FanGraphs Summer Tour With Pitch Talks

Last month, I mentioned that we were going to be partnering up with the Pitch Talks guys, and would be helping with their efforts to bring the fantastic baseball speaker series to the U.S. this summer. Today, we’re excited to announce what the summer tour is going to look like.

First up for us will be the previously-announced event in Boston on July 7th, as we’ll be joined by a pretty great line-up of guests taking over The Wilbur for the evening. Here’s the poster for that event.

If you attend, you’ll get to hang out with a bunch of other passionate baseball fans and see some fun panels including local Boston scribes, plus a sit down with Red Sox GM Mike Hazen, and the always entertaining stylings of Jonah Keri and Bill Lee. Representing the FanGraphs side of things, I’ll be joined by Paul Swydan, and we’ll team up with Alex Speier to try and keep things appropriately nerdy. If you’re in or around Boston and reading this post, there probably isn’t a better way for you to spend $32 this summer. You should definitely be buying your tickets right now.

After Boston in July, the show travels west, and we’re bringing the fun to San Francisco at the end of August.

You’ll notice that friend-of-the-site Jonah Keri’s face shows up prominently again. He’ll be recording live versions of his podcast at these shows, as well as just generally being Jonah; saying nice things about everyone and exuding optimism and joy. In addition, many of the bay area’s best beat writers will be talking about the local teams, and FanGraphs alumna Wendy Thurm and FanGraphs alcohol-enthusiast Eno Sarris will help me bring the nerd credibility.

And because everything else in San Francisco is wildly expensive, this show will actually only cost $25, so you can use the $7 savings to send a taunting postcard to any friends and family you have in Boston. What are you waiting for? Buy your tickets to this sure-to-be-fun shindig now.

And finally, we’ll be hitting up the midwest with a September show in Chicago, as it appears there is some pretty fun baseball being played in that city this year.

There’s Jonah again; we wouldn’t want to deprive Chicagoans of the tall Canadian. Because Chicago is home to a number of terrific baseball writers, you’ll be treated to conversations with the likes of FiveThirtyEight’s Rob Arthur, Baseball Prospectus’ Harry Pavlidis, Sahadev Sharma and Cee Angi from The Athletic, and Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago. Craig Edwards and myself will hold down the fort for FanGraphs.

As with the San Francisco show, tickets are just $25, or less than the price of a lousy ticket to a Mat Latos start. Make your plans to join us at the Metro.

Additionally, if you’re in Kansas City, there’s a Pitch Talks event coming up in two weeks that you won’t want to miss. With Andre Dawson and Tim Raines both being honored by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum on June 11th, noted Expos-homer Jonah Keri wasn’t going to miss a chance to hang out with some of his childhood heroes, and the Pitch Talks guys have put together a pretty great event for Friday, June 10th, with a bunch of local writers joining the Montreal takeover crew for what looks like a pretty amazing evening. I won’t be able to make that one, unfortunately, but you should absolutely go if you have a chance.

We’re excited to be a partner with the Pitch Talks guys, and help bring these terrific gatherings across the country. I’m looking forward to meeting and chatting with a bunch of you guys, so buy your tickets and join us for one (or more) of these fun events.