All the bush-lead batters are left to die on the diamond

In the stands the whole crowd scatters for the turnstile

For the turnstile

Hello and welcome to episode 1555 of Effectively Wild

a baseball podcast from Fan Graphs presented by our Patreon supporters

I'm Ben Linberg of the ringer joined by Meg Rally of Fan Graphs Hello Meg

Hello, so on paper this is the podcast we've been waiting for

This is the one where we finally get to declare baseball is back or about to be back

or theoretically it will be back. There is an agreement or not an agreement but at least an arrangement by which baseball will be returning

and I think we're both a bit ambivalent about it

It's the time that I think we've all been sort of looking forward to for a few months and I wish that we could feel better about it and wholeheartedly and full-throatedly support it

but under the circumstances it's difficult

Yep, yep, Ben

It is uh, it's tricky

I will, I'll just admit I feel, I feel some relief

Yes

I feel guilty about that sense of relief because it is selfishly motivated

because I like my job a lot and I like the website I work for a lot

You too

and I like my friends who work in baseball, whether it's in baseball media or who work for teams in various capacities a lot

and I want everyone to still have jobs

Yes

...