Red Black Green Baseball: Recent Episodes
Pat Ellington Jr.
The Red Black Green Baseball Podcast aims to truthfully capture the African diaspora's relationship with the sport of baseball from Little League all the way to MLB by telling the individual stories of the Black fans, players, coaches/managers, scouts, front office members, writers, etc. across the world who are a part of the African diaspora via one-on-one interviews.
Juan Hillman Jr. is the featured guest of Red Black Green Baseball 4. Hillman is a left-handed starting pitcher who has played 6 years in the minor leagues, reaching Triple-A during the 2021 MiLB season with the Cleveland Guardians organization. He was drafted by the Cleveland Guardians in the second round of the 2015 MLB Draft out of Olympia High School in Orlando, Florida, foregoing a commitment to the University of Central Florida. He is currently a MiLB free agent.
Juan Hillman's Twitter: @RealJuanHillman
Juan Hillman's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5L1y4IF-I1cvpOR6dv6jQg
Juan Hillman's MiLB Page: https://www.milb.com/player/juan-hillman-663535
Background - 0:30
Choosing Between Football & Baseball - 4:40
His Relationship With Tom Gordon & Nick Gordon - 6:40
Juan's High School Baseball Career - 12:00
The Experience of Getting Drafted - 15:00
Juan's Relationship With Triston McKenzie - 17:00
Juan's Experience As a Professional Baseball Player - 24:20
Going Through Tommy John Surgery - 35:00
Roger García is the featured guest of the third episode of the Red Black Green Baseball Podcast, and the first Afro-Latino individual to make an appearance on the show. He is the great-grandson of Silvio García, one of the greatest Afro-Cuban shortstops in the history of professional baseball. He had an illustrious career that spanned over twenty years, playing in the Negro Leagues, Mexican League, Cuban Winter League, and all the other top professional baseball leagues that allowed Black baseball players from throughout the African Diaspora to play.
The shortstop was one of the candidates considered to break MLB's color line, although Branch Rickey deemed him unfit after García told him that he would kill a man in America if he disrespected him just for being Black. Roger and I talked about a list of topics, many of them revolving around his relationship with the game of baseball and how it intersects with his identity as an Afro-Cuban and his family history.
0:00 - Intro
0:45 - Background + Viral Tweet
2:55 - His great-grandfather's complex relationship with Cuba
8:50 - Being Afro-Latino in baseball
10:00 - The new wave of young Black players in professional baseball
13:00 - Talking about the game within the game
19:00 - Baseball in Nashville
25:00 - Favorite Afro-Cuban players
26:30 - Travel ball story
30:00 Losing a family heirloom
32:00 Learning Spanish from Grandma
34:20 - Another discussion about the new wave of young Black talent in professional baseball
37:00 - Being a Black catcher
40:45 - Impromptu Michael Irvin praise
42:00 - Uptick in Black catchers in MiLB
44:15 getting Black people more engaged with baseball
The Red Black Green Baseball Podcast - The Red Black Green Baseball Podcast's second episode is centered around my conversation with Shakeia Taylor is an avid baseball historian and freelance columnist from Youngstown, Ohio. Her main interests are the Negro Leagues and women in baseball, while also being a highly active advocate for diversity in sports journalism. As one of the best baseball writers today, her emotion-evoking prose writing has helped shine the light on race and culture in baseball. A 2021 winner of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Analytics Conference Research Award and Associated Press Sports Editors Award, her powerful writing has made appearances across many platforms and has been featured on SB Nation, FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus, MLB dot com, and more.
0:00 - Origin Story & Background
7:30 - How She Got Into Writing About Baseball
10:00 - Being Black In Sports Media
21:00 - Supporting The Youth In Baseball
24:00 - The Intersection of History & Baseball
28:00 - Monthly SABR Event News
Shakeia's Writing: https://www.hishakeia.com
Shakeia's Twitter: https://twitter.com/curlyfro
Pat's Writing: https://www.clippings.me/tangibleuno
Pat's Twitter: https://twitter.com/tangible_uno
The Red Black Green Baseball Podcast - The guest of the first episode is Tahnaj Thomas, a twenty-two-year-old starting pitcher who is a top prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system from Freeport, The Bahamas. The former shortstop was one of the top Bahamian prospects who was eligible to be signed during the 2016 J2 Signing Period for international amateur prospects, but his path completely changed when a Cleveland Guardians scout named Koby Perez convinced Thomas that his future as a professional baseball player involved toeing the rubber. This is Tahnaj Thomas's story through his own words.
0:00-5:15 - Growing Up In The Bahamas
5:15-17:20 - The Transition From Being A Shortstop to Pitching
17:30-20:10 - Leading By Example, Hosting Pitching Camps, etc.
20:10-24:00 - Finding His Swagger As A Black Pitcher
24:00-30:57 - Just Be Yourself
Pat's Twitter: @tangible_uno
Tahnaj's Twitter: @jbythomaskid
Podcast Twitter: @rbgbaseball
Tahnaj's clothing brand: https://www.jbyclothing.com