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Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast

Effectively Wild Episode 2458: The Opening Day Debutant (Base)ball

Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley

Sports, Baseball

4.72.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2026

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

EWFI
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, please visit our Patreon.

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the pleasures of and precedents for the historic rookie performances on Opening Day, the pains of Netflix’s Opening Night broadcast, an Opening Day disaster for Paul Skenes, Oneil Cruz, and a bird near Carson Benge, Freddie Freeman’s gameday fit, a perplexing (un?)fun fact about the Phillies and Jhoan Duran, why players don’t always challenge when they “should,” Nico Hoerner and Shane Baz extensions, baseball movies being back (thanks to Tom Hanks), and more, plus a Stat Blast (1:28:40) about Black Ink streaks and a postscript (1:37:14) featuring a follow-up and a few bonus Blasts.

Audio intro: Grant Brisbee, “Effectively Wild Theme
Audio outro: Philip Bergman, “Effectively Wild Theme

Link to freemium model announcement
Link to written explanation
Link to 2026 new debuts
Link to RE24 query
Link to 2026 RE24 players
Link to 1914 RE24 players
Link to 1938 RE24 players
Link to 1950 RE24 players
Link to RE24 glossary
Link to B-Ref RE24 leaders
Link to total bases query
Link to 2026 TB players
Link to 1938 TB players
Link to 1.000 OPS query
Link to 2026 1.000 OPS players
Link to 1901 1.000 OPS players
Link to 1938 1.000 OPS players
Link to Dick Crutcher bio
Link to Baumann on the rookies
Link to “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon”
Link to first White Sox game
Link to Marchand on the Netflix game
Link to Bonds story
Link to Bonds at Rickwood game
Link to 180-degree rule
Link to FG post on Skenes
Link to Ben on the Pirates and A’s
Link to Pirates HR celebration
Link to Benge on the bird
Link to Freeman post 1
Link to Freeman post 2
Link to Stark post
Link to Sam post
Link to Phillies home closers query
Link to Phillies road closers query
Link to Phillies OD home games
Link to Phillies OD road games
Link to home OD saves by team
Link to Kruk comment
Link to Tango on location uncertainty
Link to Petriello on catcher challenges
Link to Ben’s catcher research
Link to MLBTR on Hoerner
Link to MLBTR on Baz
Link to upcoming FA class
Link to Hanks movie announcement
Link to Hanks typewriter collection
Link to Night Swim wiki
Link to Caught Stealing wiki
Link to Eephus EW interview
Link to Ben on Rogue One and Andor
Link to Black Ink info
Link to Black Ink data 1
Link to Black Ink data 2
Link to Ben on Trout’s Black Ink
Link to blowout 1
Link to blowout 2
Link to blowout 3
Link to blowout 4
Link to blowout 5
Link to blowout 6
Link to blowout 7
Link to blowout 8
Link to Vinay’s data
Link to 1930 game
Link to Sam on record talent
Link to Davy on Mets basestealing
Link to Newsday on Mets basestealing
Link to story on Richardson and Riley
Link to listener emails database

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Effectively wild, effectively wild, effectively wild.

0:08.1

Effectively wild.

0:10.4

Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, effectively wild.

0:14.7

Hello and welcome to episode 2458 of Effectively Wild, a Fangraphs baseball podcast brought

0:26.7

you by our Patreon supporters.

0:28.7

I'm Meg Rally of Fangraves, and I am joined by Ben Lindberg of the Ringer.

0:32.0

Ben, happy third opening day.

0:35.7

Yes, the real one, did we decide? They're all real to me in some sense. We need them all

0:41.0

together. It's with their powers combined. We are captain opening day. So this is good.

0:46.9

All the teams will have played by the time people have heard this. So you don't have to feel left

0:51.9

out. If you were the Squidward SpongeBob meme

0:55.6

looking through the blinds at other people playing and having fun. Now you get to play too. It's

1:01.5

opening day for everyone. Finally. Finally. And brought to you by our Patreon supporters, also brought

1:09.6

to our Patreon supporters because this is the first

1:13.9

paid episode of Effectively Wild. So welcome to our subscribers. Welcome also to our free previewers,

1:21.2

whether you are spending something or nothing on this episode. We hope you'll feel like you

1:26.5

at least got what you paid for.

1:28.3

We hope that you'll stick around if you're able and we're gratified by the response from everyone

1:33.9

this week. And, you know, I was thinking, I mean, it's a, it's a momentous thing to ask people

1:39.7

for their money, which we've done in a sense before, but are doing in a more concerted fashion.

1:46.6

And we always ask people for their time and plenty of it.

1:50.5

But I know they say time is money.

...

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