Everything You Always Wanted to Know About 10-Foot Wieners

I recently got a new gig as a contributor to the relaunched AOL Small Business site, which is loaded with full-steam-ahead stories about entrepreneurs keeping this American economy afloat. Good to know so folks aren't waiting out the recession, right?

My first two pieces are:

A "Made in the U.S.A." round-up of baseball companies, inlcuding Milwaukee-based Olympus Flag & Banner, which makes the giant sausage mascots that make Miller Park a must-visit for fans of the grand old game and foam chorizos alike.

A chat with one of the founders of Fire Island Beer, who was kind enough to provide samples and conduct the interview in old school Mickey Mantle fashion. (You figure it out.)

I'll be writing a lot for AOL, so tune in here for all your breaking offbeat business folk news.

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Made in the USA: America's Pastime

It's a chilly February morning, but Jay Goldberg is focused on the greener pastures of opening day. He's busy getting the clubhouse in order: ordering equipment, looking over his lineup, and ensuring the video system will be piping in baseball highlights throughout the season.

No, Goldberg isn't affiliated with the big leagues -- but he is a baseball man through-and-through. The horsehide is so central in his life that he opened Bergino Baseball Clubhouse in early May, a home in the heart of New York to showcase his one-of-a-kind collectible baseballs.

Goldberg started out in politics, working for local luminaries like former mayor Ed Koch, before becoming a sports agent for players like Phillies great Mike Schmidt, and both Ralph Branca and Bobby Thompson as they celebrated the 40th anniversary of "The Shot Heard 'Round the World." After 15 years, however, Goldberg realized he enjoyed the marketing much more than the negotiating. "The industry was changing, and the young guys were a pain in the ass," he says.

(Click here to read more of "Made in the USA: America's Pastime")

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Fire Island Beer: A Vacation Hobby Hits the Big Time

Fire Island has long provided the laid-back vibe missing in the day-to-day New York City grind. Less spoiled than the Hamptons, less crowded than Coney Island, less Jersey Shore than the Jersey Shore, and less of everything awful that goes with being stuck in Manhattan on a 95-degree August day, Fire Island brings in some 820,000 visitors every summer. Naturally, Fire Island is a great place to kick off the flip-flops and have a beer; coincidentally, it's a great time to be in the craft beer industry. Combining the sun-and-suds is the idea behind Fire Island Beer Company, a small artisan beermaker with designs on owning its 32-mile-long namesake.

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Over pints of Red Wagon IPA, Fire Island Beer president Jeff Glassman, 29, discussed the new beer company rising up from the sandy beaches of "The Other New York."

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the idea for a brewery originated on Fire Island...

It did. I'm from Bedford, New Hampshire, but my aunt and uncle have a place in Atlantique. It's on the lighthouse side of the island, and I've been coming out here for 12 years. In 1999, my cousin Tom got into home brewing as a hobby. There aren't really proper beer stores on Fire Island and we didn't want to schlep it out here, so whatever five-gallon brew he had going was our beer for the weekend. All these years, we kept saying to ourselves, "Fire Island Beer, why the hell not?" We see all these people out here every summer having a good time -- isn't that a strong basis for a beer company? In 2008, we decided to turn the dream into a reality.

(Click here to read more of "Fire Island Beer: A Vacation Hobby Hits the Big Time")

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Everything You Always Wanted to Know About 10-Foot Wieners

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