Ryan Theriot refuses to be pigeonholed as just another former baseball player hung up on his athletic glory days.
The two-time World Series champion is embracing life after Major League Baseball—as a husband, father, versatile businessman and sports radio personality.
For LSU fans, Theriot’s name conjures mental pictures of the former Tiger shortstop’s College World Series heroics. Theriot’s game-winning run off of Brad Cresse’s single in the national championship game of the 2000 College World Series gave LSU its fifth title of the Skip Bertman-era, forever etching the Broadmoor High graduate into LSU athletics history.
After an illustrious MLB career, which included stints with four teams, Theriot has thrown himself headlong into the second phase of his professional life—one filled with business meetings, sno-balls and microphones.
While he was still in the MLB, Theriot approached his former trainer, Mack Chuilli, about becoming part of Chuilli’s up-and-coming training facility, Traction Sports Performance.
“I’ve always been a planner,” Theriot says. “Different business ideas were always going through my mind.”
The former Tiger became a partner at Traction in 2013 and now serves as the director of sports operations for the state-of-the-art athletic training facility. For Theriot, the move was a no-brainer.
“I knew firsthand the results that an athlete could see by training with [Chuilli],” Theriot says.
It was during a Traction owners’ meeting that Theriot suggested to his colleagues they could profit by adding sno-balls to the concession stand at their regular weekend baseball tournaments.
Some of the other owners initially laughed him off. But, Theriot was not deterred, and he purchased a sno-ball stand. His signature sno-ball is curiously named the Loaded Diaper, a secret “concoction of wonderful flavors” topped with Hershey’s syrup.
Between training athletes and serving up tasty frozen treats, Theriot makes time each Friday afternoon to join 104.5 ESPN Radio’s After Further Review host Matt Moscona for “The Riot Radio Hour.” Theriot serves up his insightful (and sometimes outrageous) takes on the week’s top sports stories in an engaging 60 minutes of sports radio.
“The Riot,” a play on the spelling of Theriot’s last name, has been a family nickname for years—his grandfather used to wear a belt buckle with the phrase engraved on it—but it began to gain traction during his playing days with the Chicago Cubs, when the local announcers referred to him as “The Riot” during the broadcasts.
The Riot Radio Hour’s trademark segment is “Kick Rocks,” in which Theriot rants about the people and things in the sporting world annoying him that particular week. From poor officiating to bone-headed play calls to Dancing with the Stars, nothing is off-limits during Theriot’s weekly tirade.
“(Ryan) understands that, yes, you have to be informative, you have to be topical and engage the audience, but at its most basic level, you’ve got to entertain people,” Moscona says.
LSU baseball fans will always love Theriot. But, with a bright future ahead, he may well be remembered for more than his athletic achievements.
This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of 225 Magazine.
