I want back to the new ones

From two hosts, to other gods

I'm just a fan of walls

Nothing less than effectively wild

Nothing less than effectively wild

Hello and welcome to episode 1982 of Effectively Wild

a baseball podcast from fan graphs presented by our Patreon supporters

I am Ben Lindbergh of the Ringer joined by Meg Rally of Fan Graphs

Hello, Meg

Hello

Remember last week we were talking to our WBC preview guest, Sean Straddling

And I think he brought up the synchronized flushing that goes on in Japan

As everyone watching the WBC takes bathroom breaks at the same time

And you can see just the volume of fluid passing through the pipes at those moments

Well, along those lines

I saw the rating information for the Japan versus Italy quarter final game

In Japan, according to a report from Sponichi, apparently 48% of Japanese households were watching that game

Which is a record for the WBC there, but it's just a pretty extraordinary number

I think when you put that in context, I mean, I can't like half of the households in Japan are tuned into this thing at any moment

And I have serious envy for this environment

This makes me long for a monoculture that I've never known

Of course, the US is more populous than Japan and more diverse ethnically

...