Welcome to the Edge of Sports Podcast. I'm Dave Ziron.

This week we are talking to Simon Rosenblum Larson.

Simon is a relief pitcher for a minor league affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays and the program

director of the nonprofit organization, More Than Baseball.

He just wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post that was called I'm a Minor League pitcher.

Why Can't Baseball pay a living wage?

Also, I've got some choice words about the latest developments with Brittany

Griner, just stand up and just sit down awards and more. But first, let's talk to Simon

Rosenblum Larson. Simon, I guess I just wanted to start before we talk about the issues

in minor league baseball, if you could tell my audience a little bit about yourself. I mean,

where you're from and how did you uh become a baseball player yeah so i was raised in

mat on scum grew up there uh spent my life sort of loving baseball um but was never all that

great at it um until I was a junior,

senior, in high school. I grew a bit, started getting recruited for colleges, ended up

getting recruited to go play at Harvard. Played there. Wasn't very good my freshman year,

but really just loved the game, put a lot of work in. And by my junior year,

I was getting calls from some MLB Scouts and was drafted in the 19th round of the 2018 MLB draft.

So I've been playing. I was signed by the Tampa Bay Rays and have been playing since then, played four years in the minor leagues, played

all the way from short season A ball, low A, high A, played in the Arizona Fall League,

in the Gulf Coast League, in double A. Sort of been all around the minor league system since I started

my career and, you know,

I've really seen a lot of the sport. But yeah, that's sort of what drew me into baseball,

...