Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about an NPB matchup between Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, those aces’ current talent levels and MLB futures, how velocity has climbed in NPB compared to MLB, and how stealing bases seems to be the one thing Shohei Ohtani (and, for that matter, Mike Trout) can’t do. Then (18:52) they follow up on earlier conversations about Cast Away, playing baseball on top of a tall building, and a pitcher who throws an unhittable pitch, discuss partial runs (26:53), a strange MLB survey question (37:10), whether Rob Manfred is suddenly based (44:34), Jim Bowden’s pro-ownership stance (55:17), and why teams aren’t stealing third base more often (1:06:45), followed by Stat Blasts (1:12:43) about the most first major league hits in one game, teams with the most players who had career years, the biggest years for prominent retirements at each position, and mascot clothing, plus a reaction to an assault on Rockies mascot Dinger (1:42:04), a Past Blast (1:48:04) from 1994, concerns about ESPN micing up Martín Maldonado during a game (1:50:28), and a few follow-ups (1:54:47).

Audio outro: Kelley Stoltz, “Memory Collector”

Link to Yamamoto/Sasaki story

Link to Yamamoto/Sasaki lines

Link to Yamamoto/Sasaki highlights

Link to DeltaGraphs NPB data

Link to 0 SB players

Link to Sam Blum on Angels steals

Link to Sam Miller on Trout steals

Link to Ohtani “by the way” line

Link to Burj al-Arab tennis

Link to Tom Cruise climbing scene

Link to MLB survey screenshot

Link to Manfred on blackouts

Link to Bowden on opt-outs

Link to 2023 basestealing stats

Link to Petriello on basestealing

Link to Rob Mains on going for 3rd

Link to Topps NOW cards

Link to info on Julien debut

Link to 1938 Feller game

Link to 1938 debuts game

Link to 1947 debuts game

Link to first-hits data

Link to best-seasons data

Link to best-seasons summary

Link to player-retirements data

Link to mascots survey

Link to Dinger attack video

Link to article on wanted man

Link to Charmin’ bear ad

Link to Ben’s bidet article

Link to Abbott Elementary reference

Link to Ryan Nelson’s Twitter

Link to EW emails database

Link to Maldonado news

Link to Ben on in-game interviews

Link to Manoah video

Link to Cortes/Trevino video

Link to 1994 Past Blast source

Link to David Lewis’s Twitter

Link to David Lewis’s Substack

Link to Dinger arrest news

Link to Dinger summons

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