Effectively Wild Episode 2220: The Baseball Layers of The Onion

September 21, 2024

In a bonus EW episode, Ben Lindbergh talks to screenwriter and former editor-in-chief of The Onion Robert Siegel about his classic Onion opinion piece, “In My Day, Ballplayers Were For Shit,” how The Onion used to approach sports coverage, the importance of headlines and stock photos, satirizing baseball vs. satirizing other sports, why The Onion hasn’t lost its fastball, and more, plus (55:53) a postscript.

Audio intro: Josh Busman, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Alex Glossman and Ali Breneman, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to “In My Day” article
Link to “Take Me Out” song
Link to The Onion baseball archive
Link to Siegel’s IMDb
Link to Siegel’s wiki
Link to 2003 Yankees story
Link to Counsell story
Link to Brock AB story
Link to warehouse fire story
Link to “No Way to Prevent This”
Link to Congress/Capitol story
Link to Ripken story 1
Link to Ripken story 2
Link to Little Leaguer story
Link to T-ball headline
Link to Onion popularity story
Link to Our Dumb Century
Link to ODC archive
Link to “Heartbreaking” photo wiki
Link to Ben on Sloan
Link to Facebook favorites thread
Link to Reddit favorites thread
Link to NotGraphs favorites post
Link to Angell’s boyhood memories
Link to Ben on talent over time
Link to Ottavino claim
Link to Tungsten Arm article
Link to Dunne at Fanatics Fest
Link to Ben on Marvel stans
Link to Grantland on dying baseball
Link to SI on dying baseball
Link to Ohtani futures bet photo
Link to first-pitch injury
Link to Chourio prediction
Link to Holliday prediction
Link to Shania song
Link to Ryan’s Twitter thread
Link to CV wiki