Shane Barclay's Baseball Origin Story

Mark Jent: Welcome to Chatter Up, presented by Extra Innings Travel. I am your host, Shane Barclay. And with me today in this first episode, as my co-host is Mark Gent. Mark, good to see you and welcome. Thanks, Shane. Good to be here. Well, Mark, thanks for joining us on this first episode. In this first episode, the idea is to introduce to our audience a little bit about what we're all about as a brand, Extra Innings Travel, what I'm all about. ⁓ as a person, therefore, because ⁓ I guess in at the end of the day, I'm the person behind extra innings travel. And ⁓ before we get into lots of the fun guests that we're gonna have in subsequent episodes, ⁓ you and I were talked about how, hey, let's start out, lay some groundwork, ⁓ introduce me, introduce ⁓ extra innings travel, and hopefully give our audience an idea of what to expect ⁓ in the big picture on this podcast. And You know, I don't really feel comfortable just going on and on ⁓ talking to myself. I'm not ⁓ you know, ⁓ Mike Francesa. and ⁓ is that his name, Francesca? Yeah. You got it. ⁓ I'm not a AM sports talk radio guy that can talk for hours on end ⁓ into a microphone without really having anyone in front of me. Maybe we'll get to that point after some episodes of chatter up, but ⁓ for now I feel much more comfortable having you here. ⁓ especially because this episode is largely going to be about me and about my brand of extra innings travel. So ⁓ that's why I wanted you to have wanted you to be here with me. ⁓ I'm gonna turn over to Mike to you and let you guide the ⁓ captain the ship here. ⁓ but before I do, I think that I definitely need to introduce you. ⁓ for those who don't know Mark, ⁓ Mark is the founder of Simply a Fan. Simply a Fan is a Nashville-based sports travel operation. although he is the founder, he also likes to go by the titles of Chief Trip Planner and Designated Storyteller. And for those of you who have not heard of Simpli a Fan, I highly recommend you check them out. I will put a link in the show notes to ⁓ to their website and whatnot. ⁓ they do really cool baseball events and other sports as well. ⁓ and so Mark is a ⁓ A kindred soul in the sports travel business and a baseball lover and someone who I really enjoy talking to. So, Mark, I'm gonna hand the mic to you and let you take over for most of the rest of the episode. Thanks, Shane. I appreciate it. Honored to join you as the co-host for this ⁓ first episode of Chatter Up. I'm enjoyed hearing you hearing you talk about it the last little bit. It's exciting to see how this is gonna be just another avenue of ⁓ promoting extra innings travel and just talking about all the wonderful things that you've been doing for several years. So thanks for giving me the opportunity to interview you. You may not want to hear Shane Barclay talk, but I do because I enjoy all things Shane Barkley. So let's dive in. Just give us a little bit like when did you first have the vision for chatter up? And ⁓ yeah yeah, when did the idea come to you and what's your vision for it? What's your vision for what this could be about in the community? Well, the the origins of Chatterer F go back to May of twenty twenty. ⁓ that was when there was no baseball, there's no sports really at all in the throes of the pandemic. And I had just taken over ⁓ Japan Ball, our sister brand. This is before actually things travel even existed. And I was like, Okay, I just took over a sports travel company and there are no sports to travel to. There's no travel, there's no sports. ⁓ so I started a Time to buy a business and to you know start a as a new business, small business owner. Yeah, could not have been worse. ⁓ but one of the positive things is that ⁓ I came up with Chatter Up. It was a Zoom series at the time. You know, everyone was starting Zoom events and whatnot. So I figured, hey, I want to start something up where we can just talk baseball, talk sports. You know, that was something that was missing from all of our lives. ⁓ just like a casual. No consequences, light conversation, talking baseball. You know, I felt like there was a need for that. So ⁓ I started the Zoom series. We threw it on YouTube. It first started as just like a clubhouse hang with members of our community. ⁓ we did kind of show and tell stuff and some trivia and games. And then I thought, hey, I got some contacts in the baseball world. Let's turn it into a little bit of a speaker series. So that was in 2020. As the world opened up. Chatter up kind of dwindled off, but I knew that we had something there. I really enjoyed interacting with our community. I enjoyed talking to our guests. And ⁓ and the feedback I got was like, hey, what happened to Chatter Up? Like, let's bring it back. So it's always in the back of my mind, once we started traveling and operating our tours, and we launch sectionings, travel and whatnot, I didn't have the capacity to ⁓ to do this chatter up speaker series or podcast or Zoom or any of that. ⁓ but I feel like I have a little bit of space now to do it. And I've just always been in the back of my mind to bring it back. And ⁓ I felt like now is the time with you coming along and helping out with some of our operations at XJings Travel. I ⁓ you had some background doing some experience doing podcasts, and I enjoyed talking with you. So that really helped motivate me to bring it back as well. ⁓ and then to answer kind of the second part of your question of of really like why are we doing this? The why is is because And we launched Action Innings Travel Brand just over a year ago. And I wanted a way to connect with our community, to kind of shout from the digital mountaintops of what we're all about. And what we're all about is the global and unifying nature of baseball. And I think that I know that because of our community, that there's a lot of people who are into those things. They're into the idea of baseball as more than just America's pastime. They're they've experienced the unifying powers of baseball. And I wanted to create a podcast that shares those beliefs and and represents the values we're all about as a business. And ⁓ I think there's a lot of content out there. I think that when people listen to us, that they will ⁓ give you know they'll the I I'm hoping that we get some credibility, I guess, ⁓ and trust out there because at the end of the day We are a baseball tour company. Extra Innings Travel is the name of of our brand, and that's who's presenting this podcast. And I know that it's ⁓ for some people, it it reasonably is kind of a big, maybe intimidating commitment to come on one of our tours. So, you know, if you get to know us a little bit more and know what we're all about, hopefully that will convince you that ⁓ this is a worthy investment in your time and money. But if not, that's okay too, because again, I just like sharing about. what I love, which is baseball and the global side of baseball and how it brings people together. So ⁓ yeah, that's that's the inspiration and that's why we're here today. Well, we can never have too much baseball in our life. And ⁓ you've grown a following over the years, going back to Japan ball and now with extra innings travel. And you have a lot of people who already know who you are and and what you're about, but ⁓ inevitably with the podcast and the reach that this is going to have, ⁓ there's gonna be people hearing about you and hearing about X Gettings Travel for the first time. So just pull back the curtain a little bit and give us some insight into ⁓ you know, what is X trainings travel all about? Somebody's hearing it for the first time, you can ⁓ give ⁓ the elevator spill on on what it is. Yeah, well, X Gennings Travel is it's a baseball travel company. We specialize in international baseball travel. ⁓ Japan has been our long running destination going back to when our trips are operated on primarily under the Japan Ball brand, which is still, as I said, a sister company of ours, sister brand. ⁓ those started back in nineteen ninety-nine, those Japan trips under Bob Bavesi, ⁓ the former owner of Japan Ball. And then ⁓ we travel to South Korea, Dominican Republic, and Europe. Those are our current international destinations. ⁓ we go To Alaska, which, you know, it's USA, but it's kind of a different country in it in its own way. Barely. But it is. We claim it. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ and you know, we we do some Cooperstown trips, we've done some other ⁓ domestic trips, but really we're an international baseball tour company. ⁓ we have fan tours where we travel the world watching baseball games and using baseball as our guiding light to see a new country. And then we have our play abroad trips, ⁓ which ⁓ bring people It has been up to this point, all kids kind of age nine to fifteen. ⁓ we're gonna bring a softball team next year to Japan. So it's baseball or softball, could be really any age from little league to adult rec leagues. And we go to these countries and we play baseball or softball and use that as a vehicle for cultural immersion and cultural exchange. ⁓ so yeah, that's a quick rundown of what we're all about. I'd love to talk more about it, but I wanna say a little bit more. on Shaq and and hopefully people can just check out our website if they want to learn more about our specific offerings. Yeah, t tell me this, like, I mean you you've had a lot, you've had hundreds and hundreds of people travel with you internationally over the last six years since you stepped into this role and and took it over. But like give me one thing that like as people are thinking, people who have been on the trips, what is one thing they walk away with? Like what's one thing that you hear consistently that they enjoyed or they got to experience that they might not had otherwise? Well, the the first thing that comes to mind, I'd say, is is the camaraderie that they experience with their fellow guests. I think that's a thing they're not really expecting. You know, they have an idea of what the Japanese baseball experience is, for example. ⁓ and they sign up for our tour largely because they want help in facilitating that experience. And maybe they don't necessarily have the knowledge or the time to to figure it out on their own. So they sign up for one of our trips so they can have that experience. But what they're not in most for a first time guests, what they're not really realizing, I found, is that not only you're having this experience, but you're having it with a group of people who have two big primary things in common. They love baseball and they have a sense of curiosity or adventure that inspires them to travel to see baseball. So this those two things alone, like you can have a lot of fun. You you develop some tight bonds. You're going you're traveling, you have some long days together, you have amazing experiences together. You're kind of you end up being family. You you ⁓ have this like full spectrum cultural immersion experience. And, you know, I always ⁓ you're one of these people to me, but everyone has these people in their life that they can just talk baseball all day long with. And now you're go traveling in a group with with a whole group of those people. It's like heaven for a baseball lovers. So I think that's one thing that really is a common thread and and evidenced by the fact that people keep coming back on our tours, even if maybe they don't feel like they need the help because they've been to Japan and they kind of know their way around. ⁓ but they like having that experience traveling with their fellow guests. Yeah. I mean, you're you're acting as the travel agent and the tour guide, the trip planner all in one and You know, for a lot of people who travel internationally, like they may be well versed in it and they enjoy putting it all together themselves, but you know, i there's also something to be said about the service you provide and people can just show up and go. Like you take care of all the travel, you take care of all the games, and you know, they buy the package for that, but what you just mentioned is a big thing they take away. What they don't realize is that community and that fellowship and those friends are gonna walk away with it. I mean You can't go to Japan for three weeks with a group of fifteen people and not walk away with ⁓ relationships with them. You know? And, you know, for anybody listening out there, what's one of the big things about your tours and what you do is ⁓ you're bringing people together in community. And ⁓ you provide this exceptional service where you've got tour guide tour guides on the ground, you plan out all the games, all the ho all the hotels, all the stays, but ⁓ it goes beyond that. You know, but for a lot of people, and what I find with Simply a Fan is they they could do it on their own, but a lot of people like having somebody do it for ⁓ W life is busy. Things a lot of a lot going on. But ⁓ yeah, that's a great snapshot of extra innings travel and love how we've talked about play abroad. We're gonna talk about that in future episodes as well. But that's been a neat addition to ⁓ the portfolio of what you offer. Well Tell us a little bit about Shane. ⁓ you know, give us some give us a you know, who is Shane? What's your background? ⁓ where are you from? That's a big question. I don't know. Who who am I? Who what is my personal? You want me to answer it for you? I will answer it. I'll I'll do my best. You can fill in some gaps if if you want. ⁓ yeah, I live I'm born and raised in California. ⁓ that's where I am now, Northern California. ⁓ my permanent home is is Santa Cruz. I live there with my wife Jessie and my son Brooks, ⁓ name inspired by Brooks Robinson and Luna. The vacuum. Yes. I was a third baseman, so I ⁓ even though I never saw Brooks Robinson, I loved him and he's a upstanding gentleman and yeah, his cool name. Luna is my daughter. She's eight months old. Brooks is three years old. ⁓ Luna doesn't have a ⁓ baseball inspiration in her name, but ⁓ I'm sure we'll we'll find some connection there s at some point. ⁓ but yeah, we ⁓ and I I I can't leave out my dog Maggie. ⁓ so yeah, we're ⁓ family of four plus a dog living in Santa Cruz. ⁓ my background, ⁓ you know, where do I I I think we're gonna talk maybe more about my career, so I won't go there, but ⁓ I'm half Chinese, an important part of my identity. I say I'm Chirish, Chinese and Irish. ⁓ So ⁓ you know, I've I've always been into Asian baseball and and ⁓ you know, that's a big part of who I am. ⁓ where where else do I go? I I don't even know. I I I mean, what ⁓ yeah, I mean w what do you and Jesse, what do you all enjoy doing as a family? What do you enjoy doing? ⁓ I mean, I know you like to surf, I know you like to be outdoors. ⁓ you know, tell us a few things that outside of extra innings travel, ⁓ what do you like to do as the ⁓ as the son, as the dad? As the husband, as the friend. Yeah, well, ⁓ a big thing that comes to mind is we we love to travel and that's why I chose this line of work. A a big part of my vision in creating this entity was I wanted to be able to make it my career to see the world, and to do so through baseball was even better. And in j for Jesse growing up, ⁓ her parents were were amazing in that they got They brought their kids to some really cool destinations. just, you know, they would take them out of school for a week and make sure that they kept up with their homework and they'd ask the teacher for some lessons and they'd go see the world. And ⁓ for me, most of that international stuff started happen happening when I was a little bit older, but my brother and sister both studied abroad and and they ⁓ just told basically said you have to do it. And ⁓ and that's when I got the bug. You know, I studied abroad in the in the Dominican Republic and ⁓ so yeah, we love to travel the world. When we travel, we we eat our way to any destination. ⁓ Anthony Bardane is a big inspiration of mine. And ⁓ the way he would experience culture through food. So we whether we're going to a city twenty minutes away or a country that's you know, twenty hours away, ⁓ that's that's kind of how we like to to experience a new place. So yeah, eating is a big part of what we do. The The kitchen is the center of our home. We love to cook together. We're both water people. We both played water polo. And so we actually Jesse and I met technically when we met, although it's not when we started dating, it was when we were five years old on our local swim team in in Cupertino, California. ⁓ and ⁓ we both swam for a long time competitively. We played water polo. ⁓ so yeah, and that now I surf. So, yeah, the water is a big part of our life and Yeah. We still go to that same swimming pool where we first met and bring our kids now. So yeah, that's one of our favorite things to do as a family as well. Five years old. That is a that is so incredible that you met that you met that young. Well, when Luna listens to this podcast many years from now, I don't want her to feel left out and not having a baseball reference in her name. So I just want to let you know that there have been two major league baseball players in history with the last name Luna. And we're just gonna say maybe she has got a tie to Mimo Luna, who ⁓ played one game for St. Louis in nineteen fifty-four and ⁓ was from Mexico. So there you go. So there we go. are the inspirations behind your kid's name. So crack down some more Mimo Luna ⁓ memorabilia and stories. But hey, so for somebody who owns a baseball business, ⁓ Obviously you would not own a baseball business if the game did not mean a lot to you. ⁓ so just take us back. Like why does it mean a lot to you? What does it go back to? You know, for a lot of us it's childhood, ⁓ whether we played or whether ⁓ you know, somebody introduced us to the game, but ⁓ why baseball? And just give us some of your passion and desire to ⁓ be involved in the game in this way. Baseball was was the first thing that I loved. I I I guess you could say my family was the first thing, but you I'm not so much aware of that. That's just a kind of a given. The baseball's the first thing I knew I loved. You know, I couldn't get enough of it. ⁓ I guess it probably started with just playing T ball. ⁓ you know, my my parents wanted me to play a lot of sports. My dad definitely likes baseball. ⁓ he grew up a White Sox fan. He wasn't wasn't and isn't like a baseball ⁓ diehard. as much as I am by any means. ⁓ but, you know, my parents introduced me to it and I just couldn't get enough of it from the beginning. You know, I I played it, I collected the baseball cards. As soon as I ⁓ was I was probably one of the youngest subscribers to baseball America and the whole country. watched baseball tonight every day. ⁓ you know, just it was just a love affair from the beginning. So I always wanted to become a major league baseball player. I wanted to be a third baseman in the big leagues and ⁓ I'd say freshman year of high school when I realized that most of my ⁓ ability was because I was a lot bigger than everyone else growing up and then everyone started to catch up to me and I was like, ⁓ I guess I was full grown by age twelve, which is why I was like hitting tons of home runs. And then when I'm the same size at age fifteen, I was like, ⁓ maybe I'm not as good as this and yeah, I still loved the game, but I started to shift my focus away from playing baseball and and then like I said, I loved baseball America. I remember reading some articles early on about how you can work in the game and ⁓ I decided I w I would and also Moneyball came out when I was in high school. So a couple things I read from that book and articles, whatnot, I was like, ⁓ maybe I can work in baseball instead and just be part of my life in in that way. Well, you did. Well, ⁓ you you definitely have chased that vision and and made that happen. But who were you imitating in the backyard? Who were ⁓ who was your guy? ⁓ who was your team? ⁓ what are some of your earliest memories of ⁓ being a fan of the game? So I grew up in Cupertina, which is equidistant from Oakland and San Francisco. So ⁓ I like the A's and the Giants. ⁓ I don't think there's anything wrong with liking them both. They're not really rivals. I'd say the ownership is more rivals than than anything else. So I always like third baseman as I mentioned. So the two third baseman that come to mind ⁓ in my childhood were Eric Chavez with the A's and Bill Miller with the Giants. And ⁓ you asked who I imitate, yeah, Bill Miller. ⁓ he was great at throwing on the run, not just on bunts, but ⁓ cutting off the ball from the shortstop and and throwing across his body. Which is a really hard play to make when you all your momentum's going towards second base, it's the third baseman and you have to kind of rotate your your shoulders in a way to kind of get the ball at the first baseman and and he was so good at that. He was really smooth. My I remember my friends and I would would try to imitate that. So yeah, that comes to mind when you ask that question. Bill Miller, that is awesome. ⁓ we need ⁓ that gives me an idea. We need to have him on the pod sometime. He needs to kind of scatter up and ⁓ let you let you tell him all about you were imitating him in the backyard. ⁓ Billy, if you're out there, please. Come on, chatter up. We want you. Yes. ⁓ well that's great. I mean, you would have been growing up in the era of jots and A's. So Moneyball era. ⁓ you were in high school, you said when that was happening. And then also you were definitely in the Bonds era in his San Francisco years and you know, the many MVPs and home runs he hit. ⁓ did you go to a lot of games ⁓ back then growing up? I would go to a handful every year. ⁓ my parents would tell me, you know, you could pick a few games, ⁓ you know, before I could drive myself and and they would take me up to San Francisco or Oakland to you know, to old candlestick park. ⁓ I went I skipped one of my baseball best baseball memories was skipping school. I must have been in like maybe seventh grade or so. to go to the final game at Candlestick Park, which was a really special experience. They did an amazing job of paying tribute to the history of that organization. So that was a really cool thing. The Giants are were kind of more I was within Giants Andy went to the final game at the Coliseum a couple of years ago. That's right. I did, yeah. So those are both really cool experiences. The both teams are special. Like I was a Giants fan probably first and like I grew South Bay is more Giants territory. But the A's were so cool, like when Maguire's early years before he's traded to St. Louis, like ⁓ and then the Moneyball teams, the games were were cheaper than the Giants, and the team was just fun and it's kind of like a it felt like the new cool thing to go to A's games. So I I loved going to those games as well. Yeah. That's great. That's great. Well, let's get into your career a little bit. Tell us, ⁓ I mean, let's just talk about your career. You went to college and then what happened after that? How did you get here where you own a your own baseball business, you found your way into the industry, you had connections. So just tell us a little bit about the journey that led you to where you are today. ⁓ yeah, I'll try to connect the dots in a relatively efficient way here. So the the first dot I'd say would be. would be Moneyball the book coming out. So those teams that the book was written about, I was like ⁓ you know, twelve, thirteen years old watching those teams and loving them. The big three, Uzito, Hudson Mulder, Miguel Tejada, Jason Giabbi, etc. Scott Hadtiberg. You can't forget Hadtiberg, primary main character of the book. ⁓ yeah, I mean those are great teams. And so I love those teams just as a fan. And then the book came out and I fell in you know, it was just an amazing book, really well written. ⁓ and that showed me like, hey, you can work in baseball. You don't have to be a former player. You don't have to be, you know, the son of a GM or something. Like you can find your way in just through academics. So ⁓ that was a huge inspiration to me. And that I think it came out maybe my sophomore year of high school. So it's kind of when I was like I said, realizing I wasn't going to be a big league baseball player. And ⁓ And also realizing like, hey, like my path for the next couple of years and through college can really ⁓ get me to where I want to be and and have a career in baseball. So ⁓ I thought like, ⁓ I I'm good at math, I'm good at arithmetic, I can, you know, be a stats guy. And ⁓ I got into Cal Berkeley for college and I took one math class there and I said, Okay, that's I'm not gonna be a stats guy. Yeah. Yeah. I was ⁓ The letters became numbers in the in math and ⁓ or s or sorry, the numbers became letters. Yeah. And that threw me that definitely messed things up for me. So anyway, I was like, okay, that's like I'm not gonna be a stats guy. But what I knew from the research I'd done in baseball America articles, ⁓ I remember one article where they interviewed a bunch of GMs and they asked the GMs to give advice to aspiring, ⁓ you know, baseball professionals and they said learn Spanish. ⁓ so I was already thinking Spanish in high school. And then when I got to Cal, ⁓ as I said, my brother and sister told me like you gotta study abroad. And I started looking at the study abroad ⁓ options that the University of California had connections with, and none of them really like you could go to Spain, but like Spain's not a baseball country. So I was like, okay, where else can I let's look maybe at the unofficial study abroad programs. Yeah, yeah. And ⁓ and I found the Dominican Republic and I was like, okay, I can go to the DR It's a it's like a baseball lover's paradise. Like I my understanding was it's like going to Brazil if you love soccer, it's like going to the DR if you love baseball. They speak Spanish, of course. Baseball had attended Dominican players. So ⁓ I chose to study abroad in the DR, thinking that could help me hopefully get a a job in baseball and and it would just be a cool experience. How long was that for? How long did you how long were you there during your That was basically just a semester, a little bit over one semester. ⁓ So I did that and it was an amazing experience. I managed to do have some baseball experiences just by I brought a bunch of equipment. I asked friends and family to donate equipment and I shipped the big box down there and donated it and ⁓ just learned Dominican culture and tried to learn Dominican Spanish, which was a lot harder than the Spanish they taught in high school. but ⁓ yeah, I loved the DR and I I got back and I was okay, well now what? Like Cal didn't have any sports management classes or ⁓ any like classes, let alone a degree, until my last semester when I learned about this little two unit class ⁓ offered by the business school that was ⁓ i it was run by a an agent from CAA. And ⁓ I was like, ⁓ that's a cool way to learn about sports. And I didn't ⁓ you know, it's it's just a two unit class and signed up for it. And ⁓ When I got my syllabus, the teacher was Sandy Alderson. There's a change in the teacher. And ⁓ Sandy, ⁓ I admit at first I was like, wait, do I I think I know that name, but I wasn't sure. And I looked him up. I'm like, ⁓ wow, this is a golden opportunity. Sandy Alderson was a very prominent baseball executive. He won the World Series as the Ace GM. And if you go to the origins of Moneyball and Billy Bean and all that, it started with Sandy. So I was like, this was unreal. I ⁓ took that class. I worked harder in that two unit once a week class than any other class I did ⁓ in my four four and a half years at Cal. Yeah, it it did because Sandy at the end of the you know, I I shared with him, went to office hours and and talked to him multiple times about my aspirations and he provided a lot of guidance. he let me use his name and in writing letters to teams, to MLB teams. In ⁓ I he said, he's like, I'm not gonna necessarily write you a letter for recommendation. You can just use my name in the letter that you write. And he g provided me guidance on like who to write to and and and whatnot. And so I put his name on the first sentence of my letter to get attention said I am writing you per the recommendation of Sandy Alderson, you know, figuring that would you know, get my stuff read at least. ⁓ and it did. And that combined with having studied abroad in the d in the DR made me a somewhat unique candidate ⁓ of of the many that were trying to get a job in baseball. So And you became fluent in Spanish, right? Yep. Yes, I did. So ⁓ there's in a Diamondbacks ⁓ ended up offering me an internship that ⁓ I it was an amazing experience 'cause I basically rode the bus in the minor leagues in the California league. ⁓ I was assigned to Visalia. ⁓ the Visalia Rahide in in the high A California league. And ⁓ yeah, they most of the players were in their first full season or maybe second full season. So they were all about my age. You know, I was just a recent college grad. And so I got to have that minor league baseball experience. ⁓ Yeah. It was pretty funny the I remember like some of the guys knew us in California and a lot of them hadn't ever been to California. And they're like, Shane, what the heck is going on? I thought California was like beaches and, you know, Laguna Beach was a T V show at the time and they're like this is we were into Central Valley going from Bakersfield to San Bernardino to ⁓ you know, all these places where you're not in the mountains and you're not in the ocean. So ⁓ Yeah, it was an amazing experience. Like California. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was ⁓ it was a dusty, hot summer, but ⁓ I absolutely loved it. And the what worked out really well was that in the meantime, during that season, Sandy was hired by ⁓ Bud Seelig to run MLB's international baseball operations with a specific focus on taking over the Dominican Republic office and trying to clean things up down there. So I kept in touch with Sandy and ⁓ I mean that was just so fortuitous that I had just spent a semester with him. And then he was hired to run the DR office. I had already been to the DR studying there. And ⁓ so he hired me. To work down there in the Dominican office. And that was ⁓ 2010, end of 2010, right before the Giants won their first World Series. And ⁓ he was actually hired by the Mets the day I started, so I never worked for him. ⁓ I rode on the plane. We flew from New York, the MLB office, like I did my orientation there, got on the plane, ⁓ from JFK to Santo Domingo and ⁓ actually on my way to the airport is when I saw the news scroll in the taxi saying Mets hire Sandy Ellerson as general manager and I'm like that's my ball. Like he desired me. And so I was like wondering if he's even gonna be there. But he was at there at the terminal ⁓ at the gate. ⁓ he beat he probably beat me by a he's a military guy. He's always on time and early and I felt bad that like he beat me. I like man, I should have been there early waiting for him. But he was waiting for me. I was glad that he actually was there. And was like, hey, what's up with this news scroll I saw? It was like six AM, you know, so it's like the first news of the day. And he's Yep. ⁓ that's true. And ⁓ you know, we're we're gonna get there was this big meeting that was down in the DR. He's like, So that meeting is gonna turn into my farewell meeting and I'm gonna turn right around and come back. And ⁓ he was introduced as the Mets GM. I think the next day he probably had his press conference. Yeah. That's that's pretty incredible. Yeah. That's great. That's great. And then at that point you're on the way to the DR and you live there for a couple of years, right? Yeah. And but I mean that was a pretty interesting way to ch to try and to get into major league baseball. But what happened what was those two years like? And then what happened at the end of those two years? Yeah, so it was it was amazing first you know, it was my first full time job. ⁓ got to live down there and and ⁓ I mean, I could go on about that experience. But I I guess one detail that's important is that so Jesse and I had started dating just before I left down there. And ⁓ I was down there for two years. After one year I wasn't sure if I'd be coming back or when. And so then that's when she decided to join me. She quit her job and came out to the DR. So that was kind of a make or break thing, a big part of my life and like I could be down here forever and like, you know, Jesse was my girl had just kind of become my girlfriend, but it was like Yeah. Yeah, how long are we gonna do this long distance thing? And and we said, you know what, let's just go for this. And and so that year that she lived there really kind of solidified our relationship going through that experience, living in a developing industry. Kindergarten didn't do it, the DR. Yeah. That didn't do it, the DR do. Yeah. So anyway, that's that was, you know, looking back, that was just a big part of it. ⁓ of course, all the baseball experience, like getting much better at my Dominican Spanish and just learning the ⁓ the industry down there ⁓ was an an incredible experience and really formative in my life in in many ways. And ⁓ after two years, ⁓ one of the guys in our department, my department was international baseball operations and ⁓ it was run out of primarily out of the New York office in in Manhattan. And ⁓ one of the guys in our department was hired to be the international scouting director for the Houston Astros. So there was a spot that opened up. I was getting a little bit antsy. I got I I love the DR, but I was like, I don't really want to be down here forever. Like and Jesse ⁓ was we had a great time, but like I didn't want her to just feel like she had to tag along with me forever. And so I was getting a little bit antsy to to leave and and that opening came up and ⁓ I got the job to kind of fill in from below in New York and ⁓ I got to work in the same department, still spend a lot of time in a DR, but also then go to Venezuela and and the Panama and and Columbia and these other countries more often as well, which was really cool. And ⁓ my boss was Kim Aang, ⁓ and which was an amazing experience to work for her as well. ⁓ technically my boss Kim's boss is Joe Torre, but I we didn't interact with Joe too much. But it was like a nice chain of command. ⁓ you know, good ⁓ really established baseball people that ⁓ I got to learn from. And so yeah, I I worked there twenty so that was twenty twelve into twenty eighteen. And in twenty eighteen, Jesse and I decided that we'd move back home to California. I would have loved you know, my job was great, but we're both from the same place. We want to be close to family. and ⁓ we wanted to start our own family. So we f we decided to move back home and I I loved my job, but the parts I loved the best were definitely the travel parts and like coordinating and planning things. Yeah. ⁓ and you know, the other aspect of my job is just an administrative corporate cubicle desk job, you know, like it's yeah, I always joke like I'd rather do spreadsheets about baseball players than like I don't know, air conditioning units or something. ⁓ but you know, no offense to anyone who's in HVAC, but it's just like, you know, it was but still was, you know, doing spreadsheets and emails and stuff. So great offense to that. I had an air conditioning class in my senior year of high school, so you just ⁓ That wouldn't seem Well, I was gonna say they need more practical classes like that, but if you can't fix it then, which shop air conditioning, those were two classes I took in high school. That's awesome. That that's I mean, that's remarkable. I mean, so for eight years you worked for MLB, two in the DR, six in New York City, had some incredible experiences, met some you got well connected in the game and did a lot of travel and then you y'all decide to go back ⁓ west go back to the ⁓ the bay area and go back to go back home and then ⁓ but it it it kind of seemed like that'd be the ⁓ period at the end of the sentence, but it was more of a comma because you still found yourself in the game after that. Yeah, so like I said, I love the baseball travel part of my job at ⁓ O B. So I I figured how can I have a job that allows me to do just my favorite parts of of the previous job. ⁓ and I I really like coordinating things. Some people don't aren't planners and and aren't logistics people, but I am. I I love that stuff. So ⁓ yeah so I started talking to ⁓ the brothers Bavese ⁓ Bill Bavese I worked with at MLB and his brother Bob founded Japan Ball and and ⁓ Bob ended up ⁓ bringing me aboard, having me help out with some tours. And eventually I realized soon that he didn't really want help as much as he was hoping someone would take over and buy the business from him. And ⁓ that just the timing was perfect. That I was leaving MLB looking to do something in this area. And he was looking to sail his boat and find find someone that would ⁓ grow the business that he he wasn't particularly interested in taking it to the next level and and I was. Did he ever consider sailing his boat to Japan for a Japan Boltro and taking customers all the way across the Pacific? That is a good question. That would have been an epic trip. That would have been that ⁓ maybe we ought to put it on the the calendar. ⁓ I'm sure he lo he would love the concept. I'm sure about that. But it's if you're listening and the ⁓ or watching and the Bavese name rings a bell to you, ⁓ His dad, Buzzy Bebese, was the Dodgers executive and GM in the fifties and sixties. And you'll get more into that in a future episode when you have Bob on the podcast. But ⁓ so then you're with him in twenty nineteen. ⁓ you have a role, you're going on some of the trips, y'all start talking about the business, and then ⁓ you you you purchase the business in ⁓ in early twenty twenty, right? And then the pandemic hits. Yep. Yeah, January first we signed the paperwork and then, you know, we knew we had heard of COVID at that point, but we didn't think it would become what it did. And ⁓ yeah, that brings us to where we were talking about how chatter up started and yeah, eventually ⁓ Japan was actually one of the last countries to open up for tourists. So we started traveling to other countries, ⁓ the DR, South Korea, et cetera, which we ha which Japan Ball never did. It was just all only Japan under bomb. And after a while I got a little bit tired of answering the question of like, hey, why is there a bunch of Americans traveling to the DR and their name is Japan Ball? And and questions similar to that. Yeah. ⁓ so I was like, hey, let's start another brand that's kind of houses all of our travel operations. It's a little bit more generic since we are a global travel brand. And then Japan Ball, like at the simultaneously, this guy Shohei Autani was making Japanese baseball huge. And interest in Japanese baseball had never been bigger. And so I was like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. ⁓ so I was like, let's keep Japan Ball. Like I definitely didn't want to get rid of Japan Ball as an established brand with a lot of loyal followers. ⁓ but it's really kind of a media entity that covers Japanese baseball and is really just Japan centric. And, you know, our tours are still Japan Ball tours in a sense of it's an extra innings travel Japan Ball collaboration. But That's only to Japan. And then when we go to South Korea or the DR, it's extra innings travel. So I just wanted to I wanted to give each part of the operation where it's like covering Japanese baseball and traveling. I wanted to give each of them the attention that they deserved. And it was kind of muddying each other in ⁓ distinguishing between the two of those categories. ⁓ because we have a lot of people who are into both, but we have a lot of people who just want to learn about Japanese baseball. We have a lot of people who just want to travel and don't really care about what's going on in NPB. So anyway, we we started that last year once we kind of had five years of of building up and a couple years of being operating at full speed after COVID. And ⁓ anyway, yeah, that's that's ⁓ I guess the Somewhat long, could be longer, could be shorter version of of how we talk to you today. That's great. Well, Shane, being a small business owner, ⁓ you wear a lot of hats and ⁓ you d done this full time now for six years in this regard, but what's something like what do you enjoy most about what you do? That's a tough one. ⁓ there's a bunch of things I love about it. ⁓ one. You get one. What's one? Okay, okay. I'll go with one. One is I love seeing the look on the faces, whether it's in person or through photos from our local guides, of of our guests who are experiencing international baseball for the first time. Like it's a pretty magical thing for someone who loves baseball, who's kind of had their own version of it their whole lives. Whether they go to big league games, minor league games, or play baseball in little league, and then they're in this new place and the game is very similar, almost the same, not quite exactly the same, with the different styles and batting stances and whatnot. But everything else is different and it's just kind of awe inspiring. And yeah. I am a little bit used to it at this point. I still enjoy it very much. That's why I still go on a lot of our tours and and love doing it. But that first time when you're kind of just wide eyed and Taking it all in. ⁓ you know, that's that's what I love providing for people. And and I'd say that's definitely one of my favorite parts of the job. Definitely. Definitely. Well, there that's who Shane is. There is Shane. ⁓ obviously keep keep listening, keep following along, go to the website, you can learn more about him. But Shane, thanks for letting me interview you on your podcast. You did a great job telling about yourself. Now we're going to transition to our show and tell segment. This is a segment of the podcast where ⁓ it has a couple goals. One of the goals is to just spark a conversation about again, these these pillars of what we do, which is the international nature of the game, the unifying powers of the game, or or just like nostalgia in general, which baseball is such a nostalgic game. So I ask our guests to bring something that represents those traits or n and or nostalgia. And ⁓ and then I will bring something too. And the other reason why we do this segment is because I have all these baseball mementos, baseball memorabilia, cards, autographs, etc. And ⁓ I want to show them off because they're just in my house and you know, it if if you're not showing them off, then like it's kinda like a tree falling in the forest with when no one hears it. So so anyway, so Mark, ⁓ why don't we start with you? What do you have to share? All right. Well, for today's show and tell. ⁓ about 10 years ago I had this idea. I wanted to try to meet as many of the living Brooklyn Dodgers as possible. So I called ⁓ Mr. Carl Erskine one Tuesday morning. ⁓ the idea came to me fall of 2016, and then I made the phone call February of twenty seventeen and ⁓ introduced myself, Mr. Erskine, ⁓ Mark Gent. I'd love to meet you sometime, take you to breakfast, take you to lunch. And I hear him, he said, Well, hold on just a second. And he pulls out his calendar, his like calendar journal. And I hear him flipping over the pages. Well, let me see. Let me see when I'm free. He goes, Well, I'm free I'm free Saturday morning. you wanna come up Saturday morning? ⁓ so me and a buddy went to Anderson, Indiana, ⁓ six hour drive from Nashville that Saturday morning, and we had a three hour breakfast with Mr. Carl Erskine. And for some of you you'll know that name immediately, but for those that don't, ⁓ he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He debuted in nineteen forty eight. ⁓ his career went through nineteen fifty nine when they went to LA and ⁓ just so many phenomenal stories ⁓ d not only that day but in the years that followed but ⁓ my show until item today is ⁓ that Saturday morning at ⁓ Denny's ⁓ no at Bob Evans we had breakfast at Bob Evans restaurant ⁓ he signed a ball for me and ⁓ I'll provide pictures to it but this is my Carl Erskine ⁓ inscription ball and at this point Mr. Erskine is about eighty eight years old And ⁓ I got the sweet spot below it. He put ⁓ Dodgers 1948 to 59. On one panel, he put his ⁓ no hitter against the Cubs in 1952. On the other panel, his no hitter against the Giants, your Giants, 1956. On the top, it says ⁓ World Series, he struck out 14 guys against the Yankees in ⁓ 1953. You put that on the top panel. That game he struck out Mickey Mantle four times. And then on the bottom panel, ⁓ he led the National League in wins in nineteen fifty-three, going twenty and six. So I've got a lot of autograph memorabilia that I've gotten all in person. ⁓ everybody has their things that they collect. For me, autographs I get, I get them in person. And this is one of my most prized possessions. ⁓ Carl Erskine, legendary Brooklyn Dodger ⁓ inscription ball. So that is a beautiful show and tell item. I feel like I'm in second grade and I just, you know, I just opened my backpack and pulled that out. But ⁓ what are you pulling out today? Well mine is also a signed item, not as beautiful a signature, but ⁓ a pretty awesome card that is Ichiro Suzuki rookie card nineteen ninety three Tomy ID Japan number one ⁓ two, Ichiro Suzuki. ⁓ it is graded a 10 signature, not a 10 card. It's quite beat up. ⁓ and the reason why it's beat up is because it was in a shoebox in my room for like 15 years. And my dad gave me this card originally and he did not give me the card specifically. He gave me a pack. This pack, this set, you see the purple border. We'll share I'll share a picture of it. ⁓ you know because I know it's not showing up well on the camera, but this pack has these really bright kind of neon like borders. ⁓ I was seven years old at the time. And ⁓ my dad would go to Japan on business trips and bring back baseball cards. And I of course like to meticulously organize my baseball cards as many of us do. ⁓ but all my Japanese and Taiwanese cards that my dad would bring back to me, I loved getting them. It was super exciting to open these packs and it was like bewildering when I was like, What is this team? What are these colors? Why is this team called the Oryx Blue Wave? And lots of times there wasn't even English on the card and so I didn't really know what to do with them, so I threw them in a box. It was before Hideo Nomo came over. ⁓ so like, you know, I wasn't even thinking that any of these guys would be I didn't I didn't know anything. I just thought was awesome. I love that they're Asian. You know, like I said, I'm half Chinese. Like I love that like there was no Asian players in the major leagues, so it was so cool to see ⁓ you know, Asian professional baseball players. But yeah ⁓ Many years after Ichro came over from Seattle, I started looking through those that box of cards and I found this rookie card and I was like my mind was blown that I had it. And ⁓ again, that's why it's beat up because it was just thrown in there. But my friend Ian and Ian got it signed. Yeah, exactly. ⁓ the Ian got it signed for me up in Seattle. And ⁓ because I mean this is honestly probably the most valuable card I own. I don't have a lot of super high end cards, but not only as an each ro Japanese rookie card, I got it encapsulated and graded, the signatures graded and all that. ⁓ but it it's not really so much for me about the value. It's more just indicative of first of all this connection with my dad and he'd bring back baseball cards for me, which was just like a super exciting thing, ⁓ as a kid. And then this was literally my introduction to Japanese baseball and to global baseball, those cards. ⁓ that's great. And So you can really kind of connect the dots from there to here and ⁓ anyway, so I wanted to share that one. Like I said, to show it off a little bit 'cause it's an awesome piece that's like probably worth four figures, but ⁓ really just 'cause it it really connects to a big part of my story. Yeah. Yeah. Well it's more about the story than it is the dollars. And ⁓ that's a good piece. That's a good piece. Well, close us out. All right. Well, yeah, thank first of all, thanks for showing that awesome Carl Erskine ball. That was really cool. ⁓ and I want to sh mention, I think I've told you this before, but Jesse and I got married at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn, New York, which was the first clubhouse of the Brooklyn Dodgers way back in the day. ⁓ so I have a Brooklyn Dodgers connection as well. Yeah, you do a special place in our life. So ⁓ thanks for making having me remember that. And thank you for coming on again and for getting us ⁓ getting me through this first episode. really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to a bunch more. I I know our listeners will hear back from you at some point. So ⁓ thanks Mark and thank you for everyone ⁓ who listened. We'll see you at the ballpark.