JotCast | FanGraphs Book Club - The Only Rule Is It Has To Work

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Mike Mort

9:23

im actually just about to write that up for the EW Wiki

Paul Swydan

9:23

Cool!

Mike Mort

9:23

it was cool hearing and doing the article where the they actually got the idea for doing it, just hearing Ben partially mentally check out of the interview, you can almost hear him planning it out in his head.

Paul Swydan

9:23

Haha, yeah, I do that sometimes too, and then people look at me funny. Sorry, I was thinking!

Mark Steubinger

9:24

I see Paul is the sole person voting for himself to have total control over the next book choice hahaha

Paul Swydan

9:24

Hahaha, it wasn't me I swear

Michelle

9:25

I thought the Facebook group had said it was going to Veeck as in Wreck, but I'm up for whatever.

Paul Swydan

9:25

I honestly don't see that anywhere?

9:26

Who would you say were your favorite people in the book - not Ben and Sam, but other people?

Michelle

9:26

Just kidding! That was the EW book club.

Paul Swydan

9:27

Oh! Phew.

Michelle

9:29

I'm a year removed, but I remember really liking Tim Livingston, though I don't remember why.

Paul Swydan

9:29

Definitely. He was great as the radio guy, and just all-around do everything kind of person.

Mike Mort

9:29

EW has a book club too

Paul Swydan

9:29

I honestly did not know this.

Mark Steubinger

9:29

Paul Hvozdovic, Sean Conroy, and Isaac Wenrich stick with me as the most notable players

Paul Swydan

9:30

I was going to say Conroy and Yoshi myself. And Theo Fightmaster.

Jeff

9:30

Stompers GM Theo Fightmaster was a really great person. To me, he was really the thread that connected Sam and Ben to the team. He was the transitional thread that helped them negotiate the “real” baseball world.

Mike Mort

9:30

paul and Sean for sure

Paul Swydan

9:31

Very cool. Well, Ben and Sam should be here any minute. There's a few questions in the queue for them already, but what other questions do you guys have for them?

Chris

9:31

I really enjoyed the desperation and hope of the players who were so far removed from making the major leagues.

Paul Swydan

9:32

For sure. It was all pretty admirable. I couldn't say that I'd be doing something differently if I had been good enough to play at that level.

Mark Steubinger

9:32

Matt Chavez from the Pacifics was also pretty notable. He's probably the closest thing in the book to a villain. I liked seeing his ridiculous splits versus the Stompers compared to the other two teams.

Paul Swydan

9:32

Yes! Between him and Feh, there was definitely constant drama.

Sam

9:33

I am here!

Paul Swydan

9:33

Hey Sam!

Sam

9:33

Hello! Paul.

Hello, everybody

Michelle

9:34

Hi Sam! The EW faithful miss you!

Baber

9:34

Hello, Sam!

Sam

9:34

I saw the conversation above about movie, TV show, etc, and I just want to note that when I was thinking, during spring training, what sort of book this would be, one of the models that sort of came to mind was Orange Is The New Black.

Ben Lindbergh

9:34

Hi! I'm here too.

Sam

9:35

And, once the thing was done, it seemed like the best way to get it on a screen would be as a TV show, sorta like that, but maybe not. I thought the main perspective would have to be Yoshi's.

Or Sean's

Anyway, Ben is here, too! Hi, Ben.

Paul Swydan

9:35

Yes I think Orange is the New Black is a good model.

Hi Ben!

Klubot3000

9:35

Awesome work, Ben and Sam! Helluva book. I played for the coach you talked to about being your manager, and can say he's one of the best coaches I'd ever had. I think the book would have been pretty different (not in a bad way) had you guys hired him in the beginning.

Paul Swydan

9:36

Is this something you guys ever think about?

Sam

9:36

Klubot3000-- are you talking about the Sonoma St. coach, or the guy from Cal Berkeley who was pals w/ Theo, or somebody else I'm forgetting about?

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