Longtime first baseman Eric Hosmer has announced his retirement from Major League Baseball, concluding a 13-year career in which he won four Gold Glove awards and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2016 MLB All-Star Game. In 2015, Hosmer served as an integral member of the World Series championship run by the Kansas City Royals, helping the team hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy after a 4-1 series victory over the New York Mets. After departing the Royals in free agency, Hosmer played parts of five seasons with the San Diego Padres before concluding his career with stints as a member of the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs.
Concurrent with his official retirement, Hosmer and former minor-league teammate Anthony Seratelli are launching MoonBall Media. The media and production company will produce and disseminate original, unscripted programming in addition to social media content and free ad-supported television (FAST) channels. The company will begin operations with the Diggin’ Deep podcast, a new offering hosted by Hosmer and featuring former major-league reliever Peter Moylan and current process and development coach Justin Su’a. Seratelli, who played a decade of professional baseball in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, is slated to produce the show.
“I feel like I have so many fun stories that I want to give back, especially these last couple of years of my career when I got to experience the big-time markets, being in Chicago, being in Boston,” Hosmer said in an interview with Forbes. “I think this podcast is something where I can really have enjoyment and dig deep into other people’s processes and how that helped them succeed.”
Becoming involved in the sports media space became more appealing to Hosmer as he continued through his major-league career. He expressed how the baseball space lacks players sharing insights and perspectives, comparing it to the rise of athlete-driven media among National Football League and National Basketball Association players.
On the podcast itself, Hosmer aspires to cultivate a setting in which interviewees are comfortable expounding and extrapolating on subject matter, deviating from what is done by traditional media in major-league clubhouses.
“That insight from a player’s perspective – that’s what I’m really looking forward to because there are some situations where a player wants to really have his own voice to explain a situation, but you really just can’t in the baseball world because players are wired to be tight-lipped and it’s all about the team and stuff,” Hosmer said. “I’ll have the opportunity to give the fans some insight on my perspective and my experiences on what might be going on. It will be a unique perspective that maybe we’ll be able to give fans a different look and insight.”
The first six episodes of the show have already been produced with an initial focus on baseball; however, the program will aim to broaden its horizons by including guests from other sports. The nature of these interviews will be more reflective rather than trying to reveal news or rumors, something he believes will be unique in the media space as well. Hosmer further explained his decision on the premiere episode of the program, which was uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday morning.
