Sam Miller (ESPN, Baseball Prospectus, The Only Rule is It Has to Work) joins Steve to talk about joy in baseball, which fun facts matter and which don’t, and how to alienate your colleagues your first day on the baseball beat. Plus, overlapping tales of puppy love and Billy Herman and a remembrance of the late Harlan Ellison.

WARNING: There is one cussword, baseball’s “magic word,” at about the 24-minute mark. Hide the children.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Billy Herman’s first day*Goodbye, Harlan Ellison*Sam Miller: The Only Rule is It Has to Work*A Very Bad Handshake Situation*The Only Rule is You Go to Moscow*The Braves’ all-time first baseman, and does it matter?*Mark Langston’s best season*The Secret Origin of Sam Miller (The Mommy Blogger! Frankie Rodriguez for MVP!)*Inspirational quote: “A lot of people don’t like a lot of people.”*The Shohei Ohtani of Despond*Are we allowed to have distractions in 2018?*How little we know (Jose Bautista version)*Tales of PECOTA and how to say “FRAA”*Goodbyes.