Irish Baseball Podcast

"Gettysburg Eddie" Plank is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and was one of the stars of baseball in the early years of the 20th Century.  While Plank was respected in his day, his legacy hasn't lasted for casual fans as much as some of his contemporaries.  Dr. Lawrence Knorr decided to try and change that by writing a biography of the lefty.  

Ben Anderson takes real aspects of Irish, Scottish, and Norse folklore and uses them for his series of fantasy books.  The McGunnegal Chronicles started as a way to share his Irish heritage with his children, but the stories have turned into a number of books using actual culture to tell fictional stories.

Paul Zwirecki is the external relations officer for SABR.  He will join host Rick Becker to talk about analytics, history, and so much more.  

Scott Crawford of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is returning to the Irish Baseball Podcast to talk about the Blue Jays run to the World Series, the recent Netflix documentary about the Expos, and the excitement in Canada for the upcoming World Baseball Classic.

Dirk Baker has written a book about Kid Gleason.  Most famous for his time as the manager of the 1919 Chicago White Sox who threw the World Series, Gleason had an illustrious career as a player, coach, and manager in Major League Baseball.  Baker wants to share the whole story of the second-generation Irish American.

All five of the Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa were lost when their ship was blown up in the Pacific Theater of World War II.  The town of Waterloo still does a lot to preserve their legacy.  Pat Kinny, oral historian for the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veteran Museum in Waterloo will be Rick Becker's guest on the Irish Baseball Podcast today to talk about the brothers.

Sammie Samuels will be celebrating a different piece of Irish American history every month this year at the Irish American Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.  2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States.  Many of our podcast episodes this year will be focused on the Irish immigrant and Irish American impact on the country in that time.

Irish Baseball Podcast host Rick Becker and Irish American Baseball Society founder John Fitzgerald talk about many of the great guests who have joined IABS members on the community network website over the course of 2025.  Hear from Steve Garvey, Mike Sweeney, and more.  

Danny Murphy was a star for Connie Mack and the Philadelphia Athletics in the early-20th Century.  An injury slowed down his career, but Tom Sullivan made sure that this great ballplayer with Irish roots was remembered with his book Baseball's Sherlock Holmes: Danny Murphy of the Philadelphia Athletics.

Hilary Beirne of Irish America 250 discusses the contributions of Irish immigrants and Irish Americans to the United States.  With the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July of 2026, we will be talking about many ways the Irish have impacted the country.