Effectively Wild Episode 2180: Passing the Greatest-Living-Player Torch

Ben Lindbergh, Rany Jazayerli, and Neil Paine discuss the death of Willie Mays, Mays as the last legendary link to an earlier era, the statistical cases for Mays as the greatest all-around player and greatest player, period in major league history, and (36:45) baseball’s new greatest living player, plus (46:02) banter about Kansas courting the Royals with public funding and (50:38) the competitive trajectories of the Royals and Mets. Then (1:01:08) Ben brings on frequent Stat Blast correspondent Ryan Nelson for Blasts about teams that hover near .500, pitchers replacing same-surnamed pitchers, prolific umpire-player ejection combos, the most players with the same first name in the same game, and Alex Verdugo’s grounders. Audio intro: Jonathan Crymes, “Effectively Wild Theme” Audio outro: Jimmy Kramer, “Effectively Wild Theme” Link to Rany’s Mays article Link to Neil’s Mays article Link to FG’s Mays obit Link to Mays statement Link to Manfred statement on Mays Link to Carig on Mays Link to Mays fielding slump Link to EW 1927 on Mays Link to Mays stumble story 1 Link to Mays stumble story 2 Link to B-Ref career WAR leaders Link to Ben on quality of competition Link to Posnanski on the GLP Link to EW 2161 on public funding Link to Kansas funding details Link to deMause on Kansas funding Link to race to the bottom wiki Link to FG playoff odds Link to BP playoff odds Link to BaseRuns standings Link to Grimace explainer Link to Neil on team true talent Link to Neil on Witt and Brett Link to Neil’s Substack Link to Podracing podcast Link to Kauffman Corner podcast Link to Mike Conte’s Stat Blast cover Link to Wolf of Wall Street quote Link to Langs on .500 teams Link to Ben on .500 teams Link to .500 teams/Ryne Stat Blast Link to Kelly/Alexander game Link to Retrosheet ejections data Link to ejections Stat Blast data Link to ejections-per-G graph Link to SABR on ejections Link to Evers wiki Link to “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” Link to “Luis” game Link to The Bob Emergency Link to same-names data Link to swimmer David Young Link to 2024 grounder leaders Link to 2021-4 grounder leaders Link to 2019-24 grounder leaders Link to ballpark meetup forms Link to meetup organizer form  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: [email protected] var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source