Between Innings

It started with a recruiting visit.Doug was his host. Drinking and partying felt normal. It was part of the culture. Nobody questioned it.In this episode, Nick opens up about hiding a serious arm injury to protect his starting job, how that pain slowly turned into anger, and how that anger led to fights and bad decisions once baseball ended.After college, back on Long Island, the wrong people, places, and habits pulled him deeper into a lifestyle that wasn’t sustainable.Eventually, a court-ordered program forced him to stop running and start talking. For the first time, he opened up about his emotions instead of masking them.That shift changed everything.Today, Nick lives openly and honestly in the United Kingdom with his wife and son. He shares what he learned about identity, masculinity, vulnerability, and why it’s not weakness for men to talk about what they’re feeling.This episode is about culture, injury, anger, accountability — and what can happen when you finally decide to speak.Real conversations. No scripts. Between Innings.

Jake opens up about the progression of his drinking — at one point reaching 30 nips a day — and how his health declined to type 2 diabetes and stage 1 obesity. He talks about the moment he decided to bet on himself, emptied his bank account, and flew to Florida for detox.Today, he’s back in the gym, benching 225, playing sports again, and rebuilding his life with intention.This episode isn’t about a perfect comeback.It’s about ownership, hard decisions, and what it actually takes to change direction.Two former teammates finally have the conversation they avoided for years — about addiction, identity, and growing up.No scripts. No filters. Just real life.

Before the guests.Before the conversations.Before everything else — here’s the story.In this first episode of Between Innings, Doug shares the journey that led him here:from growing up in a one-bedroom apartment in Ossining…to becoming a college pitcher…to battling addiction…to rebuilding his life through recovery, coaching, fitness, and mindfulness.It’s an honest look at anxiety, identity, losing sports, and learning how to actually deal with emotions for the first time.No hype. No preaching. Just the truth.Because most of life doesn’t happen during the big moments --it happens between innings.