The Baseball and Business Podcast

2015 Draft Pick by the Chicago White Sox and current pro player Alex Katz shares from his journey on the field and how this led to co-founding KD Custom Kicks on Episode 21. Here are the highlights from our conversation...1. How Alex's formal education at St. John's University helped him learn first hand from some of the best in the sports business world 2. What sparked the idea to start...

Dugout Mugs Founder and Managing Partner Randall Thompson shares his story of going from preferred walk on in college to playing pro ball in the Blue Jays organization and eventually starting the business after playing on Episode 20.  Here are the highlights from our conversation...1. How the beginnings in pro ball and entrepreneurship often parallel 2. What happened while coaching college ball th...

2016 2nd Round Draft Pick and current minor leaguer Logan Ice shares from his journey of playing at Oregon State and pro ball in the Indians organization on Episode 19. Here are a few of the highlights from our conversation...1. How Logan went all out to earn a scholarship offer from Oregon State 2. Logan's experience as a three year starter at national powerhouse Oregon State 3. Logan's...

North America Brand Manager of Nike Baseball and Softball Ryan Sudenga shares how playing and coaching college baseball built a foundation for success in business on Episode 18. Here are a few of the highlights from our conversation... 1.  What led Ryan to pivot out of coaching college baseball to pursue working in the sporting goods industry 2. How Ryan used the skills he developed coaching baseb...

Baseballism CEO and Co-Founder Travis Chock shares how playing in college led to building what has become an eight figure business with several of his former teammates on Episode 17. Here are a few of the many highlights from our conversation...1. What Baseballism originally was and how it evolved into the apparel company it is today 2. Why Travis' lack of a business degree as a teacher and c...

Former college player Brad Marshall shares from playing two sports in college along with getting his undergrad and graduate degree before taking these experiences into the real world working with athletes in Episode 16. Here are a few of the key points we discussed... 1.  How a mentorship in college with a professor helped pave the path to going to grad school for sports psychology 2. Brad's...

Former college player and Founder of Baseball and Business Luke Melms shares what it takes to go about building a network in business the right way. It's no secret that winning in baseball requires a team. However it isn't as obvious in business how to surround yourself with the right people to build a powerful business network. On Episode 15, he shares his best tips on how to focus on t...

Former player Patrick Jones shares from his journey playing at Xavier University along with how he's blended coaching and business together in Episode 14. Patrick's story has a repeating common thread that shows what can happen when you aren't left wondering "What if...?". Here are a few of the topics we touched on during our conversation...⚾How a last minute decision led...

Former player Matt Phillips shares from his journey playing at Creighton University and professionally overseas in addition to his experiences in Corporate America and starting his own business in Episode 13. Matt's story shows that taking risks are the only way to win in baseball and business. Here are a few of the topics we touched on during our conversation...⚾How he took an unconventiona...

Current pro player Matt Sergey shares from his journey heading into a new season along with how he's made money beyond the field on Episode 12. Matt originally was drafted of high school by the Brewers in 2007 before going off to play in college. Post college, he has played affiliated minor league ball and indy ball.  Here are a few of the topics we touched on during our conversation... ⚾ Ho...

Current pro player Pat Biondi shares from his journey heading into his 7th season playing in the Mets organization on Episode 11. Pat was drafted in 2013 by the Mets out of the University of Michigan and reached AAA in 2018.  Here are a few of the topics we touched on during our conversation... ⚾ The perspective playing minor league baseball has developed both on and off the field ⚾ Why he creat...

Former big leaguer Brendan Harris shares from his 15 year pro ball career and transition after the game on Episode 10. Brendan currently works for the Los Angeles Angels in player development and pro scouting and has worked for Seventy Six Capital in their Athlete Venture Group. ​Here's a few of the topics we touched on during our conversation...⚾The experience of playing in Game 163 and the...

2005 7th Round Draft Pick Brandon Roberts shares from his seven year minor league career and seven years in business full time on Episode 9. Brandon is currently a Sr. Director of Global Sales Operations at MINDBODY after being promoted six times since starting. Here's some of what you'll hear by tuning into this episode... ⚾ Brandon's pro ball story playing through AAA and how mul...

Former D1 player and current college coach Lou Bernardi is our featured guest on Episode 8. In addition to coaching, Lou serves on the Board of Directors for the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award and Foundation. He shared the history of the award and how MLB players are using their platform to give back to those who have served our country along with their families. Now in his ninth year coaching, he...

Former college baseball player Jim Cavale shares from his experience as a successful entrepreneur on Episode 7. He is a 3-Time INC. 5000 Entrepreneur, an annual award that INC. Magazine reserves for America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies.  He is currently running his fourth company, Influencer. The company serves sports team brands by aggregating their internally-produced content and their cu...

Former Stanford Cardinal and St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguer Andrew Summerville joined us on Episode 6 to share from both his journey in baseball and business. Here’s some of what you’ll hear by tuning into this episode… 1. How Andrew was able to leverage his on the field experience to get business experience while playing in the Cardinals organization 2. The transition to working for Pando full...

We dive into leveraging the platform that is LinkedIn. While most episodes will have a featured guest, there will be weeks where we hit on a specific topic that is actionable. Episode 5 covers two aspects of LinkedIn... 1. The basics of creating and maximizing your LinkedIn profile 2. A proven method to building and growing your network with business professionals you want to get to know 

Former college player Mike Karpinski shares from his journey of turning success on the field into success in business which includes reaching the six figure mark by age 24. Here are the highlights from our conversation... ⚾The challenges of figuring out if the first job after graduation was the right fit long term ⚾Learning the IT industry within a sales capacity ⚾His advice on finding long ter...

Former St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguer Jake Gronsky comes on the podcast to share how baseball being a game of delayed gratification prepared him for playing the long game as a writer. Here are a few of the highlights...Jake talks about how a broken bone by a hit by pitch in the minors led to building a relationship that would come full circle after the game, how publishing A Short Season opened...

Former New York Mets minor leaguer Jeremy Wolf shares from realizing his dream of being drafted along with his journey in the minors. Due to some unique circumstances that included a career ending injury, he felt compelled to create More Than Baseball. It is an organization designed to help make sure minor league players have basic necessities. His vision is to see minor leaguers play the game wit...

On Episode 1, we dive into four main questions...... 1. Who is Baseball and Business for? 2. What does Baseball and Business do? 3. What are guys getting out of being involved with the network? 4. What will the podcast be about going forward? We are excited about the future of the network and this podcast. The guests that will be coming on have a lot to share from their journey in baseball and bus...