Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 1877: The 10th Anniversary Retrospective

Episode Date: July 18, 2022

On the 10th anniversary of Effectively Wild’s first episode, Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley kick off a week-long celebration by reflecting on the milestone, then (6:40) bring on producer Dylan Higgins and listener Chris Hanel for a round of Effectively Wild trivia and fun facts. After that (41:49), they dig into the podcast archive for […]

Somewhere in your eyes, you finally realize I will remember you this way On the anniversary On the anniversary On the anniversary The end of the world and joined on the road by Meg Raleigh, who is in LA for All-Star Week. Hello, Meg of Fangraphs. That was a weird intro. Hello, it is me, Meg of Fangraphs. Yes, Meg of Fangraphs.

Live from LA. It's Saturday night. Wait, no, it's Sunday morning. Wait, no, that's not right either. Hello, Ben. How are you? It's appropriate that we have massacred and mangled this intro because this is the first of our 10th anniversary episodes. And we still haven't quite gotten the hang of this, apparently. But you are on the road. I am not on the road.

But we will talk to you later this week about all the All-Star Week festivities that you are witnessing in person. But we're going to do a few anniversary-themed episodes this week because 10 years and this episode going up on July 18th. Episode 1 went up at Baseball Perspectives on July 18th, 2012. So it has actually been a full and that people are still listening and supporting and enjoying for the most part, it seems. And it has been great. Like we've gone through a lot of life changes in that time. Yeah. As a lot of our listeners have, too. But just personally, like I got engaged. I got married.

I had a daughter. I gained loved ones. I lost loved ones, I changed jobs a few times. Throughout all of that, Effectively Wild has been the constant and it's been a big part of my life and a part that I cherish. And I'm glad that it has become what it has become and that you have been a big part of it, too. So it's been quite a ride. you have been a big part of it too. So it's been quite a ride. Yeah. I feel like I have like two thank yous because I have the unique distinction of having been a listener for a long, long time and then a co-host and then like the primary co-host with you. And so it was so nice to have Effectively Wild when I was a listener, just hearing you and Sam

talk about baseball the way you did was really formative to my perspective on the game. And also nice to like find a corner of the baseball world where I was like, oh, these people are weird in a lot of the same ways that I am. That's cool. And then, you know, I just appreciate everybody listening and supporting the pod through a couple of host changes and incredibly tumultuous time to be alive. We hope that we have been able to be a bomb when it's been needed and a bit of levity when it's needed. And also like a port in the storm when you want to consider serious things in a way that resonates with you.

So yeah, thank you. Thank you twice, I think I say. Yes. And we have a lot of retrospective content planned for this particular episode. We will do some new, fresh Effectively Wild later in the week. But for today, we will wrap up with a lot of listener tributes. Listeners have been such a huge part of the show, and they've been sending in audio clips over the past couple of weeks talking about their experience with the podcast. So you will hear those later in the episode. You will also hear a highlights reel, a clip reel.

This is kind of a clip show, not one of the bad clip shows looking at you, Star Trek Next Generation. This is a good clip show. We haven't run out of ideas or run out of budget. We just thought it would be fun for longtime listeners to take a trip down memory lane and for more recent arrivals to maybe get a little bit of a previously uneffectively wild recap of some of the high points. I would say the more comedic side of the show. You could do a laugh track to this clip reel probably, but listeners have nominated a lot of their – no, you will hear us laughing. We laugh at ourselves. but listeners have nominated a lot of their, no, you will hear us laughing. We laugh at ourselves. And hopefully people are laughing along at home with us,

not at us, probably both sometimes. But listeners have nominated a lot of their favorite moments and I added in a few others. So you will hear all of those sometime soon. And it's a somewhat lengthy clip reel, although I just calculated that in the previous 1876 episodes of Effectively Wild, I believe that if you ran them continuously start to finish, it would take 71 days to listen to. Wow. We have managed to condense those 71 days into this one episode. So hopefully that will work for everyone. And I did notice as I was

looking at these clips and listening to them and thinking about what makes a highlight, it does seem, you know, and later this week we will talk about Juan Soto and we'll talk about what's going on in All-Star Week, just the newsy stuff. And I do think that's what people come to us for. If it was all nonsense and silliness and pedantry that might not work. But what tends to stick in people's minds, it seems like, is the weird off the beaten track, out of left field, hypothetical kind of weirdness. So I think we have to find the right balance between all of that and none of that. And hopefully we have mostly found that balance. It's like, you know, people come to us for the baseball discussion. But it seems like when people cast their minds back and think, what did I enjoy about this podcast? It wasn't like the time we previewed that team season or the time we called this breakout or we analyze this game or this playoff series or something like hopefully people enjoyed that but it's not what is top of mind i

suppose and for me too so yeah the weird stuff stands out for me also and i think that is a big part of what makes this show special yeah because like how many other baseball podcasts can you listen to where they're like going to spend real time on what a third arm would do for a fielder exactly and you will hear a little bit of that discussion later. So we will begin now by bringing in our producer, Dylan Higgins, and a listener and Patreon supporter to do a little Effectively Wild trivia and fun facts competition before we actually get into the clips. So we are joined now by editor and producer extraordinaire, Dylan Higgins. Dylan, welcome to the other side of the microphone.

Hi, pals. How are we doing? Good to have you. And I guess this is convenient because if Meg needs to do a swear, you can just say bleep really loud at the same time. Just got to yell it in time. I need my air horn. That's what I need. Exactly. And we are also joined by longtime listener and Patreon supporter and Effectively Wild Discord group creator and Effectively Wild Wiki contributor, Chris Hanel. Chris, hello. Hello. It's a real pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

Nice to have you here. And you are here for reasons that we are not completely clear on, but we are trusting you. What? are not completely clear on, but we are trusting you. You have collected some information about the history of Effectively Wild, which we may or may not know, despite being people who work on Effectively Wild. You have come here to stump us or delight us and hopefully our listeners too. Yeah. In the process of working on the wiki and listening to the show, there was a lot of stuff that when I started working on the wiki, I was like, this isn't really categorized or it's so close to being like quantified and started making my own little Google sheets

to track a couple things. And a lot of really interesting information started coming out that I knew exactly me and maybe 12 other people would care about which is the best kind of fun fact and so I started compiling all of this and on the discord we were doing some trivia nights and Out of that grew the idea of coming on and quizzing you and Meg on your own show And seeing if you remembered all of the any of this stuff. So yeah So I have compiled a lot of fun facts. I have a lot of interesting did you knows about the show and just a couple numbers that when you hear the number

is just like, wow, the line Jeremy Piven from Gross Point Blank just shouting, 10 years, 10 years! 10 years, man! 10! Like, yeah, it kind of has that feeling to it. So, yeah. Great. So you've basically stat blasted Effectively Wild for us. Yes, a stat blast about stat blasts.

It had to happen. Come here and you're going to quiz us. How well do you know your own podcast? Exactly. Only not very well. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited for us to show off how bad our memories are especially after the past few years yeah we just have to host the thing everything after that

it's just into the ether and hopefully people enjoy it and we will forget everything but you have remembered so where should we begin so let's start so i'm gonna start with a collaborative question so this one is for everyone you You can talk amongst yourselves about this. I want to start with guests. There have been so many guests on Effectively Wild over the years, including people who would go on to be hosts. Question one, for five points and control of the board. Over the history of Effectively Wild,

Sam, Jeff, and Meg have all made guest appearances on the show, while not currently functioning as a quote-unquote main host. Of the three, who has done so the most times? My instinct here is Jeff. Yeah, I think mine is too. I know that we had a couple Sam appearances, at least when he was not hosting and Meg I know that you were on a Mariner's preview and maybe other times too but yeah yeah Jeff was on at least a couple of times before he was hosting and then has been on a couple times since so that is also my suspicion Dylan what do you think yeah that's that's my gut I that's my gut. I feel about as confident as you sound.

Okay. All right. So final answer, Jeff? Yes. Yeah. Dylan, are you going to have like ding and buzzer sounds for right and wrong that you can add in after the fast? Sure, why not? I'll head right over to the sound library. Well, you're going to need the buzzer because wrong. No.

The answer is Meg. Really? Really. Meg leads with nine appearances on the show. Jeff and Sam both have eight. Oh, close race. Wow. Pipped at the post.

Huh. How about that? Yeah, exactly. What did I possibly talk about nine times apart from the couple hundred of episodes we've done since then? Yeah. Meg appeared nine times between episodes 838 and 1298 there was like once the last three episodes were in a very short span right near the end there and i think shortly after that became a main host yeah so yeah i guess that makes sense we really wanted meg to come on the podcast and then she became a permanent part of it. All right, well, you stumped us on question one. Oh, boy. Question number two.

So the way that I'm going to do a lot of these is going to be like liar's dice rules where I'm going to go to one of you and I'm going to ask for a number and then the other person can choose to go higher or say that other answer's too high and call their bluff. Okay?

So, Ben, I'm going to start with you for this question. Counting right now, at this very moment, how many different individual guests have appeared on the podcast? Oh my gosh. We'll start at 100. Higher.

Pick a number. Okay. Higher than 100. Yes, correct. You win. Yeah. Okay. So 1,876 episodes before this one. Oh, my gosh.

I mean, I've got to think that like. We did five the other day. Yeah. I got to think like maybe a quarter have been guest episodes or something in that range, a fifth, a quarter. But then some of those guest episodes had multiple guests. I'm going to go, oh, gosh. But then we have some guests on many times the same people. Yeah, good question.

Are they individual unique guests? Individual unique guests. Multiple appearances still only count as one person. Wow. Okay. 250. 250. 250. Meg, do you choose to go high or call it bluff?

That doesn't feel like enough. Maybe it does. But we had you on nine times. I know. I guess that's true. We did. And Grant has been on the show like 500 times probably. Oh, we'll get to that.

We'll get to that. Yeah. I think I know that one actually. I would say – I'll say 312. 312. Ben. Yeah. You want me to go higher or lower than that?

Go higher or call next one. Shouldn't Dylan go? I picked my number. Oh, Dylan. Dylan, you want to go higher? Call bluff. No, I call the bluff on that, though I wouldn't be surprised, but that might be too high for me.

Okay, so Meg wins because you should not have called Meg's bluff. The answer is 570. 570? You make a guess? 570, now counting myself. Oh, goodness. Is it season preview that racks them up?

Oh, yeah. It's a season preview series that does a lot of the lifting. I bet. Right. There was also one episode where you had basically 29 guests because it was the Roger Angel. Oh, right. Yeah.

Although I bet some of those people had guests before in their own right. Yes, a lot of them had, but you picked up like 10 right there, I think. Oh, right. Yeah. Although I bet some of those people had had a lot of before in their own right. Yes. A lot of them had. But you picked up like 10 right there. I think I'm blowing my mind here. We got to do like a Sergeant Pepper's album cover for just the hundreds and hundreds of guests. And we just did a new T-shirt. You're coming up with other ones. Yeah. We'll have to get the rights for the likenesses of all of those people. That could be complicated. Do you remember when The Simpsons had 100 episodes or 500 episodes or whatever and they made those big posters

showing the entire cast of Springfield, all the cartoon eyes? Oh my gosh. First of all, it's amazing that that data exists. So thank you to you and everyone else who has contributed to the Effectively Wild Wiki and has made it possible to answer that question. Also, that is a wild answer.

That was so the episode pages were not very standardized. And I built a new little episode box that had all of the crucial information. And I basically used an automation system to just go through episode by episode, read the thing, categorize it. And it just took me like two days and just kind of did that. I was really trying to get into Python. That's all I can give as my excuse for that. But yeah. I hope that was helpful to you in some way.

Yeah. Glad we could provide an opportunity to learn to code. Yeah. To learn to code. All right. What's next? All right. So taking turns.

So, okay. So I should, one of the things that I find the most fascinating about having this data is the phenomenon that started on Saturday Night Live, which is the five timers club. Guests that have appeared five times join a special coterie of people that can feel special and can have that figurative smoking jacket to know that they're in the elite group.

So, alternating between the group of you, name a guest who has appeared on the show at least five times until someone gets one wrong. Oh, boy. Good game. Good game. Meg, we'll start with you on this one. Grant Brisby. Grant Brisby is correct.

Grant has been on the show 18 times wow all right cutting in line and going second craig goldstein craig goldstein has appeared on the show 10 times that is correct ben meg rally meg rally has appeared on the show nine times good on you to use the information already provided during this segment meg uh eric longenhagen eric longenhagen has also been on the show 18 times 18 wow goodness yeah let's get the fan graph staff ben clemens ben clemens has been on the show 10 times ben jeff sullivan jeff sullivan has been on the show eight times. I'm checking the gimme's that you gave us in this episode already. Meg.

Lindsay Adler. Lindsay Adler. I have to go down a bit. Lindsay Adler has been on the show seven times. Correct. Dylan. Give me Andy McCullough. Andy McCullough has been on the show 17 times.

Wow. Ben. Sam Miller. That's the last of your gimme's, Ben. Wow. Ben? Sam Miller. That's the last of your gimmies, Ben. Sam's been on the show eight times. Yes. Meg? Emma Batchelary. Emma Batchelary has

been on the show five times. Cutting it close. All right. How about Jay Jaffe? Jay Jaffe has been on the show 12 times. All right. Russell Carlton. Russell Carlton, 18 times.

Yep. Three-way tie atop the leaderboard. Yes, the top four are off the board now. Oh, no. Pedro Mora. Pedro Mora Pedro Mora These are ordered by number of appearances Not alphabetically That's silly on my part

Eight times How about Dan Zimborski Dan Zimborski Oh I don't know Sorry no four times Four Oh no 1526 1617 Sorry, no, four times. Four? Oh, no. All right. I'm out.

Episodes 1526, 1617, 1806, and 1820. All righty. A late addition. I sunk my battleship. Yeah. We have underutilized Dan, which I think we point out every time Dan has come on the podcast. Like, we should really have you on here. Yes.

You can't hear him off on FanGraphs Audio, fortunately. So are we all done, or is just Dylan out if dylan's out ben okay jason voyekowski seven times all right meg oh gosh doing my favorite stall tactic making noises that that Dylan will have to decide if he wants to edit out. Let's see. I'm trying to think amongst the Beats, who we have on fairly regularly for season previews. Susan Slusser. Susan Slusser. I'm going to do a control S.

Oh, no. That's not a good sign. Seven times. Correct. Okay that's not a good sign. Seven times, correct. Okay, still alive. Rob Arthur. Rob Arthur, ten times. Ben, you went too quickly. Yeah, sorry. Think of

someone else. Wow, who writes about baseball, you know? Who cares about... Kylie McDaniel. mcdaniel seven times oh that's a good one all right i'm gonna run out of draft adjacent people very soon boy okay um rj anderson five times oh okay wow good pick and we need to have rj on more too RJ Anderson? Five times. Oh, okay. Wow. Good pick.

We need to have RJ on more, too. Jake Mintz. Jake Mintz, five times. Oh, boy. I'm going to sweat here. I'm going to say, you guys are doing great at this. I was really afraid that we were going to get two names in and be like, oh, that person was on four times. Well, on to the next segment.

Okay. times. Well, on to the next segment. Okay. Keep singing higher. Oh, Will Leach. Will Leach to 11 times. Oof, okay. Oh, boy. I'm going to take the other half of the Suspitous Family

Barbecue. Jordan Schusterman. Jordan Schusterman. Two times. Oh, no. Oh, goodbye, Meg. barbecue jordan schusterman jordan schusterman two times oh no goodbye meg oh episode 762 and 1730 can i ask a clarifying question did you track them as individuals and then also a cesspit family barbecue no i tracked i if they appeared a espadist family barbecue i gave them both credit for an appearance okay i was just curious can't get yourself out of that elimination people near the top that were left off uh this round zach levine 14 times right oh sure michael in there somewhere david roth is uh in here as well six times for David Roth and of course yeah yeah Joe Sheehan Aaron Gleeman that's a season preview series one right there

Rob Nyer Levi Weaver Nick Pecorro Alex spire Paul Sporer maybe Rob mains five times near the bottom other people that were only five Rob mains Bradford William Davis Patrick Dubuque. Adam Sobzy. If I'm pronouncing that right. Tim Britton. Mark Carrig. Carson Sestouli. And Harry Pavlidis.

Pavlidis I think. Yeah. Pavlidis. Yeah. So yeah. There are 48 people who have appeared on the show. At least five times. Wow.

And that spreadsheet will be released to everyone after the conclusion of this show. All right. But yeah. that spreadsheet will be released to everyone after the conclusion of this show all right but yeah russell carlton grant brisby and eric longenhagen are tied with the most appearances with 18 but eric is going with a blistering pace because eric didn't make his first appearance until episode 1002 whereas the other two had been appearing long before that so eric is almost certainly going to pass them by pretty soon as if he continues with his high quality prospect information well yeah we can say you'll hear later this week has been so the next so I'm not gonna do this one but the next thing I want to share is emails.

Email is a huge part of the show. There have been two thousand six hundred and twenty three emails on the show, according to Ben's quasi official email question database. And my favorite fun fact about this is that the second email ever was read on episode 77. And it was sent in by a man named Mike who started off by praising the podcast for its lack of fluff. And thank God for all of us that you didn't stick with that trend. We're fluffy. Yeah, very, very fluffy.

Yeah. That's one of the things that I love about the show the most. My favorite memory is working outside on the yard and hearing the third arm conversation and just laughing at the storm while trying to rake and everyone's looking at me like, what is wrong with you? And I'm like, I will never be able to explain this. Yard work would be way easier if you had a third arm. Yeah, it would be. Yes. All right. Next question. Let's get into drafts. You have drafts of

everything, competitions. These stats that I'm about to go into, which is surrounding the minor league free agent draft, these stats do not include 2022. Is that what required doing stat research to verify the current progress of this year's picks? And I'm not an actual stat nerd. I just play one on podcasts. So over the history of the minor league free agent draft,

there have been 193 picks made by people that were actually on the show, not the random pick that was made just to compare. Out of those 193, how many actually recorded a plate appearance or a

batter faced for the season they were picked? We will go auction mode, and Dylan, we will start with you. Not nearly as many as I'd like. I know the least about it. The hit rate of the minor league free agent draft out of 193 is the question. Yeah, so how many of those actually recorded a plate appearance or a batter-faced? Actually hit at all?

Like a third. Are we doing liar's dice going up? Yeah, we're doing liar's dice going up. I'm going to start at 60. 60. All right. Ben? I guess I'll take the over, although not much over. So pick a higher... Do I have to pick a number?

Yeah. Okay, I guess... 61! Yeah, I mean... That is a valid pick. Not to be that guy, I guess I'll just go a little higher. I'll say mean. That is a valid pick. Not to be that guy. I guess I'll just go a little higher. I'll say 65.

65, Meg. What was the total number again? 193. 71. 71, Dylan. No, I'm, oh boy. To get a single plate appearance or batter face? Yes.

No, it's harder than that, even though I already said 60. Why are you going higher? Why are we doing a second round of guesses? We made our guess. Pressure. You got to keep going. You got to keep pushing it. That's Lion's Dice.

I already sunk myself. I'm playing against myself here, Ben. I have the opportunity to lose myself. Let's say 75 myself here, Ben. I have the opportunity to lose myself. Let's say 75. 75, Ben. Is this just like how peer pressured you can be? Yes. Well, you can call Dylan's bluff.

You can say, no, it's too high. I will do that then. Okay. Well, then you lose because the answer is 92. Really? 47.6%. I underrated ourselves. Yeah, good on us.

I feel like a lot of them get a sniff, right? Get a cup of coffee. Yeah. But it depends. So fun fact about the minor league free agent drafts. The second best pick in any minor league free agent draft was made by Sam Miller in the sixth round of the 2018 edition when he took Wade LeBlanc who would go on to amass 662 plate appearances

that season which would have been enough to win the minor league free agent draft every single time it's ever been played on the show that single pick the best pick however was in the very same round only two picks later which Ben made Ben do you remember who you picked

nope Williams Astadio oh of course that's the best pick according to same round only two picks later, which Ben made. Ben, do you remember who you picked? Nope. Williams-Astadio. Oh, of course. Okay. That's the best pick, according to my measuring stick, which is it was Williams-Astadio. All right. How appropriate. Okay. So our last Liar's Dice is going to be about the season preview series. The season preview series is one of my favorite times of year. Wait, hold on. 2018 Williams-Estadillo?

2018 Williams-Estadillo. That's the information that I have. Am I wrong? He only got 97 plate appearances that year. I wish he had gotten more. I said it was the best pick by my measurement. By my measurement is that it was Williams-Estadillo. It's sentimental, Ben. I see. It's sentimental. Got it. Thank you, you meg i knew that you would

understand okay all right so the season preview series season preview series has been run like over nine years i think and a lot of people have come on and at the end there's always the tradition of asking people how many wins do you think this team will have? And it's always a local beat writer who has to be diplomatic but honest and give a thorough accounting. What is the most number of wins that have predicted by a guest

that was still less than the actual win total for that team that year? Oh, boy. So we're looking for someone who dared to dream and then still didn't dream high enough for this one i'm gonna let you all collaborate we won't do the liars this thing we'll see how many you think that might be so over like nine years and over like 30 teams we're talking a couple hundred guesses right yes huh see i forget all the guesses instantly of course except Yes. So that would not count for this. That would not count. No, it would not. Right. But you can go high and still not be high enough in theory.

So I guess I will go with like, I guess I'd say like 99 or something. 99? Anyone? Anyone want to go higher? Maybe? My gut says 99 or 100 because it sounds like a round number that a beat writer would say. They might say, I don't know, 100 wins. But yeah, I'm in that neighborhood with you. 99 or 100 because it sounds like a round number that a beat writer would say. They might say, I don't know, 100 wins. But yeah, I'm in that neighborhood with you. Meg, any thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, I might say 95, but yeah, I think it's in that range. Okay. The answer is 105. What? My takeaway is that we're going too low on every single thing. So there's another question. I'm going too high, if anything. The next question is built for you. But this question is the answer to this question is 105.

Alex Spear. Alex, for the 2018 Red Sox, guessed 105. The Red Sox finished with 108. That's episode 1181 for those. Alex had a good run of predictions there for a little while. Yeah. So 105 wins is those. Alex had a good run of predictions there for a little while. Yeah. So 105 wins is impressive. Yeah.

So, Ben, this one's made for you. What are the least number of games predicted that was still higher than the actual total? Oh, OK. Well, now I have to go lower than I would think, maybe. All right. I'll go like 56. 56? Yeah.

Any other thoughts? What do you think? It's those like Astros doldrums that long ago? Or an Orioles team? Right. Yeah, 55. Would a beat writer say 55 wins? That's the thing. Probably. Yeah, 55. Would a beat writer say 55 wins? That's the thing.

Probably. Yeah, maybe. I'm going to say 60. 60? Yeah. Meg, you came closest. You came closest. It's 61.

Okay, yeah. I'm happy because I went too extreme, finally, instead of going that extreme enough. Jason Collette for the 2013 Astros. Dylan, you were right on the money. They ended up finishing 51 and 111 yeah I think it's hard to come out and say this team's gonna lose more than 100 games I think once you say they lose 100 games you're kind of making your point yeah those Astros were worse than that they were the really funny thing in looking at trends because I was looking at

different journalists who and different beat writers who would come on repeatedly and talk about stuff and see if there was any trend. There was one trend that came out more clear than anything, and that's Levi Weaver. Levi Weaver previewed the Rangers every year since 2017 and has overshot by 11, 12, 6, 9, and 19 wins. Levi's a good guy. He likes to say the best in people. Oh, I blame the Texas Rangers.

I was going to say, is that saying more about Levi or the Rangers? That says more about the Rangers than I think it says about Levi. Now, in terms of teams, if you break it down by teams, you look at which teams are predictable, which teams are chaotic.

There's one team that you would go completely counter expectations. The team who performed closest to expectations over the history of the season preview series, the Tampa Bay Rays, who every year we joke about, maybe they'll win 80-85 and then they win 100. Then we're like, wait, that's not supposed to... Every year this happens, but their aggregate win total is only off by one game over the history of the season preview series. Far and away the most accurate.

Well, I guess they've been in a range where they haven't been bad and I know they won 100 last year, but they haven't maybe been the best team usually. So they've just been generally good and they're expected to be generally good. So I guess that makes some sense. Yeah. But what I was saying before about beat writers and being optimistic, pessimistic, guests are generally optimistic about the team's performance. Internal optimists. Internal optimism and wanting to, you know, this is the team they cover. And I think a little bit of that bias gets baked in, but they average 2.22 war or wins above reality.

It's not so bad. I might have gone higher than that. that yeah people who have made you you brought up uh exact people picking exactly um i do have that so alex spear has predict exact on mark armore has picked exactly on jay jaffe has done it david roth andrew ku jesse specter jason beck alec lewis has done it jack moore ryan romero there's actually a lot more of these over the years. Aaron Gleeman has picked correctly. Kenny Ducey. Didn't Meg pick correctly once? Let me scroll down.

I think I did. I think she got the 86 win Mariners. I think she correctly predicted them on her first appearance on the podcast. Yeah. Meg has made three season preview appearances and for a total of 250 wins guessed over that score for an accuracy score of 17, an optimism score of negative three, an APS or accuracy per season of 5.67,

an OPS or optimism performance score of negative one with one season guest too high, one season guest too low, and the Goldilocks of one season just right. Her first podcast appearance, she nailed that so perfectly that we had to promote her into a hosting role. Get her in the big leagues. All right. so last thing that I have is a beloved twitter account that we all follow and love and I think you know where I'm going with this Mr. Michael Mountain

has been documenting our favorite no context quotes so Dylan I apologize I only have this formatted for Ben and Mick but I'm gonna give each of you six quotes and I'm gonna ask you who said each

of the following and for the group that I give you exactly one of them will be yourself okay so Meg I'm gonna start with you on this one here's your six quotes quote number one I think we probably both agree I won't speak for you but I also will.

So wait, I'm supposed to guess who said it? Who said it? I think that was Sam. That was Sam? That was Jeff, episode 1008. Jeff. All right. Quote number two.

Someone asked us. We have no choice but to answer. I think that one was Sam. That one was Ben. I'm not going to recall the specifics of this, which is great. Who needs precision? I think that one was Sam. That one was Ben. I'm not going to recall the specifics of this, which is great. Who needs precision? I think that was Sam.

That was you. It's whose line? It's the points you made up. The show doesn't matter. It's okay. I'm not necessarily that interested in Curt Schilling's happiness uh jeff ben oh well it could have been any of us really there's a very large contingent of people that would nod their head and be like yeah that could have been me yeah that sounds vaguely familiar so therefore it is fact sam jeff man i'm doing great we would do these on effectively trivial

in the discord group no one would ever score on these and it always made me laugh so much because we would try and pick ones that would be like okay i think you can have a slight hint of this one and every yeah people you could see people's biases a lot in terms of like oh that sounds like a jeff quote yep last one for meg anything i that i thought was likely to cause injury i wouldn't do for one win unless it was the postseason or i hated the guy jeff sam ah boy this is impossible yes all right ben pretend i would have gotten all of those correctly because you'll never know. All right. Ben, you ready?

No, but go ahead. Quote number one. You know me. I'm always up for pedantic terminology clarifications. Well, that sounds like it would be me. It's Meg. Oh, okay. Again, probably could apply to basically all of us. Any of us.

Quote number two. Alexi Amorista, you'll recall from being a baseball fan, is the size of an eraser. Jeff. Sam. Okay. We're going for the Ofer. I'm really excited about this.

Can we hold it? I'm throwing the rest of these. Okay. Oh, no, don't do that, though. That calls the whole entire thing into question. If I tried to lose, I'm not sure it would make a difference. I will stay on the up and up here. All right.

I will never sleep. I mean, I will sleep, but I'll never be satisfied. Well, I am the one who is famously not a sleeper. And we worry about that. I'm guessing that this is not me, that you're trying to trick me here. I'll go with Jeff. It's Meg. Meg, you don't sleep. I'll go with Jeff. It's Meg. Meg, you don't sleep.

I thought you slept sometimes. I mostly sleep, but sometimes I don't. I haven't slept a lot in the last little while. Next quote. Baseball's boring. It's just one guy bunting all the time. Sam. It's Sam!

Ah, finally. You got it. We're on the board. We're Sam! Finally. You got it. We're on the board. We're on the board. Episode 338, you can tell because he's talking about bunting, which almost never happens anymore. Yeah. Two more. Reading a quote.

Javi Baez reaches on a fielder's choice. It certainly was a choice. Me? Yes, it was you. Okay. There's your one that was you. Wow. Ben, you was you. Okay. There's your one that was you. Wow. Ben, you're crushing. Yeah. And then finally, to take us out,

maybe Shohei Otani isn't going to be the perfect baseball player. Oh, no. No one wants to be this because, of course, he is perfect. I'll say Jeff. It was Jeff. Wow. Look at me with a little late streak here to go 50-50.

Okay. So, yeah, the final scars on all of that was who cares? Dylan would have gotten all of those, of course, because he has to listen to the recordings, so he knows who said it. I played along. I got three total. Just like me. So right between you both, yes.

That was difficult, but fun. All right. Well, that was difficult but fun oh all right well that was fun thank you chris and and i guess we should say the the twitter account where you can play along although uh i guess usually you do identify or michael identifies who does say it but no context ew pod on twitter is that account yeah so i do want to shout out a couple people before i want to shout out adam mail and ray and Raymond Chen and everyone else who has ever helped update the wiki. Raymond Chen just posted. Yeah, it's incredible. The late Mike Moriarty also. Yeah. called EWScrape that you can just go right to the fan graphs page, click a button, and it'll help you create a new episode page from scratch really, really easily.

But a lot of this data is only because that wiki exists, and so everyone that helps keep that up to date is fantastic. I want to shout out Matthew Lee, Chuck Ruther, Sean McNamee, and Joe Drew, who helped me playtest this quiz. Oh, nice. How did they do? Better or worse than me?

I asked how many guests have been on the podcast and someone immediately without hesitation said 1200 and the other person went i don't know do i go higher but people have just been a big fan of the show and since this gets to be my 30 seconds of talking about the show i've been listening to the show ever since The Only Rule Is It Has To Work came out. And I saw Ben and Sam make an appearance during the book tour, listened to them talk and thought, oh, that'd be interesting to listen to. And I've been listening ever since and has been a big reason of how I got back into baseball in a major way. So I want to

say to the entire group here, thank you for putting together this podcast. It is a staple of my week and of my baseball viewing experience. So thank you so much. Well, thank you. That's very kind of you to say. And thanks for everything that you have done in the listener community. We appreciate that. Shout out to the Discord.

Hello, Discord people. Yes. Yeah. And you can find Chrisris on twitter too right at go twinkies go hey go twinkies go and i have a twitter account about broadcast graphics my day job is a broadcast graphics designer oh we're gonna have to have you back on to talk about that yeah we do have to talk to you about that sometime yeah okay we'd love to but uh i i have a twitter account at show the score where i review score bugs and talk about the design of broadcast design so all right well

this was fun thank you thank you so much thank you all right let's take a quick break and we'll be back in just a moment with the effectively wild highlights reel and much more 10 years, yeah. Trying to waste half an hour. I spent the last 10 years, yeah. Trying to waste half an hour All right, we're back and we're just about to begin the clips. Before we do, I want to let you all know that we have a new t-shirt available for you all for the 10th anniversary. It's in the same Fangraphs Breaking Tea store where we have our How Can You Not Be Pedantic About Baseball shirt, our Effectively Wild logo shirt, and our Stat Blast shirt.

Now we are adding to those a new shirt, which is kind of a roll call of Effectively Wild player characters inspired by listener emails. It was designed by Fangraph's Luke Hooper with input from me and Meg, and it features a colorful array of representations of Ghani Jones from episode 720, Vroom Vroom Guy from episode 1217, a pitcher with a third arm on His Head from episode 1565, The Mole Man Bass Runner from episode 1819, and of

course, The Bass Runner with Glass Ass Syndrome from episode 1855. And if any of those sound unfamiliar to you, well, you're about to catch up, because the segments that entered them into podcast lore hung their jerseys in the rafters are included in these clips. I should note that some of the rafters are included in these clips. I should note that some of the clips to come are slightly edited and condensed in the interest of saving some time and improving the flow. You will perhaps notice our recording quality and speaking skills improving as the clips go on because these are mostly in chronological order. We tried to capture clips that would tell the story of this podcast. And we tried to capture clips that would tell the story of this podcast.

Its hosts' comings and goings, its inside jokes and repeated references and segments, its funniest moments and so on. Thanks to Dylan and Michael Mountain and Michael Donato and others for helping us put this together. But I really enjoyed digging deep into the archives to pull some of these clips and I hope that you will enjoy listening to them. And if some of them are new to you, maybe they will make you curious enough to look up those old episodes and listen to them in their entirety. I will link on the show page to a shared folder where all the clips are so you can look up where they came from. And you also hear where they came from and when they came from. Courtesy of our announcer, narrator, MC for this reel. None other than, I'm going to say the official play-by-play person of Effectively Wild, Jason Benetti. One of the voices of the White Sox, also of Sunday Baseball on Peacock, and you can catch him this week on a StatCast

broadcast of the Home Run Derby. But first, you can hear him here. We love Jason. We think he's great. We're thrilled that he agreed to do this. Jason, I turn over the mic to you. As I understand it, Jason used Len Casper's mic to record this, so thanks, Len, for lending Jason one of the tools of your trade. Mr. Benetti, take it away. Hi, I'm Jason Benetti, baseball play-by-play announcer, avid Effectively Wild listener, sometimes Effectively Wild guest, and the guy who reads the episode numbers when they want to do a clip show. Please enjoy. Everybody loves a clip show, right? Normally, when you're doing a sitcom, the clip show happens, from what I've heard,

when they have nothing to do that week. There's like no script. Here, it's because there's so much good stuff. We're doing a clip show. Enjoy. Now, episode one. And welcome to the first episode of what we hope will be more than one episode of Effectively Wild, the Baseball Perspectives podcast. I almost said many episodes, but I want to keep expectations low. Hi, Ben. How do you think it's going so far? We haven't made any obvious mistakes yet. I don't know that we've really hooked anyone yet either, but people are still probably reserving judgment at this point.

Probably. I feel like we do have a long future ahead of us, though, so this is a good start. I think we'll look back at these last few minutes very fondly. I guess, should we explain why you're in a car right now? I don't think so. No, okay. Episode 2, Ben did research. I have a confession to make. I actually did some research for the podcast, which won't happen again. Episode 16. Mike Trout turned 21 today.

He has been greater than almost any factoid or word can describe this year. The interesting thing about him is trying to figure out, I don't know, I guess how certain greatness is. Are we certain? Are we almost virtually certain that we are watching a Hall of Fame career from almost the first at bat? Episode 31, Sam talking crickets. In Long Beach, California, in his Honda Fit, it is Sam Miller with the door closed today. The door is closed. I'm roasting. And why is the door closed? We got a complaint about the

crickets yes i noticed myself last night that the crickets were particularly loud well i bow to the pressure of basically any person who tells me to do something and it was only one complaint if i got one person saying they missed the crickets then tomorrow we can have a reunion, a big reunion show with the cricket. If Sam gets, let's say, at least two emails tomorrow requesting crickets, then we will have the door open on the Honda Fit tomorrow. Episode 32, a cricket follow-up with sounds. Let's first, before we get to baseball, quickly address the cricket situation. I got three messages, emails, responses to the cricket situation today. Two were positive. One was neutral, merely noting what we had already established,

which is that there are crickets. And so the pro cricket group has taken a two-to-one lead, and my door is open today. But phone lines are still open. And I will continue to monitor the pulse of our listeners. Episode 43, Neglecting the Reds. We had a comment from a commenter. And he tabulated all of our topics from the first 42 episodes of Effectively Wild.

And his finding was that we had neglected the Reds since our very first episode, and he was a Reds fan and he was not happy. So we're going to talk about the Cubs for the fourth time now and continue to neglect the Reds. Episode 70. And I'm excited that we're now ending a week on a episode that's a multiple of five. I've been looking forward to this since we started. Maybe I shouldn't have admitted that, but I've been looking forward to the day when we would miss an episode or we would have a vacation day and we would start on a one and finish on a five because it appeals to my sense of symmetry. So we can never miss a day again is what I'm saying. Unless we miss a whole week, which I would be just fine with.

Episode 71, explaining the first email episode. So baseball. Yeah, it's over. It's over. We did it. A lot of people have been asking if we're going to continue the show, and we do plan to continue the show. We're, I guess, going to try to stay on the same schedule or at least see how that goes.

We're not sure it's feasible. Man, I have not even a little bit agreed to this. I thought I'd just say it and then you'd have no choice but to be the one that everyone would blame for not having podcasts. And we will want to hear from you. So in the next show or two, we will give you an email address where you can email us and either ask us a question or say something entertaining or give us a topic to talk about. And hopefully that will help get us through the lean months. Episode 75, aspirationally entitled, Using Our Best Material. If that's true, why were there 1,800 others?

Hello. I'm Matt. How's it going? Good. Great. How are you? I'm doing good. Thank you.

All right. We're stuck. We're using all our best material here. that we're using all our best material here. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard you say, Ben. I was going to say, Ben literally did just use his best material. Episode 164, Genesis of the Only Rule.

If you're asking, Sam and I will take one team. We will operate it. We'll take care of it. I wonder, it would be interesting if Baseball Perspectives did adopt a team. We could be the general manager by committee for a team. God, wouldn't that be a blast, guys? It would be a blast.

And you know the fun part about it would be, if the BP group did a really good job, imagine hanging that one on your mantle. Yeah, I wonder how many people in this conversation are joking because at least one of us is not joking at all. We'll be discussing this offline. Episode 165, a request for more hypothetical questions. But why and how?

A lot of our questions on listener email shows are about changing the rules and doing strange things to baseball. If I could change the rules of this podcast, all of our questions would be about that. I'm pretty uninterested in all the other ones. So please send more like this. Episode 201, the first draft episode. So I thought we could just play a game and... These are my favorite and the listener's least favorite. You think so? I think so. Okay.

They're my favorite though. What I didn't decide is who goes first. It's your idea. You go first. Okay. All right. This is difficult. I am going to take Clayton Kershaw, number one overall.

Yeah, that would have been my pick as well. This is going to—this is my favorite thing. This is fun. Episode 206, which I hope is self-explanatory, The Wobbly Seat. The hot seat does not refer to people who are new and can't find comfort. It usually refers to somebody who's who's been there and is is growing uncomfortable in his seat it feels just it feels very weird like is it supposed to be is it hot because it's supposed to be motivating them or is it hot because they're

who heated it i think it's just an uncomfortable seat it could be a it could be a cold seat or it could be a slippery seat it's just a seat that you can't sit in. We should look. Okay, we should look at the origins. It should be a wobbly seat. Yeah, like, okay. It should be wobbly. One of the legs is shorter than the others.

A wobbly seat. Yeah. It might tip over. Okay. All right, well, we'll start that then. Don Mattingly is on the wobbly seat. There you go. I love it.

I love it. I love it. It sounded so good just then. Episode 217. Oh, goodness. I can't believe I'm reading this. What if MLB teams packed five to six players as close as possible to the batter, forming a kind of wall that you often see in soccer-free kicks?

The goal of the wall would be to knock down hits as they left the hitter's bat. And, you know, I think that when Ben and I read this, we did some soul searching because we realized that this is the podcast that we're doing. Episode 219, the silly position. I hope that fits. In cricket, the wall is pretty much a thing. There is a position in cricket called the silly position where players occasionally field extremely close to the batter. And these players wear extra pads and a helmet because they are standing right in front of the batter. So you should go right now and look at this picture of the fielder in the silly position standing, what, maybe five feet, four feet directly? In a crouch as though he is the catcher he's in a catcher's crouch with his hands i mean this everything about this screams monty python based

prank right and i i almost felt like there had to be another reason why it was called the silly position like i figured maybe that the first batter, the first guy to do it was like Sir Reginald Silly or something in 1887. And so they named it after him because, I mean, I asked, is it is it called silly because you're standing right in front of the batter where you could get nailed in the face with a cricket ball? And yes, that is why it is called the silly position. Episode 301. Sam credits emails for keeping him going. 301 is not a significant number in baseball, and thus we have no significant guests. It's a significant number for this podcast, though, because it wasn't always a certainty that you would make it to 301. No, it's true. Since about what? Episode 20 or so, I declared that 300 would be my last,

that I felt like I had 300 in me. Yeah. Empty threat. Yeah. Well, honestly, and I mean this sincerely, not snarkily. I think it's the emails that have kept me interested. I feel like if the emails didn't bring it so reliably, I would probably have checked out emotionally but i um i feel like something's happening here episode 326 i think i've ever heard you laugh that hard. Wow. Waking up your whole family. I'm ready. Okay. We're going to do a draft today. Okay.

We're going to do a draft today. Yeah. And these don't always go well. We enjoy them, but they're horrible. But we're going to be drafting minor league free agents. Episode 350, the first mention of Shohei Otani. Who do you think might be the next player that this becomes an issue for after Tanaka? So I think you're down the road as far as the next player who's going to get this kind of attention and that this is going to be a real issue for it. Maybe it may be Shohei Otani,

the guy who there were six or seven teams looking at him coming out of high school. He ended up staying here. He's a guy. He's tall. he pitches, he plays, he pitches and he plays in the outfield. And eventually he'll pick one of those, hopefully, and he'll be really good at it. Episode 396, the first, if baseball were different. So Friday email show, we get to let our hair down a little bit and talk about some hypothetical questions that you have sent in. Speaking of which, I'll start with this one from Vinit in Milwaukee. Subject line hypothetical. If baseball were different, how different would it be? Would it only be slightly different or very different? That's such a good question. Yes,

one of the best questions I've received. It is a good question because whenever we talk about changes, the question is, would things change? And I don't know if things would change. If things were different, I genuinely don't know if things would be different. Episode 406, the first Webb and Albers mention. So here's his second question, and it's going to be our baseballreference.com play index, play index, play indexing of the week. We should have some sort of audio drop for this some kind of intro sound so his question is ryan webb has finished 74 of his 266 career games but he has

zero saves that seems very strange to me in the modern era of bullpen usage play index request what's the record for games finished without a save? And this is a cute question, but I think it's also somewhat of a significant one. And the answer is actually Web has 74. The leader is actually only at 82. And so that's Matt Albers. And so Web is actually number two all time. Matt has discovered an actual real-life phenomenon in real time. Webb is chasing Albers, in a sense. He's very close.

Episode 454. We all have different time periods we like to use for our play index searches. Sometimes I think that baseball started in 1950. Sometimes I think that baseball started in 1969 when they raised the mound. A lot of times I like to think it started in 1988. I basically think that everything after 1988 is real baseball. Everything before 1988 is pretty close, like real close, but so much change from year to year that it's hard to treat it with quite the same certainty.

And then everything before like 1923 is, maybe a couple years later, it's completely made up, like totally useless, not baseball, not recognizable. Get out of here with that stuff. Episode 458. Do you know my least favorite fun fact?

This is a staple of team press handouts. Teams record when X happens. Right, yes. And I just despise these. There are two kinds of them that are most prevalent. One is team record when they score five runs or more, which you'll get once they score their fifth run. That'll pop up and, oh, there's 62 and eight

when they score five runs or more. But they all have losing records when they score five runs or fewer. It's not like five runs guarantees wins. It's like five or more but they all have losing records when they score five runs or fewer it's not like five runs guarantees wins it's like five or more but five or fewer just kills me but the other one that i really can't stand is the team record when player x homers or team record when player x steals a base or whatever because yeah any if any player in the lineup does a good thing, that's a big head start. So the thing about a bad fun fact is that it is numbers that are presented in a way that is disconcerting enough or lopsided enough that it seems like something

is happening, but you're not quite sure what it purports to be saying is happening. None of this makes any sense. None of these numbers mean anything. They're just sample size nonsense. But what it purports to say is not even clear. Episode 469, Smash Mouth. Hey now, you're an all-star. Get your game on, go play. Hey now, you're a rock star. Get the show on, get paid.

I hope that was the most lethargic Smash Mouth karaoke ever. If not, Earth is a bad place. Ben Lindberg, who's the other person you're talking to, he still listens to Astro Lounge, the smash mouth album. The genius, apparently, of the band was not Steve Harwell. It was Greg Camp. And he wrote all the songs, the genius.

I'm doing air quotes. I've been doing air quotes. I've been doing air quotes. I've been practicing air quotes for the last two hours in anticipation of saying the genius of Smash Mouth. Has that phrase ever been said before, the genius of Smash Mouth? The genius behind Smash Mouth? Let's check. No results with it in quotation marks. It doesn't appear that it's ever been.

Ben and I have been knee-deep in Smash Mouth meme-ology lately. We've had lots of Smash Mouth to discuss. Episode 478, Ben and Sam. Sam and Ben! This one from Josh, who says, Ben and Sam, comma, Sam and Ben. Well, no, wait, just a second. Now, when

people address us as Ben and Sam, Sam and Ben, which comes first? The Ben and Sam? Yeah, the Ben and Sam still came first. I know you were trying to take this up a level, but you answered nothing. Episode 496, Snowpiercer. I watch a lot of Snowpiercer lately, though. Good, very good. Much better than Inception, I would say.

Episode 497. I'm Sam Miller of Baseball Perspectives, and he is Ben Lindberg of Grantland. How are you, Ben? Very well, thank you. Excellent. I wonder if us not working together will improve the banter segments or the opposite? I have a little bit of banter. Episode 498, Diamondbacks Headlines Be begins. The Arizona Republic has a feature where readers can submit headlines for the Diamondbacks game. I find this charming and wonderful, and I just wanted you to see. The winner for July 20th. How sweep it is.

How sweep it is. I know. With an exclamation point. It's like every sweep you could do that. You've got to think about what makes this headline unique. This is a sweep unlike any other. You have to find the thing that makes this sweep special, unless this is the only sweep that has ever been sweet,

in which case it can work. It narrowly beat out another sweep, sweet pun. Oh, so sweet. Oh, so sweet. One of these suggestions for today is para para gone yeah i saw that what is what does that mean it's a two-syllable word just like going all right give me another one adam eaton eaton eaton, Eaton, gone. Wow, it works so well for everyone. It does. In fact,

as long as you don't have a six-syllable name, I believe I can make it work. That's good, Eaton. Well, see, no, Ben, that actually makes sense. Because Eaton and Eating sound alike. You are

too good for this. You are too good for this. You are clearly a... I'm a professional. Yes. Episode 502, Diamondbacks Headlines Peaks. All right, headlines. It's taken on a life of its own in the Facebook group. People are coming up with their own

Diamondbacks headlines all day. We have a great one. This is a great one. I hope to goodness that this is one of the peoples out there listening. Because this one is so good d-backs fight valiantly hang on i gotta start again all right d-backs fight valiantly to win meaningless games. D-backs fight valiantly to win meaningless games.

So good. That is really good. Perfect. Oh my gosh. Claim your prize, Nora Morse. D-backs fight valiantly to win meaningless games. Perfect. Perfect. Top submission. Oh, wait a minute. Ben, Nora Morse was a top submission the day before.

It was a day before. What was her submission then? Was it the same? No. I love this friend i know all right it was all right okay i'm gonna get it out d-max I'm going to get it out. D-Mac. D-Mac's lousy. That's it.

That's it. D-Mac's lousy. That's it. That's it. Episode 500, the first appearance of the great Jeff Sullivan. We have special guests, two of them, in fact. One is Grant Brisby, who you know from SB Nation and McCovey Chronicles. And the other is Jeff Sullivan, who you knew from SB Nation, but now you know him from Fangraphs, as well as occasionally FiveThirtyEight.

I don't know. It might not be exciting for you guys out there. But for us, it's very exciting. I would say that Grant and Jeff are the two writers that I love the most in the world. I don't want to say that they're the two best. They probably are, but I don't want to say they are because then people might think that I'm dismissing other great writers. But they're the two that I love the most. And I think that's close to true for Ben as well. Is that true for you as well, Ben? Yes.

Yeah. And I mean, the biggest challenge in writing, I think, for me and probably for Ben is to not go over the line into just completely plagiarizing Grant and Jeff's work. So Grant and Jeff, hello. Hi. I would like to call you on something. First of all, I don't know what the swearing rules are on this podcast. I'll try not to do it. But just the other day when you were saying your fond farewell to Ben's 10-year baseball prospectus, you asserted that he was the best in your opinion. Therefore, you have some decisions to make and tread carefully on identifying the best. There can only be one best. If he chooses not to decide, you still have made a choice, Sam.

Episode 512, The Ben Isn't Here Song. Ben isn't here and we're lacking production. So this is me singing you the introduction. Effectively wild. Episode 551, who doesn't need a monologue about rigor mortis? It seems to me that the point of the sport, the point of the pursuit, the point of this entire enterprise is to entertain us with baseball games. And the point of it is not to decide who is the best team. The illusion that that is what we're doing has long been a powerful draw to sports. But it is ultimately not the point. There is no,

there is just no scenario where the universe will care or remember who the best team was out of this collection of collections. It only matters in as much as we create this illusion that it matters. And so if you lose even the illusion, then it becomes problematic. But the point is not to have the illusion. The point is to entertain people and make them forget that we're all dying right in front of each other. That this is just this horrible, rotten slog to rigor mortis that we are going to lose everybody we know. We're going to lose everything we have. And the only way to distract ourselves is by, you know, separating our day into distractions. Episode 577, Revelatory Pronunciation, or Revelatory Pronunciation.

I got some comments about my pronunciation of revelatory from those who favor revelatory. Sam and I did some research yesterday, and we found that different dictionaries and different computer pronunciations at those dictionary sites favor different pronunciations of revelatory slash revelatory. Dictionary.com is a revelatory site. Merriam-Webster is a revelatory site. It's so weird. It shocks me that these two dictionary heavyweights would have different pronunciations, particularly because your way is wrong. Like, why would they put a wrong one in there? It's almost like a trap.

It's like they're planting this wrong one in there to see who's stealing their content. It's like they're going to around the world to see who's bootlegging their pronunciations. And then they've got like one wrong one in so they can be like, we knew that you're bootlegging this because only we would be dumb enough to say revelatory maybe it's a regional thing a reginal reginal thing regional i won't be pronunciation shamed by the first syllable emphasisers episode 600 but why instead of that that's a stupid one. I should have gone back to the good wife. I was just gonna go back to the good wife myself. Episode 635.

Russell, I learned something fascinating today about Ben. Okay. Ben, I'm going to describe to you the way Ben eats a burrito. He picks it up as you might a harmonica and and then he eats the middle corn on the cob while eats the middle while pushing the outer side inward like one of

those chinese acrobats who juggles three blocks by holding one block between two others he is his hands are the two blocks and the burrito is the one in the middle. And he exerts constant pressure on the outside so it will stay together. And it gets smaller and smaller until it is done. And somehow mysteriously, like magic, there's a half a tortilla at the bottom of his bowl. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. I held it together. There was very little spillage. It was very gerbil-like. And so weird, Russell.

Episode 656. The one where Jon Lester can't pick anyone off. If you take away a player's ability to do something fundamental, it does take a while for everybody on the field to know how to act. This is kind of the equivalent of you're playing poker and the guy comes who is just learning the rules and he is both the fish and the most dangerous man at the table. And that's kind of John Lester right now. Nobody's taking full advantage of it quite yet. But okay, I have a question for you, Ben. If you were a Major League Ball player, what would you want your yip to be? Like, what would be the least damaging yip that you could have?

Episode 675. I assume you saw this tree on the high school field in Franklin, Ohio, planted between the mound and home plate. I did see that tree. Sort of amazing that this has never come up on the show. What does that do to the park factor? Does it make it an offensive environment or a pitching environment? Are we in agreement that this is the ideal place to put a tree? Like if you're going to put a tree on a baseball field, there's really no debating this, right? Episode 704,

burn the boats. Coletti said that according to legend, when Cortez arrived on the shores of Veracruz, he ordered his frightened men to burn their ships as a means of giving them confidence and scaring the Aztecs the message being that Cortez believed his men would so thoroughly dominate that when the job was complete they would leave on their

enemy's ships. That's not why they burned the ships he burned the ships because he was afraid his cowardly men were going to sail away. That kind of ruined it. He forced them into a corner, essentially, where they couldn't flee. And it was not as a means of giving them confidence. It was basically a means of saying, well, you can fight for me or you're going to die.

So that's the big problem. The secondary problem is that, I'm going to keep reading now. so that's the big problem the secondary problem is that i'm going to keep reading now three years later colletti sat the dodgers down on the first day of spring training for his annual pep talk he told the same story only this time he got mixed up and replaced cortez with alexander the great players looked at each other in disbelief when colletti left the room erupted in laughter. Within weeks, the guys had t-shirts made that said, burn the ships on the front with ATG for Alexander the Great on the back. During the 2014 season, it was not uncommon to hear players yell, burn the ships before taking the field.

Episode 720. By year 15, I think that he would get, someone would give him $30 million. I'd love to see the press conference at that signing, because you'd have to, you'd just have to acknowledge, yes, we believe he is a witch. We signed him to play

a witch. Yeah, it's true, you would. You'd have to you'd have no explanation other than that you have reconsidered the universe yep and the funny thing too is that that if this happened it's so depressing to think that we could finally have evidence of like basically we could finally have evidence in our lives in front of our own eyes of a divine creator of a supernatural effect that governs us all and we use it for signing a baseball player like it's the only way it shows up and the only way we know how to use it

is winning a world series by basically nefarious means like Like, God is real. We're signing Ghani Jones. Episode 722. Sam disagrees with himself. Yeah, I don't know. I don't feel very strongly about my position here. And if I had your position, I think I'd feel a lot stronger about it. And that might mean that

I don't agree with me. That's generally what it means. You feel better about the other person's position than your own episode 722 ned garber there are what's his middle initial franklin f i got it i got a number what yeah i got it all right well let's call him live like that guy we called about the daylight play should we that'd be that'd be good radio you want to try all right okay i'm gonna i'm gonna give you a number okay so we're calling ned garver okay that was my plan coming into this podcast. Just answer a couple emails, do Play Index, call Ned Garber. So it's all going according to plan.

All right. Now, are you ready for this or are you? No, it's going to be a wrong number. Okay. Call Ned Garber. Hello? Hello, is Ned there? This is Ned.

Ned, is this Ned Garber who pitched for the St. Louis Browns in 1949? It sure did. Oh, sir, I'm thrilled to talk to you. Episode 735. It really has been unbelievable these past few starts. What do you think? What would you sign Rich Hill for right now? Have you done any research on Rick Hill? Rich Hill?

Sorry, Rich Hill. I researched his name name and it's rich i hate you i haven't done other stuff i haven't looked at his stuff or okay like that so without knowing about his stuff i'm tempted to say i'd give him 3 and 30 wow episode 744 wait wait wait wait wait yeah instead of the extremely dark analogy i have a i have a less dark one so i mean it to me it's like you have this couple this happily married couple that everybody loves and like they're the life of the party and then the husband loses his job and they start snipping at each other all the time and he's always like sitting on the couch and she's like how come you're not looking for work and he's like i am looking for work this is what i do i'm creative and they're just they hate each other after that and like

you never felt like the job was what mattered in their relationship it's not like they were together because of his job it's not like she loved him because of his job the job was an afterthought he didn't even care about that job it's like he didn't go to school to get that job. He was an engineering major and now he's working in sales. I mean, it wasn't even relevant to their being. And yet you take that job away and everything changes. And before you realize it, they're splitting up. And it's just, it's awful.

Nobody knows what happened. And friends don't know who to go with. You know, some of them go with her and some of them go with him that was you just you just have to watch it for a long time you just have to watch these two things just coexist in a miserable way that you're just not prepared to watch them coexist that was the non-dark analogy you'll have to tell me later what the dark analogy was it's the same thing except their kid dies oh okay episode 762 i think i've mentioned this maybe too publicly before but my uh my bike lock combination is 1422 for his ops in 2004 i'm I'm just going to go around the Bay area, just trying to unlock bike

locks. Uh-huh. Yeah. The trick though, is that I always forget my bike lock and never use it anyway. Like I always end up just doing that thing where like, I, I stand there for long enough at the bike rack that it looks like I'm locking something. Like I'll wrap my, like I'll string my helmet through the thing. So it looks like I locked it in case anybody's watching and then I just have faith like I mean I live in a very like affluent area of California and I just have faith that like no one wants my bike you don't wonder like oh did I pick the 2001 OPS or you try all the 93. I mean, you usually figure it out or you just don't even bother anymore. And now you have this podcast to go back and listen to

the next time you forget what your bike lock is. Yeah, but which episode was it? I got to remember how many home runs Bonds hit to remember which episode. I'll be listening to 688. Episode 774, which starts, as everyone should, with avocados. Now, I will say that five years ago, you couldn't get an avocado in most of the country, a good avocado in a lot of the country, maybe 10 years ago, and now you can. But there

are still definitely things that the region matters. You can't get fresh seafood in a lot of places. And if it's not fresh, seafood is not very good. So like there's not really a way around that. Look up Ethiopian food in Denver. But anywhere you're going to go, like there's going to be an Ethiopian person in that place who wants to make food. So why can't that person make an ethiopian food like ben i this here's the thing i don't want to i don't want to use this but i you're leaving me no choice the market diner wasn't good ben the food wasn't good like you've got a problem

you don't have taste buds I don't know It's a global society Episode 786 Anthony wants us to help Persuade Anthony's dad That Barry Bonds was good at baseball Yeah I think that the best way That you convince him here is

You live a life well You know you earn his respect in a lot of different ways. And you, you know, you maybe make it known in a non argumentative way that you believe Barry Bonds is a great player. And then that's an important thing that you have thought through and have very little doubt about, and that you never, ever, ever bring up. And that in the way that you live your life, he will see a man of authority and seriousness. He will see that you're not a frivolous person.

And gradually, without even realizing it, he will be persuaded by your actions. Episode 791. What's the definition of a baseball movie? When you think about movies like Rookie of the Year, The Rookie, Major League, etc., they all have a significant amount of onscreen time designated toward baseball, and baseball is central to the plot. What do you think is the minimum amount of time or plot focus in time or percentage of time to have a movie that my favorite baseball movie is The Godfather, and the baseball happens off screen. So I think... I don't think Brewster's Millions qualifies. I do. Really?

Yeah. So I would say that baseball is not even close to central to the plot. I mean, there is a baseball scene in the movie. Ben, Ben, Ben. Yeah. Does Dave Dombrowski work in baseball? Yes. Do you ever see him holding a glove, throwing a ball, or swinging a bat?

No. Well, so it's baseball. He's in the industry. He's in the world. Baseball is a world. Baseball is not 2,430 games that take place over three hours. It's all the time. Right.

It's the whole thing. It's everything. Sure. It's the pennant that take place over three hours. It's all the time. Right. It's the whole thing. It's everything. Sure. It's the pennant that you hang over your bedroom wall. If you have a pennant hanging over your bed in the movie, baseball movie. No. Yeah, I think so. If someone ever goes, if there's a kid and they go, hey, champ, how you doing?

And he goes, good. And they say, who's your favorite ball player? And he goes, good. And they say, who's your favorite ball player? He says, Don Drysdale, baseball movie. Episode 838. Welcome Meg Rowley. We will be talking to the author of this year's annual essay and also a writer for Baseball Perspectives and Lookout Landing, Meg Rowley. Hey Meg. Hey, thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. All right. Well, do you Hey, thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on.

All right. Well, do you want to give us a 2016 win total for this team? I think that they might outperform Pocota by just a little bit. So I'm going to put them at 86 wins. All right. Well, you can find Meg's writing at Lookout Landing and at Baseball Perspectives. Pronounce your Twitter handle for me. It's Meg Rowler, although many people think it's me, Growler. Yes, I wasn't sure which one to go with, so I thought I'd let you do it.

Is that intentional? No, although it's kind of worked out that way. Many people call me Meg, and I have a couple friends who call me Growler for whatever reason. So, I don't know. Why the R instead ofler for whatever reason. So I don't know. Why the R instead of the Y at the end? I don't know. Episode 871. Even you can be the next Rich Hill.

That was like my cheesy pitchman voice. Enjoy the episode. It doesn't matter how disappointing you think your life is right now. It only takes nine starts. You can be the next Rich Hill. Episode 872. Are you a primer man or a primer man, Sam? Well, there's only one way to say the word.

So there are two ways. No, there sure are. I'm guessing you're a primer man. Yeah. Well, I'm a primer man. It's not how it's pronounced, Ben. In some countries, it is. Hey, what do you call it when there's a part of the song that, like, say there's a song at the beginning of the album, and then later in the album, they have another-

Reprise. Oh, my, you're kidding me. Not a repriser. But that's the word. Well, these are the new revelatory slash revelatory on this podcast. All right. Well, I would say that was a pretty good prospect primer. Would you say that was a pretty good prospect primer, Craig?

I thought it was a great prospect primer. I don't even, you know, the thing that really the genius, Ben, of what you've done here is that you've turned this into a thing where I look like the crazy person who cares when I'm not, you're gaslighting me. I'm just a guy who says the word and you're trying to convince me that this reality that I've always known is false or something. And it's making me agitated. And now I look, I look unhinged. I look uncool. I look like, I don't like myself right now. I don't like what I've been the last 37 minutes. And like, this is really very crafty what you've done. You have taken the upper hand in this relationship. And all you've done to do it is mispronounce a word aggressively.

That's all it took. And then reprise that pronunciation at the end of the podcast. Episode 891, the first mention of Williams Ostadillo. This is the tale, the jester of Tortuga. Is Michael Bolton going to sue me? Joe writes in about a player I had never heard of, but now I'm a big fan of, and he says, as a Braves fan, I cope by reading minor league box scores and keeping tabs on the organization's prospect wealth. There's a lot of publication and noise around the big boys, but while digging into the minor league rosters, I was taken aback by Williams Astadillo, a 24-year-old catcher who plays for the Mississippi Braves. The guy has 1,667 at-bats in the minor leagues and only 68 walks and 53 strikeouts. That translates to a 3.7% walk rate and a 2.9% strikeout rate. I'm wondering if you were in need of a catcher, would this data put him on your radar? play almost every time. So he is the solution to fixing baseball's lack of contact problem

is just promote Astadillo because he will put every ball in play. So I'm a big fan of Williams Astadillo. Episode 909, Sam Miller on Vin Scully. Baseball is a game that exists to be watched and that it is just as important to watch the people who are watching it and then also watch the players being watched, that they know they're being watched. And so Vin Scully represents two things I think that would be important on a Mount Rushmore. audience that it's not just about hitting home runs or putting out a good team, but that it is doing all this for an audience of tens of millions who have turned it into a pastime. There are consumers of it, and that is what separates it from something that isn't watched, that isn't part of the culture. Episode 935. All right. So there we have a basic ad where baseball is being

done in the background, and there are some baseball puns. But then you get to the prize of this trip, which is a trip to Marvin's manufacturing facility. And this is in Warroad, Minnesota. I've gone to the website to see if there are any other details. And there are a few other details. One is that the date is not that negotiable. The date is listed as February 2017. So you have to go to War Road, Minnesota in February. I hear that's a nice time of year in War Road. The trip includes commercial flights to Minneapolis. And from there, a flight to War Road on the Marvin plane, hotel and meals, and, quote, a personal tour of the facility. Now, I've gone and done a little bit more research,

and I believe what they were referring to is the William S. Marvin Training and Visitor Center, 704 Highway 313 North. Visitor Center. Oh, Ben. Ben. For all the radio winners. Oh, Center. Oh, Ben. For all the radio winners. Oh, Ben. Oh, Ben. Episode 994. For my first pick, I am going to take Jacob Turner. All right. So this strategy worked out well for me last year. I feel like this was my money ball.

So I'm going to stick with it. And for my first guy, I'm going to go with Luis Alberto Bonilla. Oh, that was going to be my first pick. Well, what happened? Why wasn't he? You know what? I'm going for the loss now. Episode 996.

I'm going to just show you what I would consider a representative baseball card of Phil Necro. Not even like a very extreme one. Try that one. He looks at least 63. He does. And so that's not even, that's two years before he retired. I've got, this one is 13 years before he retired. So like that's a full career before his career ended.

Like that's, like there are Hall of Famers who played less time than he played after this picture was taken. I just like that he did not, he didn't fake it. He didn't bother. He was 48, looked 68, and he just embraced it like this is ridiculous this is a um this is clearly an old-timers game picture uh right let's see yeah it's the one i was gonna send exactly that is that is he's he's pitching to yogi barra and there is a chain link fence 25 feet behind the infield because they can't have a full-size field for the old-timers game in this picture that's an active major leaguer his autograph looks like what a knuckleball does

i've always loved listening to radio shows where the people who are talking are looking at things that I can't see as a listener. We do that a lot. Our listeners are used to it. Let's just trust us. Let's go over some gifs. Episode 1000.

Goodbye, Sam. Hello, Jeff. Goodbye, Sam. That's like the final episode of Cheers, right? Thanks for all the co-hosting. Can I just say, I didn't say this. It was just an absolutely incredible honor to replace you at Baseball Perspectives.

Like I, as anybody who's heard me talk privately, but probably also publicly knows, I just think that you're the best in the world at what you do. And so to be able to follow in your footsteps was an incredible honor. I think the only thing that could possibly be a greater honor is to be replaced by Jeff Sullivan, who is also the greatest in the world

at what he does. I would just leave that there and say that I'm looking forward to listening. We're going to talk to my new co-host and my friend, Jeff Sullivan. Hey, Jeff. Hey, Ben. How are you? I'm okay. I think it's going to be good. I think it'll be a little different, but I think we can put a compelling product out there. Yeah, we'll kind of feel a way around how it's going to be different, but I am very excited and it's going to help make the return from vacation feel like it's not the end of the vacation. So it's going to be great. Episode 1012, Jeff's first mention of trampolines and somehow I got caught in this vortex once and it involved volcanoes too. I don't know. I'd never been to a trampoline gym before.

It always sounded interesting and appealing. But we walked in and there's these like a warning advisory videos up on monitors just by the entrance that advertise all the different ways that you could get hurt. But in like a funny way, it was like cartoons showing that you could die in there and then you have to sign a waiver. And we went in and within very literally eight minutes of the four of us just jumping, just jumping, not doing any acrobatics. I hurt my back. A friend's wife hurt her hip and our friend's husband tore his ACL.

And so we spent the rest of the day in the emergency room at a nearby hospital where they proceeded to ask, what'd you do? And he said, trampoline gym. And they said, sky high. We know the one. They send people here every week. So since then, people have been sending me very frequently links to stories about people getting hurt at trampoline gyms or relaying their own stories about getting badly injured at trampoline gyms. Trampoline gyms seem like they are death traps. There's really no reason why a major league baseball organization should be allowing any of its players to participate in the activities present at a trampoline gym. Episode 1015. The hypothetical player who can just keep fouling off pitches indefinitely until the pitcher just can't throw

strikes anymore, inevitably misses, and then he walks and people keep asking us how much would that guy be worth and it turns out that he's real and his name is nakashima and everyone's interested in otani and so now you have to have a hipster hokkaido nippon him fighter favorite and nakashima fits the bill because he's like the most effectively wild player ever in 10 different ways episode 10 20 there is something that okay comes from the vicinity of adam lynn's behind it might be behind adam lynn's behind it's hard to tell because of the perspective but there's something something visible and gaseous that seems to emanate from that area right okay i okay okay okay i'm doing this frame by frame it definitely looks like it's like a chalk fart i think well no those are two words i've never put together but i don't know a lot about adam

lind but i am we now have visible evidence of what was a fleeting but seemingly legitimate active fumarole emitting from Adam Lind's rear. Episode 1055, the first career save for the great Matt Albers. On Friday night, Matt Albers finally broke through and got his first save. And it was as glorious as I had always imagined it being. He was trending on Twitter somehow. I don't even know exactly what's required to trend on Twitter at 1030 on a Friday night on the East Coast, but he was. The furor in the Facebook group was extreme.

There were like 20 different threads started at approximately the same time when Albers was warming up and coming in. Someone compared it to the Cubs winning the World Series, except that the Cubs had previously won a World Series and Albers had never previously had a save. So in this commenter's mind, it topped the Cubs achievement. He now has the most games finished with one save. Albers was quoted a couple years ago. They did a little story. I can't remember who, but obviously they knew I hadn't got a save. I didn't really think anything of it. So it's nice to get this one. It's not fun, but it's not the end of the world. So evidently Albers has not been thinking about me as much as

I've been thinking about him, but he does remember that someone did a little story about this. I would have called it a big story, landmark milestone story, but I guess to each his own. I tweeted after he got it, sort of just congratulating Matt Albers and saying, long live Ryan Webb. Of course, Ryan Webb was already the career leader in all times games finished without a save, but now is totally uncontested with 105. And Ryan Webb liked that tweet. Episode 1059. Also quote, when the players would hit, you wouldn't see ball marks

because Marucci bats are aggressively rubbed with a giant cow femur. That's something that I hope no one ever says about me. I was aggressively rubbed with a giant cow femur, but evidently makes the wood more resilient to blood force. All of those things sound like reasons why those bags

would hit the ball harder. One of them doesn't. Where in the process do you think they're like, okay, we're going to get the wood. We're going to trim the wood. We're going to refine the wood. We're going to polish it. But wait, they're not done.

We need to do something to make sure these bats are playable. We need to get a very specific bone from a very specific mammal. And we need to just rub it. And we need to rub it aggressively and assertively until we can hit a baseball. Is that Bryce Harper? Yes, it is Bryce Harper. Yes, it is. Bryce Harper's rubbing a bat. Bryce Harper rubbing a bat with goggles on because, you know, sparks, I guess, and earplugs. Why does he have goggles and earplugs when he's just rubbing a bone with a bat? There is a definition. It says boning, comma, verb. This might not be the definition you know for that word we're probably

going to get emails so if you know about rubbing bats with cow bones or any sort of bone please do let us know if you are a boning expert maybe we could uh hold on hold on If you're a boning expert, please don't send us emails. Supercut, 1093, 364, 369, 493, 726, 891, 910, 959, 1008, 1023, 1044, 1056, 1167, 1187, 1199, 1217, 1228, 1237, 1251, 1258, 1465, 1565. We wanted to just talk about Mike Trout for a minute because that's what we do on this podcast. What will Mike Trout hit against right-handed pitching if he starts switch hitting right now? What if Mike Trout told the Angels that he would sign a 15-year extension if, upon his retirement, he immediately received a five-year contract to be Angels GM. But what if the rules could be changed to allow double teaming of Mike Trout? How many fingers would Mike Trout need to lose for you to be better at baseball than he is?

So long as Mike Trout is in the major league lineup, he will not get a hit. How long would it take for the Angels to bench him? How long would it be before the Angels cut him altogether? a hit. How long would it take for the Angels to bench him? How long would it be before the Angels cut him altogether? The league is out to finally take Mike Trout down a peg. To do so, they've successfully petitioned MLB to install a hurdle exactly halfway between each base. However, they are retractable and are only deployed when Mike Trout is either at bat or on the base paths. Let's say we discover that Mike Trout has a long-lost twin brother, Mitch Trout. Mitch is an identical twin, healthy and in world-class shape, but he was raised abroad and has never played a second of baseball. How much would a team post to bring

Mitch in? How much weight would Mike Trout have to be carrying for you to beat him in a foot race? I'm thinking some sort of weighted vest. How much does the answer change if he literally has to carry the weight? Is Mike Trout still an above replacement level player if he always has to run backwards or backpedal? The baseball gods take offense at Mike Trout's going against nominative determinism, distinct lack of water,

and cause it to rain again, not enough to cancel the game every time he plays. How much closer to immortal does this make him? Trout is hereby allotted one swing per plate appearance. He knows this. Opposing pitchers know this. Fans at the game and watching TV know this. One swing per plate appearance. That's it. I'm wondering how many triples you think Mike Trout could hit if his only objective for a season were to hit as many triples as possible? How much would it affect Mike Trout's value if he had to wear noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones and the opposing team got to control the audio going into the headphones? How much value would Mike Trout lose if he were not allowed to fly on a plane?

If Mike Trout insisted on pitching one inning every year, how would that affect his market value? How many innings would he have to insist on throwing before teams would actively not want him on their team? How would Mike Trout's value be affected if he never knew about the game situation? He never knew the score, the inning, the count, or how many outs while at the plate, on the bases, or in the field. Inning, the count, or how many outs while at the plate, on the bases, or in the field. What if Mike Trout completely and totally buys into the importance of a proper sleep cycle and decides that he has a strict bedtime of 10 o'clock p.m. local time? What would be the best height for Mike Trout to be, assuming all his skills remained intact? How good would Mike Trout be if he weren't allowed to slide?

Imagine there's a supreme international law that makes everyone play baseball and everyone starts with equal access to the sport. In this hypothetical, how good would Mike Trout be relative to the whole world? If Mike Trout always had to use a bat with a hairline fracture, what percent of Mike Trout would he be? What if Mike Trout, for whatever bizarre reason, seriously wanted to enter the Hall of Fame twice as a player? What would he need? What if Mike Trout, for whatever bizarre reason, seriously wanted to enter the Hall of Fame twice as a player? What would he need to do? Do you think he could fake his death,

adopt a new identity, re-enter the sport at age 30, and complete a second stint with enough ability to earn himself another spot in the Hall of Fame? Could Mike Trout still be a positive war player if he got toot-blanned, thrown out on the bases like a nincompoop, every time he reached base? Episode 1143. Do you have a stat segment you want to use? People have mentioned that we need a more entertaining name than stat segment.

Used to be play index segment. I don't know. We need something like the Sam Miller Memorial stat extravaganza. I don't know. We'll like the sam miller memorial stat extravaganza i don't know we'll solicit submissions but do you have one number blast okay i have a number blast hold on johnny o'brien according to baseball reference is the brother of eddie o'brien johnny o'brien okay no this is impossible johnny o'b. No. Johnny O'Brien, 107 career TOPS plus in losses. Eddie O'Brien, career 107 TOPS plus in losses. Wait a second.

What is going on here? Mind blown. There's no way. Okay. No. Hold on. Is this? Wait.

No. They both played for Pittsburgh What is going on here? At the same time? Are they the same person? No, this, hold on No, no, no, no, Johnny O'Brien No, no, no, no, no, this doesn't make any sense How did this, what is going on?

He was the double play partner and twin brother Of Johnny O'Brien Johnny O'Brien, 597 OPS in wins 649 OPS in of Johnny O'Brien. Johnny O'Brien, 597 OPS in wins, 649 OPS in losses. Eddie O'Brien, brother Eddie O'Brien, 529 OPS in wins, 576 OPS in losses. My hands are shaking. Right now, my hands are actually shaking. This is unbelievable.

Episode 1146. Let's see. I guess it's time for another Otani question, right? It's been a couple minutes now. StatBlast. StatBlast. Okay. Episode 1152, the debut of the theme song for StatBlast. We have an exciting addition to the StatBlast segment this time. Now that StatBlast has a name, we also have a theme song. I happen to have a very musically talented wife. Now she has contributed a theme song for our Stat Blast segment. So, Jessie, take it away.

A nonagenarian supercut. 1845, 1153, 1332, 1454, 1629, 1505, 1536, 1630, 1845 again, and 1848. year old player who had a really interesting life and career and is fortunately still with us and who has a listed phone number who we can just call out of the blue and bug about their baseball career. It has never not been delightful. We are going to be back in just a minute to bring you the pleasure and the delight of Johnny O'Brien. Hello. Hi, Johnny. This is Ben Lindberg and Jeff Sullivan. How are you? Good. And yourself? We are thrilled now to be joined again by Johnny O'Brien, one of our favorite podcast guests of all time. And Johnny, welcome back to the show. Thank you, Ben. It's a pleasure being with you and having the grandson on with you. Well, we are joined now by Eddie Robinson. Eddie, hello. And how are you? I'm fine. Thank you.

All right. Well, we are joined now again by Eddie Robinson. Eddie, hello, and how are you? I'm fine, thank you. All right, well, we are joined now again by Eddie Robinson. Thank you. Thank you very much. This part of the story stars a right-handed swingman on the staff of the San Francisco Giants, Al Worthington. Like Robinson, Worthington, now 91, is up to speed on the ubiquitous Astros sign-stealing scandal. They got that on TV right now. It says a veteran catcher says he went to great lengths to combat Astros sign-stealing scandal. They got that on TV right now. It says the veteran catcher says he went to great lengths to combat Astro's sign-stealing. We have Arnold Haino, who has produced dozens of books,

including, of course, A Day in the Bleachers. Arnold, thank you for joining us. You're perfectly welcome. Thank you. This morning, I got to call Ron Teasley, who is a 93-year-old former Negro leaguer. Things are wonderful. Things are great things. Great things.

It's a good thing for baseball in general. So let's talk to Charlie Maxwell. Okay. Hi, Charlie. Here he is, Bobby Shantz. Hello. Hi, Bobby. I can't get enough nonagenarians.

I must talk to more nonagenarians. Episode 1158. He says if the angels could make a deal with the devil and get Albert Pujols in his offensive prime. Never, never make a deal with the devil. That's the whole point. You don't do it. Don't listen to the rest of the question.

It's a trick. All right. Let's say they make a deal with some benevolent, neutral third party who has the power. It's the devil in disguise. Haven't you been watching? Episode 1173, Grab the Wheel. It's the first nautical analogy from Scott Boris.

Scott Boris. Scott Boris has been spending a lot of time being very creative, not with contracts, but with the ways he's talking about the contracts he doesn't have. And recently he was speaking about, I don't know which of his clients, because they're all still unsigned. But in Ken Rosenthal's words, Boris offered him a parable in explaining the course of this offseason. Scott Boris on why the offseason has gone like it has. The offseason is like the America's Cup. We have 30 boats in the water.

They take off and eventually they get to the free agent docks. Normally there are trade wins and there are economic investments in the capacity of the boat, which allow those boats to get to the appropriate free agent docks. This year there was a detour to Japan where there was a $250 million asset available for $3 million. All boats went

to Japan. Then they sailed back a good distance. They came to Florida and found a sinking ship, and all of its cargo was in the water. All teams tried to load it onto their boats. That took additional time. Then, as they moved forward to the free agent docks, they found other ships dumping cargo.

Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay and a few others, which then slowed their arrivals to the free agent docks. So, trade winds, Japan, shipwreck in Florida, more cargo spewing, all those things artificially delayed the arrival to the free agent docks. What in the fuck is Scott Boras talking about? This analogy just really clears everything up for me. I totally understand the market now that I can visualize it as 30 boats. What? Episode 1217. Vroom v vroom how valuable would a player be if he always

got hits but never stopped running no homers of course but any ball he puts in play is a hit of some kind but he never stops at first or second or third he keeps going until he either gets tagged out or scores an inside the park home run in the event he hits a ground-rule double or the ball is thrown out of play, he'll stop running, but he'll immediately start running again as soon as the pitcher gets the ball. He also says vroom-vroom every time he touches a base for added strategic value. By gut instinct, my gut instinct is that this player would be valuable, but I'm not sure.

Are guaranteed RBIs worth guaranteed outs? Would Vroom Vroom be valuable enough to offset the insanity he'd bring to his team's fans? Episode 1225. The Pirates had been either sweeping or getting swept in every series, and someone reported that you said, it's bizarre, such is this game, and such is life. And someone reported that you said, it's bizarre, such is this game and such is life. And I guess that kind of caught on maybe because I know that Trevor Williams last October tweeted, baseball is weird, such is life, and attributed it to John Socrates' JSO. So I guess, yeah, so that's kind of, I guess the laid back or philosophical attitude that we're talking about here is that there's an element, I guess, of it's just baseball. It's part of life. And we'll kind of take it as it comes. That doesn't seem to be how many major leaguers are wired.

Yeah. And it's just hard because you always want to be yourself and you never want to be somebody that you're not. So I think in this game a lot, like, you know, there's all these like very egotistical things that come out, like, I'm going to try my best. And then somebody will say, try, I can get anybody to try, you know? And it's like, well, dude, you know what I mean? Like, we don't have to go with that and like start measuring things. Like, you know what I mean? I'm going to, I'm going to give it my best. There is a lot of that where people

are trying to make you be something else. Those are the things that I struggled with in baseball a lot was that big ego. I know the desire to win and all that. I love the feeling of winning and everything, but I also do understand the importance of losing as well. Episode 1238, Randy Johnson saying something about Kingsford charcoal. If there were four people who I would unconditionally talk to, if they were even if they were just trying to pitch something that I didn't approve of or know anything about at all. And that's probably like Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Itro Suzuki and Williams Estadio. And so it just happened to be that one of them had someone reach out to us. So that's great. It's definitely weird to have someone on

who's promoting something that has nothing to do with the podcast because it is effectively an advertisement, but it's Randy Johnson. Randy, it is a pleasure to have you. So welcome to the show. Well, thank you so much. And yes, happy to be working with Kingsford. What a great time of the year. The baseball season and barbecuing, they both go hand in hand. And to make things even easier to get all of your groceries and Walmart barbecue needs, you can do one-click shopping now. So everything's pretty convenient. And so I've enjoyed my short period of time working with

them and obviously really love uh barbecuing and at this time of the year who doesn't the baseball season going on now a super cut of jeff saying williams astadillo williams astadillo williams That wasn't the supercut. 1271, 1274, 1275, 1286, joined by Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs. Hello. Williams Estadio. Joined by Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs. Hello. Williams Estadio is... Joined by Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs. Hello.

According to MLB.com, but really MLB.com, it looks like Williams Estadio is... Joined by Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs. Hello. I don't have a Williams Estadio. Fun fact, nothing has happened. Episode 1295. Players giving more than 100%. And for that intro, I gave 128%.

When you're going to 110%, you've already broken through the barrier, right? So you can go up to 120. But what if, what if Jose Altuve said, we're going to come back at 170%? Is that more ridiculous? Does it not matter? I wonder where the ceiling is because I bet we could find a higher one than 120.

I bet someone's just like doubled it at some point. You might as well. It's just inflation of effort, right? Do you think that the doctors actually said that? Do you think that was their clinical opinion? Would you trust a medical opinion that's expressed to you in impossible terms? Mariners outfielder Kevin Mitchell. I just want to get out there and give 180% to help the Mariners win.

But wait, from 1989, May 22nd, Giants outfielder Kevin Mitchell. All I wanted to do was give 180% in every game. Kevin Mitchell was two 180%. We move on. Outfielder Glenn Allen Hill on his transition to right field. 180% in every game. Kevin Mitchell with two 180%s. We move on. Outfielder Glenn Allen Hill on his transition to right field. Cleveland plane dealer April 24, 1993. Me and Thomas Howard are busting our butts. We're giving 190% effort.

What? Wait. Phillies infielder Placido Polanco on the injured David Bell. I just hope David comes back at 200%. I think my favorite is the 190. 190? It's so specific. Episode 1315.

The player that I will take is Asher Wojcic... Wojcic... Wojcic... Wojcic... Wojcic... After... Wojcic... Wojcic... Is there... Please, help. Episode 1316. is there please help episode 13 16 how big is the hall of fame my goodness what the only the only thing keeping that from being a 1 out of 10 is that it is baseball paraphernalia but that's

about it 2 out of 10 no that sucks first game back not first win. What a waste. That's it? Just bat? Bat used by minor league baseball player. Two out of ten. Get out of here. Tying a record. Very sexy. Three out of ten. Two out of ten. Two out of ten.

If I go to the Hall of Fame, I see a hat worn by a guy who tied a record of some other It doesn't mean anything to me. It's starting an All-Star game. Get your head out of your ass. Two out of ten. Get it out of there. Just burn the storage shed down. Don't keep any of this.

How many items are going to the Hall of Fame? One and a half out of ten. Wait. That's it? Broken bat. Implying bat did not succeed in being a good bat to use. One out of ten. The piece of spinach caught in his molars.

Just put that in the Hall of Fame. You're still going? Oh, that's ridiculous. Four out of ten. Nope, don't care. That's two. That's two out of ten. He didn't even win.

That sucks. You send that bat back, and you send it with a threatening letter that says, if you send us any more nonsense from your stupid baseball fun fact season, then we're just going to burn the stadium down. I hate that you said those words to me. A jersey. A jersey worn by Nolaola a thing worn by a good player during a season one out of ten i don't care do people go into hall of fame be like i don't

know what a baseball jersey looks like this fit the criteria do you want to just read me a list of items that aren't going to the hall of fame no just go to the next one that's a one that's a definition of a one this sucks that is that's less than a one that's a 1 That's a definition of a 1 That sucks That's less than a 1 That's a 0 out of 10 No that doesn't belong Is this some sort of speed bus And they're like if we don't stop collecting baseball bats The hall of fame is going to explode

A bat Used by terrible player Eduardo Nunez During the season. You don't even know what it is. In what visit to a museum are you like, you know what would make this complete? Seeing a red sweatshirt worn by a man who oversaw players who won the World Series. Crap assortment of items.

What are we doing here? Episode 1339. Farewell, Jeff. God, I can tell that we're near the end. I'm leaving. I'm leaving the podcast. I'm leaving Ben. I'm leaving Fangraphs.

And I am joining the Tampa Bay Rays. It's strange because it's been a little over two years. But while you and I have been podcasting, you have gotten married. I have gotten engaged. And we're just a couple months short of me getting married. So we've had our own life achievements over the course of this. It's been a pleasure. There's a tier of people that you can refer to.

You might say, oh, he's my internet friend. And I have long considered you and Sam to be internet friends. And now having spoken with you on a thrice a week basis, I feel like I can call you an actual friend and as my actual friend, I am now deserting you. So I apologize for that. But you know, growing older, adulthood is all about losing friends by the wayside. Well, I know that you are a hugger, and I would gladly consent to a hug if we were within hugging distance right now. But there is a continent between us as there usually is. But just imagine that there is a figurative hug going on. You've taught us about trampolines and volcanoes and Scott Boris

metaphors. So thank you for your friendship and companionship. And I hope that you have the best success you can and that you are very happy with your decision and have a fulfilling next phase of your career. Ben, your voice has always felt like a hug. Episode 1344. Sam's back. Meg's a co-host. Listen. It is finally time to end the suspense. I am joined today by the old and also new co-host of Effectively Wild, Sam Miller of ESPN. Hello, Sam. Hey, Ben. I am also joined by the new second co-host of Effectively Wild, Meg Rowley of FedGraphs. Hello, Meg. Hey, Ben. I am also joined by the new second co-host of Effectively Wild, Meg Raleigh of FedGraphs. Hello, Meg. Hello. I could not be more pleased to be teaming up with both of you. Yeah, Jeff. Get out of here. Go. Good riddance. He couldn't be more happy, Jeff. You never made him as happy as he could have been. Episode 1360.

And I wonder whether we have to revisit our podcast maxim that stats become real, that we can start trusting them when Mike Trout is the MLB war leader, because I think Mike Trout has gotten too good for that to be true. He's just the MLB war leader

now on the end of April 7th. Episode 1396 I'm just gonna read this and I'm gonna try really hard not to laugh while I do it this is a screenshot of two tweets by the Grand Junction Rockies they have since been deleted and as far as I know I have not checked today have not been addressed in any way shape or form by the organization well you didn't make it through that without laughing didn't even start without laughing i don't blame you though uh the gj rockies are not considering changing their name

and never have we are owned by a group led by the colorado rockies and having a team on the west slope helps build their brand suggesting we would be called the G.J. Chops is offensive and a slang sexual term for erection. They proceed to follow that up with a tweet that says, the G.J. Rockies pride ourselves on providing fun family entertainment and suggesting inappropriate name changes will not be tolerated. Anyone who continues to suggest the any way will be blocked from our account. You know, sometimes when there are these kinds of snafus, people still fall back on the trip like, oh, that intern is having a bad day.

And it's much funnier to think that no a professional marketing type person thought that they would earnestly tweet this and that it would solve it would end a discussion instead of starting a discussion in which we all had to grapple with the reality of saying chubs multiple i'm actually crying episode 1408 I thought a lot about this and I have another option and I want

to name this this is again this is the an inning where you get three outs on three pitches I would like to call it a minimum inning the first point minimum inning okay five consonants five syllables all three pitches, I would like to call it a minima minning. The first point, minima minning. Okay. Five consonants, five syllables, all five nasal occlusives. It is a beautiful sounding phrase, minima minning. Argument two, you can sing it to monomena. So I'm going to sing it. Are you ready? No. Are you ready?

Okay, here we go. Menominating. Do, do, do, do, do. Menominating. Do, do, do, do. Menominating. Do, do, do, do, do. All right.

So you get the point. Menominating. Okay? It's good for the podcast for us to not always agree. Yeah. And I don't know that I've ever disagreed with you more strongly than I do in this moment. Episode 1417. I'm going to need to see it. I'm going to need to see it before I can tell you how it would feel.

I can't do this. It's too hypothetical. Yeah. Episode 1453, Sam and Meg call the fastest game. And that's the final out of the inning. Three minutes and 48 seconds. Sam, what is going on here? You know, I'm starting to wonder. You know, there have been complaints in the past few years that baseball is dying. You remember that Oakland Tribune piece a few years ago? Yeah, I remember it and can quote from it here. That interest in baseball is dying is manifested by the dropping off of the crowds that go to the game. Is this the beginning of the end for the national game? Exactly. So part of that is the pace of the game. The average game time is nearing two hours.

And many adults consider that simply too slow to keep them entertained. And many young children find it too time-consuming to fit into their busy work weeks. I wonder if the twins and the tourists are attempting to make a statement about the direction of the sport. Or trying something radical to save it, perhaps? Episode 1500. Right halfway between 1904 and 1907 is actually the first year of the Boston Doves, under their new moniker.

And they had a player named, this is not a funny name exactly, but I think it is, Big Jeff Pfeffer. Jeff Pfeffer. So his name was Big Jeff Pfeffer, which I think is great. Jeff Pfeffer. Okay. J-E-F-F-P-F-E-F-F-E-R. Jeff Pfeffer, which I think is great. Jeff Pfeffer. Okay. J-E-F-F-P-F-E-F-F-E-R. Jeff Pfeffer.

So many Fs. All right. But here's the great thing about Big Jeff Pfeffer. Not actually named Jeff. What? Not actually named Jeff. His nickname was, he was known as Big Jeff Pfeffer, but his name was Francis. He was named Big Jeff Pfeffer because he was the older brother of Jeff Pfeffer. They named, he got the nickname after the brother was born.

They decided what to name him later. Wait, but Jeff Pfeffer was named Edward. No. Wait, Big Jeff is two inches shorter than Jeff, but Jeff Pfeffer was named Edward. No. Wait, Big Jeff is two inches shorter than Jeff. Regular Jeff. Yeah, it's true that Jeff original Jeff Pfeffer was named Ed. To be clear, actual Jeff Pfeffer, right?

Big Jeff Pfeffer is Francis Xavier Pfeffer. Jeff Pfeffer is Edward Joseph Pfeffer. There's no Jeff. There's no Jeff. That's for Pfeffer. Jeff Pfeffer is Edward Joseph Pfeffer. There's no Jeff. There's no Jeff. There's no Jeffs for two Jeffs. Can I just chime in? Have you all considered Pfeff Jeffer?

Episode 1518, The Field of Dreams. Tim Anderson, I assume, right? Yeah. The conversation has become so polarized that there aren't really any field of dreams moderates anymore. It's just people who think it's the most beautiful love story, baseball and romance and fathers and sons in America, and it touches your heartstrings and makes you cry. Or there are people who think it's just a manipulative, mawkish mess and makes no sense and contradicts itself and is just overdone in the worst possible ways. And I agree with elements of what both of those people say.

And so I feel like it's almost like the most radical take now is just that, yeah, it's pretty good. I like it. I'm generally fond of it. And yet it has many flaws. I don't feel moved to stake out one extreme position i don't know that there are that many of us moderates left but yeah i don't know maybe there's a silent majority of people out there who just think field of dreams is okay yeah i also am in that moderate lane i thought it was pretty good but i also did not like it episode Episode 1565. What if humans evolved to have three arms instead of two, but baseball still existed as it does today with all of the same rules? What would hitters, pitchers, and fielders do with the extra arm? Which position would benefit the most?

I think it would really depend where on your body it was. I think that that materially impacts the answer to this question yeah because i think that if it's on top of your head and then like does oh no ben uh so then like if it's sticking out of the top of your head does your arm hair match your head hair? Or does it look like your arm hair, where it's shorter? Do you have really long arm hair? Episode 1587. What if baseballs were sentient beings? What if it is discovered that the baseballs used by MLB are not manufactured,

but in fact sentient beings that have been harvested or farmed for use in the game, and the changes in the ball composition in recent years are in fact evolutionary changes to their species? The balls cannot communicate with us in any way, so we don't know their thoughts on being used for the sport. But MLB admits to having covered up the origins of the balls for years. It is universally agreed that moving to a manufactured ball will produce dramatically different effects and that the only way the sport remains similar to what we know today is to continue to use the living balls. How would you react to such a revelation? Where does this fall on the spectrum of sports scandals? Would the sport die off? Does PETA prevent games from being played? So in this scenario, we are subjecting

something with sentience to Aaron Judge's bat? Yes. A lot of the time? Yes. I think that it would be the biggest scandal in sports history. this doesn't make sense i mean clearly it doesn't make sense but are they then able to determine how far they go right because it seems strange to me let's apply some logic to this completely wild question that's what's needed here episode 1592 a tribute to the late great ro Angel. The three of us are teaming up today to praise and celebrate Roger Angel. He is probably your favorite baseball writer's favorite baseball writer, and we have talked about what makes him so special before, and I'm sure we will again. Episode 1630.

There was a lot of discussion today about MLB's decision to designate the Negro Leagues as major leagues officially. I had inquired about this prompted by an effectively wild listener email, of all things, that sort of started this snowball, which is kind of cool. Episode 1633, I love Tom and Jerry. Let's go. There is a baseball scene in a newly released film, Tom and Jerry, and it's not the best. It's just not the best. So we have to do one of our little reviews of what went wrong here. So it's a 30 second scene.

So it's really impressive that they screwed it up in this many ways. And like they got Joe Buck for this. Right. They were not sparing expense. Like they got Joe Buck for this. Right. They were not sparing expense. If you're going to go get Joe Buck and you're going to use a real game, why not just get this right?

It would be so easy. And we repeat this over and over and no one ever takes us up on our offer to help them as baseball scene consultants. It continues to mystify me. Please call us. Our rates are very reasonable. I don't even know what they are because no one has ever taken us up on this. They might be free. This might be just a fun sideline for us. I wouldn't mind buying a new dining room table, so they wouldn't be free. Okay, I will not lowball. But they would be reasonable.

They would be reasonable, yes. Episode 1654, Meg crying with laughter about umpires splitting their pants. So here's the Retro Sheet play log for the White Sox second. Bonura grounded out third to first. Appling single to center. Hayes grounded into a double play, second to shortstop to first. Appling out at second. Ump Moriarty left the field after ripping his pants dusting off the plate. While repairs made, McGowan manned the plate

and Cole's first base. Zero runs, one hit, zero error. Zero left on base. Okay, so now I have a new set of questions for you. One pair of pants split. So he was bent over using the little broom that they have to use. Did he finish dusting off the plate?

I hope so. He's a pro. Or was the plate half dusted and then he said, wait, I have split my pants. I must address this pants situation. I'm not done. I got more. Oh, no. Oh, no.

The mystery as to why umpire Cal Hubbard suddenly withdrew from an exhibition game three weeks ago has been solved. Yesterday, the same umperadical pants split wide open again. Again? So the next story I came across, I'm going to send you a link because there is an accompanying picture. Oh, my God. I'm so excited. Split decision at home plate. So good!

Episode 1684, the first appearance of Meet a Major Leaguer. This will be sort of like a StatBlast-style recurring segment where we just say, hey, good job. You are a major leaguer. You have fulfilled your lifelong dream. And even if you don't last or excel at that level, here are your two minutes of Effectively Wild fame. Meet a major leaguer. Episode 1701, I'm not saying the name. We got an email about that too from Ian who said,

Ben was talking the other day about needing a stat to more accurately describe the Javi Baez-Will Craig play, and the answer is so obvious, the boner. Boner. The boner. Boner is boners. A category four boner. Boner. Boners.

Boner. Multiple boners. Maybe we need the boner. I have so many things to say. Boner. Is that a boner? Please stop introducing opportunities for more boners. Maybe we need the boner. I have so many things to say. Boner. Is that a boner? Please stop introducing opportunities for more boners. Think of my mother.

The answer would be that was officially a boner. Imagine if there were more boners. Do we need to put like a warning on this episode? I'm so sorry. Boners. I don't know we haven't had one of these in a while and they're always so much fun not that boners are bad in all cases i'm just saying

i have so many jokes and i none them are, well, they're all good, but I'm going to not. I'm just so glad we're talking about boners anymore. If I bring it up one more time, though, you're going to doubt my sincerity on that point. So I'm going to not bring it up any more time. Episode 1724, Meg has notes. To the surprise of absolutely no one who listens to this podcast, I have a couple of notes. Episode 1833, Meg has no notes.

I love it. I have no notes. I have no notes about this crazy no defense team. It's the best. I love it. I wish there were more teams like this. It's going to be so painful best. I love it. I wish there were more teams like this. It's going to be

so painful for Phillies fans at points, but it's going to be such a delight for the rest of us. This is tremendous content of teams. No notes. 1730, a super cut of Super Pretzel. The fact that

he has been and still is the face of Super Pretzels. Oh my goodness. Oh, why didn't I have this on my board? That's a huge oversight. It's just the best. Super Pretzels. Super Pretzels. Super Pretzels.

Super Pretzels. Super Pretzels. Super Pretzel. Superpretzel.com. Super Pretzels. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel Soft Pretzels. Super pretzels. Super pretzel. Super pretzel.com. Super pretzels. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. Soft pretzels. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. Super pretzels. Mike was aware of super pretzel previously. Okay. Super pretzel. Super pretzel.

Super pretzel. Trout has been a longstanding super pretzel fan since he was a little boy. Super pretzels. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. Super Pretzel fan since he was a little boy. Super Pretzels. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel.

Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzel. Soft Pretzels. Super Pretzel. Unlimited Super Pretzels. Super Pretzels.

Super Pretzel. Soft Pretzels. Super Pretzels. Super Pretzels. Super Pretzels. Super Pretzel. Super Pretzels. Super Pretzel.

Super Pretzel. It is a Super Pretzel. pretzels. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. It is a super pretzel. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. Most valuable pretzel. If you're listening to this and you aren't about to go at least look for a Minecraft super pretzel box, you are lying.

You are absolutely lying. I would like someone who listens to this pod, someone out there, just tally the total amount of times that the word super pretzel on this pod over, under, I'll set it at 75 uses of the word super pretzel. Super pretzels. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. Super pretzel. I think that's all of my super pretzel material. Enough with the super pretzels already.

Episode 1734, Ben is a man of the people. I've just been in my privileged position in the press box. I've lost touch with the masses, with the common people. So now I'm back out there, man of the people again. And I don't like the people. Episode 1819. Chris says, after watching a video of a runner jumping over a catcher to reach home, I started wondering,

is there any rule that would prevent a runner from digging a tunnel from one base to another? With the base path extending to the left and right, but not up and down, what would prevent an expert digger, say a mole person who could get underground before being tagged from using that skill to avoid the fielder while still remaining in the base path and touching each base from below. There's an obvious issue in making clear to the umpire you've reached base,

but I imagine that could be solved. Could it? I don't know, but yes. So a mole person. I mean, I think the most obvious issue here is, so you're, don't you just... This question is making me so happy because this feels like such a normal off-season question for Effectively Wild. Episode 1823. How can you not be pedantic? That should be the slogan for this show. I think people calling it the ghost runner annoys me almost as much as the fact of the thing. It's

not a ghost runner. There is a real runner. I have made this point before, but it just doesn't seem to be landing with the media at large. We already had a thing called the ghost runner. It's what kids play with when they don't have enough people. And so there's just an imaginary runner who advances station by station. The point was there was no actual physical runner on the bases. This is not a ghost runner. There is a runner. There is a flesh and blood runner on the bases. This is different from the concept of the ghost runner. And I think it annoys me even more because we have such good alternative terms for it. Not just the zombie runner, which I have advocated and which I think Dan Szymborski coined originally. If they have to bring it back, I'm just appealing to everyone. Don't call it a ghost runner. How can you not be pedantic about baseball? I guess at least on this podcast. I mean, it is our sort of MO, isn't it? Supercut. Meg says, the ball has ennui, among other phrases.

1857, 1486, 1681, 1700, 1737, 1834, 1838. And sadly, players, there's no Powerball tonight. Keep playing. You know, a lot of people are mad about the current state of the ball and its relative juicelessness. It is not juiceless. It is not dead. It is simply moribund.

It is fatigued. It is a ball suffering from ennui. Banging scheme. We need a lab league. You mean the banging scheme? Beef boys? Lab league. The banging scheme.

It's so much better than nutting so-called beef boys banging scheme lab league the beef boys banging scheme here i am complaining about nutting packy notting i'm gonna do a swear fucking packy notting I swear. Fucking Paki Nutton. Episode 1853. I just listened to your explanation. You're right that we are people who deal with this stuff every day and are familiar and comfortable thinking probabilistically. And I have to tell you, I don't come away super satisfied with that explanation that you just gave. Episode 1855. Let's say Ricky Henderson was born with a rare disease called, like, glass ass syndrome.

Oh, no. He still has all of his other physical tools, including his speed, and overcomes his condition to reach the major leagues. Would he still have had the record for stolen bases if sliding would shatter his ass, killing him instantly? Would he still even steal bases at all, despite his remarkable speed? Let's say he's very good at stopping with his foot on the bag. He hooks it with his foot and rides it to the ground front side, preserving his ass from danger, but putting the front of his body at risk. I have dozens of other questions

about how baseball would be played by a man with glass ass syndrome, but I would prefer to let them come up naturally. Now, I had one question that I wanted to clarify with CJ, which is, can he slide head first or does he also have Glasscock syndrome? Yeah, I was going to say, what glass extent?

Yeah, I mean, of course, the first sufferer, Jack Glasscock, and the disease was named after him. Unfortunately, we remember him every year on a certain day, but... Well, he had no progeny, right? One would assume not. Oh, boy. Episode 1861, the debut of Past Blast. I will just end with the history segment of the day.

I think I'm leaning toward calling it the Past Blast. Because we like rhymes. Yeah, we have a stat blast. Just, you know. Because we like rhymes. Yeah, we have a stat blast. We'll stay on brand. It'll be the past blast. Episode 1864, Tyler Wade or Taylor Ward. It's kind of like Dylan McDermott or Dermot Mulroney, right?

I think so. On a recent episode, I screwed up Taylor Ward and Tyler Wade for the umpteenth time. Literally every time that I have mentioned either of them on the podcast, I have to think, wait, is this Ward? Is this Wade? Is this Taylor? Is this Tyler? Well, it's not just me. And in fact, the best baseball broadcasters there are also fall prey to the Taylor Ward, Tyler Wade mix up issue. fall prey to the Taylor Ward, Tyler Wade mix-up issue. After we talked last time in some depth and detail about the Pete Alonzo Car Shield ad or multiple versions of the Pete Alonzo Car Shield ad, we learned that this goes way beyond Pete Alonzo.

Pete Alonzo is the tip of the Car Shield baseball player endorsement iceberg here. I stayed in Wonderland and found out how deep this rabbit hole goes. We both did over the past couple days. We watched a lot of Car Shield ads. We sure did. Episode 1873. Anyway.

What are we talking about on this podcast today? Baseball, I guess. We'll see. I guess we're talking about baseball. Episode 1434. Co-hosts saying this podcast today. Baseball, I guess. I guess we're talking about baseball. Episode 1434, co-hosts saying, this was great. Figurative group co-host hug, I guess. I don't know. This is going to be great. This was great. I enjoyed it.

I agree with you both. Episode 1, the ending of episode 1. I guess if the reviews are positive and we listen to this and don't think it's awful, we will be back at the same time tomorrow to talk about something else. We're going to have to work on cutting back, though.

14 minutes. Too long. Well, that was a lot of podcasting. Hope you enjoyed those Effectively Wild greatest hits. If we missed any of your personal favorites, apologies. There are some tough choices and cuts to be made there. You wouldn't know it based on how many selections we ended up with, but we've done a lot of episodes and a lot of hours, so there were a lot of great times we couldn't include. Let's take one more quick break here,

and then we'll be back with a past blast, and then we will hear from the Effectively Wild audience. You could have me for ten years I could lose you in the hours I could lose you in the tears Oh, the feelings lost Without you, oh my baby All right, well, now that you've recovered from that blast of Effectively Wild's past, let me relate a little history from long before the podcast started in 2012. This is episode 1877, and so today's past blast comes from 1877, courtesy of Richard Hirschberger, historian, saber researcher,

and author of Strike Four, The Evolution of Baseball. Richard writes, this is one I've been looking forward to. Can a baseball actually curve? Curve pitching was all the rage in 1877. Skeptics questioned whether this was actually possible or an optical illusion. Professors engaged in learned discourse in the newspapers, arguing pro and con. Pitchers finally took the matter in hand, setting up demonstrations to prove that the ball was curving horizontally. Here's one performed between innings in a postseason exhibition game between Boston and Cincinnati on October 20, 1877, reported in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette October 22. Quote, infinitely more interesting than the game was the experiment to demonstrate the

possibility of pitching a ball so that it would describe a lateral curve in its course through Quote, of the air, which could only curve the ball downward as its projectile force was decreased. Baseball scientists were quite as certain that the expert pitcher knew how to give his ball a peculiar twist, which sent it off in a curved line to the utter bewilderment of the batter. Recently, the discussion has waxed warm, and on Saturday, after the second inning had been played, the experiment was tried. The chalk line, running parallel with the line from the home plate to first base, was chosen as the base of operations. It is a line running nearly north and south.

The pitcher was placed at the south end of the line. At a point halfway to first base, a barrier was placed on the west side of the line, with the end resting on the line. This was to compel the pitcher, who stood on the west side of the line, to send the ball across to the east side. Another barrier was placed on the east side of the line opposite first base. This was to stop the ball unless it described a curved line that would carry it back to the west side of the chalk line. Down where the pitcher stood, a board was set on one end of the line and held in position to make sure that the pitcher did not reach over and start his ball at the wrong side. Bond, the Boston pitcher, then took his place at the west side of the line and tried the experiment. His first effort showed that the board was a necessity to keep him in the right place.

His ball struck its edges. He tried again and again, the ball being difficult to manage on account of its being wet. At last he sent a ball which started fairly on the west side of the line, curved over to the east side to pass the first barrier, and back again to the west side to avoid the other barrier, and dropped on the ground two feet from the line. It was a plain case of curved ball. Then Mitchell was called up, and being a left-handed pitcher,

he took his position on the east side of the chalk line. The barriers were changed accordingly, and he made the effort. His first ball also struck the board beside him, but it was not long until he sent a meanderer that crossed the chalk line to the west side and recrossed to the east side and was caught fully one foot east of the further barrier. The ball had been curved in opposite directions by these two pitchers, thus disposing of the theory that the wind helped divert the ball from its course. If there was any wind at all, it was from the north. The tests were regarded as entirely satisfactory and created great interest. It is proposed to repeat it in the game this afternoon. Richard writes,

this demonstration was written up in the Scientific American issue of November 17th. I'm attaching an image, giving a detailed description and analysis and a woodcut of a very dapper looking pitcher. I've linked to those on the show page. In defense of the skeptics, that a spinning sphere moving through the air would curve was well understood since Isaac Newton,

the mechanism Newton described would only, however, produce a modest lateral force. A modern description of how the ball curves involves a region of chaotic air turbulence behind the ball, tending to slow it down. The spin of the ball moves the location of the turbulence, producing lateral drag which curves the path of the ball. This phenomenon was not understood in 1877. We can, if we are feeling generous, assume that the skeptics did the math

showing the small lateral force produced by the understood phenomenon and rightly concluded that it was insufficient to produce the claimed effect. As a final note, pitcher Fred Goldsmith would in 1939 throw his hand in the ring as a candidate for inventing the curveball and has having performed a similar demonstration in Brooklyn in 1870, his claim came with a newspaper clipping from the Brooklyn Eagle that later disappeared and doesn't appear in the archives of the paper. And he was 14 years old in 1870. Goldsmith was a prominent early curveball pitcher. In the spirit of generosity, we will simply note that he was an octogenarian when he made

the claim, and perhaps his memories had gotten a bit jumbled. Candy Cummings, who is usually reputed to be the creator of the curveball, actually was, as far as Richard can determine. So that much is not a myth. And I will say, in defense of the curveball skeptics, that the pattern has repeated itself recently, because only in the past few years have we become aware of seam-shifted wake, a force that causes a kind of pitch movement that was thought to be impossible,

or at least was inexplicable. The better the technology gets, the more we learn about pitching, the more we realize that there was a lot about the physics of that act that we didn't understand. Or at least that some folks didn't understand, because it often turns out that players knew what they were talking about. Not always. Sometimes they thought things that weren't true, but very often our so-called discoveries about baseball only confirm things that players and people in the game have been saying forever. And between seam shifted wake and vertical approach angle and spin mirroring and tunneling, there are a lot of concepts that have either been discovered or named and formalized and quantified in very recent years. So we are still learning about pitching and we are still learning about baseball. And that's one reason why this podcast must continue.

And let's continue now with a collection of listener tributes and testimonials. And let's continue now with a collection of listener tributes and testimonials. We put a call out and more than 50 listeners sent in short messages talking about why they have enjoyed or appreciated the podcast and what it has meant to them. And it's been a joy for us to listen to these. And I hope that you will enjoy listening to your fellow listeners as well. So here they are again, slightly edited in some cases and presented more or less in the order in which they arrived. Hey, Ben and Meg, this is Scott Brady, a longtime listener of Effectively Wild, just letting you know how much I've appreciated this podcast

and the community that you guys have created. I have more friends now than I probably ever thought I would have just through the many interactions I've had in the various communities that have been spawned by Effectively Wild. The other big thing for me personally, this podcast is responsible for me really reviving my artistic career. I had been in a bit of a rut for a while after college, and through some interactions I had in the Facebook group, started making my anime or Dragon Ball inspired caricatures or cartoons of baseball players, and it's been incredible what it has

meant to me into my life and I just cannot do enough to express my undying gratitude. Hi this is Dan I've been listening to Effectively Wild since your first off season I think somewhere around episode 50 or 70 or something. I've been listening since before my daughter was born and since she was a little baby we often listen to it together in the car. And she has something to say, too. Effectively Wild is our favorite podcast. Hi, I'm Noah. In 2017, there was a stretch where I moved to a new place and I didn't know a lot of people.

And I don't think I watched a single baseball game all year, actually. But I listened to every single episode of Effectively Wild. It just felt familiar. I feel like it just speaks to the vibes of the show and everything. And congrats on 10 years and all the best. A couple of years ago, I set out to find a baseball podcast. Something to scratch that itch that I just wasn't getting socially. Because, frankly, I'm the only person I know who's like this. But when I found Effectively Wild, I found so much more than that.

Not just between Ben and Meg, but also the community. This is more than a baseball podcast. These are my people. And yet, at the same time, it is a baseball podcast. It is the most baseball podcast. My name is Sarah, and I wish you a happy anniversary. Here's to many more. Congratulations on 10 years of Effectively Wild. My name is Sarah, and I wish you a happy anniversary. Here's to many more. Congratulations on 10 years of Effectively Wild.

My name is Adam Mayle. I am glad for eight of those years to have been a listener, re-listener, re-listener, re-listener, and wiki page creator. The show is a tremendous mix of current topics, oddities, fun, and history that has kept me engaged with a sport that I otherwise might have drifted away from. In recent years, I have been particularly grateful for your coverage of diversity and equity issues in baseball.

The podcast for me is often a sort of comfort food. Thank you all so, so much for the countless hours you have poured into this show and supporting and engaging with the community that loves it. Hey, this is Brian Hamilton in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Congrats on 10 years. I've listened to every episode since the 2013 World Series and have to admit that I like your show more than I like baseball itself. So many great memories. My favorite would have to be personal. On the nights that both of my children were born, I huddled in the hospital bathroom holding these newborns while my wife slept, Effectively Wild playing in my ear.

I didn't listen to Effectively Wild while getting my subsequent vasectomy. That time, I listened to Carson Sestouli. Hi, Ben and Meg. This is Bill Gallagher. The highest compliment I can pay is that every time I get into a new sport, I Google podcasts like Effectively Wild for whatever sport it is in hopes of finding something else with the perfect combination of humor, thoughtfulness, and curiosity. It hasn't worked once. Hi, my name is Jenny Hojnowski, radio producer for the Detroit Tigers, and I've been an effectively wild listener since 2016. Episode 1218 with Christina Carl literally changed my life. She

showed me that I can live my true self while pursuing my baseball-adjacent career. I came out as a trans woman shortly thereafter, and the rest, as they say, is history. Thank you, Effectively Wild, and cheers to 10 great years and many more. My name is Dan Friedman. I'm from Los Angeles, and I'm a Patreon member. Effectively Wild introduced me to Total Eclipse in the Park in Salem, Oregon in 2016. The eclipse was one of the coolest experiences of my life. And being at the ballpark that day with Meg and Jeff and Ben and so many other baseball writers and so many other effectively wild fans was really a cool experience. Thanks for everything you guys do. It's a great show.

Hey guys, my name is Rob. I'm a huge fan. Love your podcast. It's actually strange. I've been listening for so long that it feels like we are friends who discuss baseball a couple times a week, except you have no idea who I am. So that's awkward. Anyways, congratulations on 10 years. Love everything you do. Keep up the great work. Hey, y'all. It's Myth. You might recognize me as one of the moderators of the Effectively Wild Patreon Discord server, which I think everyone listening to this should join. I just wanted to say that I've been a regular listener for a few years now. I love the combination of enthusiasm and advanced analysis that y'all bring.

And I also wanted to say that as a woman and as a queer person, I love finding community where I can talk baseball with folks and never feel like an outsider. It's really special. So congrats on 10 years, and here's hoping for many more. Hey, Ben and Meg. This is Matt. I've been trying to figure out when I started listening to Effectively Wild,

so I opened my podcast app and started scrolling, just kept scrolling, and can't figure it out. It's been a while. Best I can figure, maybe episode 650. But I just wanted to say thanks for making a podcast that's a constant in a world that isn't. Hello, Ben and Meg. This is Reggie from Austin.

I just wanted to say congratulations on a very well-done podcast that continues to just keep going and going. For me, I have enjoyed the diversity of baseball thought and discussions, from division previews to looking at historical players from Japan and the Negro Leagues. discussions, from division previews to looking at historical players from Japan and the Negro Leagues. Most of all, though, it requires me to think in a more open and critical way as a baseball fan, something I think that is still missing in corners of the baseball fandom universe. Hey, Ben, Meg, Sam, and Jeff. Congratulations on 10 years of the podcast. This show has meant so much to me over the years. It's gotten me through tough times and also just regular day-to-day life.

I also want to give a special shout-out to my brother Adam, who was the one who told me about Effectively Wild almost ten years ago. It's been the podcast has been a constant source of fun for us to discuss together. I'm looking forward to the next ten years. Hi, everyone. I'm Mike, and I am a teacher from New York. Whenever my girlfriend and I were listening to Effectively Wild, and Ben would introduce the show with whatever number episode they were on, girlfriend would always say, that's just too many episodes of the podcast.

Well, girlfriend's no longer around, but I am still listening to Effectively Wild. Thanks a bunch to Meg, Sam, Jeff, and of course Ben for giving me just countless hours of entertainment, keeping me informed, and giving me a good laugh along the way. I'm Ben Lenartz. I've been listening to the podcast since about 2013. It's been a huge part of my life. I've been on the podcast. I've had Ben talk about baseball at my work. I want to mention here what I love most is the dynamic between the hosts, whoever the hosts are, and in particular, the pleading excitement of the hosts as they sort of try to get Ben, who's always playing the straight man, as excited as they are about something.

I think of Sam saying, Ben, Ben, trying to get him excited about the Pipefitters Union commercials. Or Jeff's excitement about volcanoes spilling over and just pleading with Ben. Ben, Ben. Likewise with Meg on the recent episode saying, Ben, Ben, don't eat Brussels sprouts at five in the morning. I love it. It's really special to me. Hi, this is John. I have really enjoyed Effectively Wild for the last several years.

My wife actually enjoys to listen to it. It's the only baseball thing that she'll tolerate while we're traveling in the car. But the truth is, I would gladly be a Patreon subscriber just for the Stamplash channel in the a Patreon subscriber just for the Snap Blast channel and the Discord. So thanks for making that happen. My name is Nate. I've been listening to the show since March of 2019, I think right around when Meg became

a co-host. I've really enjoyed listening to the show. I think it's helped deepen my understanding of baseball and honestly just a wider appreciation for the game as a whole and its players beyond just those on the team that I root for. As far as favorite podcast moments go, the one that always comes to mind is the Grand Junction Chubs incident. That one never fails to make me giggle. Great content, you guys, and keep doing what you do. You rock. Hi, this is Jake Lampert from Chesterfield, Missouri. I've been listening to Effectively Wild for years now and became a

Pitch Sound supporter about a year ago, and one of those podcasts, one of the few that I've made room for in my schedule to catch every single episode. I actually walked around the neighborhood in this episode 1873 and decided to record this right away. Thanks for everything you do. Hi Ben and Meg. This is Anna in Richmond, Virginia. I listen to the pod while I organize music for a local community radio station, and I've really appreciated how much you've taught me about baseball over the years. Also, some of my favorite parts of the show

is every time Meg does a swear. Hello, my name is James. I was introduced to Fangraph's audio through Dave Cameron and Carson Sestouli. Obviously loved their original podcast and then was introduced to Jeff Sullivan and Ben Lindbergh and Effectively Wild. That has been the only constant in my life for the past few years. Your guys' podcast is amazing. I was very happy when Meg joined. Thank you for everything and I will keep listening. Hi, I'm Rebecca. I've been listening to the podcast for a few years.

I don't remember exactly when it was, but I remember the first podcast episode that I listened to, and it was about volcanoes when Jeff was still on and the theoretical possibility that volcanoes could impact baseball. I was really looking for some off-season baseball something to listen to. And I'm very glad I found you. Guys, thank you for all of the absurdity and seriousness that you do. My name is Jacob, and I've listened since day one. Over the past 10 years,

I've probably heard Ben's voice more than all but a few people in my life. There's no piece of media out there, not music, TV, or movies that I enjoy and look forward to as much as Effectively Wild. Thank you for the great show, and here's to 10 more years. Hi, Ben and Meg. I'm Josh from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I've been a listener of the podcast since about a week or two after the podcast began. My best friend Jeff introduced me to the podcast, and we had many inside jokes about the pod over the years.

Unfortunately, Jeff passed away from cancer in January of 2018, so in a small way, this podcast helps to keep alive Jeff's memory for me. So many times something is mentioned that I know Jeff would love. So thanks for that. Cheers to 10 years and I look forward to many more. Hello, Effectively Wild. I'm Raymond Chen, the current caretaker of the Effectively Wild wiki. I discovered the podcast from the only rules it has to work and it revived me from my lapsed baseball fandom of nearly 30 years. The podcast aligned with my interest in the evolution of the game,

brought me up to speed with advanced stats, and uncovered a previously unknown fascination with bizarro hypotheticals. So thank you, Effectively Wild, for making baseball fun again. And weird. Mostly the weird. Hey, Effectively Wild. My name is David, and I would like to thank you and congratulate you for 10 years of being in people's ears. I love Effectively Wild for many different reasons, but one of the reasons is that it taught me how to communicate ideas effectively, which is helpful in my current job. I started listening to Effectively Wild as a low-leaf finance intern as my first job in baseball, and now I'm an analyst with a team in my third year in that organization.

Thank you for being you, fun, thoughtful, and curious. Quite simply, you make me love the game of baseball, and I can tell that you love it too. Hey, Ben, Meg, Sam, Jeff, and Dylan. This is Garrett from Maine. I'm recording this from my car in the spirit of the Hunfit. I just want to say thank you so much for what the podcast is and what it's become. I came for season preview pods and stayed for nonagenarians that made me want to cry and Mike Trout with an arm coming out of his head.

And just please always know how much this podcast is appreciated and what it helps me think about as a baseball fan. My name is Les Carter from Chicago, Illinois, and I have been a listener since episode one. Throughout all of those episodes, the one clip or moment I think about most is an episode when Ben wasn't there. Sorry, Ben. So Sam had to sing the introduction himself, and it was an absolute delight. Happy anniversary, Effectively Wild. This is Kyle Jones. I have been a listener since the very beginning. I just kind of stumbled upon the podcast back in the days when Sam was really annoyed that he had to record a podcast all the time. I have loved all of the co-hosts over the years, but Meg and Ben, I think you guys do a great job.

And I love listening, and I'm glad that you're still doing it. So keep up the good work, and happy anniversary. Hey, Ben and Meg, Evan calling from Vancouver, Washington. 2014, I got a puppy and started walking him around our block and listening to the season preview series. That was my intro to Effectively Wild. and listening to the season preview series. That was my intro to Effectively Wild. Eight years later, he's about to turn nine,

and I'm currently walking him and his little sister and our daughter around listening to episode 1871. Thanks for everything. Thanks for 10 years, and hopefully there's another 10 coming up. Appreciate everything you've done. Hi, this is Jay in Los Angeles. I discovered the podcast through the only rule is it has to work.

I was doing research on minor league baseball for a TV pilot script I was writing and fell into the podcast through that. This was the early days of the Jeff era. The script has not gone anywhere, but I have not missed an episode of Effectively Wild since. Thanks for all the hard work you do and here's to another 10 years. and here's to another 10 years. Hi, Ben, Meg, Sam, and Jeff. I've been listening since episode 894 and haven't missed one in those six years. I drive a lot for work and spend a lot of my free time training as a long distance runner. Whenever I have a long drive or a long run ahead of me

and I see a new episode, I know I'm going to have a good time. I moved to Spain for two years between 2016 and 2018 and having the show helped me feel connected to home, both for the baseball and because sometimes you just need something that makes you feel at home. So thanks for always being there. Hey there, EW crew. This is Andy Burdick. I wanted to just take a minute and tell you guys I really appreciate all the effort that you've put into helping all of the listeners

think a little more deeply about baseball. I've been listening since the Sam recording outside in nature era, and I just really appreciate all the Sam recording outside in nature era. And I just really appreciate all the effort you guys put into getting us to think differently about baseball, maybe a little more outside the box. Thanks a lot. Keep up the great work, guys. My name is Matt Ely. And the first thing I love about Effectively Wild is that it comes out frequently and there aren't any ads. there aren't any ads, so I can just sit back, whether I'm in my car or doing the dishes or mowing the lawn, and know that I can hear two strangers that sound like friends talking about my favorite hobby. Second thing is that I've been able to become a part of the online Effectively Wild community, make a lot of friends there, join a few splinter groups, and have a good time.

Hi, I'm Evan, and what I really appreciate about the pod is just the great mix of content. I'm not sure most people could get away with both, you know, interviewing the Twilight baseball coordinator and creating what is basically alternate universe fan fiction for baseball, while also providing really strong labor coverage and doing things like investing in the Apple TV odds. But it's really appreciated. Love it. It's always a bright spot in my week. Thank you so much. Hey, Effectively Wild. My name's Ryan Gunther. I'm 24 from Ottawa, Canada,

and I'm a huge fan of the podcast. I started listening in summer of 2019 during the Best Players of the Decade and Pitchers of the Decade episode, and I fell in love right away. I love the rankings aspect, the sort of guessing game against each other aspect and stuff like that. So it was amazing. But honorary mention, I guess, to episode 1871,

because I was the guy who got the birthday shout out recently. So thanks so much. Hi, Ben and Meg. This is Othan, O-T-H-O-N. I started listening almost six years ago when my wife was in an accident. She's fine now, but I needed to stay busy doing more things, helping her and all that stuff. So ever since, I've been listening to you when getting ready in the morning, while showering, cleaning the pool, doing all kinds of chores around the home, driving, even while in the bathroom. Anyway, I love your show. Keep up the great work. Bonjour, I'm Sébastien from France. I love your podcast because you always bring up original and fun topics.

You delve into advanced stats, but with a witty mentor. Also, since most games are played while asleep, I can channel stuff from one to another like most fans probably do. So your podcast gives me the interesting plays I would have otherwise missed. And, well,'s house is charming. So merci beaucoup, Meg and Ben. Long time listener, first time caller. This is Anthony in Minnesota.

Just wanted to say thanks to Ben and Meg and also ghost podcaster Jeff and zombie podcaster Sam. You guys have such great insights and enthusiasm. I love the show and it's been my favorite podcast for the last 10 years. And I hope that you guys go for another 10. Hello, Ben and Meg. My name is Dr. Garrett Crone.

Congratulations on 10 years of the podcast. I just wanted to say thank you so much for putting out such a great product. I've been listening since 2017, and in that time, there have been times where I could have cared less what was going on in Major League Baseball, but I kept listening to your show because it's such a great product. I've never heard a podcast that does such a good job towing the line between intelligent conversation and debate and also some bathroom humor, whether it's The Banging Scheme or Glass Ass.

Thank you guys so much. My name is Everett Rosenbaum. I've been listening to Effectively Wild since the second year on and off, but I became a real dedicated listener around episode 668 when Ben and Sam answered a listener email about groundskeeping being outlawed. And they talked about three years down the line when infields would be overgrown and any ball that landed would be lost forever. And that was the moment I realized this wasn't just any baseball podcast. And I was hooked. And I've been listening to almost every episode since then. Hey, this is Andrew from Queens, New York.

Just wanted to say, actually, I'm going to do a swear here. Holy shit, you guys did it. Ten years. Congratulations. Hello, my name is Lucas Apostolaris. I'm a musician, and I'm also an analyst and occasional writer for Baseball Prospectus. I've been a baseball fan for most of my life, and I've been listening to Effectively Wild for many years. It was actually listening to the podcast that inspired me to get more serious about baseball analysis and send in a

writing sample to BP. But just as importantly to me, the pod served as a reminder for me to appreciate all the things that make baseball as cool and fun as it is. So to Ben and Meg, and Sam and Jeff too, thanks for all that you've done over the years, and I'm looking forward to another decade of Effectively Wild. Hi, my name is Dan Bracey. Congratulations to Effectively Wild on 10 awesome and entertaining years. In 2016, Sam responded to an email that I wrote the podcast saying, quote, what in the absolute world? At some point, I'm going to be in touch with you about this. And so for the next year, Sam conducted interviews with me, took time to talk to my teammates,

my opponents, my dad, and eventually wrote one of the great baseball stories of the last decade, A Skunk in the Outfield, which I am forever indebted to Sam for telling the story so well. Hello, Megan, Ben. My name is Sid. I've been listening to Effectively Wild since about episode 200. I really enjoy the humor, the examination of baseball's foibles, and the statistical bent of this podcast. I've enjoyed every single host, including Sam and Jeff and Meg and Ben, and look forward to many more episodes in the future. Thank you so much. Hey, this is Ben, and I'll just very earnestly say that this podcast has been the soundtrack of my life for many years,

between doing dishes and commuting and falling asleep, through good times and through bad times. So thanks for everything. Congratulations on 10 years, guys. Dear Ben and Meg, and also retroactively Jeff and Sam, my name's Tim. I'm listening from Germany since 2013, and I just love the thorough way that you guys discuss really anything related to baseball

and also the many topics that branch out, including the difficult ones. And I think you've really helped me sort of frame the way I think about a lot of things besides baseball and keep things thoughtful and considerate and just generally very uplifting and positive. So thank you so much for all of that over the last nine years. Hi, it's Patty Ann. Happy anniversary! In April 2019, I asked a simple question. What was the origin of the phrase, effectively wild?

Ben, you responded a month later saying you didn't have a clue, but that it was an old phrase dating back to 1926. Bradley Ancrum from BP suggested it as a name for the podcast because you didn't have one. Thanks, Bradley. Hey, fellow listeners. My name is Mac. I'm 20 years old. I go to the University of Florida.

I used to work on the groundskeeping crew for the University of Florida these past two seasons. So if you see any highlights of Hunter Barco or Jeff Babian or any of the great players that we've got in the draft coming up this year, the clay beneath their feet was put there by an effectively wild listener who was listening to the podcast at the time it was put there. So love the show. Thank you for all the great laughs. Have a great day. Ben, Meg, Jeff, Sam, grvumdrinke here from Iceland. Congratulations on 10 amazing years. Or as we say here, til hamege met tiara avmallet.

My name's JJ, and I'm recording this in my car in honor of Sam. I first found Effectively Wild when Ben linked to it in a Grantland article while I was in college. So 2013, 2014. and I've been listening

ever since. I wouldn't look at baseball the same way without it. I've loved the community I've found here with the podcast, and I can't wait for 10 more great years. Keep it going, Ben and Meg. Hi, this is John Chenier, manager of analytics for the Seattle Mariners and official scorekeeper of Effectively Wild. If my life were different, how different would it be? Well, without Effectively Wild, it would be very, very different. Ben and Sam allowing me to be their draft record keeper and subsequently letting me help with the Stompers is what started the chain of events that led me to my current role with the M's and I wouldn't trade it for anything. So thank you, Ben, Meg, Sam, and Jeff. Congratulations on 10 years, and here's to at least 10 more.

This is Jessica Brand, longtime listener. What a world. Where 187 days isn't part of the story, it's everyone's story. BW fans, BW teams. BW Jeff's world of endless wonder, except for trampolines. BW Meg and her personal representation of amazing women in baseball. BW Sam's Honda Fit and her slog to rigor mortis. B.W. Ben's eternal ingenuity.

B.W. All the Great Effectively Wild. Where else could we find stories not only of what's happening on the field and the latest stories of humanity and its off-field greatness, but where fantasy is in fact reality? Effectively Wild's oxymoronic name extends that way too. With the community blazing as a class A fastball, bringing a rising daily joy of all things baseball, who more could you want? Well, me personally, not much more. I was here for a good two, three years from the community on Facebook, with remarks and comments, and so much more that made the show feel more of a home and a community really than elsewhere and anything else without each and every one of you i am not working my dream job major league baseball for mlb network right now doing stats daily as i used to my life means so much more as much and i can

only hope it continues to do so for so many others be they the podcast team or just listeners or community members life gives us chances some of, when we paint on the corner, some are down and away, in the dirt. Where we go in life, well, we just don't know. And that makes us the collective, well, effectively wild. Thank you so very much. Well, just as those listeners thanked us, I will thank them and thank you for listening

and for making this whole effort worthwhile. I'll link on the show page to a shared folder where you can find all of those listener testimonials. I'll also link to the listener emails database and some other information and media. I went back and checked, and the first email we ever received was on October 30th, 2012,

and it was in response to episode 72 when we first advertised the podcast email address and asked for listener emails. This was so long ago that my neighborhood was flooded because of Hurricane Sandy, and I mentioned to Sam that we are like the postal service of podcasts. You know, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night, etc. We're really like the Energizer Bunny of podcasts. We just keep going and going. Anyway, the first email we received, and actually the second, third, and fourth emails we received,

were all about the fact that when projecting the standings for 2013 in late October of 2012, we both picked the Astros to finish last in the NL Central. We were right about the Astros being bad and finishing last, but wrong about the division because we forgot that the Astros were moving from the NL Central to the AL West. So again, this podcast is so old that when we started, the Astros were a National League team. We have on occasion continued to make mistakes in the years since, and listeners have continued to call us on them. But from those humble beginnings came many, many incredible emails that have helped make this show and this community what it is. I will give some special thanks to Brad Ancrum, formerly of Baseball Perspectives and currently of the Minnesota Twins, for coming

up with the name for this podcast, just on the spur of the moment as we were about to record the first episode. Thanks to John Chenier, whom you just heard, for being the official stat keeper of Effectively Wild. Thanks to Arthur Rudolph for automating many of the records that we have of songs that were used and the duration of episodes, etc. All of that is available via the Facebook group's files section. Thanks to our stat blast consultants over the years, including Adam Ott, Ryan Nelson, Dan Hirsch, Kenny Jacklin, Lucas Apostolaris, Hans Van Sleuten, and others. Thanks to Brandon Lee, Darius Austin, and Ken Maeda for starting Banished to the Pen, the blog written by Effectively Wild listeners.

And to Brandon for founding the Effectively Wild wiki. Speaking of which, thank you to the late Mike Moriarty, as well as Adam Mayell and Raymond Chen for populating that wiki. Thanks to Tan Bao for starting the Facebook group. Thanks to David Appelman of Fangraphs for adopting the podcast and giving it a home.

And thanks to all of our Patreon supporters for making it feasible for us to continue doing this. And thanks to many, many others whom I have not named, but who have made a minor or major contribution to Effectively Wild at some point.

And of course, thank you to Sam and Jeff and Meg for joining me in this effort. This will be one of hopefully a few anniversary themed episodes this week. We will also have a normal midweek non-anniversary episode. So if all goes as planned, you can consider this one a big bonus episode. You can support the podcast on Patreon by going to patreon.com slash effectivelywild. The following five listeners have already signed up and pledged some monthly or yearly amount to help keep the podcast going, help us stay ad-free, and get themselves access to some perks. Justin Cusone, Alexandra Romanoff, Jeffrey Fastow, Paul Whitney, and Luke. Thanks to all of you. Patreon perks include access to the Effectively Wild Discord group,

monthly bonus episodes, discounts on t-shirts, including our brand new 10th anniversary model, playoff live streams, and more. You can contact me and Meg via email at podcastatfangraphs.com or via the Patreon messaging system if you are a supporter. You can join our Facebook group at facebook.com slash group slash Effectively Wild. You can rate, review, and subscribe to Effectively Wild

on iTunes and Spotify and other podcast platforms. You can follow Effectively Wild on Twitter at EWpod, and you can find the Effectively Wild subreddit at r slash effectivelywild. Thanks to Dylan Higgins for his editing and production assistance. Thanks to all of you for listening for 10 years or however long you've listened. It's been a pleasure to bring this show to you. Well, I can't guarantee another decade because who knows what will happen i can say that we will be back to talk to you a little later this week this is your anniversary

i'll light a candle in the window so you might see this is the day You had to go Goodbye then This concludes Your portion Of the show