Effectively Wild Episode 1708: Spinning Out

by
June 17, 2021

EWFI
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Jose Altuve forgoing a home run trot, then break down the details of MLB’s plan to enforce the rules against foreign-substance use starting on June 21, covering the pros and cons of putting that plan into action at midseason and opting to ban all substances, what the effects on offense will be, whether Tyler Glasnow’s injury presages many more arm injuries ahead, a Scott Boras metaphor, and much more. Then (51:07) they bring on EW listener and criminology scholar Josh Beck to explain what the principles of punishment and deterrence can tell us about the efficacy of MLB’s approach to preventing cheating.

Audio intro: John Lennon, "Cold Turkey"
Audio interstitial: Grateful Dead, "Victim or the Crime"
Audio outro: Paul McCartney & Wings, "Spin it On"

Link to video of 2012 Morse homer
Link to video of Altuve homer
Link to details of MLB’s plan
Link to Ben on sticky stuff
Link to Jeff Passan on sticky stuff
Link to Boras statement
Link to info on deterrence
Link to paper on deterrence theory
Link to five findings about deterrence
Link to paper on cheating in baseball

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Fungo4444
2 years ago

Good show (in spite of puns).

The “blame MLB” line is a little too easy. It is difficult to have to constantly monitor working adults who should by default- not be assumed to be cheaters.

If you had a writer who constantly published plagiarised material, would you blame yourself>? After all- people always cheat — you didnt catch him earlier — you must have missed him cheating before> etc… Thats your current argument…

This is not a “platonic” ideal of something — its a sport where the fun of it is competition. I know that makes FG folks uncomfortable as the site took the same line on steroids and trash can banging, but — how about this as a baseline — stop cheating — stop whining — stop making excuses – stop coddling these athletes who have been coddled their entire lives. How about we start there?

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Chip Lockemember
2 years ago
Reply to  Fungo4444

Your analogy falls at the outset of only naming one writer. The analogy – to the degree that it can work – should be “what if every writer plagiarized and had done so for years and the generation of writers before them also plagiarized and if you outlawed plagiarism right away you could be causing harm to writers and readers alike to degrees we’ve never seen before.”

I agree that cheating is cheating but I don’t think it’s as simple a solution as you say it is or MLB is saying it is.

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