Two Strike Noise - A Baseball History Podcast

Don August pitched for the Milwaukee Brewers for 4 years in the MLB. That though, may be the least interesting part of his baseball career. A member of the famed 1984 Olympic team with Mark McGwire, Will Clark, Barry Larking and BJ Surhoff. Beyond representing his country, Don also played baseball in Taiwan, Mexico and Italy. Hear the first part of our conversation with Don and hear about some of...

Tom Sturdivant spent 10 years pitching in Major League Baseball for several different teams, but his greatest success came while he was with the New York Yankees. There he won 2 World Series & maybe even better than that, he became life long friends with men like Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Whitey Ford and many more legends of 1950’s baseball. Tom Sturdivant IV, Tom’s grandson with whom he was ve...

This week, part two of our conversation with former Tampa Rays outfielder Richie Shaffer joins us. Richie tells us what it was like playing the Atlantic League last season with robot umpires (hint, it wasn’t great), an interesting trip to Cuba to play in an exhibition game where he may have met the head of the Illuminati and all of the interesting passions he is following outside of baseball. We c...

This week former Tampa Rays outfielder Richie Shaffer joins us. He tells us about his alter ego (Dicky Danger), his incredible mustache he was sporting upon being called up for the first time, playing in the Cape Cod League with some future big name MLB stars, some of the best hecklers in the minor leagues and we go through some of his many viral clips, one of which made it on the Tonight Show. Th...

Around the world everybody knows of the New York Yankees. But, do you know where they originated? This week we did a deep dive into the history of the location and nicknames of the four biggest baseball clubs that have called New York City home. This includes ofcourse the Porchclimbers and the Buglars! Mark and Jeff also go head to head in Wax Pack Heroes for the first time in a long time with dua...

Former Mariners outfielder Shane Monahan joins us this week to talk about his time in the big leagues. What was going on with his hair when he was first called up? What was it like playing in Yankee Stadium for the first time? How much money in quarters did the fans in the bleachers throw at him exactly? Shane doesn’t disappoint, he’s got alot of great stories from both the minors and the bigs. Pl...

Author Jacob Kornhauser joins us talk about his book The Cup of Coffee Club. Jacob highlights some true “cup of coffee” guys. These are players who appeared in only a single game in their major league career, and in one case, the word appeared is all they did. Hear how each player handled a much shorter version of what they hoped would have been a long career in the majors. A couple of the names w...

This week is the second part of our interview with former MLB pitcher Sean Lowe. Sean pitched in the heart of the steroid era against some of it’s biggest abusers. Hear what he says when we ask him if he would rather face a PED-enhanced batter or one who knew what pitch was coming. He also had some interesting insight on the Astros trashcan banging scandal. Before we played Wax Pack Heroes with Se...

Former MLB pitcher Sean Lowe joins us this week. He was a first round draft pick by the Cardinals out of Arizona State and went on to play 7 years in the big leagues with the Cards, White Sox, Pirates, Rockies and Royals. Sean tells us about how he found out we was getting called up the first time, his first & only professional HR (you’ll be surprised what he did after that game) and being part of...

This week it’s a big pop culture dive to start off with. Baseball ties to The Goldbergs, Party of Five, Fuller House & Bill Nye Saves the World. We review the top 10 jerk list from 1996 and reveal a baseball movie universe conspiracy theory. Speaking of baseball movies, Bull Durham is one of the most beloved. Crash Davis though has nothing on Mike Hessman. We cover the real life minor league home...

Oakland A’s radio voice Vince Cotroneo joins us to talk about calling games at the Astrodome, Vince’s connection to the DiMaggios, calling games with his son, throwing batting practice to Glenn Braggs in the minors (hint, it didn’t end well) and ofcourse Rickey Henderson, there’s always a Rickey Henderson question. Plus, an beautiful wood grained boarders of an ‘87 Topps pack for this week’s Wax P...

Minor League Announcer of the Year Jesse Goldberg-Strassler of the Lansing Lugnuts joins us this week to talk about practical jokes, road trips, being fined in kangaroo court and many of the young Blue Jay superstars he’s seen. We knew we were going to get some good stories out of Jessie, but this was even better. Plus, an ‘87 Fleer pack for this week’s Wax Pack heroes. Jesse Goldberg-Strassler -...

This week author Brad Balukjian joins us to talk about his new book, The Wax Pack, On the Road In Search of Baseball’s Afterlife. We don’t want to say it was our interview, but, after talking with us the New York Post named it one of the best books of the week. Brad’s journey started with a pack of 1986 Topps, from there he journeyed across the country in search of what each of those players was n...

Joel from the High & Inside Podcast (@High_and_Inside) joins as guest host to talk about players who have overcome physical limitations to play baseball in the big leagues. Jim Abbott made the biggest splash as a first round draft pick out of Michigan. We also talk about Mordecai Three Finger Brown, Pete Gray and Curtis Pride among others who succeeded despite physical limitations. Plus, we talk a...

Author D.B. Firstman (@dianagram) joins us to talk about their new book Hall of Name, Baseball’s Most Magnificent Monikers from the Only Nolan to Van Lingle Mungo and More. D.B. shares some great stories about some of the players with the greatest names of the game. Some of the more contemporary names you may have heard before like Coco Crisp and Boof Bonser, others like Kiki Cuyler and Harry Coll...

Our first ever guest host as Mark is on holiday, and our first returning guest, Chris from the Turn A Pair Baseball Podcast. Chris wanted to do a quiz show and came to the table with some great questions, many of which stumped me. I returned the favor by testing his knowledge of his favorite team, the Cubs. Plus we traded nickname in an effort to one up each other, who will come out on top? Can yo...

What do pitchers and catcher talk about during those meetings on the mound? Live roosters and wedding gifts? Maybe. Alex Avila had a different idea when Max Scherzer was struggling that was right up our alley. Hear about that, player-managers, ideas first used in the Negro Leagues that are still around today and the most common names in baseball.  Plus Wax Pack Heroes, we get rich open junk wax pa...

Leon Day held a 3-1 record, head to head with Satchel Paige, including a 1-0 victory in which the lone run was scored by a Leon Day solo home run. Never playing in the majors and not being the showman Paige was, Day is not a household name, but he was every bit Paige's equal if not better. This week we discuss Day’s career as well as relive the 1994 MLB season. Well not all of it, that’s because i...

This week special guest Amaury Pi Gonzalez! Amaury has been calling MLB games in Spanish for the A’s since 1977. He has also spent time behind the mic for the Giants, Angels and Mariners, sometimes working for multiple teams at the same time. Amaury talks to us about baseball in Cuba, Minnie Minoso’s knees and acting as Jose Canseco’s translator despite Jose not speaking Spanish. Plus, Amaury reme...

We have a hard time remembering what day of the week it is but by God we know who started Game 7 of the 1991 World Series. It was Jack Morris by the way. This week we put that useless knowledge to a test and try to trip each other up with some trivia and nicknames. Do we know the difference between the Flying Dutchman and the Frying Dutchmen? More ‘89 Topps in this week’s Wax Pack Heroes. But who...

Dust off that Orlando Juice hat and the St. Petersburg Pelicans jersey, this week it’s all about the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball Association. Retired players took to Florida spring training diamonds to entertain baseball starved fans in the winter of 1989 and 90. The fact it only lasted a year and a half tells you how popular it was. But some great names got to put on the uniform agai...

It’s Super Bowl week so let’s talk some baseball! That’s all we ever do and we’re going to keep it that way despite “The Big Game”. But we will talk a little football, in particular we talk about players who have spent time in both the MLB and the NFL. That means ofcourse Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, but there are many more who have stepped both on the baseball diamond and between the hash marks...

Episode 50 is here! We only need to record 1356 more to equal the number of stolen bases Rickey Henderson swiped in his career. Maybe we will shoot for his career caught stealing mark of 335 first. To celebrate, we are talking Rickey the whole episode! His outrageous numbers and the even more outrageous stories, plus we find out what Rickey thinks the highlight of his career really was and how he...

The original HR Derby tv show debuted 60 years ago! This week we take a look back at the Hall of Fame players who battled each other for what was big money at the time. If Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and many more could spent part of their off season swinging lumber at LA’s Wrigley Field and we figured we could spend part of ours talking about it. Plus, Max Carey, a speedster in the dea...

We continue to wreak havoc with the space time continuum this week as we travel back to 1999. While prepping for Y2K we managed to relive the entire 1999 MLB season, the highs, the lows, the leaders and the steroid fueled home run binges. We remember Don Larsen’s perfect feat and find out just how long people have been complaining about pitchers hitting. This week’s Wax Pack Heroes come in the for...