How Exeter grad's 'The Show' podcast landed him at Yankee Stadium with a major leaguer

When former Exeter High School baseball player Dan Sarmiento found himself on the grass at Yankee Stadium watching batting practice prior to the Yankees hosting the Houston Astros in late June, there was one constant thought on his mind.

“It was kind of like, 'How did I get from my dorm at Bridgton Academy editing film, to taking the field at Yankee Stadium?' That was kind of crazy,” said Sarmiento, a 2021 graduate of Exeter High School who did a post-graduate year at Bridgton in Maine. “Two or three months ago, I’m just making vlogs and stuff and getting ready to play summer ball. Now I’m getting opportunities that I never really thought were possible.”

Sarmiento, with friend Joseph Norris, roughly three months ago started "The Show" podcast with Dan and Joe on YouTube. Its first episode was focused on the truth about Division I and Division II collegiate baseball. This fall, Sarmiento is heading to Azusa Pacific University in California, where he plans to begin his college studies, play baseball and keep podcasting.

The podcast seems to be gradually building an audience with a sport that remains among the most popular in America but has an aging fan base and has seen declining interest.

"We're trying to give a younger perspective versus the older mentality of baseball, so we're trying to show the newer side of baseball," Sarmiento said.

The podcast quickly gained traction, and eventually caught the eye of 28-year-old Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers, who followed the podcast's Instagram account.

"I was like, 'Dude I know this guy'," Sarmiento said on his reaction to McCullers following the podcast. "So, I (direct messaged him) like 'Hey, thanks for the follow man' and he was like, 'Oh yeah, I love what you guys are doing, keep it up'."

McCullers went 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA last year for the Astros but has yet to pitch this season as he is rehabbing from a right forearm injury. He told Sarmiento he saw the content and thought it was really good.

“(McCullers) just said what we’re doing is really good for baseball, and how we’re younger guys kind of pushing the game forward,” Sarmiento said.

McCullers invited Sarmiento, and Aiden Inbar, another podcaster based out of New York, to watch batting practice and a night of baseball at Yankee Stadium.

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Sarmiento and McCullers met up before the game and the two shared a conversation for about 10 minutes. McCullers, a one-time MLB all-star showed Sarmiento how he throws his slider, and told the two podcasters he was glad they were able to make it out to the game.

“We were just talking about the Yankees and the Astros and the games they’ve had over the years,” Sarmiento said.

Sarmiento also got to greet and give a quick handshake to Astros third baseman Alex Bregman.

McCullers offered real talk on the podcast, too

A month before the meeting at Yankee Stadium, McCullers was a guest on Sarmiento's podcast, which is recorded in a studio near Fenway Park, when the Astros visited Boston in mid-May.

"It worked out perfectly," Sarmiento said. "We sat down for like an hour and a half. He's a super dope guy, super chill. It's been really motivating to have him in my corner, and helping me, showing me and inspiring me."

During the podcast, the Astros' sign-stealing cheating scandal in 2017 was a point of discussion, among other topics.

“He was on the Astros (in 2017), so obviously he had a first-hand account of everything that went on, so that was a really cool topic,” Sarmiento said. “We also talked about how to gain velocity for younger pitchers and what they should know about getting recruited by colleges."

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The McCullers episode with Sarmiento has surpassed 7,000 views in just over a month on YouTube.

All podcast episodes can be found by searching for the DSARM channel on YouTube, which is the only place to access the podcast for now. Sarmiento said the podcast will expand to more platforms in the near future.

Sarmiento and Norris' podcast Instagram page @bsblrshow has more than 20,000 followers.

Baseball as it relates to life

Sarmiento said the podcast aims to cover “all things baseball, news and culture."

In other words, it's about more than the game itself.

“We’re trying to tap into baseball news, but we’re also trying to be a baseball culture (show) as well,” he said. “What kind of goes on behind the scenes, and we’re kind of just running with that idea. We talk about baseball, and we talk about pitching and stuff like that, but we’re also trying to talk more broad scale like how baseball is life and how it can positively affect your life moving forward, and what you can learn from the game.”

Other podcast guests have included Paul Gervase, who was a Division II walk-on pitcher at Surry Community College who eventually transferred to SEC power Louisian State University, MJ Seo, one of the top high school baseball players in the Class of 2023 (episode 6), Aiden McIntyre, a right-handed pitcher in the Oakland Athletics organization (episode 7), and another sports group, CS99TV, which has more than 3 million followers across social media.

Concord High School graduate Jonah Wachter, who threw a no-hitter against Winnacunnet in the 2021 New Hampshire Division I state championship game and played at Tulane University this past season, was on an episode that dropped June 19.

Other videos on the YouTube page documents Sarmiento’s journey, vlogs, bullpen sessions, predictions and more.

Learning from mistakes and a big viral moment

Sarmiento built a small following for his content as a teenager by posting videos on YouTube primarily about Madden NFL Mobile, a phone game from the famous Madden football video game series.

"What I watched on YouTube was people playing video games, so I just started trying to mimic that, it was really fun," he said. "That's what kind of sparked the love for it."

Sarmiento said "The Show" podcast is monetized on YouTube, but they're still building up their audience so the revenue is "nothing much at all really" yet.

He got started even before he was a teen, collecting recording and audio equipment over the years.

"I've been making YouTube videos since I was 11, so every Christmas, and birthday, I've gotten equipment, and slowly upgraded everything over time," Sarmiento said.

Once the coronavirus pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, Sarmiento posted a video of a dunk contest reenactment video to his TikTok and Instagram accounts.

That video, posted on March 15, 2020, quickly reached more than 500,000 views.

"That video went viral, for whatever reason," Sarmiento said. "That was right around when COVID started, and it was a weird time and we were all at home. I was like, 'Man, let me start doing some funny social media stuff.'"

Sarmiento transitioned to mainly baseball content, but for a while, it was more varied.

"As it kept growing, obviously I play baseball, so I just incorporated baseball into it, and I'm strictly baseball now," Sarmiento said. "But that was the first video I posted on TikTok, and 500,000 views is nuts."

Sarmiento said he already loved making videos, but the boredom of sitting at home at the outset of the pandemic led him to explore more. He believes it helped him improve the quality of the content he's producing.

"In the last six months, I really ramped it up, my quality went up and I started growing a lot, more than ever," he said. "Two years ago, probably was when I really started being consistent with it, but the last six months is when I really ramped it up."

Bridgton Academy is where he, along with Norris, started to learn the ins and the outs of podcasting.

"We had an audio and studio lab that our teacher had set up, and me and (Norris) were like, 'Dude, let's mess around and try to learn'," he said. "We were learning in that digital media class about audio and stuff, so we were like. 'Let's try to mess around with it.'"

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Sarmiento said in his younger days he pretty much taught himself how to record and edit videos.

Trial and error is what helped Sarmiento, and that's the advice he gives to fans, or anyone looking for advice.

"The biggest thing is putting one step forward and just doing it," he said. "That's how I learned. I was like, 'Oh, this is fun.' I just failed and tried again."

Big dreams for future of podcast

Sarmiento often runs into fans who love what he does. He recalled the first time it happened in March when he was in California.

"I was throwing into a net at this field and this kid goes, 'Dude, I watch your YouTube,'" Sarmiento said. "I was like 'yeah, right,' and he goes, 'Road to 90 miles per hour, right? You're 'DSARM.' I was like, 'No way.'"

The kid proceeded to show Sarmiento he does follow him and actually is a fan. It was a moment Sarmiento said he'll never forget.

"I follow that kid to this day and I always (direct message) him like, 'I'm never going to forget that,'" he said.

Now he's focused on keeping the podcast going when he gets to Azusa Pacific.

“I’ve got to find a studio, I’ll probably make one,” he said. “I’ve got all the gear I need; I just need to find the space. I know there’s a lab at (Azusa Pacific). I’ve just got to find a studio, and honestly, I’ll be 30 minutes from LA, so we’ll be able to get some good guests, and just have to scale up from there.”

Sarmiento said with Norris going to school near Boston, the duo plans to host livestreams on Zoom, and for Sarmiento to do in-person interviews with guests.

The Exeter native wants to take the podcast as far as it can go.

"I want it to be my full-time career," he said. "I'd love to do a podcast full-time."

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: 'The Show' podcast goes to Yankee Stadium, meets with Lance McCullers