Former major league player Ben Broussard. (Photo courtesy of Associated Press)
THIS IS THE GET IN THE GAME PODCAST
WITH SCOTT LINEBRINK
Ben Broussard played seven seasons in the major leagues (2002-2008) with the Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. He is also a musician who has released two full-length albums. For another project, he teamed up with a number of major league players, including “Get in the Game” host Scott Linebrink, on an album called “Oh Say Can You Sing?”
Broussard joins the podcast this week to talk with Scott about his faith, mission work he’s done, his baseball career, his music endeavors, and he even shares a bit of his beatboxing skills.
Los Angeles Dodgers' Tommy Edman, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Derrick Tuskan)
Versatility, speed and a flashy glove have always been part of Tommy Edman’s game. But for much of his career, so too have injuries.
The former Gold Glove winning utility man for the Los Angeles Dodgers recently returned to the lineup after another stint on the injured list delayed his start to the season. A sprained ankle suffered in 2024, while he was rehabbing a wrist injury, has continued to cause issues over the past few seasons, and he underwent surgery for it last offseason.
Since returning, he’s batting .395 (15-for-38) and has already been used in the outfield, at second and third base, and even as a designated hitter. The switch-hitting 31-year-old Californian provides valuable flexibility for manager Dave Roberts.
He can also provide occasional power, as he showed with a three-run home run in Tuesday’s 9-3 win over the Athletics — one of his team-leading four hits on the night.
Edman enjoyed five seasons with the Cardinals (2019-23), who drafted him in the sixth round of the 2016 MLB Draft out of Stanford, winning a Gold Glove Award in 2021. He was then sent to the Dodgers at the trade deadline in 2024, where he caught fire during the second half of the season and playoffs. He was named the 2024 National League Championship Series MVP while helping Los Angeles reach the World Series, where the franchise won the first of back-to-back championships.
He batted .407 (11-for-27) with one home run, 11 RBIs and a stolen base in the NLCS, then he hit .294 (5-for-17) with one home run, one RBI and two stolen bases in the World Series.
The Dodgers have a commanding lead in the NL West again this season and are hoping Edman’s return aids in their quest to win a third straight World Series. Meanwhile, after the surgery and recovery, Edman is hoping his ankle woes are finally behind him.
“It’s obviously something I’ve dealt with the past two years, so getting the surgery was a tough decision because I knew I was going to be out for a little bit,” he told reporters last month. “But after speaking with the doctor, we determined it was going to have a high probability of getting back to 100%, I decided to go through with it.
“It’s feeling great now. It took maybe a little bit longer than I expected, but I’m back to feeling normal again.”
Feeling normal hasn’t been as consistent as he’d like. There was a stretch at the beginning of the 2025 season where he “felt pretty good,” until he sprained the ankle again at the end of April. He plans to wear a brace on it indefinitely.
The most challenging part of the injury and recovery process has been patience.
“With surgery, a lot of times it’s not a super linear progression,” Edman told the group of reporters. “So just having some ups and downs and just having the faith that it was going to get back to 100% eventually and just having the patience to let the whole process play out.”
He spoke about that faith while wearing a shirt that read, “Jesus Over Baseball.”
Edman’s journey of faith in Christ began as a younger baseball player, when he had faith in God but felt it get crowded out has he prioritized his sport.
“I saw these people who I aspired to be like, and I realized that the one commonality that they had was that their eyes were fully set on God,” Edman said in an “I Once Was” video produced by Sports Spectrum. “I realized that something needed to change if I wanted to live up to my full potential that God had in store for me.”
One of the turning points in his life was being drafted by St. Louis, which put him in a clubhouse with other believers like Adam Wainwright and Paul Goldschmidt. He admired their on-field success, but more so how they represented God.
Another turning point came in 2024. Edman had wrist surgery prior to that season, and when he finally started to feel close to returning to the field, he sprained his ankle.
It appeared as though 2024 would be a wash, and the Cardinals opted to trade him at the deadline to the Dodgers. He eventually made it back, strengthening L.A.’s lineup on their run to the World Series.
“I feel like it’s almost because of those injuries that I ended up getting traded to the Dodgers,” he said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in 2024. “Fortunately, that led to a great postseason and us winning the championship. So now looking back on that, I can kind of see what God’s plan was all along. It seemed very frustrating at the time, but it led to even greater plans than I could’ve imagined.”
Edman experienced another turning point of a very different sort in 2024, when his son, Eli, was born. Edman was already maturing as a follower of Christ, and becoming a father helped him understand God’s love in a more profound way.
“I want the best for my son. I want all the best things in the world for him,” he said on the podcast. “So understanding that God wants the same for us, it kind of makes it a little easier to contextualize and understand that even though we may not be going through the best things right now, like an injury or something like that, in the end, God wants the best for us.”
He continued later, saying, “It can be easy in baseball to look ahead to what’s to come, whether that’s free agency or even just playoffs, World Series, that kind of thing. But we have a special chance every single day when we walk into the locker room to make an impact on one of your teammates.”
"We have a special chance every single day when you walk into the locker room to make an impact on one of your teammates."
Dodgers NLCS MVP and World Series champion Tommy Edman on the latest Sports Spectrum podcast pic.twitter.com/2sdkIFLiYN
With his faith-filled approach, Edman and the Dodgers (56-30) will go for a sweep of the A’s (40-46) on Wednesday in their three-game road series. First pitch is set for 9:40 p.m. ET.
San Diego Padres pitcher Mason Miller, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
The San Diego Padres (43-40) have been bolstered in their quest for a third consecutive trip to the postseason by the pitching of 27-year-old closer Mason Miller, in his first full season with the Padres.
Miller is tied for second in MLB behind Cleveland’s Cade Smith with 21 saves, posting a ridiculous 0.78 ERA in 33 appearances, which is the lowest among qualified closers. He’s the only pitcher in the majors with more than 20 save opportunities to convert every one of them. A second career All-Star selection should soon be headed his way.
Yet on Monday against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, Miller showed that he is, in fact, human. He surrendered a walk-off hit to give the Cubs (47-38) a 3-2 win (the game was tied when Miller entered, so it wasn’t a save opportunity) and a little more breathing room in the National League wild-card race.
But then again, the Padres might not even be factors in that race without their hard-throwing righty.
Mason Miller's stuff is the best any reliever has posted this season at a 119 proStuff+, and a 0.79 ERA says the results are matching the nasty. Ryan Helsley grades next at 115 with the arsenal to back it up. pic.twitter.com/1UR1egEDKO
“I don’t think the numbers are lying,” Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman said of Miller to The Athletic earlier this season. “… I think Mason might be the most unhittable pitcher ever.”
Miller talked a bit about that record-setting pitch as a guest on the Sports Spectrum Podcast earlier this month, as well as his diagnosis of Type I diabetes as a sophomore at Division-III Waynesburg University. Waynesburg is a private Christian school in Miller’s home state of Pennsylvania.
After Miller was diagnosed with the disease and his blood glucose was being managed, his baseball performance took off. He completed his four-year career at Waynesburg and played a fifth at Division-I Gardner Webb before being drafted in the third round of the 2021 MLB Draft by the Oakland Athletics. He rocketed through the minor leagues and made his MLB debut in 2023, spending two full seasons with the A’s before being traded to San Diego part-way through 2025.
“My story as a whole is a testament of God placing you in places that you’re supposed to be, putting you through challenges and journeys that you need to go through to become the person that you are today,” he said on the podcast. “… I have a platform now that allows me to reach a lot of people, and [my wife Jordan and I] fully intend on making good on that and imparting good into the world.”
Miller said he was raised with believing parents who brought him to church often, but as he grew up, he also grew disillusioned with church and distanced himself from Christian community. But Jesus didn’t distance Himself from Miller. He drew him back to Himself, and ultimately, to the church that He died to save.
“Jesus won in the battle against sin,” Miller said on the podcast. “All the sin, all the wrongdoing, all the evil in the world, Jesus’ blood on the cross washes that away with you accepting Him as your Savior and living your life and honoring Him as such.”
The 6-foot-5, 200-pounder has already pitched in the 2024 All-Star Game, and he’s already represented his country in this year’s World Baseball Classic. The scary part? He still might be getting better.
“What we’re rooted in and what brings us back to why we want to do all these things is what Jesus did for us on the cross,” Miller said on the podcast. “Our ability to live this life knowing that we are loved, we are forgiven, and — although we are not perfect people — that we are able to live with the goal of living like Christ and serving others.”
Miller will seek to serve others because Jesus first served him, even during a busy MLB season that sees his team just one game back of an NL wild-card spot.
San Diego continues its road series against the Cubs on Tuesday at 8:05 p.m. ET.
Ryan Thompson in April 2026. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
THIS IS THE GET IN THE GAME PODCAST
WITH SCOTT LINEBRINK
Today on “Get in the Game,” we welcome Ryan Thompson, a pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He’s posted a 2.73 ERA through 31 relief appearances so far in 2026.
“Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” Acts 8:30-31
Oklahoma's Jaxon Willits is presented with the award for MOP of the CWS, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
The Oklahoma Sooners put an exclamation point at the end of their incredible run through the college baseball postseason on Monday. They left no doubt with a 13-2 victory against North Carolina in a winner-take-all Game 3 to capture the 2026 College World Series (CWS) and bring a third baseball national championship trophy back to Norman (1951 and 1994).
The Sooners shut down the Tar Heels’ bats and wore out the Tar Heels’ arms before a partisan crowd in Omaha, Nebraska. Oklahoma plated two in the top of the second inning and never looked back. The route — and celebration — was on.
One of the stars of the night was Oklahoma shortstop Jaxon Willits, who recorded three hits and two RBIs in four at-bats with two walks. The junior from Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, came through for the Sooners as he’s done all tournament long, and as a result was named the CWS Most Oustanding Player.
“First off, I gotta give all glory to God,” he told ESPN on the diamond, with tears still in his eyes, moments after the victory. “… I’ve been wanting to win a national championship for the Oklahoma Sooners since I could remember, and to actually do it, I don’t have words to describe it.”
Willits batted a combined 13-26 during Oklahoma’s six games in Omaha, including four doubles and a home run. He amassed seven RBIs and crossed the plate himself six times. In the Atlanta Regional, he also batted .500 (9-18) with six RBIs, two doubles, four walks and a home run.
Willits’ late-season surge propelled the Sooners to an 11-2 postseason run that saw them take down No. 2 Georgia Tech in the regional, then No. 15 Kansas in the super regional, then No. 7 Alabama, No. 3 Georgia and No. 5 North Carolina in the CWS. Oklahoma’s only losses during the stretch came against the Yellow Jackets and Tar Heels.
On May 19, a deep postseason run for the Sooners looked exceedingly unlikely. They had just lost to LSU in the first round of the SEC Tournament, held a 32-21 record and were below .500 in the SEC. But Willits — son of Sooners associate head coach and former player Reggie Willits and brother of MLB’s 2025 No. 1 pick Eli Willits — never wavered in his belief that the Sooners were capable of something special.
“We knew that the talent was always in the room,” he said in Monday’s postgame press conference. “And that’s something that [head coach Skip Johnson] and all the coaches preached to us from Day One in the fall.”
Yet while Willits credited the coaching staff for OU’s turnaround, Johnson pointed back at Willits.
“Jaxon Willits getting the MVP was really fitting,” he said, “because he’s one of our hardest workers, and he’s our best leader.”
Willits is a leader for his team, both as a baseball player and as a follower of Christ.
“[Faith is] the reason that I wake up every day and do what I do,” he told Sports Spectrum prior to the start of the CWS. “It’s to go out and glorify the Lord and put not the focus on me but to put the focus on Him, and let people see Him in the way I act and the way I represent Him.”
Oklahoma junior pitcher LJ Mercurius said in Monday’s press conference while glancing in Willits’ direction, “We started a little Bible study there and we had about 20-something dudes show up, and we were just giving it to God. … We just came together through our faith.”
Oklahoma redshirt junior pitcher Nate Smithburg told Sports Spectrum at the beginning of the CWS that God sustained him through the uncertainty of a career-threatening Tommy John surgery last year.
“I found God in those moments,” he said, “and He got me through everything.”
"I found God in those moments and He got me through everything." – Nate Smithburg@OU_Baseball's @nate_smithburg shares his faith in Christ at the College World Series.
The faithful tone set by Willits is one the coaches have also embraced; Johnson said he spent a large part of Game 3 praying for his players and asking for Jesus’ intercession on their behalf.
Willits is clearly eager to share about his faith, which he does on social media as well. His Instagram and X profiles both cite the Bible verse Philippians 4:13. He got married in 2024 and on March 30, he and Abigail welcomed daughter Gracee Kate Willits into the world. Instagram posts documenting both events included Scripture quotations.
On the day after Father’s Day, with his wife and daughter in the stands and his earthly father in the dugout, his Heavenly Father give Willits the gift he’d been dreaming about since he first picked up a baseball.
He gave him the gift of becoming a national champion for the Oklahoma Sooners.
