Episode #170: Former MLB Pitcher, Turk Wendell and an Encore of Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich, Restaurateurs and the Authors of Chasing Smoke

Turk Wendell is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher who played for 11 seasons.  His career kept him in the National League, playing for four teams, the Chicago Cubs, the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Colorado Rockies.  Turk is known for some special behaviors (jumping over the foul line on his way to and from the mound, brushing his teeth between innings, slamming the rosin bag into the mound, waving at his center fielder, and a few others) which he gladly discusses and offers explanations for.  He is unique, has great stories to tell, and during his playing days he was not afraid to speak his mind regarding other players suspected of using steroids.  This angered some ballplayers, but Turk did not back down.  Turk loved playing the game and even offered to play his final year for free.  Bill Chuck, baseball writer, and researcher, who has a weekly column in the Chicago Sun-Times joins us again and adds his vast knowledge and unique insights to this wonderful discussion.


Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich are a wife and husband team who opened their first Middle Eastern-themed restaurant, Honey & Co in London, England in 2012.  Additionally, they are the authors of three cookbooks.  Their newest London restaurant is Honey & Smoke and their latest cookbook, filled with incredible recipes and beautiful photos is Chasing Smoke:  Cooking Over Fire Around The Levant.  Leonard ate at Honey and Smoke during his recent London trip and it was exceptional, making this a good time to repeat this segment.  We learn what is meant by the Levant and discuss their lives which began in Israel and eventually brought them to London where they own two restaurants and one specialty grocery store.  The book takes the reader on a journey which includes their favorite cities as they collected recipes, stories, and the best of culinary culture along the way.  If you have been wondering what else is possible to make over a live fire then this is the cookbook for you.  Despite the five-hour time difference, Sarit and Itamar managed to find the time to charm us as we spoke of everything, including their special relationship, which works well for them.

We conclude the show with the song, Baseball Always Brings You Home from the musician, Dave Dresser and the poet, Shel Krakofsky.

We recommend you go to Baseball BBQ, https://baseballbbq.com for special grilling tools and accessories, the Pandemic Baseball Book Club, https://www.pbbclub.com to find many of the wonderful books we have featured as well as some additional swag, Magnechef, https://magnechef.com/ for excellent and unique barbecue gloves, Cutting Edge Firewood High Quality Kiln Dried Firewood - Cutting Edge Firewood in Atlanta for high quality firewood and cooking wood, and Mantis BBQ, https://mantisbbq.com/ to purchase their outstanding sauces with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Kidney Project.

We truly appreciate our listeners and hope that all of you are staying safe.

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