Podcast appearances and mentions of florence freedom

Steve Palazzolo is a former pro baseball pitcher who is currently a senior analyst with Pro Football Focus, a football analytics website. He played his college baseball at UMass-Lowell and wasn't drafted, but signed to play independent-league ball with the Florence Freedom in Kentucky. He was able to turn that opportunity into an eight-year pro baseball career that saw him reach as high as Triple-A with the Brewers, Giants and Mariners organizations. After his baseball career came to an end in 2011, he pursued his passion to work in pro football, joining Cris Collinsworth and the team from Pro Football Focus. Palazzolo currently lives in Cincinnati with his wife and four children, and serves in the local church and with a local addiction program called “Heritage House.” Steve is an Executive Producer on a new project called "Hope is Here" that you can watch here.  On today's podcast, we talk to Palazzolo about the 2022 NFL season, looking back at the NFL offseason, the team he thinks will take a leap and the team he thinks will regress. We also dive deep into his work with the Heritage House and a new documentary focused on those who are struggling in addiction and the power of the Gospel to help heal men.  Receive our 10-day Sports Spectrum Devotional written by professional athletes for FREE when you sign up for our Sports Spectrum Weekly Email Newsletter. Sign up here.

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is the pitching coach for the Milwaukee Brewers Chris Hook. “Hooky” grew up in Erlanger, Kentucky and graduated from Lloyd Memorial High School. He played sports growing up for Dixie Knothole and Erlanger Lions Club but it was baseball that he would develop of love for and make it his passion. After a successful high school career he played in college for Bill Aker at Northern Kentucky University. Hooky was a three-year letter winner as a starting pitcher from 1987-89. His junior year team in 1989 went 45-9 and just missed an appearance in the NCAA D-II World Series. Hooky signed as a free agent with the Cincinnati Reds organization after his junior season at NKU. He signed after a college tryout and played five years in the Reds organization. Hooky was traded to the San Francisco Giants organization and was called up to the big leagues in 1995. He spent parts of two seasons in the big leagues earning five wins in 55 bullpen appearances. After being sent down in 1996 he pitched until 1999 when he retired and came back to his new home in Florence, Kentucky. Hooky returned to NKU as the pitching coach for the Norse for three seasons before joining the expansion Florence Freedom of the independent Frontier League in 2003. After a tumultuous five year stint with the Freedom he was hired by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2008 to be the pitching coach for the Double-A affiliate Huntsville Stars. In 2018, Hooky returned to the big leagues as the Brewers pitching coach after the departure of Derek Johnson. Cover photo credit goes to Scott Paulus/Milwaukee Brewers You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 (https://twitter.com/BradyLaber1) please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm (https://nobodysssafe.fireside.fm) For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com (https://www.stoveleg.com) or send an email to Podcasts@stoveleg.com Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com (https://www.bensound.com)

Episode 545 Steve Palazzolo is a former pro baseball pitcher who is currently a senior analyst with Pro Football Focus. Steve played his college baseball at UMass-Lowell but went undrafted and signed to play Independent baseball with the Florence Freedom in Kentucky. He was able to turn that opportunity into an eight-year pro baseball career that saw him reach as high as AAA with the Brewers, Giants and Mariners organizations.  After his baseball career came to an end in 2011, he pursued his passion to work in pro football, joining Cris Collinsworth and the team from Pro Football Focus. Steve currently lives in Cincinnati with his wife and four children and serves in the local church and with a local addiction program called "Heritage House."  On today's podcast, we talk to Steve about his pro baseball career, his unique job with Pro Football Focus, coming to faith on a baseball road trip in Nashville and his desire to serve those who are stuck in addiction.  Follow Steve on Twitter: @PFF_Steve Follow Sports Spectrum on Twitter: @Sports_Spectrum

Like many baseball fans growing up in Northern Kentucky, Andrew was influenced by Marty Brenneman and Joe Nuxhall calling Cincinnati Reds games on the radio. Andrew got his start working in baseball at the tender age of 14 in the summer of 2005 when he started to cover the Florence Freedom of the independent Frontier League for the OurSports Central (https://www.oursportscentral.com) website. Andrew gives credit and thanks to Freedom manager at the time Jamie Keefe along with his staff especially pitching coach Chris Hook (http://m.mlb.com/mil/roster/coach/116123/chris-hook) and bench coach John Christman for allowing him the opportunity to come into the coach’s office and learn about the game. Brady helped mentor Andrew in the Freedom press box but not without some good-natured ribbing that sometimes might have bordered on hazing. Brady along with play-by-play announcer Jeff Johnson and press box workers Mitch Morrison, Aaron Zupka and Rob Ellington took Andrew under their wing thought the course of that summer and beyond. In 2006, Andrew becomes part of the game day staff for the Freedom while also still writing for OurSports Central. As time goes on, Andrew is finally getting a chance to do some broadcasting, in small dosages, working with both the radio voice of the Freedom Roger Redmon. Though the relationships made working with the Freedom, Andrew is hired by Mike Anderson to work in the sports information department at Northern Kentucky University (https://nkunorse.com) upon enrolling into college. This gives Andrew the opportunity to call soccer games for NKU as a freshman. This is also where Andrew begins to work with John Asalon calling NKU baseball games. Andrew starts doing middle innings for Norse games all the while being critiqued by “Johnny A.” Andrew also recalls his first solo broadcast job was calling high school basketball games for his alma matter Bishop Brossart. Local legend Dave Schabell who founded the website bmustangs.com (http://bmustangs.com) gives Andrew a chance to call games for the Mustangs. As a recent college graduate Andrew begins to work as the radio play-by-play announcer and later on the TV side for the NKU women’s basketball program. He credits head coach Dawn Plitzuweit (@CoachDawnP) and her assistant coach Lynn Plett (https://gomountainlions.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/lynn-plett/485) for being instrumental in his development during this time. His professional baseball career is starting to get off the ground as well and he begins that journey as an intern for two seasons with the Lexington Legends (https://www.milb.com/lexington/). The Legends were at the time Class-A affiliate of the Houston Astros and Andrew is working under local broadcasting legend Keith Elkins. Also, during this process Andrew begins to shadow Louisville Bats (https://www.milb.com/louisville/) lead play-by-play announcer Jim Kelch (@KelchJim). This spawned a mentorship that was very instrumental in Andrew’s development as a young up-an-coming broadcaster. Andrew’s first full-time job in broadcasting was with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barrie RailRaiders (https://www.milb.com/scranton-wb/) in 2013. The RailRaiders are the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. Andrew talks about the tough love he received from his boss John Sadak (@johnsadak). Both Curtis Granderson and Derek Jeter spent a significant amount of time in Scranton doing injury-rehab assignments and both were very good to Andrew. He has some great stories about each one proving they were big stars but still were also nice to the people that were still working their way up the ladder. After a brief stop in Bowling Green, Kentucky working for the Hot Rods (https://www.milb.com/bowling-green) of the Tampa Bay organization, Andrew moves on to his current location. For the last six years he has worked for the Indianapolis Indians (https://www.milb.com/indianapolis) in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Andrew talks about working under the dean of International League broadcasters Howard Kellman (@HowardKellman). We wrap up the conversation talking about Andrew having the call for NKU men’s basketball qualifying for its first ever appearance in the NCAA tournament by virtue of winning the Horizon League tournament. You can follow Andrew Kappes on Twitter @KappesPxP (@KappesPxP) You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 (https://twitter.com/BradyLaber1) please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm (https://nobodysssafe.fireside.fm) For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com (https://www.stoveleg.com) or send an email to Podcasts@stoveleg.com Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com (https://www.bensound.com)

Brady welcomes John to the podcast and John talks about his growing up in the “Westside” which sparks a lengthy conversation about the demographics and makeup of this large neighborhood on the western side of Cincinnati, Ohio. This discussion moves toward John’s high school alma mater Elder High School (https://www.ehsports.com). Elder is one of the most tradition filled programs in America let alone Cincinnati and John talks about the fierce loyalty shown by people who still life vicariously through the Purple and White. This spins off into a brief description and comparison to Elder and John’s current employer Highlands High School (https://www.highlandsathletics.com/football) in Fort Thomas, Kentucky. John begins to talk about his early influences and wanting to be a broadcaster as an eight-year old baseball fan. He was first introduced to baseball following a family member Art Mahaffey (https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mahafar01.shtml) who was a pitcher for the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies. John listened to the Cincinnati Reds radio broadcasts with Waite Hoyt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waite_Hoyt) and Claude Sullivan on the call. He was mesmerized by the all stories that Hoyt would tell about playing for the New York Yankees and being teammates with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. After his graduating from Elder in 1974, John went on an interesting odyssey through college as he wanted to study broadcasting but instead pleased his family by going a safer route. John talks about landing a part-time job as a teenager with the Cincinnati Reds on the grounds crew at Riverfront Stadium. John worked there from 1972-79 where he witness the height of the Big Red Machine. With a degree in marketing from Northern Kentucky University (https://nkunorse.com), John starts working as the assistant manager at Hader Hardware. After a brief period of time John decides to branch out on his own. He buys a competing hardware store that is struggling and goes into business for himself. After five years of owning and operating the hardware store, his brother Todd Asalon gets him into the catering business. Todd and his business partner are doing a great business but need help actually running the business and bring John into the mix. The conversation somehow veers into a sidebar about Todd playing baseball at Northern Kentucky University for legendary head coach and founder of the program Bill Aker. Todd would eventually becomes Aker’s hand picked successor as head coach upon his retirement after the 2000 season. There are a ton of Bill Aker stories and because of purposes of time John only talks about just a few of them. Because John’s story a long winding and interesting road he just now gets to the point of when he makes his debut as a play-by-play broadcaster. Todd is the baseball coach and athletic director at Thomas More (https://www.thomasmoresaints.com/landing/index) and in the mid-90’s he needs a fill-in for a Saints football game. At this point John was in his late-30’s and is making his debut with less than 24 hours notice. John finds out upon arrival that he will be working solo and after a rough start finds his rhythm as the Saints defeat Hope College. The circumstances are not uneventful but like and old pro John perseveres and his broadcasting career is finally underway. Thomas More games are broadcasts on a local level, many times with volunteers, on public access and local origination programming channels. The name of that channel is currently called TBNK (https://www.tbnk.org/site/index.php), the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky formerly known as Cable One. For many years John begins to branch out by calling basketball games for Thomas More as well as high school football and basketball on TBNK. John’s brother Todd makes arrangements for John to begin his tenure for the Northern Kentucky University baseball games in 2006. Since was the early days of internet streaming plus the Norse were not playing on campus at the time. Also around this same time, John teams up with Denny Wright on TBNK called Florence Freedom games. This sparks conversation and memories about one of the founding members of the television industry in Northern Kentucky, the late great Ted Bushelman. Click here (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102433070/theodore-joseph-bushelman) to see Ted’s death notice and obituary because it is a great recap of Ted’s distinguished life. In Episode 6 we continue the story with John as he and Brady talk about his time in sports talk radio, his tenure with the Cincinnati Steam, a couple of his long-time broadcast partners AND him calling games from some very difficult and unique vantage points during the course of his career. You can follow “Johnny A” on Twitter @john_asalon (https://twitter.com/john_asalon) and catch his podcast The Week in APBA Anchor preview (https://anchor.fm/john-asalon). You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 (https://twitter.com/BradyLaber1) please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm (https://nobodysssafe.fireside.fm) For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com (https://www.stoveleg.com) or send an email to Podcasts@stoveleg.com Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com (https://www.bensound.com)

Pro Baseball

Friday Showndown! Steve and Jr will be discussing the hottest topics in the youth baseball around the Houston Area.This weeks special guests areRicky Ramirez Jr., 4 year letterman @ Deer Park High School3x All District 1st Team, 1x District MVP,(2012) 5A All-State Team2 yrs @ Alvin Community CollegeJuco All-Star2 yrs @ Mcneese St2017 Southland Conference Champs & 1st Team All-ConferenceVolunteer Assistant (2018) @ Mcneese StIndependent baseball2018 Pecos League w/Trinidad Triggers2018-2019 Frontier League w/Florence Freedom (2019 Mid & Post Season All-Star)2020 Signed w/ Sioux City Explorers of the American AssociationAssistant Coach of the Pasadena LegendsHitting InstructorNoah Cano- 25, grew up playing baseball and being mentored by Hondo Medellin. Graduated from Deer Park in 2013 where I played under Coach Jag and Coach Rupp, had multiple NAIA dual Scholarships for football and baseball, chose Colorado State University-Pueblo to play football at. Now 9 years deep umpiring T-Ball all the way up to the American Southwest ConferenceDale Pollock- Little League and now USSSA umpireAlso Rick Goff, TBS Tournament Director discussing TBS National happening in August

My guest today is Mike Gulino. Mike grew up in Meriden, Connecticut. At Maloney High School he was a three sport athlete, but ultimately chose to play baseball at the collegiate level. Mike earned a scholarship to Pace University where he received numerous accolades. He continued his career professionally in the independent ranks for the Cleburne Railroaders and Florence Freedom. When Mike was with the Freedom, he suffered a C5 burst fracture which is a broken neck and this sidelined him for over a year. Since his injury, Mike has returned to playing baseball and is working to become a better athlete than he was before the injury to earn an opportunity to get back into professional baseball. Mike is currently an assistant baseball coach at Albertus Magnus College and recently opened Top Level Baseball which is a training facility for athletes looking to improve their game. If you'd like to find Mike on social media, his Instagram is https://www.instagram.com/mikegulino08/ and Top Level's is https://www.instagram.com/toplevelbaseball/. Their website is https://www.toplevelbaseball.net. Get your TK: Elite Mindset gear now by visiting https://www.bsnteamsports.com/shop/TfnPCNAEtc and to learn more about the show and myself please visit https://www.tannerkern.com.

Nick hosts the show alone this week. This edition is has Nick interviewing Dennis Pelfrey, current SJ Giants' manager and former Florence Freedom manager. A second edition of just news is due out in the middle of next week.

The guys take a bite out of this weird Joe Burrow food tour that is apparently a thing before talking some college hoops and Memphis’s awful looking court. Then they move on to discuss the Florence Freedom changing their name to the Florence Y’alls. As always, the show wraps with Scott doing that hockey. Be sure to check out our sponsors: Dugout Mugs (http://dugoutmugs.online/craft) for one of a kind beer mugs and openers. Use our link for 10% off your entire order. Morning Recovery (www.morelabs.com) to be sure that a night of drinking doesn’t turn into an awful morning. Use the code SPORTS to get 20% off your non-subscription purchase.

-What is Adele up to? -Post Malone doing movies now! -Fiona's 3rd Birthday celebrations! -Email your way to happiness -Jeff Ruby has a new steak - who is it honoring? -Florence Freedom are getting a new name today -Will you get audited this year by the IRS?

Check out the third episode of the Camilleri Baseball Podcast, where we discuss the interesting journey of the Head Coach of NCAA DIII Powerhouse Ramapo College and current player for the Florence Freedom in the Frontier League. Ryan talks about his player development and the interesting fast transition from being a player to coach. @FlorenceFreedom

While the podcast's name has changed, the material hasn't! The Florence Freedom are looking to make a name change, two basketball teams are calling Dayton home, the Reds are shuffling some changes of their own, and the Bengals fall to 0-4 with some fans jumping ship.

-Friends is WRONG! -4 TriState Universities make top rankings -Milennials prefer a specific home design -Changes at CVG -Is Oktoberfest happening? -Workout on GABP's field this weekend -The world's oldest pet turned 121 this week

Florence Freedom GM Josh Anderson joins the Show to talk about the Freedom season beginning on Friday and all of the Promotions they have for this upcoming season.

-Blink182 is coming to Cincy! -TWO ROYAL BABIES -Instagram is changing -Findlay Market Dog Spa -How many bees were at the Reds game? -Is that an alligator in your pants?

The guys are joined by Matt Pobereyko, a professional baseball player for the New York Mets. Matt describes his journey from high school to professional baseball, all the way up to Triple-A. Matt started his baseball journey in Hammond, IN at Bishop Noll Institute before heading to South Suburban College and Kentucky Wesleyan University. After having a great senior year, Matt had good reason to think that he might get drafted but he wasn't. He flew to California Winter League and got signed by the Florence Freedom, an independent team. After doing well for the Freedom, he was picked up by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He did well but was ultimately released by the D'backs. Matt headed back to the Freedom and thankfully was picked up by the New York Mets. Tune in for his whole journey!

After the end of his six year professional baseball career Dennis Pelfrey decided to stay in baseball, as a coach. The same Manager who cut him early in his professional baseball career, Greg Tagert, ended up hiring him as a coach on the Gary Southshore Railcats. Dennis talks about with he's learned from Greg as a manager and applying it to his team that he now manages the Florence Freedom. Dennis talks about the fear of being released at a player, and how he puts his team together.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Over these four weeks, the Enquirer will unveil each former player of what would be our mythical four-member Bengals Ring of Honor Class. The club doesn't currently have a Ring of Honor or Hall of Fame, but if they did decide to institute one these would be our picks. With the selection, we sit down for a podcast conversation with each of the Bengals legends about their careers, life after football, the state of the game and, of course, the current Bengals. Enjoy the series. In this conversation with the second inductee, I sat down at Dickmann's Sports Cafe in Northern Kentucky with former NFL MVP quarterback Ken Anderson. The conversation touched on parallels between his career and Andy Dalton, evolution of the passing game and even his own case for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Anderson also detailed the work of his foundation in helping adults with autism which includes a celebrity softball game fundraiser Friday at the home of the Florence Freedom.  Download Here

Cincinnati Business Talk highlights the positive side of Cincinnati area businesses. We will be talking to CEOs who have won awards, innovated with new products and services.   Today's guest is Clint Brown owner  of The Florence Freedom baseball team.  Clint will share his perspectives and insights on current HOT business issues in the area of minor league baseball.  How to succeed in a tough market   The show  streamed live on Thursday July 18th at 4 PM. Listen to this link: http://tobtr.com/s/5076907   You can listen to the show on Apple iTunes as a Podcast. You can add the podcast at:   http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Cincy-Business-talk.rss   You can add Cincy-Business-Talk as an RSS feed to your Outlook email program. The exact feed http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Cincy-Business-talk.rss  

The February Podcast features a look at promotions, planning for unexpected events, along with shout outs and predictions.

Bolts Daily Podcast. August 7, 2012. The ThunderBolts jumped out to an early lead and defeated the Florence Freedom 8-5. Highlights include a Ryan Cuneo double, Bob Glover home run and a Michael Click strikeout.

Bolts Daily Podcast - June 10, 2012. The ThunderBolts lost a tough one as the Florence Freedom scored five late runs for a 9-7 win. Highlights include RBI hits for Travis Weaver, Mike Torres and Zach Aakhus.

Bolts Daily Podcast - June 8, 2012. The ThunderBolts saw the Florence Freedom score eight runs in the fourth inning and ultimately lost to Florence 11-7. Highlights include a Billy Nowlin RBI double and Brandon Decker home run.

While the podcast's name has changed, the material hasn't! The Florence Freedom are looking to make a name change, two basketball teams are calling Dayton home, the Reds are shuffling some changes of their own, and the Bengals fall to 0-4 with some fans jumping ship. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-gem-on-the-queens-crown-the-cincinnati-and-dayton-sports/donations