The winningest baseball coach in DeSales University history is coming to LehighValley.FM. Tim Neiman, who ran the Bulldogs program for 36 seasons and 868 wins before retiring in 2025, brings his interview show Straight Lines to the station three times a week beginning Monday, Sept. 14. Listen free at LehighValley.com/radio.
“I have always liked things that are new, start-ups, and entrepreneurs with a dream,” Neiman said. The podcast is doing well where it already streams, and he sees the station as another way to reach people, and “a chance to contribute to LehighValley.FM and assist in the growth of both entities.”
The Schedule
Three airings a week, two of them different shows.
Monday at 7 p.m. is Straight Lines Classic, drawn from the show’s existing library. Neiman and his team pick episodes they expect to land with a Lehigh Valley audience, usually the ones that did best on social media. First up is Steve Degler of Service Electric Network, who calls IronPigs home games, Lehigh Valley Phantoms hockey and a long list of college and high school events. “Steve is the ultimate pro,” Neiman said, “with plenty of stories and advice for everyone.”
Keep the stream running afterward. At 8 p.m., Al Gilotti goes live with 50 Odd Years with Big Poppa, three hours of deep album cuts, independent artists and new rock, so Monday nights on LehighValley.FM now run from 7 to 11.
Wednesday at 6 p.m. is Straight Lines Eastern Pennsylvania, the regional edition, now 10 episodes in. It opens with Matt Provence, the longtime IronPigs broadcaster who moved into operations and is now chief operating officer of the Lehigh Valley Zoo.
Saturday at 10 a.m. repeats the Wednesday show for anyone who missed it. Guests change week to week.
“My Straight Line Is: I Care”
It is not a baseball show. “Straight Lines is a metaphor for doing things right, for the little things necessary to be successful,” Neiman said. “How fast can you change the tire and get back on course to reach your goal, your North Star?”
Each guest is asked what their own straight line is, and there is no correct answer. Guests have included CEOs, coaches and executives from Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA, and each one arrives at a definition of leadership built from their own story. Neiman’s is two words: I care.
He compares an episode to the coaching clinics he sat through for decades. “If I got just one thing out of the time invested, I would consider it a success,” he said. “With Straight Lines, I guarantee you will get much more than one thing. You would definitely want to have a notepad.”
Thirty-Six Seasons
Before DeSales, Neiman coached six seasons of American Legion ball in Quakertown, going 135-67 with two league titles and a regional championship, and spent three seasons as the pitching coach at Kutztown University. DeSales hired him as head coach in the fall of 1989, and he never left.
By the end he had coached 1,401 games and finished 868-528-5 (.638), roughly 87 percent of every win in the program’s history. He is the only coach in any sport at DeSales to pass 700. His teams made nine NCAA Division III tournaments and reached the 2003 Division III College World Series, still the only trip in school history. He won 11 conference championships and was named Coach of the Year 14 times across three conferences. His programs produced 208 all-conference selections and five All-Americans, and 13 of his players signed professional contracts.
The last game was a 14-10 win over Scranton at Weiland Park on April 30, 2025. “I was sad for a short time but then realized how very lucky I was that it all happened,” he said. “Perhaps a bit of a feeling of a job well done. Of knowing I gave everything I had.”
What he misses is the players, and he has not really let go of them. He hears from former players from all 36 years, pro signees or not, and a recent wedding of one of them drew a full turnout of the DeSales baseball family, parents and partners included. “I jokingly proclaim that once they play for me, they always play for me,” he said.
“Find Out What Kind of a Person He Is”
From 1985 to 1989, Neiman worked as an associate scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates and then the Milwaukee Brewers, a career the Middle Atlantic Scouts Association recognized in 2025. He worked under Joe Consoli, who gave him the advice he still uses to decide who he surrounds himself with: “Timmy, after all the evaluation is done, find out what kind of a person he is!”
“Sometimes you can be fooled,” Neiman said, “but there is a high rate of success when you look into what kind of a person he or she is.”
The opposite is the subject of his book Team Killers, which lays out seven toxic traits that wreck a group. The one he has seen most is transfer of blame. “Not being accountable, not being responsible and transferring the blame onto others,” he said. “It’s not my fault! Must be his or hers!” In his telling, that is where the rest starts: drama, panic, contempt, fear, disappointment, and eventually a team that is contaminated all the way through.
Off the Field
Valley baseball fans may know his voice already. He has worked as a television color analyst on Lehigh Valley IronPigs broadcasts for Service Electric.
He has also served on the board of trustees of St. Luke’s University Health Network and the board of directors of the Miracle League of the Lehigh Valley, where the kids who play “are full of joy and happiness to play baseball.” He created a series called From the Trustees Chair.
He is an Ambassador of Hope for the Cancer Support Community of the Greater Lehigh Valley, and that one is personal. “I am a two-time cancer survivor, although I really don’t like the term survivor,” he said. Being able to put an arm around someone newly diagnosed, and to be there through treatment so they know they are not alone, is “a wonderful feeling.”
He has watched the Lehigh Valley change a great deal since 1989 into a region thriving in business, recreation and education, and he thinks the people underneath it have not changed at all: “the dreamers, the forward thinkers, and most importantly, those salt of the earth hard working individuals that just want to be there for their families.”
A Walk in the Parkway
His third book, Cast a Large Shadow, comes out in October. It follows What Is Your Legacy? and Team Killers.
The title came from a morning walk in the Parkway in Allentown. Neiman and his wife, Rosanne, were out with their huskies, all of them named after Yankees, when two men stopped to say hello. He did not recognize either one, but they knew who he was and knew his coaching career. One of them told him, “Coach, you cast a very large shadow.”
He was not sure what that meant, so he asked Rosanne. Her answer was that he had changed the lives of a lot of people, not only the ones who played for him.
The book turns SHADOW into an acronym for Smile, Humility, Authenticity, Dependable, Optimistic and Wisdom, with stories readers can carry into their own work. As for his own legacy, he says he has not given it much thought, and he already knows what the tombstone should say: “Tim Neiman: good guy that cared immensely about others. That’s all that is needed.”
Who Is Next
The Eastern Pennsylvania edition exists, Neiman said, because most people with a story worth telling are never asked to tell it. His own wish list runs from the CEOs of Jefferson Health and St. Luke’s to “probably a Mario Andretti.” So far, he said, the people he has approached have mostly said yes.
If you have a story, lessons learned or advice to give, he wants to hear from you. Email him at coachneiman@gmail.com, or find him on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
The Second Show on This Station
When we launched LehighValley.FM in August, the argument was that this region should have a station programmed by people who live in it. Al Gilotti brought 50 Odd Years here a few weeks later.
Straight Lines is the second show, and it covers different ground: conversation instead of music, from a host whose name has been attached to Lehigh Valley sports for more than three decades. Monday nights now run from Straight Lines at 7 straight into three hours of deep album cuts with Big Poppa at 8.
The stream is free, with no app and no account. Open LehighValley.com/radio in any browser, or go to LehighValley.FM, and press play. The player keeps running as you move around the rest of the site.
Neiman’s own pitch for what listeners will get is short. “There are not many gray areas, if any, other than my hair,” he said. “What you see is what you get.”
At a Glance
The host: Tim Neiman, DeSales University head baseball coach for 36 seasons, retired 2025
Straight Lines Classic: Mondays at 7 p.m. First guest, Steve Degler of Service Electric Network
Straight Lines Eastern Pennsylvania: Wednesdays at 6 p.m. First guest, Matt Provence, COO of the Lehigh Valley Zoo
Saturday repeat: 10 a.m., replaying that week’s Eastern Pennsylvania episode
Right after on Mondays: 50 Odd Years with Big Poppa, live 8 to 11 p.m.
Starts: Monday, Sept. 14, 2026
Career record: 868-528-5 (.638) across 1,401 games, about 87 percent of all wins in DeSales baseball history
Postseason: Nine NCAA Division III tournaments and the 2003 Division III College World Series
Honors: 14 times a conference Coach of the Year, 11 conference championships, 13 former players signed to professional contracts
Halls of fame: PA American Legion (1995), Pennridge-Quakertown Sports (2009), Quakertown School District Wall of Fame (2024), Miracle League of the Lehigh Valley (2025), DeSales University Athletics (2026)
Scouting: Associate scout for the Pirates (1985-1987) and Brewers (1988-1989); Middle Atlantic Scouts Association career recognition (2025)
Books: What Is Your Legacy?, Team Killers, and Cast a Large Shadow (October)
Want to be a guest? coachneiman@gmail.com
Where: LehighValley.FM, streaming free at LehighValley.com/radio
Read next: 50 Odd Years Comes Home: Big Poppa Brings a Live Rock Show to LehighValley.FM
