Former big-leaguer enjoying bourbon business

Since his retirement from baseball in 2021, Jerry Blevins has enjoyed spending more time with his wife and two young sons and making occasional trips to New York for television work on Mets broadcasts.Also, he's involved in the business of bourbon with his friends and former relief-pitching teammates Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard, an endeavor that will have the trio making promotional stops this week in Findlay and Toledo.Blevins, a resident of Findlay who graduated from Arcadia High School and pitched for 13 seasons in the major leagues, will join his friends at the Beverage Barn, 1901 Tiffin Ave., in Findlay from 4 to 6 p.m., on Thursday and at Joseph's Beverage Center, at 4129 Talmadge Road, in Toledo, from 4 to 6 p.m., on Friday.Non-connoisseurs may or may not know that corn goes into the manufacturing of bourbon. So, what better place for former baseball players to gather their corn than from the location highlighted in the iconic 1989 baseball film "Field of Dreams"?"We founded a company called Field of Dreams Bourbon," Blevins said in a recent phone interview. "We take corn from the Field of Dreams, out in Dyersville, Iowa, and we turn it into bourbon. We've been doing that for about five years. This is our third season of having two different bottles out."It's been a blast. It's been really fun and challenging and rewarding, and we are actually in Ohio. We sell throughout the state of Ohio now. We've been here for less than a year, but what we're doing is having a signing — like, a bottle signing. You come into the store and we'll sign autographs on the bottles and meet and great with folks."Any baseball welcomes having a good left-handed pitcher, and Blevins, a 17th-round draft choice by the Chicago Cubs in 2004, filled that role during stints with the Mets, Oakland A's, Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves. The lanky lefty, who starred in baseball, football and basketball at Arcadia, finished his big-league career a 30-13 record in 609 games with a 3.54 earned run average through more than 495 innings. Blevins struck out 508 batters and walked 195."We're always looking for something to do, a way to kind of keep in touch with your former teammates," Blevins said. "In 2014, Drew, Clip and I were in the same bullpen together, in Washington. Whenever we had a day off or we'd be on the road, we'd go out and grab a drink. Drew was always the guy: 'All right, what are we having tonight?' So, Drew would see what they would have available. He was quite the collector — he still is a collector — so we would have some fun story about some bottle; he was always the connoisseur for us."When Drew was done playing, Tyler and I were still playing. Drew said, 'I've been dreaming about this and I'm going to go out and see if we can do this. So, what we wanted to do was tell baseball stories through bourbon because a lot of guys, when they get together, that's what we're drinking. ... He got the ball rolling and started the process and we started putting barrels up and, the way we mixed it up, we were really proud of the product."The Field of Dreams line includes the higher-end Player Series, in which all players who ever reached the major leagues have their names on a bottle. The small-batch bourbon has players' names and images laser-engraved on collectible wooden toppers."We've had some really good success in some stories around the country, and since the Findlay and Fostoria area is where I reside, we wanted to touch base with the market and make ourselves available and say thank you to the people who come out to the stores," Blevins said.