Effectively Wild Episode 1956: Jock and Bull Stories

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about players snacking on the field and a baseball equivalent of the EGOT before (23:01) Ben brings on Ron Shelton, the Oscar-nominated writer and director of Bull Durham and the author of The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham , to reminisce about Shelton’s minor league career, how conditions in the minors have evolved, the future big leaguers he played with, why Crash Davis didn’t stick in the majors, sports-movie verisimilitude, how he wrote Annie Savoy, Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon, why Bull Durham almost didn’t get made, the golden age of baseball movies, Bull Durham as a TV series, an MLB game in Durham, his other baseball projects, and more. Then (1:04:02), Ben and Meg talk to well-traveled 45-year-old pitcher Chris Oxspring of the Australian Baseball League’s Sydney Blue Sox about his baseball origin story, his path through indy ball, affiliated ball, Japan, South Korea, and the Olympics, culture shock and the language barrier, his cup of coffee with the Padres, the development of baseball in Australia, the knuckleball’s future, being a player-coach, the toll being a baseball player takes on one’s family, Australian slang, and how long he can keep pitching. Finally (1:50:04), they end with a Past Blast from 1956 and a few follow-ups. Audio intro : Fruit Bats, “ The Ruminant Band ” Audio interstitial 1 : Concrete Blonde, “ It’ll Chew You Up and Spit You Out ” Audio interstitial 2 : Toner, “ Ox ’45 ” Audio outro : Frazey Ford, “ One More Cup of Coffee ” Link to EGOT Facebook thread Link to EGOT winners Link to Academy Juvenile Award Link to Historic Achievement Award Link to Lou Brock Award Link to The Church of Baseball Link to Shelton’s B-Ref page Link to Shelton’s IMDb page Link to ’69 Ports article 1 Link to ’69 Ports article 2 Link to ’69 Ports article 3 Link to Everybody Wants Some!! Link to Everybody Wants Some!! pod Link to Ben’s Remake Necessity Score Link to Ben on movie analytics Link to story on minor league owners Link to private equity minors story Link to players born in Australia Link to Joe Quinn’s SABR bio Link to Oxspring’s SABR bio Link to Oxspring’s B-Ref page Link to Oxspring’s Blue Sox page Link to Oxspring’s Instagram Link to Oxspring’s MLB clips Link to 2014 story on Oxspring Link to Kent-Oxspring Cup story Link to story about leaving Lotte Link to Ben on the knuckleball Link to Australian slang Link to Ben on international The Bachelor Link to 1956 story source Link to EW on Mays documentary Link to Jacob Pomrenke’s website Link to Jacob Pomrenke on Twitter Link to Belt on chicken tenders Link to Ritz opening story Link to Pirates job tweet Link to Pirates job posting Link to laser measurements story Link to LIDAR post Sponsor Us on Patreon 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