The Bridge Ep. 81: Gar Ryness, “Batting Stance Guy,” joins the show to discuss his love for baseball and mastering the least marketable skill in America

Gar Ryness

College football is here, NFL is coming, and our full attention will be on display for both quite soon. But before that, a final summer salute to baseball, featuring one of the sport’s best fans.

Before we get into Episode 81, as a reminder, The Bridge is broadcast as a one-hour radio show every Wednesday night at 7 ET and again at 8 ET on Sports Radio America. Once the dust settles from that live broadcast, the show is released as a podcast on iTunes and on this website on Friday. You can listen to the show every Wednesday on Sports Radio America here or through the TuneIn app, and find some bonus content when the show comes out in podcast form.

  • “Sports News Read Like Real News” told the tale of ESPN’s Teddy Atlas and Stephen A. Smith somehow comparing the Mayweather v. McGregor fight to food (2:18).
  • The Bridge Question of the Week is: Who has you favorite batting stance and why? Leave a voicemail or text in your answer to 929-BRIDGE7, that’s 929-274-3437, and you’ll make it on the next show.
  • This week’s guest was Gar Ryness, who you most likely know as Batting Stance Guy. Gar became a viral sensational overnight for his batting stance impressions of the Boston Red Sox and took off from there. He’s “performed” for countless past and present players and coaches at all 30 stadiums, appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and even wrote his own. Gar has some amazing baseball stories and I could have spent six more hours talking to him about them. We’ll talk about falling in love with baseball, realizing his gift of batting stances, how Batting Stance Guy was born and close with some quick-hitting questions in “Eazy (or) Pass.” Our chat runs a little long, but it’s a fun one, I promise.
  • You can follow Gar on Twitter @BattingStanceG. The interview starts at the 8:20 mark.

– In the interview, we discuss:

What made him fall in love with baseball (9:03), growing up watching baseball in the Bay Area (10:41), being there for the earthquake at Game 3 of the 1989 World Series (12:55), Ripken ending his streak and being at historical games (18:37), when he first knew he was good at imitating batting stances and getting noticed for it (20:35), getting impersonated by Ichiro and going viral on YouTube (25:15), going from a regular person to the Batting Stance Guy (27:07), if players are impressed by his baseball knowledge (31:40), how he’s able to remember all the stances that he does, especially the obscure ones (35:31), his book “Batting Stance Guy: A Love Letter to Baseball” (39:13)

Eazy (or) Pass, featuring some quick-hitting questions (42:35)

* Impersonating Pete Rose for Pete Rose and his childhood Pete Rose Halloween costume (42:57)

* Who came up with the Batting Stance Guy nickname (45:39)

* How many plastic bats he’s gone through and getting one to the Hall of Fame (47:49)

* Any grudge against his brother for being on Conan the same night he was on Letterman (49:12)

* What game he would win for game night (56:24)

  • “Five Minutes in the Film Room” with Joe Baress, former star of the prestigious John and Joe Sports Show, breaks down “Wind Rider” which Rotten Tomatoes describes as a chilling thriller that follows a rookie FBI agent, who teams up with a local game tracker with deep community ties and a haunted past, to investigate the murder of a local girl on a remote Native American Reservation in the hopes of solving her mysterious death (59:42). You can follow Joe on Twitter @dukemich and read his movie reviews, previews and ratings at cupof-joe.com. This week, Joe wrote about Subtle Acting.

Call in or text the show 24/7 at 929-BRIDGE7, that’s (929) 274-3437. Contact the show with your questions, comments, stories or hot takes and you might be featured in the next installment of The Bridge.

Subscribe to The Bridge Sports Podcast on iTunes (please leave a positive rating and review if you enjoy the show) so you’ll immediately be notified when new episodes are posted each Friday morning. You can also find The Bridge Sports Podcast on Google PlaySoundcloudStitcher and TuneIn.

You can listen to the show live on Wednesday nights at 7 ET via Sports Radio America or the TuneIn app.

Visit www.lundinbridge.com/email to subscribe to The Bridge Sports Podcast newsletter, which will provide weekly updates and behind-the-scenes information about the next show and who the featured guest(s) might be.

Email the show at media [at] lundinbridge [dot] com and follow the host on Twitter @lundinbridge.

Show music: ‘Actionable’ and ‘Epic,’ courtesy of www.bensound.com.

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