Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley welcome back former co-host Sam Miller to banter about his return to public baseball writing, his current relationship with baseball, and his new Substack, Pebble Hunting. Then (17:10) Ben, Meg, and Sam talk about a 1913 article about unprecedented events at the ballpark, the cliché about seeing something new at every game, the supreme examples of that phenomenon from any point in baseball history, games they attended, and games they paid attention to, and examples they hope to see in 2023. After that (1:18:27), Ben and Meg talk to WBC Central host Shawn Spradling about the biggest storylines of the World Baseball Classic, including the format and schedule, the favorites and dark horses, the surprising players, the challenge of putting on an international baseball tournament, how and when to watch, and more, followed by (1:56:57) a Past Blast from 1978.

Audio interstitial: Supergrass, “The Return Of…”

Audio outro: Field Medic, “Tournament Horseshoe”

Link to Sam’s Substack

Link to first Substack story

Link to 1913 Phelon article

Link to Sam on seeing new things

Link to Sam on pitching lines

Link to Craig Wright on Caldwell

Link to three-pickoff inning

Link to Mariners triple play

Link to Clemens-Piazza article

Link to article on ALDS G2

Link to Ben’s ALDS G2 oral history

Link to video of Martin-Choo play

Link to EW ALDS G2 draft

Link to Dale Scott EW episode

Link to Ben on “Strategy”

Link to Dario email episode

Link to Shawn’s team infographics

Link to Shawn’s power rankings graphic

Link to Shawn’s power rankings

Link to Shawn’s YouTube channel

Link to Shawn’s podcast feed

Link to Zach Kram’s WBC primer

Link to Cliff Corcoran’s WBC primer

Link to 1978 Past Blast source

Link to David Lewis’s Twitter

Link to David Lewis’s Substack

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