Effectively Wild Episode 1494: Listen to What the Bang Said
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2020
⏱️ 91 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley recap and consider the implications of the latest and greatest analyses of the Astros’ banging scheme, which appear to show that the team’s cheating didn’t increase its offensive production in the aggregate. Then (20:08) they talk to the man who made that research possible, longtime Astros fan Tony Adams, about his epic effort to document the extent of the Astros’ banging scheme, what motivated him to spend weeks watching and listening to pitches from 2017 Astros games, how he felt about the revelation that the Astros had illegally stolen signs, what the 2017 title meant to him at the time, what it means to him now, and the 2020 team. Lastly (53:56), they bring on Professor Woody Studenmund to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the pioneering North East League, the oldest APBA league in existence, and explain the appeal of baseball simulation games, the highlights of the league’s history, and the value of having a lifelong hobby.
Audio intro: Galactic (Feat. Mavis Staples), "Does it Really Make a Difference"
Audio interstitial 1: Johnny Flynn, "Been Listening"
Audio interstitial 2: The Coasters, "Keep on Rolling"
Audio outro: Lee Graves, "Sixty Years and a Day"
Link to SignStealingScandal.com
Link to Rob Arthur’s article
Link to Bill Petti’s thread
Link to Ben on sign stealing’s effectiveness
Link to The Athletic article about Tony
Link to info on APBA
Link to article on the NEL
Link to The APBA Blog
Link to order The MVP Machine
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Doesn't really make a difference if we don't see out of eye |
| 0:12.0 | Doesn't really make a difference to build your castle in the sky |
| 0:19.0 | Oh-ho, doesn't really make a difference at all |
| 0:27.0 | Oh we're going to let the big things take over the small |
| 0:32.0 | Doesn't make a difference at all |
| 0:37.0 | Doesn't make a difference at all |
| 0:40.0 | Hello and welcome to episode 1494 of Effectively Wild |
| 0:44.0 | a fancraft space ball podcast brought to you by our Patreon supporters |
| 0:48.0 | I'm Meg Rally of Fancrafts and I joined as always by Ben Lindbergh of the Ringer |
| 0:52.0 | Ben How are you? |
| 0:53.0 | I'm doing alright, how are you? |
| 0:55.0 | I am almost done with this cold song doing good |
| 1:00.0 | Alright, one more coffee free episode |
| 1:03.0 | It'll be home free |
| 1:05.0 | So you won't have to talk too much today because we have a double guest day |
| 1:09.0 | We're bringing on two guests later on in this episode and the second half we'll be talking to Woody studentman |
| 1:14.0 | who is the proprietor of the Northeast League which is a league in the tabletop baseball game |
| 1:20.0 | APBA baseball which dates back to 1960 the Northeast League was founded in 1960 |
| 1:26.0 | So Woody is about to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the continuous operation of this league |
| 1:33.0 | which is sort of a fascinating story |
| 1:36.0 | So we will talk to him later on in the episode |
| 1:39.0 | Soon we will bring on Tony Adams who made major waves on baseball Twitter this week by releasing a giant database |
... |
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