Bat Flips And Nerds

John and Darius look forward to the playoffs and digest the Ned Yost news. Mike Ivory of UK Cubs and Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic Boston drop in to offer hot takes on the Maddon and Dombrowski situations.

Tom and John are back! John isn't hosting, which means it's going to be...stupid.

Darius and Ben try to bring some balance into the madness, but unfortunately they get wrapped into Tom's game of "League 2 footballer or September call-up bullpen piece" game.

Darius asks us what we're still excited about.

Tom learns what a Funko Pop is.

John gets sweary (surprise surprise).

Ben learns who Bob Carolgees is.

Actually, if you've read this, don't bother listneing.

Robyn Davidson joins Ben, Russell and Darius to talk doping in baseball, covering cycling, the impossibly resilient Yankees and the playoff races, and they all try to figure out if there is anything nice to say about the Players Weekend jerseys.

Tracey Wilks of UKMetsOnline joins Ben and Darius to talk all things Mets, from their recent hot streak and playoff chances to Pete Alonso's Rookie of the Year candidacy, the masterful Jeff McNeil, and whether Brodie Van Wagenen is a genius or a lunatic (it's both).

Mexican Baseball legend Jorge Cantu, former slugger with the Rays, Marlins and Reds joins us to talk about his MLB career, the World Baseball Classic, and offers some great tales from the clubhouse.

Tom, Russell and Darius react live to all the trade deadline moves, from a rather underwhelming first hour to a wild 20 minutes after the deadline when they find out the Astros have acquired Zack Greinke, among many more deals.

The New York Times' Tyler Kepner joins John to discuss his brilliant recent book 'K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches' following a weekend in which three of its major characters headed to Cooperstown. They also stopped by Tyler's old beats to check-in on the 2019 Yankees and Mets.

Hannah Keyser of Yahoo Sports joins Darius to discuss her Deadspin documentary 'The Cricket Kings of Queens' about a New York high school's cricket team, her trip to the All-Star Game in Cleveland, fixing baseball's attendance and image problems, and her weekly show The Bandwagon.

The Ringer's Ben Lindbergh joins Tom and Darius to talk about his new book, The MVP Machine, plus Effectively Wild approaching its seventh anniversary, and how he consumes baseball.

ESPN's Coley Harvey and Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald join John to unpack the Yakke and Red Sox reactions to that landmark weekend in London.