Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 2539: BAC in Action

Episode Date: October 3, 2026

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, please visit our Patreon. Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley tease their first playoff livestream and banter about a listener suggestion for how to refer to a postseason that spans multiple months, Jason Benetti’s relationship with Liberty Biberty (including a real-time text exchange), the true alcohol intoxication levels of Munetaka Murakami and other players in clubhouse clinching celebrations (BAC Blast?), and whether MLB should schedule overlapping playoff games, then (35:21) recap the end of the wild card round, opine on the futures of the eliminated teams, lament the latest recurrence of the annual anti-analytics October backlash, preview the various Division Series (1:13:07), discuss the World Series matchups they most want to see, and much more. Audio intro: Alex Glossman and Ali Breneman, “Effectively Wild Theme” Audio outro: Jonathan Crymes, “Effectively Wild Theme 2” Link to long 19 century wiki Link to Bluey Long Dog Link to “Dog Park” ad Link to Biberty background Link to Biberty/Benetti spot 1 Link to Biberty/Benetti spot 2 Link to Biberty/Benetti spot 3 Link to Benetti text exchange Link to Vasil clip 1 Link to Murakami clip 1 Link to Murakami clip 2 Link to Murakami clip 3 Link to Murakami clip 4 Link to ABV by beverage Link to Ben’s 2009 photos Link to A-Rod/Hudson relationship Link to Hudson family history Link to attendance news Link to wild card attendance Link to anemoia definition Link to My Fair Lady scene Link to Gray comments Link to Contreras comments Link to Stark on the Phillies Link to Sale update Link to Judge quote Link to Burke quote Link to Burke follow-up Link to Burke’s Insta Link to Yankees fits Link to Volpe suit Link to Trueblood on the Cubs Link to ZiPS probabilities Link to roster breakdowns Link to BP NLDS 1 preview Link to FG NLDS 1 preview Link to FG NLDS 2 preview Link to FG ALDS 1 preview Link to FG ALDS 2 preview Link to MLBTR on Lovullo Link to Grand Teton news 1 Link to Grand Teton news 2  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Give a Gift Subscription  Email Us: [e-mail]  Effectively Wild Subreddit  Effectively Wild Wiki  Apple Podcasts Feed   Spotify Feed  YouTube Playlist  Facebook Group  Bluesky Account  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch! var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source

Romantic, pedantic and hypothetical, semantic and frantic, real or theoretical, they give you the stats and they give you the news. It's a baseball podcast you should choose. Effectively Wild is here for you about all the weird stuff that players do. Authentically strange and objectively styled, let's play ball. It's effectively wild. It's effectively wild. It's Effectively Wild. Hello and welcome to episode 2539 of Effectively Wild the baseball podcast from Fangraphs presented by our Patreon supporters.

I am Ben Lindbergh of the Ringer, joined by Meg Rally of Fangraphs. Hello, Meg. Hello. Wild card round complete. Four teams eliminated. Four by teams tagging in to take their place. We will be recapping the end of the Wild Card round and previewing the division. series. Fortunately, the schedule makers took pity on the podcasters and gave us a day without baseball to kind of catch up. And by the way, we can tease the first of our Patreon playoff

live streams. We are planning to do the first one next Sunday, not this coming Sunday, Sunday, October 11th, NLCS game one. We don't know who will be playing. We don't know what time they will be playing presumably prime time. It's the only game that day. But whoever is going toe to toe in that game, we will be live streaming during it and talking to our Patreon people in the Discord group. So if you're not already a supporter and a member, we hope you'll get on board. Not only can you hear the rest of this episode, the entirety of this episode, but you also get a couple playoff live streams. So that will be the first one. And then tentatively, we will probably do one during the World Series.

Yeah. But time and date, TBD, we will update you when we know. I mean, having one of them scheduled more than a week out. I know. What are we planners? Planners? Early birds over here. Yeah, this is pretty impressive, actually.

So you're welcome, everyone. Now you can plan your next weekend around this. So we got a response from one Patreon supporter who will have access to that live stream, who proposed a solution to our. calendar conundrum from the other day because two teams were eliminated before October. They did not play October baseball one bit. The Cubs and the Red Sox, they didn't quite make it out of September, even though they were playoff teams, which we associate with October, and it's a metonym, which is a word that I probably should have used. Well, and the Astros too.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I guess all three, right? Only the Phillies made it to October, barely. Yeah, barely. Anyway, for all the teams that qualified for the postseason but didn't make it to October, Sam S says, I have a proposed solution for the imprecision of the October metonym. My partner is an English PhD candidate, and in her field, they regularly use terms like the long 19th century to define literary or historical time periods more appropriately, bounding them by significant events rather than just calendar dates. For instance, the long 19th century.

19th century generally encompasses from the start of the French Revolution to the start of World War I, rather than just 1801 to 1900. So I suggest long October, or perhaps big October, to menonomically describe the postseason while satisfying pedantic criticisms that it extends into September and or November. I like it. I like long October. I do too. Yeah. I think it works better than big October because that, Yeah. Seems like it would be more tied to like the quality of the play or the amount of excitement you have. But long October, that's like, and then, and then we can refer to October the same way that some people, including me, refer to their pets and be like, well, look at this long boy. Do you ever do you ever get that with a comekin or you ever like, oh, look this long girl here?

Yeah, she's a doxon. She's extremely long. Her length to height ratio. Right. It's up there. Yeah. On Bluey, they have a long dog that's hidden in every episode or almost every episode in the background somewhere. Long dog.

So, yeah, long. 19th century. I like that. Why wouldn't you look to an English PhD candidate and an English grad program to provide some sort of sports terminology? I think that's perfect. So from now on, on effectively wild. Can't think of any reason you wouldn't. Long October.

I'm sure it'll catch on. Long October. It'll sweep these sports worlds. Okay. I mean, I guess, you know, people could interpret that as why is October particularly long this month? It's a long month. They're 31 days. And they're using all of October for the baseball schedule this month.

So it's especially appropriate because it could go to October 31st if the World Series goes to game seven. But if you didn't know the lore of long October, then I guess it could be a kind of confusing term. But once we've explained it, I'm sure everyone will get on board. And look, if we are going to have to endure the creative. of lore for the Liberty Mutual expanded universe, we can have lore about October. That's dignified. That's not a Muppet with weird teeth. Why does it have teeth, Ben? Why does the little weird Liberty Bibbitty Muppet have teeth? It doesn't have a digestive system. There's no butt. What is it chewing? I know. It's a great question. And we should have Benetti back on sometime soon to ask about his

relationship with Liberty Bibbriety and are they tight off screen? Are they friends? Do they hang out? Or was it more of a work relationship? What a great day for baseball. And I am joined in the booth by my new friend Liberty Biberty from Liberty Mutual. Hi, Jason. It feels great to be here. Almost as great as getting great coverage and savings on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Now, Biberty, you said earlier that you used to play baseball. Is that right? No, no. I said I was used as a baseball. Aren't you a little big for that? Now, I'm like 90% fur. Look, I'm never going to be mad about friend of the show, friend to us all, Jason Benetti. What do the kids say?

Get in that bag. I don't resent that. I don't begrudge him that. But two things. One, he's never met Liberty, Liberty. They're not on set the same day. It's like a Marvel movie. It's just all green screen.

Yeah. Yeah. They're all looking at a tennis ball. You think Benetty's. looking at a tennis ball. I mean, I think based on the way that the abomination of a thing moves, that it is a physical object. Like, I think it is a, it's a little weird guy and probably like a puppet, like a little weird

puppet that someone wearing at least a green screen arm is operating, right, as a puppet. That would be my guess. So I don't think he can answer that question of, like, what's the, freak of a thing like I didn't mind the Liberty Mutual Himbo I thought that guy was kind of funny but again it's an insurance company we don't need all this allure pay out your policyholders what are we doing why but and then also why does it have teeth you know like it has teeth Ben it's got teeth and freaky eyes but the teeth are way freaky here the only good insurance commercial going right now is the progressive one where the gal sings in her sort of like perfect flat affect,

the dog park song. That one is good. It's the dog park with all the dogs there. Boy, you see that you don't really know because it's the dog park. And then a thing happens to you where instead of thinking of the dog park, where the dogs are, you start singing to yourself while you're editing at the blog park. where the blogs are. And then you wonder about your life, you know, and your choices. And it goes all the way back around, and you're like, I'm trying to edit this Dodgers Braves preview,

but I'm thinking about, like, the corrosive effects of late stage capitalism. And she delivers a good performance, right? Like, it is an objectively funny thing. And if it was like an S&L sketch and it was disconnect. from the project of selling one insurance, you would be like, well, that's very funny, you know, at the blog park or at the dog park. It's a storied October or long October tradition to have your mind just slowly be occupied by ads and taglines for Fox sitcoms and things that will never, ever leave your head again.

And I'd put up with Liberty, Bibbriety, if it's the price we have to pay to get. Benetti and I will miss Benetti and NBC broadcast as we progress in the postseason. By the way, I just texted Benetti to ask whether he and Liberty Bibbrii were ever in the same physical location or whether it was more of a talking to a tennis ball Marvel movie situation. He answered in about 30 seconds to say, oh, we were together. Really? Can you ask him if he knows why it has? Yeah. Why does it have teeth? And is his understanding that the teeth are suggestive of like an intact and operational digestive system that results in the use of a butt. Okay.

I want you to phrase it to him just that way, but don't tell him I'm the one who asked, okay? I just want to see. Because like I like to think that Jason and I are on friendly podcast terms. I don't text with him, though. So, like, I think that we should make it so he thinks you're really weird. And then it's like, can I book Future Effectively Wild appearances with Meg? and then he and I can become texting friends. And if you need to, you know, end up in sort of repair for him having been weirded out about the butt part, you know, that's fine.

But this will have cemented sort of a two-person podcast relationship. Right. Okay. Okay. Okay. So what you want me to ask, does he have any insight into why it has teeth and are the teeth suggestive of Liberty Bibrii possessing an operational digestive system? Yes. Including a butt.

I have to include the including a butt part. You need to have including a butt. If you want to tell him that I'm the one asking the question, I mean, that might be obvious to him in fairness to, well, you mostly. But I just like, it makes me crazy. And I know that the answer is don't pay it any attention, right? Like, don't give it the satisfaction of talking about it online. Like, this is the advertising working as designed.

Because you're, even if you're talking about like the horrors that are this weird little Muppet creature you are talking about Liberty Mutual Insurance, and that's giving them a win. And that's bad. But also, I need to know why it has teeth. You know, I need, I... Who better to ask than Jason Benet, clearly, who is an authority on Liberty Biology's biology. So, I will relay any reply I received, though. If I don't receive one, then... He might just block your number. That could also happen, or possibly he's worried about endangering. an important sponsor relationship. Well, right.

Yeah. To be clear, I think that... He can recuse himself. He could no comment if he wants to. Yeah. If this is too sensitive. Yeah. Jason maintaining his earning potential is clearly more important than me finding out

why this horror Muppet has teeth. Yeah. But like only by a little bit, you know. It's like it's not all the way more important, just some of the way more important. The answer is in. And it is, I asked no anatomical questions. Okay. I'm saying Meg made me ask.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Okay. So while we're talking about biological processes and the postseason, I have a question. Can I ask you about alcohol for a second here? Oh, sure. Not that you're an expert necessarily, but you're probably better informed than I am on the subject.

So we've all been enjoying the White Sox celebrations every time they clinch. And beyond the fact that they are a fun story coming back from being historically terrible to being in the postseason in a couple of years, it's just a reason to root for them is that we get to see Murakami. We get to see all these guys just going nuts after they clinched a playoff spot. After they beat the Astros, we get to see Mike Vassel cutting WWE promos pretty much. in the clubhouse afterward you know mike as we speak behind us brook and chase are talking right now what do you think the conversation's like chase is probably talk about how good he is and that's okay's my roommate here to big homer but the end of the day remember stay humble kid life comes out you quick is there anything like today no there's nothing like today and

there's nothing like tomorrow live in the present is there anybody that has really stepped up their game celebration wise from kansas city to today that you got to point out or brunt door oil right now is not through the animal he's standing on tables he's parting like a true white sock because we party the hardest we get Mooney declaring that he's drunk and that also his interpreter is drunk Mooney Kenzo this is your second time in one of these what you learned from your first one uh... there's a two time in the other than what i'm gonna go out no i'm drunk

oh my god you guys came in here with a mission you knew you could do this again against the Houston Astros. How does it feel to have finally done it? How does it feel to watch all you guys celebrate? Assyna Caterozyne Cite how much now how do you know? 100.

Oh my God. I feel so good. Hey, you got to tell me, what are you feeling right now? 100. Yeah, one. Same high, same, same. Same. Yeah, he's the luck.

He's the luck. I mean, this is great stuff. It makes me want them to continue. to win. But I've been sort of mentally stat blasting the blood alcohol content here. Oh, yeah. I always wonder how drunk our players really and not just, obviously, in the aftermath of a win, when they have off days and travel and all the rest of it, of course, they are free to imbibe. I'm just wondering about how quickly that buzz could actually be felt because I'm timing it here. So, all right, White Sox Astros game two.

First pitch was at 5-11 Eastern Time. Okay. The recorded duration of the game was three hours and five minutes. Okay. So if we do the math there, it ended at or about 816 Eastern time. Passon tweeted his game over tweet at 817. So, okay, that's when the game ended. The White Sox TV network tweeted out the clip of Murakami declaring his,

his drunkenness at 846 Eastern Time. So we're talking half an hour max between last pitch and that tweet going out. And you've got to figure that there must have been at least a few minutes turnaround probably between that clip being broadcast and someone cutting it and putting it on social media and providing a caption or whatever. So that adds a little length. Yeah. So even half an hour is probably too much there since the game actually ended, you know.

maximum of half an hour, but really probably maybe 25 minutes or something, elapsed between the end of the game and that interaction. Murakami is a large man. He's a 213-pound man. It obviously takes a little longer for the buzz to be felt when you were that size. And so I'm just wondering realistically, what, if anything, could he have been feeling at that point? Because I am far from an expert. I haven't been drunk in 15 years, probably minimum, because I never particularly liked alcohol, so it was only an occasional social lubricant for me.

And I have been blessed not to have had to go on a first date since 2011. So there's a close correlation there between the last time I actually drink enough to really feel it. I mean, you know, it's probably been five years or more since I had a sip of any alcoholic beverage. I think Jesse kind of misses buzzed Ben because it made me extra silly. That was the kind of drunk or buzzed person I was, just me, but more so. Yeah. So all I'm saying is I haven't had recent experience. However, I have had first person experience of getting buzzed at minimum in a postseason clinching clubhouse celebration situation because I was an intern in baseball ops for the Yankees in 2009.

That's right. I'll say they. It would seem presumptuous of me to say we as an intern, I think. Sure. They didn't give me a World Series ring. Famously. But I was in the parade, but I was in a duck boat, and people threw toilet paper at me and chanted, who are you?

So I don't feel like I really was a core contributor to that championship. Sure, sure. I did my part. But I was there and all the employees, you know, we were around. And for hours afterward, we kind of had the. field to ourselves. And so people were sort of just drinking out on the field and doing cartwheels out there. And so definitely at a certain point that night, and I was with my fellow interns. And so we definitely, we drank. And there's a photographic record of us from that night, drenched in champagne

and also having consumed some. So at some point, certainly. But that kind of turnaround, when you're talking about a kami, cannot be drunk less than half an hour after the final pitch of that game, right? That just doesn't seem physically possible. Okay, so I have a couple of potential explanations, and I want to... He was pre-gaming during the game, is what you're saying. So, okay, so I want to concede the first challenge here, which is that on that day, when they clinched, and I'm just going by the Astros of it all, right? So they beat the Astros to advance to the ALDS, and everyone is thrilled. Murakami flew out to end... the top of the ninth, right? And so is it likely? And importantly, he was playing first base. This is not a day

that he was deaching or anything like that. So he flies out and then immediately is going to have to go back into the field. And presumably they just brought him his hat and his glove and he marched on down to first base. So I don't think I would never impugn Muna Taka-Murukami's professionalism and suggest that, even if he were de-hching that day. And his presence were not required in the field that he would, like, dip down into the clubhouse and, like, start pre-gaming. Because why would, even with the for-run advantage,

these are superstitious guys, generally. I don't know about Murakami's baseline level of superstition, to be clear, but in general, ballplayers are pretty superstitious. You don't want to jump the gun. And you want to be present, I would imagine, for such an exciting moment. Yeah.

But none of that matters, because he was the starting for spacemen. for that game. So they don't pop those corks before the final pitch anyway. Right. Yeah. So it's not like he's, you know, going down into the clubhouse to have a little tipple, right? Like he's waiting.

And then he's completing the game and he's very excited. And then, yes, they go down into the clubhouse and the champagne is popped. Now, I imagine there's some amount of variation. Clubhouse to Clubhouse. Maybe they had a private moment as a team prior to entering the clubhouse to do the popping of the shamping. Because the media is there for that, right? And it wouldn't shock me if they wanted to have a moment just to themselves. Right.

Yeah, the media is there while all the champagne spring is going on. Though sometimes I don't know about the specific situation, but sometimes the clubhouse will be closed for a few minutes or something before the media pours in. So we should allow for the possibility. And I don't know if that was the circumstance here, but we should allow for the possibility that there was some amount of pre-champaign popping pre-game, pre-gaming. Hard phrase to express. And that that pre-gaming was with stronger stuff than just champagne or, you know, they always do bud light, right? Yeah, it's usually beer. Now, champagne has a higher alcohol by volume content than beer, like double or more, right?

Right. Yeah. But there's so much spraying of the champagne, there's less consuming of the champagne. Typically, you see some guys chugging sometimes. No, guys, Chuck, you know, like at least my exposure to champagne celebrations is limited to the Arizona Diamondbacks. But those boys, they were going hard once they were done with the champagne spring. So there's a possibility one that he has already imbibed pre-champaign. Two, that that imbibing involves something quite strong.

Like maybe they did a round of shots. That's what I was wondering. Yes. If they were pounding shots immediately after that game ended, then 25 minutes later, maybe. maybe he'd be feeling it. Sure. Also, we make fun of ball players for how baseball relative to something like, say, football or basketball is less physically grueling as sports go, but it's still hard and you are exerting

yourself. So the combination of excitement and substances and having just played a baseball game can combine to make you feel it a little faster potentially, right? Like if you have a beer right after you've gone for a run, like you might be a little, you might feel a little drunk a little quick because you've just exerted yourself. You've dehydrated yourself somewhat so you don't have that to work on. You've also, you know, other than whatever little snacks you've stuffed into your back pocket, probably haven't eaten anything in a while.

So there's that. Also, we don't know what kind of drinker Marukami is under normal circumstances, right? If he is something of a teetotaler the rest of the time, although the way that he seemed to be enjoying himself, suggested that is an unlikely... It didn't look like his first time around... Set of a alcoholic beverage. Yeah. But, you know, he's a professional athlete and he's a guy who, you know, to your point,

he's like a big guy, so he probably has some concern or at least appreciation for the need to stay in good shape, right, to maintain his conditioning. So maybe he's someone who doesn't really drink very much outside of, you know, champagne celebrations or the occasional glass of something or other with dinner. And all of a sudden, you've just, you know, know, played a whole baseball game and you're super excited and you've maybe had secret shots and you just had champagne. And that combination is enough to either make you drunk or make you feel like you are, right? Like, yes. Yes, that's the other thing I was going to say because

you all know the person probably in college who didn't really drink that much, but was kind of acting drunk. It's almost like a contagious drunkenness. It's, it can be kind of a performative in ebriation, but there's almost a placebo effect to it because it's an intoxicating atmosphere, both literally and figuratively. You're euphoric. You're riding a high. Everyone's chug in and pop in. And so, of course, you're going to be leaning into that festiveness. And so I remember that being the case. It's now a World Series is maybe a little bit different from a wild card. But still, Like in 2009, the Yankees Clubhouse, everyone was wilding out, and Kurt Russell was there, and Kate Hudson was there because she was dating A-Rod at the time. Oh, because she brought her dad?

Her dad is... But it's her stepdad. Right, yes. So they were, I guess he was into the A-Rod relationship. I don't know. They didn't date that long, Kate Hudson and A-Rod. Very funny. They had a literally May-December romance, not an age-gap-wise, just like literally they.

They dated from May to December, and they broke up, but that encompassed the World Series. And so there were celebrities, and, you know, Jay-Z was playing. And so you could kind of get high on that environment, I think. And so maybe that's playing into it. And also, he did that after the playoff clinching. Rated on a scale of 1 to 10. How's it going so far? How much of the clubhouse's celebration,

each-carriage of one-year-old. One-hundred. No, ten. One hundred. Yeah. How many champagne bottles have you opened so far? Champagne bottle have you opened so far? Handred!

What does it mean just to be able to celebrate it with this team? Like, all of the team-like-to-like-do-is-you-all-equy-all-est? I'm Japanese! He sort of went viral for all of that. And so, you know, he's sort of associated with that now and he's made it into a bit. So I don't begrudge him that. I hope it continues. I hope he doubles down. I'm just over here doing the BAC stat blasting, you know, trying to calculate just like the body weight and the amount of alcohol that could have been consumed by this point because it's pretty tight constraints. But yes, I think it is physically possible, if not for him to have. outright been drunk, at least to have had a buzz on by that point, let's say. Barring the imbibing of other much harder drinks, I think that that's likely right. I would point out that according to Kate Hudson's Wikipedia page, Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson, her biological father, divorced when she was 18 months old, and she says that her biological

father doesn't know me from a hole in the wall, so you owe Kurt Russell and Kate Hudson an apology. She was there with her dad to see her boyfriend's work. That's so funny. No wonder he came along then. So, yeah, it was me and Kate and Kurt. And we were all just celebrating the World Series win that we all contributed to. I guess I contributed at least as much as they did, or at least Kurt, probably. Anyway, so now we have subjected that to some scrutiny.

You know, it just got the gears turning because I'm doing the math. And I'm thinking, this must be very quick. And so how quickly would you feel that? And again, I'm out of practice. Right. Feeling any effects from alcohol. So I just had to check myself here. Yeah.

All right. Well, I guess it checks out, more or less. Let's go with it. Okay. So we have a few other things to say about wildcard games. And then, yes, we will do some division series preview. One bigger picture question. That'll do it for the free preview of today's effectively wildcard.

Thank you for listening. If you'd like to listen on and hear whatever wisdom and wit await, we would love to have you. You can visit patreon.com slash Effectively Wild to access the rest of this episode and plenty of other exclusive content. Weekly subscriber-only episodes, monthly bonus shows, our Discord group, our live streams. Either way, we will be back with another episode soon, which will appear in full on this feed. Until then, we wish you well and thank you for your support of Effectively Wild, whatever form it takes.