Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Meg’s spectator experience at the All-Star Game, whether it’s good or bad that the MVP was a player as obscure as Elias Díaz, the increase in the number of All-Stars per season, other All-Star highlights and lowlights, complaints about All-Star uniforms, perennial requests for a skills competition, Rob Manfred’s and Tony Clark’s comments about more lenient pitch clocks in the postseason and the ball-strike challenge system, more details about the Alabama baseball betting scandal, and more, plus a Future Blast from 2032. Then (59:10) they talk to Byron Motley, producer of the new Negro Leagues documentary The League, about the long road to making the movie, the recent increase in appreciation of the Negro Leagues, his father’s life and career as a Negro Leagues umpire, the challenge of finding archival footage of Negro Leagues games, meeting and interviewing former Negro Leagues stars, the Negro Leagues as a microcosm of 20th-century American history, the influence of Rube Foster, the film’s portrayal of Branch Rickey’s role in integration, and the legacy of the Negro Leagues.

Audio outro: Ted O., “Effectively Wild theme”

Link to Ringer ASG recap

Link to Díaz dinger

Link to Jordan on Díaz

Link to number of All-Stars per game

Link to Gurriel foul

Link to Clark comments

Link to Manfred comments

Link to info on declining violations

Link to Manfred re-election article

Link to article on international games

Link to Rick Wilber’s website

Link to gambling scandal article

Link to The League website

Link to Byron’s website

Link to the Motleys’ book

Link to NPR on Bob Motley

Link to NPR on The League

Link to The Athletic on The League

Link to EW episode on Effa

Link to Craig Wright on SB differences

Link to Wright on Paige’s drawing power

Link to Bananas catch

Link to EW Episode 1426

Link to Berkman’s career splits

Link to Stathead on switch-hitter splits

Link to Berkman’s switch-hitting origins

Link to 2003 article about Berkman

Link to Albies on switch-hitting

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