Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley answer listener emails about why we don’t see more hidden-ball tricks in MLB, why big leaguers practice fielding grounders between innings, comparing the careers of Paul Goldschmidt and Freddie Freeman, how baseball broadcasts should discuss domestic-violence suspensions, whether Rickey Henderson would still have stolen bases if he’d been inflicted with Glass Ass Syndrome, and whether teams could get more favorable calls by riding umpires even harder than they already do, then (58:01) field “How can you not be pedantic about baseball?” questions about hometown discounts for players who aren’t native to a town, who qualifies as a “phenom,” and pitches “on the corner,” followed by (1:08:53) Stat Blasts about pitchers who’ve lost to every current franchise and how patterns of starter wins and losses have changed, how often game times exactly match game start times, and whether Roger Angell was right about a bet in 1975.

Audio intro: Jim White, “Smart-Ass Reply”
Audio outro: Beams, “Break Glass”

Link to Double-A hidden-ball trick
Link to Retrosheet list of hidden-ball tricks
Link to MLB.com on Barrett
Link to Finding the Hidden-Ball Trick
Link to story on Goldschmidt’s 2013 nickname
Link to SI on Rickey’s SB technique
Link to first study on taking close pitches
Link to second study on taking close pitches
Link to pitcher leaderboard of teams lost to
Link to SP decision rates by year
Link to data on SP W/L correlations
Link to game times matching start times
Link to shortest game with matching times
Link to longest game with matching times
Link to list of longest regular-season games
Link to FG Roger Angell reading recs post
Link to Jay’s tribute to Angell
Link to “Agincourt and After”
Link to passage from “Agincourt and After”
Link to historical data on the Angell bet
Link to Ryan Nelson’s Twitter
Link to Stathead
Link to EW listener emails database
Link to TOOTBLAN glossary entry
Link to FARTSLAM introduction
Link to FARTSLAM discussion
Link to FARTSLAM montage

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