Do you love baseball?
How about listening to things? If
you like both, can I just take one dern second and suggest that you check out
the Baseball Prospectus podcast -
Effectively Wild? Thanks. Effectively Wild is
hosted by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller and sometimes co-hosted by some
crickets. In the podcast, Ben and Sam
each bring one topic per day to the table and then they present and
discuss. Every so often, they each bring
the same topic, which usually makes me drive right off the road.
Before I explain the many reasons why this podcast should be
the first thing you do in the morning, I need to give some background. Both are writers for Baseball
Prospectus. Ben Lindbergh is also the
Editor-in-Chief. Baseball Prospectus is
outstanding. If you don't subscribe...
well, why don't you? It costs 40 bucks
per year. By comparison, this Ryan Braun designed abomination is on sale for 50 bucks.
Are you really going to try to argue that shirt is worth 25% more than a
BP subscription? For the visual
learners, here is a nice chart:
Ok, that part is out of the way. Clearly, if you do not subscribe to BP, you
should. However, if you followed that
link and then bought the shirt (against my wishes), you can still listen to the
podcast because it is free! In addition,
it is a daily podcast. That's right,
every Monday through Friday, you can wake up, download the podcast and then
make your drive to work. Unless you work
from home 3 days per week like I do, then I would not suggest driving to work
just to listen to the podcast. Just
listen from home or whatever.
For the attention deficient individual, this podcast is
perfect. It isn't one of those 3 hour
podcasts that you hear about every day.
They try so hard to keep it to 10 minutes, but it usually ends up being
15-20. I am thankful for those extra
minutes though. The podcast is short
enough to not take up a large chunk of the day, but long enough for the two of
them to get into detailed and in-depth conversations on the topics that they
bring. The fact that they only discuss
two things per day make for almost no repetition of topics. The daily frequency means that they still
cover a lot of baseball throughout the week.
A few more reasons to enjoy.
Ben Lindbergh podcasts from New York, Sam Miller from California. So, it is not clear which coastal bias is in
play. You can listen yourself and try to
figure it out. Both have a great dry
sense of humor. They each record from
weird places like Honda Fits and showers.
Every so often, a rock star will randomly guest host. If you stay up really late, you can usually
listen around 1am central time. Both of
their first names have 3 letters. I
always wanted to see a blue duck.
My favorite part of this podcast is that they do not take it
too seriously. I mean that in an
endearing way. They discuss their topics
and present their arguments, but they do it without any sort of arrogance. I think a lot of people are turned off by
learned baseball writers for a sort of condescending, know-it-all
confidence. I also think that some
associate Baseball Prospectus with some sort of stat-nerd haven, which is just
simply not the case. These two are
knowledgeable, informative and entertaining.
They are far from any of the following things: nerds, jerks, or stat-heads. They are two guys who happen to know a lot
about a sport that you all enjoy. They
are also really polite with each other, which I bet my mom really enjoys.
All joking aside, I strongly suggest that you check this
podcast out. Most mornings, it is
waiting for me in my iTunes and you can have a fresh podcast waiting for you
each morning too! These two know so much
about baseball, it really is amazing.
The level of knowledge that they have about individual players and teams
is impressive. They are both able to
come up with names and facts from past seasons without much pause. It really is something to listen to two
professionals talk so eloquently about a subject that I enjoy and that I am
pretty sure you all enjoy as well. Give
it a listen, you won't be disappointed.
If you are, you can tell them on Twitter at @ben_lindbergh and/or
@SamMillerBP.
Confession: I bought the shirt.
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