Effectively Wild Episode 2148: Backyard Baseball

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the earthquake in the Northeast, Juan Soto’s choice of walk-up song, J.J. Hardy building a ballpark in his Arizona backyard, the pluses and minuses of living in or near a ballpark, and how Shohei Ohtani relates to the Tower of Babel, then (1:04:21) answer listener emails about the Moneyball A’s vs. the 116-win Mariners, Joey Votto and players’ skill with cursive script, how long a ceremonial first pitch thrower could potentially delay a game, the value of consistently throwing from multiple arm slots, and how much better a team would be if its opponents knew nothing about it in advance.

Audio intro: Beatwriter, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: The Gagnés, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to NYT on the earthquake
Link to Gleyber’s BP
Link to Soto song tweet
Link to “Empire State of Mind”
Link to Correa Dior store quote
Link to Hardy yardwork report
Link to Olerud tree story
Link to Target Field view
Link to Minneapolis apartment building
Link to converted Indianapolis ballpark
Link to Indy stadium lofts
Link to converted Osaka Stadium
Link to The Athletic on the Dodgers ball
Link to Dodgers follow-up article
Link to Ohtani video clip
Link to Tower of Babel wiki
Link to Votto tweet
Link to NPR on cursive
Link to The Atlantic on cursive
Link to NYT on cursive
Link to Rangers first pitch
Link to Padres exhibition game
Link to Ben on rookie pitcher comments
Link to research on MLB debuts
Link to listener emails database
Link to Strider article
Link to Ben on pitcher injuries
Link to info on “misles”
Link to ballpark meetup forms
Link to meetup organizer form