The level of the rising sea, everything is permanent now.

The politics and Christmas trees, everything is permanent now.

The whole world will end once green, everything is permanent now.

I think we should all come clean, everything is permanent now.

Hello and welcome to episode 1968 of Effectively Wild A Baseball Podcast

for fan graphs presented by our Patreon supporters.

I am Ben Lemberg of the Ringer joint by Meg Rally of Fan Graphs Hello, Meg.

Hello!

Well, it's a dark day.

It's a day we've long dreaded, although one that has also long seemed inevitable

to the point that, in a sense, there's almost a little bit of relief that comes with it

just to end my suffering or at least to make my suffering permanent.

Let me get used to the idea that the point is the zombie runner is not going away.

Now, we've known that it wasn't going away.

Basically, since it started, I think we had the sense once they got it in there on a trial basis,

we would never be free of it, but certainly once it continued past the peak of the pandemic,

it seemed like it was just a matter of time.

The MLB Joint Competition Committee, which is composed of players and owners and executives

and empires, voted unanimously to extend it into 2023 and beyond.

So they're not even maintaining the charade that this is a short-term move.

Presumably, this is still seen as too farcical for the postseason,

so it's not spreading to October yet.

...