Josh Engler will enter the 2022 Grip 'N Rip Baseball League season with a 2.91 career earned run average across 68 innings pitched. He's allowed 47 hits, and struck out 97 batters in two seasons. If all goes well, he'll become just the third pitcher in seven years of GRBL baseball to strike out the 100th batter of his career. "Burger Bites" is written, produced and edited by Rance Burger. SONGS: "Mr. Burger" by Burger Man Produced by Tay Muletti Buy/Stream:...

It's the M-V-Podcast. Josh Engler is the 2021 Most Valuable Player of the Grip 'N Rip Baseball League. He struck out a single season record 69 batters in nine games with the Republic Locos, and he also got 12 hits. Josh Engler is from Mount Vernon, Missouri, but now resides in Aurora with his wife, Ashlynn (nee Meredith) and daughter, Ivy. That's where we begin as we get to know the reigning MVP. We also explore the high school career that got him to the next level at Evangel University,...

Lefty Trey Watson pitched for a team named in his honor in 2018, the Trey Watson Realty Closers. After growing up in Springfield, Missouri, and playing for the legendary coach Howard Bell's Glendale Falcons, Watson went on to play two years at Crowder College and then two years at Columbus State University in the Peach Belt Conference. When his college baseball career came to an end, Watson came home to start a career and carry on his family tradition of being community-minded...

Justin Skinner approaches entrepreneurship like he approached the baseball career that put him in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2020 — he's not afraid to try everything. April 5, 2022, Justin Skinner will release a book, "Professional Failure: Using the Gift of Failures to Better Not Only Yourself, But Those Around You." Learn more at http://professional-failure.com. He also launched "The Professional Failure Podcast."...

There's a baseball league in Ozark, Missouri, and sometimes, it gets characterized as a league for old men. Some of the people who play in the Grip 'N Rip Baseball League self-identify as old men. Zach Ralph, Cole Haselhorst, Trevyn Batey, Chandler Maples and Kyle Carpenter are among the youngsters who lower the average age and raise the level of competition in #TheGRBL. "Burger Bites" is written, produced and edited by Rance Burger. SONGS: "Mr. Burger" by Burger Man Produced by Tay...

Here come the young lions. In a baseball league where some of the players self-identify as old men, these five guys are lowering the median age and raising the level of competition. Nixa Suckers pitcher Kyle Carpenter, Springfield Mets outfielder Chandler Maples, Ozark Mountain Ducks catcher Trevyn Batey, Moon City Mavericks utility infielder Zach Ralph and catcher Cole Haselhorst sit down for a roundtable discussion of their 2021 seasons. We break down the friendships that have formed...

With 40 hits, Jared Braschler ranks third all time in the Grip 'N Rip Baseball League. Now a resident of Ozark, Missouri, he lived out a modest dream of playing ball for the hometown team in 2021, when he started in center field for the Ozark Mountain Ducks. Unfortunately for the full time commercial pilot and part time pro baseball player, it also marked the fourth time in six years of the GRBL that Braschler played for the team that lost in the championship game at the end of a...

Ozark Mountain Ducks center fielder Jared Braschler ranks third all time in base hits across six seasons of Grip 'N Rip Baseball. When he isn't tracking fly balls and driving doubles, Braschler is flying airplanes. The commercial pilot takes us through an aviation career that began with humble airport baggage handling (and the unusual animal encounters that go with it) and carries on today in the cockpit of the Boeing 737. Rance asks several years worth of pent up questions he has...

Moon City Mavericks third baseman Brandon Freeman takes us back to the buttersoaked glory of yesteryear, his days as a professional roll thrower at Lambert's Cafe in Ozark, Missouri. Their motto is "Come Hungry, Leave Full, and Maybe Have a Laugh or Two," and the sign proudly designates it as the "Home of the Throwed Rolls." SONGS: "Mr. Burger" by Burger Man Produced by Tay Muletti Buy/Stream: http://smarturl.it/BugerMan-MrBurger "Champion" by SeriouzBeats, music provided by...

"Man, what is Freeman doing?" is a phrase I have heard more than once on the playing field and in the press box at U.S. Baseball Park. In five years of Grip 'N Rip Baseball, professional civil engineer Brandon Freeman has proven himself to be knowledgeable, versatile and valuable to any team he lands on, as evidenced by back-to-back championship wins in 2020 and in 2021. Freeman reflects on his season with the Moon City Mavericks, his humble beginnings in Spokane, Missouri, his college...

Evan Meagher walked away for surefire employment and salary in the financial sector to pursue some unfinished business... baseball. He put down his economics degree from Stanford and decided that maybe, if he trained hard enough, he could make it in Europe as a baseball ringer. BUY "Have Bat, Will Travel: My Year in French Baseball" by Evan Meagher: https://www.amazon.com/Have-Bat-Will-Travel-Baseball/dp/1737417219/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1640989222&sr=1-1 "Have Bat,...

Evan Meagher is the author of "Have Bat, Will Travel: My Year in French Baseball." The book is available in hard copy and on the Amazon Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0971QHXCZ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0 You might remember Evan Meagher the author, French baseball player/manager, financier, entrepreneur and vintage base ball star from episodes 40 and 41 of this very podcast. In 2006, Evan Meagher quit his finance job, trained his tail off and flew to France to play for...

It's been an uphill run for Caleb Cole, who battled through back, hamstring and ankle problems to put it all together in his 2021 Gold Glove Award-winning season with the Ozark Mountain Ducks. Caleb Cole became the first person inducted into the Grip 'N Rip Baseball League Hall of Fame on Oct. 24, 2021.  "Burger Bites" is written, produced and edited by Rance Burger. Special songs for this episode: "Legends Anthem" Whitesand From the album "Monsters," 2018 Composed by...

Caleb Cole collects awards wherever he goes. In the Grip 'N Rip Baseball League, he's a two-time Gold Glove Award winning shortstop, the 2017 MVP, a 2019 Howard Bell Trophy championship winner, a multi-time all-star and the first player ever voted into the newly-established GRBL Hall of Fame, and that vote was unanimous by his fellow players. At Drury University, he made first team all-Great Lakes Valley Conference twice, and was the conference's baseball Freshman of the Year in 2010. We...

Dayne Shoff is not actually ageless. He's 60. He's a baseball player. He's also a fire captain in his hometown of Lamar, Missouri, an engineering and safety consultant, a bus driver, a coach, an advisor, a caring father, a loving husband, a public address announcer, a radio broadcaster, and probably a whole lot of other stuff that we don't even know about. Dayne Shoff truly is a renaissance man. "Burger Bites" is written, produced and edited by Rance Burger. Theme songs "Mr. Burger" by...

Roundtable discussion with five members of the 2021 Moon City Mavericks continues. Guests Daniel England, Tyler Jones, Clay Murphy, Matt Spangler and Devin Braswell share some highlights from Moon City's 8-1 run to the Howard Bell Trophy championship of the Grip 'N Rip Baseball League. Jerry Kelly, Zach Ralph, Matt Spangler, Devin Braswell, Cole Haselhorst, Nick Bacon, Jacob Smith, Clay Murphy, Tyler Jones, Jacob Karlson, B.J. Gates, Hunter Altic, Justin Lowden, Brandon Freeman, and Mr....

The 2021 Moon City Mavericks celebrated a championship with a record of eight wins against a single defeat. They were the first team to ever win eight games in a single Grip 'N Rip Baseball League season, and they posted two shutouts along the way.  Moon City Mavericks roster: Clay Murphy, Cole Haselhorst, Jacob Karlson, Zach Ralph, Justin Lowden, Tyler Jones, Matt Spangler, Brandon Freeman, Nick Bacon, Devin Braswell, B.J. Gates, Jerry Kelley, Jacob Smith, Hunter Altic, and manager Daniel...

Dayne Shoff is 60 years old, and he still plays high-level baseball. To just talk about Dayne Shoff's age and the fact that he still plays baseball grossly undersells who Shoff is as a person. He's a firefighter, an assistant coach, a substitute teacher, a bus driver, an engineering and safety consultant. He's the top employee for his son Conner's small business. He's proud to be from Lamar, Missouri. He's a husband, a father... and yeah, a grandpa. And you know what else? Dayne Shoff is an...

Chris Meza survived his childhood in a Chicago barrio and made it onto a junior college baseball team. His injury-riddled career at the College of DuPage left him feeling like it was time to hang up the glove and the spikes for good, but baseball had other plans. He ended up moving to Springfield, Missouri, and ended up staying in part for the teammates and friends he met playing club level baseball at Missouri State University. Meza now serves as a junior varsity baseball coach at...

Chris Meza grew up on the south side of Chicago in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood. He grew up with two loving parents with the added bonus of his grandparents and aunts living in the same place. Like many Hispanic kids in Chicago, Chris was just as much raised by the barrio as he was by his family. Nothing, including baseball, came easy. Meza now serves as a junior varsity baseball coach at Hillcrest High School in Springfield, Missouri, and works full-time at a major food production plant....

Pitcher Chris Matlock talks us through his progression as an unheralded kid from Springfield, Missouri to becoming the 21st round draft pick for the Texas Rangers in 2009. He went from the junior college ranks to the University of Central Missouri, where Matlock shoved his way to NCAA All-American status and was chosen as the relief pitcher of the year for all of NCAA Division-II baseball. As a closer, Chris Matlock pitched in one of the longest games UCM had ever played in in the 2008...

Chris Matlock came within one out of winning MVP of the 2020 Grip 'N Rip Baseball League championship game, which would have put his name on the Howard Bell Trophy a second time.  The 2009 21st round draft pick of the Texas Rangers jumped into an offseason full of career moves, travel and coronavirus tests.  Plus, special windows for dogs? It turns out the imposing sidearmer is very tenderhearted when it comes to his two beloved boxers Millie and Bo. As Rance's broadcast partner Steve Lael...

Ethan Bryan played catch for 366 consecutive days in 2018, and then he wrote the book on it. In 2021, he's encouraging other people to play catch, and if they don't have baseball gloves, Ethan is going on the road to bring baseball to them. Starting Father's Day 2021, Ethan Bryan takes off across the Midwest on the Catching Hope Tour. He will make stops in Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Rockford, Illinois, and at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. Along the way, he will give away...

Announcement after announcement after announcement. Grip 'N Rip Baseball League Chief Operations Officer Kevin "K-Rob" Robertson drops some serious information on Season VI of the GRBL, which gets going with tryouts and the draft Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021.  It all starts with something for the players. For the first time ever, they're going to be playing for some real dough in 2021. Kevin also has some great information for fans, who will have more opportunity to participate and celebrate their...