Overseas Baseball Podcast

After finishing up the 2010 season with Almere and Hamburg and achieving his long term goal of pitching the Dutch Head Class, Boomer was undecided what to do about his baseball career and was leaning towards focusing on finishing law school and getting a job. After back-to-back years with no offseason and pitching 7-9 innings every start, his arm definitely needed a rest. However during the 2010 summer while on break from pitching in Holland, Boomer visited a girl living in Budapest (Hungary) whom he met while in Italy. While visiting her, he looked up baseball in Budapest online and found a local club of which he contacted by email with the help of his friend as a translator. They invited him out to practice and Boomer soon found himself practicing with grown men at a level he had never seen before, which was an interesting experience in itself and an eye opener. The Hungarians were immediately amazed as they had never seen anything close to a mid to upper 80's fastball and said to Boomer that they "would b

In IBC episode 58, Justin "Boomer" Prinstein walked us through the beginning of his international professional baseball story which was a wild one with lots of ups and downs with stops in Belgium and Israel. This was all in the span of one season as well. He returned home for only a month before committing to the Southern Districts Hawks of the South Australian Baseball League for second half of the 2007-2008 winterball season. He arrived at the beginning of December, well into their season, just in time to qualify for the playoffs. However he had to play one miserable inning after being on a journey for 45 hours just to make this qualifying game. Luckily for Boomer, he had the next month off as the league went on break for Christmas. This gave him time to adjust to the time zone and settle into Adelaide with his new family, the Crabbs, home to his Aussie teammate and roommate Adam from the Israel Baseball League. Boomer took full advantage of the month off and did a lot of travelling in South Australia, e

More stories at: http://www.baseballjobsoverseas.com Justin "Boomer" Prinstein has been involved in baseball overseas since he first came to Europe in 2006 as an import pitcher. The former George Washington University pitcher his junior and senior years in the shadows of some of his teammates. In fact, half of his team from his junior year were drafted. He was a bit undersized (5'11") and his high 80's fastball was figured to be maxed out as far as scouts were concerned. In 2006, upon graduation, the assistant coach at GW and former international player brought it to Boomer's attention that overseas would be a good option for him. Boomer's mind frame back then was to just "Keep playing somewhere and something good will happen", after witnessing players close to his level at pro tryouts get signed and work their way up to the AAA level. With the help of his former coach, Boomer sent his resume out to numerous clubs in Europe and received a number of offers. He decided to accept an offer from a Belgium club b

More international baseball stories at: http://www.baseballjobsoverseas.com The Euro League Baseball (ELB) is a new professional baseball league in Europe set to launch in 2016. There has been a lot of hype over the league during the offseason as players and imports anticipate something that has a lot of potential to be great. As the new year rings in and spring training is approaching fast, there are many rumours circulating about if the league will actually launch in 2016 and if so, how many of the 10 teams are actually going to move forward with it. CEO Wim van den Hurk has been searching high and low for a major sponsor to help subsidize the expenses that will be incurred by the teams involved. At this point, there is no major title sponsor. In a meeting in late November with the owners of the ELB and the managers of the clubs involved, it was discussed if they can proceed given the lack of a major sponsor. Estimated costs were outlined and strategies were discussed and all clubs were given time to meet

With all the violence that has taken place in France as of late, I can understand why someone may be hesitant to consider playing baseball there in 2016. However, when considering the alternative of staying and playing in the U.S. (for most of you), is France really any more dangerous? The U.S. by far dominates international headlines with regards to violent shootings, so why not take your career over to Europe? My ignorant impression from the outside as a Canadian living in Europe is that you are just as likely to come across senseless acts of violence or terrorism in the U.S. as you are in France. In the end, I guess the question we should ask ourselves is, "Should I allow the acts of terrorists to change my path in life or pass up on opportunities such as travelling the globe while playing baseball?" Only you can answer that for yourself but I know what my answer is and I am pretty sure what these guys would say.

Born in Montana, Kris Richards spent most of his life in North Carolina where he grew up playing baseball. After high school he remained in North Carolina as he signed on with the NCAA D1 University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he played ball from 2008 to 2012. In his senior year he hit .342 in what is regarded as one of the best college conferences in the country, the Southern Conference. Richards was drafted by the Orioles where he spent two years as a shortstop in A ball before being converted to a pitcher at the age of 23. This quickly led to a elbow injury and a year on the sidelines recovering from Tommy John surgery. Upon recovery, Richards decided to not continue to chasing a career as a player, and turned his focus to coaching. While coaching at an academy in North Carolina run by Mike Griffin, a former Czech National team coach, Richards was introduced to the possibility of jumpstarting a coaching career in the Czech Republic. "I had no idea where the Czech Republic was to be honest wit

Born in Annemasse, France, Owen Ozanich at a young age moved to the U.S. where he grew up in South Burlington, Vermont. Like many boys his age growing up in the U.S., he fell in love with the game of baseball. He found success early on as a little leaguer as the winning pitcher of the New England state championship game that was televised on ESPN2. In high school this trend continued as he led the South Burlington Rebels to a 20-0 record and the Vermont State Championship. In the fall of 2007 Ozanich made the University of Vermont Catamounts (NCAA D1) as walk-on and appeared in 35 games over two seasons. Upon graduating from college, he continued to play baseball in a men's league in Vermont before discovering that there is baseball in France and that he could use his dual citizen to jumpstart a career overseas. In 2011 he joined the top team in the French Elite League, the Rouen Huskies, and has been with them ever since as one of the league's top pitchers year-after-year. In 2011 McKenzie was a sophomore

Growing up in Wessington Springs, South Dakota, Sam at a young age was fascinated with woodwork and had a talent for making things out of wood. One of his high school hobbies was carving formula one cars from the quarter scale drawings featured in Road & Track. It is an annual pursuit he still follows today. He was also heavily involved in sports including football, basketball, track and field, and sporadically baseball. He had no idea it was the latter sport that he would eventually have a huge impact on. However first he spent 22 years as a stagehand for the National Arts Centre before finding his true calling of producing baseball's first maple bat.

Growing up in Southern California, Clayton Carson had the regular baseball dreams and aspirations that any young kid would have. Coming from a good baseball family and community, he had the opportunity to make the most out of the game of baseball. In college he jumped around from a few different colleges before settling in with San Diego State University under the helm of MLB great Tony Gwynn in 2005. Clayton played third base and shortstop for Gwynn and led the team in base hits and RBIs after 13 games before undergoing a career ending second back surgery. Clayton turned his focus to coaching and international baseball which has lead him on a path to remember.

Since I arrived on the baseball scene in Europe in 2004, there have been two American names that seem to keep popping up wherever I go, Ty Erikson and Justin (Boomer) Prinstein. I didn't know much about either but it was apparent these two were well connected within European baseball circles. I learned more about Ty in 2013 when his travel baseball team from the U.S. came to play at Finkstonball, our international tournament in Austria. They were called the International Game and they consisted of aspiring professional players who had paid their way to Europe to travel and play various European clubs over a two week period in hopes of getting picked up and at the very least develop some contacts for the future. It was at Prague Baseball Week that Ty told me about another project that him and Boomer are involved in, an annual college showcase in the U.S. for young European talent. A passion project of theirs which began in Florida in 2013 and then Washington DC in 2014, will now be held in Pheonix Arizona i

Andrew Medeiros was a standout in his NCAA III conference as a speedy catcher who hit for average with power for Westfield State College. After an all to familiar story of a talented player slipping through the pro baseball cracks in the U.S. Andrew decided to start looking for a 9-5 job. Before he really even got started looking, a friend told him about the International Baseball Community website and Andrew threw up a profile immediately and contacted me. Within two weeks he was on a plane to Canberra, Australia to play for the Ainslie Bears in the Capital Territory State League.

Alex Lee grew up just outside of Boston attended Wofford College (NCAA D1) in South Carolina where he played baseball for the Terriers and graduated with a business degree in 2011. An injury in his senior year left him with little options to continue his post college baseball career so Lee decided to pursue a coaching career once he realized that a regular 9-5 office job was not for him. After moving around the U.S. for various coaching jobs, Lee was presented with an opportunity to play and coach baseball in Austria in 2014 through a friend of his that had done the same the previous year. The Tulln Ravens hired Lee to coach all ages from the men's teams to all three youth teams. He also played on the Ravens top men's team which play in the Regional League East, which is Austrian third division baseball.

Jaz Shergill first contacted me in September 2014 looking to take his career overseas to Australia for the winter, with a goal of getting on with a club in the Australian Baseball League (ABL). At the time, the Eastern New Mexico University grad had already attempted to play Indy ball in the states but struggled to find clubs who will sign him, largely due to the fact that he was Canadian which comes along with visa complications. He went on to play a summer of semi-pro baseball in the InterCounty Baseball League (IBL) in his native land of Canada before he decided that he needed to look overseas to pursue his dream of playing pro ball. With a good sinking fastball hovering between 88-91, I knew that Shergill had the ability to play in the ABL, but to get directly into the ABL especially that close to the beginning of the season, would be a difficult task. Knowing this, I advised Shergill that we should try and get him on with a state league club (second division) by offering to fund his own flight and work

Every year more and more aspiring professional baseball players decide to take their career abroad. Those that are fortunate enough to find a job overseas have not only extended their career, but have enjoyed experiencing a part of the world that they may otherwise not have seen. The majority of these players spend a season, possibly two, overseas and then hang them up. A few, however, take full advantage of this opportunity and ride the overseas baseball wave as far as possible. A few names come to mind when I think of international baseballers who have used baseball as their ticket to see the world. However one name stands out the most in terms of baseball and travel. Owen Reid first signed a professional contract with a baseball club overseas in 2009 and never looked back. His journey has taken him on somewhat of a world tour which includes side trips to nearby countries while abroad for baseball. In November, 2014 I wrote this blog post that summarizes his international baseball experience from 2009-20

Born and raised in the windy city, Chris Michals played shortstop for a community college in Chicago named Oakton. In 2007, his freshman year, he was overridden by a division 1 transfer and often found himself on the bench as a platoon infielder, despite putting up good numbers. He decided at that point to leave the team and focus on school only to return in 2010. Upon finding that the team was lacking in pitching and talent was still deep in the infield, he quickly taught himself how to pitch. To the shock of his coaches and teammates, Michals not only made the starting rotation, he went 7-0 that season and only had one no-decision on route to leading his team to the 2010 Sectional Championship, sending Oakton Community College to it's first final four in school history. Post college Michals took a job as a baseball instructor. While at work, he discovered the opportunity to play baseball in Europe through a fellow instructor who had just returned from a stint playing pro ball in Slovakia. Michals was at fi

Mauro Mazzotti has been a manager in Italian baseball since 1987 since the age of 28 and is the only manager to win championships with three different clubs in the Italian Baseball League. Most recently he won three straight titles in 2011, 2012, and 2013 as the general manager of T&A San Marino, a huge accomplishment in a league where the championship usually changes hands every year. Known for recruiting baseball’s secret weapons the Caribbean and Latin America, this accomplished scout for the Baltimore Orioles sheds a lot of light on the importing of foreign players to the Italian Baseball League. He elaborates on where he finds his players, how many Americans are imported to the IBL, what their backgrounds are, how much they are paid, and his thought process behind importing. I don't let him off the hook easy as I poke and pry to extract as much information as possible on import regulations, visa issues, etc.

As an un-drafted graduate of a small NAIA school, Mark Boyer was not getting a lot of opportunities to continue his playing career until he set his sights on third division Germany. Being a true utility guy, he knew he could help a small club in more way than one, and when combined with some coaching experience at the high school and college level, he could be an asset to a club's youth program as well. Like any aspiring professional player, Boyer desired to play the highest level of baseball possible, but was aware that he may first have to prove himself at a lower level of baseball like the German third division in order to make a name for himself overseas. Boyer got his chance with Ingolstadt Schanzer, a club from Bavaria, Germany, home of Oktoberfest.

After rushing back from Tommy John surgery for his senior year, Noah Shaw was unable to pitch like he once could. He thought his baseball career was over until he discovered the International Baseball Community website.

Rob Herrmann tells his story of being overlooked and underrated within professional baseball in the U.S.A. and how he has built a successful career overseas. He has now played in Australia, Germany and France.

34 year-old Kieran Mattison spent nine years playing baseball professionally in the U.S. reaching as high as AAA within the Cleveland Indians organization. The big 6' 205 lb righty amassed an ERA of 4.12 over the course of his tenure in professional baseball which also saw stints with the Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Dodgers and in independent baseball. In 2013 Mattison decided to go back to school to get his masters degree and set his sights on Schiller International University - Paris to get the international experience. After speaking with his brother who is now a resident of France since coming over to play professional American Football in 2001, Kieran decided to approach the Paris University Baseball Club (PUC) to see if he can get on in a coaching role and perhaps earn a little extra money while studying.