The Effectively Wild Facebook group was created on August 5, 2013 and has over 9500 members as of January 2020. The group is public, and anyone can view or join.
- Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast group on Facebook
Contents
Early history[]
The group was created by Tan Bao on August 5, 2013, whose first few actions were
- 1:13 AM: Creating a logo.
- 8:05 AM: Wondering how long before Sam finds out about the group's existence. From the text, it appears that Tan was already in contact with Ben by this point.
- 8:29 AM: Posting a picture of a Honda Fit.
(Times are given in Mountain time, since Tan lives in Alberta. That's right, the founder of the group is a Canadian.)
Occasionally, somebody will notice that Tan Bao is an administrator of the Facebook group and wonder if it's Sam's burner account.
Traditions[]
Playoff game mega-threads use the Noodle Rat as their main image.
Group member Kyle Lobner counts down to Opening Day by highlighting a different player each day with a post of the form "As of today there are N days left until Opening Day. By rWAR, last year's Nth most valuable player was..." If the start of the season is delayed (as it was in 2020 and 2022), he continues after the originally-scheduled Opening Day with "Today would have been day N of the yyyy MLB season. By WPA the top performer on day N of the yyyy-1 season was..."
The group organizes a baseball-themed Secret Santa gift exchange with a $20 gift budget. There are many posts in December from members expressing their appreciation, usually with pictures of Santa's well-chosen gift.
Recurring jokes[]
Pretty much all the Inside References on the podcast are also recurring jokes in the Facebook group.
Here are some that are prominent on the group but not on the podcast:
- Whether a particular food item (especially a hot dog) qualifies as a sandwich.
- Using the phrase "squid is fried" to mean "fired from their job". This phrase came to the attention of the podcast in Episode 851 as a Chinese idiom. The podcast didn't adopt it, but it has taken on a second life in the Facebook group. (To be fair, "fired" is itself an English idiom.)
Activities[]
2019-2020 Off-Season[]
During the Astros buzzer (non?-)scandal, the group mercilessly parodied the scandal by posting photos containing red circles highlighting suspicious wrinkles in the clothing of Little League players, politicians, movie characters, and even Ben Lindbergh.
2020 Season[]
Group member Paul Moorehead invited people to post their covers of the Stat Blast theme, offering a CAD$50 prize. Selected entries were featured on the podcast.
Group member Jonathan Mishory ran a "MLB Survivor" poll: Each round, members "voted out" their least-liked team. (This exercise was inspired by a similar series of polls on reddit a few years earlier.)
| Poll | Remarks |
|---|---|
| Round 1: March 16 | Yankees out |
| Round 2: March 17 | Astros out |
| Round 3: March 18 | Cardinals out |
| Round 4: March 19 | Red Sox out |
| Round 5: March 20 | Cubs out |
| Round 6: March 21 | Dodgers out |
| Round 7: March 22 | Phillies out |
| Round 8: March 23 | Indians out |
| Round 9: March 24 | Braves out |
| Round 10: March 25 | Marlins out |
| Round 11: March 26 | Giants out |
| Round 12: March 27 | Mets out |
| Round 13: March 28 | Nationals out |
| Round 14: March 29 | Rangers out |
| Round 15: March 30 | Pirates out |
| Round 16: March 31 | Brewers out |
| Round 17: April 1 | Royals out |
| Round 18: April 2 | Orioles out |
| Round 19: April 3 | White Sox out |
| Round 20: April 4 | Reds out |
| Round 21: April 5 | Diamondbacks out |
| Round 22: April 6 | Tigers out |
| Round 23: April 7 | Angels out |
| Round 24: April 8 | Rockies out |
| Round 25: April 9 | Rays out |
| Round 26: April 10 | Blue Jays out |
| Round 27: April 11 | Twins out |
| Round 28: April 12 | Padres out |
| Final: April 13 | Mariners out |
| Winner: April 14 | A's win |
2021-2022 Off-Season[]
Group member Nick Bentley was inspired by Ben's remarks in Episode 1792 that, if you don't like the voting instructions for the Hall of Fame, you are welcome to create your own. So he did: The "EW Bizarro Hall of Fame" doesn't have a character clause, or indeed any clause at all. It is up to each voter's conscience to determine who is worthy of induction.
Building on a previous Facebook post (discussed in Episode 1790), the "EW Bizarro Hall of Fame" is a Congress-like Hall of Fame, with exactly two players from each district (mostly U.S. states), with eligibility determined by birthplace. Active players are eligible. The selection committee generally nominates the top 14 players by lifetime WAR, plus any notable players who missed the cut.
In theory, since every ballot casts two votes, the highest vote percentage is 50%, but in practice it can go higher due to partial ballots. (Some voters ignored the rules and voted for more than two, so that's a thing.)
| District | Player 1 | Player 2 | Notable runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Alabama | Henry Aaron (47%) | Willie Mays (40%) | Satchel Paige (10%) |
| 2 Alaska¹ | Yukon Cornelius (27%) | Shawn Chacon (23%) | Curt Schilling (18%) |
| 3 Arizona² | Ian Kinsler (38%) | Cody Bellinger (27%) | Rich Hill (18%) |
| 4 Arkansas | Brooks Robinson (43%) | Lou Brock (26%) | Arky Vaughn (15%) |
| 5 California | Ted Williams (40%) | Barry Bonds (19%) | Randy Johnson (12%) |
| 6 Colorado | Roy Halladay (55%) | Goose Gossage (44%) | |
| 7 Connecticut | Mo Vaughn (37%) | George Springer (28%) | Roger Connor (10%) |
| 8 Delaware | Paul Goldschmidt (55%) | Delino DeShields (23%) | |
| 9 DC³ | Maury Wills (49%) | Nip Winters (18%) | Bump Wills (17%) |
| 10 Florida | Chipper Jones (28%) | Steve Carlton (23%) | Tim Raines (11%) |
| 11 Georgia | Jackie Robinson (43%) | Josh Gibson (33%) | Ty Cobb (16%) |
| 12 Hawaii | Shane Victorino (37%) | Ron Darling (22%) | Charlie Hough (21%) |
| 13 Idaho | Harmon Killebrew (59%) | Jason Schmidt (21%) | |
| 14 Illinois | Rickey Henderson (46%) | Jim Thorne (22%) | Robin Yount (14%) |
| 15 Indiana | Scott Rolen (30%) | Oscar Charleston (25%) | Kenny Lofton (16%) |
| 16 Iowa | Bob Feller (50%) | Dazzy Vance (29%) | Cap Anson (11%) |
| 17 Kansas | Walter Johnson (52%) | Heavy Johnson (18%) | Joe Tinker (12%) |
| 18 Kentucky | Pee Wee Reese (43%) | Jim Bunning (20%) | Walker Buehler (15%) |
| 19 Louisiana | Mel Ott (40%) | Vida Blue (16%) | Ron Guidry (11%) |
| 20 Maine⁴ | Louis Sockalexis (33%) | Bob Stanley (18%) | George Gore (17%) |
| 21 Maryland | Babe Ruth (42%) | Cal Ripken, Jr. (21%) | Jimmie Foxx (14%) |
| 22 Massachusetts⁵ | Tom Glavine (27%) | Rich Hill (20%) | Jeff Bagwell (18%) Connie Mack (14%) |
| 23 Michigan | John Smoltz (27%) | Jim Abbott (19%) | Charlie Gehringer (14%) |
| 24 Minnesota | Joe Mauer (36%) | Paul Molitor (28%) | Dave Winfield (21%) |
| 25 Mississippi | Cool Papa Bell (46%) | Dave Parker (18%) | Oil Can Boyd (14%) |
| 26 Missouri | Yogi Berra (42%) | Max Scherzer (37%) | |
| 27 Montana | Dave McNally (38%) | John Gibbons (15%) | |
| 28 Nebraska | Bob Gibson (45%) | Wade Boggs (24%) | Pete Alexander (20%) |
| 29 Nevada | Bryce Harper (51%) | Kris Bryant (27%) | |
| 30 New Hampshire | Chris Carpenter (37%) | Brian Wilson (17%) | |
| 31 New Jersey | Mike Trout (53%) | Derek Jeter (21%) | Billy Hamilton (NJ) (11%) |
| 32 New Mexico | Ralph Kiner (52%) | Alex Bregman (25%) | Vern Stephens (14%) |
| 33 New York | Lou Gehrig (34%) | Sandy Koufax (26%) | |
| 34 North Carolina | Catfish Hunter (23%) | Buck Leonard (21%) | Gaylord Perry (17%) |
| 35 North Dakota | Tavis Hafner (45%) | Darin Erstad (41%) | |
| 36 Ohio | Cy Young (32%) | Mike Schmidt (28%) | Roger Clemens (11%) |
| 37 Oklahoma | Mickey Mantle (40%) | Johnny Bench (30%) | Bullet Rogan (19%) |
| 38 Oregon | Dale Murphy (43%) | Mickey Lolich (15%) | Dave Kingman (13%) |
| 39 Pennsylvania | Stan Musial (29%) | Ken Griffey, Jr. (28%) | Honus Wagner (22%) |
| 40 Puerto Rico | Roberto Clemente (52%) | Ivan Rodriguez (24%) | |
| 41 Rhode Island | Napoleon Lajoie (47%) | Paul Konerko (20%) | Gabby Harnett (19%) |
| 42 South Carolina | Shoeless Joe Jackson (39%) | Larry Doby (33%) | Jim Rice (14%) |
| 43 South Dakota | Sparky Anderson (36%) | Sean Doolittle (35%) | Keith Foulke (17%) |
| 44 Tennessee⁶ | Mookie Betts (38%) | Todd Helton (35%) | Turkey Stearnes (27%) |
| 45 Texas | Greg Maddux (31%) | Frank Robinson (20%) | Nolan Ryan (16%) |
| 46 Utah⁷ | Bruce Hurst (41%) | Who the f* are these people? (23%) |
|
| 47 Vermont | Carlton Fisk (63%) | Birdie Tebbetts (15%) | |
| 48 Virginia | Justin Verlander (41%) | Billy Wagner (24%) | David Wright (18%) |
| 49 Washington | Ryne Sandberg (38%) | Ron Santo (32%) | John Olerud (12%) |
| 50 West Virginia | George Brett (46%) | Jack Glasscock (33%) | |
| 51 Wisconsin | Kid Nichols (42%) | Al Simmons (25%) | Addie Joss (18%) |
| 52 Wyoming | Brandon Nimmo (37%) | Tom Browning (26%) | Dick Ellsworth (13%) |
| 53 Dominican Republic | Pedro Martinez (44%) | Albert Pujols (29%) | |
| 54 Venezuela⁸ | Miguel Cabrera (37%) | Felix Hernandez (22%) | Johan Santana (17%) |
| 55 Cuba | Minnie Minoso (28%) | Luis Tiant (21%) | Martin Dihigo (18%) |
| 56 Canada | Fergie Jenkins (31%) | Larry Walker (30%) | Joey Votto (27%) |
| 57 Mexico | Fernando Valenzuela (62%) | Vinnie Castilla (11%) Oliver Perez (11%) |
|
| 58 Panama | Rod Carew (48%) | Mariano Rivera (43%) | |
| 59 Japan | Ichiro Suzuki (50%) | Sadaharu Oh (23%) | Shohei Ohtani (16%) |
| 60 Elsewhere⁹ | Bert Blyleven (32%) (Netherlands) |
Andruw Jones (25%) (Curaçao) |
Xander Bogaerts (10%) (Aruba) |
| Notes
¹ Alaska: Yukon Cornelius is a fictitious character from the Rankin/Bass television special Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. His victory is likely the result of protest votes against Curt Schilling, combined with the appeal of being the chaos candidate.
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