All The Smoke is stepping into the batter’s box.
The popular basketball podcast-turned-production company, co-hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, launched a baseball vertical on Wednesday called ATS Baseball as it continues to expand beyond the hardwood.
ATS Baseball’s debut podcast, ATS Dugout, will release more than 20 episodes throughout the baseball season, with Barnes co-hosting alongside a rotation of ex-MLB All-Stars in Nick Swisher or Chris Young. It’s the latest expansion from All The Smoke Productions, which recently launched a fight vertical and has plans to enter other sports, too.
While not an official content partnership with MLB, ATS Baseball got started with an assist from Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia, who grew up an hour from Barnes in Northern California. Sabathia, who is now an ambassador for MLB as part of the Commissioner’s Ambassador Program, was All The Smoke’s first baseball guest and recommended Swisher and Young as co-hosts.
“I knew Swish when he played for the A’s and I was with the Warriors,” Barnes told Front Office Sports. “That’s when I got a chance to meet him and just [had] great energy every time. I always remembered that. So when we started throwing names around, we met with MLB and then CC was really high on C.Y. My first time meeting him was actually at the spring training stuff we did in Arizona and [he was] a consummate professional, really knows his shit, and I was really impressed with him. I thought it was a great balance being able to have the opportunity to work with both those guys.”
All The Smoke COO Brian Dailey told FOS that the idea for a baseball offering began a year ago, when the flagship podcast saw high engagement with episodes featuring former MLB players such as Gary Sheffield. It also didn’t hurt that Barnes grew up a fan of the game and played through 11th grade before he dropped it to focus on basketball.
“Our fans really flipped out for it,” Dailey said. “The numbers in terms of views and impressions was fantastic. The engagement was off the charts, and a lot of what we saw was that shoot, MLB or baseball is kind of missing this storytelling element. We said, ‘Alright, I think we could, I think we can go bigger and better here.”
There has been a discussion over the years about baseball’s ability (or lack thereof) to market its biggest stars as the game’s popularity has fluctuated. Dailey said the sport’s current surge aligns with All The Smoke’s demographics and gives older players who didn’t play during social media a chance to tell their stories.
“To relive my teenage years and my childhood is the reason why I’m in this,” Barnes said. “And giving those guys an opportunity to talk. We got a chance to sit down with Eric Davis and Kenny Lofton, and I feel like the guys that I grew up admiring and loving didn’t have these type of platforms.”
