Talk Dodgers to Me – Details, episodes & analysis

Well, the Talk Dodgers to Me team went to Game 3 of the Dodgers/Cubs series, and good thing it was a Dodgers win because the girls had quite enough of Adam's obnoxious winning behavior and threats to bring a broom to our next recording.

We learned you can bring food into baseball stadiums as Aly brought dinner to the game. And even after 11 years of living in LA and working on this podcast, we learned that Adam somehow hates the Dodgers more than ever.

Besides fighting with Adam most of this episode, the girls are having some Dodger blues as more of our starting pitchers go down. However, even with a season plagued with injuries, Melissa and Aly are still staying as optimistic as possible.

Today we have Katie Firestone on the podcast. You guys are going to be blown away with all Katie has done and what she is currently doing to create positive change in the stress mindset for baseball players, and to champion women’s baseball.

What has she done? Oh, just created one of the first ever women’s baseball teams at her college of University of Washington… and then won back to back championships!!

Without opportunities to play baseball growing up, Katie started working in analytics in highschool and became the Student Analytics Manager for the men’s baseball team at the University of Washington. Throughout college, Katie did multiple research internships before narrowing in on sports psychology, specifically the stress mindset in college baseball players.

We get into all her research, how she sees it helping baseball players and where she hopes to see women’s baseball in 10 years. She also tells fun stories of being a lifelong Dodger fan, crashing Joc Peterson’s rehearsal dinner and running into Justin Turner at the Hollywood Bowl.

Shining a light on women in sports is one of the reasons I started this podcast so I want to thank Katie for coming on and for all she is doing to not only be an advocate for women in baseball, but to be someone creating opportunities.

Get involved by donating to Baseball for All, sharing this episode and continuing the conversation! Check out the documentary See Her, Be Her airing on teh MLB Network between games 2 and 3 of the World Series. 

So excited to have my friend and actor Matt Barr on the podcast this week! You've seen him in Walker Independence, The Layover, One Tree Hill, and the baseball movie, Undrafted, which we get into. Matt dishes on if he was actually playing baseball in the movie to his speechless moment meeting his childhood hero, Nolan Ryan.

Being from Texas, Matt grew up a Rangers fan and I was pleasantly surprised to learn of his mutual hate of the Astros which we bond over the whole episode. Matt even shares what he texts Justin Verlander after becoming friends with him. 

Matt and I talk about our decade long friendship, being in each others Covid bubble, which Dodgers he loves watching right now, how we need to get Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw in a ping pong matchup and much more. Enjoy!

Aly is back with Melissa this week for lucky episode 13! The girls catch up on everything going on with the Dodgers including the Yankee series, the fiery streak of Teo, and how happy they were to see Corey Seager back at Dodger Stadium. They get into the Dodgers favorite Taylor Swift song, their favorite FRIENDS episodes and all the sunflower seed celebrations happening.

They talk about players with a certain X-Factor, Dodger injuries and Melissa's belief that Mookie's IL stint will turn into a forceful comeback. They try to hold back tears discussing the viral video of Joe Davis sharing a voicemail from Vin Scully and get a laugh as Adam thinks he was generated by A.I.

The girls share their thoughts on the new city connect uniforms, and of course Adam argues with Melissa when she gets in her feels about the meaning behind them.

They talk about the MLB player poll that recently came out and go through some stand outs. Aly tells Melissa about a secret underground bar at Dodger Stadium and Melissa quizzes Aly in a game of two truths and a lie. Enjoy!

We are so excited to have Alanna Rizzo on the podcast this week! Alanna was the team reporter for the Dodgers from 2013-2020 and is now a host on multiple sports shows including High Heat and Foul Territory. Alanna shares where her love of baseball came from, becoming a part of the Dodgers broadcast team and what she appreciated from players early in her career. She talks about auditioning for High Heat and how Dodgers Territory came about. Alanna shares what she hopes the Dodgers get at the trade deadline, why it's our right as fans to overreact and how she sees baseball growing. Melissa and Alanna talk about their shared love of Justin Turner, player antics during interviews, how hard it was to make the decision to leave the Dodgers and which player called her to show their appreciation.  Alanna shares her favorite off day in her MLB career, games that stand out, and why working as the on field reporter for the Dodgers was the best seven years of her life. Alanna shares her argument to people hating on the Dodgers off season spending, and gives her take on what to say to fans who hate on Dave Roberts. Enjoy!

Melissa is back behind the mic and got Adam to join her for this one, but per usual, he refuses to come out from behind the camera. However, their fun banter continues as he talks Melissa down again and again from overreacting to the slump the Dodgers were in before heading into the Yankee series.

They talk about trap games while getting into the Pittsburg series and the anticipated Ohtani/Skenes matchup. They talk about the medias influence on players and whether it's good or bad for sports.

They talk about favorite stadiums they've been to, how Kershaw's return may be the fire the Dodgers need, and what player Melissa thinks the team needs.

Melissa mentions how repeated errors by baseball players seem to always end up in hits which brings back the point of angry winning and leads us to believe that the baseball gods always seem to even things out. Enjoy!

Melissa and Aly are back for episode 10. The girls reflect on reaching double digits, how they are feeling being 10 episodes in, what they've learned about themselves and about having a podcast.

The girls discuss leaving games early, former signings that didn't seem to fit the clubhouse culture like Trevor Bauer and Manny Machado. They discuss getting swept by the Reds, and then sweeping the Mets. They rave about Daniel Hudson walking off the mound shh-ing the crowd at Citifield and all the drama with the Mets.

They talk about what brings out the worst in them, and we learn Aly once punched Adam when things got a bit too competitive during a board game. Melissa reflects on how to not take things personally when arguing about sports and gives her take on why size doesn't always matter in baseball.

The girls end the episode with a game of would you rather, with the rather being getting a home run hug for Albert Puljos. They wrap the episode sharing their connections to Charlie Steiner and Orel Hershiser. Enjoy!

This is a special episode featuring two very special guests, Melissa's mom, Cindy, and sister, Samantha. Melissa's mom is in town from New Jersey so Melissa talks about their week of events so far and taking her family to the Dodger game. They talk about Mookie's mom throwing out the first pitch, Sam's favorite player Will Smith and selling her bobblehead at the game.

Melissa fills Aly in on Will Smith's charity Catching Hope and going to his comedy event with Netflix. The girls give Ashley Kelly another shoutout, Melissa spins the Dodgers 7-3 loss positive, and it seems no one is having more fun in "Dodgerland" than Shohei Ohtani. 

We get to hear from Cindy what she likes about sports and Melissa has a special moment sharing her mom's incredible story going from stay at home mom to CEO. Melissa and Sam both talk about how much their mom has inspired and shaped them into who they are today. 

Aly's fiance Nick is also in the peanut gallery and chimes in with fellow Dodger hater Adam about the Dodgers spending spree and his dad playing for the Dodgers. We share a baseball story from fellow Dodger fan and podcast listener, Javier. And we end the episode with our most fun segment yet - a baseball speed round with Sam who does not know a lot about baseball. Enjoy!

This week, Melissa sits down with Zack Parker, a former professional baseball player and current writer, producer and recalibration coach. Melissa and Zack discuss how they met through friend of the podcast, Ron Shelton, and Zack shares the great story of how he met Ron. Zack explains where his connection to baseball started, how he got drafted and what spending 10 years playing professional baseball was like. 

The "angry win" theme continues and Zack gives his insights into pitching injuries, what the Dodgers are missing and what he sees for them this season. He talks about players going for individual goals, how hard the mental game is and how he transitioned from baseball to the entertainment industry to becoming a recalibration coach. 

Melissa and Zack connect on having growth mindsets and being the hero in your own story. Melissa explains what happened leading up to her becoming a life coach and how she mentally sets herself up for success. Zack talks about how his past playing baseball bled into the work he is doing now leading past life explorations and working with the voice in your head. 

It's amazing where conversations surrounding baseball can lead you, and this one is full of all things Dodger baseball, self help, and Melissa and Zack's shared love for Clayton Kershaw. Hope you enjoy!

We are so excited to share our first interview and it's a great one! We sat down with the legendary and Oscar nominated Ron Shelton who wrote and directed some of our favorite sports movies including Bull Durham, Tin Cup & White Men Can't Jump. 

We talk to Ron about his time in the minor leagues, his transition from baseball to making movies and how his baseball days bled into Bull Durham. We got behind the scenes stories from all of his movies including how a family who moved to Durham after watching Bull Durham led to him writing a book about the making of it.

We got Ron's take on the current Dodger team, how he feels about how the game is evolving, his current favorite players and who he loved growing up.

We share how we know Ron, where his connection to baseball came from, his mom going to school with Jackie Robinson and what he's working on now. Enjoy!