Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about baseball dreams and a holiday weekend in MLB marred by testing delays, canceled practices, concerned players, and other impediments to a safe and smooth season, then pick up where they left off four months ago in their season preview series by previewing the 2020 Tampa Bay Rays (16:05) with The Athletic’s Josh Tolentino and the 2020 Miami Marlins (57:10) with the Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson. 2020 EW Season Preview Series ALBALCHWATHBOSCLEHOUNYYDETLAATBRKCRSEATORMINTEX NLATLCHCARIMIACINCOLNYMMILLADPHIPITSDPWSNSTLSFG Audio intro: Warren Zevon, "Disorder in the House" Audio interstitial 1: Superchunk, "Florida’s on Fire" Audio interstitial 2: Modest Mouse, "Florida" Audio outro: Mac DeMarco, "Dreams From Yesterday" Link to Jay Jaffe’s summary of MLB’s testing mess Link to story on Chaim Bloom’s cardigan Link to Yandy Díaz workout Link to story on Jonathan Erlichman Link to Josh’s Rays return-to-play guide Link to Josh on the Rays’ farm system Link to FanGraphs’ Rays prospect rankings Link to Jordan on the Marlins’ furloughs Link to Jordan on the Marlins’ COVID-19 concerns Link to Jordan on Marlins roster decisions Link to FanGraphs’ Marlins prospect rankings Link to Roster Resource Team Info Tracker  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com Source

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the difficulties of disclosing or obscuring the identities of players who hit the injured list after contracting COVID-19, dissect a few new analogies from Scott Boras’s brain, and discuss resuming their season preview series, then (35:47) conclude their week-long celebration of the Negro Leagues by bringing on esteemed Negro Leagues historian Larry Lester to discuss the origins of scholarship about the Negro Leagues, co-founding the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, collecting Negro Leagues artifacts, his relationships with former Negro League players, helping select the Negro Leaguers inducted into the hall of Fame, his efforts to find Negro Leagues box scores and the status of the project to complete the statistical record, the greatest writers who covered the Negro Leagues, his favorite unsung players, the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project, how he researched Negro Leagues uniforms and helped obtain pensions for Negro Leaguers, and more (plus a postscript about reading recommendations). Audio intro: Bob Dylan, "One More Cup of Coffee" Audio interstitial: Natural Resource, "Negro Baseball League" Audio outro: Blind Lemon Jefferson, "See That My Grave is Kept Clean" Link to stream Stove League on Viki Link to Lindsey on COVID and the IL Link to Larry Lester’s website Link to NLBM website Link to Only the Ball Was White Link to Larry’s Henry Chadwick Award page Link to Larry’s Bob Davids Award page Link to Hall of Fame Screening Committee press release Link to Grave Marker Project page Link to Jerry Malloy Conference info Link to info on Cannonball Dick Redding Link to Seamheads Negro Leagues Database Link to SABR’s guide to researching the Negro Leagues Link to Rob Arthur on systemic racism in baseball Link to Rob on racial bias in player promotions Link to Shakeia Taylor on Effa Manley Link to Shakeia on the Negro Leagues centennial Link to Shakeia on the Negro Leagues Grave Marker Project  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com Source

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Ben’s effusive streaming recommendation, the Korean baseball drama Stove League. Then (8:51) they start the second episode of their week-long celebration of the Negro Leagues by bringing on Jeremy Beer, author of the award-winning baseball biography Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player, to talk about Charleston’s bona fides as one of the top 10 baseball players of all time, why his fame falls short of his accomplishments, and the challenges of researching Negro Leagues stars. Lastly (46:18), they speak to Invisible Ball of Dreams author and Ball State University professor Emily Ruth Rutter about two of the only non-documentary movies to focus on the Negro Leagues, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) and Soul of the Game (1996), touching on where they succeed and fail, the differences in their portrayals of the Negro Leagues and Negro Leaguers, and the history of cinematic and literary representations of Black baseball. Audio intro: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "Forgotten Man" Audio interstitial: Thelma Houston, "The Bingo Long Song (Steal on Home)" Audio outro: Sloan, "Set in Motion" Link to Stove League trailer Link to stream Stove League on Viki Link to stream Stove League on Kocowa Link to Oscar Charleston book page Link to Charleston at the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database Link to Charleston’s Hall of Fame page Link to Joe Posnanski on Charleston Link to Bingo Long trailer Link to Bingo Long full movie on YouTube Link to Soul of the Game full movie on YouTube Link to BlackBaseballLit site Link to Invisible Ball of Dreams Link to Paul Petrovic essay on Bingo Long and Soul of the Game Link to article about historical inaccuracies in Soul of the Game Link to Washington Post review of Soul of the Game Link to Roger Ebert’s review of Bingo Long Link to New York Times story on Toni Stone  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com Source

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the backlash to MLB’s use of the sponsored term “summer camp,” four players’ decisions to opt out of the season, a heartfelt, thought-provoking post by Ian Desmond, and the official cancellation of the minor league season. Then they explain the Negro Leagues theme of this week of Effectively Wild episodes and (at 16:19) bring on Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick to talk about the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro Leagues, the Tipping Your Cap campaign, how the pandemic has impacted plans to celebrate the centennial, the Negro Leagues’ origin story, Bob’s favorite unsung players and museum guests and artifacts, how young players connect with the Negro Leagues’ legacy, how the story of the Negro Leagues resonates in a year of racial reckoning, and more. Lastly (1:04:25), the late Negro Leagues great Buck O’Neil delivers a classic speech at the 2006 Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Audio intro: Dr. Dog, "100 Years" Audio outro: The Rolling Stones, "100 Years Ago" Link to Desmond’s post Link to Baseball America on the MiLB cancellation Link to Tipping Your Cap website Link to NLBM website Link to NLBM donation page Link to AP story on MVP plaques Link to John Donaldson interview episode Link to Hall of Fame page for Martín Dihigo Link to Buck O’Neil speech Link to Joe Posnanski on Buck O’Neil  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com Source

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley talk to a beat writer and a broadcaster—The Athletic’s White Sox reporter James Fegan and Diamondbacks and MLB Network Radio host Mike Ferrin—about how they plan to tackle the unique challenges of covering the 2020 season, touching on how often they’ll be at the ballpark, how restricted access to players will affect their work, how they’ll blend baseball coverage with allusions to national news, how their audiences reacted to MLB’s latest labor battle and the news of a season starting amid a pandemic, what they think the response from fans and teammates would be to a player sitting out the season, how White Sox and Diamondbacks fans will view the shortened season, which changes in sports media they expect to be permanent, running low on article ideas, and more. Audio intro: Nathaniel Rateliff, "Don’t Get Too Close" Audio outro: Feist, "The Park"  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com Source

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley answer listener emails about statistical leaders and record-setters in a small-sample season, what would make winning a championship in a 60-game season more impressive, the odds of good teams missing the playoffs, bad teams making the playoffs, and teams having unrepresentative 60-game stretches, the possibility of losing a perfect game, what types of teams are built for this strange season, KBO’s catching techniques compared to MLB’s, why American sports are averse to ties, and service-time manipulation and top-prospect promotion in a short season, plus a Stat Blast about Billy Hamilton’s value as an extra-inning runner, featuring FanGraphs writer (and visiting Stat Blaster) Ben Clemens. Audio intro: The Rock*A*Teens, "Billy Really" Audio outro: Tennis, "Runner" Link to Ben on the randomness of a 60-game season Link to Sam and others on short-season stats Link to Jay on team entropy in a 60-game season Link to Stark on losing a perfect game Link to Alex Eichler’s Stat Blast song cover Link to Jeremy Frank’s Hamilton hypothetical Link to Ben Clemens on the Hamilton scenario Link to Kapler’s comments on Hamilton Link to Jon Tayler on the extra-innings-runner rule Link to Sam’s 2014 Hamilton hypothetical Link to Reds pitching staff article Link to Eno on team pitching staff depth Link to paper on America’s aversion to ties Link to article about the history of ties in baseball  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com Source

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley discuss the long-in-the-making announcement about the MLB season starting, touching on the resolution of the dispute between the league and the union, their deeply conflicted feelings about baseball being played during a pandemic, the strangeness of a 60-game season, how to reframe fandom and reorient rooting interests in a short season, starting extra innings with runners on second, and an especially perplexing Scott Boras analogy. Then (45:20) they bring on epidemiologist, incoming Emory University professor, and sports data analyst Zach Binney to discuss MLB’s health-and-safety protocol, the difficult of preventing transmission in baseball compared to other sports, the recent coronavirus outbreaks in baseball, the ethics and efficacy of COVID-19 testing in sports, whether temperature and symptom screenings work, how long players who test positive might have to sit out, prohibitions on spitting, touching, and equipment sharing, how to protect non-players who work for teams, what it might take for MLB to stop the season, the trajectory of the pandemic in the country at large, and more. Audio intro: Neil Young, "For the Turnstiles" Audio interstitial: Richard Thompson, "Keep Your Distance" Audio outro: Ted Berg, "Small Sample Size Song" Link to Ben on the MLB season starting Link to info on new Darvish pitch Link to Dan’s playoff odds and projected standings Link to Neil Paine on “paper champions” Link to Neil on the 60-game season Link to Neil on observing true talent in various sports Link to Eno Sarris on short seasons Link to Russell Carleton on the 60-game season Link to Boras analogy article Link to 2020 MLB operations manual Link to summary of manual Link to Zach’s website Link to Zach’s Football Outsiders archive Link to epidemiologist survey about attending sporting events Link to SI article about baseball’s non-bubble plan  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com Source

Meg Rowley is joined by the New York Daily News’ Bradford William Davis and Baseball Prospectus’ Shakeia Taylor to discuss Major League Baseball’s response to the police killing of George Floyd and the recent Black Lives Matter protests, why the league’s statements have been so wanting, whether teams have a role to play — both in their communities and in their clubhouses — in conversations about systemic racism, players’ increased willingness to support BLM publicly, some concrete steps MLB should be taking to make baseball more accessible to Black players and fans, and how the media should engage with players around activism and questions of social justice, police brutality, and racism. Plus, Shakeia and Bradford share their thoughts on the strange, short season of baseball we’re about to see. Audio intro: Otis Redding, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” Audio outro: The Police, “Truth Hits Everybody” Link to Shakeia’s piece on Tim Anderson. Link to Bradford’s piece on the need for pro sports leagues to say more in their statements on police brutality. Link to Shakeia’s piece on how diversity in baseball begins in Little League. Link to Bradford’s piece on how MLB is (and isn’t) involving public health officials in its resumption of play plans. Link to the Five and Dive showpage, the podcast Bradford co-hosts at Baseball Prospectus with Craig Goldstein of BP and Emma Baccellieri of Sports Illustrated. Link to Demetrius Bell’s piece “What Jackie Knew,” the first in a series of articles at Baseball Prospectus by Black authors that will explore op-eds and articles written by Jackie Robinson throughout and after his career.  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com Source

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley review the latest lack of progress toward starting the MLB season, touching on the false hope offered by a meeting between Rob Manfred and Tony Clark, the subsequent breakdown in talks, a poll about where the public places blame for the standstill, what negotiations without leaks would look like, how the parties will proceed, and more. Then they discuss a series of COVID-19 outbreaks in baseball, the feasibility of a safe season, the importance of mask-wearing, and a Scott Boras quote about taking baseball’s temperature, plus a Stat Blast about the players who played for the most World Series-winning teams without appearing in the World Series, and a warning about top prospects’ proximity to trampolines. Audio intro: The Sleepy Jackson, "I Understand What You Want But I Just Don’t Agree" Audio outro: Ezra Furman, "Thermometer" Link to story on the latest MLB disagreements Link to The Athletic on the midpoint problem Link to Eugene Freedman’s post Link to The Athletic on the backgrounds of MLB owners Link to The Athletic on COVID outbreaks in baseball Link to study on the number of prevented infections Link to study on the effectiveness of mask-wearing Link to second study on the effectiveness of mask-wearing Link to Morning Consult poll results Link to Boras article with Verducci quotes Link to Mayo Clinic thermometers page Link to Stat Blast song cover by Kyle Cripps Link to list of players with most rings without a WS appearance Link to Wander Franco trampoline post Link to Idiocracy thermometer scene  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com Source

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley discuss Rob Manfred’s rapid flip-flop from expressing 100 percent confidence about an MLB season starting to expressing a lack of confidence in an MLB season starting, his ultimatum to the union, how Manfred has floundered at a pivotal time and how that failure effects his future, how some owners’ reluctance to start the season is hurting themselves and the sport, how COVID complicates plans to play, the worst-case scenario for the league, the odds of a season, and more. Then they answer listener emails about how to support players while still supporting teams, expanding the division series, the impact of future NBA seasons overlapping longer with MLB’s, whether players could form their own league, teams’ incentive to win in 2020, and whether and why pulled homers are the most aesthetically pleasing, plus Stat Blasts about players with the least playing time by number of years of service time and an unsurpassed feat by Mark Buehrle. Audio intro: Courtney Barnett, "Crippling Self-Doubt and a General Lack of Confidence" Audio outro: Drive-By Truckers, "Grievance Merchants" Link to The Athletic on the latest in MLB’s big dispute Link to Craig Edwards on Manfred’s latest comments Link to Jeff Passan on Manfred Link to Ken Rosenthal on Manfred Link to Stat Blast song cover by John Choiniere and Lucas Apostoleris Link to Lucas’s debut album Link to service time spreadsheet Link to starters with most games facing the minimum Link to Rany on Buehrle  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com Source