Bergino Baseball Clubhouse

Bergino Baseball Clubhouse
Bergino Baseball Clubhouse

Listen in to our podcasts, live from the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse. Featuring premier authors, Pulitzer Prize-winners, team owners, Hall of Famers, and the most interesting folks in baseball.

  1. 2021-11-22

    A Conversation with Watercolor Artist James Fiorentino

    A special presentation from the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse.  Our first podcast during these pandemic times…   In the Fall of 2017, the now shuttered brick-and-mortar location of the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse hosted “Baseball in Black and White: The Watercolor Paintings of James Fiorentino.”   In the Fall of 2021, the Studio 7 Fine Art Gallery in Bernardsville NJ hosted James Fiorentino and “Baseball in Black and White: Extra Innings.”   I sat down at the beautiful Studio 7 gallery with my long-time friend and we had a wide ranging “inside baseball” discussion that touched on memories through the years, the life — and gifts — of an artist, mentors, watercolor painting, ballplayers, the cake boss, passion, process, the feeling when a painting is finished, and more.   On Friday, December 10, we’ll be back at the Studio 7 Fine Art Gallery in Bernardsville NJ.  If you’re anywhere close to the area, stop by between 6:00 - 9:00 PM.  Meet James and see his spectacular original black and white watercolor paintings, while enjoying treats and a glass of wine.  I’ll be conducting in-person video interviews for my multimedia project — “The Memory of America: Remember Your First Baseball Game.”  The interviews take only 15 minutes or so.  Would love to capture your story that evening.   Hope to see you then.  In the meantime, pull up a chair, relax, and enjoy our conversation…   With love from New York, Jay

    43 min
  2. 2019-12-03

    "San Francisco Year Zero" with Lincoln Mitchell

    San Francisco Year Zero: Political Upheaval, Punk Rock, and a Third-Place Baseball Team with Lincoln Mitchell Special Roundtable Guests: Jennifer Blowdryer and Kenneth Sherrill A wide-ranging conversation touching on San Francisco in the 1970s, George Moscone, Harvey Milk, Dan White, urban America, political campaigns, city government, the San Francisco Giants leaving the city, segregation, diversity, bubbles, Dianne Feinstein, Jello Biafra, the Dead Kennedys, the punk rock scene, Joe Dirt, East Bay Ray, David Peel, the 1978 Giants, being a gay elected official in the 1970s, and Reggie Jackson’s role in reforming the judiciary.   Lincoln Mitchell is an adjunct associate professor of Political Science at Columbia University, where he also serves as an associate scholar in the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.  He has authored many books on the former Soviet states, democracy, and baseball, including Baseball Goes West: How the Giants and Dodgers Shaped the Major Leagues and Will Big League Baseball Survive.  He has also written extensively about San Francisco’s history in Instant City, Roads and Kingdoms, Parts Unknown and the New York Observer. Jennifer Blowdryer got her name from singing in The Blowdryer in 1978.  They played in San Francisco at the Mabuhay Gardens and The Deaf Club.  She published her first book, Modern English, a photo-illustrated trendy slang dictionary with Last Gasp in 1984, and moved to New York City the same year on a fellowship to the Columbia Writing Division.  She just finished a new album called She’s Got The Weirdness, and her next book is slated for Spring 2020, with Pedestrian Press, working title of The 86ed Project. Kenneth Sherrill is Professor Emeritus at Hunter College and the City University of New York graduate school.  In 1977, he became the first openly gay elected official in New York.  He is the author of Power, Policy and Participation, as well as Gays and the Military.  His current book in progress, Identity and Consciousness in LGBT Political Behavior, is expected to be completed next year.  Ken is also the author of articles, papers and reviews in various scholarly journals.   Thanks to our delectable sponsors: Sauce Pizzeria and St. Marks Wine & Liquor   San Francisco Year Zero.  Listen in...

    1h 1m
  3. 2017-07-28

    "The Cooperstown Casebook" with Jay Jaffe

    The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, tucked away in upstate New York in a small town called Cooperstown, is far from any major media market or big league stadium.  Yet no sports hall of fame's membership is so hallowed, nor its qualifications so debated, nor its voting process so dissected. Since its founding in 1936, the Hall of Fame's standards for election have been nebulous, and its selection processes arcane, resulting in confusion among voters, not to mention mistakes in who has been recognized and who has been bypassed.  Numerous so-called "greats" have been inducted despite having not been so great, while popular but controversial players such as all-time home run leader Barry Bonds and all-time hits leader Pete Rose are on the outside looking in. Now, in The Cooperstown Casebook, Jay Jaffe takes us through his revolutionary ranking system.  The foundation of Jaffe's approach is JAWS, an acronym for the Jaffe WAR Score, which he developed over a decade ago.  Through JAWS, each candidate can be objectively compared on the basis of career and peak value to the players at his position who are already in the Hall of Fame.  Because of its utility, JAWS has gained an increasing amount of exposure in recent years.  Through his analysis, Jaffe shows why the Hall of Fame still matters and how it can remain relevant in the 21st century. Jay Jaffe is a contributing baseball writer for SI.com.  He is the founder of the Futility Infielder website, one of the oldest baseball blogs, and from 2005 - 2012 was a columnist for "Baseball Prospectus."  He has been a recurring guest on MLB Network's "MLB Now" and "Clubhouse Confidential" shows and a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America since 2011. On a Wednesday evening in July, Jay Jaffe led our final author event of the summer.  Listen in to our intimate and lively Clubhouse conversation...

    34 min
  4. 2017-06-26

    "The Pride of the Yankees" with Richard Sandomir

    The untold story behind the first great sports film... The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper, and the Making of a Classic   On July 4, 1939, baseball great Lou Gehrig stood in Yankee Stadium and gave a speech that contained the phrase that would become legendary: "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." He died two years later and his fiery widow, Eleanor, wanted nothing more than to keep his memory alive.  With her forceful will, she and the irascible producer Samuel Goldwyn quickly agreed to make a film based on Gehrig's life, "The Pride of the Yankees."  Goldwyn didn't understand -- or care about -- baseball.  For him this film was the emotional story of a quiet, modest hero who married a spirited woman who was the love of his life, and, after a storied career, gave a short speech that transformed his legacy.  With the world at war and soldiers dying on foreign soil, it was the kind of movie America needed. Using original scripts, letters, memos, and other rare documents, Richard Sandomir tells the behind-the-scenes story of how a classic was born.  The search to find the actor to play Gehrig; the stunning revelations Eleanor made to the scriptwriter Paul Gallico about her life with Lou; the intensive training Gary Cooper underwent to learn how to catch, throw, and hit a baseball for the first time. On a warm summer evening, Richard Sandomir led our intimate Clubhouse conversation and brought "The Pride of the Yankees" to life.  Listen in...

    34 min
  5. 2017-06-16

    "Piazza" with author Greg Prince

    A franchise and fan base in perpetual search of validation finally had its ticket punched as 2016 dawned.  Mike Piazza, who held records in one hand and a city's rapt attention in the other, gained election to the Hall of Fame.  Within weeks of this long-awaited announcement, the ballclub with whom he chose to cast his eternal lot, the New York Mets, made a date to retire his number. In Piazza: Catcher, Slugger, Icon, Star, Greg Prince explores the parallel paths Piazza and the Mets set out on in the early 1990s and how their individual journeys merged into a mutual quest for transcendence.  From marriage of convenience to lifetime bond to a state of baseball grace reached only once before in team history, "Piazza" examines how the stranger from Los Angeles became New York's favorite son and why the Mets fans continued to rally to Piazza's cause years after he took his final swing for them. Greg Prince is co-creator of the blog Faith and Fear in Flushing, the daily destination for "Mets fans who like to read."  His memoir of the same name was published in 2009 and was followed in 2016 by "Amazin' Again."  He has written about baseball for the "New York Times," "Huffington Post," and ESPN.com; served as a consultant to the film "The Last Play at Shea;" and helped organize the New York Mets Fiftieth Anniversary Conference at Hofstra. On June 15, 2017 -- the 40th Anniversary of "The Midnight Massacre" -- Greg Prince led our intimate Clubhouse conversation into a slice of Mets history, as only he can.  Piazza, Seaver, Prince.  Hall of Famers, all.  Listen in...

    1h 7m

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Listen in to our podcasts, live from the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse. Featuring premier authors, Pulitzer Prize-winners, team owners, Hall of Famers, and the most interesting folks in baseball.

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