Overseas Baseball Podcast

Patrick Cromwell and Andrew Cosgrove are a rare breed of BBJO member. Both of these talented former division one players from top programs decided to forgo the MLB dream and use their talents to play baseball in some of the most desirable places to live overseas. But what separates them from most members with similar baseball backgrounds, is that they were less concerned about the level of baseball, as long as the location fit what they were looking for.

Whether opening for Green Day or pitching at Dodgers stadium, there is one thing for certain about Scott Radinsky........ he always brings it. In this episode, the former MLB pitcher and coach —who doubled as a punk rock singer for his band Pulley during the MLB offseason— talks about his simple approach to the game, whether facing Ken Griffey Jr. in his heyday or coaching a pitcher back from the edge of being sent down to the minors and onwards to a long MLB career. His approach —and punk rock attitude— proved successful, making him a fan favorite at both Comiskey Park and Dodgers Stadium during the height of his pitching career which saw him throw five of his 11 MLB seasons with a sub 3.00 ERA as one of the most used arms out of the pen. After a brief discussion to start the podcast about his other side gig as the owner of one of the biggest indoor skate parks in California, the talk turns baseball and never goes back as Scott uses his storytelling skills to share some cool MLB stories before diving deep i

Seattle-born, Ethan Skuija, has always been a dominant pitcher. He dominated as a kid growing up in Canada, in junior college in California, and in division one baseball playing for CSU Bakersfield. None of this changed since he decided to take his career overseas after missing the draft. At the time of this interview, Ethan was about 6 weeks into a winter ball stint in Australia for the 2022-2023 season, his second season overseas that saw him go on to dominate. He was fresh off a dominant season in the Czech Republic where he posted a 0.62 ERA in 47.2 innings of work, with a whopping 90 strikeouts in what many regard as a strong hitting league. Although Ethan was not a member of our website, he was a pitcher we could not ignore when recruiting for our Globetrotters team that would compete at Prague Baseball Week against the likes of the Spanish and Czech National teams. In this interview, we talk about Ethan's career in baseball, his mental approach to the game, the unmatched energy he brings to the

Lenny Pietersz is a native of Curaçao who has always dreamed of playing professional baseball. He recently achieved that goal, but he had to invest in himself by flying to Japan to play in the Japan Winter League in November of 2022. After two junior college baseball seasons in the U.S.A., Lenny signed up for the California Winter League in hopes to gain a pro contract. After that didn't pan out, he signed up with Baseball Jobs Overseas and soon found himself playing in second division Austria. Lenny loved this experience but continued to pursue his dream of playing in a true professional league. That is when he discovered the Japan Winter League. In this interview with Lenny, he talks about his experience at the Japan Winter League and how that led to apro contact with an independent professional baseball team in Japan. Japan Winter League 2023 Registration: https://www.japanleague.co.jp/ BBJO discount code: BBJO2023

If you’re interested in playing baseball in Japan, the Japan Winter League is the perfect place to start. The JWL is a showcase league running from November 23-December 24th. The purpose of the league is to get players exposure to professional opportunities throughout Japan. Every game played will be livestreamed with Rapsodo data so that scouts can follow the games remotely. With scouts representing teams from the MLB, NPB, and Japanese Independent Leagues with on-the-spot signing power, the JWL is the perfect platform for you to get signed at the next level. In this episode, Dave and Jimmy interview league president Issei Washizaki—via translator Hiro Sakanshi—and find out everything about the Japan Winter League that an interested player would want to know.

https://baseballjobsoverseas.com/kaleb-bowman-podcast-interview/ A former Kaleb Appalachian State standout, Kaleb Bowman found himself undrafted upon graduation and made the decision to travel the world and play baseball. This journey landed him in Canada that very same summer after graduating, playing in a five-team semi-professional men's league in New Brunswick. After that season, Kaleb hopped on a plane to play for Surfers Paradise Baseball Club on the beautiful gold coast of Australia. After back-to-back very successful seasons overseas —including a single-season strikeout record in Australia— Kaleb took the summer of 2020 off along with the 2020-2021 winter. It was during this time that Kaleb worked hard at taking his game to a new level while also signing with the Regensburg Legionäre, a premiere club in Germany that has produced the likes of Max Kepler and Donald Lutz. Kaleb's hard work paid off, as he was named the German Bundesliga "Pitcher of the Year" in 2021 and 2022 in his two seasons with Rege

After wrapping up his college career at Georgetown University with a successful senior campaign which saw him hit .344 and lead the Big East Conference in slugging percentage, Steve Anderson was hopeful of being drafted. When that didn’t come to fruition, he opted to forgo independent pro offers to pursue a business career as a management consultant. In 2018, Steve started his own consulting business (CoLo Consulting) and has been operating the company remotely while living in 10+ countries around the globe. Steve’s nomadic journey has taken him to Germany, Czech Republic, England, Hungary, the Netherlands, Georgia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Canada among other places. In 2021, while living in Canada, Steve decided to return to competitive baseball with the Fredericton Astros, who compete in the Capital City Intermediate Baseball League in New Brunswick, Canada. This led to a conversation with a good friend and BBJO member who had played overseas, prompting him t

As an indy pro pitcher in the Frontier League and American Association, Tim Brown spent his winters pitching in Australian state leagues — and some time in the ABL— for five straight years. Pitching year-round for five straight years. He even threw a no-hitter in the Frontier League during this time. Then, one day, he decided to forgo his stateside pro career for a full-time overseas travel baseball experience, playing in Europe in the summers and Australia, New Zealand and Argentina in the winters. To date, Tim has spent five winters in Australia, one in New Zealand, and one in Argentina. Since 2017, summers have been spent in the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Austria, and most recently in 2021 and 2022; Croatia. Tim has re-signed to play in Croatia in 2023 and after recording this episode, he signed to play the 2022-2023 winter in South Africa, the 6th continent he has played baseball on in his lifetime. In this episode, we talk equally about his experiences on the field and off the field, while also

https://baseballjobsoverseas.com/ Brett Holtz is an Ivy League first baseman who had his college baseball career ripped away from him by COVID-19 and Alec Lemmon had hung up the cleats and got the travel bug while backpacking in Australia and New Zealand before deciding to combine his new passion with his old passion; baseball. The two soon found themselves as roommates living in a small town in the Czech Republic and became fast friends on their way to a Czech championship.

UCLA Bruin alumnus Eddie Murray continues to work in the winter and play ball in Europe every summer at the age of 34. This includes four summers straight living in a student dorm in the middle of Paris.

In this episode, Baseball Jobs Overseas founder David Burns and co-host Jimmy Jensen interview Jacob Biller, a BBJO member who played his first season overseas in France in 2021 where he won a championship and even managed to get on with the French National Team as a coach for the European Championships in Italy. Jacob is a former NCAA D1 switching hitting shortstop out of Kansas State University who spent the summer at the top of the batting order for the Rouen Huskies, the reigning French champions, joining them at the champions cup in the Czech Republic where Jacob and the Huskies competed again the best teams in Europe, including the top teams from Italy and the Netherlands. What makes this story even more special, is that Jacob was a bit of a gamble to bring in as an import since he had not competed since graduating in 2018. In order for teams to roll the dice on someone who hasn't competed in that long and whom they haven't ever seen play firsthand, they need to have something special within their

Seattle University alumna, Lisa Maulden, first took her career overseas in 2015 and never looked back. Her first few seasons overseas were in lower leagues including the Belgian second division and Hungarian Softball League before moving up the ranks to higher-level leagues such as the Dutch Golden League, Premiere Women's league in New Zealand, and the Italian Series A. However, it never dawned on Lisa that she would ever play in the Japanese Softball League, which is a pure professional softball league and considered by some, the best women's softball in the world. Lisa is about to enter her third season in Japan in 2022 and sits down for this interview with us from her apartment in Japan where she lives year-round. She shares her experiences on and off the field and advises others on how to go about playing there and what to expect.

In my previous two podcast interviews with Bryan Ruby, he was not openly gay. Since our last interview, Bryan has come out and is now the only known active, openly gay professional baseball player in the world. His coming out was not just within his friend and family circle but on a national stage when his story was featured on the front page of the sports section of U.S.A. Today and at Dodgers Stadium when announced prior to singing the national anthem this past fall. In this episode, Bryan talks about his fear of jeopardizing his career as a professional baseball player and a country music singer and songwriter by coming out. He also talks about his struggles as a closeted gay baseball player growing up. Although Bryan shy's away from all of the attention, he decided to use it to help broadcast an organization he started to help others athletes in the LGBTQ community titled ProudToBeInBaseball.

https://baseballjobsoverseas.com/ In this second interview with our globetrottin', country-music-singin', pro baseball player, Bryan Ruby, we talk about his experience playing winter ball in Guatemala in the fall/early winter of 2020 during the midst of a second COVID-19 wave and the Mavericks League in Oregon during the summer of 2021. This interview takes place two-thirds of the way through his 2021 season with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and shortly after Bryan's life was turned upside down, resulting in a feature of Bryan on the cover of the sports section of USA Today. Make sure to mark January 3rd, 2022 on your calendar as the date we publish our third interview with Bryan where he tells that story.

https://baseballjobsoverseas.com/ Ryan "RJ" Johnson is a player in high demand overseas for a number of reasons and is currently living in the Czech Republic year-round as an import for a club that is on the rise. The former American Association pitcher has re-invented himself as a high-level two-way player overseas and it is paying off as quoted below from the interview. "I said make me an offer I can't refuse and they said 'here's our offer' and I went 'Oh boy!' The money is nice, don't get me wrong, but it was the coaching aspect and being here full time that was the low-hanging fruit."

Lindsay and Nicole Thomas took their twin pitcher-catcher act overseas in 2017, one year after graduating from UNC Greensboro where they were both standout players. A year into NCAA D1 coaching careers, both girls made the decision to put their coaching careers on hold and sign together to play in Vienna, Austria. Their international careers snowballed from there, both as a pair and as individuals. The girls continue to play overseas while doubling as virtual Mental Performance Coaches, a business they started together during the early days of the pandemic. Episode notes: Training Untamed Instagram handle: @training_untamed Correction: Sarah Edwards’ email is s.edwards@softballjobsoverseas.com

Pennsylvania-born Bryan Ruby is a baseball player and country music songwriter who has traveled the world playing baseball while continuing with his career in music. Bryan's passion for country music was behind his decision to pass up a D1 baseball scholarship in order to study and play closer to Nashville, the mecca of country music. Bryan eventually wrapped up his college career at a D3 school in upstate New York in 2019 before taking his career overseas. In one of his final college games, Bryan played all 9 positions in a single game and it is this versatility combined with a little networking savviness that led to playing baseball in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Chile and Peru within his first year overseas. In this interview, Bryan talks about his European jet-setting baseball experience and springboarding that adventure to join a crew of international baseball players on a South American baseball journey. Bryan also provides some great tips on how he utilized his first overseas experience to draw in m

Best known for his unique Tomahawk delivery, former MLB pitcher and Baseball Jobs Overseas member Josh Collmenter talks about his baseball career starting from his childhood, through college, leading to his MLB debut and then overseas to New Zealand. We talk about who is influencers were along the way, his "Tomahawk" delivery, making it to the MLB with a sub-90 mph fastball, his MLB debut experience, advice to his younger self and current aspiring pitchers, his experience in New Zealand and the Australian Baseball League, his future plans and much more.

After the summer of 2000 playing baseball in Vienna, Austria, Canadian baseball player Nick DeForest decided to forgo his final two years of college baseball eligibility and make Vienna his home. Twenty years later, Nick sits down to tell his story on the IBC podcast including what career in Austria he ended up in and how BBJO founder David Burns and Nick’s first encounter ended up on the front page of the Vienna newspaper.

In this episode, we hear the story of two corner infielders/ power-hitters from two different corners of the U.S. who first met in 2019 on a softball field in Austria as import players, leading their new team to the Austrian Softball League Championships.   Brittany McGuire (Florida Gulf Coast University) hit a clutch, come-from-behind grand slam late in game 1 of the best-of-three semi-final series against the reigning champs, while Kailyn Campbell (Central Washington University) hit for the cycle in game 2 of the series en route to securing the sweep.   The duo were the only two imports for the Wr. Neustadt Crazy Chicklets in 2019, so Brittany had to assume the role as a two-way player, despite not having pitched in college. Despite the lack of imported collegiate level pitching, the 3-4 combo of Kailyn and Brittany brought a much-needed 1-2 punch to the offense of a young Chicklets team, a team based in a small town of approximately 43,000 which is located about 30 minutes outside of Vienna, Austria. This