Darius and Russell are joined by Nick Wright of LA Angels UK and MLB UK Community to break down a very weird trade deadline, dig into the misery of the Angels 2022 season and look ahead to the 2023 MLB London Series after the worst secret in baseball was finally confirmed with the Cubs and Cardinals announced as next summer's participants.

Major League Baseball is returning to London on June 24th-25th 2023. Cy Young and World Series winner CC Sabathia, who was part of the Yankees team that participated in the first London Series, joins the show to discuss his experience during that series, his thoughts on the current Yankees team, and what he's been up to since retiring, as well as some extremely instant Juan Soto trade reaction.

A packed roster for a packed schedule, as the guys chat about Mike Trout's unpronouncable back condition, Big Papi's reefers, and try to pick the bones out of a Soto deal to - well - anywhere, before rounding it off by breaking down the trade deadline for all 30 teams.

John, Russell, Darius and Rob are here for a bumper catch-up pod featuring everything from Home Run Derby X to, err, the Home Run Derby. They also chat about Gabe Rincones being drafted by the Phillies, a raft of Canada opt-outs, Bobby Manfred loving the taste of leather and speculate wildly about next weekend's trade deadline.

Five-time MLB All-Star and Home Run Derby X participant Adrian Gonzalez joins Ben live at Home Run House to talk about his HRDX participation and his MLB career. The first HRDX event is in Crystal Palace Park from 12pm on Saturday 9th July. Find out more about HRDX at https://www.mlb.com/HomeRunDerbyX

Russell and Darius break down the first proper baseball brawl for years before marvelling at Aaron Judge and the Yankees. They then go in-depth on the All-Star voting and, more importantly, All-Star cap designs.

Pitcher Tate Gillespie joins the show to discuss his trip from D1 hyped high-school pitcher to pitching in Europe, taking in recovery from a ball-induced head-injury, help from Brock Holt and Brandon McCarthy and his enduring friendship with London Mets stud Andy Cosgrove. We also touch on Tate's new job in the world of 'NIL' and discuss its impact on college baseball. This is a brilliant baseball...

Charlie Hill, the brains behind the MLB London Series, is back for his first appearance in 5 years! We chat about the new partnership between MLB and London, the ideas behind Home Run Derby X and MLB's renewed commitment to grassroots baseball and a talent pipeline for European players, working with BSUK.

In our mega preview of Home Run Derby X - which is coming to London on Saturday July 9th - John chats to Yankees legend Nick Swisher about renewing the sport's oldest rivalry, his pivotal role in baseball's greatest book and what's changed for the juggernaut 2022 Bombers; to Spencer Owen about training to convert from semi-pro footballer to professional bomb blaster, and about the lessons MLB can...

Two podcasts in a week! In this one, Darius is back and joined by Rob and John to dissect the newsworthy elements of the last few weeks in MLB and hear in minute detail how an old woman ruined Rob's trip to Tampa Bay. They go deep on #slapgate and on the Rays handling of their recent Pride event, and find time to dissect what went wrong for Maddon and Girardi in Anaheim and Philly.

Russell and Darius are left unsupervised and take the opportunity to talk about the biggest statistical surprises from the season so far, from Detroit's dreadful lineup to that incredible Yankees rotation. Also featuring Kevin Gausman, Ty France, Alex Cobb, Christian Walker and many, many more!

Riley Breckenridge, drummer with post-hardcore band Thrice, joins John to chat about his lifelong obsessions with baseball, the intersectionality of baseball and heavy music, and his many baseball related side projects - including his much-missed podcast Productive Outs and his burgeoning baseball clothing brand, Classic Grit. He also comes clean on which baseball stars are secret music pseuds, an...

RHP Robert Stock joins John to chat about his new life as staff ace of the KBO's Doosan Bears, and his circuitous path to the bigs with San Diego, Boston, the Mets and Cubs, which took in catching lessons from Yadi Molina and pitching tips from Kirby Yates. We also cover his love of Radiohead and his political activism - including how that's been received in MLB locker rooms.

Nine year big leaguer across seven franchises, Cory Gearrin, joins John to talk about his storied career in the bigs and his re-birth as a baseball and mental health guru on Twitter. His path includes a journey through the minors with Freddie Freeman and Craig Kimbrel to a Braves clubhouse dominated by his idol Chipper Jones, playing on a Giants team benchmarked by the incredible Buster Posey and...

John is joined by Darius and Russell for some serious baseball chat, before they are gate crashed by an idiot called Tom. After all the serious stuff is done, the gang decide which fictional characters they would like to bring into the world of baseball. Clearly, it's dumb.

Rays minor league pitcher, and More Than Baseball Program Director Simon Rosenblum-Larson, joins the pod to chat about MTB's campaign to bring minor leaguers a living wage of $35k and his organisation's amazing work giving voice to the plight of the world's most poorly treated professional athletes.

John, Rob and Ben run the rule over the teams raising eyebrows - for good and bad reasons - in the early season running, including the storming Mets and Yankees and the scuffling Phillies and Red Sox. They also dive deep into MLB's pitcher problem, and challenge Rob ahead of his US trip next week. You can find the Ben Lindbergh piece referenced in the show here: https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2022/...

Rob and Darius dive into all the action from the first two weeks of the MLB season, from the de-juiced ball to Clayton Kershaw's almost-perfect game and some of the least popular intentional walks of all time. If you're a fan of puns, you might want to listen to the end...

Listen to John's exclusive chat with Two-Time World Series Champ and Home Run Derby X Legend Jonny Gomes from this Saturday's huge MLB UK Community Meetup at Home Run House in London. You can grab tickets for Home Run Derby X, July 9th in Crystal Palace Park, London by heading over to MLB.com/homerunderbyx

The BFN 'B' team take a stab at their preseason predictions as Rob and Russell are joined by celebrity guest Gav to prove their overwhelmingly superior baseball knowledge - I highly doubt they'll mention it but they did prove the brainier bunch last year. Hot takes as far as the eyes can see...

The annual predictions show is back! John, Tom, Darius, Ben and that beautiful spreadsheet give their win totals for all 30 MLB teams with some spirited debate along the way. We'll be dead wrong about almost everything but fear not because the far superior B team are delivering hot takes of their own very shortly too...

For the final of our 2022 Previews we are in the AL East and joined by: - Melanie Newman, PxP for the Baltimore Orioles - Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic on the Red Sox - Keith McPherson of WFAN on the Yankees - Rays Pre-Game Host Neil Solondz - Andrew Stoeten on the Blue Jays