22nd Annual Dick Peller Hot Stove Event Celebrates America’s Pastime

On Feb. 7, NMH alumni, staff, and members of the sports media will come together to discuss “America’s pastime” at the 22nd annual Dick Peller Hot Stove League event.

Hot Stove features a host of journalists and professionals from around Major League Baseball sharing insights, opinions, and predictions for the upcoming 2025 MLB season. This year’s roster of speakers includes ESPN reporter Buster Olney ’82, ESPN researcher and content producer Paul Hembekides, MLB.com reporter Sarah Langs, the Boston Herald’s Gabrielle Starr, Vice President of Player Personnel for the LA Dodgers Galen Carr ’93, former player and color commentator Eduardo Pérez, and former NMH teacher, coach, and Hot Stove namesake Dick Peller P’97, ’98.

The “Hot Stove” tradition is nearly as old as the game of baseball itself, said Peller, who coached the school’s baseball teams on and off from 1973 to until his retirement in 2015.

“Back in the day, when baseball was THE sport (along with prize fighting and horse racing), men would gather at the general store and talk about the season just past and what the new season would hold,” Peller said.

NMH’s version of Hot Stove began in 2004, after Peller reached out to Carr, who worked for the Boston Red Sox at the time.

“I asked him if he could come to NMH to talk about baseball and the Sox,” Peller recalled. “We met in the Rhodes room along with about a dozen people. Galen brought along a copy of the contract that Theo Epstein had gotten Curt Schilling to sign, as well as some video of the Sox, and explained the work he had been doing for them.”

The NMH Hot Stove continued to grow. Over the years, the event has featured a variety of sports journalists and MLB professionals, as well as past and current students who have gone on to careers in professional baseball.

Since Peller’s retirement in 2015, Olney, Carr, and others have stewarded the annual NMH Hot Stove event. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hot Stove moved from an in-person event to an online format, which has allowed NMH alumni and professionals from across the world to participate.

Hot Stove presents a unique opportunity for alumni to gain insight from some of the biggest names in sports journalism, said Jake Bennett, the present-day coach of the NMH baseball team.

“Having people of that magnitude with a special connection to this place, creating this beautifully niche world at NMH, is a really special opportunity for everyone involved,” Bennett said.

Events like Hot Stove help drive interest in baseball, by giving students a chance to hear from alumni who have gone on to have a career in professional sports.

“There is energy around it – kids want to learn the sport,” Bennett said. “Buster does a really good job of emphasizing through Hot Stove how you can be involved in the game without throwing a 95 mile-per-hour fastball.”

Bennett also credits NMH staff members like Peller, NMH teacher and assistant baseball coach Jim Shea, and Associate Head Charlie Tierney with fostering a love of baseball on campus and in the broader NMH community that honors the program’s history.

“From the Dick Peller ‘power era,’ where we produced tons of college prospects and guys that went on to play professionally, to Jim’s absolute love of the game that really helped NMH baseball survive, and Buster donating his time, effort, and the energy that he puts in,” said Bennett, “it's been an incredible legacy.”

For his part, Peller said the magic of Hot Stove is its ability to cut through the noise and touch on the passion the sport inspires in generations of NMH alumni: “Money has made the game crazy, but when it gets between the lines, it's still baseball.”

The 22nd annual Dick Peller Hot Stove League event will be held virtually via Zoom on Friday, Feb. 7, beginning at 7 pm Eastern time. The event can be accessed via this link.