Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a Madison Bumgarner ejection, players having to be held back, and sensual sticky-stuff inspections, the historically slow start of the Reds and Joey Votto’s response to a FanGraphs article about his season-opening slump, and a study on which teams improve pitchers. Then (24:10) they discuss how John T. Brush of the 1889 Indianapolis Hoosiers discovered the “times through the order” penalty, implemented midgame pitching changes, and was forced to abandon the tactic, as an object lesson in how change happens (or doesn’t happen) in MLB and beyond. Finally (53:10) they provide a potpourri of Stat Blasts on pitchers with a higher ERA+ than sum of batters faced, Kyle Schwarber and the best offensive performance by a player on the losing end of a no-hitter, Juan Soto and players who drive only themselves in, the highest-scoring game where every run scored on an out, the winning streak of Max Scherzer’s teams, “hitting your weight,” and home-run rates by day of the week, capped off by a cold call (1:11:10) to 95-year-old former major leaguer (and Stat Blast subject) Charlie Maxwell, who discusses learning from, throwing batting practice to, and being blocked by Ted Williams, hitting a pinch-hit grand slam off of Satchel Paige, helping the Tigers win more often when he was in the lineup, being clutch, hitting homers on Sundays, his many nicknames, how baseball has evolved since his playing days, and more.

Audio intro: AC/DC, “Hold Me Back”
Audio outro: Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Charlie”

Link to Bumgarner check video
Link to another Bumgarner video
Link to Bumgarner’s postgame comments
Link to Dan Szymborski on Votto
Link to Votto’s tweet
Link to Cameron Grove’s pitcher dev tweet
Link to Ben on pitcher limits
Link to John T. Brush’s SABR bio
Link to Brush’s B-Ref Bullpen page
Link to articles about Brush’s experiment
Link to 1889 Hoosiers schedule
Link to The Only Rule Is It Has to Work
Link to Ben on La Russa and the opener
Link to Hershberger’s SABR author page
Link to Hershberger’s book, Strike Four
Link to John Thorn’s foreword to Strike Four
Link to Stathead
Link to Stathead webinar info
Link to Tim Burke Stathead query
Link to story on Mets combined no-no
Link to Charlie’s SABR bio
Link to no-hit leverage-adjusted RE24 leaders
Link to no-hit RE24 leaders
Link to no-hit WPA leaders
Link to pitcher team win streaks
Link to highest-scoring “runs on outs” game
Link to “hitting your weight” data
Link to data on dingers and days of the week
Link to “with or without you” Stat Blast data
Link to “with or without you” Stat Blast episode
Link to story about Charlie’s 4-homer day
Link to story about Charlie’s Sunday slugging
Link to Charlie’s w/RISP split ranking
Link to story about Charlie’s Opening Day visit
Link to video about Charlie and Paw Paw
Link to average game time by year
Link to oldest living former major leaguers
Link to Ann’s obit
Link to EW wiki page on cold calls
Link to Cease prediction video

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