Effectively Wild Episode 1417: Defining Fun Facts

Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about how Gleyber Torres’s ownership of the Orioles and Aristides Aquino’s home-run spree are emblematic of 2019, fun facts about players’ accomplishments in their first X games, home-run fun facts and the juiced ball, Juan Soto vs. Ronald Acuña, Jr., two recent Scott Boras quotes, the Dodgers’ near-record extra-base-hits game, and Jeff Mathis’s offensive ineptitude and defensive prowess, then discuss an ESPN oral history of the 1994 strike, touching on whether the sport would have survived the extensive use of replacement players, the change in media coverage of baseball labor issues, what the biggest loss would be if the rest of the 2019 season were canceled, and more.

Audio intro: Chance The Rapper, "Juice"
Audio outro: The Rock*A*Teens, "Pretty Thoughts Strike Down the Band"

Link to story on Torres and the Orioles
Link to Ben on breakout batters
Link to Jay Jaffe on Aquino
Link to C. Trent Rosecrans on Aquino’s swing change
Link to list of players with most batting runs through age 20
Link to Sam on Scioscia, Mathis, and Napoli
Link to Sam on Scioscia and defense again
Link to R.J. Anderson on Jeff Mathis’s game-calling
Link to worst offensive careers (min. 2500 PA)
Link to worst offensive single seasons (min. 200 PA)
Link to Tim Kurkjian’s oral history of the strike
Link to Ben on Lords of the Realm
Link to the book Baseball’s Power Shift
Link to Emma Baccellieri on players’ social media advocacy
Link to Evan Drellich’s oral history of the strike
Link to Bryan Curtis on the liberalization of sportswriting
Link to order The MVP Machine

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