“Diamond Dialogues” Is Here
Introducing our newest exclusive feature for The Shea Hello Newsletter. Starting now, subscribers will get exclusive conversations with former MLB players — the stories you don’t often hear.
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It is with great pleasure to unveil our newest exclusive feature for The Shea Hello Newsletter.
🔶Diamond Dialogues🔶
We will being diving deep with former MLB players & other notable individuals:
First up is former Mets’ pitcher, Bill Pulsipher.
What is Diamond Dialogues?
We’re Going Beyond the Box Score.
Starting right now, subscribers will get exclusive conversations with former MLB players — the stories you don’t hear on broadcasts or anywhere else, told by the players themselves.
Not recycled quotes.
Not surface-level takes.
Real conversations.
We’re talking about:
⚾ What the grind of 162 games really feels like
🧠 The mindset behind clutch moments
💰 What free agency is actually like behind closed doors
🏟️ Clubhouse culture you never see on TV
👀 Stories they’ve never publicly told
A premium feature where former big leaguers break down:
Career-defining moments
Lessons from failure
Behind-the-scenes baseball politics
Life after MLB
If you love baseball beyond highlights — this is for you.
Bill Pulsipher is a former Major League pitcher, who played in the big-leagues for six-seasons. Pitching for the New York Mets. Milwaukee Brewers. Boston Red Sox. Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. Once considered a top prospect and a member of the Mets' famous “Generation K”, Pulsipher has seen and experienced a lot during his playing days. He sat down with us to discuss it all.
How did you get to the majors, what path did you take? Any memories that stood out along the way?
Pulsipher: I was drafted in the second round out of high school in Fairfax, Virginia by the Mets, the team I grew up rooting for. I held out for a higher signing bonus for as long as I could, so I didn't start professionally until 1992. I was drafted in 1991. I did the normal things, you know, on the way up through the minor leagues, short season A-ball, and then low-A ball for a brief period of time, and then got called up to high-A ball and finished the year that way.
The following year in 1994, I went to Double-A and we won the Eastern League, which was obviously very memorable. And then started the following year in ’95 in Triple-A and got called up to the majors in June.
As a Mets’ fan growing up, describe your thoughts and feelings the day you officially signed with the Mets. It must have been wild.
Pulsipher: Yeah, obviously grew up a Mets’ fan, idolized a lot of the players on ’86 Mets team, my favorite team of all-time. I actually wore a Mets’ hat throughout high school walking around in school and around the neighborhood.
It was a dream come true, being able to get drafted and then get signed by your boyhood club that you followed your whole life. It was almost too good to be true. I was living the dream.
Do you remember anything about getting the call the day you were drafted?
Pulsipher: Yeah, well, I got called. I want to say I was in history class. When the call came in, because it’s not like it is nowadays.
So I got called to the principal’s office. Actually it was the athletic director’s office and that’s when I was informed that I had been drafted by the Mets. It was like 5th or 6th period. Early June, I think June 3rd of 1991.
How old were you?
Pulsipher: I was 17.
Wow, that is young.
Pulsipher: Yeah, very young. Too young, “laughs.”
What are the lessons you learned from your time in the majors and the minors and playing internationally?
Pulsipher: From your time in majors. Don’t take things for granted. Don’t think that everything is going to kind of go your way. Everything went so easily, my first time up through the minor leagues, you just kind of expected that that’s how it was gonna go. Obviously injuries got in the way and other things got in the way- but after injuries, playing in the majors; enjoy it while you can because not many people get to do it.
It’s a blessing to be able to put that uniform on for one day, that’s something I’ve learned. Through the years being retired and then raising my kids and then giving lessons, you see how many people that are actually involved with baseball.
Playing internationally, I enjoyed it. You are able to get to go see different cultures and different perspectives on the world and I just enjoyed it and embraced it. I realized that we’re just a small part of the world here in American baseball and there’s great people all over the world.
What is the most surprising thing about life in the majors? What's something that would shock fans?
Pulsipher: I think people might know this, but that you never actually go through the airport when you travel.
You get on the bus, you drive right on the tarmac. You get off the bus and on the tarmac and go right up the stairs. They don’t even have the jetways, and then when you arrive, same thing, you go out and we’ve done that a lot of times. Out the back of the plane where the tail, you know, there’s an exit out the tail where the tail drops down and you walk right out of there and right back onto a bus and then right into the hotel.
And even if you’re going to, like, say, Toronto or Montreal. You fill out the the TSA papers and then they come on the plane real quick and collect them. Then you disembark the plane and ride onto a bus and right to the hotel.
Who are the best teammates you ever had and why, and what are the great characteristics of a great teammate?
Pulsipher: My two favorite teammates, probably of all-time would be Jason Isringhausen and Edgardo Alfonzo.
Oh wow, two big names, who had great careers.
Pulsipher: Yea, it’s been nice to be able to reconnect with them again the last few years at fantasy camp for the Mets.
Characteristics of a great teammate? Obviously having your back at all times and somebody that you can hang out within the good times and the bad times, somebody that’s always rooting for you or trying to pick you up when things are going bad or keep you level-headed when things are going good.
Someone that you can rely on, on the field, and off the field. If you need anything or you need a ride somewhere, or you’re stranded anywhere, that person is coming to pick you up. Encouragement and support is also big.
Who are the best hitters you ever faced and how did it go?
Pulsipher: I mean, I faced so many great hitters. Tony Gwynn and Barry Bonds. I think Gwynn did better than Bonds did against me. I did get to strikeout Bonds a couple times, but I think he probably got a couple of hits off of me.
Those guys are kinda legit, “laughing.”
Pulsipher: Yea, you can say that again.
I had a hard time with Chipper Jones and I had a hard time with Gary Gaetti as well, but obviously Gwynn and Bonds.
You are currently an instructor at Mets fantasy camp. And for years, how fun do you have with that?
Pulsipher: Oh, it’s something that I look forward to every year. I’ve done it now six-years, plus three other mini camps, two at Syracuse, and then the first one that they ever did at Citi Field this past summer. And you know what?
If you would have told me 10 years ago that I was going to be doing fantasy camp, I would have told you you’re crazy because I was kinda on the outside a little bit and now I have been lucky enough to be brought into the mix. I have worked my way into being one of the, and I don’t want to toot my own horn a little bit, but going from where I was and now being one of the favorite instructors and coaches down there is awesome.
I was lucky enough to actually finally win my first big camp ring. We do get rings!
I was lucky enough with Kevin Baez, who had a big part of getting me involved in camp, winning the inaugural championship at mini camp at Citi Field. So, it’s a lot of fun. You get to meet a lot of good people. I’ve met a lot of friends that I now stay in contact year round, not just locally, but also throughout the country because obviously Mets’ fandom is worldwide. So it’s a blessing and I enjoy it and and look forward to it every year.
What is your favorite ballpark you ever pitched in? Tell us about it.
Pulsipher: Oh, I mean, obviously I would probably say Shea Stadium.
Obviously just from the fact of watching so much growing up- the big dark gloomy monster, with the planes going over and then my favorite players playing there and winning the World Series in 1986. So it was almost surreal and too, too crazy, to be real at times, but then again, you also feel like this is where I was going to be anyway. It was in the big-leagues. It just so happens that it’s at the place where you dreamed of being part of it.
Standing on the same mound like guys like Tom Seaver and Doc Gooden, and Sid Fernandez, and all of the great pitchers. Nolan Ryan, you know, just to be able to stand on that same mound was a blessing.
Your first big-league start. Tell us about it. What was going through your mind that day?
Pulsipher: Well, obviously, walking out there, it’s kind of like, I don’t remember feeling anything. Just completely numb and out of your mind. Like here it is. It’s like you’ve been waiting your whole life, even though you’re only 21-years-old, that’s all you ever wanted and dreamed of up to that point.
Those 21 years, so it was waiting your whole life for that moment, and then here you are. I remember standing on the mound before the first pitch and kind of feeling the knees kind of knocking together a little bit, standing there, getting ready to throw the ball.
The first pitch I threw was a fastball that cut about 3.5 feet and went right by Todd Hundley to the backstop. So that was my first pitch in the major leagues. They couldn’t even catch it and throw it back out to the dugout because it was at the backstop somewhere.
But obviously had a rough first inning, gave up five in the first inning, but was able to go seven innings that day.
You really settled down and pushed through.
Pulsipher: I remember a specific moment. I want to say it was the fourth inning and the Friends TV theme song was playing, and I remember walking out to the mound and singing “I’ll be there for you…..”- and that’s when I finally looked to myself and I thought to myself, oh sh*t, I feel comfortable out here.
That’s incredible, what a moment.
Pulsipher: It wasn’t a big-league debut anymore. It was just another baseball game and then I was just enjoying being out there and doing the thing that I love doing.
You currently give pitching lessons to aspiring youngsters. How rewarding is it?
Pulsipher: Oh, listen man, it’s a lot of fun. It can be a little frustrating at times when you’re aware of how much it takes to be able to make it to the highest level, but it’s very rewarding to know that you’ve helped young men and growing young men to get to move on to the next level, whether it be making their high school team or going on to the next level and playing in college baseball. I haven’t gotten anybody into pro baseball yet, but I do have a huge catalog of guys that I have helped get into college baseball and having the opportunity to teach the things that I learned from guys like Randy Neiman and Al Jackson and Tom Seaver and the little intricacies that I learned.
To be able to pass those on is very rewarding. I’ve got a nice group of of young high school pitchers that I work with right now that I look forward to their futures. And it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.
Okay. Rapid fire questions: Lets go!
Favorite foods?
Pulsipher: Spaghetti and meatballs and probably a nice ribeye steak.
Favorite hobbies?
Video games. I play a lot of War Zone and a lot of Call of Duty.
Favorite movies?
Scarface, Goodfellas. The Godfather Part II. Tropic Thunder. Semi-Pro with Will Ferrell. Great basketball movie, and Old School.
Favorite music band, or artist?
Wu-Tang Clan. Smashing Pumpkins. Nirvana. Mobb Deep.
Favorite drinks? I like a Coca-Cola. I like ice cold water. I like a little bit of vodka with seltzer and of course my Natty Ice.
Do you have any guilty pleasures?
It’s probably War Zone and the Natural Ices.
TV show?
Seinfeld.
Do you have a go to pump up song?
I’ll tell you what, it was “Till I Collapse” for a long time.
That was towards the end of my career because that’s kind of how I felt.
I could have put Eminem up there in my favorite bands as well, but that’s just an artist- yea that’s another one.
Cinderella Man, that was another one towards the end of my career that I loved.
Superpower, if you were granted one?
Fly. I wish I could fly. I have dreams where I fly, and those are some of my favorite dreams, or I can leap like city blocks in one bound.
Last one. If you had a whole day free, and could do anything, what would it be?
Relax with my family and my dogs. Just chill.
Thanks so much Bill, that was great!
My pleasure and lets enjoy the upcoming baseball season!
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