Baseball and BBQ

Episode 286 features Pig Beach BBQ's, Matt Abdoo and Shane McBride Promoting the 5th Annual BBQ Benefit for the Jeff Michner Foundation and Author, Chris Jensen Discussing Baseball's Two-Way Greats 

Matt Abdoo and Shane McBride from Pig Beach BBQ join us to discuss the 5th Annual BBQ Benefit for the Jeff Michner Foundation taking place at Pig Beach BBQ, 35 - 37 36th Street, Queens, NY 11106 on Saturday afternoon, April 26, 2025.  The foundation was set up in honor of Jeff Michner who passed away at the age of 36, but although young, meaningfully touched so many lives.  The organization embraces the things he loved best: family, friends, and great food. The Jeff Michner Foundation creates scholarships for culinary students as well as supporting families managing loss and grief.  The Jeff Michner BBQ Benefit celebrates Jeff with an epic barbecue featuring some of the countries greatest pitmasters.  This event will be a dine-around, where each participating pitmaster will prepare a tasting portion of their dish for the guests to sample. Participating breweries & distilleries will be offering a beer or specialty cocktail. Go to  https://jmf-event-2025-gxqi1.tripleseattickets.com/registration/select for more information and to purchase tickets.

Chris Jensen is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA). He contributes baseball articles to Seamheads, Start Spreading the News and IBWAA's, Here's the Pitch newsletter, and has been published in Elysian Fields Quarterly and the Yankees Annual Yearbook.  His latest book is, Baseball's Two-Way Greats:  Pitching/Batting Stars from Ruth and Rogan to Ohtani.  The book explores the history of two-way baseball players from the 19th century up to the modern era.  Chris provides information which shows that Shohei Ohtani and Babe Ruth are not the only players to have excelled at both pitching and batting.  There have been many exceptional two-way players, including John Montgomery Ward and Negro League standouts, Bullet Rogan, Martin Dihigo, Leon Day and Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe.  Sixty additional Negro League players are covered for their two-way feats, plus an examination of top two-way players from the 19th century, Deadball Era, and Live-Ball Era with more than 130 players featured. 
 
We recommend you go to Baseball BBQ, https://baseballbbq.com for special grilling tools and accessories, Magnechef https://magnechef.com/ for excellent and unique barbecue gloves, Cutting Edge Firewood High Quality Kiln Dried Firewood - Cutting Edge Firewood in Atlanta for high quality firewood and cooking wood, Mantis BBQ, https://mantisbbq.com/ to purchase their outstanding sauces with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Kidney Project, and for exceptional sauces, Elda's Kitchen https://eldaskitchen.com/

 
We conclude the show with the song, Baseball Always Brings You Home from the musician, Dave Dresser and the poet, Shel Krakofsky.

If you would like to contact the show, we would love to hear from you.

 
Call the show:  (516) 855-8214
Email:  [email protected]
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Episode 285 features inspiring stories from athlete, Dave Stevens, a seven-time Emmy Award winner and congenital amputee, while Jimmy Carbone and Sean Ludwig promote upcoming barbecue events and barbecue's enormous growth. 

Dave Stevens is an athlete and a seven-time Emmy Award winning sports broadcaster.  Dave is a congenital amputee and has wrestled, played football, and played baseball, all without legs.  Dave played college football and had a tryout with the Dallas Cowboys.  Dave was featured on the television show, That’s Incredible along with a very young and future golf pro, Tiger Woods.  Dave had baseball tryouts with the 1984 Olympic baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Minnesota Twins, as well as a three-week contract with the minor league baseball team, St. Paul Saints where he played alongside Darryl Strawberry and even pinch-hit for Strawberry.  Dave worked at ESPN for over 20 years.  He has covered Super Bowls, World Series, Final Fours and many other events.  Dave volunteers as a board member for NubAbility Athletics, which organizes sports camps for “Limb-Different” Athletes. He also co-hosts the Celebrity Amputee Golf Classic and is an Ambassador Athlete for the Dave Clark Foundation which hosts free clinics with Minor League baseball teams for children with disabilities.

Jimmy Carbone is back with a preview of his food events which we can look forward to this year, including Brisket King, Rib King, and Pig Island NYC.  Each year these events become more popular and we spend part of our time discussing the outstanding growth of barbecue and the various flavors being added which are changing the way we think of the cuisine.  It is an exciting time to be a foodie in New York as well as the surrounding areas and Jimmy's events are among the reasons why.

Sean Ludwig is the founder of NYC BBQ, http://www.nycbbq.com a website and newsletter with news and information on all things barbecue in the NYC metro are.  He is also a co-founder with Ryan Cooper of The Smoke Sheet, https://www.bbqnewsletter.com which is a weekly newsletter that curates the latest national barbecue news, upcoming events, books to read, podcasts to listen to, videos to watch, recipes, and so much more.  Barbecue is experiencing tremendous growth and Sean provides unique insights as to why.

We recommend you go to Baseball BBQ, https://baseballbbq.com for special grilling tools and accessories, Magnechef https://magnechef.com/ for excellent and unique barbecue gloves, Cutting Edge Firewood High Quality Kiln Dried Firewood - Cutting Edge Firewood in Atlanta for high quality firewood and cooking wood, Mantis BBQ, https://mantisbbq.com/ to purchase their outstanding sauces with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Kidney Project, and for exceptional sauces, Elda's Kitchen https://eldaskitchen.com/

 
We conclude the show with the song, Baseball Always Brings You Home from the musician, Dave Dresser and the poet, Shel Krakofsky.

We truly appreciate our listeners and hope that all of you are staying safe.

If you would like to contact the show, we would love to hear from you.
 
Call the show:  (516) 855-8214
Email:  [email protected]
Twitter:  @baseballandbbq
Instagram:  baseballandbarbecue
YouTube:  baseball and bbq
Website:  https//baseballandbbq.weebly.com

Facebook:  baseball and bbq

Episode 284 features Butcher BBQ's, David Bouska and Former Major League Baseball player, Ryan Thompson, plus guest co-host, Gary Mack.

David Bouska is an award-winning pitmaster and the owner of Butcher BBQ.  He has won numerous awards, including titles at the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational BBQ and American Royal World Series of Barbecue.  He was featured on seasons four and five of Food Network’s, BBQ Pitmasters and BBQ Pitmasters All Stars.  David is a member of the Oklahoma BBQ Hall of Fame and will soon be inducted into the Kansas City BBQ Society Hall of Fame.  He has created injections, brines, seasonings and rubs, and sauces and grilling oils.  Go to  https://butcherbbq.com/ for more information on David and his company, Butcher BBQ.

Ryan Thompson is a former Major League Baseball player who spent all or parts of nine seasons with the New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Florida Marlins, and Milwaukee Brewers.  Ryan also played one season in Japan for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.  Ryan was included in the trade which brought him to the New York Mets, along with Jeff Kent in exchange for David Cone.  He discusses what it was like to be a young player traded to the New York Mets and his surprise upon finding out as well as many other entertaining stories.  We are also joined by the host of the Mets Musings podcast, Gary Mack.

We recommend you go to Baseball BBQ, https://baseballbbq.com for special grilling tools and accessories, Magnechef https://magnechef.com/ for excellent and unique barbecue gloves, Cutting Edge Firewood High Quality Kiln Dried Firewood - Cutting Edge Firewood in Atlanta for high quality firewood and cooking wood, Mantis BBQ, https://mantisbbq.com/ to purchase their outstanding sauces with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Kidney Project, and for exceptional sauces, Elda's Kitchen https://eldaskitchen.com/

 
We conclude the show with the song, Baseball Always Brings You Home from the musician, Dave Dresser and the poet, Shel Krakofsky.

Call the show:  (516) 855-8214
Email:  [email protected]
Twitter:  @baseballandbbq
Instagram:  baseballandbarbecue
YouTube:  baseball and bbq
Website:  https//baseballandbbq.weebly.com

Facebook:  baseball and bbq

Episode 283 features four-time Major League Baseball Manager of the Year and New York State Baseball Hall of Fame Member, Buck Showalter and Chicken Fried BBQ's champion pitmaster, Bill Purvis, plus guest co-host, Doug Scheiding

Buck Showalter has earned a reputation for building baseball teams into postseason contenders in short periods of time.  The teams he has managed include, the New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, and New York Mets.  Along the way he has won four Manager of the Year Awards, three in the American League and one in the National League.  He is the third manager to win four Manager of the Year Awards, the seventh to win the award in both the American and National Leagues, and the only one to win the award with four different teams in four different decades.  In addition to managing, Buck has also worked as a television analyst for ESPN, the Yes Network, and the MLB Network.  Buck is also a member of the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame.

Bill Purvis is the pitmaster of Chicken Fried BBQ.  In 2019, he entered his first barbecue contest, in which he ended up winning first place ribs along with Reserve Grand Champion.  In just his first three years of barbecue, he won over 35 Grand and Reserve Grand Championships.  Bill's barbecue success has provided opportunities for him to be featured twice on the Food Network's television show, BBQ USA with Michael Symon.  He is also a creator and co-host of the podcast, Shiggin Fried with Chicken Fried and LCBBQ.  In addition to all of the preceding, Bill teaches barbecue classes and sells various barbecue food products created to elevate your food to the next level.  Go to  https://chickenfriedbbq.com/ for more information on Bill and his products.

We recommend you go to Baseball BBQ, https://baseballbbq.com for special grilling tools and accessories, Magnechef https://magnechef.com/ for excellent and unique barbecue gloves, Cutting Edge Firewood High Quality Kiln Dried Firewood - Cutting Edge Firewood in Atlanta for high quality firewood and cooking wood, Mantis BBQ, https://mantisbbq.com/ to purchase their outstanding sauces with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Kidney Project, and for exceptional sauces, Elda's Kitchen https://eldaskitchen.com/

 
We conclude the show with the song, Baseball Always Brings You Home from the musician, Dave Dresser and the poet, Shel Krakofsky.

We truly appreciate our listeners and hope that all of you are staying safe.

If you would like to contact the show, we would love to hear from you.

 
Call the show:  (516) 855-8214
Email:  [email protected]
Twitter:  @baseballandbbq
Instagram:  baseballandbarbecue
YouTube:  baseball and bbq
Website:  https//baseballandbbq.weebly.com

Facebook:  baseball and bbq

Episode 282 is a rare triple play with Art Shamsky, a member of the 1969 World Series Champion Miracle Mets, Kell Phelps and Mike McCarthy, organizers of the National BBQ Festival, and Gary Looney, reporting from Los Angeles Angels spring training.

Art Shamsky will forever have the honor of being a member of the 1969 World Series Champion Miracle Mets as that was a huge highlight of his Major League Baseball career.  But there is so much more to his story and legacy.  Since his playing days, he has worked as a radio and television sports broadcaster in the New York area, among other endeavors. He is the coauthor of The Magnificent Seasons and the New York Times best-seller, After the Miracle.  He joins us to discuss his latest book, Mets Stories I Only Tell My Friends, in which Art shares anecdotes from his 50-year association with the Mets.  He traces his playing career and beyond with never-before-heard stories about his life in and out of baseball.

Kell Phelps and Mike McCarthy join us to discuss the National BBQ Festival which is being billed as a tremendous barbecue event coming to New York, more specifically, Long Island, New York the weekend of June 13th through June 15th, 2025.  Kell and Mike are two of the event organizers.  In addition to organizing monumental events, Kell is also  the publisher of the Barbecue News Magazine and owns and runs the National Barbecue Association (NBBQA).  Mike is the senior director of strategy and development for RRDA Content Marketing.  For more information regarding the event go to https://nationalbbqfest.com/  Baseball and BBQ listeners can use promo codes BASEBALL for $10 off general admission tickets and BASEBALLVIP for $25 off VIP tickets.

Gary Looney returns for his highly anticipated annual appearance which means the 2025 baseball season is about to begin.  Jeff first met Gary in 2020 at the Los Angeles Angels spring training camp complex in Arizona and a friendship quickly developed.  Gary has appeared with us on numerous episodes and provides a glimpse into the Los Angeles Angels spring training camp.  We are itching for the baseball season to commence and Gary helps to scratch that itch as we discuss the prospects for the team and we get an update on Mike Trout.  Having him on is an annual tradition and his baseball knowledge is a great addition to any episode.

We recommend you go to Baseball BBQ, https://baseballbbq.com for special grilling tools and accessories, Magnechef https://magnechef.com/ for excellent and unique barbecue gloves, Cutting Edge Firewood High Quality Kiln Dried Firewood - Cutting Edge Firewood in Atlanta for high quality firewood and cooking wood, Mantis BBQ, https://mantisbbq.com/ to purchase their outstanding sauces with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Kidney Project, and for exceptional sauces, Elda's Kitchen https://eldaskitchen.com/

 
We conclude the show with the song, Baseball Always Brings You Home from the musician, Dave Dresser and the poet, Shel Krakofsky.

We truly appreciate our listeners and hope that all of you are staying safe.

If you would like to contact the show, we would love to hear from you.

 
Call the show:  (516) 855-8214
Email:  [email protected]
Twitter:  @baseballandbbq
Instagram:  baseballandbarbecue
YouTube:  baseball and bbq
Website:  https//baseballandbbq.weebly.com

Facebook:  baseball and bbq