Effectively Wild Episode 2032: League of Legends

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Meg’s spectator experience at the All-Star Game, whether it’s good or bad that the MVP was a player as obscure as Elias Díaz, the increase in the number of All-Stars per season, other All-Star highlights and lowlights, complaints about All-Star uniforms, perennial requests for a skills competition, Rob Manfred’s and Tony Clark’s comments about more lenient pitch clocks in the postseason and the ball-strike challenge system, more details about the Alabama baseball betting scandal, and more, plus a Future Blast from 2032. Then (59:10) they talk to Byron Motley, producer of the new Negro Leagues documentary The League, about the long road to making the movie, the recent increase in appreciation of the Negro Leagues, his father’s life and career as a Negro Leagues umpire, the challenge of finding archival footage of Negro Leagues games, meeting and interviewing former Negro Leagues stars, the Negro Leagues as a microcosm of 20th-century American history, the influence of Rube Foster, the film’s portrayal of Branch Rickey’s role in integration, and the legacy of the Negro Leagues.

Audio intro: Tom Rhoads, “Effectively Wild theme”
Audio outro: Ted O., “Effectively Wild theme”

Link to Ringer ASG recap
Link to Díaz dinger
Link to Jordan on Díaz
Link to number of All-Stars per game
Link to Gurriel foul
Link to Clark comments
Link to Manfred comments
Link to info on declining violations
Link to Manfred re-election article
Link to Rick Wilber’s website
Link to gambling scandal article
Link to The League website
Link to Byron’s website
Link to the Motleys’ book
Link to NPR on Bob Motley
Link to NPR on The League
Link to The Athletic on The League
Link to EW episode on Effa
Link to Craig Wright on SB differences
Link to Wright on Paige’s drawing power
Link to Bananas catch
Link to EW Episode 1426
Link to Berkman’s career splits
Link to Stathead on switch-hitter splits
Link to Berkman’s switch-hitting origins
Link to 2003 article about Berkman
Link to Albies on switch-hitting

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