Straight Lines

Bluebook Sports
Bluebook Sports
  • 5.0 (16)
  • Management
  • Weekly

Straight Lines is for leaders, entrepreneurs, and everyday grinders chasing big dreams. Hosted by legendary coach Tim Neiman, it’s about alignment—getting your values, goals, and actions in sync, even when the road gets rough. Drawing on decades of coaching, scouting for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers, and building championship cultures, Coach Neiman shares proven tools, real stories, and winning strategies to help you inspire your team, maximize talent, and create lasting success. About the Host Tim Neiman is a 14-time Coach of the Year and Hall of Fame baseball coach with 36 years at DeSales University, 868 career wins, and 13 players who’ve gone pro. From NCAA tournaments to the College World Series, scouting for MLB teams, and broadcasting AAA baseball, Tim’s career is built on winning cultures and inspiring people to reach their full potential.

  1. 1h ago

    Straight Lines Eastern Pennsylvania | James Grugan: Why Student Athletes Make Great Hires and How to Win the Interview

    On this episode of Straight Lines Eastern Pennsylvania, presented by the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, host Tim Neiman sits down with James Grugan, founder of Five Star Hiring, which connects student athletes and young professionals with employers. James explains how the company began when he placed a coach’s former players at his corporate job. Those hires stayed while most others left within a year, and that convinced him student athletes bring skills employers badly need. He says your student-athlete experience is your internship, and he explains what employers actually want: people who show up ready to work and stay. He shares his interview red flags, such as having no questions for the interviewer and knowing nothing about the company. His green flags include sending a short note to the hiring manager after applying, and researching the interviewer so you can have a real conversation. He recommends being first or finishing strong, and he points out that a clean social media presence matters because employers look. On resumes, James says formatting matters because software can screen you out before a person sees you. He suggests plain paragraph format and quantified accomplishments, and he explains why summer jobs like landscaping or serving say a lot about reliability. He also covers dressing the part, treating the receptionist well, and why employers should focus on soft skills and shorten the hiring process. To James, straight lines means “keep stacking,” showing up one day at a time. A must-listen for college athletes and graduates preparing for a first career, parents helping a young adult land a job, and employers who want to hire for character and work ethic.

  2. 5d ago

    Straight Lines | Ryan Callahan: From DeSales Hoops to Emmy-Winning Storyteller for the New York Yankees

    Coach Tim Neiman welcomes Ryan Callahan, director of digital and social content for the New York Yankees, to Straight Lines, brought to you in part by Bluebook Sports, the game’s trusted directory since 1909, connecting businesses directly with players, parents, and coaches. Download the app today. Ryan is an Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and storyteller, and a former DeSales basketball standout who also pitched one season for Tim. He traces his path from a seventh-grade film design class, to months of job searching after graduation, to ESPN, the NBA, and the Yankees, and credits relentless networking and the habit of being someone people want to work with. Ryan talks about what it’s like to be the voice of the Yankees to nearly twenty million followers, and why that responsibility means every post becomes part of the franchise’s archive. He shares how his team decides what to publish, why a strong hook in the first few seconds is everything on social, and how a day in the life of Jazz Chisholm and a physics-themed piece on Aaron Judge came together. He also describes spending a day with Luis Gil in the Dominican Republic as the most meaningful story he’s told. On leadership, Ryan believes you can lead in any role by thriving where you are and being a good teammate, and that an A-plus teammate with B-minus skills beats the reverse. His advice for college students is to build a broad skill set, and to get on the phone with people, because relationships open the doors. To Ryan, straight lines means being a good person, because that’s where your opportunities come from. A must-listen for students and young professionals trying to break into sports media, managers leading a younger generation, and anyone who wants to hear how a first job in baseball turned into a career telling the Yankees’ story.

  3. Nov 3

    Straight Lines Eastern Pennsylvania | Bob Hartman: From Transactional to Servant Leadership, Twenty-Three Years as Whitehall’s Athletic Director

    On this episode of Straight Lines Eastern Pennsylvania, presented by the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, host Tim Neiman sits down with Bob Hartman, former athletic director at Whitehall High School for more than two decades, former PIAA District XI chairman, and vice president of the PIAA Board of Directors, now a regional sales executive for Digital Scoreboards. Bob looks back at taking the athletic director job at thirty and how his view of leadership changed, from pumping his chest and chasing wins to asking how he can serve and give kids a positive experience. He says becoming a parent was a big part of that shift. He shares what he hopes athletes take from high school sports: lifelong relationships, mentors, and the kind of bond he saw at Whitehall’s football reunions, including a hundred-year program reunion. Bob also explains what parents often miss about the athletic director’s role, namely that every coach has to serve the whole team, and passes along some unconventional advice he once received: be unapproachable, so people only call about the things that matter. He talks about the toughest part of his PIAA service, ruling on eligibility cases where following the rules hurt a student-athlete. He closes with how his experience as a buyer shapes his approach to selling digital scoreboards, built on “uncommon service,” long warranties, and honest conversations, including telling him no. To Bob, straight lines means “embrace the suck”: there’s nothing wrong with hard. A must-listen for athletic directors and coaches thinking about servant leadership, parents who want to understand how high school athletic departments really work, and young professionals who want to break into sports administration.

  4. Oct 29

    Straight Lines | Brian Werner: From the Yankees’ Front Office to Running Prospect Wire, and Why Customer Service Wins in Youth Baseball

    Coach Tim Neiman welcomes Brian Werner, president of Prospect Wire, to Straight Lines, brought to you in part by Bluebook Sports, the game’s trusted directory since 1909, connecting businesses directly with players, parents, and coaches. Download the app today. Brian has been with Prospect Wire since 2008, after starting his career with the New York Yankees. He shares the story of his first big lesson there: a rough-draft project tossed in the trash by Mark Newman, with a message about doing things the right way if you want to work for a champion. Brian explains how Prospect Wire grew from a showcase company into a national tournament operator, including the 2017 California event where eighty teams showed up in a market where nobody knew them. He believes customer service is what sets them apart, from answering calls at midnight to having the whole staff out at the events. He also pulls back the curtain on what goes into a tournament: securing fields six months out, staffing every complex, and shipping equipment and awards across the country. Brian talks about the misconceptions parents have about recruiting, including the fact that most college coaches never look at the stats on a tournament website, and why video is what really counts. He cautions parents against pushing kids too early, urging them to let kids be kids, play multiple sports, and look at their dream school, realistic school, and best-fit school. To Brian, straight lines means a guide you can always come back to, because even when you veer off, you can put your feet back on the path. A must-listen for baseball parents navigating tournaments and recruiting, event organizers and business owners building a brand on service, and young professionals who want to hear how a first job in baseball shaped a career.

  5. Oct 27

    Straight Lines Eastern Pennsylvania | Dale Wilson: The Great Connector on Networking, Aging in Place, and Why Healthcare Is a Human Thing

    On this episode of Straight Lines Eastern Pennsylvania, presented by the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, host Tim Neiman sits down with Dale Wilson, a Navy veteran and senior care professional with Bright Star Care of Stroudsburg and Allentown, known throughout the Lehigh Valley as “the great connector.” Dale traces a 36-year career from the business refreshment industry to running a personal care home, and back to sales, where he found his fit in senior home care. He explains the difference between networking and building real relationships: networking is the introduction, and the goal is to get someone to “buy you as a friend,” not to hand out business cards like a poker deck. He also says speed networking is a mistake and that being vulnerable beats wearing a mask. The conversation then turns to aging in place and what families overlook until a crisis hits: planning for “what happens if,” the isolation that creeps in for seniors living alone, and why physical and occupational therapy matter so much in recovery. Dale’s three pillars of quality of life are health, safety and security, and happiness. He also discusses why collaboration, even among competitors, leads to better care, and how his work with the Chamber of Commerce and the Cancer Support Community, as a fellow cancer survivor, lets him pay his experience forward. To Dale, straight lines means recognizing that your lines won’t stay straight once life starts playing, and that tomorrow there’s another game. A must-listen for adult children thinking about how to care for aging parents, professionals who want to network more authentically, and anyone who needs a reminder that healthcare is, at its heart, about being a friend to someone in a jam.

  6. Oct 23

    Straight Lines | Chris Kirn: From Hand-Painting Billboards to Building Digital Scoreboards on Character and Uncommon Service

    Coach Tim Neiman welcomes Chris Kirn of Digital Scoreboards to Straight Lines, brought to you in part by Bluebook Sports, the game’s trusted directory since 1909, connecting businesses directly with players, parents, and coaches. Download the app today. Chris traces his path from hand-painting billboards at nineteen, to Lamar Advertising, to Pepsi, to co-founding Digital Scoreboards twelve years ago. The company was meant to help just one school in Illinois. Chris and his wife bought out his business partner in 2024, and the company has since grown from twelve employees to fifty-five. He explains the five core values he built the company around, how they hire and retrain on them every month, and why he believes the most important thing in business is how you make people feel. He makes the case that a video scoreboard is more than a scoreboard. It’s a tool that can bring in new revenue, spotlight non-athletes and student artwork, and serve as the front door to a school community. Chris also talks about the game operations curriculum his team has built, now in more than seventy schools, with a goal of educating ten thousand students by the end of 2028. He shares what he’s learned watching his kids, Griffin and Emmy, compete in college baseball and soccer: the work is never done, there are no shortcuts, and life is full of pain, uncertainty, and constant hard work. To Chris, straight lines means doing the right thing while working for something bigger than yourself. A must-listen for business owners building culture through growth, athletic directors and educators thinking about what a scoreboard can do for a community, and young professionals who want to know what hiring managers look for beyond the resume.

  7. Oct 20

    Straight Lines Eastern Pennsylvania | Lou Pektor: Building the Lehigh Valley, Adaptive Reuse, and the Case for Data Centers

    On this episode of Straight Lines Eastern Pennsylvania, presented by the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, host Tim Neiman sits down with Lou Pektor, founder of Ashley Development, which he started in 1989 and grew from residential development into major commercial and mixed-use projects across the Lehigh Valley. Lou explains why he left investment banking for real estate, where you can persevere and see your way through instead of giving gains back to the market, and why he believes you can’t be a part-timer in any business: you’re either all in or out. He walks through some of his best-known work, including Riverport, a former Bethlehem Steel armament building turned into condominiums, a sports bar, and a fitness center, and the downtown Bethlehem buildings he rebuilt along Broad and Main. Much of the conversation focuses on data centers. Lou explains what they do and why they power everything from cell phones to medical and financial processing. He describes his own 1,100-acre campus on the site of a former coal-fired power plant, with more than a gigawatt of grid power secured. He addresses community concerns about the electric grid, water, noise, and jobs, and talks about the $50 million community benefit package his team has put forward. He closes with hard-earned advice: be optimistic, but be realistic about time and budget, because most mistakes come when you run out of one or both. To Lou, straight lines means playing the long game and sticking with the vision you started with. A must-listen for entrepreneurs and developers weighing risk and commitment, residents trying to understand what a data center could mean for their township, and anyone who wants a straight-talking look at what it takes to build something that lasts.

  8. Oct 15

    Straight Lines | Jeff Grose: From Mets Draft Pick at Seventeen to Addiction, Recovery, and a Life of Helping Others

    Coach Tim Neiman welcomes Jeff Grose to Straight Lines, brought to you by Bluebook Sports, the game’s trusted directory since 1909, connecting businesses directly with players, parents, and coaches. Download the app today. Jeff was drafted by the New York Mets at seventeen and went on to become a retired teacher, therapist, and certified life coach. He is the subject and co-author, with Richard Strack, of the memoir Wild Pitch: Baseball, Booze, and the Beast Within. He recalls a childhood shaped by a World War II veteran father who struggled with alcoholism, and the anger that grew inside him as a teenager. He also tells how a pitching coach’s advice in his first season turned a near release into a one-hit shutout. Jeff explains how pitching through a torn labrum and an unwillingness to adapt cut his career short in 1978, and how the years that followed became a blur of drugs and alcohol. He shares the night his ten-year-old son was found on the couch with a neighbor, and how that moment, along with his younger brother’s sobriety, started his road to recovery at thirty-three. Now eighteen years clean, he describes returning to college in his forties, graduating at fifty, and teaching English at his old high school. He credits a conversation with a young man in a correctional facility for his career change. Jeff speaks candidly about what people misunderstand about addiction, why recovery is a daily journey, and why meeting students where they are matters more than delivering curriculum. He closes by describing straight lines as finding the path you were meant to be on and staying on it. A must-listen for anyone touched by addiction, whether their own or a family member’s, coaches and teachers who want to reach struggling kids, and anyone who needs proof that it’s never too late to change course.

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About

Straight Lines is for leaders, entrepreneurs, and everyday grinders chasing big dreams. Hosted by legendary coach Tim Neiman, it’s about alignment—getting your values, goals, and actions in sync, even when the road gets rough. Drawing on decades of coaching, scouting for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers, and building championship cultures, Coach Neiman shares proven tools, real stories, and winning strategies to help you inspire your team, maximize talent, and create lasting success. About the Host Tim Neiman is a 14-time Coach of the Year and Hall of Fame baseball coach with 36 years at DeSales University, 868 career wins, and 13 players who’ve gone pro. From NCAA tournaments to the College World Series, scouting for MLB teams, and broadcasting AAA baseball, Tim’s career is built on winning cultures and inspiring people to reach their full potential.

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