Baseball chat with Cespedes Family BBQ's Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman | Unplugged #161

Summary: From bratwursts to bobbleheads, mascots to mohawks and walkoffs to walkup music, everything awesome in MLB--that's Cut4 and Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman, after creating a blog called Cespedes Familly BBQ in high school, now are a part of a growing youth wave in baseball. About Cespedes Family BBQ (as told by Jake and Jordan): We are Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman, and we are the Cespedes Family BBQ. You may know us from Baseball Twitter or from some of the stuff we've done here on Cut4 over the past year. If you don't know who we are, let us provide a brief introduction. To start, what's the deal with the name? In January 2012, current New York Mets outfielder/horserider/dinger-knocker Yoenis Cespedes had just become a free agent. In order to rouse up interest in his alluring skillset, Cespedes and his EGOT-winning team of producers crafted a showcase video to advertise himself to big league clubs. At the very end of the 20-minute-long video -- after the part where he thanks former Packers running back Ahman Green and after the shot of his family members performing a complicated three-person dance maneuver -- we are treated to Yo himself roasting a large pig over an open spit. Even Vin Scully has seen it! Some teenagers are inspired by music, some by art, some by literature. We were inspired by a large baseball man from Cuba roasting a large pig on a rotisserie with his family in the background. To each their own. Then we, two high school seniors, started a website and Twitter account, and the BBQ was born; a spontaneous baseball-blogging journey had begun. Nearly four years later, here we are -- joining MLB.com. We've already done some pretty cool stuff over the past few years. Our cross-country summer road trip in the summer of 2016 was documented on Cut4, and featured a ridiculous variety of activities with some of the top prospects in the game. For example, Jake competed in a July 4th apple pie eating contest, we watched a Red Sox prospect throw a bat over the Mini Green Monster, our road trip's final destination was All-Star Week in San Diego, where we asked relief pitchers about the Home Run Derby (naturally), And of course, we had to talk to Odubel Herrera about his glorious bat flips, we even made it to the World Series, where we sought out the most eclectic Cubs fans around Wrigley Field. While we don't have the expertise of former All-Stars, Jake did play Division III baseball at Washington University in St. Louis. A sidearm reliever with below-average control, above-average movement and buckets of irrational confidence, Jake was only ejected once in his four-year career. After being beyond dreadful his first three years (11.94 ERA), he was -- much to the surprise of his friends and family -- actually really good his senior year (0.81 ERA in 31 innings). Jordan on the other hand is significantly less athletic, but means really well. His baseball career ended in 10th grade after he made the difficult and painstaking decision to do other things with his free time. We thrive at the intersection of millennial distraction, baseball, and tomfoolery. We think baseball is fun and weird, and we want to share that with all you other people who also think baseball is fun and weird -- in writing, on camera or in your earholes (podcasts are also our thing). Welcome to the Cespedes Family BBQ. We hope you like the food, and we know you'll love the banter.