Effectively Wild Episode 1680: Díganos de Dihigo

April 13, 2021

EWFI
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Joe Musgrove‘s no-hitter and the significance of Musgrove snapping the Padres’ no-no-no streak, Tim Locastro breaking Tim Raines’s record for the most consecutive successful steal attempts to start a career, Ronald Acuña Jr. beating out a routine grounder and MLB’s “FieldVision” depiction of the play, the controversial call on (and replay review of) an Alec Bohm slide that ended the Philly-Atlanta Sunday Night Baseball game, Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama’s baseball heroes, and the two-way, all-around greatness of Negro Leagues great and five-time Hall of Famer Martín Dihigo. Then (47:56) Ben talks to Dihigo’s youngest son and biographer, Gilberto Dihigo, along with University of Illinois history professor (and Negro Leagues and U.S. Latino history scholar) Adrian Burgos Jr., about Dihigo’s legendary life and career, how he achieved two-way greatness, and whether the sport will ever see his likes again.

Audio intro: Son Volt, "Left a Slide"
Audio interstitial: The Baseball Project, "Phenom"
Audio outro: The Felice Brothers, "Hometown Hero"

Link to BP on Musgrove and Bohm
Link to Ben on the once-anonymous Padres
Link to Devan on Locastro
Link to story on Locastro and Raines
Link to Acuña grounder video
Link to Acuña FieldVision video
Link to Baseball Savant sprint speed leaderboard
Link to Bohm slide video
Link to Atlanta’s reaction to the Bohm call
Link to Dihigo’s Seamheads batter page
Link to Dihigo’s Seamheads pitcher page
Link to Pages from Baseball’s Past on Dihigo
Link to The Undefeated on Dihigo
Link to THT on Dihigo
Link to THT on two-way Negro Leagues greats
Link to Newsday on Dihigo
Link to MLB.com on Dihigo
Link to Dihigo’s SABR bio
Link to Gilberto’s Zoom background
Link to Gilberto’s YouTube channel
Link to YouTube documentary on Dihigo
Link to recording of “Elegía a Martín Dihigo”
Link to transcript of “Elegía a Martín Dihigo”
Link to Gilberto’s biography of his father
Link to Gilberto’s book Estrellas Por Siempre
Link to Adrian’s book Playing America’s Game
Link to Adrian’s book Cuban Star