You get your guy. It’s the last round of your fantasy draft. The top 275 to 800 players have been taken, give or take a few depending on league depth. Everyone’s starting lineup was filled… Read more »
FANDOM/CULTURE
Discussed briefly but repeatedly on Effectively Wild, the sci-fi cult film Snowpiercer is the second topic of our semi-regular spin-off podcast. Brandon Lee, Mikey Poley, and Tyler Baber got together to talk about what they liked about the movie, discuss some of the bigger points of confusion, and suggest Snowpiercer comps.
Over at JABO (Just a Bit Outside), Rob Neyer shared the stores of his bobblehead collection. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I am slightly more obsessed with figurines that sit on my shelves than Mr. Neyer. I… Read more »
It’s late on a Sunday night, the Yankees are dismantling the Red Sox, and the first week for the inaugural Banished to the Pen ottoneu league has nearly come to an end. In this column,… Read more »
“Valar Morghulis,” in celebration of the upcoming Game of Thrones season, and with the new baseball season underway, I thought I would write a fun article on which players resembled the Game of Thrones characters… Read more »
Your guide to what’s ruining baseball in 2015. A recent New York Times article posits that statistics might ruin baseball. If that’s true, stats are going to need to get in line. I ran… Read more »
On a recent Effectively Wild email show, Ben and Sam explored the question of whether all 24 base-out states had ever occurred in a single game.
Baseball is back. The X-Files is (almost) back. As Ben Lindbergh said in episode 649 of Effectively Wild, “the teams are kind of like the monster-of-the-week episodes of the X-Files.” He may have gone on… Read more »
Baseball is back. The X-Files is (almost) back. As Ben Lindbergh said in episode 649 of Effectively Wild, “the teams are kind of like the monster-of-the-week episodes of the X-Files.” He may have gone on… Read more »
If you’re reading this, you’re likely a baseball fan. However, being a baseball fan can be a lot of work. There are so many games. There are so many players. How can anyone with a… Read more »
Several months ago in the super secret online clubhouse for contributors to Banished to the Pen, I posted to inquire if anyone would like to start a fantasy baseball league, since we all like baseball and it occurred to me that some of us might like building and destroying fake baseball teams. Within a week, one brave contributor stepped out of the shadows up to found an ottoneu SABR points league (subscription required) which we soon filled with 11 other excited community members.
The first episode of Banished to the Pen’s semi-regular spin-off podcast. Pro wrestling is a secondary pastime for many Effectively Wild fans, so the series starts with Eric Roseberry, Ryan Sullivan, and Ken Maeda chatting about their fandom, baseball Randy Savage, the lingo, live shows, and bloopers. Plus, Eric discusses his brief first-hand experience as a wrestler at the indie level. We hope there’s something for fans and non-fans alike.
A nice thing about baseball cards is that they strive for conformity and are mostly the same size. Upwards of 500,000 commons won’t even take up much space in a closet if you have them… Read more »
If there’s one sport out there accessible to the gaming crowd, I believe it’s baseball. Baseball has everything gamers want; insane eccentricities, naturally occurring pauses, one-on-one interaction, and big stars, and more. To that end, if there are any gamers out there trying to get into baseball and wondering which team to support, I’ve created a handy guide for such an endeavour. Being a gamer and a baseball fan myself, I’ve tried to align this to existing gamer tendencies. I’ll lay out a brief background and a few facts about each team, then tell you what kind of gamer they’ll appeal to, and give a few examples of what the good and bad of following a team will feel like playing. I hope you enjoy it!
The top fantasy second basemen for 2015.
If there’s one sport out there accessible to the gaming crowd, I believe it’s baseball. Baseball has everything gamers want; insane eccentricities, naturally occurring pauses, one-on-one interaction, and big stars, and more. To that end,… Read more »
If there’s one sport out there accessible to the gaming crowd, I believe it’s baseball. Baseball has everything gamers want; insane eccentricities, naturally occurring pauses, one-on-one interaction, and big stars, and more. To that end,… Read more »
If there’s one sport out there accessible to the gaming crowd, I believe it’s baseball. Baseball has everything gamers want; insane eccentricities, naturally occurring pauses, one-on-one interaction, and big stars, and more. To that end,… Read more »
If there’s one sport out there accessible to the gaming crowd, I believe it’s baseball. Baseball has everything gamers want; insane eccentricities, naturally occurring pauses, one-on-one interaction, big stars, and more. To that end, if… Read more »
If there’s one sport out there accessible to the gaming crowd, I believe it’s baseball. Baseball has everything gamers want; insane eccentricities, naturally occurring pauses, one-on-one interaction, big stars, and more. To that end, if… Read more »
Baseball has a tradition of family connections, brothers, cousins, fathers, and sons. Bobby and Barry Bonds. Ken Griffey Senior and Junior. Tito Francona and Terry Francona. Baseball family trees are part genetic and part network… Read more »
Ken Burns’ documentary series Baseball rubs some the wrong way. Hearing an endless loop of George Will and Doris Kearns Goodwin droning on about the perfect art and symmetry of baseball or God-knows-what can be… Read more »
Earlier this month I saw this tweet from the Angels: As big as it gets here #AtTheBigA! Who's joining us for #MonsterJam tonight? pic.twitter.com/mPGn9VSZA7 — Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) January 11, 2015 “WHAT? MONSTER JAM?… Read more »
Earlier this week on Episode 3 of the Banished to the Pen Podcast, I told host Ryan Sullivan that I probably hadn’t purchased a pack of baseball cards since 1994 (I looked back on some of… Read more »
My favorite baseball movie of all time is The Natural. Go ahead, mock me.
I love it for all that is pure fantasy: whittling Wonderboy from a lightning-split tree, whiffing The Whammer, inexplicable shooting by a crazy woman, busted open balls, deadly outfield walls, exploding clocks in Wrigley, Glenn Close sold as attractive, a shadow lurking owner, Wilford Brimley being tangentially related to Kim Basinger, and of course… the bloody hero’s fireworks display.
When I was collecting cards, issues of Beckett Baseball Card Monthly had a page listing the address for each team’s stadium. It was easy to not pay this page much mind, but I saw it… Read more »
You miss baseball. It’s okay to admit. Since we’re waiting, some of the writers at Banished to the Pen thought it would be a good idea to consider why we love this game so much…. Read more »
We’ve passed the halfway point between the last out of the World Series and the first pitch of Spring Training. This is always a dreary time in the calendar for baseball fans. Many of the… Read more »
The 17-year-old lefty was clocked at 92 miles per hour and he threw five no-hitters for his Blanchard High School team in Oklahoma. Nolan Ryan threw seven no-nos during his major league career. Obviously high school isn’t MLB, but that’s still a pretty nice stat to have at the disposal of the guys sitting around the draft board looking at your name. At this point in the story, when the name of a legendary Hall of Famer has been dropped, what could go wrong?
This week’s featured autograph is a 1991 Topps Stadium Club Jimmy Key. This is absolutely one of my favorite sets to get autographed. I have completed about 16% of this set for my personal collection,… Read more »
