Effectively Wild Episode 2180: Passing the Greatest-Living-Player Torch
Ben Lindbergh, Rany Jazayerli, and Neil Paine discuss the death of Willie Mays, Mays as the last legendary link to an earlier era, the statistical cases for Mays as the greatest all-around player and greatest player, period in major league history, and (36:45) baseball’s new greatest living player, plus (46:02) banter about Kansas courting the Royals with public funding and (50:38) the competitive trajectories of the Royals and Mets. Then (1:01:08) Ben brings on frequent Stat Blast correspondent Ryan Nelson for Blasts about teams that hover near .500, pitchers replacing same-surnamed pitchers, prolific umpire-player ejection combos, the most players with the same first name in the same game, and Alex Verdugo’s grounders.
Audio intro: Jonathan Crymes, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Jimmy Kramer, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Link to Rany’s Mays article
Link to Neil’s Mays article
Link to FG’s Mays obit
Link to Mays statement
Link to Manfred statement on Mays
Link to Carig on Mays
Link to Mays fielding slump
Link to EW 1927 on Mays
Link to Mays stumble story 1
Link to Mays stumble story 2
Link to B-Ref career WAR leaders
Link to Ben on quality of competition
Link to Posnanski on the GLP
Link to EW 2161 on public funding
Link to Kansas funding details
Link to deMause on Kansas funding
Link to race to the bottom wiki
Link to FG playoff odds
Link to BP playoff odds
Link to BaseRuns standings
Link to Grimace explainer
Link to Neil on team true talent
Link to Neil on Witt and Brett
Link to Neil’s Substack
Link to Podracing podcast
Link to Kauffman Corner podcast
Link to Mike Conte’s Stat Blast cover
Link to Wolf of Wall Street quote
Link to Langs on .500 teams
Link to Ben on .500 teams
Link to .500 teams/Ryne Stat Blast
Link to Kelly/Alexander game
Link to Retrosheet ejections data
Link to ejections Stat Blast data
Link to ejections-per-G graph
Link to SABR on ejections
Link to Evers wiki
Link to “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon”
Link to “Luis” game
Link to The Bob Emergency
Link to same-names data
Link to swimmer David Young
Link to 2024 grounder leaders
Link to 2021-4 grounder leaders
Link to 2019-24 grounder leaders
Link to ballpark meetup forms
Link to meetup organizer form
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