Katie, Casey was baseball mad, had the fever and had it bad, just to room for the home.

Hey folks, and welcome to take me into the ball game, where we grade baseball movies and other media on the 20 to 80

scouting scale, nearly as important to Hollywood as the tomato meter. My name is Ellen Adair, and I am

absolutely thrilled to be joined today by Ben Lindberg, whom I feel needs no introduction, but in the unlikely event that you

don't know. Ben is a senior editor at the Ringer and the co-host of Effectively Wild and Hang

Up and Listen and the author of the books, The MVP Machine, and the only rule is it has to work.

Ben, how are you doing today? Era adjusted. Yes, I'm doing

great. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here as well. I hope you're not over-excited.

I hope I don't disappoint. I am over-excited, but I don't believe you could possibly disappoint.

Yes, you are a true pro on this puppet show of a podcast, and I am just so delighted to have you.

I do want to mention that we hatch this plan for Ben to come on this podcast's exercise in true

absurdity after I was kindly invited to voice Ella Black on a series that Ben did

Uneffectively Wild about the first female baseball writer for a national publication.

So if for some reason you, gentle listener, missed that three-part series,

it is episodes 2309 through 2311 on Effectively Wild,

and it is as evergreen as they come.

So go back and listen and learn about Ella and the beautiful journey that Ben undertook to

uncover her.

It's true.

Just as timely and topical in 2026 as it was in 2025 because it's mostly about 1890.

But you did a wonderful job on that and made it much better.

So I'm happy to be here.

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