Overseas Baseball Podcast

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

baseballjobsoverseas.com/ New York native Ryan Rupp did not play college baseball but took advantage of his dual citizenship with Austria to get his foot in the door in second division Austria in 2013. From there, he worked hard on his craft and in 2017 he won the Best Pitcher award and his second championship in the first division of Austria with the Attnang Athletics. He also became one of the go-to starters for the Austrian national team. In 2019 he won his third Austrian championship, this time with his new team, the Dornbirn Indians. In recent years, as Ryan approached the age of 30, he struggled with the pressure to start a career off the field and leave baseball behind. He found himself in New York, unhappy and with extreme bouts of anxiety. In this interview, we discuss how he was able to get through that, and the steps he is taking now to enjoy his summers of baseball while also progressing off of the field. Some of the topics discussed in this episode include: The different path of his bas

https://baseballjobsoverseas.com/ In this episode of the International Baseball Community Podcast, I hop on a call with club representatives from around Europe to discuss the current status of the Coronavirus in their country, the effect it has had on their baseball seasons thus far, and any further insight into when the seasons could possibly start. Specifically, I speak with Scotty of Korlarka Praha (Czech Extraliga), Eric of the Bonn Capitals (German Bundesliga), Mauro of T&A San Marino (Italian Series A), David of the Metz Cometz (French First Division), Trevor of the Stockholm Monarchs (Swedish Elite Series), Ron of Neptunus Rotterdam (Dutch Major League A.K.A. Honbal Hoofdklasse) and Andreas of the Attnang Athletics (Baseball League Austria).

David Burns and Jimmy Jensen from Baseball Jobs Overseas discuss how to position yourself for success in receiving offers from clubs overseas and once signed, how to make the most of that opportunity to further your career. This episode is particularly beneficial to those players who have yet to play professional baseball and are looking overseas as a career option but are still looking to play at the highest level possible.

https://baseballjobsoverseas.com/ After a lustrous career as an international import player and coach, Owen Reid decided to go to work for himself as an International Baseball Consultant and Mobile baseball coach. Now settled and based in Singapore, Owen has now traveled to five different continents and 21 countries as a baseball coach including some very unknown baseball markets such as the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and Kyrgyzstan. His international baseball story began back in 2009, when fresh out of college, Owen signed on with the Vienna Wanderers in Austria as an import player. This led to his first gig as a youth coach the following winter in New Zealand, then in 2010 as a player-coach with another team in Austria, eventually settling in Australia from 2010 through 2014. It is in Australia where Owen's international coaching career really began to take shape after playing and coaching with three different teams, assuming a role with the Perth Heat in player development and

https://baseballjobsoverseas.com/ American born and Wofford College alum, Eric Brenk, has been living and playing baseball in Germany since obtaining his dual citizenship in 2014, only 4 months after graduating from college. Eric not only helped bring home a championship for his Bonn Capitals in 2018, he has also been a major player for the German National Team, most recently at the 2019 European Championships, a stepping stone tournament to the 2020 Olympic Qualifier. Less than an hour from Cologne, Eric lives year-round in Bonn where he is heavily involved in baseball and is currently working for an international company after obtaining his masters in Germany. In this episode, Eric and BBJO founder David Burns discuss the application process for dual citizenship and how having dual citizenship has benefited Eric from a baseball and life standpoint. We also dive into the lifestyle and quality of life when living and playing baseball in Germany.

http://www.baseballjobsoverseas.com There are a large number of baseball players overseas these days looking to take their career overseas with a large variety of backgrounds. Those who may not have the strongest of backgrounds or the strongest of stats, may have to take matters into their own hands to get their foot in the door. Dave and Jimmy tackle that topic in this episode.

The Australian Baseball League has made huge strides in recent years, with the expansion to include a team from Korea and New Zealand in 2018 as well as the signings of former MLB players such Josh Collmenter, Gift Ngoepe and Pete Kozma. The league also featured Japanese NPB stud pitcher Shota Imanaga and some of Europe's top talent in Markus Solbach (GER), Alex Maestri (ITL), and Dwayne Kemp (NED) who all had standout seasons. Rounded out with a number of young affiliated players, top indy pro players, and top Australian talent, you have a very unique professional league that more and more professional players are looking to as a winter option. With that being said, we at Baseball Jobs Overseas receive a lot of inquiries from players wanting to play in the ABL. In this episode, David and Jimmy discuss what it takes to sign in the ABL, and how some players have worked their way into the Australian Baseball League through the state leagues in the past and have gone on to sign affiliated contracts. This epi

http://www.baseballjobsoverseas.com Jimmy Jensen went from cut from his high school baseball team, to All-American, to men's league baseball before he decided to give overseas a try. Little did he know that signing his first overseas contract in 2015 would change his life forever in multiple ways. List to part two of his story, continuing where we left off at the end of his first season on IBC Podcast episode 67

http://www.baseballjobsoverseas.com Baseball New Zealand CEO Ryan Flynn returns for the third time, this time to provide an update on the exciting times going on in the world of baseball in New Zealand, in particular the new Australian Baseball League professional franchise team based in Auckland. Some of the topics discussed in this episode are: Growth of baseball in New Zealand in recent years New Australian Baseball League franchise team, the Auckland Tuatara and what the name means Signing of Josh Collmenter through Baseball Jobs Overseas and the impact of having a marquee player and MLB vet such as Josh on board Opportunity for imports with the Auckland Tuatara (ABL Franchise) and the new ABL roster point system Anticipated growth of baseball New Zealand and how import players and coaches will play a role at the club level Baseball Jobs Overseas role with future importing to New Zealand

In this interview with professional pitcher Arik Sikula, he speaks of his experiences both in Australia and Colombia pitching in the winter and why these experiences helped him improve as a pitcher and an athlete.

Three years ago on IBC Podcast Episode #26 I interviewed Zak Colby who was fresh off of his first season playing independent professional baseball in Japan in the Shikoku Island League. Zak has continued to play there working his way into a foreign recruitment role for the whole league while playing for the Kochi Fighting Dragons. His biggest signing to date was Manny Ramirez who he signed to play for the Fighting Dragons for the 2017 season, to hit fourth behind Zak in the lineup. In this episode Zak tells us all about the league, the recruitment process and what they look for in an import, and finally, the signing of and playing alongside Manny Ramirez.

Recently one of the top pitchers in independent professional baseball decided to give up the lifestyle that comes with playing pro baseball in the U.S., which he said he loves, in order to play club baseball in the Czech Republic which play mostly on weekends. Sound crazy? Soon to be 30 years old, Tim Brown has been playing professional baseball for 8 years now and while still at the top of his game, has decided to play baseball in Europe in 2017. "At this point, I just want to travel and see the world and this is the perfect way to do it," when asked why he has given up the lifestyle of the independent professional baseball player for European baseball which plays on weekends. Tim Brown has had a very successful U.S. independent professional baseball career which includes a no-hitter in the Frontier League. In fact, his multiple seasons of a sub 3.00 era had him labeled in a 2015 article as "One of the best pitchers in independent professional baseball history." Tim claims that a big part of his success