Effectively Wild: A Fangraphs Baseball Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, please visit our Patreon. Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about whether JR Ritchie should want to keep the ball that was hit for a homer on his first major league pitch, José Soriano’s season-starting hot streak, and the Yankees’ new alternate uniforms, plus follow-ups on accidental challenges, player pecks on the cheek, jersey numbers, and Nolan McLean’s apology, and a mini-Blast about the Rockies’ historically hot start (compared to last year). Then (50:36) they take a break from interviewing octagenarian former players to interview a youthful, quadragenarian former player: former All-Star Brad Lidge. An infamous manager once proclaimed, “The closer is the closer because he’s the closer.” But what if the closer becomes an archaeologist? Ben and Meg talk to Lidge at length about his post-playing pivot to archaeology: what drew him to the field, how he’s pursued a second profession (and how it differs