Effectively Wild Episode 1111: The World-Series-Winner Draft
September 16, 2017
Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter (one last time) about Cleveland’s winning streak, Lenny Harris and an Ichiro record, Jeff’s successful search for the fly-ball revolution, and the increasing difficulty of scouting position players, then draft the World Series contenders that would be the best (and worst) stories.
Audio intro: Eagle, "Pinch Hitter"
Audio outro: Everclear, "Now That it’s Over"
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Okay, so I will apologize in advance and say this is a little bit of a rant, so be forewarned. Also, I have to say that I generally love your podcasts, though I only have time in my week to listen to about every third episode on my dog walks because I listen to other good podcasts as well. Also, since I am nearing 60 years old, I am getting into grumpy old man territory
Anyway, I was completely floored listening to the most recent podcast when Jeff decided to go online and look to see if the NY Giants in 1916 had played any games against the Philadelphia Athletics during their 26 game winning streak. I am thinking, well no, of course not, the two leagues did not play each other in 1916 and those two teams were in different leagues, so why look? This is a rant because I am also a teacher of young people, and there seems to be a growing trend that there is no reason to “know things”, like historical facts, because we can always look things up.
Now generally I like when Jeff dives into some arcane statistic by looking up things online during the podcast, but in those cases these are not easily knowable facts (like in 1916 the two teams in Philadelphia, just as those in Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and New York—not Brooklyn—were all in different leagues) but data questions that we need technology to truly understand. I teach Statistics as a discipline, so I am appreciative of the power of technology, but I am disappointed that it has led to an erosion of knowledge of important history because of this attitude about knowing facts.
Keep up the good work on the podcasts. I still enjoy them, but I encourage you to use online searches during the show for statistical questions.
I wouldn’t exactly call anything in baseball “important history” and “historical facts”. Maybe Jeff doesn’t know these minute details such as teams in leagues off the top of his head while he is being recorded for thousands of people’s ears?