Live From the Lehigh Valley

Thank you to the PTR crew for having me on this week’s Podcast: The Ride! I joined Mike and Jason to talk about my family’s adventures at Camp Jellystone in Gardiner, NY!

Check out this link to listen on your favorite podcast provider!

Thank you to Scott D’Amore for having Bobby Cruise and I up for Maple Leaf Pro and Ring of Honor’s Global Wars! We had a blast and appreciate your hospitality!

It was a thrill to work with arguably the greatest combat sports announcer of all time Mauro Ranallo. If you ever have a chance to make art with those that you admire, take the chance. Mauro was as amazing outside the booth as he was in it.

Congrats to the MLP crew on the TSN deal! Your quality product certainly deserves it!

Summary: the Lehigh Valley IronPigs are offering New Era fitted 5950 and 940 snapback hats designed in collaboration with Ian Riccaboni with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Salisbury Youth Association.

My relationship with my hometown is not complicated: I love the Lehigh Valley, but more specifically, I love Allentown. And even more specifically, I treasure the lung-shaped mystery of a township that is Salisbury.

Does it really go into Fountain Hill in Bethlehem? It sure does! Why are there people in Salisbury with Emmaus mailing addresses? Why don’t the East and West sides of town connect? Do you have a half hour – I’ll give you the history!

One of the best things about Salisbury is that it is you quickly meet and know your neighbors. You see them at the grocery store. They speak English, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, and more. You see them at the school musical. You see them caring for elderly neighbors when the snow comes and barbequing with them when the summer arrives. One of the cornerstones of our community is the Salisbury Youth Association.

For ten years, I played soccer, basketball, and baseball. I learned the games but I also learned what it meant to be a teammate and a friend; how to be a good sport in a win and how to process the disappointment of a tough loss; and I learned how you are always a representative of your community no matter how far you go from home.

In 13 years as a professional wrestling announcer, my dream job has taken me to 46 United States states and seven countries, fulfilling many childhood dreams. But I always found myself coming back to Salisbury and taking lessons learned in the SYA with me. Now, in the middle of my fifth year as a coach in the SYA programs, I can say there is no place I’d rather be and it is time to do my part.

I designed a limited edition cap with the help of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and a portion of the proceeds will go to Salisbury Youth Association. I will be matching the proceeds from the hats in the form of an additional cash donation. The funds will go to reducing barriers of entry to sports for families, including registration fees and equipment costs. What is affordable for some is unattainable for others and my hope is that this effort will enable more kids in our community to participate in a safe environment built in a community that values the important life lessons sports can teach us.

The cap will available for pre-order from February 4 to February 20 with an anticipated delivery date range of mid-May 2026. The hat is the faux-back Ferrous “jolly pig” logo with an announcer headset and some big ol’ glasses much like my own. It comes in fitted sizes, an-honest-to-goodness-MLB-approved 5950 design and a snappy honest-to-goodness-MLB-approved 940 snapback fit.

The partnership was a no-brainer. Coca-Cola Park, the home of the IronPigs, is my happy place, it is where I celebrate milestones and accomplishments with my family, it is where I go to relax, where I go to clear my mind. It was the site of my first professional broadcast as a credentialled media member when I was the first person to test the “low-flow” detection urinals that Lehigh Valley Hospital installed to help men understand prostate health better. And humble-brag: it was where I smoked a softball off the centerfield wall in the 2015 Media Game to earn the game’s MVP award.

I do not take for granted that the Lehigh Valley had previously gone decades without professional baseball and I want to thank and celebrate the accomplishments of the IronPigs, as well. The ‘Pigs positive impact on the greater Lehigh Valley is one that cannot necessarily be measured but will be felt for the rest of my life and into my children’s. I have so many memories of my kids growing up already that involve the IronPigs and I know I will have many more. Even if some of the memories are tangential by virtue of me wearing one of my 125 (legitimate number! not an exaggeration!) IronPigs hats.

I hope this hat is for you. I hope it is a way to take your community with you or to take someone with you who is proud of his community. And if this hat isn’t for you, I hope it at least helps inspire you to do something nice for someone that wasn’t expecting it today.

Happy Wrestling,

Ian

Thank you to the voters that turned out in Salisbury Township on Tuesday. I know the race was uncontested but our turnout surpassed both 2021 and 2023 and it speaks to the awesome engagement we have in the township.

I sincerely look forward to continuing the progress we have made in the district for our kids, making informed choices with our tax dollars and building on the creativity and innovation that thrives in our school district. Thank you for re-electing me – as a member of the Salisbury Class of 2005, I take this responsibility seriously and I hope to leave the district better than we found it for not just my own children but for everyone’s.

Since the release of AEW Allure in January, I have been searching high and low for the 1/1 Golden Treasure parallel. I have joined countless case and box breaks, have multiple eBay alerts set – my wife even bought two boxes of Allure, one each for the kids!, to see if we could pull it. Thankfully, the card landed into the hands of a kind collector who notified me. We agreed on a deal and now I have one of each Allure parallel! Pretty neat!