Regis Alums Talk Baseball on Side Retired

When Dylan Campione ’21 and Ryan Barry ’21 were students at St. David's School prior to attending Regis, they'd talk about baseball so much during class that a teacher eventually allowed them to use a separate room during free time and after school to discuss the sport with as much enthusiasm as they wished. Their chats began to attract fellow students who wanted to join in, and soon the room became a hub of baseball conversation.

At Regis, Campione and Barry first found an outlet for their passion in The Falcon, the school’s sports publication. But during their senior year in 2020 — while balancing varsity baseball and college applications — they teamed up with Henry Kolani ’23 to create Side Retired, a podcast that welcomes guests from the baseball world and covers all aspects of the game, from statistical analyses of on-the-field play to deep-dives into off-the-field transactions. Guests have included National Baseball Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch, former Yankees beat reporter Sweeny Murti, and Homer Bush, the former Yankee and current manager of the Staten Island FerryHawks.

Campione, who is working this summer as an intern for Major League Baseball, has remained as the primary host for the podcast, which records three new episodes each week. But the cast of rotating co-hosts includes a number of other Regians, including Harry Kilman ’22, Matt Potter ’22, and senior Jack Stappenbeck ’23. Curran Schestag ’22 and Jonas Guerriere ’22 also appear on the podcast as “club ambassadors” who discuss specific teams.

Since launching, the show has recorded nearly 300 episodes and is currently in Apple’s 100 most-listened-to baseball podcasts.

Ben Lindbergh ’05, a senior editor at The Ringer and the co-host of Fangraphs’ Effectively Wild podcast, was one of the first guests on Side Retired and helped the show land some notable names to chat with in its early days. Declan Cronin ‘15, a pitcher for the minor-league Charlotte Knights, has also appeared on the podcast to talk about his journey from Regis to professional baseball.

“This is a year-round, die-hard fandom,” says Campione. “We all have a statistical love for the game.”