Ep. 22 - It's The Wild West Right Now

We open the episode riffing on MLB's second week with postponed games bushel and peck and a new CoVid-19 oubreak, this time in St. Louis. We also discuss Joe Kelly's Astro headhunting incident in Los Angeles and his subsequent 8-game extension, now under appeal. Having badly mishandled the MLB sign stealing episode by directing fan ire entirely on one team, Manfred has painted the league into a corner - there is no easy way out.

Next, we consider cases where baseball's MVP voters got it wrong. We ask questions like, "How did Steve Garvey (4.4 WAR) win the MVP over Mike Schmidt (9.7 WAR) in 1974?" and "How good does a relief pitcher have to be to actually deserve an MVP Award?" Some of these MVP votes leave you scratching your head - anyone questioning them might begin the inquiry comparing Mickey Cochrane's 1934 season with Lou Gehrig's.

We close the episode with a look at "Hamilton," which premiered on Disney+ last month.  We both think this is a fascinating, entertaining fiilm -- Eric calls the play "the greatest work of art from the last 100 years," a bold, yet entirely defensible claim. We examine this groundbreaking play and film now that the phenomenon is widely accessible to the American public.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:13 Postponed! MLB's Wild Second Week
• 22:33 Seriously? Where MVP Voters Got It Wrong
• 48:48 Eric's Hot Takes
• 52:40 Amazing! Hamilton, The Musical & The Movie