Effectively Wild Episode 1860: Start Them Young

With Meg Rowley on the road, Ben Lindbergh talks to a trio of guests. First (4:10), he’s joined by Mr. King , the creator of Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio, to talk about baseball as ASMR, crafting a fictional league, broadcaster, and collection of players, replicating the soothing, white-noise sounds of a baseball broadcast, putting his listeners to sleep, and more. Then (34:32) Ben brings on coach and journalist John W. Miller to examine how the rise of private travel baseball clubs and pay-to-play tournaments has reshaped youth baseball and excluded some kids from the sport, discuss the ramifications from Little League to the major leagues, and propose some solutions. After that (1:18:12), former major leaguer (and former EW guest) John Poff rejoins, along with John Brave Bull and Ardyce Taken Alive from the Standing Rock Reservation, to talk about their histories, explain their efforts to bring baseball to kids at Standing Rock, and ask the EW audience for help (plus a reading of a Poff poem). Finally (1:50:05), Ben shares a baseball-history anecdote from 1860. Audio intro : Julie Andrews, “ Stay Awake ” Audio interstitial 1 : Dave Dudley, “ George (and the North Woods) ” Audio interstitial 2 : Peter, Paul and Mary, “ Right Field ” Audio outro : Raye Zaragoza, “ Driving to Standing Rock ” Link to Baseball Sleep Radio website Link to Baseball Sleep Radio on Spotify Link to FG post on Baseball Sleep Radio Link to the real Northwoods League Link to Bloomberg on white noise podcasts Link to The Universal Baseball Association Link to old baseball broadcasts on YouTube Link to old baseball broadcasts on archive.org Link to GameChanger Plays Announcer post Link to John Miller on youth baseball Link to John on improving youth baseball Link to Tom House baseball-size tweet Link to McCutchen at The Players’ Tribune Link to Pittsburgh Hardball Academy site Link to info on the Dream Series Link to RBI Baseball site Link to article on commercializing youth sports Link to data on youth sports participation Link to John Miller’s baseball resume Link to John Miller’s website Link to John Poff’s SABR bio Link to John’s first podcast appearance Link to Poff Stat Blast episode Link to Standing Rock Reservation wiki Link to KLND website Link to Community Alliance Group website Link to John’s North Dakota Quarterly poems Link to John’s GoFundMe fundraiser page Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four Link to 1860 story source 1 Link to 1860 story source 2 Sponsor Us on Patreon Subscribe to Stathead (Code: WILD20) Facebook Group Twitter Account EW Subreddit Effectively Wild Wiki iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!) Get Our Merch! Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source