SABRcast with Rob Neyer

Baseball fans, tune in this season to SABRcast with Rob Neyer, a weekly podcast hosted by award-winning author and longtime SABR member Rob Neyer. SABRcast features insights and analysis of what’s happening in modern baseball on and off the field, plus compelling interviews with figures from around the game — and music from The Baseball Project.

Subscribe to SABRcast on your favorite podcast networks, including Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, or Stitcher, and listen to each episode as soon as it’s released.

Neyer is a longtime baseball writer and editor for ESPN.com, SB Nation, and FoxSports.com. He began his career as a research assistant for groundbreaking baseball author Bill James and later worked for STATS, Inc. He has also written or co-written seven baseball books, including The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (with Bill James), winner of the Sporting News/SABR Baseball Research Award, and most recently Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game, winner of the 2019 CASEY Award.

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Current Episode

Episode #127: September 6, 2021

This week’s guest is Rob Friedman, better known as Pitching Ninja, a social media sensation whose videos and GIFs of “the filthiest pitchers in baseball” have earned him a worldwide following, and deals with ESPN and Major League Baseball. He is also the founder of FlatGround Pitching, which tracks and scouts amateur pitchers. By day, he is an attorney and Executive Vice President for Digital Envoy, an Internet software firm that he founded that is based in Atlanta. He holds degrees from the University of North Carolina and the Emory University School of Law.

Click here or press play below to listen to Episode #127:

What’s Rob Reading?

“Keep Your Eye on the Balls: How MLB Squashed its Fake-Memorabilia Problem”
By Emma Baccellieri, Sports Illustrated

“Tasked with certifying the authenticity of items from every game—including, naturally, lots and lots of baseballs—there are at least two authenticators at every major league contest from spring training through October. Their work receives added attention when it comes to a milestone home run or a big moment, such as the World Series. But they are in stadiums every single day, tracking notable objects, documenting them with an intricate note-taking system and tagging them in a way that escapes tampering. While their work is done largely behind the scenes, it has become a more visible, ingrained part of the sport in recent years, and as MLB’s authentication program marks its 20th anniversary this season, the job is bigger than ever. What was once a laser-focused attempt to curb fake memorabilia is now a sprawling daily enterprise that tracks the journey of (almost) every single baseball.”

Also reading: Zach Helfand: Invasion of the Robot Umpires (The New Yorker)
Read more: Click here to check out Rob’s full list of book recommendations on Goodreads.com

Archived Episodes

2021

Episode #126: Josée Tellier (August 30, 2021)

Episode #125: Dave Parker and Dave Jordan (August 23, 2021)

Episode #124: Jerry Blevins (August 16, 2021)

Episode #123: Ken Levine (August 9, 2021)

Episode #122: David Nemec (August 2, 2021)

Episode #121: Todd Radom (July 26, 2021)

Episode #120: Steve Rushin (July 19, 2021)

Episode #119: Hannah Keyser (July 12, 2021)

Episode #118: Alan Zweibel (July 6, 2021)

Episode #117: Emma Baccellieri (June 28, 2021)

Episode #116: Sean Forman (June 21, 2021)

Episode #115: Gary Bedingfield (June 14, 2021)

Episode #114: Gar Ryness (June 7, 2021)

Episode #113: Mike Cieslinski (May 31, 2021)

Episode #112: Rowan Ricardo Phillips (May 24, 2021)

Episode #111: Tom Shieber (May 17, 2021)

Episode #110: Will Leitch (May 10, 2021)

Episode #109: Daniel Jacob Horine (May 3, 2021)

Episode #108: Dan Epstein (April 26, 2021)

Episode #107: Victor Rojas (April 19, 2021)

Episode #106: Felipe Alou and Peter Kerasotis (April 12, 2021)

Episode #105: Lauren Meyer (April 5, 2021)

Episode #104: Tom House (March 29, 2021)

Episode #103: Tony Adams and Bradford William Davis (March 22, 2021)

Episode #102: Amanda Smith (March 15, 2021)

Episode #101: Adam Richman (March 8, 2021)

Episode #100: Brandon McCarthy (March 1, 2021)

Episode #99: Lawrence Rocks (February 22, 2021)

Episode #98: Hannah Keyser (February 15, 2021)

Episode #97: Marty Appel (February 8, 2021)

Episode #96: Susan Slusser (February 1, 2021)

Episode #95: C. Trent Rosecrans (January 25, 2021)

Episode #94: Chris Welsh (January 18, 2021)

Episode #93: Jason Turbow (January 11, 2021)

Episode #92: John Shea (January 4, 2021)

2020

Episode #91: Gary Ashwill (December 21, 2020)

Episode #90: Scott Bush (December 14, 2020)

Episode #89: Dan Shulman (December 7, 2020)

Episode #88: Mark Armour (November 30, 2020)

Episode #87: Daniel Okrent (November 23, 2020)

Episode #86: Scott Simkus (November 16, 2020)

Episode #85: Chris Dial (November 9, 2020)

Episode #84: Jeff Idelson and Jean Fruth (November 2, 2020)

Episode #83: Jon “Boog” Sciambi (October 26, 2020)

Episode #82: Sean Gibson (October 19, 2020)

Episode #81: Scott McCaughey (October 12, 2020)

Episode #80: Josh Schaub (October 5, 2020)

Episode #79: Bill Henderson (September 28, 2020)

Episode #78: Anika Orrock (September 21, 2020)

Episode #77: Eric Nusbaum (September 14, 2020)

Episode #76: Howard Bryant (September 7, 2020)

Episode #75: Ellen Adair (August 31, 2020)

Episode #74: Kat Williams (August 24, 2020)

Episode #73: Michael Schur (August 17, 2020)

Episode #72: J.J. Cooper (August 10, 2020)

Episode #71: Jon Pessah (August 3, 2020)

Episode #70: Brian Kenny (July 27, 2020)

Episode #69: Steve Goody and Seth Daniels (July 20, 2020)

Episode #68: Rob Fitts (July 13, 2020)

Episode #67: Bill Nowlin (July 6, 2020)

Episode #66: Greg Proops (June 29, 2020)

Episode #65: David Nemec (June 22, 2020)

Episode #64: Bob Kendrick (June 15, 2020)

Episode #63: Hannah Keyser (June 8, 2020)

Episode #62: Gabe Kapler (June 1, 2020)

Episode #61: Ball Four panel with Mitchell Nathanson and Mark Armour (May 25, 2020)

Episode #60: Doug Glanville (May 18, 2020)

Episode #59: Josh Lewin (May 11, 2020)

Episode #58: Fred Claire (May 4, 2020)

Episode #57: Jason Benetti (April 27, 2020)

Episode #56: Kyle Boddy (April 20, 2020)

Episode #55: Len Kasper (April 13, 2020)

Episode #54: Jon Sciambi (April 6, 2020)

Episode #53: Joan Ryan (March 30, 2020)

Episode #52: Jason Turbow (March 23, 2020)

Episode #51: John Dewan (March 16, 2020)

Episode #50: Bob Costas (March 9, 2020)

Episode #49: Rob Nelson (March 2, 2020)

Episode #48: Todd Radom (February 24, 2020)

Episode #47: Bill Ripken (February 17, 2020)

Episode #46: Mark Rucker (February 10, 2020)

Episode #45: Don Zminda (February 3, 2020)

Episode #44: Alyson Footer (January 27, 2020)

Episode #43: Jacob Pomrenke, Jason Turbow, Joe Sheehan (January 20, 2020)

Episode #42: Joe Posnanski (January 13, 2020)

Episode #41: Mark Armour (January 6, 2020)

2019

Episode #40: Leslie Heaphy (December 30, 2019)

Episode #39: Craig Wright (December 23, 2019)

Episode #38: F.X. Flinn (December 16, 2019)

Episode #37: Paul Lukas (December 9, 2019)

Episode #36: John Thorn (December 2, 2019)

Episode #35: Hannah Keyser (November 25, 2019)

Episode #34: Jason Schwartz (November 18, 2019)

Episode #33: Tyrone Brooks (November 11, 2019)

Episode #32: Justin McGuire (November 4, 2019)

Episode #31: Joe Sheehan (October 28, 2019)

Episode #30: Derrick Goold (October 21, 2019)

Episode #29: Dwight Jaynes (October 14, 2019)

Episode #28: Ben Mankiewicz (October 7, 2019)

Episode #27: C.J. Nitkowski (September 30, 2019)

Episode #26: Jane Leavy (September 23, 2019)

Episode #25: Steve Hofstetter (September 16, 2019)

Episode #24: Jacob Pomrenke (September 9, 2019)

Episode #23: Ricky Cobb (September 2, 2019)

Episode #22: J.J. Cooper (August 26, 2019)

Episode #21: Aviva Kempner (August 19, 2019)

Episode #20: Paul Dickson (August 12, 2019)

Episode #19: Joe Lemire (August 5, 2019)

Episode #18: Sean Forman (July 29, 2019)

Episode #17: Janet Marie Smith (July 22, 2019)

Episode #16: David W. Smith (July 15, 2019)

Episode #15: Bud Selig (July 8, 2019)

Episode #14: Randy Jones and Mark Sweeney (July 1, 2019)

Episode #13: Hannah Keyser (June 24, 2019)

Episode #12: Scott Bush (June 17, 2019)

Episode #11: Jerry Cohen (June 10, 2019)

Episode #10: Paul Goldberger (June 3, 2019)

Episode #9: Ben Lindbergh (May 27, 2019)

Episode #8: David Cone (May 20, 2019)

Episode #7: Meg Rowley (May 13, 2019)

Episode #6: Jon “Boog” Sciambi (May 6, 2019)

Episode #5: Mark Armour (April 29, 2019)

Episode #4: Meredith Wills and Rob Arthur (April 22, 2019)

Episode #3: Art Chou and Dr. Steven Cadavid (April 15, 2019)

Episode #2: Tyler Kepner (April 8, 2019)

Episode #1: Brian Kenny and Scott Bush (April 1, 2019)

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