Episode 147 — Scott Bolohan: Coaching Kids, Guiding Yankee Stadium Tours, & Creating a Home for Baseball Literature
Scott Bolohan grew up outside of Detroit and is a long-time Tigers fan, who also has a soft spot for the Yankees, thanks to his job as a Yankee Stadium Tour Guide.
Scott played baseball his whole life, even after suffering a UCL tear in high school, and still travels to Italy each year to play a tournament with his grad school team the Oxford Kings of the British Baseball Federation.
Scott and Anna discuss the importance of the fundamentals, arm health, and the current state of youth baseball in America. They also chat about The Twin Bill – a quarterly baseball literary journal Scott started during the pandemic.
Find Scott & The Twin Bill Online:
Twitter: @thetwinbill | @scottbolohan
Instagram: @thetwinbill
Website: thetwinbill.com
Find Baseball Bucket List Online:
Twitter: @BaseballBucket
Facebook: @BaseballBucketList
Instagram: @Baseball.Bucket.List
Website: baseballbucketlist.com
This podcast is part of the Curved Brim Media Network:
Twitter: @CurvedBrim
Website: curvedbrimmedia.com
Read the full transcript
[00:00:00] Scott: It started off during the pandemic. I had COVID unbeknownst to me. And I was just sitting around on the couch watching Ken Burns baseball documentary, and it was this really comforting, nice thing in my life that I was like, you know what?
[00:00:16] Scott: I wish there were a place that people could write about baseball and share their stories. and so I thought, you know what? I’ve got something else going on. This is a great time to try something like that. I mean, we’ve published hundreds and hundreds of writers.
[00:00:31] Scott: It’s just has this life of its own. And I had no idea that there’d be this sort of community out there of people who wanted to write about baseball.
[00:00:43] Anna: What’s up bucketheads. Thanks for tuning in and welcome to episode number 147 of the baseball bucket list podcast. I’m your host Anna DiTommaso. And each week on the show, I speak with a different baseball fan about their favorite memories. What’s left on their baseball bucket list and what the game of baseball means to them. This week, I sat down with Scott Bolohan from lower Manhattan. Scott grew up outside of Detroit and is a longtime Tigers fan who also has a soft spot for the Yankees. Thanks to his dream job as a Yankee stadium tour guide.
[00:01:13] Anna: Scott played baseball his whole life, even after suffering a UCL tear in high school and still travels to Italy each year to play in a tournament with an old team of his, the Oxford Kings of the British Baseball Federation. We chat about what he tells the kids he coaches about the importance of the fundamentals and arm health. And about the Twin Bill, a baseball literary journals Scott started during the pandemic.
[00:01:35] Anna: This episode was a lot of fun. We cover a lot of ground, so I want to get right into it. Now without further ado, sit back, relax and enjoy some baseball banter with Scott Bolohan,
[00:01:47] Anna: Scott, thank you so much for joining us today on the Baseball Bucket List. How are things in Lower Manhattan?
[00:01:53] Scott: Things, things are great down here. Uh, it’s been actually warm for the first time this year. So it’s been great.
[00:02:00] Anna: I see some sunshine coming through your window, which is like kind of a rarity there in the city, isn’t it?
[00:02:05] Scott: For now, yeah. I mean, last week we had rain. I coached high school ball down the city and we had indoor practice all last week. And I think the rest of the week is going to be the same way.
[00:02:14] Anna: Yeah. Yeah. Well, not only the weather, but just like, I feel like you’re kind of fortunate you have sun coming through your, your window in New York. It’s a. A rare find in some of those apartments. Yeah,
[00:02:28] Scott: there. Yeah.
[00:02:29] Anna: that’s awesome. All right. So, you know, the first question I’m going to get started with is how is it that you became a fan of the game of baseball?
[00:02:37] Scott: I was really stumped about this. I knew this was coming and I cannot remember not playing baseball. I can remember being really young with my dad and he had that plastic whiffle ball and I had like a, uh, a Bam Bam Flintstone kind of big, big red bat, and he would throw me pitches on her hand and I would hit it over the fence in our backyard.
[00:02:58] Scott: I’ve, baseball’s always been a part of my life and it continues to be such a central role to who I am as a person.
[00:03:05] Anna: So when you would, uh, hit the ball over the, the fence there, would you, would you do that? Do your little home run trot around the backyard.
[00:03:13] Scott: I don’t think I bat flipped, which would have been really cool. Um, I don’t think so, but I did, I do remember just running in circles. You just take off running. Even if you don’t have a base, you got to run.
[00:03:23] Anna: Yeah, for sure. I remember those days where like you’re you’re running quote unquote the bases, but it’s really just kind of like a semi circle of just made up proportions in your head. And man, that’s always a always a good time to look back on. So you’re sitting in New York City, but that’s not where you were born and raised.
[00:03:44] Anna: So I mean, Next question I usually follow that up with is, you know, who’s your favorite team?
[00:03:50] Scott: So I grew up in Detroit and just outside Detroit, um, you know, going to Tiger Stadium, um, which was my favorite place in the whole world. Um, and when you grow up in Detroit, especially in the mid nineties. There was not a lot to be really excited about there, uh, for those teams, but I loved them, um, which has served me really well for Immaculate Grit, because no one knows any of these guys, um, but I know all of them.
[00:04:13] Scott: and then in, in the mid 90s, I had kind of a weird, my favorite player ended up on the Yankees, and so I kind of like switched allegiances for a little bit there, and so like those mid 90s Yankees teams, I loved and I got to meet a lot of those guys, which was just an incredible experience, especially when you’re 10 years old, you can’t imagine anything better than meeting your heroes.
[00:04:34] Scott: And it’s just, it’s unreal. So now, you know, I still very much root for the Tigers. I hope they do well. I still, I go back home every summer and I coach for the Detroit Tigers summer camp. Um, but I also live in New York and I work for the Yankees. I’m a Yankee I’m going to be. down at the stadium in two hours.
[00:04:53] Scott: So I kind of get to live the dream of both franchises here. I’m just hoping one of them wins so I get a ring. So
[00:04:59] Anna: Man they’re both off to like a fantastic start this year, you know I think nobody had the Yankees looking so good out of the gate with all of that Devastating injury kind of bug going around for them and in spring training and you know I think most people just have lost complete faith in the Tigers as an organization But man, they both are fun teams to be watching so far
[00:05:22] Scott: it’s been great so far. And I was actually down in spring training a couple weeks ago, and I was splitting my time between the two ballparks. And I kind of had this feeling that this might actually be a good year for both teams. And so far, it’s it’s been it’s been right. I want to I don’t want to jinx anything, but, um, right now I’m feeling pretty good.
[00:05:40] Anna: you should. I mean, it’s exciting. And my dad’s side of the family is from Detroit. They are all still just like rabid Tigers fans. And so the, the family chat thread is kind of blowing up with, uh, you know, should we get world series tickets now? And a lot of good high energy that they haven’t had the, uh, Pleasure of experiencing it here lately, at least.
[00:06:02] Anna: So it’s fun. It’s fun for sure.
[00:06:05] Scott: My parents own season tickets, so I’ll be home this weekend for my dad’s birthday, and I’m gonna go to all the games. I’m so excited. It’s great.
[00:06:14] Anna: man Comerica is a nice park too. Like that’s one of the ones that was like a a nice surprise to me
[00:06:20] Scott: Here’s my Comerica Park secret. Uh, our, our, our season tickets are on the upper deck, on the third base side. And if you sit up there, you get the whole skyline in the background. You don’t get that view from everywhere. I don’t like sitting in the lower deck. Gentle of a slope and you kind of get lost behind everyone’s head there.
[00:06:38] Scott: Upper deck is incredible. I’m a big upper deck guy. you get to see everything in front of you. It’s the best place to just take in the game. That’s, that’s my, by far my favorite place to sit there.
[00:06:46] Anna: Yeah, that’s I I agree with that I I like a 200 level over like a 100 level for sure because I feel like you just have a better line of sight for everything and then you think about parks like that that have the Skyline of the city in the in the outfield you want to be a little higher up.
[00:07:02] Anna: It’s like it’s You know, PNC is, is a gorgeous ballpark, but you don’t want to be sitting in section 72 because you won’t see anything but the outfield wall. So, um, that’s a good tip for, for folks who haven’t been to Comerica yet. So, I’m hoping you can kind of give us some, some similar insight to Yankee stadium.
[00:07:20] Anna: You just mentioned your tour guide there. How long have you been doing that and kind of how’d you fall into it?
[00:07:25] Scott: I got hired the day before the world shut down. So we’re talking 2020, like March 15th or
[00:07:33] Anna: Great timing
[00:07:35] Scott: I know. And I’m, I’m in there in Yankee stadium. I’m like signing my, my paperwork has a Yankee logo on it. This is like a dream come true. And everyone’s kind of like, oh, you know, we’ll see what happens in the next week or so.
[00:07:47] Scott: I don’t step foot in Yankee Stadium for two years after that. Um, so last year was my first full time year. Yes, my first full time there. it’s been a really, it’s the greatest job in the world. I’m not even going to pretend it’s not. Uh, I regularly get to hold Babe Ruth’s bat. Just like these incredible things.
[00:08:06] Scott: I’ve really learned to love Yankee Stadium. I was very much a Partial to the old stadium. I’m kind of a you know, classic ballpark kind of guy. But I’ve really learned to love Yankee Stadium. And the other thing I’ve learned about working there is that Yankee history, whether however you feel about the Yankees, it really is American history.
[00:08:24] Scott: And we get people from around the world who have never seen a baseball game, but they want to come on to Yankee Stadium. They know about the Yankees. It’s it’s It’s a bucket list item for people. Uh, so it’s been a really rewarding experience that I don’t take for granted at all. I fully recognize that I get to go to the ballpark and talk about baseball.
[00:08:43] Scott: Like this is, this is half a step below being on the field. This is, this is pretty good.
[00:08:48] Anna: Yeah, it sounds like a dream it really does So, I mean often we hear skip the tour at this ballpark because it’s not worth it They don’t show you the nooks and crannies, you know, it’s very surface level or things like that Do you recommend, I mean, I would guess if you’re, if you’re kind of doing this as a job that, uh, the Yankee stadium tour is well worth the price of admission.
[00:09:12] Scott: Oh, yeah. I mean, to me, the guides there just know so much about it. And the best, the best advice I give you ask the guides questions, not enough people come to us asking us things. And we have so many things that we’re holding back because we’re trying to give, you know, a generalized overview for people who, you know, Maybe from Belgium who have never seen a baseball game.
[00:09:33] Scott: And then there also has someone there who’s, you know, favorite player, you know, grew up there. He’s from the fifties and he knows everything about Yankee history. And, you know, so, so ask us questions and we also offer hands on history tours where you do get to hold Babe Ruth’s bat and Derek Jeter’s Jersey.
[00:09:51] Scott: Um, you get to put on rings, you get to have this experience that you can’t really have anywhere else. Um, I wish I had done that as a fan before I got hired there, but now I get to do it all the time, and it’s, again, it’s the best.
[00:10:03] Anna: That’s awesome. I want to back up for a second because you had mentioned that you, you kind of, you know, Shifted allegiances after your favorite player got traded to the Yankees, but you never named who that was.
[00:10:15] Scott: Uh, there’s a reason for that. Uh, so I grew up in Detroit and my favorite player is now, uh, not necessarily, uh, turned out to be that good of a guy, his name, Chad Curtis. Um, and I had a Chad Curtis jersey and he saw it. When I went to one of the games and he started talking to me and every time I would go to a game, he would come over, he’d sign autographs for me.
[00:10:39] Scott: He taught me baseballs, give me autographs, introduced me to guys. Um, so, you know, there was a time down there at tiger stadium where Scott Brosius runs over to me and he’s just like, Hey Scott, I’m Scott. And I’m like, that’s amazing that I got to meet this guy. And it turns out that he wasn’t that good of a guy.
[00:10:56] Scott: He was spent 10 years in jail and it really kind of ruined baseball for me for a couple of years. I mean, I was his number one fan. I had. 800 cards of his autographs and everything. And it really kind of made me remember that these are, these are people, they’re not gods that you think they are. And it, it took my, it hurt my fandom there for a long time.
[00:11:16] Scott: And now I’ve kind of moved on and recognize that what I loved about the game is still there, even though that some of the guys playing may not be as great as we hope them to be.
[00:11:28] Anna: Yeah, I just had a long conversation about this because, you know, obviously I’m a Rays fan. Wander Franco is in similar, probably worse situation, honestly. And, uh, it’s difficult to digest something like that because you, you You want to assume that they’re as good of humans as they are ballplayers, and it just doesn’t always line up that way, but, um, I’m glad it didn’t, you know, sway your allegiance to the game.
[00:11:55] Anna: Too drastically because I’m sure there are a lot of people who when their childhood hero or whoever lets them down like that They just they just kind of detach and never find their way back. But I’m glad to hear you’re back I’m glad to hear that. Not only are you back but you are immersing yourself in Yankee Stadium on a near daily basis and that’s not the only thing you got going on But before we move on to the Twin Bill I’m hoping you can give some insight, like, what is the best kept secret or little known fact about Yankee Stadium?
[00:12:28] Scott: Well, I can tell you. So again, best place to sit section 217. Hands down, right there, uh, it’s the 200 level, the main level, by far the best place to sit. Um, people don’t realize that there’s a museum, that Yankee Stadium has a museum. And you can visit that up until the 8th inning. And we’re talking about, uh, Cooperstown level stuff in there.
[00:12:49] Scott: You know, the bat that Babe Ruth used to hit the first home run at Yankee Stadium. I, I’ve also, people don’t go to Monument Park. They, they somehow miss that. And that’s, so this is actually the highlight, the best part about the tour. You get to go to Monument Park. With very few people there, and you actually get to take it in and enjoy it.
[00:13:07] Scott: Otherwise, you’re lining up before and you’re kind of pushed through. It’s, it’s that, that, that chance to sort of take it in and really kind of feel the history, feel all the players there. I, I get chills every time I go down there. That to me is, is still magical.
[00:13:20] Anna: I’m glad to hear that the Yankees, you know, because I was someone who went and visited old Yankee Stadium in its final year of existence in 2008, just a couple weeks before the All Star Game, which it hosted that year. you know, as, as someone who doesn’t have a long history or connection to the New York Yankees, I, I very clearly saw the need for a new ballpark, but totally understand people who grew up going there or recognize the just sheer amount of history that was in that building being a little upset about having to, to get rid of it effectively, but I’m glad to hear you say that, you know, the new one kind of has that same like almost religious experience to it.
[00:14:03] Anna: You know, that’s what I think of when I think of places like, like Cooperstown and museums and things like that. So, um, it’s cool to hear that they, they carried that over well, well enough for a Yankee fan to like admit that.
[00:14:14] Scott: I can’t tell you how many people have told me that they’ve snuck ashes into the stadium and spread ashes. In Monument Park, it really means a lot to so many people.
[00:14:24] Anna: Yeah, it’s, it’s crazy to think, I mean, of course, you and I and anyone listening to this is fully going to understand the importance that sports and particularly baseball is the role that it plays in our lives, but, uh, it’s pretty cool to hear people coming from all over the world just to see, uh, Yankee Stadium if even they’re not a baseball fan.
[00:14:45] Anna: So that’s that’s neat Can people request you as their tour guide like say someone’s listening to this and they want to they want to get a tour the stadium With you or is it not that
[00:14:54] Scott: Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. We also offer private tours. I gave a private tour, just two people the other day. I took them to the suite level places. We don’t usually get to go. Um, yeah, you can request me and, uh, I, I, I would love to, to hopefully someday meet someone who listened to this. That would, that would really tickle me.
[00:15:12] Scott: I’d be really, I’d be really excited about that. That’d be amazing.
[00:15:15] Anna: Yeah, so you heard that guys if you if you find your way to New York City You want to take a tour Yankee Stadium? Make sure you ask for Scott Make sure you, uh, let him know that you heard him on this podcast because that would be fun. And then you guys got to send me a photo cause that would just tickle me too.
[00:15:31] Anna: Cool. So before we started recording, you and I were kind of lamenting over this whole like starting communities and, and podcasts and things that we have no business doing because of our lack of technological skill. But, um, You know, we’re both finding our way in this space, I think, and, um, I would love for you to tell the audience here what the Twin Bill is all about.
[00:15:54] Scott: Yeah. So we’re a literary baseball journal and we publish short stories. Essays, poetry, we do interviews and we publish art. It started off during the pandemic. I had COVID unbeknownst to me. And I was just sitting around on the couch watching Ken Burns baseball documentary, and it was this really comforting, nice thing in my life that I was like, you know what?
[00:16:22] Scott: I wish there were a place that people could write about baseball and share their stories. And I didn’t really find anywhere like that. I mean, and so I thought, you know what? I’ve got something else going on. This is a great time to try something like that. I mean, when we originally started, I didn’t even include poetry in the submission call because I didn’t think that I could judge poetry and we’ve probably received over a thousand poems since we’ve started, uh, almost four years ago now, I mean, we’ve published hundreds and hundreds of writers.
[00:16:54] Scott: It’s just has this life of its own. And I had no idea that there’d be this sort of community out there of people who wanted to write about baseball. It’s been really, really fulfilling. I’ve had people tell me that their dad published something and they have been so grateful to have a place where their dad could share their love of the game with what we do.
[00:17:12] Scott: And we’ve had people from overseas write. never would have expected people in England to be writing about baseball for us. It’s been amazing, and I think this really does speak to what the baseball community can and is. It really is this amazing thing that I just want more people to know about and get involved with.
[00:17:33] Anna: we call that sharing the best parts of baseball, and it sounds exactly like what you’re after. And, you know, our timelines are strikingly similar, and I think a lot of the reason that you and I felt compelled to kind of start something in a similar vein to one another is when you Have something that’s so near and dear to you and it’s there day in and day out without fail until it’s not you kind of have to take a harder look at why it is so meaningful to you and I think that that is, you know, one of the best things to come out of covid for me in particular is just The way I had to reevaluate my relationship with the game and really dial in and, and find out what it was about, like why, why I love this silly game so much and why, you know, it’s not just about winning and losing or how the Tampa Bay Rays did today or whatever it may be, um, you know, scared me to a degree that, like, I was not prepared for thinking that, like, I might never walk into a ballpark again.
[00:18:39] Anna: And I mean, Like, that means I might not sit next to my dad and watch another game, and like, you know, um, It’s, it’s just one of those things, like, can never fully understand how meaningful it is until it’s not there. And, uh, I would assume that a lot of the folks that are writing in to you and, and maybe some of the stuff that you’re coming up with on your own is probably a, a fair indication of people who, Feel the same way but it took a while to be able to like put that into words but now all of a sudden, here are a lot of words.
[00:19:08] Scott: I always think that, you know, you go to any baseball game and there may be 40, 000 people at the game and every single one of those people there is experiencing that game in a different way. They all have, whether or not you realize that you have a baseball story and however you want to express that, I, I want to know it.
[00:19:24] Scott: I want to hear it. And I think that’s what’s at the heart of the Twin Bill.
[00:19:28] Anna: I love it. I think it’s such a cool idea and I, I, I really really applaud you for encouraging people to kind of explore that other side of the game. Like, you know, the non tangibles of it. The, the, the. The stuff that is detached from results of the game, or at least by a degree or so. So, um, it’s, it’s really cool.
[00:19:47] Anna: and then there’s a podcast. I saw you’ve got one episode out so far, but it’s in the works of, of becoming a more permanent fixture.
[00:19:54] Scott: Yeah, we just released our second episode on Monday. Um, so we’re, uh, the plan is that we’re going to basically interview baseball authors, um, there are so many baseball books and I used to do interviews for the twin bill and I realized I could maybe only do say four per issue because we’re quarterly.
[00:20:12] Scott: And this lets me talk to so many more people that I would not have been able to talk to. We just interviewed, um, Randy Lewis Cox, who was a photographer at the Hank Aaron 715th home run game.
[00:20:22] Anna: Wow,
[00:20:23] Scott: Which is incredible. And just to hear his story, he just wrote a book about it. Um, and it meant a lot to me, my, my day job, I, I write and research stamps for the U S post office.
[00:20:32] Scott: And on Monday, we announced that the Hank Aaron stamp that I worked on was going to come out. So it was really amazing to actually, after all this time, I spent researching it to then talk to someone who, who witnessed it, who shook Hank Aaron’s hand right after it happened. And I’m, I’m hoping that we’re going to keep going.
[00:20:48] Scott: There’s just so many books out there that. I hope people listen to and, and, and learn about and so many different stories that, that are unexpected that I’m hoping to kind of uncover, uh, as much as I can.
[00:21:00] Anna: yeah, that’s exciting stuff. I can’t wait to see, you know, kind of where it goes to and I’m sure there’s gonna be plenty of authors that I will be introduced to and and thrilled to read about so I want to pivot a little bit. I know that you used to and kind of still do play baseball, right? Talk a little bit about your career
[00:21:21] Scott: Yeah. So growing up, all I wanted to do was play baseball. That’s all I ever wanted. I thought I was gonna go to the major leagues for sure. Um, in high school, I tore my UCL. It was, I knew it. They wouldn’t do Tommy John on me. Um, I’m also five foot 10. I’m a five foot 10 right handed pitcher. You know, I didn’t know as much as I know now, I was never going to make it.
[00:21:45] Scott: But I still loved the game and I, I pitched for about 10 years on my torn UCL, which got to the point that it, it became, I had, I had to have the surgery. So I had the surgery during the pandemic. But when I went to grad school in England, I ended up joining a team out there, the Oxford Kings and I won the British, uh, British baseball federation, double A batting title in 2016.
[00:22:10] Scott: And I still get to go every year and play with them, um, in Turin, Italy. We do a tournament out there and it is honestly the best thing that I get to do in life. I mean, I, as a kid, I dreamed about playing in the majors. I never dreamed about playing baseball in Italy. I didn’t even know that was a possibility.
[00:22:29] Scott: It’s a truly magical thing to get to fly out there and see the game and where it’s at these days for, for places like Italy, where you don’t really associate necessarily with, with baseball and there’s good players out there. I mean, it’s, it’s really exciting. And I. I hope that over the years I can maybe play in some other places and see more of what else is out there. The game really is a global game and I’m hoping people will start to recognize that more.
[00:22:59] Anna: That’s so cool that you still make time and and You know, prioritize getting over there to play with that group of guys every year because I imagine it’s, it’s kind of like that tail end of the sandlot where, you know, so and so moves and he doesn’t show up that year and then the team just kind of dwindles and, uh, you don’t know how long it’s going to last, but like, I’d love to hear that you’re just there every time because I would take full advantage of that.
[00:23:26] Anna: So I’m, I’m glad to hear that’s what’s going on.
[00:23:29] Scott: Yeah, no one else flies over from America for it. A lot of them are UK based. But I go out there and I take my parents every year. This is, this is the one thing we have marked down on the calendar every single year that we, we have to block out this time for going to Turin. And it’s, it’s the best. I mean, you see things that you never expect.
[00:23:47] Scott: They, they rake the dirt, the infield dirt, on a moped. So it’s a guy on a moped literally just like driving around with a rake tied to the back. It’s magical. It’s like, you can’t make it up. It’s, it’s the greatest thing. And then at the end of every game, we have a big sort of Italian family style meal with all the teams.
[00:24:04] Scott: And we just talk about baseball. I was talking with guys from France about how I throw my cutter and we were talking grips and stuff and exchanging ideas from just around the world. Uh, I, I, it’s the greatest thing I get to do.
[00:24:19] Anna: I love that. So are you, you’re still pitching then even after the Tommy John? So you’re a pitcher and a batting title winner. So watch out Shohei Otani.
[00:24:30] Scott: right now. I, I’m not sure I can hit the eighties anymore, but, uh, I got a good curveball still, so more, more of a junk baller at this point, but yeah, I’m trying, I’m still, I’m going to stop when they make me stop when I, when I can’t do it anymore. Great. But until then, I’m going to be out there every single year.
[00:24:46] Scott: And even if I can’t play, honestly, as long as this is happening, I’m, I’m going to go, I’m going to be out there.
[00:24:51] Anna: I love hearing that. That’s so cool. Uh, Mike Piazza is the coach for the, um, Italian national team, isn’t he?
[00:24:59] Scott: Yes, yes, yes.
[00:25:00] Scott: Yeah,
[00:25:01] Scott: Um, there again, there’s talent out there. I mean, we play, I’ve seen some kids who, you know, 14, 15 years old out there who, you think, wow, this guy’s like, he looks really good. It’s, it’s out there. I mean, all across all across, um, Italy, um, and Turin is just a small part of it.
[00:25:20] Scott: I mean, it’s, it’s, Up and down the whole country there. And, and again, I’ve played with guys from Australia, guys from France, uh, you know, England, all over the place. is, it is this. It’s this big unifier that we all share, no matter if we can speak the same language. We all speak baseball and it’s, it’s, it’s great.
[00:25:41] Scott: I love it.
[00:25:41] Anna: Is there something that comes to mind if I ask you what your favorite baseball memory is? That’s
[00:25:47] Scott: I always think it’s me getting to go out to Italy. I mean, and we just talked a lot about that. It is really magical. I’ve seen no hitters. I’ve been in the world series. I think now for me. It’s, it’s getting to share the love of baseball as opposed to any sort of one moment. And, and, you know, that’s part of what the twin bill is.
[00:26:10] Scott: That’s part of what playing overseas is. It’s this, it’s these moments where you kind of recognize that this is much greater than you thought it was. yeah, there’s nothing like going and having an espresso in the bar and then walking down the field in Italy. It, every time it does not get old.
[00:26:27] Anna: awesome. Is this a summertime thing or what’s,
[00:26:32] Scott: go at the end of, so, so September, we go at the end of, um, the seasons and it’s, it’s, um, a tournament. So one of the coaches at Oxford helped found the Torino Jacks. Um, my gosh, I think it was 60 years ago last year. And so he is really kind of influential in Italian baseball. And so we go out there have this big tournament with him.
[00:26:52] Scott: the team I play for on is now, this is its 26th year. Again, this is a small, small club in England. And so it is just a celebration. It’s kind of a end of the season thing where we’re so happy to get to do this. Um, no one takes it for granted. We recognize that this isn’t normal. This is, this is really special.
[00:27:12] Anna: Man, that makes me happy. I love that so much. I love hearing not only that, like, that exists, but also that the more people I talk to, the more I begin to understand how global the game is, you know, and being an American kid growing up only stateside for my entire life, you know, I was kind of blind to that for a long, long time.
[00:27:34] Anna: And so, you know, Um, I wish I weren’t because I feel like I, I could have experienced so much more in my younger years, but you know, youth is wasted on the young, I think is the, the saying. So, um, I, I gotta start paying more attention to what there is outside of, of just major league and specific, you know, American baseball.
[00:27:55] Anna: So, um, that’s cool. That’s really cool to hear that you still have that group of college guys and you get it over to Italy every, every September.
[00:28:03] Scott: We, at the Twin Bill, we’ve been sponsoring, um, a baseball team in, in England who started up last year and now they have Two teams, the, the Thunder Knights, they’re, they’re great. Uh, the new forest Thunder Knights, uh, one of their players, um, illustrates for us consistently. So, you know, it’s just a little way that we can continue to help.
[00:28:24] Scott: Try to grow the game in places that people don’t think about.
[00:28:27] Anna: Yeah. Yeah. That’s cool. The Thunder Knights. What a good name, too.
[00:28:32] Scott: That’s awesome. Their uniform is great. It’s so cool.
[00:28:34] Scott: Yeah,
[00:28:35] Anna: I like it. I like it. What’s left to check off on the baseball bucket list? Like what’s the, what’s the thing in the top of the list? Something you got to do, a place you want to go, a person you want to meet?
[00:28:44] Scott: I think like everybody. I’m trying to get all 30 ballparks. I have 22 right now and I’m going to lose one next year when the A’s move. And I’ve been stuck at 22 for a while. And you know, I, that’s, that’s always something I’m trying to do. I’ve never seen the Tigers win the world series. I want to be at the game with my parents, sitting in the upper deck, watching that happen.
[00:29:06] Scott: That would mean so much to me. Um, but now, you know, I think it’s continuing to explore overseas. Um, I would love if one of the kids that I coach, you know, Goes on to play in the majors. Something like that. Something where I could feel like I’ve added something to the game here. I went to the Columbian World Series last year in, in, in Columbia.
[00:29:27] Scott: It was this wild experience. And I, you know, I think that now I’d love to get to the game, the MLB game in London. I know they’re going to continue to grow over there some more too. I’d like to coach overseas. I think that’s, I think that’s really, I think that I have lots of offer. And if I paid more attention to languages and in high school, maybe this would be something that I could be doing more of.
[00:29:51] Scott: but yeah, I think for me, it’s, it’s, Not so much anything that’s left for me to do. It’s, it’s more, what can I do to help baseball in other places?
[00:30:01] Anna: I love that answer. I think that’s so holistic and, you know, comes with kind of understanding that the, the game is, is so much bigger than, than its own, like the, the sum of its parts makes up more than baseball on its own. And that all starts with, uh, people who recognize that and, and want to share the best parts of it.
[00:30:20] Anna: And so, um, I think that’s a great answer. I want to back up for a second because you mentioned in passing that you are still, over the summer going back to Detroit and working with the, the Tigers kids summer camp. What kind of stuff do you do for them?
[00:30:38] Scott: So I’m the pitching coach for the kids summer camp. Um, it’s a dream. Uh, the kids are between 6 and 14. I look at them as me, but younger. I guarantee you I would have been in this camp as a kid. So I try to treat every kid Like they’re me who is just, they get to put the uniforms on and we go down to Comerica Park and they get to actually throw the ball around on the field and they get to meet a tiger.
[00:31:04] Scott: It’s, it’s the type of thing that I think sometimes that I even get more out of than than they do. but yeah, being able to even, you know, Potentially influence the next me out there in some small way. It’s, it’s, it’s an amazing feeling. especially, you know, it’s, it’s where I grew up. I don’t live there anymore.
[00:31:24] Scott: And to get back and give back to those people, um, in Michigan, which is still very important and near to me. It means, it means a lot.
[00:31:34] Anna: Yeah, that’s exciting. So your cutter. Are you teaching these like 14 year old kids how to throw a cutter?
[00:31:41] Scott: So what I tell them, I always ask them, what’s the best pitch in baseball? And they’ll, they’ll throw out, you know, fastball, curveball, knuckleball. I said, no, no, no. It’s a strike guys. It’s always a strike. And until you can throw a strike. you can’t worry about everything else then. and so I’m very big on repeating the delivery, consistently being able to throw that, that fastball for a strike.
[00:32:06] Scott: Then you can worry about other things. Uh, every now and then I get, I get like a nine year old’s like, Oh, you got to check out my curveball. I’m like, all right, let’s see it. And it’s like, you know, I’m not going to lie. It’s not, it’s not very good. And I don’t think you can throw for a strike. So until you can throw strikes, Don’t worry about that curveball yet.
[00:32:25] Scott: The day will come. The day will come. I, I worry a lot about youth baseball and what we’re doing to these kids. And so I’ve always been very big on arm care. I tell, I show them the scar on my elbow every single time. And I’m like, Hey, here’s where I messed up. I would throw every single day after school.
[00:32:44] Scott: I had a, I had a pitch back. In my driveway, you throw the ball into it and bounce back to you. I would throw that for hours. I would play in three leagues. I love baseball. That’s all I wanted to do, which is great. I overdid it. And I think that now you’re seeing this generation of kids like me reach the major leagues.
[00:33:02] Scott: And if you’re a pitcher, you’re going to have Tommy John surgery because of the way that you were treated growing up the way that baseball was taught at the time. So my hope as a coach. Is to take a, take a step back and kind of realize it. Like, Hey, we have to be careful here. We have to know what we’re doing here.
[00:33:22] Scott: I don’t want to see curve balls in the camp. Even if you’re 14, when you, when you hit high school there, sure. Until then, if you can throw a good change up, and if you ask any major league hitter, and this is something I do with the tiger camp, it’s like, Hey, what’s, what’s the hardest pitch to hit? And you know what their answer is every single time.
[00:33:40] Scott: It’s a change up every single time. Kids don’t want to throw change ups because they don’t look cool, but man, there’s nothing better than striking a guy out on a change up where they’re just swinging over that ball. So I’m hoping that, that through these camps, through the experience that I’ve had, that I can hopefully share where I went wrong and Try to give them a way where they can take a different path.
[00:34:02] Scott: And that’s, that’s been, again, a very meaningful thing that has meant a lot to me as a coach. I didn’t love my coaches in high school. So I’ve always set out to become not them and be the coach that I would want to play for.
[00:34:14] Anna: That’s super admirable and I think it’s always a good idea to start with fundamentals, right? Like don’t worry about the next thing until until you’re pretty good at being consistent with like the basics and you know Of course this week in particular the big debate is why is it that we now have three?
[00:34:33] Anna: hugely important pitchers who are probably sidelined for the rest of the year best case scenario for, for at least a couple of them. It’s going to be much longer than that and um, there’s a hot debate over pitch clock, over banning of sticky substances and things like that, but I have not heard many people Say, maybe it’s the fact that these kids have been throwing like Nolan Ryan and training like Nolan Ryan since they were six years old and, you know, it’s, it’s time to start asking some, some tough questions about, you know, What that, what that looks like downstream.
[00:35:06] Anna: So, that’s an interesting thought. I had never, I hadn’t thought of it before. So, I’m, I’m, I’m glad you brought that up because it gives me a little bit more pause to think about the, uh, competitive stress these kids are facing at such a young age for, for so many more reasons than physical, emotional, you know.
[00:35:24] Anna: It’s all there. So, uh, that’s a, that’s a good take from you, I think. Um, I hope, I hope more people kind of start thinking through stuff like that.
[00:35:34] Scott: I have a kid on my high school team right now who his dad asked me, Hey, if he pitches Saturday for his other team, could he come and start the game on Monday? I’m like, no. You can’t, you can’t do that. I mean, I don’t, I don’t know what they’re doing outside of this. And I know that, yeah, we have figured out how to throw the ball really hard.
[00:35:52] Scott: And unfortunately, that involves throwing a lot and really putting a lot of stress on our arm. And for, yeah, the, the, if you want to make the majors, unfortunately, that’s what you have to do these days. It is getting in these showcases and putting up these numbers. But that’s not, that’s not going to go well in the longterm here.
[00:36:09] Scott: And for the, for the one guy out of the thousand that makes it at these camps, everyone else has just abused their arm and their body for, for what? At this point, they’re baseball’s great, but there is more than just. Being really good at baseball. There is, and I want people to realize that if you love the game, there are other ways that you can get involved besides just destroying your arm.
[00:36:34] Scott: Write a poem, write a poem for us. That’s, that’s a great way to, uh, to get involved.
[00:36:39] Anna: A hundred percent. I love, I love that take and I, uh, I’m glad that there are voices like yours out there who have gone through the, the ups and downs of all that to, to kind of say like, Hey, maybe, maybe we start looking at this from a different point of view here. But, um, Scott, I can’t thank you enough for making time to come on and chat baseball with me.
[00:36:57] Anna: Where do we send people to find you to find the twin bill? Where do we, where do we send them?
[00:37:01] Scott: So the website is the twin build. com. All of our socials are. At the Twinville, um, the podcast is the Twinville podcast. It’s, uh, it’s all right there. You should be able to find us on any platform. I really appreciate the time and it’s been, it’s been a joy talking to you today.
[00:37:18] Anna: One final question. What’s. Behind the name. What’s, what’s the twin bill? Where does that come from?
[00:37:24] Scott: So that’s an old term for doubleheader. Um, and I, I came across it. I was looking for something that was a little bit inside baseball. And. Yeah, I originally wanted to call it the 406. Um, it was going to be, you know, Ted Williams is batting average. Someone already had it somewhere. And so I was like, all right, so I was going down my list of baseball terms.
[00:37:43] Scott: It’s like the twin bill. That’s great. I mean, because there’s something about there being more after it, you know, you have your one game and then you have the other game. Everyone loves a doubleheader. So I thought, hey, you know what, this is a great, this is a great idea. You get your poetry, you get your fiction, and there’s still there’s still something else.
[00:37:58] Scott: We still have other things to come here. So yeah, that’s where the twin bill comes from.
[00:38:03] Anna: Nice. I love it. I love it. Scott, thank you so much. I cannot thank you enough for for making time. I really enjoyed it and um, I’ll let you get off to Yankee Stadium to go live the dream.
[00:38:12] Scott: Thanks so much. This was an absolute joy.
[00:38:15] And that will wrap up this episode of the baseball bucket list podcast. Special thanks to Scott Bolohan for joining us today and sharing those stories and memories. If this sounds like something you’d like to do, if you think you might like to be a guest on the show, head to baseball bucket list.com/podcast and fill out an application I’d absolutely love to hear from you. While you’re there, make sure to spend some time on the site, sign up for a free membership, build your own baseball bucket list, and track your ballpark visits. If you find yourself enjoying the show each week, please take a moment to rate and review it in the podcast app of your choice. I would really appreciate it. And it goes such a long way and finding new listeners. That’s it for this week. Thanks so much for listening. We’ll see you. Next episode.
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