The Infinite Inning: Recent Episodes
Steven Goldman
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Over a hundred years ago, a forward-thinking sportswriter suggests that a certain Yankees slugger might solve a munitions crisis much like the one the United States military is reportedly suffering from today. Then we turn to the Giants of the John McGraw era for one of the more obscure Hall of Famers, one very different from Ruth but, like the Babe and the “platinum blonde” actress Jean Harlow, he got a raw deal from his own body.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In 1922, two New York teams make July trades that provoke a change in the way the game is played. Both were successful in their way, but how successful were they, really? And why did one of them involve a pitcher throwing up on Casey Stengel’s floor and a future Hall of Fame third baseman possibly passing blood? And we stop in on Babe Ruth in his last days and contrast a life of actual experience with a life of artificial experience.
Trigger Warning: There’s a cussword at about 19:35. Hide the dog!
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Hall of Fame Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog gets stuck in the Yankees system—and the Army—leading to a discussion of social responsibility when it comes to risking the lives of citizen-soldiers (whether Herzog or Ted Williams in the Korean War years or something closer to the present day). Then we visit the win-or-go-home American League playoff game between the Red Sox and the Indians, a contest famously mishandled by Joe McCarthy, another future Hall of Famer. What went into his thinking that day, and are the legends of pitchers ducking the job true? With stops along the way at an eight-man rotation, the A’s 1929 surprise starter, virus versus host, and so much more!
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out? Short vibraphone melody (loop) by xkeril
Two instructive tales of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who, as Casey Stengel said, were at that time in Brooklyn. The 26-inning man places a clever comeback among his last words, but not before pilfering some stocks that didn’t belong to him, marrying the bosses daughter, and going broke, not necessarily in that order. Then a Deadball Era shortstop is spectacularly overrated compared to his betters, which included one of the best of all time, Honus Wagner. We also wing past one of the great forgotten offensive seasons in Cincinnati Reds history, revisit an oft-repeated Maya Angelou line, quote a key paragraph or two from Bleak House as it pertains to Charles Ebbets’ estate, and so much more!
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We ask of various figures past and present (as Mark Twain once did) “Is He Alive or Is He Dead?” finishing with the time Babe Ruth was reported to have fatally crashed his car. Then we try to compare players across eras and find too many irreconcilable differences for comfort, and conclude with an Expos semi-great, the writer who seemingly inspired his parents, and the decline of reading.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A July 4th episode: Lou Gehrig’s farewell and slight return, Joe DiMaggio flashes back to the Iron Horse streak, the National League is founded in the Centennial year as things go very wrong for George Custer (couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy), one of Sitting Bull’s kids gets baseball fever, and a .400 hitter sickens and vanishes from history because of a sometimes-flexible “rule.”
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Body Fall.Wooden Floor.Vinil Floor Covering x5_EM.mp3 by newlocknew
A young Yogi Berra battles his own pitching staff just as Dalton Rushing struggles to call pitches for Shohei Ohtani, Casey Stengel drags Yogi into the Joe McCarthy mess in Washington, Lefty Grove throws at a catcher and Dorothy Thompson tries to help war refugees. And John McGraw thought tennis-playing pitchers were effeminate? All that and more in this week’s episode!
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out? Ambient battle noise: swords and shouting by pfranzen; Epic Cinematic Music: Let's Go to Zanzibar by lena_orsa
The San Francisco Giants’ botched attempt at Pride Night prompts a look at Billy Sunday, the Cubs outfielder who had a religious awakening and became one of the most popular traveling evangelists of the early 20th century. Plus pitchers named Head, an ERA of 6.66, a no-hitter pitched with the wrong arm, and a young woman whose name baseball shouldn’t have forgotten.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Trigger Warning: Discussions of self-harm.
A Reds pitcher confuses the end of his arm for the end of his life, several other players take the easy way out, a bizarre trade is deconstructed, the Marlins compared to the Browns and a certain IPO, and much more.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out? (Neighing horse.wav by soundslikewillem, snorting horse.wav by soundslikewillem, pistol_riccochet.ogg by Diboz)
A shorter episode about bad timing as exemplified by the time that Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel was run over by a car.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A shorter episode that takes a quick look at the Homestead Grays and the attenuated career of the late Bob Horner.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A grab-bag episode in which the title says it all: The 40th anniversary of the 1986 Mets, how failed Yankees shortstop Bobby Meacham would have performed if Baseball-Reference had his name correctly, the possibility of women playing major league baseball, Thurman Munson’s Hall of Fame twin discussed, and a certain overweight catcher suffers a breakdown of impulse control.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 375: The A's, Murder in Camden, and the Spiders from Cleveland Several attempts at finding empathy through self-denial this week: We ask if it’s right to laugh at the players trapped by vile ownership into performing like abused seals for the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, if restraining ourselves from saying everything we’re allowed to say is the at all similar to protecting a pitcher’s arm, observe several long losing streaks, and note a 1943 murder carried out in the delusional name of love, a crisis of perspective and morality to which Connie Mack inadvertently provided an answer.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We go back to the early days of the Angels (California, Los Angels, Anaheim, or anywhere in-between) for the untimely death of a pitcher, then look forward to next year, when one of the most famous and consequential baseball teams of all time will mark its 100th anniversary. What will Major League Baseball or the Yankees do about it? Why is it the first such team to merit such an occasion? And how do you mark the occasion when members started dying off right after the championship was won? Also: A big day for Ty Cobb and a less salubrious 1920s “achievement” is observed.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Two managers dropped this week, but four teams haven’t fired a manager in-season since the last century. Which were they, and is there even a point? Then we travel back to 1887, the ill-fated marriage between a Hall of Famer and an actress, her personal gift to baseball, and the birth of a character type whose time has come again (no matter what anyone says). The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A major metropolitan newspaper contends a pitcher “blows,” while he insists he is in “the best shape of his life.” Which would prove to be closer to the truth? Then we revisit the birth of the atomic bomb, the Yankees’ decision to start a farm system in spite of their wealth, and the mysterious woman whose very existence might have hinted at undisclosed cash-flow problems on the part of a very wealthy man.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We note the recent passing of some stalwart ballplayers, some of all too recent a vintage, then travel back to the 1950s and the breaking of the Braves color line by an outfielder who everyone liked to pick on.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In which we track the posthumous career of one of baseball’s earliest players, who might simultaneously lie in three different places or maybe nowhere at all. Then we wish Parker Meadows a quick recovery by recalling an earlier outfield collision which injured two future Hall of Famers. And in between some wisdom from Cato the Elder, Robert Pirsig, and others.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 369: An Odd Cardinals Walk-Off or a Typical Cubs Loss?
First we ask an evergreen question prompted by Konnor Griffin’s promotion: Were Casey Stengel’s expectations of Mickey Mantle unfair? Then we visit 1949 for one of the more unusual walk-off hits in Cardinals history and the popular player whose momentary lack of awareness allowed it to happen—and find ourselves questioning the way we live.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Two players who might have made the Hall of Fame if not for time missed to national service during World War II stand in for all of those whose trajectories were deflected by the games played by those in high places, then we visit turn-of-the-20th century Philadelphia for a forgotten first baseman who won it all and lost something even greater at the same moment.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In which we talk about some of our own broken relationships, the war of Billy Martin’s ear and what George Steinbrenner’s plan to bring him back for a sixth tour says about his own morality, the way the Washington Senators loved their own players so much they ended up in Minnesota, very small dinosaurs, and so much more.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A pitcher named Bob becomes Sailor Bob all because his wife wanted him out of the house in a fatal way, then we revisit the 1880s and a truly ridiculous ballpark that led to a player having both an inflated home-run total and an inflated liver.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
How the King of France once had an illicit love life that bore both a great resemblance to that of some of our current villains, but was also kind of similar to one of Branch Rickey’s greatest innovations. Then we join a glowering Yankees owner who absolutely wrecked his team because he was Vince Coleman-dreaming before that was even a thing.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This week, a light-hearted tale of a pitcher who braved the injury nexus in a body that just refused to flinch when under hostile fire, preceded by the story of a favorite cartoonist who pontificated on the subject of children and divorce even as he proceeded to get divorced and abandon his children. And in between, unwelcome news of war.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A player who is remembered as “Jumbo” even though that was neither his name or his shape is described in both complimentary and critical terms, oysters are considered, and one of the greatest shortstops of all time, John Henry Lloyd, Pop, teaches an important lesson about why the past matters, and why his past was especially important.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A future Hall of Fame outfielder gets into a tiff with the first Hall of Fame umpire and the umpire says a rude word, but how rude was it? Then we briefly consider the worst 900-plus games careers before joining the 1935 season in progress for a fight at home plate that fizzled, but not before inspiring a New York Times writer to construct an especially inept metaphor involving the game and dire world events.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A rare three-segment episode this week. First, in what is very much NOT a story, the host quotes Casey Stengel in a totally context-free way. Then a pitcher has to work hard to keep a team he doesn’t like IN the World Series or risk professional extinction. Finally, a personal reflection on the way we live now, based very much on a real-life example of lightning striking twice in a truly malicious way.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
An episode in which yesterday’s headlines are today’s. First, we find not William Bell the Negro Leagues great, but William Bell the victim of a false accusation in 1920s Chicago, the only murder of its kind. Then we travel south to the apprenticeship of one of the low-key center field greats and the epidemic that stopped his career in its tracks.
Trigger Warning: There are a couple of rude words at the very end of the episode because the hots became exercised. If you are, say, in the middle of a meeting of the executive board or attending preschool, please use your headphones.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A wide-ranging journey inspired by the impulse-control problems of a 1950s catcher that provked, depending on Billy Martin’s mood, two, no three, no four on-field fights, with pints of blood flowing onto the infield dirt. Some of it is true, some of it is better. Also, said catcher gets up close and personal with parts of Whitey Ford’s anatomy you’ve never before considered, and the host provides a few thoughts on current events.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In this week’s new discussion, the story of a Yankees prospect who might have made it if not for a certain United Nations police action overseas. Then we return to 2017 for a look back at one of the show’s earliest episodes and what was happening in the game on the days the United States went to war. Gee, I wonder what brough that one to mind?
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In our second and last holiday mini-episode of the season, we wonder how a sore-armed Yankees pitcher went on a crash diet, then turn to Kid Gleason, manager of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, for a little lesson resilience. Featuring a baserunning tale that isn’t true, but it ought to be.
(Drum Roll Please.wav by Scheffler)
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 357 Angels Up the Where? and Baseball True Love In a holiday mini-episode we talk about secular vs. religious holidays in America, the films of Powell and Pressburger, and the faith-based baseball comedy (in which it’s the nuns who object most strongly to seeing a manifestation of the divine) “Angels in the Outfield” (1951).
(Drum Roll Please.wav by Scheffler)
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 356 Did a Hall of Fame Manager Break Three Prospects? A long-promised Casey Stengel episode asks why the press reacted badly when the Ol’ Perfesser was named Yankees manager in the fall of 1948, and what it had to do with three busted Braves prospects. And with Venezuela on our minds we recall a recent outfielder who viewed the wall and a dog who feared the hand, perhaps for similar reasons. The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In this week’s new commentary, we wonder how major league strikeout leader James Wood can reduce his strikeouts by 600 percent in 2026. Then we return to early 2008 for a look at some deleterious, franchise-damaging or -destroying decisions, including a regrettable early mistake in free agency and Connie Mack’s decision to run his team like it was the 1910s even though almost 40 years had passed.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Pete Alonso’s exit from New York triggers an exploration of an earlier first baseman who was not only dispensable, but mocked for the very fact of his aging. Expect more John McGraw shouting, Deadball Era statistics, and four separate tragic endings for people named McGann, three of them in the same family. As for the one non-baseball McGann who chose a dark path, his isn’t a baseball story, but an American one.
TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains extensive discussions of self-harm.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning Reissue 025 (077) The Death of Addie Joss Explained and Old-Time Cheating Too In this week’s new segment, we talk about some fringe major leaguers named Truck and Hunky who were big in the minors and ask what degree of bitterness and resentment is acceptable when your dream is squelched by a gatekeeper. Then we go back eight years to episode 77 and the final illness of Hall of Fame pitcher Addie Joss. Finally, we go to Philadelphia for a little old-school, pre-Astros electronic cheating.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We return from the IL with Casey Stengel’s endorsement of the designated hitter, and of astronauts too, then springboard from the recent Red Sox-Pirates trade into a discussion fo the latter’s inability to turn prospects into consistent major leaguers, a long ago pitcher who turned outfielder and got a second chance and, finally, a pitcher named Bumpus, who has something to say to RFK Jr.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A pitcher throws a great game in the World Series and is congratulated by a backstop unknown to him, but once he was known to the game. Then we travel back to 1917 when gamblers tried to fix a White Sox-Red Sox game by throwing their bodies in front of it—and the one player who struck back.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cartoony Clang #6.mp3 by AUDACITIER; kick_w_bone_crunch_inspired_by_tmnt_2012 by Artninja
In this week’s new material, we compare a team signing a low-OBP player to the girl you were crushing on choosing the only suitor you would have had her avoid (not that it was up to you, but also not that the universe isn’t cruel that way), all of which may turn out to be a tortured political metaphor. Then we return to 2016 for the Dodgers at third base, the tragic and not-at-all funny tale of Giants pitcher Bugs Raymond, and a lot of talk about Yoenis Cespedes falling off a horse.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We look at an ordinary day of baseball, May 8, 1949, and some extraordinary—and tragic—things that happened. First, a couple of good pitchers get shelled, then we witness some typically disposable regular season games before noticing a young woman who was treated as if she too were disposable, though she very much was not.
Trigger Warning: The second half of this episode contains discussion of a violent crime and some images may be disturbing.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In the new commentary segment of this week’s reissue episode, we talk about childhood fears of the end times, the degraded state of Times Square in the 1970s and 1980s, the slugging 1964 Twins, and one way the Colorado Rockies might go out in a blaze of fire, weird new GM hire or no. Then we go back to episode 21 for two tales of Hall of Fame catchers under extreme duress.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We spend the episode in 1933. First, Will Rogers comments on the broadcasts in a way which suggests that not much has changed between the start of on-air baseball commentary and its current state. Then we turn to the World Series and the government anti-hunger programs that arose at the precise moment that the Washington Senators were about to make their last bellyflop off the championship high-dive, and what each says about their time and ours, when we are (as we speak) fighting about some of the same issues.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A slightly discursive rainy-day episode in which we question the unlikely players who have hit three home runs in a game and ask if the Rockies-Pirates season series was really necessary before examining two players who were called “Fat”—Fothergill and Fitzsimmons.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out? “Bear Angry Growl” by celldroid
First we make amends to a great of the game who was not only left out of last week’s Shohei Ohtani-Babe Ruth approbation, but was poorly served by baseball (and Baseball). Then we jump from the bizarre Muncy double play of NLCS Game 1 to the most famous baserunning mishap of the Dodgers’ Brooklyn years.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In both this week’s new remarks and our reissue, we go back to pre-Pearl Harbor 1941 and the days when Joe DiMaggio was, day by day, counting up hits and the president, without the medium of television available to him, spoke on a nationwide radio broadcast—an event so new that it caused a major league game to be put on pause. Meet the old boss, different than the new boss, because the world was demonstrably on fire. Then we return to a segment about a manager getting too much credit for helping, which seems timely in a postseason in which managers are taking a good deal of deserved credit for inflicting harm.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We observe the passing of the Milwaukee Brewers out of the championship picture via Casey Stengel (who once managed the minor league Brewers to a championship) mourning a day Whitey Ford was outdueled by a journeyman. Then we go back to 1965 to note the difference between a protest and a riot, theorize about what the latter implies about its participants, and finish with a sincere attempt to alleviate the pain of one of America’s worst urban riots by making a new kind of bat.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In this week’s new remarks, we observe how quaint the racial dialogue of 2018 was (or at least your host’s was) in light of what was coming down the line for the nation. After a brief discussion of protest and backlash, we proceed to flash back to episode 72’s discussion of how the same message can be heard differently in the context of race (that’s the quaint part), revisit an oft-injured left-hander who was a low-key Red Sox great, and drop by Casey Stengel sailing uneasily through the great hurricane of 1938.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We note the passing of Mike Greenwell and an odd time to be an injured player with the Red Sox, and observe the cruel turns fate can take. Continuing on that theme, we go back to the 1925 World Series and ask if Roger Peckinpaugh was truly a goat, just wet, or perhaps some wet-goat combination?
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In both this week’s new remarks and in the reissue segment we revisit our obligation to think critically and how the concept of WAR can help us frame the abstract concepts of “better” and “worse,” and that comes to baseball players, politics, and, yes, chain and independent-bakery coffee rolls—that is, WADD (Wins Above Dunkin Donuts). How many more apples is Aaron Judge than the number of apples you need or want? We even find Luke Skywalker utilizing the replacement-level concept in “Star Wars.” We also find time for some tales of Josh Gibson! Mostly, though, we’re here for the donuts and the wins—or the lack thereof.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We begin by fixing the Rockies with the 1987 Cardinals, stopping off at the intersection of George Steinbrenner gaslighting and (one more time) my Chuck Knoblauch Story. Then we journey back to World War II and look at some dire events adjacent to some future Hall of Famers and try to place them in context of some current events involving today’s fighting forces. And then we come back to the Rockies, who turn out to be the key to the whole thing.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We revisit an early episode about two great ballplayers who sickened at midcareer and, sadly, could not come back in any sense. What can we learn from them? This week’s new remarks expand on that theme, the government shutdown, and on the idea of the Infinite Inning podcast itself.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Collapsing teams this September inspire a visit with a Twins journeyman who has a huge day at the plate, keeping an unexpected contender in first place for a little longer (though the magic leaves when Elvis does), and then reveals the way he’s tried to take charge of his destiny, Rod Carew wonders if he’s been accepted, and three old guys living near Cincinnati go to jail for “contumely.”
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Before we go back to 2018 for a discussion of the only Cubs general manager who was moonlighting from his job at the fish-market and a non-baseball tale, one of the more obscure and unflattering episodes of America’s westward expansion, we discuss our need for a shared reality and one of the earliest conspiracy theories. How are you going to be here with us if you believe that we’re being controlled by them?
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Babe Ruth backs the attack as Babe Ruth gets married, but to a guy named H.C., not a former model named Claire. Cal Raleigh goes on a rampage and Mickey Mantle finishes 1961 quietly, but why did the latter happen and what can we learn from the way he and Billy Martin lived their lives?
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
...Because you might just field the ball with your skull. This week’s new remarks include further reflections on the national calamity unleashed last week, leading into a reissue episode focused on a time the manager of the Dodgers, a chronic lie, told a self-protective, CYA fib that got away from him and nearly cost him his job. We also get a look back at slugging first baseman whose knee quit in spectacular fashion, and, in part one, a 1941 story about a “dumb” player which is revealed to have had the opposite meaning from the author’s intention.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In which the outfielder called Zaza is rediscovered, as is the hit “dirty” turn-of-the-century play that gave him his name. We then briefly pause for a Dodgers outfielder’s career to come to a sudden end, leading to an unusual inning in more ways than one, and the ride concludes with a visit to the world of September 1901 and an argument about who acts, who doesn’t, and what games they might have attended instead.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We return to 2018 and a conversation with the late great manager Davey Johnson, with a cameo from his very excited dogs. This week’s new remarks expand on Johnson’s Hall of Fame case, though it’s now beside the point. We also have a brief story in which Babe Ruth gets hurt, but someone else suffers a worse injury.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
First a catcher and an umpire supposedly participate in a physically impossible act, a computer program vexes the host and leads to a discussion of one possibly beneficial use of AI, and the Yankees acquire a very good hitter because everyone else is in the Army. Will it happen again in a darker way?
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This week’s new remarks are occasioned by the Florida surgeon general’s decision (which he may or may not have the power to enforce) to repeal all vaccine mandates in the state. Then we return to the first time the Pirates traded a future MVP and revisit the sad story of Cardinal catcher Bill DeLancey.
Apologies for the lack of a farewell note--the mixdown was being very wonky and I couldn't get through it without it crashing
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
An obscure umpire-punching incident by a Washington Senators outfielder helps cement the death of the franchise, the slowness of catchers is recalled when a famously leadfooted example steals a base, a sad manager and a sadder junior high school history test recalled.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out? Crowd and field noise before and during homerun hit at MLB baseball stadium by bmadore
In this week’s new remarks, we consider a revival of the baseball musical Damn Yankees which may let the bigoted owners of the original Washington Senators off the hook for destroying their franchise, with a quick look at the Homestead Grays’ residency in the District of Columbia. In the reissue part of the show, we return to “The Turtle Who Was Hated By God,” which is exactly what it sounds like, make a quick stop with a catcher who was heavily into OBP, and finally view racist mascots through the lens of the 17th century Pequot War.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We’re back after an unanticipated medical time out! Casey Stengel gives a medical report and so does the host; why the bad parts of American history give meaning to the good parts, and vice-versa; a whirlwind tour of Pirates-Yankees trades, including one that should have happened but was preempted by an overzealous commissioner.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you
can’t get anybody out? VS Pop_6.mp3 by Vilkas_Sound
Crowd and field noise before and during homerun hit at MLB baseball stadium by bmadore
In this week’s new remarks, a sentimental farewell to the great Ryne Sandberg, the traffic en route to Citi Field and the world outside our windows, and a lesson from position players pitching. Then in our flashback segment, the entertaining but ill-fated Pea Ridge Day and the oddly parallel fates of a 1920s movie star and a New York Giants center fielder.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In a Yankees-centric episode for deadline week, we revisit a rare homegrown Yankees third baseman at a moment he refused to sit down even as injuries ate him alive. Then we take another look at the Buhner-Phelps deal. The Yankees could hardly have done worse... But could they truly have done better?
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
The recent tragic flooding in Texas causes us to revisit the passing of one of baseball’s greatest and strangest southpaws and, in this week’s new remarks, wonder just when it is that anyone actually learns anything, and then how long will it be until they forget it again?
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Music by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net/
We revisit one of the greatest baseball trade deadline deals. Hint: It came on June 15, 1964, and then visit early 20th century Los Angeles and take a look at a neglected corner of baseball history, starting with Joe DiMaggio’s father in Sicily, journeying to Japan, and wrapping up in Texas with a player called “Goo-Goo.” And don’t forget “Sore” Feets!
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
The baseball content in Action Comics no. 1 has a bad effect on those who appeared, particularly the Yankees, the new Superman film, the nature of the character, and Superman vs. the gamblers in a 1939 issue with a Casey Stengel (Braves) and Ducky Medwick (Cardinals) appearance. Then we revisit a statement of values (the opposite of “Nazi” is “baseball”) and dip into Baseball’s Brief Lives to review the career of player, coach, and manager Billy Hunter, who passed away last week at the age of 97.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In new remarks for this week’s baseball, history, and politics reissue, we discuss the Infinite Inning creed and ask what it is we can infer about whole groups if Johnny Bench was a better player than Johnny Roseboro or Lou Gehrig more of a slugger than Vic Power? (Hint: not a damned thing). Then we return to stories of Paul Waner’s 3000th hit and Ty Cobb’s racism and how it intersected with American attitudes during his formative years.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In new remarks for this week’s baseball, history, and politics reissue, we apply Lou Reed’s classic 1989 album New York to this week’s events in Washington and elsewhere, a discussion which also affords us a momentary visit to that year’s Yankees trying to make some absurd trades (and the Mets actually consummating one of the worst). The flashback segment revisits Hack Wilson’s trip into the stands to thrash a misbehaving milkman and the much-neglected founders of the Giants franchise, among other discarded laborers.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 337: Yankees and Cubs Have Wants and Desires Babe Ruth asks for a small favor from Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert—well, 100,000 small favors—and is rebuked in the papers, suggesting a modern problem is actually an old one as well. Then a Cubs great goes to California and finds that prohibition is no impediment to his drinking, a tale which leads to stories of another drinker and a murderer who shared his last name.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out? Mysterious Dramatic Music by tyops License: Attribution 4.0
In new remarks for this week’s baseball, history, and politics reissue, we consider the heat dome hovering over half the country and wonder what it means for baseball. Then we revisit the offensively potent but frequently discarded outfielder Roy Cullenbine and take a visit to interwar Washington for a mostly non-baseball story of political corruption.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Emotional trades happen, and the Cardinals—anticipating the exile of Rafael Devers from Boston—made one with a future Hall of Famer (who eventually wound up in Boston). Then a Cardinals pitcher is kidnapped—or was he?—and the host questions whether he once witnessed an example of the same on the mean streets of New Jersey.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In new remarks for this week’s baseball, history, and politics reissue, notes from the 1500s on kings and princes vs. the mob and what that might tell us about the Rafael Devers trade. Then we revisit two acts of resistance: Tom Seaver and John Lennon have an indirect team-up to remind us of our own power, and the wrong president shows up at the World Series.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A 1980s designated hitter is traded to the National League, a fish-needs-a-bicycle baseball moment reminiscent of recent US diplomacy, and a 20-game winner who pitched as Theodore Roosevelt charged up San Juan Hill throws it all away in favor of good diction.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In new remarks for this week’s baseball and history reprise, we argue about bunts, kites, and kings—why would anyone wish for any of them? Kites are okay, of course, but the other two are problematic. We then revisit the Brooklyn Dodgers with Jackie Robinson asked to comment on a fallen Hall of Famer who had once been his teammate, then jump back to the days before World War II, when the America First Committee wanted to take over a baseball stadium for one of their isolationist/anti-Semitic rallies.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
There are very few general managers in the Hall of Fame, but that doesn’t mean your local team executive doesn’t know what he’s doing—it’s just that there are only so many obvious choices to make in any baseball season whether your name sounds something like “Ranch Bickey” or “Cryin’ Rashman.” Then, following a quick stop with Babe Ruth and a close-mouthed Lou Gehrig, we visit Cleveland Indians camp in 1938 for a manager who was too insensitive to handle a troubled catcher—and his drawer full of shirts.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In early February 2021 it seemed as if the danger of internally-inflicted fascism might be over, and so we looked at an occasion when Lou Gehrig was confronted with the same kind of movement and had a visceral reaction. Plus a lighter tale of a semi-pro pitcher who injured himself in an unusual way. We also revisit some of Twins executive Kevin Goldstein’s comments on the Colorado Rockies from this episode. In this episode’s new introduction: The naivety of some of this episode’s comments about the dangers of Trumpism and a close encounter with 1000-game reliever LaTroy Hawkins.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We take another trip around a past sun with the Brooklyn Dodgers, wondering about the origins of Uncle Robbie’s pronounced facial scar and then question a couple of old stories involving his lack of education: Were umpires really policing his spelling? Then, after a brief pause to ponder the nature of unrequited love, we rejoin the pennant-winning 1941 Dodgers for a future Hall of Fame shortstop with the yips and the unfairly derided first baseman who tried to calm him.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We return to the program’s first year for two of our more fun baseball profiles, both featuring Brooklyn Dodgers—one from the 19th century, one from the 1940s, and both a little uncomfortable. In a new introduction, we explore different modes of parenting and a form of relationship for which we lack the right word.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 332: Women at the Park and Dictators in the Dugout The Chicago Cubs push hard on Ladies Day promotions, but a few object claiming that women don’t know the game of baseball Then baseball managers as autocrats compared to the real thing, and why confusing one for the other is a very dangerous idea, featuring Ossie Vitt and the Crybaby Cleveland team, Stengel vs. Spahn, McGraw vs. Groh, Buchanan vs. emancipation, and everyone vs. “virtue signaling.”
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Before we revisit episode 13 and it’s discussion of the O’Connell-Dolan scandal, starring a player and a coach lately sprung off the banned list by Rob Manfred, we have a new introduction discussing Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis, the death of Franklin Roosevelt, Derek Jeter’s refusal to move off of shortstop, and we give one more encore to the most perceptive thing Grantland Rice every wrote.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
The secret to managers’ success is revealed and dispensed with, in a hypothetical version of 1976, George Steinbrenner gifts Reggie Jackson with a plane, Hal Chase isn’t off the list because he was never on the list, a pre-Orioles pitcher becomes ill indeed, and baserunners are obstructed in 1928 and 2025, with differing outcomes suggesting the ways baseball can be like a sloppily-written document.
(Snare Drum Buzz Roll, then Tada by TheRandomSoundByte2637)
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In this return to one of this baseball podcast’s earliest episodes, we discover two utility infielders, the Yankees’ Wayne Tolleson and, well, nobody’s Snooks Dowd (he was a Tigers, A’s, and Dodgers reject) who weren’t where they were supposed to be—or maybe they were exactly where they were supposed to be, but those in authority had a different opinion. This episode features a new introduction reflecting on how these lost players relate to some of the displaced people of our own times.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A pope who supposedly wanted baseball but caved to the Nazis instead, an amateur pitcher who cost a team a pennant, the Perdicaris incident, a Pirates manager is fired and the way his predecessor resigned, and the 2025 Colorado Rockies versus the 1932 Boston Red Sox and both in the hands of the President of the United States.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
For the show’s first reissue, we return to an episode from almost precisely five years ago which compares players who wouldn’t follow rules and inspired their clubs not to follow rules back, a subject framed by our once and possibly future public health crisis. We then turn to one of the great baseball stories, the misbegotten career of Don Padgett, who Branch Rickey tried to squeeze into a catcher’s mask. This episode features a new introduction and occasional other interruptions.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future. Expect history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We consider the legacy of the great Venezuelan players who have graced the game going back to Alex Carrasquel in 1939, constructing an all-star team of players from that beleaguered nation. What can any one of them tell us about Venezuelans as a whole? Hint: it’s the same thing that a highway serial killer can tell us about your best friend’s gramma. Then we return to the strange, inebriated world of Shufflin’ Phil Douglas. Did he betray not just the game and himself, but his wife as well?
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future. Expect history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We begin with two players who would have been crowded off of modern rosters, and also couldn’t have made the 1970s Oakland A’s due to the owner’s insistence on carrying two pinch-runners at once. Then we travel to Philadelphia and visit two pitchers seemingly on parallel tracks, one who might pitch forever as the other confronts a life-threatening illness.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future. Expect history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We visit the high-flying world of Florida real estate speculation 100 years ago with the volatile manager of the New York Giants John J. McGraw. When the bubble burst, would it be a case of murder?
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future. Expect history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
(Two Drum Improv_1_Jan_2019_3.mp3 by Glen_Hoban -- https://freesound.org/s/457500/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 conga stabz beat 88 bpm by simmys_recycle_bin -- https://freesound.org/s/757340/ -- License: Attribution 4.0)
We examine the Los Angeles Angels’ hot start in light of the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers’ hot start and what happened afterwards, and stumble across a writer saying inappropriate things about Spike Owen and Teddy Higuera. Then we talk about the tragic loss of Octavio Dotel, “The Pitt,” and Philadelphia’s 1903 “Black Saturday.”
Trigger Warning: There’s nothing graphic about any of the above, but we do talk a bit about more than one tragic building collapse. It’s tasteful, it’s respectful and, we hope, totally not exploitative, but thinking about it too much still might be troubling.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future. Expect history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 324: The Way We Live Now (Again) In a largely improvised episode we reexperience current events through the lens of Joe DiMaggio’s 1941 hitting streak, counting the days while the war stays away, while once again a government effort requires us to rally ‘round Jackie Robinson—and Abraham Lincoln too, and we do so while checking in on the better brand of shortstops offered by the Negro Leagues’ Newark Eagles and Philadelphia Stars (and shame Connie Mack one more time).
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We debate whether a victim of the First World War and the 1918 influenza pandemic was the heretofore unidentifiable Greatest Lost Prospect, we make a quick stop to compare takes on the 1915 World Series to Social Darwinism, and rediscover a dirty owners’ trick after a pitcher gathers up all his many girlfriends and drives into a wall.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A pitcher reaching a breaking point with his creator sends us scurrying back to the Old Testament for guidance, and then we unpack the stories behind Steve’s Baseball Prospectus column this week, a reaction to the Department of Defense labeling Jackie Robinson as “deisports.” Should you wish to read the column, it’s available free (no paywall) at BP.
Trigger Warning: There are extensive discussions of slavery, and a brief one of rape, in the second part of the show. There is also perhaps one mild cussword in here. It’s nothing you haven’t heard the current president say repeatedly.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Casey Stengel (our mascot, hero, and deity) steals a couple of uniforms and feels bad about it, and then a successful manager of the Red Sox is fired under dubious circumstances, and then virtually everyone in the story catches tuberculosis.
Trigger Warning: There are a couple of fleeting mentions of self-harm in the second act of the show.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A sportswriter faces his own irrelevance on the morning after Pearl Harbor and finds a way back to baseball, and then a pitcher loses it and reignites a brawl that had already ended—featuring more future Hall of Famers than wound up in the Hall of Fame. Yes, it all makes sense in the end.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
The way we live today prompts a tale of two future Hall of Famers inflicting pain on one another, yet another Hall of Famer, Phil Rizzuto, suffers pain and the host does too, and finally a story of a catcher who decided to engage with a world of corruption and paid a high price.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A minor leaguer gets involved with the wrong woman, but who does she get involved with in the aftermath? And why did the pitcher throw the inkstand?
Tigger Warning: There is one mild cussword early on, but one supposes there are a few adult matters related to sexuality that come up in passing. You might want to say “La la la” over that if the kids are around.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 317: You Can’t Be There If You’re Already Here The show must go on, and so we begin with Dodgers Hall of Fame manager Walt Alston, the overreach of the man he replaced, Chuck Dressen (and Mrs. Dressen too) and what Walt did to make ends meet, then pause for some ruminations on The Way We Live Now, then visit Opening Day at Yankee Stadium in 1957 for home-run heroics by a forgotten player, bad play-by-play, and a dire song choice.
Tigger Warning: There is a machine gun fired about 18 minutes into the episode. There is also one cussword at around the 20-minute mark. Cauterize your ears if necessary. (LightMachineGun2.wav by SuperPhat. 8bit-scream.wav by DeltaCode. R21-09-Man Screams.wav, R28-45-Woman Screams in Rumbling Space.wav by craigsmith. )
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We begin once more with nice guys who finish last, but we confront the possibility that the qualifier was overstated, segue into the “Window Breakers” Giants of the late 1940s, Octavius Catto and Tommy Henrich, two pitchers who had more than their share of freak injuries, and so much more. Plus some more thoughts on the future of the show.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
An embarrassing moment for Johnny Evers as he makes the reacquaintance of a pitcher he dismissed, and a certain town in Pennsylvania suffers a man-made disaster—but which Hall of Famers family lived there? And some questions about the show's next direction.
Trigger Warning: This episode contains one solitary cussword at the end of the episode. Save your dog from having his vocabulary corrupted.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Four quick tales: Leo Durocher excoriates a baserunner and gives us some quality advice, a college player dies on the field, a player is signed by the Yankees under false pretenses, and a minor league Baltimore Oriole goes into the stands.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We begin the new year with two tales of pitchers who could have used a break, one an ancient Cubbie into self-deprecation, another a war-era Cardinal in need of appreciation—from Branch Rickey.
pistol_riccochet.ogg by Diboz
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A half-length Casey Stengel-centric episode as we all get ready for the big holiday with all its joy and peppermint bark. Includes way too much about pinch-hitting during the Truman administration, if that’s your kind of thing.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We begin with a brief threnody on those who would say ballplayers are overpaid, spanning Babe Ruth to Juan Soto and the arbitrary nature of those ‘plaints. We then head into the darkness for the thwarted careers and prematurely-concluded marriages of two 1930s middle infielders and how they reacted to a very specific, cruel form of tragedy.
Trigger Warning: This episode contains a discussion of self-harm and attempted suicide. That doesn’t come up until the second act of the show. As always, hide the children! Love, the management.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A manager fails to comfort a nervous rookie pitcher and an outfielder of ancient days ends his career when he overreacts to an unusual family-oriented insult.
Trigger Warning: This episode contains one unusual cussword from 1892. Hide the children.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cloggers clogging in Lincoln, Nebraska by bmccoy2
On the road to grandmother’s house, we ask whether a 19th-century game purported to be the greatest of all time was any fun, stopping along the way to admire the marital problems of a star second baseman and various other acts of criminality. Plus Walter Johnson avoids comparisons with a young star. The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind.
Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
By listener request, the story of Casey Stengel and the sparrow, but first, a pitcher is mercilessly mocked for his pickoff move and a second baseman is disabled by a piece of chewing gum.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Two players are cursed with high expectations and both have their moments, but one becomes best known for sitting down and the other finds you can’t succeed if your best tool is a razor blade. Then we consider why Sam Rice finished just short of 3,000 hits and its implications for the near future.
TRIGGER WARNING: The second half of this episode contains a discussion of suicide and the loss of a child.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
After the week we’ve had, we’re all once again in the Infinite Inning, but is there a way out? Follow along the winding path as a Yankees ace puts his head through a windshield, toxic soup is eaten, a Negro Leagues catcher suffers an awful fate, a manager gets a duck, and a pitcher plays the William Tell Overture on the harmonica but fails to record a single strikeout, and somehow all of this tells us something about where to go from here.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
An election-eve episode that begins with two notable World Series gaffes and the players who weren’t blamed and those who were, and what that says about us as a society. We then turn to contingency and its effect in history—how much of what happens to us is the result of wisdom, and how much is luck?—as exemplified by one move that Connie Mack didn’t make, and one that he did.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
First, some brief thoughts on the passing of the great Fernando Valenzuela and Fernandomania as a contrast to the great upheavals of 1200 BC. Then join Steve at the Morristown Festival of Books for a conversation with author Kevin Baker about The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This week, stories of fathers, sons, and brothers playing baseball, one an ancestor of the current Yankees manager who witnessed a strange Phil Rizzuto baserunning blunder, and three brothers who ran a baseball school, but only two of them were major leaguers.
Join Steve October 19 at the Morristown, NJ Festival of Books for a baseball panel starring Kevin Baker and Andy Martino! This week’s Baseball Prospectus column, featuring Honest John Anderson: Spare the Goat.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Luis Tiant’s passing provokes an exploration of both his and his father’s immigrant story and dovetails with a sequel to our discussion of Pete Rose’s passing in which four very early Negro Leagues greats—two in the Hall of Fame, two out—ask to be fairly measured against history.
Join Steve at the Morristown, NJ Festival of Books on October 19!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
There is no such thing as a bad baby, but there is such a thing as a bad man. The passing of Pete Rose brings on thoughts of Darryl Strawberry’s peak and rapid fall, ice cream sundaes served in batting helmets, and the responsibility of the audience to separate art, artist, and shrine. Then take a quick tour of the best third basemen not yet in the Hall of Fame and why they and Pete Rose stand as equals before the Cooperstown Gate.
Join Steve October 19 at the Morristown, NJ Festival of Books for a baseball panel starring Kevin Baker and Andy Martino!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This anniversary episode brings a fresh look at some of the themes that have obsessed us since the show began back in 2017, specifically humanity, empathy, and the replacement level. We revisit Joe McCarthy and Slim Jones’ pain and the former’s Hall of Fame induction, Heinie Mueller’s basepath errors, Oscar Grimes’ fielding miscues, Theodore Roosevelt’s “Fear God and Take Your Own Part” and how it contrasts to the current demonization of a helpless minority, another Cuban great who never got to play in the US, and it all comes full circle at the end.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A list of New York-centric baseball nicknames in Kevin Baker’s The New York Game sends us down a rabbit hole a hundred years deep in which we consider dozens of players and stories before being stopped by a mystery: Who—and why—was “The Lively Turtle?”
Join Steve for a baseball panel at the Morristown Festival of Books, October 19!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A 19th-century player is intentionally hit so many times he forces a crazy rules change, and then we consider one of the Negro Leagues greats in light of recent racist rumors about pets in danger.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Two tales of Frank Chance, who may have been the Cubs’ Peerless Leader but had a pathological compulsion to sacrifice his brain on the altar of baseball—and this after he had saved himself and a Cubs pennant from extortionist threats—or did he? Also includes too effusive an appreciation of San Diego.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We explore what put the “Solon” in Sacramento, plus the Man of 1,000 Baseball Caps returns! We enjoy a visit with original Infinite Inning rotation member Cliff Corcoran for the usual wide-ranging discussion of hats and a variety of 2024 baseball topics!
TABLE OF CONTENTSWhat is a Solon? Cliff Corcoran: “I Prefer the Ones Without Guests”Ghosting Guests and Baseball CardsJorge Posada vs. Yadier MolinaRejection and Mike SciosciaDistance and ObjectivityBrett Phillips: AthleteRunning ‘Em OutQualifying for the Marathon19th Century Senators Toque Caps (Mike Easler/Cliff Johnson)Authentic Browns Caps, Authentic Reds CapsUpside-Down NYThe Astros Ride AgainSlumpyTeams ™The White Sox Clean Out the Coaches’ Room“Major League Coach”The GiantsGabe Kapler’s One Big YearMVP: Judge vs. WittThe DH Argument/Judge Finds the LedgeHard Scoreboards, Power Boxes, Drains, and Chicken-Wire FencesProgress in Trout-MedicineWounded Mantle, Injured MarisRickey’s HammiesGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Various reflections of the Orange Confidence Man extended universe, the 2024 White Sox, and other frauds, featuring an exploration of what happens when you knock the opposing pitcher out in the first, featuring visits with Babe Ruth, Jimmy Carter, and other legendarily temperamental figures.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
The meaning of a sign in a manager’s office is considered and interlinked with one of the final Beatles singles and a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, and “The Fall and Forgiveness of Lyn Lary, 1931 and 1940,” concludes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discuses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 293: The Pitcher Who Was at Sea Before and After He Joined the Navy
One of baseball’s all-time punchlines turns out to deserve his status, but not for the reason we thought. Plus, “The Fall and Forgiveness of Lyn Lary, 1931 and 1940,” continues as Lyn grows closer to Lou Gehrig following one of the greatest baserunning gaffes of all time.
Trigger warning: Mention of Suicide.
Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 292: One for Dad On a solemn occasion, the last home run in Senators II history is recalled—did it really happen? Plus part one of a hypothetical visit to a transitional time for the Yankees and a very different take on Lou Gehrig in, “The Fall and Forgiveness of Lyn Lary, 1931 and 1940.”
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Benjamin Franklin’s warning, the course of empire, and the 1965 Yankees, Joe DiMaggio versus Casey Stengel versus the Detroit Tigers and the Red Sox, how to solve an abundance of outfielders and a lack of first basemen, and much more.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jimmie Foxx versus Cass Elliot in a battle of unfairly judged passings.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In 1951 a Hall of Fame sportswriter reacts to the advent of Willie Mays in a spectacularly stupid way and we are on the spot with a stern rebuke and a bit of historical background to that moment. Then we look at not the stars of the Negro Leagues, but a pitcher who was at the opposite end of the spectrum—his pitching made the stars possible—and he in turn prompts a visit to the Minnesota Twins of the early 1980s, as well as a spectacularly angry Kirk Gibson doing Kirk Gibson things.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A Negro Leagues great with a odd nickname opts out of education and into baseball, and we revisit the day that Philadelphia fans booed not Santa Claus but the President of the United States.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Two stories begin in different times and places, but both converge on the same great player and the same great lesson. Starring a plethora of Hall of Famers, among them some of the greatest Yankees of all time, a third baseman better remembered today than he was in his time, and a pitcher who had just one great, strange day, but who lived happily ever after in all the ways that count.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Tiny Bonham and William Shakespeare revisited, Steve Trout, Don Mattingly, 20-run losses, and dealing with loss.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A pitcher who only got one chance, an antisocial Hall of Famer who got many, and the one time he didn’t fight, the Max Kepler Ass-Ad (Lucky Larry) and Reggie for Panasonic, and the submarine pitcher killed by an aspect or two of the American Way.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Due to a case of Covid, we have a mini-episode this week in which the pandemic is ruminated upon and a catcher of ancient days bungles the dismount.
A cluster of insanity among 19th century players with Louisville, starring a Gladiator and a Chicken, with resonance to the present day. Plus we visit a forgotten MVP-level season authored by Silent George Stone, pause for a what-if moment with Whitey Herzog as Rockies manager, and so much more.
Gibberish by Timbre, Metrostock99, JohnLaVine333, Vtrmrll, Djgriffin, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Casual Observer. Bell by Nlux.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
For very personal but with luck very premature reasons, we ask whether the great Giants manager John McGraw ever made peace with his father and explore the confused timeline of his passing before briefly discussing a badly failed prospect from the extremely early Yankees, with stops along the way.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Christy Mathewson pitches one of his worst best games and John McGraw gets ejected, though probably not because of his umbrella; Gene Woodling smokes a pipe while playing for the Mets; and does complete conformity make for better ballplayers, with or without their choice of peanut butter?
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out? NOW IN ITS SEVENTH YEAR!
A Yankees player’s marriage goes wrong faster than he could steal bases and Judge Landis makes a category error.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A return engagement for Pepper Martin in which he loses his cool in a big way and we consider an obscure reliever… With a cameo from the late MAS*H star McLean Stevenson?
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Young Ruth Nollard meets the wrong baseball player in 1900, and we realize that in some ways very little has changed, plus a number of famous players come to the border and some try to turn them away.
Trigger Warning: This episode includes discussion of stalking, possible sexual assault, and murder.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In which the hazards of playing baseball without first properly girding one’s loins is investigated through the person of Pepper Martin, with other plentiful stops along the trail.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
The host is sick, Dizzy Dean is overweight, and an umpire threatens to do the impossible to a rookie second baseman.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A pitcher has a dominant game despite accusations that his balls are greasy, and then we go to the immediate postwar period to discuss the early days of the Cold War, its relationship to the current election, and what should be the fundamental goal of all governments: Keep Ted Williams on the field.
Sources for this Episode include: In the Time of the Americans (David Fromkin); The United States and the Origins of the Cold War (John Lewis Gaddis); Strategies of Containment (Gaddis); The Cold War: A New History (Gaddis); A Covenant with Power (Lloyd C. Gardner); The Wise Men (Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas); America, Russia, and the Cold War (Walter LaFeber); The Origins of the Cold War (Thomas G. Paterson and Robert J. McMahon, eds).
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This week, a lighthearted look at a Hall of Famer who spent four games demolishing one of Casey Stengel’s early teams and then an extended discussion of a catcher and a pitcher who both had off-the-field habits that rendered them (or should have) unfit to play.
Trigger Warning: There is an extended discussion of domestic violence and sexual assault, in sometimes graphic terms, in this episode. “Crazy Horse Intro” by Groan Aderic-Agi.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In which a veteran pitcher gets the last strikeout of his career in a meaningless inning and yet the moment is somehow triumphal—or tragic, depending on your point of view—and several pitchers with missing fingers make an appearance but not all of them experience equal success.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A forgotten left-handed great goes to Augusta and finds three other players in search of a destiny, but none of them gets precisely what he wants, and the Red Sox bring back a managerial great to turn things around—but does he?
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A shortstop has two wives (but finds time to invent the padded glove), a .330-hitting outfielder is driven off because of his tan, and a Native American pitcher wills himself to begin again—but not until cutting up with America’s most ubiquitous bird.
TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains a brief discussion of suicide.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This week a discussion of sadism as a way to pass the time with two tales from the early 20th century, one involving a violent Red Sox second baseman and the other an obnoxious Yankees shortstop named after the wrong condiment, plus more rioting fans, players who studied dentistry for no reason, a manager who got ejected for wearing a mask (not Bobby Valentine) and a personal encounter with Morgo the Globulous.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Kate Claxton’s Six Rules for Staying Young versus Satchel Paige’s, plus the changing nature of public danger; more on fighting in baseball, with some 1924 ejections; more on Ed Kontechy, the “Bohemian Chocolate-Dropper,” and what that means (plus “enrober-strokers?”); umpires versus photographers in Cincinnati; have you ever tried Kipling, the biggest tomato, so much more!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 268: A Broom of Twigs as Are We All Casey Stengel, Winston Churchill, the 1962 Mets, Lavengro, what a besom is, Theodore Roosevelt, the Reverend Dr. Russell M. Brougher, the efficacy of prayer, Ed Konetchy, infidelity and early marriages, early chocolate beverages, Hernan Cortes, polyamory in the early 20th century Phillies ownership suite, managed by a dentist, dear old dad, Bobo Newsom, Shanty Hogan, Dadaism, the Marx Brothers, and the Beatles, Bob’s dad and the 1940 World Series, The Man from C.I.N.C.I.N.N.A.T.I., Pronoun: Bobo, peat-bog mummies and their offspring, Targaryens and Habsburgs, Dad and Bing, Dad and Rickey Henderson, Rickey and postseason shares, ancient Dodgers first basemen with tragic ends, Tim Jordan, Jake Daubert, Del Bissonette, the Chalmers Award, the Vincent Van Gogh exit, Lefty Gomez’s last words, and goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A World War II hero battles his way back to the mound and is given both rough and tender treatment by Ted Williams, a discussion of the Black Sox and the 14th Amendment, and the wildest pitching day in history fails to end a career.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
The last episode of 2023! A pitcher undergoes a questionable treatment on his arm and loses a unique oral talent, a utility infielder gets drunk, violent, and convicted, and a clarification about Jackie Robinson’s political mission to San Francisco.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Famous last words, including Casey Stengel’s, a shortstop who liked semi-pro leagues better than the majors (and desperately needed a dermatologist), and an argument about moral relativism which ends in a pyramid of skulls.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
No Peckinpaughs were hurt in the recording of this episode, but we do visit the 1925 World Series, where Babe Ruth makes a dad joke that tempts fate, check in on a pitcher who may or may not have been a war correspondent, consider the greatest double-play combinations of all time, and question when getting to be a major league manager is less of an opportunity than it first appears, starring the Angels and what might have been the worst clubhouse of all time.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In which a rookie’s arrogance (mildly) tests Earl Weaver and a pitcher nicknamed “Bucher Boy” prompts a mass ejection event.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
We begin with a player whose bid for a major league roster spot was deflected by fish-on-human violence and whose sense of humor was deflected by something more tragic, then we turn to Jose Urias’s second arrest for domestic violence and take a tour through player misbehavior both inside and outside the institution of marriage.
Transition music by ERH and Klankbeeld.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
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Could there have been a Tigers first baseman more ill-fated than Spencer Torkelson? Yes, by far, especially when his manager thought he couldn’t play and his own trainer tried to bake him. Plus, an early player gets in touch with his inner divinity and faces fatal consequences—but always dresses the part.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/3569757/advertisement
A wide-ranging episode in which we cover the greatest pitching staffs of all time, Ted Lyons, Al Lopez, Tony Cuccinello, an underachieving White Sox team, and a first baseman named Supply.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/3569757/advertisement
The namesake of a Hall of Fame pitcher and pioneer of the game opts not to become a player but turns into a star nonetheless, while a third baseman who wasn’t a star (but was sometimes celebrated as one) tries to find a way to live with himself—and Philadelphia fans.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/3569757/advertisement
The Yankees stash one of the game’s founding generation in their press box and a traded player gets sweet revenge against the manager who dissed him, possibly with his buttocks. Plus, players object to nun costumes, look like babies, and are blocked by famous Pittsburgh outfielders.
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The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/3569757/advertisement
Two tales of players punished by time and sundry other flaws. First, Jimmy Dykes loses his legs, then Hall of Famer Al Simmons loses his career, his wife, his life, and his final bottle. Plus: A brief complaint about the present Yankees.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A brief history of Popup John, original Yankee, and his run-in with Ring Lardner, while another great writer explains a crusade against injustice in terms of a pitcher’s love-life. Plus the usual sidelights and digressions, from Luis Arraez to falsely-accused exhibitionist baseball writers.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
The annual arrival of Jackie Robinson Day brings tales of an early series between Rube Foster’s Giants and Ty Cobb’s Tigers, one that proved a point without changing anything, while a Hall of Fame pitcher levels a strange accusation against the National League regarding Robinson receiving preferential treatment—but even if it were true, would it have been wrong? Plus notes on the abandonment of A’s history and more. The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind.
Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Losing Pitcher Mulcahy loses one more game for his country, a discussion of a fictional crossdressing firefighter of 1930 and objections thereto, and two Chicago Cubs come to blows over their grandpas’ participation in the Civil War.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Branch Rickey confronts his mortality and misses the date, players rally in slow motion, and the Dodgers pitch a prospect’s arm off, but not before he was part of a minor-league tiff that anticipated pitch-clock violations.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 252: Thanksgiving in March (The Unpopular Dad) In an odd bit of timing, this week the Infinite Inning presents two stories about birds, one about a manager and an all-time great slugger who both got into the turkey business—maybe not together but sequentially—and another who tried to leverage his chickens into avoiding a pay-cut… and the whole thing is secretly about parenting. Who knew?
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTSEleven BitesScooter and Where to Find Grover Cleveland When He’s DeadThe Children of Greater Boston Want TwinkiesVice-President in the ClubhouseAll Alone on the MoundGrantland Rice and “To Any Athlete” ReduxStephen Strasburg’s Surgery“I’m An Outfielder Now”Ed Morris Callback/“Poker Face” CrossoverThe Lonesome Death of Deerfoot MilanThe Lonesome Photographs of Lewis HineEarly Wynn 299 vs Early Wynn 300Distance and Enchantment*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
“The $100,000 Muff” as a state of being and the tale of a shortstop who tried to play only when he felt up to it.
TABLE OF CONTENTSCasey Stengel’s Imitation of Fred Snodgrass in AmericaA Very Simple But Important Note About the Hazardous Nature of an Open DrawbridgeRay Chapman vs. Charlie HollocherHow Many Shortstops Have Hit .340?The Phantom StomachachePlaying Through PainGoing Home and the Sad FinishThe Hopeful EndingGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
An episode about having generosity for broken infielders, both the capable and relatively incapable, the healthy but unproductive and the productive but slain by inanimate objects.
TABLE OF CONTENTSMeet LinusMeet Linus’s WatercoolerA Listener Makes a ComplaintFrameworks and PlatformsThe Great Nations of EuropeGeorge Stovey’s 1.13-ERA SeasonWhat is This Show About, and Who Gets to Decide?The Greatest Shortstop in Browns HistoryThe Anti-Greatest Shortstop in Anyone’s HistoryUndersized in the 20th CenturyMcGraw Thwarted, Bresnahan CursedCleveland RegretsThe Switch-Hitter GambitInky Strange and Other ProspectsEnter the Steelers and Other Saving Throws*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In which the player called “Honey-Boy” is traded by the Cubs to great derision and a rebuild movement is compared to the art of long-term self-deception.
TABLE OF CONTENTSAll the Lies That Are My Life: A Story by Harlan Ellison and/or Self-Deception by a Dead-End ManagerYou Don’t Belong HereThe Challenge-TradeAn Odd Swap of CatchersMy Outfield for Your OutfieldAll the Lies That Are Your RebuildA’s Center Fielders in 2022Esteury vs. EstuaryZen and the Art of Dode, or Vice-VersaThe Etymology of DodeHoney-BoyBurning Ballparks and Fatal CatchesLive AshesHaunted Hospital BedsCleveland Fire Rescue!Cy versus DodeCubs in CenterGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning* is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A tale for New Year’s Eve: A Giants prospect wins a job but fails to cope with harsh fate. Plus the usual asides and digressions, including Satchel Paige’s Six Rules for Staying Young, with commentary.
TABLE OF CONTENTSSatchel Paige’s Six Rules for Staying Young, with CommentaryThe Shinners FactorGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A solo because-it’s-Christmas episode in which Casey Stengel stages a protest but it’s the umpire who pays the ultimate price.
TABLE OF CONTENTSIntro: A Branch Rickey ChristmasThe Reserve Clause, Player Choice, Happiness, and “Richard Corey”Is Steve Cohen a Rational Actor?Casey Stengel sulks in PittsburghThe Yellow TelegramSaranac LakeGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A solo episode dashes from umpires stranded on foggy seas to a Savage pitcher who received multiple Purple Hearts—and somehow conquered his control while doing so—and reflects on what his story warns us about our own times.
TABLE OF CONTENTSThe Day the Umps Heard “Ahooga!”Burt Uniform Tops and Burnt YouTubersOld Starting Rotations and Starting Pitcher Tandems, Starring Justin Verlander et alAngels PrioritiesThe Ancient 2005 Yankees“I’ll Bonk Alone”Cosplaying FascismBob Savage, High School Pitcher (?), Major Leaguer, War HeroFred McGriff MisreadThe Only Two Reasons to Have an Elder RotationAttenuated Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to discuss the new Hall of Fame ballot, negative associations with certain players and even uniforms, the disparate interpretations possible when reading a key “Peanuts” strip, and more. Plus tales: A pitcher with a problem pitches a no-hitter and then things get weird—and potentially fatal.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Spirited ThanksgivingIntergalactic Union DayIt Wasn’t the Alcohol that Killed HimCliff CorcoranHollywood Stars Hats and the HolocaustHere’s the World War I Flying AceEscapism of Different KindsThe Gertrude Question Two WaysThe New Hall of Fame BallotCarlos BeltranThe Triumph of WARThe Bernie Williams DiscontentsThe Carole King DigressionBrian Cashman and Jacoby EllsburyNick Senzel Was Not One of ThemSkipped “The Sound of Music”“Gone with the Wind”/“The Best Years of Our Lives”*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the
A solo episode features a controversial managerial decision that might have lost the 1935 World Series for the Cubs and a look at a moment in baseball and the rest of the nation on August 14 of that year that hints at where we are now.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A World Series Inflection Point, 1935Best Lefties in Cubs History?Jolly Cholly Visits a Chinese RestaurantMr. Rogers on the InterstateUnresolved Traffic BottlenecksWoodrow Wilson at VersaillesBlue Tribe vs. Green TribeAugust 14, 1935 in Baseball A Litany of PhelpsesBlondy Ryan vs. Michael Harris et alDucky Schofield ‘60Lynching ‘35The Social Security ActInsecuritySam Leslie Leaves the Game and Possibly Everything Else*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns to discuss the postseason thus far, remember bad Braves teams and worse shortstops, wonder at the complacency of the AL Central, and be psychically assaulted by “Citizens for Sanity.” Plus tales: The Reds’ revival in, and the Yankees aftermath, of the 1976 World Series, and the story of Liz Funk, an outfielder who came up with the wrong team at the wrong time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Anti-Complacency and the 1976 World SeriesThe Ballad of Liz Funk, Man in the Wrong PlaceDavid Roth: Random Ron Gant ReferenceWhich Leads Inevitably to Alfredo GriffinThe Guardians Were CheapThe Byron Buxton ConundrumEvery AL Central Team is Annoying In It’s Own WayRooting for Dusty/Joe Maddon, Numbers, and NerdsThe Wrong Pizza HutOnce Again: George Steinbrenner’s Shrimp ScambiAaron Judge and Jacob deGrom’s Pizza Hut(s)“Stop the Insanity”Cheesy Cheddar Biscuits*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Author Patrick Montgomery discusses his book, THE BASEBALL MIRACLE OF THE SPLENDID 6 AND TOWNY TOWNSEND, the story of a Virginia youth coach who produced more than his share of future major leaguers. Plus tales: The quest for the postseason “Cementhead” via Charles Schulz and one of the most impatient hitters of all time—and a dirty player to boot.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Peanuts Baseball and “Cementhead”A “Thanks for the Memory” DigressionThanks for the Impatience: The Whitey Alpermann StoryPatrick Montgomery: What was the “miracle” of the Splendid Six?Don’t Call Him “Marvin”The Career-Ending IncidentThe No-Cut PolicyAmateur Baseball in the Tidewater RegionTowny: The Missing YearsHow Was All This Travel-Ball Paid For?Coaches Double-DippingCuddyer, B.J. Upton, et alWho Ate All the Cool Whip?Towny’s MethodTidewaterSwing and Miss With the Splendid SixThe Stubbornness of Mark ReynoldsChanging Attitudes Towards Batter StrikeoutsIn the Coast GuardThe Movie!Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Lincoln Mitchell (San Francisco Year Zero) returns to talk the future of both San Francisco and the San Francisco Giants as well as the war against Ukraine. Plus tales: The clouded conception of a Negro Leaguer and the distorted memory of a crucial Giants-Reds game that turns out not to have been all that crucial, but is still certain to meet your expectorations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Herb Souell’s MomThe Day the Giants Didn’t Win the PennantLincoln Mitchell: To Rent or Buy in San FranciscoHow Do the Giants Rebuild?The Potential of a Mediocre ChampionThyroid EstradaRegression on the Farm“1920 and ‘22”PutinconfusionThe Great IllusionAaron Judge to San Francisco?Dodgers Gear at the Giants GameGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Calcaterra (Cup of Coffee, Everything is Broken) returns to adjudicate the AL MVP race, the pitch-clock, the value of managers, and more. Plus tales: The attitudes and abilities of Carl Hubbell and Babe Ruth compared and contrasted over a matter of road selection and how Hubbell always knew where he kept his plow.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Carl Hubbell, the Avatar of Yes, and Choosing the Best Road HomeHubbell’s Bad Inning and a Waiting PlowCraig Calcaterra: Second Series/Downton Abbey Spoilers?The Bullpen Catchers of Classic HollywoodTournament vs. Pennant RaceSad Trombone ChampionPostseason PreviewsPitch Clock: Mark Harris ObjectsThe Dead Time in ‘69The Purist’s Version DevaluedThe Pitch Clock WorksThe Once and Future TedThe Spontaneous SpectatorJudge vs. OhtaniBecause Andruw Jones Didn’t Go to Medical SchoolTake a Letter to TonyManagers and ContingencyThe Vibe-SettersGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Calcaterra (Cup of Coffee, Everything is Broken) returns to adjudicate the AL MVP race, the pitch-clock, the value of managers, and more. Plus tales: The attitudes and abilities of Carl Hubbell and Babe Ruth compared and contrasted over a matter of road selection and how Hubbell always knew where he kept his plow.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Carl Hubbell, the Avatar of Yes, and Choosing the Best Road HomeHubbell’s Bad Inning and a Waiting PlowCraig Calcaterra: Second Series/Downton Abbey Spoilers?The Bullpen Catchers of Classic HollywoodTournament vs. Pennant RaceSad Trombone ChampionPostseason PreviewsPitch Clock: Mark Harris ObjectsThe Dead Time in ‘69The Purist’s Version DevaluedThe Pitch Clock WorksThe Once and Future TedThe Spontaneous SpectatorJudge vs. OhtaniBecause Andruw Jones Didn’t Go to Medical SchoolTake a Letter to TonyManagers and ContingencyThe Vibe-SettersGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Calcaterra (Cup of Coffee, Everything is Broken) returns to adjudicate the AL MVP race, the pitch-clock, the value of managers, and more. Plus tales: The attitudes and abilities of Carl Hubbell and Babe Ruth compared and contrasted over a matter of road selection and how Hubbell always knew where he kept his plow.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Carl Hubbell, the Avatar of Yes, and Choosing the Best Road HomeHubbell’s Bad Inning and a Waiting PlowCraig Calcaterra: Second Series/Downton Abbey Spoilers?The Bullpen Catchers of Classic HollywoodTournament vs. Pennant RaceSad Trombone ChampionPostseason PreviewsPitch Clock: Mark Harris ObjectsThe Dead Time in ‘69The Purist’s Version DevaluedThe Pitch Clock WorksThe Once and Future TedThe Spontaneous SpectatorJudge vs. OhtaniBecause Andruw Jones Didn’t Go to Medical SchoolTake a Letter to TonyManagers and ContingencyThe Vibe-SettersGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Rob Neyer returns to discuss his contributions to Dale Scott’s memoir THE UMPIRE IS OUT and sundry other matters. Plus tales: A reserve catcher meets a grizzly end and a ballplayer is punished for going to his family’s aid.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Short, Sad Ballad of Frank Grube“Lifestyles”100-Walk TriosRocky Gonna Fly Now (Into the Stands)Rob Neyer: A worthy subjectKeeping the VoiceWorking with Dale ScottJack Morris/No Scores SettledWhen Umps Learned to ConferWhy Was It Done This Way?When the Umpires ResignedThe Late Arrival of Instant ReplayThe Automated Strike ZoneClosetedGrowing Up in a Homophobic CultureAn Umpire Comes OutProgress on Tolerance and Retrograde MovementWhat Does the Commissioner of the West Coast League Do?The Yankees’ Disastrous Stretch-Run*Goodbyes.
Read BASEBALL'S BRIEF LIVES: PLAYER STORIES INSPIRED BY THE INFINITE INNING, now available from Amazon!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Rob Neyer returns to discuss his contributions to Dale Scott’s memoir THE UMPIRE IS OUT and sundry other matters. Plus tales: A reserve catcher meets a grizzly end and a ballplayer is punished for going to his family’s aid.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Short, Sad Ballad of Frank Grube“Lifestyles”100-Walk TriosRocky Gonna Fly Now (Into the Stands)Rob Neyer: A worthy subjectKeeping the VoiceWorking with Dale ScottJack Morris/No Scores SettledWhen Umps Learned to ConferWhy Was It Done This Way?When the Umpires ResignedThe Late Arrival of Instant ReplayThe Automated Strike ZoneClosetedGrowing Up in a Homophobic CultureAn Umpire Comes OutProgress on Tolerance and Retrograde MovementWhat Does the Commissioner of the West Coast League Do?The Yankees’ Disastrous Stretch-Run*Goodbyes.
Read BASEBALL'S BRIEF LIVES: PLAYER STORIES INSPIRED BY THE INFINITE INNING, now available from Amazon!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Rob Neyer returns to discuss his contributions to Dale Scott’s memoir THE UMPIRE IS OUT and sundry other matters. Plus tales: A reserve catcher meets a grizzly end and a ballplayer is punished for going to his family’s aid.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Short, Sad Ballad of Frank Grube“Lifestyles”100-Walk TriosRocky Gonna Fly Now (Into the Stands)Rob Neyer: A worthy subjectKeeping the VoiceWorking with Dale ScottJack Morris/No Scores SettledWhen Umps Learned to ConferWhy Was It Done This Way?When the Umpires ResignedThe Late Arrival of Instant ReplayThe Automated Strike ZoneClosetedGrowing Up in a Homophobic CultureAn Umpire Comes OutProgress on Tolerance and Retrograde MovementWhat Does the Commissioner of the West Coast League Do?The Yankees’ Disastrous Stretch-Run*Goodbyes.
Read BASEBALL'S BRIEF LIVES: PLAYER STORIES INSPIRED BY THE INFINITE INNING, now available from Amazon!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Eric Stephen (True Blue L.A.) returns to discuss the amazing, weird season of dominance being had by the Dodgers. Plus Tales: An outfielder stands in center field when God presses the “Smite” button and the origin of one of the more unusual player names is explained.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Trigger Warning: Beware the Teddy BearsLightning Bolts Out of Clear Blue SkiesRay Caldwell, Ray Fisher, Russ Ford: Distinguishing the ScuffersThe Tragic End of Andy StrongApproximation of an Instagram Couple on the Edge of a VolcanoWalt Bond and Danny ThompsonThe Charms of GarmsThe Debs of GarmsEric Stephen: How are They Doing This? VolumeNo Offdays in the PostseasonParsing Craig Kimbrel’s SeasonThe Difficulty and Emotional Aspects of the PostseasonMeet the New Kenley, Same as the Old KenleyFreddie Freeman’s BluesWill Cody Bellinger Receive a Contract?Joey Gallo’s BluesMax Muncy’s BluesGallo vs. OutmanPedro Guerrero MemoriesDodger Stadium Mixed-Up ConfusionWaiting for a 50-Double Dodger/The Johnny Frederick TypeAre the Dodgers Aging?How Little We Know, Gavin LuxJacob deGrom: Hall of Famer?Goodbyes.
TRIGGER WARNING: A child is in jeopardy in the first segment of this episode.
Outdoor ambience by javetakami, footsteps (stones) and boiling water by Inspector J of Freesound. Gasp and fall by SkyRaeVoicing, woman screaming by Supercolio.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran takes over the interview to interrogate Steve on BASEBALL’S BRIEF LIVES: PLAYER STORIES INSPIRED BY THE INFINITE INNING. Plus tales: Teams that played .700 ball and then faltered (that is, just the 2022 Yankees) and false hope from a prospect, starring Dodgers phenom-for-a-moment Cal Abrams—a tale that twisted in the telling as questions of performance were tangled with accusations of Antisemitism.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Yankees DefenestrateThe Slow Rise and Quick Fall of Cal Abrams, Dodgers PhenomCliff Corcoran: Success Has Many FathersDead Player OriginsIn Baseball There’s a Story Everywhere You Look for ItThe Rumors of Obi-Wan’s DeathThe Bill James InfluenceGil McDougald and Horace ClarkeTell McGraw—What?Statcast and Derek Jeter’s Private AnatomyInfallibleEmpathy for Those Without PlaqueThe Rick Ferrell CommentPosthumous RecognitionReconciling Pre-Integration Baseball*Goodbyes.
Glass breaking effect by Inspector J of Freesound.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Chris Cotillo (Mass Live) discusses the Red Sox’ incomprehensible season, the beatwriter as a young man, and how to work the pregame clubhouse. Plus Tales: Lessons from a Game-Ending Caught Stealing, Starring the Babe, and a Negro Leagues great goes to Mexico and wins a triple crown.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Masters of the Game-Ending Caught Stealing, Starring Babe Ruth and the 2022 YankeesThe Small Sample Classic, with Matt Carpenter and Wild Bill WrightChris Cotillo: Trade-Deadline CovidFirst to Last and Last to First in BostonBack to the Mookie Betts TradeThe Jarren Duran BluesWhere Have You Gone, J.D. Martinez?Pitching Plans, or Lack Thereof, with Garrett WhitlockCotillo Origins“You Can’t Just Be a Newbreaker”Beyond the Endorphin HitChurn BurnoutHotshot Kid at the MeetingsChecking Your FandomWorld Series WeddingHow Do You Work the Pregame Clubhouse?Chaim Bloom and the Small-Market Approach*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Mark Armour and Daniel Levitt discuss their new book INTENTIONAL BALK: BASEBALL’s LONG AND SORDID HISTORY OF INNOVATION AND CHEATING. Plus tales: The Dodgers’ Uncle Robbie is a hypocrite about weight and one of the greatest Yankees managers does the right thing after an uncharacteristic blow-up.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Uncle Robbie Fat-Shames a Pitcher and We Learn a New Vocabulary WordThe Start of Joe Page and the End of Joe McCarthyMark Armour and Daniel Levitt: Is Cheating a Matter of Perspective?Who Are the Sociopaths in Your Neighborhood?Individual Cheating vs. Conspiratorial CheatingWilliam Shakespeare’s Barry BondsRestorative versus Enhancing DrugsCommunity Standards and Speeding on the HighwayDon’t Touch My Armpits/Billy Martin vs. Gaylord PerryPEDs and Baseball GerontologyShohei Ohtani Jr. vs. Shohei Ohtani IIIRoster Shenanigans and the Trading DeadlineThe Inevitable Pine Tar GameWhy Did It Take So Long for Baseball to Ban Electric Sign-Stealing?Book CollaborationThe Coming Shift BanGoodbyes.
Horse Whinny, Close, A.wav" by InspectorJ of Freesound.org.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Chats are back! David Roth returns to ask existential questions about Juan Soto, the billionaire class, and if the average person can develop Steve Blass’s disease. Plus tales: A reserve catcher has a fateful meeting with a man who brought dignity to a bodily function and several current players conjure a classic tale from the beginning of the 20th century due to their lack of vaccination.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Reds Catcher and a Man Named SneezeCardinals with White Feathers1902, WHITDavid Roth: A Random Invocation of William SaroyanSteve Sax, Steve Blass, and Someone Else Named SteveBeing Normal is HardGore Vidal on Em-DashesCategory Error at Fenway ParkIt’s “The Time of Your Life”Radical Despairing EmpathyInterrogating Nick Castellanos and Kindness to Joey Gallo (and Mackey Sasser)Dick Young and Dave EganTed Williams and Spider-ManSympathy for Horace ClarkeAndrew McCutchen and “Furries”The Mets on the BrinkWho Mourns for the Nationals?Are Americas Billionaires Depressed?Full Circle to the Red Sox/You Can’t Win a World Series as a CynicThe Temperature on the Field (And Everywhere Else)Goodbyes.
WARNING: On Roth week, we swear. Hide the sheep and console the shepherd.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 232: My Boyhood Pal, Marilyn Monroe
One more (really) solo episode as we gear up for the Baseball’s Brief Lives, the Infinite Inning book: The son of a Hall of Famer makes a very famous friend and gets grief for it, a great but mostly forgotten player tries to kill another future Hall of Famer with kindness, and more about Cap Anson and his underage bride.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Joe D Goes to the MoviesJoe D Gets Married, Hangs with the BoysJoe D’s Son and New Girlfriend BondAn Overwrought Invocation of ShakespeareCap Anson, the Future Virginia Anson, and Elon Musk’s DadAll-Star Emeritus SpotsTommy Holmes, Captive of FateHolmes vs. Henry AaronThey Were Right About the TitanicA Lopsided Trade Thwarted and a Walk-Off Homer Against Warren SpahnGil Hodges and the Hall of FameAlternative-Universe Gil Hodges and the Hall of FameGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A final solo episode before a return to guests features discussions of a manager realizing he was in over his head after just one game and a Hall of Famer meets his wife—in a way that would land him in jail today.
TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains discussions of abortion, murder, consent, and child abuse, among other things.
THE INFINITE INNING BOOK: Baseball’s Brief Lives: Player Stories Inspired by the Infinite Inning Podcast, is coming in August!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overwhelmed/The Rangers’ Four Managers of 1977/Lucchesi in Pain/Stanky’s Retreat/Your Happy Place/Johnny Mize’s Coded Wheaties AdCap Anson’s CourtshipThe Social Purity MovementWhat Anson Was and Was Not Responsible ForKing Listeria IVThe Age of Consent as of the 1880sThe Works of Alice Duer MillerThe Ephemeral Nature of ValuesA Marriage on Long IslandA Death in BostonCap Anson Rides Again*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
One more solo episode inspired, as always, by current events in which the right player is suspended for what he didn’t do but what everyone understood he intended and a player attempts to start a fan uprising.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Brawl that No One SawLuke/Lute/Daniel Boone’s Strange EjectionGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Another solo episode as your host continues to recover from whatever is wrong with him THIS week! (Even his doctors mock him). This week: Tales of two catchers, one of whom was the best uncle baseball ever had, the other a longtime manager who had a moment of unusual frankness after making a trade.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Uncle Robbie Phones May Phone it In but He Knows His MeatsSteve O’Neill versus the YankeesUmpires versus FansSteve O’Neill versus Uncle RobbieSteve O’Neill versus Mad Monk Meyer*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A solo episode in which sad past and sorry present collide in the spring of 1927, when even as Babe Ruth and the Yankees were setting records there was evil abroad in Michigan. Then we journey to 1947 and the moment Ben Chapman tried to derail Jackie Robinson and consider Josh Donaldson’s interaction with Tim Anderson as well.
TRIGGER WARNING: A great deal of harm comes to children in this week’s first segment, which reflects on the recent massacre of innocents in Texas as well as previous incidents of recent years.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mass Murder in a Michigan TownThe Infinite Inning Book is ComingA Brief Thought about Shane McClanahanThe Gene Hackman SolutionA Moment with Roger Angell (A-S-D-R-U-B-A-L)Robinson and Chapman and Donaldson and AndersonGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Author Dan Good discusses a tragic player and Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession that Changed Baseball Forever. Plus tales: Casey Stengel wonders who you can ask for advice when trying to win a fifth pennant, a 20-game winner goes to the bullpen, and a disgruntled player’s momentary embrace of racism.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Casey Wonders Who You Can Ask for Instructions When You’re Trying to Do Something NewBilly Cox’s Momentary Embrace of Evil and Its Echoes TodayDan Good: What We Ask of PlayersTwo Kinds of AddictionHealing and VanityWhy He Was Worse Away from the Astrodome?Was Caminiti Tested for Drugs of Abuse?Did Ken’s Friends Give Up on Him?Ken and Craig BiggioKen and Younger PlayersKen and Tony GwynnFinding the Real CaminitiContrasting Two InterviewsThe Effects of UsingHow Did the Family Respond to the Book?Did Ken Enjoy Baseball?When Ken Returned to San DiegoHaunted by the GhostHe Made It Look Hard*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector dishes on his new book/podcast/newsletter endeavor, Willets Pen, praises Buck Showalter, and considers the ins and outs of rally sex. Plus tales: A catcher drinks, knits, and recovers while another deserts his team at the worst possible moment.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Rollie Hemsley Serves Drinks and SandwichesBuddy Rosar’s Police Academy DreamJesse Spector: On the COVID ILWhat is Willets Pen?It is Not a Newsletter, But There’s a Newsletter and an Excuse to Go Off on a Lengthy Screed About Dave Kingman“Metsing”Mets Bandwagon ‘86Willets PodThe Bit About Food EroticaThe Bit About Contrasting Mets Action with Marital Action (“Rally Sex”)When You Pretend You are Affecting the Game (Yankees at Blue Jays, 1987)Every Day for a Year (With Max Scherzer?)Sex and Poor Middle ReliefThe Tommy Hutton Call of Dave Winfield’s Grand SlamThe Mets MystiqueThe Schmoozer PredictsBuck Showalter Rides AgainRelitigating the 1995 ALDSThe Little Dynasty that Didn’t HappenA Brief Word on New York BroadcastersGoodbyes.
Warning: There is no graphic language in this episode aside from a couple of cusswords, but the subject of martial relations is briefly discussed. Hide your maiden aunt.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to talk about the new dead-ball, pitchers fielding, and the arrival of Kelsie Whitmore in the Atlantic League, plus takes: An umpire provokes the women in the stands and a 25-run game goes down painlessly.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Ladies of Macon Rise UpThe PlayerStories Book is ComingA Simple Point About a 25-Run GameCliff Corcoran: Lee Guetterman MemoriesPitchers FieldingPlayers With Partial ToolsButtplunger!”Gold Glove PitchersChristy Mathewson Cameo/The [Redacted] Cubs Game/Ted Williams and Yogi Berra/Wade Boggs and Dave RighettiLow Offense 2022 and Marcus SemienWhat MLB Had Warned the Hitters?Retraining Muscle-MemoryKelsie Whitmore, PioneerSlow Throwin’Seven of Eight SkillsA Sample of One is Not Enough (WMLB?)Babe Ruth’s WarningKelsie and HaroldWomen in Baseball and Justice AlitoLimitations on OpportunityGoodbyes.
Windchime effect by InspectorJ, rhythm by Spartalien, crowd noises by Craig Smith.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jeffrey Paternostro returns for a premature look at prospects’ progress. Plus tales: A pitcher takes the wrong lesson from adversity and a Red Sox third baseman’s home run underscores present-day offensive woes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Change Your Way, George Earnshaw (Guest-Starring Lou Gehrig and Connie Mack) Spirit Ballplayers, Last EntryJim Tabor Hits a Solo Shot of Note and Other Home Runs in an Age of Low OffenseJeffrey Paternostro: Draggy BallsYou Can’t Flip a Switch on OffeseA Moment on Jhoan DuranThe Hardest JumpHit-Tool ProjectionFrancisco AlvarezShould Grayson Rodriguez Be Up?On Corbin CarrollAnthony Volpe and All the Oswalds Except Oswald the Lucky RabbitWhen Do They Start Throwing Sliders? Matt den Dekker, Robert Stratton, Eric Patterson and Other Low-Contact Prospects of YesteryearThe Hit-Only ModelPositives of the Showcase Circuit?Bobby Dalbec vs. Triston CasasNolan GormanPosition Players in the Brewers System?Jasson DominguezThe Ethics of Ranking Unknown TeensRobert Stratton EncoreWhy Can’t Phillies and Mariners Prospects?Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns to discuss the uplift provided by the new season, Robinson Cano, how the Reds provoke thoughts of the end of history, Pitchcom, and the 1985 arcade came “Gauntlet.” Plus tales: Teams in the 1880s outdraw the present-day A’s and mouthy third baseman Arlie Latham psyches out the Reds’ manager.
WARNING: As in all Roth-a-looza episodes, there is the occasional cussword. Please instruct the children in what these words mean so they can follow along.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Small Crowds with Animals in 1886 and 2022Arlie Latham Distracts with ProphecyDavid Roth: The Year-‘Round Shorts GuyCruiserRevert to Factory SettingsThe Uplift of BaseballThe Best Part of an In-Season Vacation “Warrior is About to Die!”Normal Gossip Prep“Gauntlet” ReduxThe Rent-Seeking RedsUnreciprocated Support“Part of the Deal is You’re Going to Try”This MonopolyBaseball and the End of History Robinson Cano: ShakespearianThe Advent of Pitchcom*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Thomas W. Gilbert discusses HOW BASEBALL HAPPENED, the story of the game’s earliest years. Plus tales: The value of a famous hitting coach to a light-hitting shortstop is debatable and the real meaning of Jackie Robinson Day.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bucky Dent Hits a Homer with a Little Help from His Coach (Not THAT Homer)Why Do We Observe Jackie Robinson Day? (And Why “Camelot” is Such a Downer)Thomas W. Gilbert: A Stealth HistoryA Broad-Based Social MovementCricket and the Civil War PauseThe Rising Middle-ClassAn Urban GameR.I.P. Abner DoubledayEvacuation DayThe Ah-Ha! Moment?Spooked by SpectatorsFear of GamblingTrolley DodgersVolunteer Fire Companies and Civil War VolunteersMove the Dodgers Back to Brooklyn!Brooklyn Invents the Farm SystemFans Crashed the PartyBaseball Follows the RailroadWaves of Epidemic DiseaseMiasmatistsThe Brief Story of Jim Creighton*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Calcaterra returns to discuss his new book RETHINKING FANDOM, plus tales: A visit to the home of one of the earliest baseball games for a deadly attack and the story of two rookies who couldn’t hang on—in more ways than one.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Murder at Elysian FieldsSpirit Ballplayers IIIAwards Predictions, Top Rookies, and the LlamaThe Gary Scott Story OutlinedThake’s EpilogueCraig Calcaterra: RETHINKING FANDOMThe Sports-Industrial ComplexWhen It’s About Frustration, Ohio State EditionThe Decadence of Immersive FandomThe Impermanence of Our Highs and LowsSteve’s 1996 World Series StoryBeing a Fairweather FanRe Constantinople (not Istanbul)Vin Scully Under the DeskThe Stadium DodgeAnd Housing?Trading Down CitiesMove the Rays to Brooklyn!The Pirates Extend a Player?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A solo episode about service-time manipulation, entropy, destroyed pitching prospects, “Don’t Say Gay,” and Will Smith’s slap versus the on-field variety.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Brief Invocation of John CandelariaOneil Cruz Can Keep the Rain Off of YouPie Traynor DebunkedEntropy is All and Everything and I Couldn’t Possibly Be BetterSpirit Ballplayers IIWho Killed Russ Bauers?“Say It With a Slap” and the “Don’t Say Gay” BillLee Grissom vs. Al ToddImpulse ControlFrank Robinson vs. Eddie MathewsAl Cowens, Avenger*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to dissect all the moves of March, plus tales: Gender uncertainty on a barnstorming team, a rowdy crowd in Chicago is given way too much leeway to attack a player, and the odd career of the pitcher who began the ruckus.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vaccines and Bloomer GirlsA Quick Note on Bleeding Dodger BlueYour Spirit Ballplayer 1.0Don Buford and Bart Johnson: The Ballad of Red-Butt HarryCliff Corcoran: We Have Baseball NowEveryone but Michael ConfortoRooting for Tyler Clippard and Other Elder RelieversRangers, Mets, and TwinsPham?The Yankees Skip ShortstoppaloozaValuing Isiah Kiner-FalefaThe DJ LeMahieu ProblemEugenio Suarez’s Last Month and the Reds-Mariners DealA Debate About Jesse WinkerIs There a Shortage of Center Fielders? Starring the PhilliesShould Brian Reynolds and Cedric Mullins be Traded?Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 218: It Worked, But Never Do It Again
Jesse Spector returns to discuss the competitive balance landscape, which still has all the old hills and valleys. Plus tales as reaction to the new CBA: A very slow player makes an ill-advised attempt to swipe home plate and a member of the Gashouse Gang exaggerates his prowess. NEW EDIT WITH IMPROVED AUDIO!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Zeke’s RunMore on the Pittsburgh HThe Man Who Didn’t Break Up Four No-Hitters (Maybe)Jesse Spector: Brittney Griner and Competitive BalanceDraft LotteryIf I’m a Pirates FanThe Baltimore Orioles 1983-PresentA Perfect AnalogyBatting Kyle Farmer FourthAre Owners Really Necessary Part 9000Are There Too Many Teams?Baseball in Florida and other PlacesThe Home Viewing Experience and Self-Defense at the MoviesAlienated (and Outside)Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Goldstein (Baseball Prospectus) talks about BASEBALL PROSPECTUS 2022, owner vs. player morality, and the best comps for Juan Soto. Plus tales: A pitcher expresses insecurity right on the mound—or does he? The trap of zero-sum thinking, and an obscure player who was as good a hitter, in his way, as Mike Piazza.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pink Hawley is Looking for a FriendBaseball, Politics, “Evil Incarnate,” and Zero-Sum ThinkingThe Rapidly Oncoming Fate of Fred CarrollCraig Goldstein: Harder to Reconcile, But We’ll Be BackThe KBO Again?When to Go For SnacksThe Players’ Ideas are BetterThe Economic Model Needs to Change/The Unspoken AgreementThe Kershaw ConundrumBP 2022PECOTA ConfidenceMike Trout and Juan Soto CompsManfred’s Longer PandemicRelishing a Higher BarGoodbyes.
("Wind Chime, Tolling, A.wav" and "Wind Chimes, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org.)
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Solo episode! Tales of ancient battles between owners and the players, none of which make the owners look good. Casey Stengel goes to Washington and, well, criticizes the owners. And a one-year wonder makes an impulsive decision that costs him a World Series ring.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mr. Stengel Goes to WashingtonAre Owners Truly Necessary?The Rapid Rise and Fall of the Players LeagueThe Lockout and Human CupidityNeville Chamberlain and the Homer in the GloamingThe Ballad of Johnny RizzoGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Alex Belth and Emily Shapiro return to discuss HERE I ARE: ANATOMY OF A MARRIAGE. Plus tales: Miller Huggins comes to the wrong conclusion and a second baseman who would sooner fight than order a veggie lover’s pizza.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Miller Huggins’ Last Mistake (Plus Spittin’ Bill and Larry Hart)A Brief Baseball Note from Ogden NashRaw Meat Bill and Davey Crockett Times Two TooAlex Belth and Emily Shapiro: Audible OriginsThe Awkwardness of Spending Time in Conversation With YourselfAn Illness Coming-Out Party (But Not an Illness Memoir)Free Money Cards!The Embarrassment of Confronting YourselfLimerence, Attraction, and InfatuationSilence Over SoupMutual Interests vs. Mutual EmpathyHow to ArgueSurviving Couples TherapyWorking On Your SmileNot Just Luck and the Babies ArgumentAnger, Helpless AngerTools and Modalities*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran (The Cycle newsletter) returns to talk about lockout priorities. Plus tales: Marking the passing of a side-arm pitcher who got less respect than he deserved and a catcher throws it all away on one swing—but not the kind you’re thinking of.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Requiem for a SidearmerJoe Rue and Greek GeorgeCliff Corcoran: Ripcord Porkerban vs. the RocRay Harryhausen and Modern Special EffectsThe alternate reading of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”Life Under Lockout”Break the Union!” One More TimeThe Last Negotiation: Salad BarMindless Speculation on the Owners’ MindsetHi-Ho the Corporate LifeNon-Core IssuesEnding the BlackoutsLaziness with the Remote ControlMaybe a Hot SoupThe Potential Draft LotteryService-Time ManipulationThat ONE Writer*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Prospectmeister Jeffrey Paternostro returns to discuss the Baseball Prospectus 2022 Top-101 Prospects rankings. Plus tales: The 66th-best hitter for average of all time has a cough; a Hall of Fame pitcher messes up his marriage, demonstrating that even people with plaques are as complicated as anybody else.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
David Ortiz to the HallThe 66th-Best Hitter for Average of All Time is Not in the Hall of FameLefty, June, and the Perfect MurderJeffrey Paternostro: Top 11s are Better than Top 10sWho is the Top Prospect in Baseball? Adley Rutschman vs. Bobby Witt Jr.Matt Wieters MemoriesCatcher StagnationRanking 11 CatchersDrafting Second BasemenSeattle Mariners: Player vs. TeamSupplemental HelpTeams with Few Prospects or PunishmentsBurger on SecondKumar Rocker?Jo Adell and Angels Player DevelopmentSleepers“You Want to Be Right”My OBP SweetheartGoodbyes.
Links:
The BP Top 101: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/article/72047/2022-prospects-the-top-101/
“The Poison Years” by Steven Goldman: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/72225/you-could-look-it-up-poison-years/
Brother, Can You Spare a Podcast? Episode 1: https://www.spreaker.com/show/brother-can-you-spare-a-podcast
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth on Topps and The Athletic being sold, why baseball color commentors curdle after two years, the Mets’ moves, and more. Plus tales: “Pride of the Yankees” departs from reality and strikes a chord; an All-Star is captured at the moment of his release.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lou Gehrig, “Pride of the Yankees,” and MeThe Ballad of Jim Ray Hart and His DFA PhotographDavid Roth: Mickey Rooney in Van HalenTopps Sold“A Long Position on Phil Plantier”Two Business Idiots on The Athletic SaleBaseball Cards as Bookmarks EtcLouis Bromfield and Booth TarkingtonDeath of the AV ClubJohn Madden and the Art of EnthusiasmWhen “Damn Yankees” Tells a Deep Dark TruthBuck Showalter Goes to QueenThe Forever Rebuild and Its HazardThe 2022 Mets are Not the 1927 YankeesJeff McNeil Chill Out?The Steinbrenner RetconGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions returns to discuss the Bill James Handbook 2022, plus tales: The media fails the players when the owners push them into striking 50 years ago.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Media on Baseball Strike ‘72Folly at the Half-Century MarkPlayers vs. Owners vs. Themselves ‘72Mark Simon: A Hazy Shade of BaseballWhy is Carlos Correa a Great Defensive Shortstop?A Girthy TomeToo Much Information?Book Layout Likened to the ShiftThe Home-Run Robberies TableDefense (Derek Jeter AGAIN?)Diagnosing a Defensive SlumpPenalized by the Shift or by Bad Defense?Ohtani vs. RuthHow Hard Did the Old-Timers Throw?Voting on the Cover-Model*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Our annual holiday historical fiction sees straitlaced Yankees manager taking on the greatest challene of this career: Romance. Plus a brief true tale in which Mama Gehrig is found to be a citizen just like any other American.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mama Gehrig Goes to CourtIntermission: The Pinch-Hitter is Banned (Happy, Healthy New Year)Story: “Joe McCarthy: Advisor to the Lonely Heart”*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Ian Coss of "Forever is a Long Time" talks marriage, divorce, and facing your doubts by looking at the past. Plus tales: Managers are hired/quickly fired and a catcher's career ends too soon.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Buck Showalter, Billy Herman, and the Fallacy of ManagersThe DeLancey StoryIan Coss: A Thoughtful ShowIgnorance is a Kind of ShieldIt Could Happen to YouChange is the Enemy but Change is GoodThe Part That Everyone Asks AboutGrandmother’s Adventures in Love and War/”The Work of the Devil”A Paradox of MarriageThe Burden of EmpathyThe Absent ExUnexplored Depths of ShallowLove Songs of a Well-Worn RelationshipThe Compounding Nature of LiesA Brief Note on Gamelan Music*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Calcaterra returns to baseball’s lockout, teenage drunkenness, and division of labor in marriage. Plus tales: Ralph Houk’s prophecy/Jim Bouton’s waltz and Babe Ruth sacrifices his socks for the greater good.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Fate, Ralph Houk, and Bobby MurcerBabe Ruth in the SnowCraig Calcaterra: Dessert WineRaymond Chandler’s Evenings1990 GutCash-Laden Ships that Have SailedThe Strange Love of the Atlanta BravesNot Really a Baseball Company Anymore?RentiersDrive-Up Surf ‘n’ Turf and the Team BudgetThe Tablecloth TrickKept MalesCompetitive Owners vs. Tanking OwnersBaseball vs. NetflixDystopia in Your Inbox (Gambling Cometh)Life Lessons from the High RollersBetting in the Stands*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A solo episode with an owner-player conflict that anticipates the tenor of the current lockout (with some amazing stats) and the question of which Harry Frazee show really killed the Red Sox is taken on (A: None, or maybe all of them)! Plus excuses for being tardy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The New Babe Ruth Holds OutPlease Excuse My Son’s Absence From ClassThe Old Babe Ruth is Sold, But Not for the Reason You Think (In Honor of Stephen Sondheim)*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran talks hot stove baseball and ice cream in plastic batting helmets. Plus tales: The thief who just had to go to the Dodgers-Giants game and current Hall of Fame candidate/long-neglected pitcher Cannonball Dick Redding and his times.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Killer at the Polo GroundsCannonball Dick Redding’s AmericaCliff Corcoran: The Browns’ Brownie’s Brownie SundaeCarvel and the Ground RoundStaring at Big-Little Books and the Impenetrability of NostalgiaProust’s Baseball CardsThe Braves as Championship TeamDo You Miss Starting Pitchers?Rules Changes Around PitchersDanny Murtaugh, Un-ManagerA Pitching Rules ProposalPitch Counts and Long InningsJoey Gathright vs. Felix Pie and the Not-Stove LeaguePlaying the Texas Rangers Speculation GameSome Hot Stove and Sonny & Cher Talk*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Lincoln Michel talks his science-fiction/noir/baseball novel THE BODY SCOUT. Plus tales: An umpire does something unforgivable to a great pitcher and the players vs. teams in the Hall of Fame.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dolf Luque, Bill Klem, and the Very Bad WordBuster Posey and the Hall of FameLincoln Michael: An Idea on Every PageContext and Electric ForksIt Would Happen to the MetsPhilosophical NeanderthalsScience Fiction, Body, Horror, and PED-Era Baseball Taken to the Logical ExtremeHam Fighters vs. Ham-FightersAnimating Play-by-Play (and Sex)Plot!Apocalyptic RealismShort Story Market ‘21Rounded Characters in Science-Fiction?Asimov vs. BradburyWill there be a Body Scout Sequel?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Gabrielle Starr (Fansided) discusses the Red Sox fall out of the playoffs, the hazards of being a female in sports online, and rails against analytics. Plus tales: Charlie Morton isn’t the first pitcher throw with a broken leg and the tomahawk chop is once again placed in its sad and objectionable context.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bobo Newsom and Charlie MortonThe Tomahawk Chop RevisitedGabrielle Starr: Fenway Park DownfallYankees and Red Sox Fans Fans Cross the Line“I’m Wrong Because of My Gender”A-Rod at the GameKiké HernandezManager vs. Front OfficeAnalytics and the Tesla Analogy“Braining People Out of Baseball”Gambling ContentThe Red Sox and Family*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Hall of Fame senior curator Tom Shieber, co-author of Picturing America’s Pastime, talks about great images of the game as art and as documentary. Plus tales: Bobby Grich feels provoked and responds in kind, the Phillies achieve “a truly elite system” with mixed results.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Bobby Grich Method of Anger ManagementWhen the Phillies Actually RebuiltTom Shieber: You’ll Believe Johnny Bench Can Fly!Inferring Biography from PhotosPreservation (and Lew Fonseca)No Buzz Arlett BatThe Secret Casey Stengel PhotoHow is PICTURING AMERICA’S PASTIME Different?The Conlon PhotosStrangeness at the All-American Girls Game (What Are These People Doing in the Outfield?) and Other Hard-to-Explain ArtefactsRemember the Baseball Team of the MainePosed Versus Candid Images (Ichiro and Blyleven)The Secret Baseball Artefacts in Old Films (Baseball Movies vs. Baseball in Movies)Frank Chance vs. SatanThe Help DeskWhat’s Left to Be Discovered?Babe Ruth at a Typewriter/Uncle Robbie on a Bicycle*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Dan Taylor discusses Lights, Camera, Fastball, his new history of the Hollywood Stars baseball team. Plus tales of great Giants catchers of the distant past and George Steinbrenner fires a third-base coach because of a controversial playoff send.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Buck Ewing Would Like a Word With YouGeorge Steinbrenner’s Postseason Tantrum ‘80 Dan Taylor: The Hollywood Stars and the Studio StarsCo-Starring William Frawley, Spencer Tracy, and More!Respect for Joe E. BrownHarry Ruby on the FieldBob Cobb: More Than Just His SaladThe Stars Ally with Branch RickeyThe Virtues of Manager Fred Haney (in the Men’s Room?)The Tragedy of Carlos BernierThe Stars and IntegrationBobby Bragan and Jackie RobinsonBragan and the Consecutive Pinch-HittersThe Minor Leagues TodayGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Mike Ferrin, Kevin Goldstein, and Steven Goldman, once the hosts of Baseball Prospectus Radio on SiriusXM, reunite to discuss that Chicago vibe, awkward interviews, and debate just how the San Francisco Giants are doing it. Plus tales: A fringe player gets on the wrong train and the longest winning streak of all time amounts to nothing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Fats Dantonio StoryThe Big StreakMike Ferrin and Kevin Goldstein: Bob in CrisisTwo Eddie Vedder Stories?Why is Chicago?Cubs Attendance vs. White Sox Fans (“Trixies and Chads”)That Wrong Billy InterviewThe Sad Gene Lamont InterviewShould Players Have to Talk to the Media?Mike Zunino, Third-Overall PickReverse-Engineering the San Francisco GiantsHaiti, the Dominican Republic, and the BorderWill We Have Labor Peace?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran, David Roth, Jesse Spector with a rare collective sighting as the starting rotation reflects on four years of episodes, 20-plus years of writing about baseball, managers who aged before our eyes, Javier Baez, and so much more. Plus tales of a manager making that one fatal mistake and Tris Speaker gets a heart.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Babe Ruth Doesn’t Quite End Two Careers with One HitTris Speaker, His Mom, and Healing Old WoundsCliff Corcoran, David Roth, Jesse Spector: Lantern Flies in the Phillies DugoutKeeping it FreshBaltimore Orioles Reggie Jackson is a Dirty Lie!Red Sox, COVID, Stick to Sports100,000 in the StandsRangers at Orioles; Please Help UsThe Lee Elia RantThe Chris Davis Contract and AfterThe Mets vs. Their Own ProspectsWilford Brimley ManagersThe Time Steve Met Billy MartinThe Big Finish to the 2021 SeasonThe Javier Baez ConundrumSteve Kemp Alert!Goodbyes.
WARNING: This episode has a few more swear-words than usual. Please undertake evasive action if your battleship is easily dented.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A new hour-long mini-episode features yet another John McGraw insult, a discussion of vaccine mandates, Holocaust analogies, and the logical fallacy of hasty generalization both in and out of baseball (Babe Ruth has two legs and plays baseball and Isan Diaz has two legs and plays baseball, so they must be exactly the same), and a tale of catching great Ernie Lombardi mouthing off to his boss with predictable consequences. Guests resume next week!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1, in which Charles Ebbets is InsultedHasty Generalizations, Distortions, Vaccines, the Holocaust, and Why Various Players Are Not FishErnie Lombardi Says Exactly What He Thinks of His Boss*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A medically-necessary solo episode has a lesson about keeping your eye on the ball rather than your fingers on the banjo, some Zen advice from Casey Stengel, and the tale of a busted prospect who could have used some Zen of his own.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Pirates Try to Sing Their Way to a PennantJust Tra-La-La (Yankees and Mets versions)Sympathy for Roy Parmelee*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns to discuss the Mets’ fall from the pennant race, the Baltimore Orioles’ complete absence therefrom, and the 1982 Yankees vs. the Afghanistan withdrawal. Plus tales: A pitcher who did everything right and yet everything went wrong and the Orioles compared to the Mary Celeste.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Book of KoobRebuilding vs. Tanking vs. Not Giving a DamnDavid Roth: Maine is Another Country/Misplaced Darwinian StruggleThe Ad You Don’t Want to Hear/Grammar-Policing Derek JeterThe Mets in FreefalldeGrom’s Detachable Torso and Zack WheelerMets Crazy-BoardThe 1982 Yankees vs. the Afghanistan Forever-WarThe Cat-Food AnalogyManaging to Feel Like You’re ManagingThe Orioles’ Losing Streak (Measured in Years)*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Goldstein (Baseball Prospectus) returns to talk Dodgers, diving for balls, and salary caps. Plus tales: A short shortstop fails to measure up and Roy Campanella asks the wrong team for a job.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tommy Macmillan and the Non-Magical MangerCampy’s Plea to the PhilliesCraig Goldstein: Baseball is Everything it TouchesThe Trea Turner: Time-Traveler?Cool Papa Calls In/Joe DiMaggio Didn’t DiveSeager vs. Turner?Once More Unto Cody BellingerBetts to Second/Tatis to the OutfieldGoldstein on Sprint-SpeedIs the ‘Playoff Chase’ Over?James and ChaimThe Orioles and ‘Competitive Balance’”The Barstool Flirtation*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to talk trading deadline and Olympic-mandated underwear worn as outwear. Plus tales: A player loses half of what he’s got below the waist and another loses everything, period, on two hellish plane-flights.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Schang!Cool Papa Bell and Roy ParnellProper Comportment for Airline Passengers, 1935 and 2021Cliff Corcoran: The Busiest Trading Deadline in HistoryThe Trevor Story StoryJuan Samuel TinglesEugenio Suarez at Sea/Kyle Farmer at WARWomen’s Olympic Beach Volleyball UniformsHow Does Anyone Survive the Olympics?What’s Up with the Rays?No First Baseman to Boston/Schwarber vs. the Green Monster?The When/As/If of Chris SaleThe Blue Jays Stay InA Brief Look at the PhilliesGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector returns to talk everything from Olympic softball to Australian-rules football with a great deal of trade deadline chatter in-between. Plus tales of a player whose bat-control skills got him punched in the face and some Negro Leaguers recall one time they struck back.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Twenty-Seven Foul Balls Equals One PunchRevenge on BoboJesse Spector: Olympic EnnuiSoftball, Carl Mays, Dan QuisenberryWatching for the Joy of ItTrade Deadline for the Unvaccinated/State of the YankeesJoey Gallo for Another YearJason Derulo?The Children are Awaiting on You All to Awaken and SeeWhat if You Bring a Gun to a Genocide?Kendall Graveman Revisited“Too Much Analytics!”The Interchangeable RaysBack to the White Flag TradeAmoral Drafting (Logan Mailloux) and EmpathyAn Australian Grace NoteGoodbyes.
Warrior for the Underdog Sheryl Ring returns to discuss Trevor Bauer, the limits of consent, and why it’s so difficult to escape an abusive situation. Plus tales of a Yankees-Braves trade that nearly happened but didn’t and we look at the lessons of a shooting outside the Nationals game.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Roberto Kelly for Jeff BlauserShooting at the Nats GameSheryl Ring: Eviction MoratoriumCollapse in FloridaTrevor Bauer: Power and ControlIt’s So Very Hard to LeaveOn ConsentThe Difference Between Sex and an MMA MatchShould the Yankees Trade at the Deadline?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Calcaterra returns to talk All-Star Game Ennui, Enjoyable MLB 2021 surprises and disappointments, Richard Donner’s “Superman,” and much more. Plus tales of bad knees and collapsing teams in both baseball and the larger world.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mourning Ronald Acuna’s Knee and Other Things as WellThe Orioles, the Astros, and the Danger of Deferred MaintenanceCraig Calcaterra: “Swell” and “Superman: The Movie”The All-Star Game BlahsAre We Over Validation by Authority Figures?The Rural PurgeWhen Good Teams Go Bad It’s WonderfulThe Giants, “The A-Team,” and a Team That Can’t RepeatAged TigersThe 2021 YankeesKevin Maas SyndromeRuth Kapelis on Trevor BauerOn ConsentWhat Kind of Person?The Morals Clause”The Goose Man”Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns to discuss the upcoming trading deadline, climate change, and Mets injury-setbacks that aren’t setbacks. Plus the Yankees’ disappointing season provokes a remembrance of George Steinbrenner’s cruelty and generosity and (TRIGGER WARNING) Trevor Bauer is discussed in the context of a great old baseball horror story.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Some of George Steinbrenner’s Greatest HitsGeorge Steinbrenner and the Vets’ Reunion at Yankee StadiumTrevor Bauer and “Foul Play”David Roth: “Cool”A Brief Orson Welles DigressionThe Great Sweating Players of Our Time“It Sure Holds the Heat!”Portland, ME Accents versus Delco, Baked Beans and Brown BreadVaccination is a Competitive AdvantageCOVID and the College World SeriesAnthony Rizzo, Jason Heyward and Unproductive AgencyThe [Twins?] Vaccine Lottery“The Italian Doctors”Trade Value of the UnvaccinateddeGrom deDiagnosedTravails of Francisco LindorNot Everyone Can Trade for Starling MarteThe Vogelbach IncidentGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to talk sticky stuff and celebrate the Negro Leagues, plus tales of players having catastrophic organ failure on the field and reacting to some of the game’s longest losing streaks.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
When Your Organs Fail Mid-Pitch and Other DigressionsNazi Losing Streaks Never End (with the Arizona Diamondbacks)Cliff Corcoran: No team in a sombreroA “Bring It On” Reference on the Infinite Inning?The Cheaters (Waiving the White Shirt)There’s a Bathroom on the RightAaron Judge and Non-Incriminating Home-Road SplitsThe Ethics of A.J. HinchJuneteenth, the Negro Leagues, and Baseball-Reference*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector returns to talk grip-enhanced cheating and “snack cakes,” plus tales of Satchel Paige under attack by a man imitating a pig and John McGraw hit below the belt.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Piersall, Paige, and the Walk-Off Grand SlamThe Church of B’GrobusMcGraw, Crossfire, and an AccusationJesse Spector: Hostess vs. DrakesGerrit Cole, Spider-Grip, Et AlJacob deGrom in the Age of the Inquisition“Sticky Stuff is Central to Both”The Disappointing YankeesThe Post-Farm System Era?Rewind JohneshwyGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Mike Bates and Bill Parker (This Week in Baseball History) talk about the baseball stories you keep and a Twins team you might want to return to the store: Plus tales of unscarred players and damaged veterans meeting on a train, dairy-splashed homers, Lou Gehrig at Coney Island, and games called for wardrobe failures.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Braves Ashamed on the TrainDairy HomerLou Gehrig Day ThoughtsThe First Baseman Has No Pants, the Catcher Has No ShoesBates & Parker: Turn a Baseball Saying into a Pop SongAvoiding the Obvious StoryHow to Talk About Marty BergenBill Bergen and the Shallow Talent PoolThe One You Take With You: Big Ed DelahantyThe Twins’ CollapseThe Byron Buxton ConundrumMiguel Sano and Max KeplerThe Rob Refsnyder RevolutionAll the InjuriesTwins Pitching: Worst in the MajorsBooks on Low ShelvesCan the Twins Rebound?What From Today Will Baseball Historians be Talking About in 20 Years?Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Eric Stephen returns to talk about the Dodgers’ up and down season and what it’s like to cover the team from inside a Zoom window. Plus tales: The most and least hits in a game put into perspective and the relationship between an intense third baseman and a crooner remembered.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
When You’re Cold, You’re ColdThe Ballad of Hoak and CoreyEric Stephen: The Risk of Hot TakesPost-COVID Back in the BallparkThe Postgame Zoom SessionDepleted Dodgers DepthWhy Not David Price?/A Greg Cadaret MentionInjuries, Injuries, Injuries and Massive BullpensInformational Deficiencies of Topps Cards/Brett ButlerThe Magic of Max MuncyAngels CultureThe Many Mysteries of Albert PujolsTrevor Bauer in Blue“Be More Like Trevor Bauer”Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Calcaterra returns to talk ballpark villages, elevator test shafts, and Robert Culp: Guest-Star. Plus tales of relationships that went wrong or never happened with the sharp-tongued outfielder Bibb Falk and Reds relievers in the Summer of Love.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bibb Falk AloneMcCool, Davidson, and a GunCraig Calcaterra: The Greatest American Hero, Bob Culp, and “Columbo”The Low Maturity Level of Old-Time TelevisionThe Oakland Coliseum Site DismissedThe MGM AnalogyAn Island in Oakland (or Vice-Versa)Public Subsidies in DevelopmentFood Deserts and Ballpark VillagesThe Germania Test ShaftThe McDonald’s AnalogyWhy Are the Pirates?The Disney World RatioIs it a Flat Season?Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Frank Guridy discusses THE SPORTS REVOLUTION: HOW TEXAS CHANGED THE CULTURE OF AMERICAN ATHLETICS. The arrival of the Texas Rangers, the rise of the Astrodome, the origins of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and much more! Plus tales: An outfielder participates in a rundown but doesn’t run into a tree, and a true bigot is inspired to great heights of rhetoric by a stolen base.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Don’t Die on Third!Hi Myers and the Well-Placed TreeFrank Guridy: Racist Rangers?The White Sox Break the Color LineThe Texas Sports RevolutionThe Cheap CowboysLoving the AstrodomeCarpetbaggin’ Bob ShortDarrell Royal, Pro-Segregation CoachTexas in the Civil Rights EraWelcome to the Dallas Cowboys, CheerleadersThe WinkAcademic Job Losses in the Pandemic*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Amanda Smith (Disaster Girls podcast, Le Renard Argente) returns to cope with the pandemic, discuss emotional distance in disaster films, dating while living a public life, and the Dodgers’ up-and-down start. Plus tales: The Braves stake a hat on a pair of rookie outfielders and a third baseman for not being famous tells a story of his own.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Schulmerich, Worthington, and Seize the DayHarry Eisenstadt’s Sand Crab Yarn (and Roman Quinn Too)Amanda Smith: Transition to UnemploymentIntroverts, Extroverts, and the PandemicFlamingo EvolutionThe Really Crafty CowsHuman-Neanderthal RelationsManeating-Tiger MovieInsomnia Cure: STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURELambert the Sheepish Queen SingerELEPHANT WALKWhy Are Disaster Films Cathartic?Not Engaging with CONTAGION during a pandemicKorean Baseball Knows How to Have Fun“Young Lady Looking for Self-Expression” “Stupid and Hilarious” in DatingAre You Over Kenley Jansen?Ballplayers and Writers Age QuicklyDeep Thoughts with Cody BellingerNo One Applauds the Los Angeles SunsetGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran (The Cycle newsletter) returns to run down the state of the early season, plus tales: Death stalks the Polo Grounds and Gallen and Bumgarner meet Dizzy and Paul.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Multiple Fatalities at the Polo GroundsDizzy but Not DaffyCliff Corcoran: Rougned Odor and the YankeesLow Offensive Levels/The Strikeout RateA Strikeout Was Just Another OutHow We Watch NowFix Baseball (No Forks)Dodgers v. PadresDodgers Depth-MagicPadres Appreciation SocietyJoba Chamberlain/Dinelson LametLightning Round: Is It Real? Red SoxRoyalsA’sMarinersMetsPhilliesBrewersGiantsBuster Posey for the Hall of Fame?Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns to talk baseball and social responsibility during our still-ongoing pandemic. Plus tales: Pee Wee Reese undeflected and Casey Stengel taunts a cross-eyed pitcher (and throws up his breakfast).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pee Wee Reese’s JourneyCasey and the 1922 Tour of JapanDavid Roth: Owning a ZamboniBaseball-is-Back EuphoriaPow! Bullpen ManagementThe Clubhouse 15 Percent Has the 85 Percent HostageTailgating AnalogyAndrelton Simmons Will Not Explain HimselfSuper-Aggrieved on SocialImmediate FeedbackThe Michael Conforto GameIt’s Not Yet Real (Salvador Perez Fluke Stats)Nimmo Revelations*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Luke Epplin, author of OUR TEAM: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series that Changed Baseball, talks about three key players and one owner who made the 1948 Cleveland team the unique creation it was. Plus tales: No-hitters don’t influence the future and a Casey Stengel rule is applied to Domingo German.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Joe Musgrove, No-Hitters, and FateMike Marshall, Casey Stengel, Domingo GermanLuke Epplin: Why 1948?The Browns and Eddie Gaedel ProjectVeeck, Paige, Doby, and FellerVeeck’s Highs and LowsVeeck’s LegVeeck on the Make (Steve Cohen)Feller and Paige in Their TimesFeller’s Racial BlindersWhen Feller Intentionally Pitched His Arm OffFinding Larry DobyDoby and SegregationBill McKechnie CameoThe First Fine Careless Rapture*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Andrew Maraniss, author of Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke, discusses the abuse heaped on the majors’ first openly gay player. Plus tales of a Pacific Coast League trainer who was singled out in a different way, plus two murders and Major League Baseball’s moving the All-Star Game out of Georgia.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Fate Hunts a TrainerMLB and Voting While Black in GeorgiaAndrew Maraniss: Sports, Social Justice, and Perry WallaceGlenn Burke: No ResolutionBad TimingWhat Does Who You Sleep With Have to Do With How You Can Hit?What if Burke Had Been a Better Player?Burke: Oppositional and BelovedThe Second High FiveBurke vs. LasordaBurke the AthleteGlenn and SpunkyAl Campanis: It Wasn’t Just “Nightline”Burke, Billy Martin, and the Dying A’sDid Baseball Do Enough to Help?Dusty Baker: Great Guy“Owing”Have the Dodgers Changed? A Possible ExampleComing Attractions: Inaugural BallersLenn Sakata Mention AlertGoodbyes.
("Ambience, Night Wildlife, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org.)
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector returns for a super-sized episode! The third annual Infinite Inning Opening Day song! Ted Williams says never let anyone change your swing! Is Miguel Andujar doing this old-time Dodger’s career swan dive? Will the 2021 Tigers be more fun to watch than the 2021 Red Sox? These and other questions await within!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Carl Yastrzemski, Ted Williams, the Bad Science Teacher, and the Ordeal of Self-DeterminationThe Third Annual Infinite Inning Opening Day Song: Champions of the HeartMiguel Andujar and Billy GrabarkewitzJesse Spector: Beards and HaircutsViolins for ClevelandSunderland/Red SoxHow Long Will Mets Ownership Be Hot To Trot?Colorado Rockies DysfunctionThe Ian Desmond FolliesThe Yankees After 2003A Full Season of Devil Williams and Other DelightsDead as a Doornail TeamsGoodbyes*Encore: Opening Day Songs 2019 and 2020, The American Game and Opening Day.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Lincoln Mitchell returns to discuss his new book “The Giants and Their City: Major League Baseball in San Francisco, 1976-1992,” a tome redolent with cold Candlestick nights and hot Crazy Crab days. Plus tales: Casey Stengel uses some overly esoteric signs, rookies have short-lived breakouts, and more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Blinking Lights and Spitting SignsHarl! The MusicalLincoln Mitchell: Why the Giants So Bad Between Willie Mays and Barry Bonds?How a Farm System DiesWill Clark and Robbie Thompson ArriveVida Blue vs. Cruel FateCan the Bay Area Support Two Teams?Why Did Four Ballpark Ballot Initiatives Fail?And Then the EarthquakeFay Vincent Tries to Make Things WorseAl Rosen and Kevin MitchellWhat If: The Tampa Bay Giants?The Counterintuitive Crazy CrabSummer at Candlestick Park Was Winter Everywhere ElseWhat if the Giants Had Moved?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus returns to discuss Baseball Prospectus 2021, highlight some of the best comments, and debate the best approach to writing about players: Plus tales: Did Duster Mails do in one season what other players do in 20? And should a manager be fired for being too blunt with the boss? The Cubs did it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Duster Mails: All-Time Great in One SeasonManager Fired for CandorCraig Goldstein: The 26th or the 28th AnnualBP in the PandemicSticking to Sports During the PlagueThe Baseball Prospectus AnnualThe Seranthony Dominguez and Evan Marshall CommentsSongs from “The Simpsons” and Other ChangesThe Dodgers Won (Will There Ever Be Another Party?)When Your Team is Too Late to WinGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Matthew Trueblood (Baseball Prospectus, Penning Bull newsletter) talks about the Twins, the Mariners, disparate batting styles, and using the Cubs as a self-diagnostic. Plus Rogers Hornsby is mean to Duster Mails and Duster Mails is mean to himself.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
When Cruelty was the Point for Rogers HornsbyDon’t Run Yourself Down, Duster MailsMatthew Trueblood: Taking Notice of Player QuirksTim Anderson and Non-ConformityConstructing Trevor BauerWillie Wilson as Object Lesson and Why Banjo Hitters Can No Longer PlayThe Sammy Sosa: Persona Non-GrataPower Rankings in the WinterKevin Mather-Induced DisillusionmentShould the Cubs Extend Javier Baez?Lone Ranger TriviaLuis Arraez and His KneesSchwarber vs. Pederson*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to talk some actual my-first-baseman-is-better-than-yours with regards to the AL East, free agent Jackie Bradley, Jr, and Juan Soto’s defensive capabilities. Plus, ex-Mariner Kevin Mather steps in it and the Herculex Body Battery cures all!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Herculex Body Battery Sees All, Cures AllPie in the Sky When You Die in SeattleCliff Corcoran: The comprehensive CycleSpencer Torkelson’s Freshman Dorm Moment“Don’t Know How to Smile,” Starring Charlie MortonWhat if the Phillies Didn’t Try to Fix Their Bullpen?Will the Nationals be CompetitiveJuan Soto’s GloveHow to Value Jackie Bradley, Jr.Bret Gardner vs. Aaron Hicks vs. BradleyA Glance Towards Kevin Mathers*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Solo-mini-diet episode in which there are stories of people getting hit, both in the sort of fun baseball way and also the sad other kind. Also, a look at San Diego Padres scolds.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Art Fletcher, Oil-Man (Not that Kind)The Price of Ice in PittsburghOdubel Herrera/Joe Giradi/Sherry MageeLet Fernando Tatis, Jr Play (For What He’s Worth)!Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Mark Armour (Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball, and Paths to Glory: How Great Teams Got That Way, SABR Board President) talks about the Hall of Fame shortstop, MLB’s retroactive changes to the Negro League’s standing, and great baseball history books. Plus tales of Lou Gehrig, Eleanor Gehrig, and milkfat.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Eleanor’s Bracelet and Ival’s Two Pounds of ButterEleanor Gehrig AloneMark Armour: The SABR Bio ProjectThe Missing BiographiesWhy Joe Cronin?A Portly Shortstop on His KneesSegregation ApologistCronin Was in the MainstreamThe Revised Status of the Negro LeaguesWhat’s It Like Being on the SABR Board?The Greying of SABRThe Greatest Baseball History Books/Bill James’ StrengthsGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Kevin Goldstein returns! Plus, tales of a pitcher who shouldn’t and Lou Gehrig: Great American.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Day in the Life of the Zion Hill… BilliesLou Gehrig KnewKevin Goldstein: The best restaurants in San Pedro de MacorisThe Moment You Found OutCarlos Correa Claps BackThe EmailThe Best Way to Understand What the Rockies Are DoingBillion-Dollar FranchisesRacism in the Dominican RepublicEvaluating Teenage Players in the Dominican“These Kids Are My Heroes”Make-Up DigsEvil Platoon Left FielderTools Players and Short GuysPersonal Cheeseballs*Goodbyes.
WARNING: There are a few cusswords in this episode. Shelter your parrot lest he be corrupted.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Will Leitch returns to deflate the hero narrative in sports. Plus tales: Phil Niekro is prematurely dismissed and Home Run Baker runs all the way home.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Phil Niekro and Positive UncertaintyHome Run Baker Goes Home (Then Goes Home Again)Will Leitch: Family ManNot Judging the Pandemic Risk-TakersHistory Has Its Eyes on Tom VerducciClemens and Bonds RetconnedHenry Aaron “Ignored” Racism/The Sanctification of AaronA Convention in Cleveland/EscapismThe Wrong “Grierson & Leitch” Episode“The Great Waltz”How LuckyGilkey, Lankford, and Brian JordanGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns to talk about the Lindor trade, wet presidents, Bip Roberts, and the odor of old cigarettes. Plus Don Sutton doesn’t quite get caught, the Cardinals make a really bad hire, 1970s version, and reflections on Henry Aaron.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Doug Harvey Makes a Bad Call on Don Sutton But Derives the Right LessonHenry Aaron, BrieflyThe Rapp Experiment in St. LouisDavid Roth: Cigarettes Covered in ButterJim Leyland in the Dugout/Smokers at the Diner/Masks at WalmartA Bip Roberts Mention?/Angry Before BreakfastBip Roberts : Joe BidenMillard Fillmore’s Last WordsLiving in Orson Welles’ New JerseyFriends Don’t Tell Friends About the 1982 MetsBruce Bochy/Bruce Bochte ConfusionThe Mets Do the Right Thing (and the Astros Did Not)Wet Ex-President/Wet Ex-AstrosSociopathy Cannot Be a Universal ValueStarving the Minor Leagues, Starving the PeopleThe Downside of Competitive ImbalanceForgot Joey Lucchesi and Other Mets Pitchers“Mortgaging the Future”Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to remember Phil Niekro and Tommy Lasorda, discuss disappointing offseason moves in Cleveland and Chicago, and debate the best way to paint old ballplayers. Plus tales of a president on horseback and a first baseman blocked by Pete Rose.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
How’s the Mule?Don’t Inhale in the ClubhouseCliff Corcoran: Negro Leagues Baseball CardsStrata of PlayersAgainst Photo-Realistic Painting?Gustave Courbet’s Female Genitalia and Norman Rockwell’s NixonRealism in Walter Johnson UndergarmentsA Newsletter is BornCleveland By Any Other Name (Spiders Memories)Cy Young’s WaistlineReviling the Francisco Lindor TradeThe Outfielder-less Cleveland ClubWilling Suspension of Disbelief: ClevelandPremature Pennant Peak/Do the Cubs Have an Excuse?On Phil NiekroPolka Party!On Tommy LasordaLittle Angry MenGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector returns to mourn the events of January 6 and talk a little baseball as well. Plus relevant tales: Casey Stengel starts a riot and the Francisco Lindor trade is compared to a national-scale bait and switch.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Why Casey was SuspendedDay of the LocustJesse Spector: Just Another Day in DemocracyThe Space Shuttle Disaster and Tom Green Movies as Pandemic Masks and a Gateway to QAnonOffice Hot Tub and Working From HomeExplaining Trump to Kids/Civics Class/Sore Loser at “Candyland”Athletes of Color Note the Contradiction/The Baseballness of EverythingRickey and RobinsonRacists in the StandsJesse Gets LettersThe Antifa Who Was ThursdayWhat is the Job of Sports Media on the Worst Day in American History?Oblique References to a Certain PitcherThe Cold Stove League/DH or No DH?The Mike Easler Trade*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A special New Year’s episode features tales of something gaining on an umpire during a World Series game and relates the strangely happy last moments of Wee Willie Keeler, with some stops along the way.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abner Dalrymple RemembersA Question for the LeadershipWee Willie Keeler Greets the New Year and Then DepartsNew Year's WishesInstrumental Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A special holiday episode features a possibly-fictional tale of Babe Ruth’s moment of reckoning after the difficult, out-of-control season of 1922, plus notes on herd immunity featuring Gee Walker, Max West, and Casey Stengel.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mississippi Field RecordingsDr. Alexander’s PrescriptionA Quick Look at Gee Walker Hurting Himself, Max West Getting Hurt, And Casey Stengel’s Prescription For Speed As Ways Of Ending The PandemicThe Last Temptation of Babe Ruth: A Story in Three ActsAct IAct IIAct III*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Dan Szymborski (FanGraphs, ZiPs) returns to talk 2021 projections, mock the Rockies, and speculate about Norwegian cheeses. Plus tales: Lefty Gove has some earned sarcasm and a second baseman named Pep strikes out (a lot).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lefty Grove’s Snappy Answers to Stupid CommentsA Note on the Passing Dick AllenPersonal Note: A Death in the Family/Your Rights vs. MineLem-Pep and the Five KsDan Szymborski: ZiPS, the Actuarial Tables, and the Old Ty Cobb JokeThe Question No One Asked Wade BoggsThose Vexing RockiesThe Inevitable Ian Desmond First Guess (Luke Voit, Thick First Baseman)OBP in a Hitter’s ParkThe Dahl Non-Tender/If the Rockies Had Randy ArozarenaMaikel Franco’s ZiPs Comps and Other Non-Indicators of DestinyThe Archetype of the Quad-A CatcherThe Ted Williams CompAll Great Players Are DifferentDoug Newstrom? Ron Coomer?Ronald Acuna and Jose CansecoEditors/“Braveheart” and Unforced Errors in Historical FictionToo-Granular Questions About ProjectionsWill Smith (The Catcher) Projections and Willful Changes to Playing Style2021 Error BarsFanGraphs Health CheckAgainst Cincinnati ChiliCheeses*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Mike Ferrin (MLB Network Radio, Arizona Diamondbacks, Everything is Broken podcast) returns to talk the art of broadcasting in a pandemic, plus tales of a stranger ballpark and an unusual incentive and a pitcher is tortured for mysterious reasons.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Phillies’ Barrel of Biloxi ShrimpBill Terry Tortures a PitcherMike Ferin: Love and GuiltRed vs. Blue and Stats vs. ScoutsNobody Loves Bunting More Than Announcers DoThe Blake Snell Overkill“After Year of Brewers Financial Losses”Flashback to Spring TrainingBuilding Trust at the BallparkHypothetical Bad BurritoBroadcasting For a Bad Team/Making it FunHas D’Backs Spending Matched the Market?Beware Small Samples, Part 1,933A Brief, Frivolous Star Wars MomentNot Just Showing Up to Cash a Check (Dylan and Berry)*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Mark Simon, co-author of the Bill James Handbook 2020 talks stats, projections, the Hall of Fame, and the new Mets ownership. Plus tales: Both the Roman Empire and the Cardinals Empire falls and Kim Ng vs. Jay Kirke.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Kim Ng, Jay Kirke: The Patriarchy Was InhumanWally Berger vs. Mike TroutThe Cardinals Dynasty FallsMark Simon: Rookies of the Year (Luis Robert vs. Kyle Lewis)Fielding Awards in a Small-Sample SeasonBill James’ New Batter Game ScoresNo One Knows How Many Editions of the Bill James Handbook There Have BeenA Teddy Bear of a BookMissing OPS+ and WAR vs. Win SharesThe Private Bill JamesBill and Mark on Hall of Fame Standards/Progress and a Call-Back to the Keltner TestJack Morris’s Strat CardThe 70s Yankees Missing from the Hall of FameWillie Randolph and Dale Murphy: It’s Better If You Die2021 Projections: Randy Arozarena, Jazz Chisholm, Georgia, Pennsylvania
Welcoming Steve CohenTurning Over the Front OfficeA Brief Pujols ComplaintGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Grant Brisbee returns to discuss Justin Turner, the championship afterglow, spoonerized baseball names, and more. Plus an election reaction, 12 quick tales of players, Saturday morning reminisces, and the happy story of a Hall of Fame manager.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Election Reaction/Twelve Sources of Baseball DistractionTop 10 Presidential FailuresThe Peace of McCarthyGrant Brisbee: Baseball SpoonerismsThe Justin Turner AsteriskMoney and DepthThe Decline of the RSNHow Long Does the Championship High Last?Rare Metaphor HelmetThe Giants: A Tough Year for the GottsWelcoming Alyssa NakkenThe Mike Yastrzemski Miracle and the Weird Giants Anti-Outfielder MachineFrom SB Nation to The AthleticWill the Giants Rebuild?The Return of Buster Posey*Goodbyes.
WARNING: A single profanity regarding illegal/immoral acts with goats. Hide the goats.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Scott Lemieux returns to talk about the presidential election, reforming the Supreme Court, the greatness of Joe Morgan, and the controversial usage of Whitey Ford. Plus: Tales of Pittsburgh Pirates teams (and local banana factories) gone wrong.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Pittsburgh Banana Company Has a Bad DayBabe Adams Gives His AnswerScott Lemieux: Traditions vs. Rules“Originalism”/“Court-Packing”Bipartisanship is Just Another Word for Nothing Left to LoseInfinite Supreme CourtNon-Delegation DoctrineBreaking the Feedback LoopThe Marketplace of IdeasTruth and ReconciliationThe Lost Hall of Famers of 2020 and Joe MorganCasey Stengel and Whitey FordThe 1960 World Series RevisitedTime for a Backyard Bunker?Goodbyes.
WARNING: There are one or two cusswords herein. Your dog will not be corrupted if it overhears.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns to discuss the sale of the Mets, postseason aesthetics, and the launch of The Defector. Plus a Reds outfielder with way too much swing and miss in his game, Rogers Hornsby’s time versus Joe Morgan’s, and how a failed White Sox rebuild relates to both.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Rolando’s RoomJoe Morgan in His Time/Johnny Evers Loses a JobDavid Roth: America’s Boyfriend Meets Bob MouldConcertgoing“Never Talking to You”Live ReadsThe Mets are SoldWorking for “Albert”Going Out a “Winner”Jacob deGrom vs. Craig SwanDodging the A-Rod BulletIn the Best Interests of BaseballMystifying the Obvious (Election Talk)Turning Off That VoiceWhy We Needed Domestic Propaganda Posters in WWIILaser-Focused on the Present “But Her Emails”Presidents on SpeedThe Aesthetics of the 2020 PlayoffsWere the Yankees the Good Guys? Are the Rays Steely Dan?Launching Defector”The Office” ClichéGoodbyes.
WARNING: As with most Roth episodes, there’s some extra-cussin’. Spare the children!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A rare solo episode features 3.5 tales of brawls, zoos, and recently-departed greats of the game, plus a brief explanation of why mask-wearing is controversial.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Babe Ruth Has a ColdNotes/ Jay Johnstone/China’s FaultBob Feller Gave Names to All the AnimalsA Home Run in Boston (Casey Stengel Rides Again)Bob Gibson vs. Tom Seaver*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Calcaterra returns to discuss “the newsletter lifestyle,” review the 2020 “season,” and explain the banality of meh. Plus: Tales of Casey Stengel shopping, Connie Mack building fences, and a Cubs shortstop provokes a theory of depression and elation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Casey Stengel Buys a TieBallparks Go Condo and the Shibe Park Spite FenceBroadway Bill (Absolutely Bill’s Mood)Craig Calcaterra: The Newsletter LifestylePeople Won’t Hate-PayCat Content in the Newsletter and Groin PullsThe Blogosphere Without the Bad PartsGetty Images A La CarteRole to Resist/Saving ThrowThe 2020 MLB “Episode” in RetrospectThe San Diego Padres and Real Estate PornWall to Wall Cussin’Trading Fernando Tatis Due to a Downturn in the Rental MarketMike Ferrin’s Rule of PerceptionThe Banality of MehThe 1000 Deaths of the Pittsburgh PiratesYou Won’t Know When Things Go Bad*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to try to figure out who deserves which awards out of this crazy attenuated season in a disaster of a year, plus tales of players and people neglected in their post-career years and a requiem for the lost pennant races of the future.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Man in the Green UniformRon Gardenhire1980 in the AL EastCliff Corcoran: Negro Leagues CapsInconclusion, the Negro Leagues, the All-American GirlsNo Astros CapsGilmour Field at the Movies (“Bodyguard”) and “Bimbo” CartoonsArte Moreno Gets His Way in Anaheim/The Yankee StadiumAwards WatchFluke Seasons of 2020Qualified Regulars Under .200Mike YastrzemskiMike Trout in the FieldAbreu vs. AndersonAwards and Narrative”The Willem Dafoe Most Valuable Veteran AwardGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector returns to debate which players are overrated and remember Tom Seaver, plus Big Ed Walsh fails to parent and Ed Whitson is betrayed by Yankees fans.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Big Ed’s KidsFailing Ed WhitsonJesse Spector: Tom Seaver: The Yankees YearsThe Serious SeaverAroldis Chapman vs. the RaysTwitter Homerism“J. Guerra”Mike Clevinger: Persona Non GrataMost Overrated Players“Jeter Wouldn’t Have Had That”Is Yadier Molina a Hall of Famer?Andy Pettitte Career vs. PeakStill More Yadier (and Ted Simmons’ Worst Year)“Specious is the Wrong Word”Bo Knows Overrated*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Ginny Searle (Baseball Prospectus) discusses the aftermath of the Thom Brenneman slur and gives a scholar’s insight into Shakespeare. Plus racially-motivated violence in the Negro Leagues and the PCL, with a voyage into one of the great nicknames.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Consequences of Being Boojum WilsonA Fight in Oakland: “Here’s My Chance”Ginny Searle: What Can Be Done to Make Baseball a More Welcoming Space for LGBT People?“I Wouldn’t Say It’s a Lifestyle, I’d Say It’s My Life”EmpathyIs Jackie Robinson an Inapt Comparison?Why is Homophobia the Last Socially-Acceptable Prejudice?There’s More Than One Way to Be Male or FemaleThat Kissing Scene in Ball Four“Love and Theft”What Has Been Good About the 2020 Season?Fake Crowd NoiseShakespeare Can Make You Feel DumbThe Most Confusing Sentence in ShakespeareEditing Mistakes and Jo Adell in RightSome Old Texas Rangers Who Didn’t Quite Work OutMidlife-Crisis Sonnets?Shakespeare Wants to Have Your Babies (or Vice-Versa)“Who Gets to Speak?”“Romeo + Juliet?”Is There Hope for Understanding?*Goodybyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
A look back at Tom Seaver stories we have told over the years on the occasion of the great man’s passing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Rest in Peace Number 41From Episode 23: Tom Seaver’s Prayer for PeaceTom Seaver at Twilight*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Paul Dickson returns to discuss The Rise of the GI Army, an increasingly hard-to-imagine moment when the country overcame resistance and demagoguery to pull together. Plus a tale of two terrible first basemen going to war and a reply to Thom Brennaman.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mahan, Sturm, and the Lost Players of 2040Thom Brennaman: “Bye Bye Blackbird”Paul Dickson: A Timely Recollection (An Army in Yankee Stadium)Charles Lindbergh and the Isolationist Gang (And Their Enemies)The War After the War Before“The Veterans of Future Wars”Bipartisanship in a Time of CrisisGeneral George Marshall: Hall of FamerThe CCC Saves the WorldDiscovering Eisenhower and Scouting PattonMarshall and the Plattsburg MovementGrenville ClarkThe Struggle for a Desegregated American Military (The Double V)Robeson and RobinsonDid Patton Cheat During War Games?A Peacetime Draft and Wearing Your MaskPlaying Politics with SafetyWe Could Do That But We Can’t Do ThisGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This one has everything: David Roth, the Defector, a mysterious player with a name that suggests a large animal with a slack colon, a rumored Mickey Mantle trade of 1958, the Mets, and more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Frank Lane’s Hypothetical Mickey Mantle Trade and the MediaThree Announcements Invoking Craig CalcaterraNew Baseball Song: “The American Game”Bevos and Hippos (Oh My)David Roth: “Jeopardy” Category: Bad Royals Trades, All Thing Gabriel Byrne, and other TriviaWhat is The Defector?Freelancing is a DragThe Vanishing InternetThe Defector Elevator Pitch/A Blogging FrescaHow Can a Website Have a Broad-Based Appeal When Fox Exists?The Walt Disney Formulation and Ursine Copulation CoverageHow Will the Nation React to College Football Being Cancelled? (The “Sham of Amateurism”)…And the MLB ModelThe Marlins and the CardinalsAre We Enjoying the 2020 Season?/Low OffenseAndres Gimenez: Blogger-SizedMarcus Stroman Opts OutHave All Teams Become the Mets?Summing Up the Cespedes EraAlbert Pujols and the Long, Long ContractGoodbyes.
Warning: One or two cusswords and mature animal subject discussed. Hide the hippos.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to discuss actual baseball, plus tales of pandemics past, vanished players, and cheering home runs through the valley of death, 1945.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Seventy-Five Years of Home Runs and QuestionsShad RhemCliff Corcoran: Branded MasksFirst Baseman-Leadoff HittersCubs 2020 LineupSlow Leadoff Men (Part 1000)The Blue and the Gold of MilwaukeeExpansion is ContingentThe Brooklyn Super-Bus, Sour Cherry Jelly, and AphasiaFor the Love of Baseball CutoutsOne More Ride for the White Elephants/What’s an Athletic, Anyway?A Dozen RelieversThe Season You SkipCubs Fever, Catch ItThe Nationals Struggle EarlyCausality ProblemsA Very Brief Nod to the Marlins, Phillies, Cardinals, Et AlMoral Hazard in Baseball CoverageGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Hall of Famer Rod Carew discusses his career and his life both before and after baseball. Plus tales of a future Hall of Famer demoralized by the Dodgers and Carew encountering racist gamesmanship in civil rights-era Florida.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Dodger Says UncleRod Carew and the Poisoned HandshakeRod Carew: Hall of Famer in the PandemicA Private Player in the Public Eye/A Father’s PromiseIt’s All for the BestAre All the Greatest Hitters Obsessed?/The Number-One ToolFree-Swinging but High-ContactIs Being a Great Hitter About Intelligence or Memory?“Super-Loner?”Rod and ReggieAgainst the Shift/How to Hit Nolan RyanChildhood Abuse and Putting the Anger AsideMeeting Jackie RobinsonVs. Mariano RiveraWhen the Brewers Swept the KneeThe Steal of Home Year and AfterBilly Martin in MinnesotaCould Gene Mauch Manage Today?Carew and GriffithLeaving the TwinsGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Sociologist Dr. Jennifer Earl discusses how the Internet has changed the way we come together to change the world. Plus an old-time catcher celebrates the good old days that never were and Lefty Gomez is tortured into gaining weight.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Piggybacking on Christy Mathewson’s RepLefty Gomez Has a Weight ProblemJennifer Earl: Life in ArizonaRemote versus In-Person TeachingOptimized TeachingLife Before vs During the Internet (One Approach to the Scientific Method)Starting a Movement Online“Bowling Alone” and Movements Without MoneyFlash Activism/A Sports ExampleBoaty McBoatface and Harry Potter FandomJ.K. Rowling Confronts Harry’s Autonomy and “Pro-Sumption”The Positive and Negative of Affiliation“The Karens”Too Much Optimism on Police Reform?The Evolving Consensus on ProtestFake Social MovementsThe (Now-Rescinded) ICE Order*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Eric Nusbaum, author of Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught In Between discusses the long tug-of-war over Chavez Ravine, who had it, who lost it, and who was to blame—featuring a cast of thousands. Plus Cap Anson situated in his times (meet the old times/same as the new times) and one more look at Addie Joss’s passing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ten Men Out of the Hall Revisited (Don’t Cry for Cap Anson)Addie Joss and John Keats Revisited (On First Looking Into Joss’s Cerebellum)Eric Nusbaum: A Widescreen Approach to HistorySanta Anna’s Chewing Gum and Hitler’s BathtubThe Human Vultures of Chavez RavineImmoral Egg Metaphors vs Society’s Need to BuildHow Can a Private Ballpark Be a Public Good?A Hypothetical Sewage-Treatment PlantThe Great Frank Wilkinson and the FBI“Slum Clearance” and Public HousingPrivate Real Estate vs. Chavez RavineThe People of Palo Verde vs. the City of Los Angeles vs. the American DreamLittle Wrigley FieldThe Death of the Red CarsResearch AddictionWalter O’Malley’s Monument to HimselfO’Malley Was Not a VillainThe Part of the Story Still to be ToldGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus returns to discuss the MLB reopening, how the “legitimacy” question is misapplied to this season, and repudiates greeting cards. Plus: Tales of a Native American ace who overlooked the many slurs he heard and an owner who tried to retaliate against a manager and got burnt—but maybe he should have been heard.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chief Bender CopesWear Your Mask“Hey, Barney!”Craig Goldstein: Hating Hallmark HolidaysSpecial Pleading for MLB RestartPlayer Health and Safety in 2020“Legitimacy” and the Ship of TheseusPostseason LegitimacyReverting to the Pre-Draft SystemThe GrievanceThe Lifespan of an OwnerWill Baseball Be “Irreparably Damaged?”Baseball-Free Prospectus?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector returns to discuss the non-return of baseball, an old baseball arcade game, and his decision to join the revived Deadspin. Plus: Tales of an early Cuban star who might have been a very young revolutionary and the poison dispensed by the most evil Red Sox player/manager/executive of all time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Brief, Laudatory Career of Armando MarsansEarl Wilson’s Cryptic ReplyJesse Spector: Back in the Saddle AgainThe “Baseball Owes Us” Crowd (Vs. Jayson Stark)MLB’s Mysterious Covid-19 PlansThe Closer Mentality in Everyday LifeStark vs. Gammons“You Need” vs. “I Want”Old Nintento Sports Games and “World Series: The Season”Old-Time Coin-Up Baseball GamesBigotry at the Bowling Alley/The Curse of a Strong MemoryThe Revived DeadspinWhen It Ends, It Ends: That’s a Freeing Thing*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Writer/artist Anika Orrock discusses The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, plus tales of a catcher who would not ask forgiveness and an interaction between a policeman and four African American soldiers in New York in the interregnum between Jackie Robinson’s signing and his debut.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
John Roseboro’s PledgeBetween Jackie Robinson and the Deep Blue Sea: Freeport, New York, 1946Anika Orrock: In the Pandemic Book ClubA Book that Operates on Two Levels: Approaching the ArtWhen the Words Come Through to YouSome of the Best Cartoons in HistoryIllustration vs. PhotographsThe Simplistic Complexity of PeanutsThe AAGPBL and Baseball vs. SoftballWAVES, WACS, and WASPS (plus the WNBA)Women’s Sports Can Be Its Own ThingThe “Paranoia of Masculinity” in WWIIThe Joy of the AAGPBL, and the Loss of It“A League of Their Own”“No Pants-Wearing Softballers”/“A Secret Love” documentary*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Brad Balukjian, author of The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife discusses his cross-country journey to find players, great and obscure, of the 1980s and find out how they’re doing. Also bugs. Plus: Tales of ballplayers breaking curfew and a player really harmed by a Branch Rickey brainstorm.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Shufflin’ Phil and the Inevitability of the Broken CurfewThe Don Padgett StoryBrad Balukjian: Mutant insects and ballplayersLamarck is Vindicated? (Epigenetics)The Now-Impossible Road TripThe Cards You Didn’t Pull“Life-WAR”Even the Best Athletes Get NervousBallplayers Have Damaged Families TooThe Personal vs. Heroic ApproachThe Brad “Character”Baseball, OCD, and the Instinctive Buddhism of the Old Timers“Coffee Was My Companion”A Visit with Don CarmanClearing Up the Garry Templeton IncidentDating an EntomologistGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns for a very “There is No Sports, Rudolph” special episode, discussing KBO baseball, the non-sale of the New York Mets, bad Mariners draft picks, old “chase” baseball cards, and dissects the current political scene. Plus tales of a pitcher who correctly counted his number of groins and a deadly panic at Yankee Stadium.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Pitcher Who Only Had OneDeath at the StadiumDavid Roth: Quarantine Beards and Keith Hernandez AdsRemembering Some Guys in a PandemicSelling the Mets/Keeping SNY“Joe Biden Made Me Sign Eduardo Nunez”/TankingA Manny Ramirez DigressionShort-Printing Topps and Greg Swindell CollectiblesKBO as an MLB-SubstituteExtreme There-Is-No-Baseball-Chat (Late-Night WPIX in New York in the 1980s and Goodfellas )Back to the Mets: All the Apes Are InternsAre the Mets a Small-Market Team?A Moment With the MarinersThe Political World: The Emperor’s New Clothes was WrongGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns and makes a game attempt to stick to sports and hates on The Sandlot, plus tales of ballpark fighting words of 1910 and bigotry and bacteria in early baseball.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ballpark Fighting Words 1910-Style With the GiantsBlue Stockings, Bigotry, and BacteriaCliff Corcoran: The Puppy is Not IllI Want a Pony/A Toddler with Sharp TeethAre Cats In It For Themselves?Pandemics Above Replacement LevelSticking to Sports: The Best Major League Player Performances of 2020: Trout vs. ScherzerDidi Gregorius Heckler at the Crowd-MicBaseball Fans Failing at Averages/Getting the Game BackBaseball at the Movies: Is Any Baseball Film as Good as the Best Films in General?The first Rocky MovieThe Joe E. Brown Baseball Trilogy and Other Cliché Baseball Films (Cliff Hates The Sandlot)Imagining a Robert Altman Baseball FilmThe Disappointment of 42Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Scott Lemieux of Lawyers, Guns, and Money talks remote learning, finds many baseball examples to illustrate our current reality, and reminds us just how bad “neutral” umpiring used to be. Plus: Mookie Betts, true Red Sox affection, and a hypothetical trade involving an asteroid, and a Dodgers pitcher feels his oats.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Mookie Betts Trade Can Have No WinnersJohnny Allen BravadoScott Lemieux: How is Remote Learning Going?Rushing the Professor“No One Could Have Expected!Mitch McConnell in History (and in a Fantasy League)Steve’s “Too Mean” StoryThe 1890s Orioles, PEDs, and “Civility”Accountability ImmunityThe Ideological FloorMedicare For All and Hostage-TakingStats vs. Scouting in Political ScienceThe Fallacy of Historic Baseball Platoons/Ball-Strike Calls in the 80s and 90sSo Where Will It All End?Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Calcaterra (Hardball Talk) returns to talk about the shape of things in baseball now, in the hypothetical future when the game returns, and in a random 1984 Rangers-Tigers game. Plus: Tales of managers killing pitchers from the 1940s, 80s, and 90s and Joe McCarthy of the Yankees promulgates a rule that has applications to the present.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
You had just ONE job (Pitcher-Killing Managers, Among Other Things)The “Don Buddin Era” and Not Alibiing the Tough HopsCraig Calcaterra: A Saturday Night Live thingLarry David’s Baseball BookshelfBad Baseball is Better Than No BaseballThe Collapse/Collapsing of the Minor LeaguesDoes Major League Baseball Have an Obligation to Take Care of Its Indirect Workers?What Will We Learn to Do Without?Great Uncle Harry and the 1984 TigersThat Ron Guidry GameRemembering the 1984 Texas Rangers and Dave StewartContinuing to Obsess About Opposite-Field Hitting in 1977 “Clunky” McGillicuddy is BornSecond-Guessing the 1984 DraftWhat Form Will the Season Takes, If There’s a Season?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
DB Firstman discusses the secrets of their new book Hall of Name: Baseball’s Most Magnificent Monikers from The Only Nolan to Van Lingle Mungo and More, plus a look at Bobby Bonds’ strikeouts inspired by Mark Reynolds’ retirement and the nonsensical death-story of Christy Mathewson, AKA gas doesn’t give you bacteria, but bacteria might give you gas.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bobby Bonds: Time TravelerThe Momentary Meanness of Christy Mathewson, the Myth of His Demise, and How It’s Like What Some of Us Are Doing NowDB Firstman: Lemon Jell-O“Gwodz” is a Bad Scrabble DrawSaltalamacchia: Letters vs. WalksRazor Shines and Narciso Elvira“Boshers” vs. “BO-sheers” vs. “Batman”Is Language Math? (And More Scrabble)Ossee Schrecongost, Orvie Overall, and not-Cannonball TitcombThe Only NolanKee-Kee or Cuy-Cuy?Rabbit Maranville?Bris Lord UncutThe Plasticity of Younger MindsQuinton McCracken, Milton BradleyNap Who?Don’t Annoy the Balfour*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Brendan Kuty (NJ.Com, the Star-Ledger) discusses his coronavirus-motivated drive home from spring training and tries to explain Aaron Judge’s injuries. Plus, a classic baseball story told accurately (for once) and the Giants make a narrow escape from some justifiably-enraged Phillies fans.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Classic Bird StoryThe Giants Attacked in Their BarouchesBrendan Kuty: Home/UnselfishPainting RainbowsPay-What-You-Can RestaurantCoronavirus Deniers on I-95 (State of Idiots) The Carrier From Florida in Section 49Sensing a StoryAaron Judge’s Diagnosis-Free WinterThe Severino ExampleBee-Gees?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jeff Paternostro (Baseball Prospectus lead prospect writer) returns to look forward to the day baseball returns by looking at the best power prospects in the minors, the Orioles’ no. 1 draft pick from last June, and more. Plus, tales of serious baseball played at unserious times in 1914 and 1941, Germany Schaefer stealing first base, and the obscure record held by a forgotten third baseman.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
They Were All Just Ordinary Days in BaseballTony Boeckel’s Unbreakable RecordJeff Paternostro: Reluctant Social Distancing (With Dogs) and Picky EatersSleeper Prospects for 2020Cavan Biggio: Player Out of TimeWho is the Best Power Prospect in the Game?How Projectable Is an Already-Mature Body Anyway?Adley Rutchsman, Matt Wieters, Robo-Umps and Bad Pitch-FramersFirst-Base-to-Catcher-ConversionsA Bobby Bonilla DigressionThe Minor League ShutdownThe Value on In-Person Scouting in an Age of VideoA Momentary Haruki Murakami DigressionWhere to Go Once We’re Free/Heliot Ramos/Mike YastrzemskiOne Last Prospect: Dylan Carlson*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Emily Nemens discusses the conflicts in and the process of writing her new baseball novel, The Cactus League. Plus Hall of Fame pitcher Waite Hoyt spins a harrowing tale during a rain delay and Joe DiMaggio tries to withstand a “hot condition,” as well all sometimes must.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Surviving Waite Hoyt’s Rain Delay of the SoulJoe DiMaggio’s Trying YearEmily Nemens: Players in Spring Training: Dominoes Waiting to FallCoordinating a Fictional 40-Man RosterJason Goodyear vs. Derek Jeter: It’s Lonely at the TopHow Much Access to Athletes Owe the Public?Wives and GirlfriendsThe Dennis Eckersley ExampleRevision!How to Sell a Baseball NovelThat Spring Training Complete GameBalancing a Large CastCan Short Stories Make a Comeback?The Unexpected Hawthorne PlugThe Unexpected “The Americanization of Emily” PlugThe Creativity vs. Appropriation ControversyThe Los Angeles Lions, “A Team for a Team’s Sake,” and the Seattle Mariners*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Mark Simon, co-author of The Fielding Bible V, discusses the latest in defensive evaluation, climbing the ladder at “Baseball Tonight,” and tries to explain Gio Urshela, Paul DeJong, and other mysteries of defense. Plus two New York teams brawl but that’s not the most dangerous thing happening, and why baseball ducked an otherwise deadly disease.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Quarantine the World SeriesWhy Did Baseball Escape the 1918 Influenza Pandemic?Mark Simon: Halcyon days at “Baseball Tonight”Life Begins with Jayson StarkThe Fielding Bible V: What’s New in Evaluating Fielders?The Joe DiMaggio Easy-Catch HypotheticalAndrew McCutchen and PositioningStats Versus the Eye Test I: Gio UrshelaStats Versus the Eye Test II: Paul DeJongRuns on Offense and Runs on Defense (That Matt Kemp Season)The Schmidt-Bowa QuestionA Shawon Dunston CelebrationKeith Hernandez vs. Albert PujolsCan We Compare Defensive Players Across Time?Cody Bellinger’s Versatility*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Infinite Inning 136: War Criminal in the Booth
Cliff Corcoran returns to discuss the burning issues of the day, including the everybody-gets-a-playoff-spot trial balloon. Plus, a player asks for help after a hurricane and how the 1922 World Series relates to a non-existent musical about the Founding Fathers called “Morris!”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tony Fernandez and the Hurricane: What’s Good, Anyway?Bullet Joe Bush and the Immortal Part of OneselfCliff Corcoran: Poofy Baseball Caps of the 1890sThe Baseball Exhibit at the Nixon Library (Ted Bleeping Williams)The Mookie Betts-Kevin Pillar BluesGenerational Talents Are Unevenly DistributedThe Revised Playoff Plan“That September Marlins-Pirates Game”The Three-Batter Rule Could Make Games Longer?“The Only Balk I’ve Ever Liked”Are the Yankees Left-Handed Enough?*Goodbyes.
WARNING: There is a shocking amount of swearing for a Cliff episode. Put earmuffs on the cat!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns to talk the non-sale of the New York Mets, the irrational trade of Mookie Betts, and asks why the president has an old-time Yankees second baseman on his mind. Plus, a tender encounter with a warm Yankee Stadium security guard and why childhood inadequacy can leave one feeling like Juan Samuel.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Face Down in Joe Girardi’s Bouncy CastleDavid Roth: The 1961 Yankees vs POTUS (Bobby Richardson Batting Leadoff)Rudy Has a Ring/Mookie Betts Was TradedWhich of These Marge Schott Crimes Was Worse?The Mets Non-Sale (Barbarians at the Citi Field Gates)Rick Porcello: Local Guy/Missing Carlos BeltranIf the Mets Had Mickey Mantle’s Injuries to Manage“Flexibility”Cespedes’ DestinyWhither Yasiel Puig?“The Cruncher and Racism Show”*Goodbyes.
WARNING: As in all Rothian episodes, there is the occasional bit o’ cussing. Please hide impressionable gerbils.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector returns for interlocking discussions of the return of Dusty Baker and revisions to the dinosaur room at the museum. Plus, tales of White Sox and Mets sales gone awry and Rickey Henderson and Mookie Betts trades compared.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Wilpons, the Comiskeys, and the Desire to Give Birth to YourselfRickey Henderson Gets TradedJesse Spector: TacosaurusDusty Baker Rides AgainBilly Martin Should Not Be in the Hall of FameThe Limits of CheatingGarry Maddox vs. Juan LagaresJesse’s NIMBYs and a Personal CrisisYouth Homes, Minor League Teams, The Offer of Hope, Exploited Dreams, Dreams No Longer Desired, Fewer Beds and Bases Available*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Allen Barra (Mickey and Willie; The Last Coach; Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee; Inventing Wyatt Earp) discusses his friendship with MLBPA head and new Hall of Famer Marvin Miller. Plus, the consequences of immorality in baseball and a couple of highly flawed Giants relationships.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hal Chase, Roberto Clemente, and “The Good Place”Managers Hired, Fired, and Hitting Each OtherAllen Barra: Marvin Miller’s Belated EnshrinementWhat Was Marvin Miller Like?Verbal JujitsuA Union Man His Whole LifeA Brief Visit to BirminghamMarvin Miller vs. Bowie KuhnCzars Can’t Be FiredAbraham Lincoln Doesn’t Enter Into ItDisenchanted/Bitter/Betrayed by ReggieBobby Thomson Had the Dodgers’ SignsRanking the Top Six Wyatt Earp MoviesConsulting for “Tombstone””Glory” and the Denigration of African American Soldiers*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Marc Normandin returns to talk Astros and Red Sox sign-stealing fallout, plus tales of a player so serene he could sleep in the middle of a ballgame and a Dodgers fan objects to women in the ballpark.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
When Edd Roush Needs a Nap, Edd Roush Takes a NapLadies’ Day (“Dames! Dames! Dames!”)Marc Normandin: A Brief, Inadvertent “Rise of Skywalker” ChatAstros and Red Sox Cheating ReactionsThe Astros’ Taubmanism and the Price of HubrisJeff Luhnow and Management-Consultant CultureAre the Astros Players Permanently Tainted?Down with the Hall of Fame Gallery, Up With the MuseumDid the Last Two Postseasons Really Happen?What is Wrong with the Colorado Rockies?Are the Red Sox Building Up or Tearing Down?Let’s Dispense with the Ideas of Managers as Difference-MakersA.J. Hinch: No Good Men in SodomTrevor Bauer is BlockedGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Rob Arthur of Baseball Prospectus discusses the juiced ball, Astros sign-stealing, and the past and future of the human race. Plus John McGraw fights while Boston burns and a pitcher is mocked for his weight.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Walter, not JumboThe Brief Story of “Jumbo Jim”A Fire in BostonRob Arthur: Fruit Flies No Matter WhatMalthus Was Right? (“Who’s Mathis?” Andy Asked)WAR (What’s It Good For?)The Hall of Fame and the Soft FactorsThe Ball is Painfully, Obviously JuicedJuiced Balls vs. Juiced PlayersManfred’s Reasons and ExcusesHow Did We Miss the Astros’ Sign-Stealing?Will the Real Alex Bregman Please Stand Up?Mike Trout’s Genes vs. Yours*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Lincoln Mitchell returns to discuss his new book, San Francisco Year Zero: Political Upheaval, Punk Rock, And A Third-Place Baseball Team, about the surprising 1978 Giants and the way the events of that year, including/especially the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone, changed the city’s future. Plus: An A’s fan lights a flame and a manager takes his owner with him.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A’s Fans Burnin’ Down the HouseBucky Harris Speaks Frankly Lincoln Mitchell: The third-place 1978 San Francisco Giants?The almost-Toronto GiantsMemories of Candlestick Park and other Giants dysfunctionGiants vs. Seals (and Burritos in the Mission)The Milk and Moscone Assassination and Its EffectsThe Potato-Stand GraftWhy Did We Turn to Violence in the 1960s and 1970s?The Potato Stand Quid Pro Quo and Ukraine (But not the Ukraine)Phony Beatlemania (The Hippies vs. The Punks)All the Wasted Giants’ ProspectsJohnny LeMaster: “BOO”Vida Blue ReappraisedAnd Jonestown, Too*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Goldstein (Baseball Prospectus) returns to discuss the Gerrit Cole signing and the experience of being at the Winter Meetings. Plus 1961 Yankees falsehoods and a Luber-ish Cleveland deal.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
That Lyin’ Yankees ManagerGene Green Got a Raw DealCraig Goldstein: The Red Sox Are In For an Offseason of Tough LooksThe Gerrit Cole ContractThe Nationals Are Irrational (When Do You Actually Spend the Money?)The Bud Selig Fig-LeafGeorge Steinbrenner and the Minority PartnersThe Owners are Not Like UsFixing Free AgencyWhat is the Social Contract?The Royals and CokeAt the Winter MeetingsThe Dodgers Miss Anthony Rendon*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to ask, “Who is the Best Pitcher in Baseball?” Plus assorted tales of baseball in 1917 (real men eat raw ice cream?) and a Pirates manager loses his job.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Baseball UnpasteurizedCallahan’s WayCliff Corcoran: Dr. HatWho Was Buried Beneath Third Base in Yankee Stadium?Who is “The Best Pitcher in Baseball”Cy Stood for CycloneDave Stieb and Johan Santana: Greats Who Could Expire at Any Time (Ron Santo)Santana vs. KoufaxWill the Best Pitcher of the 1950s Please Stand Up?How About the 1980s?Oatmeal and Lettuce Leaves Jacob deGrom in the Santana BasketEarly Wynn and Roberto ClementeClayton Kershaw and the HallThe Jacoby Ellsbury Era and the Britt Burns TradeThe New Inefficiency is Wanting to Be GoodGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Amanda Smith, cohost of the Disaster Girls podcast and the author of Le Renard Argenté: The Silver Fox at War explains what inspired her to transport a certain Dodgers second baseman to World War II, plus tales of sign-stealing gone awry and a scrap drive that almost ended Warren Spahn’s career before it started.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chuck Dressen Has a Plan For ThatSpahn vs. the Rusty ToastersAmanda Smith: A Book of Tweets?Cody Bellinger Wins the MVPThe Politics of Fandom/Bad First-Date TacticWorld War II TwitterChase Utley Liberates EuropeSgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)Killing Nazis is Now Political?It’s Not the Killing, It’s the JusticeInto the UtleyverseDisaster Girls and 85/34 (1988 Dodgers)In Defense of Dave Roberts*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth (ex-Deadspin) returns to discuss the demise of Deadspin and the rise of Carlos Beltran.
WARNING: As is true of all Roth episodes, there is quite a bit of cussing. Hide the hamsters.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Harvard Eddie and a Requiem for a FriendMookie and PeteDavid Roth: Spanf’d Out of a JobThe Value is in Not Sticking to Sports“It’s Unpleasant, But Maybe They Like It”The Non-Reactionary Death of SplinterYou Have to Admit It’s a Vivid InsultThe Importance of Editorial IndependenceThe Pro-Union ArgumentThe Perversity of WorkRoth on Beltran: Excited/SorryRon Darling’s HandshakeThe Future of Deadcast and other Features Let’s Remember Some Potatoes)*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Steve Kluger, author of both the novel and the musical The Last Days of Summer, talks about his tale of a neglected Brooklyn boy and a barely-socialized New York Giants third baseman finding each other in a world on the brink of war. Plus a baseball fixing hypothetical and the dismissal of Jackie Mitchell.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hal Steinbrenner and Derek Jeter’s Impression of Donald Trump in the UkraineJackie Mitchell > Brandon TaubmanSteve Kluger: On the Road with a ShowSeeing Your Characters Come to LifeThe Inherent Compression of the Epistolary Baseball NovelLetters to FDR and JFKVerisimilitude in Historical FictionThe Friendly Neighborhood Ballplayer of the 1940sDiscovering Baseball as an Adult (“The Carnage of 1966”)Ballplayers in the WarVerisimilitude II (Carl Hubbell is Such a Phony and Steve Garvey is Too?)The Right and Wrong Way to Honor Jackie RobinsonFear of ”Damn Yankees”What Makes a Great Player Great?Adult Language*Goodbyes.
Sheryl Ring discusses the backlash to her Addison Russell story and all the ways discrimination affects us in and out of baseball. Plus Jungle Jim Rivera’s case suggests a way to protect the Astros from themselves and another career is lost to war.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Ends Justify the FleasOne German Bomb Away from StardomSheryl Ring: The Addison Russell BacklashIf I Were Powerful I’d Have a Better CarIdentity Politics in the Jim Crow Era and Jim Crow Laws TodayRed-Lining and Reverse Red-LiningThe Bank Gets Paid Three TimesSticking to Sports Means Sticking to EverythingWe’ve All Seen This AdLegalized Discrimination“The Biology Textbook Mainstream”They Kill That Which They Don’t UnderstandThe Oakland A’s vs. Public Housing*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector returns to talk manager firings, the proper way to build a lineup, and dissect Joe Maddon’s past and future, plus tales of ancient Cardinals grudges and a Detroit Tigers great sets his priorities.
WARNING: Jesse’s dog Youppi arrives about 43 minutes into our discussion. However, Youppi does not swear, so it’s all good.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dizzy Dean Holds a LeadHank Greenberg Plays, Daniel Hudson Does Not, and It’s None of Your Damned BusinessJesse Spector: When Your Child is Not Juan SotoA Charlie Brown Way to Lose a HitOptimized Little League Lineups and Received Baseball Wisdom (Kids ‘n’ Kittle)Wade Boggs Batting LeadoffPinch-Hitting in the FirstLegitimizing the Taxi SquadEight Managerial Openings (with Babe and Lou Digression)Using Managers as Human ShieldsA Baleful Glance Back at Cleveland, and the CubsBoston’s Buyer’s RemorseThe Albert Pujols ProblemJoe Girardi in ReposeThe Product Becomes InconsequentialPre- and Post-Apocalypse Visions of the Red SoxThe Relentless Death Machine and Other Playoff ApparitionsAsdrubal Brings Ice Cream?Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Goldstein reveals his plans for Baseball Prospectus, mourns King Felix and (preemptively) Clayton Kershaw, and wonders if there’s a wrong way to love your cat. Plus tales of George Steinbrenner and Hal Chase that should sound strangely familiar.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Roy Cohn ClientHal Chase Asks for a FavorCraig Goldstein: The Wrong Way to Love Your CatThe Editor is Dead, Long Live the EditorThe BP CommunityFear of SolipsismWhere Have You Gone?King Felix and Doc GoodenDoes there Need to Be a Baseball Prospectus?Baseball is Everything and Everything is Baseball (But Will It Keep the Customers Satisfied?)The FanGraphs QuestionOrigin of a Dodgers FanWhen You’ve Married a Braves FanThe Astros Take All the Marbles?“Terrible Pedro Baez Performances”*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Emma Baccellieri (Baseball Prospectus, Deadspin, Sports Illustrated) asks what we’re talking about when we talk about baseball dying, plus Mr. Rivera goes to Washington and ruminations on the Felipe Valazquez case.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Senators Game in 1925/Mr. Rivera Goes to WashingtonThe Valazquez CaseEmma Baccellieri: “A Brief History of the Many Times Baseball Has Died”Doomsaying Never Goes Out of StyleWhat We Mean When We Talk About Baseball DyingIt is High, It is Far, It is EntropyMr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Sandwich ShopsSo What Will Be Baseball’s Kryptonite?Patient Zero of a Shaky Era in MediaThe SI LegacyUnlimited Expense AccountPhysics Might Have Been the Steadier ProfessionRubbing Mud is Your DestinyThe NL Cy Young Award RaceGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
James Yasko (Astros County, Lima Time Time podcast) discusses the Astros’ potential postseason rotation, neck beards, and AP history. Plus Mark Davis compared to Edwin Diaz and Ty Cobb gets a rule changed by NOT hurting an umpire.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Edwin Diaz, Mark Davis, and the Tyranny of ExpectationsTy Cobb Gets a Rule ChangedJames Yasko: Neck BeardsAn Unabashed HomerWade Miley is TertiaryCarry On, Charlie MortonJeff Luhnow, the Killjoy who Brings JoyNow Pitching, the PontiffThree Great Pitchers/World Series VirginsGerrit Cole: Dollar Signs on the MoundThe Devil’s Greatest Trick was Convincing Fans to Care About PayrollBarmes-to-Keppinger-to-CarterAstros Bandwagon JumpersBandwagoning ’86 StyleHugs in the Bread AisleThe Tyler White Pizza PartyCan You Still Be the Cool Trivial Pursuit Teacher?The Politics of Teaching American HistoryTV in ClassRemembering 9/11 in School“Unless One of You Idiots Decides to Check Instagram”On a Lighter Note, Yordan AlvarezGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Yes, we went there: Craig Calcaterra joins Steve to discuss the commonalities between affirmative action and Hall of Fame debates, as well as explore the ongoing sense of dislocation provoked by a homer-happy season. Plus, Casey Stengel argues a call and Chuck Klein is star anonymous.
WARNING: One excretory cussword late. If offended, write the management.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Casey Argues a CallChuck Klein: Star AnonymousCraig Calcaterra: Old Jock Strap in a Can and the Home Run ExplosionPeak HoJoA DiscontinuityThe Discontents of Gossage and RoseScoring FatigueNeat Things Within This Weird WorldFeeling Sorry for PitchersA Javy Lopez MomentAffirmative Action Arguments vs. Hall of Fame ArgumentsStats vs. Soft Factors in Baseball Awards (“A Metric-Based Orthodoxy”)Braves Triumphant With or Without a Right Fielder/Baseball Seasons Can Be Like TV SeasonsA Quick Shout-Out to “The Rockford FilesGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran (The Athletic) asks whether Francisco Cervelli should still be allowed to catch, defends the 10th-best players in any team’s history, and questions Yankees starting pitching. Plus Joe DiMaggio has enough and players defends themselves against racial epithets.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Joe DiMaggio RetiresPlayers in the StandsCliff Corcoran: The Man of 1,000 Teddy BearsFrancisco Cervelli’s Right to Self-HarmAlex Jackson is WeirdA Paucity of Historic Pirates CatchersThe Top 10 Yankees CatchersThe Saga of Butch WynegarThe Last Time a Pirates Pitcher Cracked The Franchise Top 10Can the Yankees Win the World Series?A Prediction Which Came True (Groundzilla)The 1812 ConfusionGoodbyes.
David Roth returns to discuss the Mets’ efforts to save their season, falling in love on a day of tragedy, and the proposed Saturday morning cartoon in which the current president saved the Yankees.
WARNING: As is typical for a David Roth visit, there is somewhat more cussing than is typical for the show. Please caution all minors.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Casey Stengel Escapes!Sympathy for the RajahDavid Roth: Beards and BirthdaysExploring “The Yiddish Curver” and other Baseball Card AntiquitiesFred Wilpon’s Sandy Koufax“Skoonj”The Mets’ Momentary RallyGiving Yourself a Chance to Have a ChanceEdwin Diaz (Under a Cloudless Blue Sky)Sudden Upturns and DownturnsIntimate Moments Deflected“We Met on September 11, 2001”/Love in a Brita FilterLiving in a Closed SocietyPerformative Patriotism in the Seventh InningRoth in the New Republic (Warning! Politics!)It’s the End of the Republic As We Know It (And I Feel Nauseous)Truth, Fiction, Perceptual Impairment, Reggie JacksonWhen Trump Saved the Yankees on Saturday Morning TelevisionThe Braves RallyLet’s Remember Some Wacky PackagesGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Emily Waldon (The Athletic) discusses covering the Tigers’ farm system, the team’s short-term future, and the awkwardness of teenaged ballplayers. Plus tales of a missing Phillies outfielder and how the Tigers fell, 1950s style, and why it’s still relevant to us today.
WARNING: A couple of cusswords, one from Casey Stengel, one from Leo Durocher. Blame them.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
One of the MissingA Very Quick Casey Stengel TaleConcepts of Racism Today and the Detroit Tigers YesterdayEmily Waldon: The Joy of Tigers Prospect CoverageProspects are PeopleThe Tigers (Not) South of the BorderDo the Tigers Have Enough in the Minors?Suffering with the TigersAsking Female Fans How They Got Interested in Baseball“He Didn’t Know You Were Gonna Be That Pretty”Dreams Realized and Dreams Deferred (Informed Outsiders: The First Generation)Overcoming Shyness and Social MediaTouting Kyle FunkhouserJake Rogers, Catcher and Nice GuyGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector talks trade deadline action, inaction, and consequences as well as details a deer encounter on the Taconic Parkway. Plus, tales of the murderous Danny Shay and Carl Mays’ downfall.
WARNING: There are two cusswords in this one. Cover the dog’s ears lest he be corrupted.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Danny Shay and Clarence EuellNew Patreon BenefitCarl Mays Falls From GraceJesse Spector: Father of the Year Magazine PremiumDown on Charlie Hayes“Can’t Play in New York”The Astros Get Zack GreinkeWade Miley ParanoiaA Possibly Ill-Informed Note on Aaron JudgeWhat Didn’t Happen at the Deadline (Yankees and Dodgers)Every Team in Baseball Commented On, Give or TakeFelipe Vazquez, Mariano Rivera, and the Short Shelf-Life of a CloserUnexpected Empathy for Jim Leyritz/Willfully Ignoring Mariano Rivera’s PoliticsRanger Rick Explains the Circle of LifeRivera Escapes Another JamPTS[Rob]DeerThe Yankees Stand PatClint Frazier AvengedInevitably, the MetsLook Out, HoustonGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Eric Stephen (SB Nation, True Blue LA) returns to discuss the Dodgers’ drive for their first World Series title since 1988. Plus, tales of a pitcher’s dangerous farewell and the famous Richie Ashburn foul ball story.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ed Morris’s Going Away PartyFoul Netting and Richie AshburnEric Stephen: Weird Al EncountersA Great Era in Dodgers HistoryThe Most Valuable Dodger, 2013-2019Dodgers Scrubs-to-StarsThe Transformation of Hyun-Jin RyuRyumania?The Failure to Honor FernandoOn Jim GilliamCody Bellinger EvolutionAustin Barnes and Other Frustrating Regulars vs. Promising Prospects Rich Hill, Angry DadBaseball Coverage at SB NationA Mike Trout Hall of Fame TidbitWhy We Root Against No-HittersThe Woeful Dodgers BullpenGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jeffrey Paternostro discusses Baseball Prospectus’s midseason top-50 prospects list and his long road to becoming a baseball writer, plus tales of Bill Dickey and Jim Palmer.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Catcher Injures RunnerLament for the OriolesJeff Paternostro: Driving in the MinorsProspects and Park EffectsWhat Makes a Prospect Expert? (To the Brian Bannister Moment)Faux Scouty ShorthandWhose Prospect List is Best?The Subjective Part (The Leody Taveras Problem)The Big Misses (Einertson vs. Gsellman)The Greening of Player DevelopmentThe Rookie Class of 2019Wander Franco, No. 1 Prospect Nick Madrigal, Prospect from the Deadball Era“Have You Ever Seen Him Naked?”Why Isn’t Plate Judgment the Sixth Tool?*Goodbyes.
Jason Turbow (“The Baseball Codes” and “Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic”) discusses the 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers as portrayed in his new book “They Bleed Blue.” Plus, forgotten All-Stars remembered and wild pitching appreciated.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Everyone Has a Special Anniversary (Len Barker Makes the All-Star Team)Dolly Gray Goes WildJason Turbow: Why the 1981 Dodgers?What the Dodgers Did Right, Not What the Yankees Did WrongThe Longest-Running InfieldSteve Garvey Against Davey Lopes in the ’81 StrikeSteve Garvey Against the WorldReggie Smith, Unknown GreatYoung Dave StewartTommy Lasorda in RetrospectWise Words from Dusty’s DadLasorda’s Broken AcesWhat Was Fernandomania?Al Campanis’s Pre-Nightline Racism”Coconut Snatching” and Pedro GuerreroThe Guerrero/Sax AnecdoteThe Sneaky Way to Publish a 300,000-Word MSRick Sutcliffe vs. The Frank Sinatra WallThe Dave Kingman Footnote*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Rachel Louise Snyder discusses No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us and how abusers (even athletes) don’t just “snap.” Plus thoughts on the passing of Tyler Skaggs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tyler SkaggsSo Much More Than Marty BergenRachel Louise Snyder: CuriosityA Billion WomenMichelle and RockyThreats of SuicideWhen Michelle Was Behind the CameraIt’s Not About Anger ManagementBeware of NarcissistsTwenty Percent of the HouseworkImpulse Love is a HazardWhy Do Victims Recant? Why Do Victims Stay?Prosecution Complications/The RattlesnakeStrangulation and Odubel HerreraChoking and Strangulation Are Not the Same ThingIs Rehabilitation Possible?The Impact Incongruity of PunishmentThe Promise of Early InterventionGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran (The Athletic) talks CC Sabathia in history, Mets mad decision-making, and short benches. Plus, tales of Gorman Thomas being archaically pelted and pre-Machado suspensions.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Gladiatorial Combat in DetroitThat Darn CallowayThe Infinite Punishments of Manny MachadoCliff Corcoran: The Montgomery Biscuits baseball capSabathia, Greinke, Kershaw, Verlander: Yesterday and TodayDave Stieb and Other Devalued AcesThe Magic 235Peak vs. Career: Dale Murphy vs. Harold BainesThe Rays Are Not Going to MontrealThe Expos Got a Raw DealThe Mets Are Proudly OctogenarianGeriatric Coaches in HistoryThe Dave Eiland StoryEdwin Encarnacion In, Clint Frazier OutThere Are No Short Benches, There Are Only Short Minds*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Rachael McDaniel (FanGraphs, The Hardball Times) returns to discuss her new editorial mission and lays out a philosophy of baseball writing. Plus a tale of Billy Martin’s self-sabotage and Steve bids goodbye to a friend.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Intentional DamageA Personal Note of MourningRachael McDaniel: Youthful Editor of The Hardball TimesRacist KnittersLeaving Baseball ProspectusWhat Is The Hardball Times?“All They Really Want is What They Know”Vladimir Guerrero Jr is like Cheddar CheeseWriting That Has an Antagonistic Relationship With its AudienceSpecial Pleading on Behalf of Smokers and the OverweightEditor’s EnvyThis Temporal World of Baseball/“This Could Have Been a Tweet”The Tommy Thevenow AnalogyRachael’s Favorite Baseball WriterWhat If You’re a Middle-Aged White Guy? (The Middle Feels Like the Beginning Feels Like the EndThe Inevitable Blue Jays QuestionGoodbyes.
David Roth (Deadspin) returns to discuss Mets failings, how Jorge Bell became George, and why teams feel the need to add “the one guy who can get the job done.” Plus an argument/tribute to David Ortiz and a pitcher unjustly fined and unjustly accused.
WARNING: There are a few random cusswords in this episode. It’s a RothShow.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Paean to David OrtizBill Voiselle’s Weight: It’s Not What You SayDavid Roth: The Falls at PatersonAn Accidental AdThe Americanization of Jorge BellSympathy for Clint FrazierA Very Brief Conversation about Gene Nelson and Mike Griffin (But Not Ken Clay)Remembering Ivan CalderonRemembering Chili DavisDominic Smith is Doing His BestRobinson Cano Got OldNeed the Mets Move on From Mickey CallawayCespedes’s Last RideGood for the WolvesDon’t Acquire Old Second BasemenEvaluating Amed RosarioMental Processing Speed in SportsRichie Incognito, Odubel Herrera, and Players Who Need to Go Away But Just Won’tGoodbyes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
If John Wehner Had Broadcast in 1880Mike Ivie’s DilemmaBen Lindbergh: Self-Machined Through Dedicated PracticeA Deeper Understanding of the GameCan You See Spin Rate with the Naked Eye?What is THE Essential New Baseball Technology?Hitting Lags BehindPaul Waner DissentsFly Balls vs. Line DrivesChoking UpFrancisco Lindor, Bill Buckner, and Productive ContactWhen Trevor Bauer is Your PioneerExcluding the Underprivileged Through Baseball Through TechnologyWhen Not All Teams Care Equally About ProgressRejecting High SteinbrennerismOnce More Through the Self-MachineGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: Baseball’s magic word is said at about 3:30. Notify your congressman.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
“My Kingdom for Jones”Requiem for BugsJesse Spector: All the Times We Broke Bones Not Falling Off of Horses (Yoenis Cespedes)The Mighty Vipers SongJacob de Grom Isn’t Real (“Who is Yoenis Cespedes?”)So What if it WAS a Horse? The Smell of Flushing Bay and Elizabeth, NJThe Texas Rangers Are Rarely Good but are Often InterestingJoey Gallo Appreciation DayThe Days of Wine and 40 Home Runs Being SpecialNolan Ryan ’87 and the Win “Steve Baloney’s ‘WABBA’” and Gio UrshelaPlayer Performance Variation is the Norm/Dave Kingman [Was/Was Not] GoodAlonso/McNeilBalls in Play WantedPhil Rizzuto is Going Out to Florida TonightDo You Value Knowledge You Don’t Have to Earn?When Did Rizzuto Go Bad?The Annotated Pine Tar Game*
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available.
INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Weak Spot on the BallclubIan Desmond and Other Tales of the Replacement LevelDiana Moskovitz: Caster Semenya: Struggling to Sum Up a Complex MatterTestosterone and Michael Phelps’ ArmsFear of Men (in Women’s Events)“Penis Panic”The Complexity of the Human BodyThe East German ExampleA Strange Apathy Towards Forced Medicating“You Are Not a Woman”Should There Be a Women’s Sports Category?“Tradition!”Covering Four Hurricanes in One Season*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
All-Stars in the Naked CityChicago, 1886: Cap Anson and the Haymarket EightCraig Calcaterra: The Social CubsFamous For Nothing“Move to Mexico”Bat Flip and Unwritten RulesDated RingtonesThe Complacent Team of the Year Award (The Cleveland Indians)Expansion and the Non-Shortage of PitchersNick Markakis 3000, Jack Morris, Bert BlylevenHall of Fame Debates, Prospects, and the End of a Long-Running SeriesArguments Make FriendsGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The God of Dan BrouthersWe All Get Old, Miguel CabreraSean Forman: Baseball-Reference Changed My LifeWhat if Roberto Clemente’s Hit Total Needed to Be Revised? (The “Mr. 3000” Scenario)bWAR and fWAR and Some Other WARsOld Fielders and Old Fielding StatsGratuitous Derek Jeter TimeProtein Folding as Career PrepStalking Baseball-ReferenceGiant Bill James HeadWin Shares vs. WARAdding More Detail to Baseball-ReferenceFBref (Soccer)!Stats That Tell StoriesThe Pele Page is ComingWomen’s Sports and Statistical AvailabilityIntegrating FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus StatsThe Lack of Statcast AvailabilityBB-Ref Goin’ MobileInjury Codes!Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bill Dahlen Brings You FlowersThe Infinite Inning Revenge PlotScott Sanderson II: A RejoinderAndrew Stoeten: It’s Been a Long Time Since 1993Loyal to the Players, Not to the TeamCalling Up Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.First- and Second-Guessing Josh Donaldson DecisionsKevin Pillar ReturnsProjecting GuerreroThe Curse of Cito GastonThe Randal Grichuk ExtensionIn Praise of SmoakUp From Drunken BloggingGrowing Up in Public IIBeatwriter Acceptance and Denial (Called Out in the Toronto Sun)Podcast Behind the PaywallHow Bad is Teoscar Hernandez’s Defense Really?*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: One cussword. Just one. It’s gonna be okay.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
On Butterflies and Baseball InjuriesScott Sanderson’s Hot DogBill Baer: Curating Hardball TalkThe Hate-ReadersShy On the InternetWe’re So Sorry, Ryan HowardThe Real Meaning of “Stick to Sports”The Formerly Anti-Analytic PhilliesHall of Fame Baseball Writer ContretempsBeginner’s Mind in Baseball WritingYou Don’t Have to Explain WAR AnymoreTrying is the New Market InefficiencyAre the 2019 Phillies for Real?The 1980 Phillies vs. the 2019 PhilliesThe Opener and Arbitration (Jeff Innis, Too)Juan Soto DreamingGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: When this many guys from New York and New Jersey get together, some swearing is inevitable. It’s just intermittent, so intermittently hide the children.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Eddie’s Opening DayOpening Day (Featuring Dr. Rick Mohring and Casual Observer)Big Round Numbers and Leo Durocher on the RadioCliff Corcoran, David Roth, Jesse Spector: Tinkers to Evers to I Hate YouIs Florida?Are the Marlins really worth $1 Billion in the Age of Global Warming?The Phillies’ Bryce Harper Attendance BugleBreaking Free Agency On a WhimCleveland Nihilism and Moneyball ambivalenceLeague Without PityShould the Padres Have Signed Manny Machado?Beards (Keuchel and Kimbrel)Having Fun with the 2019 Season (Like Hating the Cubs!)Liberated By/From David WrightIn-Season Happiness vs. Offseason F-ckeryLet’s Remember Some Guys(So Much Rickey)A Mike Pagliarulo Moment, and Oh, God, Alvaro Espinosa (Where Have All the Bad Players Gone, Long Time Passing?)Questioning Jeff Mathis/We Love Pat TablerFull Circle and Goodbyes to End All Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman and guests discuss the game forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dwight Gooden Without TearsFor Want of Steve Lake, Jody Davis Was LostChris Donnelly: Teams Headed in Opposite DirectionsThe 1986 Mets DisassembledDwight Gooden ‘85The Depths of High SteinbrennerismWe’re So Sorry, Eddie Lee WhitsonBilly Martin in Rapid Decline“Why Don’t You Like Me, Butch?”Mr. Carter Goes to New YorkHow to Doug Sisk and Influence PeopleMr. Henderson Also Goes to New YorkGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Last Days of Tony LazzeriTommy John’s First Shoulder InjuryTyler Kepner: Don’t Fool Yourself; You’d Do This With Your Book Royalties TooTrout Contract ReaxK: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches and the 300 InterviewsZack Greinke Said NoThe Sense of Possibility in PitchingThat Johnny Sain X-Ray QuestionArchaic Pitches and Colorful BaseballSinkers!Dan Quisenberry and Tug McGrawKent Tekulve’s CapTed Williams Was Wrong About PitchersTalking With Mike MussinaThe La LobBeing the National Baseball Writer for the TimesGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: There are a few cusswords in this episode. Even Steve utters one! Hide the dog, lest his vocabulary be corrupted!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Advice From Tony LazzeriMassacres (and Tony Lazzeri Again)Tom Breihan: Too Many Super-Hero Films?Nobody Talks the Way They Talk in Marvel MoviesCaptain Marvel vs. The TrollsFantasies of EmpowermentThe “Watchmen” Perspective as Anti-EntertainmentThe Batman Silliness and the Mugger’s StoryBloodless Violence and the Denazified “Captain America”Mr. Rodgers Against Super-HeroesPause for Baltimore Orioles Cheap Shots That Aren’t So CheapI Love Spock Whether He’s Gay or NotEmotional Storytelling in “Avengers Infinity War”Characters Without ConstituenciesIn Defense of The ShadowWriter Origins, “My Ding-a-Ling,” and “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” Ties It All TogetherComing Attractions*Goodbyes.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Noted Emergency Catching Scenarios of the 20th CenturyTom Seaver at TwilightCliff Corcoran: Pirates-Skin Pillbox HatTwenty-Six-Man RostersWhat of Position Players Pitching?Matt Carpenter/Shawn Green/Joe Adcock and Thwarted DesiresThe Proposed Three-Batter MinimumThe LOOGY MythChoosing Relievers for Pitches, Not HandednessThe Joe Girardi ThingThe Proposed All-Star Voting Run-OffAn All-Star Emeritus Roster SpotBryce Harper Signs, the Phillies Make MoneyManipulating Service-Time ManipulationLooking Forward to the National LeagueDenigrating Cleveland’s OffseasonGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
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The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Warning: As always when David comes around there is the odd cussword in the air. There is also some dimly frank talk about Robert Kraft’s arrest. Mind the children if you think they’d ask embarrassing questions.
Table of Contents
Hank Aaron and Bowie KuhnBob Gibson and the Man-MountainDavid Roth: Let’s Remember Some Triple-A JourneymenThe Baseball Card Gold RushTopps: The Motion PictureThe Frank Bolick MomentMacho Man Randy Savage and Brad “The Animal” LesleyWhy There Are Unwritten RulesWhy the Patriots are Hated/Why Robert Kraft Was Arrested and Why Should We Care?Admiring a DynastyThe Worst Logo in Pro SportsBirds and Bergs of Florida (Ho! The Common Gallinule!)The Part About AlligatorsGolfing with AlligatorsAnimals Who Might Want to Eat David RothThe MooseTalking BaseballTeam Spending and the Pure Food and Drug ActThe Free Agent Market is Not OkayDebating Craig KimbrelThe Braves’ Non-Pursuit of Bryce HarperGiving the Customer as Little as PossibleA Cheapness That Has Nothing to Do with MoneyLook for the Union LabelGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: There is a brief reference to abortion and rape, for those who might be triggered. There is also one four-letter word about half an hour in.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Don Newcombe and the Ordeal of ReputationThe Ballad of Shanty HoganSheryl Ring: Baseball and the Legal MindKoufax and Drysdale Hold OutDo Stats Permit Each Team Have a Unique System and Breaches of Fiduciary DutyBreaking Noah SyndergaardTy Cobb and Babe Ruth Go Into the StandsOfferman and NathansFowler’s KneeBeanballsThe Death of HoudiniThe Gene Tierney CaseBaseball as a Way of SurvivingTransgender OriginsSoftware and FirmwareThe Bathroom Bill DeflectionBaseball Doesn’t Love You Back/Coke is a Drink, Baseball is an Experience*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
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The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Delay of Game, May 27, 1941 at the Polo GroundsJohn McGraw II: Don’t Follow Leaders and Their SandwichesMike Bates: What I Learned After the WeddingThe Obligatory Harper-Machado Minutes: They Symbolic BidLet Them Entertain MeThe Twins are RestiveBuxton, Sano, and KeplerKiriloff is ComingFree Agent Courting Relationship StatusBrusdar/SinistarGoodbye, Robbie Grossman (Who Could Hang a Name on You?)Spelunking Jake CaveThe LoMo Segue and the Danger of One-Year VeteransThe Joe Genewich Playing-Through-Injury Anecdote“This Week in Baseball History” Negro Leagues and Players SeriesRube Foster: Literal GiantCasey Stengel and the Negro National LeagueRay Dandridge and a SpeechRod Carew vs. Calvin GriffithEmmett AshfordGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Rusie, Brouthers, and Dahlen DreamingJohn McGraw at BayBen Lindbergh: Too Much Audio Friendship/When You Throw Away Your Question-Shot“Ballroom Dancing” vs. “The Pound is Sinking” vs. “Your Mother Should Know”The MLB The Show Non-CoverThe Mystery Machine/The MVP MachineDexter Fowler Presses the SpacebarThe Votto AdvantageThey Don’t Use VCRs AnymoreVirginia, There Is Such a Thing as Player DevelopmentArchaic Wind-UpsFresh EyesBatting Follow-ThroughThe Post-Book Refractory PeriodJill Abramson’s Note-TakingThe Machado- and Harper-ness of Everything (Or Lack Thereof)Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
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The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Quality of Mercy to Rabbits is Not StrainedShanty Should Have Known BetterPatrick McLellan: I Don’t Need GlassesThe Lima Time Time/Casa Ole Ad/Self-Destructive PersonasBaseball is Unpopular?Tracking the Last Reliever in the BullpenThe Astros’ Non-Encore EncoreIs the Astros Lineup Getting Old?Climbing Carlin’s LadderWhat Level of Engagement Should We Expect From an Entertainer or a Ballplayer?Craig Biggio: The Declining YearsJeff Kent: The Disliked YearsBe Careful Who You Root For; You Are Who You Root ForA Dallas Keuchel PredictionGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING:Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: Oh, my, are there cusswords this week. Mr. Normandin is just full of ‘em. Or something. Mind the children.
Table of Contents
Lenny Merullo’s Bad (But Not THAT Bad) DaySteve’s nomination for the2019 SABR Analytics Conference Research AwardsThat Fatal Mets GameMarc Normandin: You Can’t Edit a NewsletterA Different Kind of LeftyToo Young for a Mid-Life Crisis But Too Old to CareMarc for the ProletariatToxic Ballpark Food and Cats Who Pick Pennant WinnersPossibly Dangerous Eating Advice“I’m not gonna pretend I’m friends with that cow”Career Origins and Adventures in EditingThe Scoobies QuestionThe Flooded Baseball Zone*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: There is one cussword early in the interview segment and one late. We beg your forgiveness.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hello, My Honey, Hello, My JayThe Goslin FilesMike Ferrin: Professional Radio TalkLean QuestionsMindfulnessWinning the InterviewJim Duquette and the Stick Michael ApproachWhen You’re Just Not in the Mood to Broadcast/The Show Must Go OnBrodie Van WagenenThe Paul Goldschmidt Trade and the Andrew McCutchen ConundrumThe Shelby Miller Trade and Other Prospect Disappointments“This Guy’s a 40”The Duck and the LlamaEddie Stanky Tries to Get Fired TooWilmer Flores Comes to PhoenixThe Return of the Long RelieverSports Talk Radio is Negative?*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Trevor Bauer Online/Jackie Robinson On a PlaneTommy Henrich and Earned Good LuckCraig Calcaterra: The NPR VoiceSteve’s Shameful Vin Scully SecretThe Coming Labor Crisis in BaseballThe Anti-Enthusiasm Cold Stove LeagueAll the Team’s That Aren’t Adding TalentBryce Harper-to-the-Rockies DreamingCraig’s Car Dealership MetaphorBonds and Clemens (and Sosa): The PriceCraig’s Harold Baines Story/Steve’s Jose Guillen StoryGaylord Perry in Arizona/Bob Costats’s Unsigned Mays PhotographGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: There are a couple of cusswords in this episode, but one of them is about Ted Williams, and he would have appreciated that.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ted Williams’ False Washington DawnTommy Pham and Jack FournierCliff Corcoran: A Philosophy of UnderbillsReturn of The Descalse!Mariano Rivera and Craig KimbrelBig Hall-Small Hall and Joe Gantenbein ForeverThe Nine Worlds of Harold Baines/In Praise of ArgumentThe Jurickson Profar DealYasiel Puig to the Reds EtcCliff’s Stats FeatureReds Callback: Jesse Winker*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: There are a couple of cusswords abroad in the land.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Rogers Hornsby’s War With Baseball (Stop it! Cut it out!)Go See “They Shall Not Grow Old”/The Paths of Glory Lead Only to the Latrine/Hank Gowdy Falls DownConnie Mack and The Difficulty of Getting Good Takeout in the Suburbs*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Table of Contents
The Embedded Yankee: An AnalogyBabe Ruth’s Rough YearJane Leavy: A New View of the BabeFelicitous Accidents of Research (Johnny Bassler and the Babe’s Childhood)The Crimes of Babe Ruth’s Parents Against Babe RuthRuth’s Right-Wing ConnectionThe Indispensable Christy WalshThere is No Asterisk!Fifty-Ounce Bats (What Would Ruth Do Today?)In Search of the Inner BabeThe Unprecedented Revelation of ClaireRuth’s Inner Hunger and the Babe at St. Mary’sAfter the Cheering StoppedThe Tender Ruth?Babe Ruth vs. Florence Nightingale for All the NursesWhy Were the Owners So Angry at Ruth?/Ruth as Divisive Racial FigureThe Great Man VotesThe Romance of RuthGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hans Christian Andersen’s Negro LeaguesWhy I Was Not at the Winter MeetingsBill Lange Goes Home ForeverLiz Roscher: The Winter Meetings Social Ramble Ain’t RestfulMartyrs to BaseballA Late-Blooming Phillies FanCan You Earn Your Angry Fandom?Pessimistic Mets Fans“Fair-Weather Fans” and Other Accusations of InauthenticityMore Fannish PessimismThe “We Really Suck” ChantHow Do You Explain the Phillies’ Free-fall?“It Feels Like They Don’t Have a Plan”Carlos Santana, Andrew McCutchen, Jean Segura and other PhilliesWhen Freddy Galvis Gets Up Your ButtOur Owner Wants a New BoatThe Star Wars-Batman Analogy to Killing the GateObjectivity and Readers’ Imaginary BoundariesSteve Comes to a Realization*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: The odd cussword is heard herein. Hide the kids.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Ballad of Kewpie DickStroopwafel UpdatePatreon UpdateTy Cobb Chooses a CatcherAlex Belth: O.G. Baseball BloggersThe Golden Age of Magazine WritingThe Joy of MicrofilmA Writer’s Fame is FleetingHeinz and J. LardnerTerry Southern, Bruce Jay Friedman, and Helen LawrensonThe Yankees of Your 20s vs. Those of Your 40sEmily Shapiro: What is Crohn’s Disease?Fighting Your Limitations and Growth ExperiencesPartnership and a Blurring of Roles (“I Can’t Take Care of Her, I Can Care for Her”)/The San Diego StoryFainting!We’re Not Our BodiesSharingHaving Nothing in CommonGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
SUPPORT THE INFINITE INNING: Visit our Patreon page.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
You Too Can Have a Duck for a General ManagerI Learned the Truth from Rickey HendersonLincoln Mitchell: Baseball and Politics/Your Wife and Your MistressReframing the Dodgers-Giants Move as a Good ThingWho Mourns for the Nightlife in Babylon?Yankees Fans Kept Going to the GamesWhat If One NL Team Had Stayed?“Sitsee”The Least Significant Victim of Fascist AggressionDecentralized Early Major League BaseballWhy Didn’t the Pacific Coast League Become a Third Major League?If the Dodgers and Giants Had Stayed, When Would Baseball Have Caught Up to the Country?The Stay-the-Course (But Still Racist) MacPhail Argument Against IntegrationFelipe Alou for the Hall of FameIs There A Realignment Opportunity in 2018?Theories of Entropy in Major League Baseball and the United States of AmericaDid Democracy Fail the Dodgers in New York City?Putin and Bill BucknerGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
When the Bass Comes Falling From the SkyRemembering William Goldman and Stan LeeMeg Rowley: An Argument About CoffeeFull Time at FanGraphsEmpathy for Recalcitrant Writers Who Are Also PlumbersLoving Baseball During the ApocalyseThe Blown Save in Non-Baseball EnvironmentsThe Mixed Bag That Was MLB 2018Knowing When to Go Off and When to Hang FireLorena Martin vs. the Seattle Mariners“Baseball is Believably Racist”When Fandom Wears AwayLive, Laugh, Love, and Learn with the Mike Zunino TradeWhen Roger Clemens Wet the BedAn 89-73 Team Surrenders*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Willie McCovey and Sparky Schulz, The Brave & The BoldA Program Note or TwoJackie Robinson Goes to CincinnatiCliff Corcoran: Election ReflectionJ.D. Martinez and the AL MVP VoteBookie Metts and Mucky BettsWillie Stargell and Keith HernandezJacob DeGrom NL MVP DisrespectBlake Snell vs. Justin VerlanderThe Aaron Nola Conundrum and The Chris Sale DeprivationThe Phillies’ DefenseBrett Gardner vs. Bryce HarperHarper, Yankees First Baseman/Will the Yankees Spend?Much Ado About AndujarGetting Meta with Daniel Descalso and “The Sopranos”The “Today’s Game” Hall of Fame BallotThere is No Word in English for George Steinbrenner*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hack Wilson Gets Hacked OffWhen Babe Ruth Homered for the GiantsJesse Spector: Jesse Has a Cold/Sharing HatsRacist Dodgers Fans Against the Special ProsecutorThe President as World Series/Rich Hill CommentatorWere the Red Sox a Historic Team?When 1988 Failed to Validate the Regular SeasonWhat Boston’s Record Does and Does Not ProveAll Postseason Teams Should Get a Home GameCleveland Was Secretly BadI Don’t Believe in Relievers (I Just Believe In Me)Nathan Eovaldi’s Game 3The Mets Have a New General ManagerRevisiting the Punch in the CrotchThe Vince Coleman Moment*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Casey Stengel vs. the Nazi WarlordThe Secret New York Conspiracy to Destroy the Red SoxRob Neyer: Elevator Pitch for a Baseball BookThe ZobristWhat is “Postmodern” baseball?Who Takes Responsibility?The Best of All Possible Baseballs is For the Best?Pay (Or at Least Feed) the Minor Leaguers!Here Comes the FloodWell-Known Facts, Whether You Like It or NotLove on the Sands of Iwo JimaThe End of Carlos Beltran (and Everyone Else)Relaxed Rob ‘Riting*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Addie Joss is DefunctThe Phillies Are On the WireGrant Brisbee: Tongue Tied“To Glorgle”Joe West’s Greatest EjectionsThe Greatest Hits Theory of Joe West FansHate Mail (Never Criticize Matt Wieters)Back On Bullpenning? (No; Still On It)Life After Team BloggingGonna Be in L.A. For Game 6The San Francisco Giants’ Beard Deficit and Other ProblemsLeaving Latin America AloneFor the Love of Homegrown PlayersWill Madison Bumgarner Be Traded? (And Bryce Harper?)Rebuilding for Real EstateIt’s the End of Evan Longoria As We Know HimWorld Series Wonderland*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Cubs Buy SushiChop the Chop (in Colorado)Ryan Davis: Credentialed and FatiguedA Dynasty Simultaneously Achieved and DeniedWere the Brewers Just Better?Chili Davis is an Innocent Man!Do Joe Maddon’s Lineup Changes Hurt Young Players?In Praise of Tommy La StellaThe Terrance Gore Memorial Roster SpotIf You Swing Enough Times…Kyle Hendricks, Pitching Detective (Guest-Starring Steve Adkins)The Jason Heyward ProblemHeyward, Juan Soto, and Ronald AcunaSo Long, Addison RussellThe Force Awakens Russia*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Trial of Dizzy DeanDizzy Dean BalksDavid Roth: Let’s Remember Guys Named HermMisplacing Bob Melvin and Maligning Tony ArmasA Quick Look at Dominic SmithQuestions of Confidence and Security in Baseball and Other AreasAnd $200,000 in Nationals TicketsDrunk People Are BoringThe 2018 PostseasonThe A’s and the Brewers (1982 Milwaukee Brewers Appearances Appraised and Rick Mahler too)Steve’s 1988 StoryThe Career and Post-Career of Pete VuckovichThe David Wright Farewell Tour of IcelandThe Entire Mets Rotation is Arb- Eligible (Jason Vargas and Jay Bruce Forever)Indefinitely Delayed Cespedes GratificationDeGrom and ArrietaPostseason Picks and… Gregg Jefferies?*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Baltimore Orioles Were Over So Long AgoMcGraw/Chase ReduxTommy and RoyJeff Pearlman: Why is the USFL remembered more fondly than other failed sports leagues?It’s not the players, it’s the ownersThe Strange Owner of the Los Angeles Express and Other Fallacies About the RichDid the USFL Need Ban Johnson?The Dumbest Trade in the History of MankindThe Villain Arrives (It’s Not a Political Book)Mexico Will Pay for Doug Flutie?“Please Bring Your Final Purchases to the Register”The Move to the FallCollusion! (With the NFL)Young Steve YoungCigarettes and CocaineDreams DeniedGreg Fields, Football ProfessionalPEDs (Barry Bonds vs. Sal Fasano)Bisons/Bills and the Alliance*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
An Addison Russell Problem of MoralityThe Pennant Race Decided By a Squeeze Play Cliff Corcoran: A False StartWho should be NL MVP?Ban the Bullpen!Possibly ignorant analogies from basketball and hockeyOpeners and FollowersShrink the Strikezone!Mid-Inning Pitching Changes Are the Spawn of SatanBring Back Long RelieversThe Poignancy of Taking One For the TeamThe 2018 Pennant Races, Such As They AreIt’s All Asdrubal’s FaultProperly Valuing DefenseMiguel Andujar: Clank! (But Still a Net Positive)One Last Pass at Shohei Ohtani’s Short-Term Future (Eat the Marshmallow!)Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Baseballs Try to Murder Fritz Ostermueller Permanent Rainout, September 21, 1938Stephon Johnson: The New York Amsterdam News/Advocacy JournalismWhen Did African Americans Lose Interest in Baseball?The Buttoned-Down Culture of BaseballFisk and Sanders, Showalter and GriffeyRacists on the Rise“Baseball Needs Another Rickey Henderson”Dexter Fowler CalumniedJohn Kruk: J’Accuse!Keith Hernandez vs. Dave ParkerThe Effect of the Missing African American TeachersThe Financial Barriers to Being a ProspectSolutionsThe Damage of Disavowing Barry Bonds and the Gang (“We Still Enjoyed What We Saw”)*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wes Ferrell Walks OffMediocre White Players/Jimmy Collins’ Unplanned VacationMike Bates and Bill Parker: The historic 2018 season: The Baltimore Orioles and Shohei OhtaniRudy Pemberton and Phil ClarkBabe Ruth’s Warning to OhtaniWho are the Angels?The Past is More Populous Than the PresentSki Melillo?Charlie HollocherElmer Flick and Bill Bergen TooGary Gaetti ‘s AwakeningThe 2018 Minnesota Twins in ReviewThe Byron Buxton ConundrumJoe Mauer in RetrospectBuy-Low Moves That Didn’t WorkOld FriendsAvenging J.R. Richard and Forgiving Chris Von Der Ahe*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
WARNING: One excretory cussword.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tony Horton and Dolphin Shows of the ApocalypseExtinctions and an ApologyJeff Heath’s BatThe West Coast is on FireThe Kendrys Morales SublimationsDon’t Gamble on Baseball Because the OriolesGoodbye for Now, Troy TulowitzkiFare Thee Well, Josh DonaldsonDo the Blue Jays Need to Bottom Out?The Thrill of Discovery at Baseball-ReferenceExpertise/Finding Jeff HeathThe Intersection of Sharing Knowledge and Sharing EmotionMisogyny: The Socially-Acceptable PrejudiceDaniel Murphy (“Piazza, New York Catcher”)What Went Wrong in the 1880s/The Imperialism of Stupid*Goodbyes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Casey Stengel removes a pitcherThe Babe Ruth Visitors CenterPotential, with Andy Cohen and Rogers HornsbyHairstons and HarstonsThe Great Gee Walker*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WARNING: The odd cussword is spoken aloud and sometimes thought in this episode. In addition, there is a discussion of an ancient case of rape and manslaughter in the second segment.
Pea Ridge Day chooses free willFatty Arbuckle and Benny KauffDavid Roth: Bodega catsThe one bad review (Your mother-in-law and the Portland Sea Dogs)Offending Will PennyfeatherEasy-access basketball and a visit to Revolutionary War PrincetonDavid dreams “The Terminal” and other digressionsSmoking on cameraRe-signing Jose Bautista, Re-signing Joe NiekroThe Mets have an analytics department? “Veteran leadership” and Amed RosarioShould Jacob DeGrom and/or Noah Syndergaard be traded?The Rick Ankiel StoryAnxiety and muscle memoryDaniel BardHashtag Crazy Relief PitcherPunching Mookie BettsFun times in baseball (“The Natural” sucks)Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE CONTENTS
Tall Tales of Josh GibsonCall-In Radio and WARWill Leitch: ProductivityWriting while disappointedDon’t check the numbersCutting High School MemoriesWhy social media?Cookies from TwitterJaded in the press box“My fandom is mine”Mike Matheny and Mike Schildt and The Matheny ManifestoRanking 900 Woody Harrelson movies”Star Wars” vs. “Annie Hall.”*Goodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hartnett, Landis, and CaponeWillie Montanez: Tap-TapJesse Spector: Rockies players like tacos and chessPregame non-conversations with Derek Jeter and Paul O’Neill at the old Yankee StadiumReconciling with Paul O’Neill’s affiliationsThe Trevor Story storyThe Dome Over Fenway ParkWhy take owner finances on faith?David Wright and Brandon WebbThe parsimony of the LernersRoberto OsunaA glance askance at Josh Hader et alThe Astros throw Justin Verlander under the busThe Asdrubal Cabrera trade as a teachable momentAn Asdrubal moment with Roger AngellA note on Ian DesmondGoodbyes.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ken Hunt’s Half-Season of GloryJack Morris/Yoenis CespedesMore on Luke HeimlichCliff Corcoran: Diseases of cattle and ballplayersThe pointlessness of trade coverageTrades that ripple through historyRevising opinions of the Francisco Mejia tradeThe Jesus Montero analogyEverything wrong with the IndiansRed Sox needsMoving Salvador PerezThe Billy Hunter digressionMike Moustakas, lame duckWhy Cole Hamels? And other pitchersHow do you make a package for Jacob DeGrom?Zack Britton and The Cup We All Race 4Should the Nationals sell?The Hall of Fame inductions (Lost in Jack Morrisland)The missing HOF pitchers of the 1980sLou Whitaker, Willie Randolph, and Bobby GrichGoodbyes.
WARNING: For the second and, it is to be hoped, last time, there is a discussion of Luke Heimlich.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Mary Craig (Baseball Prospectus, The Hardball Times podcast) returns to talk Manny Machado, Papa John-style privilege, and the Home Run Derby. Plus, Steve tells stories of a Hall of Famer with a bigger heart than Josh Hader and the Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the America First Committee.
WARNING: Luke Heimlich, an amateur pitcher with a record of child abuse, is discussed extensively during the second half of the show. Also, there is one brief profanity in the first half of the show.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Josh Hader, Arky Vaughan, Jackie RobinsonThe Brooklyn Dodgers vs. The America First CommitteeMary Craig: Reading naughty books in the original GreekShocking enthusiasm for the Home Run DerbyBryce Harper doesn’t help the CubsThe Manny Machado trade and the talent imbalanceAgainst Commissioner ManfredMarketing and minor league wagesLook for the union labelLuke HeimlichJose Reyes and Bud NorrisThe Mary Craig CredoBrian Cashman on the Supreme CourtThe Papa Slam is no moreGoodbyes.
Steve is joined by Christopher Bonanos, author of Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous to discuss the photographic great who documented what went on in the naked city, the nighttime New York of the 1930s and 40s, after the ballplayers had put their gloves away for the day. Plus, Tom Seaver is traded as the ‘70s Mets force a big-market team into a small-market suit, and a Dodgers fan gets ribbed with fatal results.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mets Get SmallToxic Dodgers Fandom and twin .45sChristopher Bonanos: Who was Weegee?“Balcony Seats at a Murder”The wild New York of the 1930sThe brief, wondrous life of PMWhy doesn’t center-left media thrive?Photographs that comment on themselvesSocial justice Weegee/Misogynistic WeegeeHis slow rise and rapid fall“What success does for a man”Descent into distortions“The Critic” (Truthful without being factual)Darkroom in the trunk?George Selkirk Signs!“Their First Murder”Carrier pigeons at Ebbets Field*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Business of baseball writer Maury Brown (Forbes) joins Steve to talk about the future of labor relations in the game, the shift from television to on-line viewing, the stadium-financing boondoggle, and more, plus tales of Pepper Martin and Joe DiMaggio in distress.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pepper Martin’s breaking pointJoltin’ Joe’s lack of leverageMaury Brown: The usual hat talkDo the players get a cut?The players and online revenueThe legal landscape of a baseball labor warMaury Year One (a Bay Area baseball upbringing with the Finley robot rabbit)Remembering Doug PappasGrasping for balance in MLB business coverageGimmie Some TruthThe persistence of the ballpark boondoggleThe 2018 attendance slideDoes revenue-sharing create negative incentives?Is Portland, Oregon a viable major league marketMaury shook you all night long*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
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 dayGoodbye, Harlan EllisonSam Miller: The Only Rule is It Has to WorkA Very Bad Handshake SituationThe Only Rule is You Go to MoscowThe Braves’ all-time first baseman, and does it matter?Mark Langston’s best seasonThe 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 DespondAre we allowed to have distractions in 2018?How little we know (Jose Bautista version)Tales of PECOTA and how to say “FRAA”*Goodbyes.
Steve flies solo in an attenuated episode this week which focuses on current events that take place outside of baseball but find their echoes within in it.
WARNING: A disgusting racial epithet concerning African Americans is quoted in the course of this episode in the telling of a historical incident
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The most evil man in baseball historyThe black dog and “I Am So Proud”When they slandered Rickey HendersonHunter Strickland and Doyle Alexander“Give us a little ‘Lambeth Walk’”The real Jake Powell story and the fake Jake Powell storyGoodbyes.
Eric Stephen (True Blue LA) returns to explain the strange odyssey of the 2018 Dodgers, plus this year’s Orioles versus your great-grandfather’s Browns, bad fan behavior in 1970s Pittsburgh, and a Yankees tugboat not delivered.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Pirates keep the nickelThe Schleuter-ization of the OriolesBilly Martin’s tugboatEric Stephen: The Dodgers’ child does not resemble the parentsAn entire rotation on the DLProphetic words from 1973Dave Roberts’ approachCody Bellinger’s slump and recoveryGreat postseason slumpsMissing on Dave Winfield and Adrian BeltreCan you count on a Clayton Kershaw comeback?The Ross Stripling miracleThe Charles Hudson baseball card reverieFear Factor: BaseballA note on Daniel DescalsoThe amazing Max MuncyThe Dodgers and second base at the trading deadlineWhither Alex Verdugo?The Joc Pederson dilemmaThe Matt Kemp renaissanceThe power of planning ahead in journalismDodgers postseason oddsGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran (The Athletic) returns to talk baseball, and then is joined by film critic Scott Tobias (The Next Picture Show podcast) to talk about “Solo,” the Star Wars and Marvel franchises, and the curse of the summer movie season. Prior, Steve has two stories of Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst, plus a protest of sorts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Stan Musial’s kid and minePopeye thoughtsRed Shoendienst, Stan Musial, and Trader Frank LaneCliff Corcoran: The Montgomery Biscuits cap et alThe integration of the Philadelphia PhilliesClayton Kershaw in Decline/The Dodgers at .500The Matt Kemp revivalScott Tobias: “Solo” and early Star Wars relationships“Godfather II” referencesThis is a cynical character?Disney as franchise-keeperAnti-auterismEdgar Wright fantasiesIrrelevant cameoThe “You’ve Got Mail” digressionThe hardest time of year for a film criticComing attractionsPlugs for “Ricki and the Flash” and the “Mission Impossible” film seriesStar Wars vs. LovecraftThe Cinematography of “Solo”Will J.J. Abrams undo it all?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Rotation regular Jesse Spector rejoins Steve for a discussion that starts dark and soon gets silly, with Jesse fighting to the death to abolish the June amateur draft. Also features Steve stories on Hank Greenberg, Tyler O’Neill, and Long Tom Winsett.
TRIGGER WARNING: In the Hank Greenberg segment, Greenberg himself is quoted describing anti-Semitic slurs to which he was subjected. There is also a cussword embedded in a quote early on. Hide the children.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
With Great Winsett Power Comes Great ResponsibilityHank Greenberg Demands RespectJesse Spector: Hot spots and high school reunionsThe Morbidity and Mortality sectionHow did we get breaking news before the internet?How many Frans are on the Padres?Should baseball draft picks be tradeable?The Albert Pujols ContractThe Stouffer’s exampleYankees drafts of the 2000sDo the Reds have a plan?Brackman and CulverMore on tradeable picksAn admittedly strange Delmon Young referenceMarveling over Miguel AndujarThe George Burns argumentThe Dodgers will rise, Cleveland’s bullpen, and other 2018 quick hitsElevator music?Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Deadspin’s David Roth returns like a periodic comet to discuss the joy of Shohei Ohtani, ripping old packs of baseball cards on camera, and debate the state of the baseball and the national anthem. Plus Steve Stories on Joe Cronin managing his way to a walk-off loss and early game-throwing pitcher Jim Devlin.
WARNING: As in all David Roth episodes, there is the occasional cussword. We contritely apologize.
THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Joe Cronin’s Bad Day: An Inquiry Into ValuesThe Devlinification of EverythingDavid Roth: Provocative ad contentThe “Let’s Remember Some Guys” show (1981 Fleer Cards and prog rock)The days before instant gratificationMLB nonchalants the ballsThe greying of the MetsIllegitimate oldies toursSuspiciously active blobs of mozzarellaSports and the National Anthem (A Fantasia on a Theme)The Wonderful, Wonderful World of Shohei Ohtani (You Don’t Comp Pedro)*Goodbyes.
Steve is joined by former major league manager Davey Johnson to discuss his life and adventures as described in his new autobiography, Davey Johnson: My Wild Ride in Baseball and Beyond. This week’s tales include taking the permanent exit from a Babe Ruth-era Yankees game and a Johnson-inspired story of an Orioles no-hitter gone wrong.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP can be found here.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ruthian FatalityBarber’d and Bauer’dDavey Johnson: HoJo at shortHank BauerEarl Weaver, batting Mark Belanger second, and small samplesHow much pressure are managers under?Support Our ScholarsMarge Schott for Marriage!Self-ConfidenceDwight Gooden and Bryce HarperManaging the clubhouseThe Juan Samuel-Lenny Dykstra trade and who let the dogs out?Maintaining successThe impossibility of saving Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry (and Kevin Mitchell deserves an apology)Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Steve is joined by Meg Rowley (Fangraphs, The Hardball Times) to discuss some unlikely Mariners success, including James Paxton’s no-hitter, defense-first first base prospects, and the batting-out-of-order rule. Plus SteveStories of the Singing Umpire and a continuation of last week’s discussion about Ty Cobb.
WARNING: Late in the show, there is a cussword uttered in regards to Chuck Knoblauch. It is a quote. More seriously, a racial epithet from a newspaper article printed in 1892 is spoken at approximately 30:07. TRIGGER WARNING: During this discussion of historic racism, there is some mention of sexual assault.
THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP can be found here.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lord Byron’s Umpire FolliesCucumbersTy Cobb IIThe James Paxton no-hitter/no-hitter ennuiExcitement is a positivePeople who boo and people who don’tThe batting-out-of-order ruleCan the Mariners continue to contend?Evan White, Keith Hernandez, and Ichiro’s declineRachael McDaniel’s “In the Sun”Failing to extend the baseball bridgeOsuna-SchneidermanFavorite spy movies*Goodbyes.
Steve is joined by major league veteran Greg Pryor to discuss his forthcoming book, The Day the Yankees Made Me Shave: A Baseball Autobiography, and share tales of the game in the 1970s and 80s. Plus, SteveStories on the meaning of 3,000 hits and the way Ty Cobb’s racism is misused.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Paul Waner’s two 3000th hitsAbnormalizing Ty CobbShort pants and South Side HitmenThe Syracuse Mustache Rebellion“No one ever seemed satisfied with me”A dark scouting reportThe Harry Chappas: Sports Illustrated Cover-Guy SagaThe moral hazard of George Brett injuriesBottom of the 16th courageThe untimely death of Dick HowserOn strikeouts and “launch-angle stuff”Disco Demolition NightGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran (The Athletic) takes his turn in the rotation to pursue topics within topics, from the widening space between balls in play to a sinister plan to headhunt an 11-year-old girl. Cliff also quotes Dr. Dre, which is a first for this program. SteveStories include Dan Ford’s infamous baserunning mishap and how outfielder Johnny Mostil’s darkest day collides with a Harlan Ellison adage on resiliency.
WARNING: There is an extended discussion of a ballplayer’s long-ago suicide attempt in the second segment. If you are having similar thoughts, the National Suicide Hotline can be reached at 1-800-273-8255.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Disco Dan Learns a LessonJohnny Mostil was a PaingodCliff Corcoran: Rise of the Silver and Black CapsThe uniforms you never see on throwback daysUniforms intended to intimidate Johnny Cueto and other peopleDiscrimination in Durham, NHThe lack of pronoun diversity in baseballSetting the stage for the female ballplayersA momentary pause for whale facts and insecurityThe state of 2018 so farThe rising time between balls in playAdvanced analysis has pushed us into making baseball boring?Batter vs. pitcher strikeoutsMore time with Brandon Belt and Luke Appling on a Per-At-Bat Basis than Anyone DesiresGetting 1,000 hits in a single dayJumping on the Phillies bandwagon?Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning now has a Facebook group! Come one, come all, come as you are, come as Willie Kamm ‘28.
Craig Calcaterra (NBC’s Hardball Talk) returns to assess the start of the 2018 season, envision the damage that tanking is doing to the game, and reminisce about some really bad Atlanta Braves teams. Plus, SteveStories about drowned ballparks in Cincinnati and Tampa and a baseball “witch-hunt.”
The Infinite Inning now has a Facebook group! Come one, come all, come as you are, come as Reggie Jackson ’77.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ballpark in AtlantisWitch-Hunts and RedlegsThe Infinite Inning has a Facebook group; be good to each otherCraig Calcaterra: The Fifth Column works through baseballEfficiency thinkingThe human side of No-Neck WilliamsHow d’ya like the 2018 season so far?The March of the Relief PitchersPitching in a PinchCan baseball support expansion? And tanking, too! (The Portland Possibility)The fan as consumer/In the run we’re all deadWatching the mid-‘80s Braves on TBSOmar Freakin’ MorenoTommy Pham and Jose Martinez, old men of hopeMaybined and ShuckedIn-show surprise: The Braves sign Jose BautistaThe Weirdness of Nick Markakis*Goodbyes.
Jacob Pomrenke, editor of Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox and SABR’s Director of Editorial Content joins Steve to explore the relevance of the Black Sox to our time, appreciate and criticize both the book Eight Men Out and its filmed counterpart, and attempt to fix the roles of both Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver in throwing the World Series. In addition, this week Steve offers tales of an unappreciated player from the 1940s and of the world of the Black Sox as seen from a small room with just one exit located in the Washington DC of 1923.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Roy Cullenbine and What Might Seem Like an Inappropriate Comparison to Vincent Van Gogh“My God, How the Money Rolls In!”Jacob Pomrenke: Are the Black Sox still relevant?When all sports were corruptShoeless Joe: Victim or Villain?The Triples-to-Left Theory of GuiltEntombed in the Hall of FameIlliterate doesn’t mean unintelligentThe most heroic act is failureThe duality of Charles ComiskeyThe “Hey, Barney!” AffairWhen gamblers were in the standsJudge Landis’s mandateBuck Weaver is a man for todayThe Lefty Williams Blackmail MythJohn Sayles’ “Eight Men Out”How the government changed the way baseball players lookSABR in the era of Bowling AloneGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns to talk about competitive balance, over-monitoring mound visits, and the pernicious nature of social media (not back on it, still on it). Meanwhile, Steve tries to turn a nonsensical Jerry Coleman call into something dark and disturbing and rants about outfielders from 1934 to the present day who were damaged, sometimes severely, by unpadded outfield walls.
The Haunting of Bruce BenedictHazards in the Outfield, with Billy McKinney, Dustin Fowler, Earle Combs, and Pete ReiserDavid Roth: Bartolo Colon rides againWaiting for R.A. DickeyThe cosmopolitanism of Opening-Day rostersThe Way We Never Were: When baseball was a million white guys named “Pete”The Taylorizing of baseballThe Applebee’s of BaseballThe consequences of underpaying minor leaguersBiometrics?Facebook and other things that should have been obviousHow to follow two sports at onceThe downtime in sportsMound visitsThe Jon Rothstein/”This is March” pieceOnce more unto The RatioThe pernicious effect of TwitterWho we pretend to beThe Zen “Okay” Method of Pitching to Mike Trout*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Russell Carleton (Baseball Prospectus, author of The Shift: The Next Evolution in Baseball Thinking) joins Steven to discuss things we don’t have words for, and surprising findings on third-base coaches, the effect of managers, and, of course, the shift.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Day the Sun Shone on Ty TysonReframing the problem of Alex JohnsonRussell Carlton: Man with a DoctorateYou can’t control for Salvador Perez’s kneeBaseball and Arkham AsylumFire all the third base coachesA book about people (with numbers)The Zach Britton Game that Zach Britton wasn’t in (We Need a Word for That)Opportunities for communication (a letter from a general manager)The Bruce Bochy Effect?“The shift is kind of freakin’ the pitchers out”“The model of the starting pitcher is a little bit broken”/”Most teams have a 22-man roster”Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Steve is joined by Marty Appel, author of Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character and other books, plus a cautionary tale about time and Bob “Fats” Fothergill and another about all the times Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons failed to duck.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Fats Fothergill, Ronald Acuña and the tyranny of timeFat Freddie Fitzsimmons, Human TargetMarty Appel: “Give me a good team”Stengel vs. Joe TorreStengel vs. Phil RizzutoStengel vs. Joe DiMaggioStengel vs. Mickey MantleMrs. Stengel’s memoirStengel vs. The Color LineElston Howard’s post-career disappointmentA hypothetical: Stengel vs. George SteinbrennerStengel vs. Billy Martin
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Jesse Spector returns for a wide-ranging episode in which the question of length of game versus pace of play is explored and the MLB FoodFest is dissected with an eye towards finding the missing Rocky Mountain Oysters, and many a personal encounter of strange press box behavior is told. Plus, Steve opens with a tale of the least-supportive teammates ever and a shortstop whose moment passed at an age before most players have gotten started.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Phenomenal Smith: With Friends Like TheseBuckshot Brown and the Curse of PotentialJesse Spector: The risks of unfollowingHow following PA-18 was like watching a ballgameHow Grant Brisbee infects you with imposter syndromeThe baseball beatwriter’s lifeAn interlude in TampaDefunct museums and Halls of Fame or, “How the Baseball Hall of Fame moves from Cooperstown to Times Square”A moment’s debate of Ty CobbRob Manfred’s plan to end extra-inning gamesThe Adam Lind exampleDebating MLB FoodFest: Rocky Mountain Oysters AWOLA 10 percent crab menuWhither SF Giants garlic fries and chocolate sundaes?Knocking the Chicago Dog and other Chicago dishesPraising the Marlins (food, that is), Padres fish tacos in absentia, no Boog’sFlaming Hot Cheetos?Dodger Dogs vs. Fenway FrankCheap franks in the old Yankee Stadium press boxBronx Bootleg Street PretzelsParenting Test: The Diamondbacks Churro DogA tale of marital discord and Ben & Jerry’sGoodbyes.
Howard Megdal (Wilpon’s Folly, The Cardinals Way, Summit Hoops, 50 States of Blue) joins Steve for a discussion of New York Mets finances, the way women’s sports is and isn’t covered, and his new political journal focused on providing political news that is now neglected by the major media organs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hawkins, Herman, and defeat from the jaws of victoryJune 7-8, 1950: Red Sox 49, Browns 8Howard Megdal: A fundamental curiosity and the art of freelancingRejectionThe Mets are not a small-market teamA union not advancing is by definition retreatingIt’s about what Sandy Alderson can getWhy the Mets won’t trade Yoenis Cespedes“Show me what’s inaccurate and I’ll be happy to correct it”The chicken-and-egg coverage of women’s sportsLet’s bring back the AAGPBLWhat is 50 States of Blue?Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran parachutes in to save Steve from a scheduling mishap, taking on service-time issues, the New York Yankees’ amazing depth, and sundry other issues. Plus: Steve on taking a train trip into eternity and a super-fan who had to be put in his place by the player he loved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Brickyard who Wasn’t a Brickyard, Forever VoyagingThe Ballad of Cookie and JackSpring training caps and other confusing haberdasheryTalking to your kids about the Parkland tragedyArm all the ballplayers!Service-time manipulation The Gleyber Torres outlookService-time, big round numbers, and anal HOF votingRitual Pete Rose DerogationBrandon Drury’s home/road splitsHumidorgate?Drury vs. Tyler WadeThe three-man bench and redesigning the rosterLucas Duda vs. Eric HosmerJoe Mauer’s HOF case*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Baseball Prospectus writer Rachael McDaniel joins Steve to talk about surviving the offseason when baseball is your defense against time spent alone with yourself, plus Steve’s encounter with Chuck Knoblauch and twin tales of a great songwriter and a not-so-great pitcher from 1936.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chuck Knoblauch and the Chicken Française theoryVan Lingle Mungo and Larry HartRachael McDaniel: Baseball Prospectus writer at 20Baseball as a lens on experience and vice-versaThe BoxFinding baseball again after losing touchThe price of being candid “Time is limited”/”Hurry up, please, it’s time”The bird’s nest at the University of British ColumbiaWe can’t all be STEM kidsKnitting away anxietyDoes a poor postseason negate the enjoyment of the regular season?Coping when your baseball coping device has been taken awayThe aging Blue Jays and the departure of Josh DonaldsonTroy Tulowitzki/Don Mattingly*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Rob Neyer, the Sage of Portland, joins Steve to preview his new book on the state of baseball, review some classic old ones, and dig into the art of writing for an audience of baseball fans and his controversial stance on the owners versus the players.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
McGraw, Chase, PorterJuly 4, 1950 at the Polo GroundsRob Neyer: The Father of Us AllAlternative realities: Rob Neyer, pro rooferThe sabermetricians wonHas the low-hanging fruit been picked?Writing vs. auditioning for a front-office jobWishing for transparency in prospect reportageAccountability: Fernando Tatis and Jay BrucePreviewing Power BallMonographs on tuna and shattered authorial dreamsThe Neyer/James Guide to PitchersInfield shifts of the 1950sThe Sabermetricians vs. the PoliticiansThe Owners vs. the Players*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Ben Lindbergh (The Ringer, Effectively Wild podcast) makes an emergency relief appearance when a guest bails, and he and Steve dissect a bleak winter landscape.
WARNING: One cussword early on. We contritely apologize.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Turtle Who Was Hated By GodThe Johnny Bassler interruptionMetacom and WahooBen Lindbergh: A podcast in baseball’s worst winterWhat if Mike Trout is a woman?Why buy tickets for the Reds (or anybody)?Does Jarrod Dyson prove collusion?Did Bud Selig break baseball and Homestead Camp IIThe Tim Raines non-spring training momentAll your predictions are wrong, or will beSpring really hangs you up the most (unless all the signings finally happen)Jack Morris and collusionThe last Marlins fan*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Cliff Corcoran returns to discuss the current scene, including Mark Appel’s break from baseball, the state of the Dodgers’ starting rotation, and gives an important pro-tip about how to adjust your microphone pack (not a metaphor).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Farewell to Oscar GambleReggie Jackson, Steve Chilcott, and Casey StengelCliff Corcoran: Behind the scenes at the MLB NetworkSurprised by Bill James on setInsulting Ken Rosenthal over OPSMark Appel’s career time-out and TINSTAAPPAre prospect lists too long?Bryce Harper: A disappointment?The prospect aging curveShohei Ohtani vs prior Japanese playersWill Yu Darvish return to the Dodgers?A requiem for Julio UriasDavey Lopes and the Whimsical World of 1970s Dodgers Defense*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Did anyone say stick to sports? Baseball’s slowest offseason collides with the national mood when Deadspin’s David Roth returns to break down a case of universal paralysis and, of course, supply his particular brand of Mets ennui.
WARNING: As is typical of a David Roth episode, there is the occasional profanity.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wayne Garland and Mother-LoveConnie Mack and the WilponsDavid Roth: The thin line between Collusion and Cincinnati, OHThe fantasy of doing more with lessThe McCourt Dodgers period as forerunner of the apocalypseThe Astros Way might only work for the Astros (not the Pirates)Going to the Mets game can be cheaper than going to Shake Shack aloneDoubleheaders and congealed fried chickenNo cheering in the press box (seriously)The Dead Hand of Adrian GonzalezBrandon Nimmo’s true nicknameThe Hall of Fame vote (Jim Thome full of love and good will)Gary Sheffield*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Steve is joined by Astros Special Assistant Kevin Goldstein to review the championship season and delve into the psychology of a title defense. Plus: Things fall from the sky on shortstops and the Red Sox shoot themselves in the foot.
WARNING: There is one slight profanity in this episode. It quotes the President of the United States and is now in common usage in even the better publications.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Smiting Woody Woodward Deposing Dom DiMaggioKevin Goldstein: The winning momentMistakes were madeThe Derek Jeter exampleTaking credit and blameWhat does a special assistant to the general manager do?The Gerrit Cole tradeThinking prophylacticallyVeterans vs. youth (“I can’t afford to learn about this one just now.”)Scouting and ChillWould you sign a player who has sex with goats?Keeping Carlos Beltran and other positive influencesThe Most Important Question About Dallas KeuchelLosing the prospect focusTrading your friendsRoster cut-down dayIs the Dominican Republic a “shithole” too?Ambition achieved?*
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
ESPN baseball analyst and ZiPS projections proprietor Dan Szymborski joins Steve to talk about the art of player projections, plus integration, an awkward moment at the doctor’s office, and World War II deflects Buddy Lewis from both the Hall of Fame and the game itself.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A question of courage: Jackie Robinson, Vic Power, Elston Howard, Panglossian racismWhat Buddy Lewis sawDan Szymborski: Projections of spring“Deadly Accurate”PECOTA PTSDAdvances in projection systemsProjecting Aaron JudgeThe useable universe of ballplayersThe Pacific Coast League in the 1920sFilling in Ted Williams’ war years using retro-projectionsProjecting Rafael Palmeiro in 2018Projecting older playersThe Rule of Backup CatchersHerm Winningham?Are projection systems making the draft more rational?“You can always tell an old usenet person”Sabermetrics wonWARA statistician’s educationInventing ZiPSHolding projections accountable (and letting them off the hook)Ryon Healy’s zero WAR projectionProjecting the 2018 Yankees bullpenProjecting relieversProjecting Shohei OtaniZiPS vs. LawGoodbyes.
Jesse Spector, recurring cohost/periodic comet, returns to break down the offseason, such as it is, plus we mourn the death of Rob Picciolo, the most impatient player ever, and consider how Red Ruffing’s global war might be like our own.
WARNING: The F-word is deployed right at the outset of the Jesse segment. It’s clean before and after that.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Rob Picciolo’s intentional walkRed Ruffing’s warA false startDave Winfield dreamingTwo things will happen 11 months from now“pitchers and catchers”Jesse’s new podcast, “Locked on Yankees”Edit your podcastsThe state of AL races, 2018Free Jose Abreu?The Cardinals vs. the CubsDisputing Marcel OzunaHow to Respectfully Address Derek Jeter for Hardcore Yankees FansA-Rod is a huge dorkClarifying OzunaThe Cubs 2018 rotationEric Hosmer and Mike MoustakasMatt Kemp, defensive liabilityJesse’s Mets/Yankees loyaltiesHomerism in all formsYou have to have room to fail in order to grow*Goodbyes.
A rare (somewhat) shorter solo episode for Steve as baseball leaves the 2017 offseason unfinished and hopes the 2018 segment will bring more action. Tales of Joe McCarthy, Hack Wilson, and the decline of the 1980s Baltimore Orioles as a metaphor for our lives.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Joe McCarthy’s one joke (“Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat”—Sammy Davis, Jr.)Hack Wilson’s wormBabich!With apologies to “The Small Assassin”The New Deal and the 1983 Baltimore OriolesFireside Chat” April, 1938The O’s, Entropy, the Universe, and Everybody ElseThe 1988 Orioles 30th Anniversary TourThe Tippy Martinez Game*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Meg Rowley returns to talk about the discontents of the Shohei Ohtani decision and its aftermath, as well as sundry other topics, and somehow it all ends up being related to “Star Wars.” Plus: A ballplayer with more than one family and the last play of Richie Ashburn’s career.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Arthur Irwin, Baseball BigamistFeeling like a loser, feeling like a PhillieMeg Rowley: The Shohei Otani decisionEd Whitson and Cecilio GuanteThe platonic ideal of the Jerry Dipoto PlanThe Dee Gordon tradeBuck Showalter is the Dick Clark of baseballThe Marlins and the Mariners“We put all this faith in business”A Charlie Brown Christmas vs. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie BrownPre-Christmas Gift EnnuiA Star Wars momentOtani and Star Wars possessiveness*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Sports on Earth’s Cliff Corcoran returns to break down the winter meetings in our longest episode yet. Bring supplies, be ready for Marlins-bashing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ted Williams for Joe DiMaggioGive Us 18-Player Trades and Bullet Bob TurleyCliff Corcoran: Let’s Sign All the Relievers, Jiggety-Jig! (Phillies-heavy)The Marcell Ozuna tradeBurying the Miami MarlinsA Mets digressionThe Yankees in the Stanton eraThe Chase Headley dumpThe Jordan Montgomery precedentStephen Piscotty to the A’sThe Shohei Otani signingThe Chuck Berry DigressionsGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Mike Bates and Bill Parker, hosts of the This Week in Baseball History podcast, join Steve for a discussion of Cooperstown discontents, plus terminally ill submariners and a Dee Gordon trade reaction.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Russ Christopher, Throwing Underhand in the Infinite InningA fight in the bullpen as Seattle acquires Dee GordonMike Bates and Bill Parker: The This Week in Baseball History podcastReciting stats on the airRoy Moore vs. Heinie ZimmermanThe This Week in Baseball rememberedThe Monday Night Football theme and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”I hate the Hall of Fame (Scott Rolen, Jack Morris, Jim Rice)Edgar MartinezThe Hall of Fame, Statcast, and glove-first players (Derek Jeter’s prostate)The Lou Whitaker-free ballotJimmy Wynn vs. Steve GarveyReggie Smith and Jimmy Wynn in contextThe inevitable steroids debate (with a cast of a thousand players)The first-time players on the ballot: Sentimental picks and long-lived players*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Steve is joined by Stacey May Fowles, novelist, essayist, and author of Baseball Life Advice: Loving the Game that Saved Me for a discussion of finding the calm center that lurks behind the turbulent veneer of Toronto Blue Jays fandom. Plus: Dark mutterings on Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers and a warm memory of Yankees great Bobby Murcer.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tinker to Evers to I Don’t Love You AnymoreSaved at the Ballpark by Bobby MurcerStacey May Fowles: A Canadian ThanksgivingAll the battles we lost to CanadiansThe relevance and irrelevance of the Toronto Blue JaysLoving the Game that Saved MePitchers and catchers and scaffoldingCoping with the 2017 Blue JaysThe Highest Form of Being a Baseball FanFarewell to Jose BautistaThe Bat-Flip MomentBaseball assimilation storiesDioner Navarro, gateway drugA romantic gesture at old Yankee StadiumCarlos Correa’s proposal*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
In a short Thanksgiving episode—short by Infinite Inning standards, anyway—we visit the soft places of the Infinite Inning, including hypothetical whiskey-pushing gangsters who had it in for the Cardinals, when the pressures of World War II caused New York Giants fans to threaten to riot during a performance of the National Anthem, and the frightening place that is the family dinner table at holiday-time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Giancarlo Stanton and You Prowl the Unquiet LandsSteve’s annual Thanksgiving avoidance recitalHere’s Why Flint Rhem Didn’t Go to Work TodayHarry Nilsson: “(Thursday) Here’s Why I Did Not Go to Work Today”The Giants lose by a national anthem and a blackoutErrol Flynn: “That’s What You Jolly Well Get”Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth (Deadspin) returns to take on the World Series, Yuli Gurriel, and Papa John’s.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lou Whitaker, Walter Briggs, and the Hall of FameNo one who cares about you would use your kindness against youDavid Roth: FalsettosFarewell to wannabe sportscaster Chris ChristieRoth’s national pizza rankingsWhy do we accept bad chains?Oatmeal for dinnerCats who eat Dunkin’ DonutsThe Yuli Gurriel World Series incidentCelebrating Yasiel PuigThe Mets hire a new manager*Goodbyes.
WARNING: As is typical for David Roth episodes, there is light intermittent swearing.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Author Paul Dickson joins Steve to discuss his new book, Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son. Plus, the Dodgers bullpen at Jutland and a note on eternal World Series goat Roger Peckinpaugh.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
JutlandRoger Peckinpaugh’s first World SeriesPaul Dickson: How do you write 60 books?The demise of the slicksDurocher wasn’t a nice guy, but was he a good guy?Slapping Babe RuthThe 1947 suspensionLeo and moneyLeo and raceLeo vs. Ernie BanksLeo vs. Ron SantoLeo lies about his childhood and Nice Guys Finish LastDurocher as Branch Rickey’s Prodigal SonThe Dodgers 1943 clubhouse rebellionBookies in the dugoutWhat made Durocher a great manager?Haunted by Casey and Bill VeeckThe Bonus Army“Wikipedia conspires against the truth”*Goodbyes.
WARNING: One cussword is said this week. It’s a historical quotation and therefore unavoidable. Please warn the children that adults sometimes say things like this and they’re just sounds.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Ben Lindbergh (Effectively Wild podcast, The Ringer) returns to not breakdown the postseason, not talk about starting a family, and not talk about all the managers. Actually, we do cover that last one, and some of the others as well. Plus: Fred Merkle vs. the Stoics.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Me and My Friend FredBucky Harris, Gene Mauch, Joe Girardi, and StucknessThe Wedding Bell BluesStarting a Family BluesNot Necessarily a World Series ConversationsCubs-Indians still lingersWhen writers root, fans say “We,” and Will Leitch yelled at SteveDusty Baker moves onManagers who grew on the job/Joe McCarthy vs. Ted WilliamsRon Gardenhire’s compromised second chance and Mickey Callaway’s comprised firstRon Gardenhire Origin StoriesBrad Ausmus, Joe Girardi, and fireable offensesLindbergh on Bullpenning*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Craig Calcaterra (Hardball Talk) returns to talk postseason baseball and the way flawed memory can distort our memories. Plus: The Marriage of Casey Stengel and manager inaction in the World Series.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
This is How Casey RanOwens, Henrich, and Another CaseyCraig Calcaterra: Expansion DreamingDerek Jeter’s Marlins Plan of DestructionMLBPA Accommodationist?The MLBAM success storyThe CC Sabathia Reunion TourMortality? NahIt was better in our steroidal dayA moment with the Warren Report and The Collusion PeriodThe past is never dead; it's not even pastCheap home runsBatman and the different versions of baseball1950s baseball was the worseBo Jackson: Gen-X HeroClosers/tie game/roadGoodbyes.
Jesse Spector (FanRag and so much more) returns to recap the postseason, argue about home runs, and be barked at by his dog.
WARNING: There’s one mild cussword and Jesse’s dog Youppi makes a sudden, shocking appearance that nearly caused the host to soil his undergarments.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Phlegmatic LouLarry McLean Learns Something Too LateJesse Spector: Sixteen hours of baseballJoe Girardi’s BonerThe Redemption ClichéGirardi vs. his clubhouseJoe Girardi/Jorge Posada/Austin Romine/Gary SanchezJoe Torre’s elocution and Barry Bonds’ earBarry Bonds’ head vs. JFK’s headGirardi’s Boner IICoffee JoeManaging the playoffs vs. managing in the regular seasonThe 1947 World Series, Yogi Berra/Gary SanchezDave Henderson memoriesPower in the postseasonO Home Run Be JoyfulBack to the 1980sVP gesturesGoodbyes.
Cliff Corcoran (Sports on Earth) returns to simultaneously preview and review the early postseason.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ducky and the Produce TruckA Manager Wrecks and Arm, 1920 EditionCliff Corcoran: From Bud Selig with Love: The mystery of the Brewers’ logoThe Wild-Card play-in games Part 1Does the postseason truly validate the best team?Teams are mutableFinishing the season against your playoff opponent (Red Sox-Astros)A pause to talk about the tragedy in Las VegasTwins vs. YankeesClosers: Shut upBullpenningRockies-DiamondbacksJoe Girardi statsJ.D. Martinez, greatest deadline acquisition ever?Something purely redundantThe Wild-Card play-in games Part 2Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Steven is joined by historian Mary Craig (Baseball Prospectus, Beyond the Box Score) to discuss the intersection of sports and politics as we see it and/or refuse to see it today. Along the way, Herbert Hoover doesn’t meet Babe Ruth and Tom Seaver crosses into John Lennon territory.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
War is over if Tom Seaver wants itHerbert Hoover goes to a ballgameMary Craig: John Locke was such a racist (and Martin Heidegger was a Nazi)Days of Taking a Knee and the Myth of Baseball’s DepoliticizationBaseball’s color line in contextStick to sports?Baseball and the National AnthemRetroactive homogenizationMr. Maddon goes to WashingtonThe difference between a team and a political figureWhat does a Red Sox cap stand for?Where do you draw the line on accountability?The younger generationThe intent of the FramersHow can you stick to sports when you’ve never stuck to sports?The Joe Maddon mystiqueHannah Arendt and Thucydides show up; can Herodotus be far behind?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Marc Normandin of SBNation.com joins Steve to talk postseason baseball, the Boston Red Sox, and the soap opera that is professional wrestling. We also have a more positive encounter with Mickey Cochrane and Phil Rizzuto in the Pacific.
WARNING: There is the odd cussword this week, but we omitted a potential anecdote about Rizzuto’s testicles so it’s all okay.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
More managerial wisdom from Mickey CochranePhil Rizzuto’s warMarc Normandin: Cheers vs. FrasierAn awkward beginning? (Podcasts, Marc Maron, GLOW)In the land of professional wrestlingMarc reviews GLOW and FoxcatcherActor’s Studio: Dave Bautista vs. The RockThe OtheringHas 2017 been a good baseball season?Different opinions of what constitutes fun in OctoberWin 100 games, finish secondRooting for a losing team in the playoffsThe San Francisco Giants: What?The left-handedest Red Sox team since the 1950sRick Porcello and the juiced ballThe Doug Fister MomentChris Sale’s secretSlumpy guys: Xander Bogaerts and Mookie BettsMust criticize Eduardo NunezStanding desks and faintingGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
David Roth returns to discuss the intersection of the NFL, MLB, and the joys of postseason baseball, plus tales of emotionally distressed catchers.
WARNING: There is the odd cussword this week, artistically deployed. It’s a David Roth episode.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
“What breaks a contender?” 1911 EditionBlack Mike’s Black DogDavid Roth: A friend of us allRoth’s remembrance of 9/11MLB, the NFL, and kabuki patriotismRoth’s “Getting Used to” the NFLWhen leagues tolerate bad franchisesOwners vs. players vs. empathyJoe DiMaggio slurred in LifeSports is not your safe spaceThe 2017 regular season vs. the 2017 playoffsJose Reyes, thin mint waferFor 50 at-bats anyone can be greatPat Borders, Al Weiss, Nelson Cruz, Cooke Lavagetto, Bill BevensRoth’s RatioThere’s a sucker born every minute (on Twitter)America is in a rebuilding season*Goodbyes.
Before Cliff Corcoran of Sports on Earth takes his regular spot in the rotation and turns the conversation to an extended fantasia about beluga whales and other zoo-going experiences, Steve is joined by MLB Ambassador for Inclusion Billy Bean. Also: How Walter Johnson was like incorrectly eating a Stroopwafel.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Walter Johnson vs. StroopwafelsBilly Bean and Shred HateZooTalk of the Infinite Inning Is the 2017 baseball season anticlimactic?The Twins revivalHas Byron Buxton turned the corner?If Buxton was a 1980s YankeeHow long to great outfield defenders last?One last check on the RoyalsLorenzo Cain, agent of destructionAnd Carlos Santana, tooTeams waste the designated hitterWhy being a DH makes some players more valuableThe tragedy of David WrightWright and Mets retired numbersDavid Wright among the great third basemenStan Hack for the Hall of FameNational League MVP debate: The Hammer and the BananaGoodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Meg Rowley of Baseball Prospectus joins Steve to talk the Mariners, her Celebrating Women in Baseball event, and the sandals and possibly-vanished waterfowl of Seattle.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The puzzling Ruben Gomez-Joe Adcock confrontationRube Waddell down in the floodMeg Rowley: Obligatory Game of Thrones discussionAre there still ducks at the University of Washington?Birkenstocks!The Celebrating Women in Baseball EventThe “Not-Bunting” of Ballpark PromotionsThe pink aspect and Lenny Dykstra’s pubesHourglass Appreciation NightNot marketing to one aspect of fandom at the expense of anotherSocial media pushback against women (and little girls?) in baseballOn Pitch, Jackie Robinson, and the possibility of a female ballplayerHey, Theo Epstein!A Salute to Rob NeyerIs it hard to be objective when it comes to the Mariners?The Erik Bedard tradeKing Felix: The Declining Years and the PrideWriterly influencesSecond Sam Miller mention in two weeksBill James is underappreciated as a writerA couple of grad school dropouts*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Steve mentions a rude body part three times! Jesse explains one thing the NHL gets right that baseball gets wrong, the Mets are once again dissed, how to cope with Aroldis Chapman is debated, as is the morality of Bartolo Colon, and Franklin Roosevelt’s braces, George Washington’s spectacles, John Beckwith’s rage, and Allie Reynolds’ bad back are explained.
WARNING: There is a brief discussion towards the end of the show about an adult film playing at a drive-in in 1974. Hilarity ensues.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
John Beckwith, the money-caressing jockey shorts guy, FDR, George Washington, and me Please excuse Steven for being late/Allie Reynolds’ bad backJesse Spector: Praising Sam Miller/Damning ourselvesJesse is a New Jersey Devils writer and Steve knows nothing about hockeyAn intriguing tidbit about the Red Sox clubhouseStandings and expanded playoffsThe Best Team of the Year Award (Would the Dodgers’ season be a failure if they don’t win the World Series?)Regular Season depth vs. playoff capabilityAre there too many off days in the playoffs?Luis Tiant’s 1975 World SeriesPostseason strategy isn’t wrong; it’s differentThe randomness of the 1960 World SeriesA game where bad decisions can be rewardedThe Bush-Gallo injury leads to an uncomfortable discussionDo you have to bring up a player’s transgressions every time you mention them?Blue Jays fans don’t like Jesse?The Mets amass some couponsAre the Mets bad at injury prevention?Steven Matz’s injury is so secret it can’t be discussedWawa, Gilda Radner, and adult films at the Drive-InDebating CheersComparing childhood baseball injuriesAroldis Chapman encoreBartolo Colon’s double lifeDerek Jeter, Baseball Operations Man*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
This week, Steve is joined by Jim Leeke, author of From the Dugout to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War, plus the usual preamble involving baseball and current events. Plus: An old song that sounds ominous!
Warning: There is one off-color word about 15 minutes into the show.
No one was replaced by Jackie RobinsonA few terrible, no good, very typical daysJim Leeke: Baseball and “Preparedness” in 1917The National League says noPatriotism in a 1917 contextHow World War II swamped the memory of World War IWas the drilling of ballplayers naïve?Clark Griffith’s war effortEven bad people aren’t bad all the timeWhy was the American League so eager to quit?The “Work or Fight” orderBan Johnson’s gaffeThe “Work or Fight Order” vs. the World War II “Green Light Letter”The value of entertainment in wartimeThe Steel/Steal League and Shoeless Joe JacksonThe mystery of Babe Ruth’s wartime activitiesHank Gowdy, AmericanAn Eddie Grant MemorialChristy Mathewson and Pete Alexander in the warThe unprecedented brutality of the First World WarThe Angl0-American Baseball ProjectBaseball in the land of total warGoodbyes.
After discussions of a personal nature involving Carl Edwards, Jr., the 1912 New York Giants, and imposter syndrome, Steve is joined by Grant Brisbee of SB Nation’s McCovey Chronicles to talk about how the San Francisco Giants got to be so bad, what it’s like hosting a TV show in a down season, and the origins of the Marco Scutaro rainglobe.
Warning: Two cusswords this week. We express deep contrition.
Table of Contents
Carl Edwards Jr. Imposter SyndromeThe 2017 Dodgers and the 1912 GiantsGrant Brisbee: How did the San Francisco Giants end up in last place? The Giants’ last homegrown outfielderLaunching “Giants Outsiders” in a season in which the Giants are outsideDramatizing a lossThe postgame show for the 1927 YankeesAvoiding the turning-40 crisisThe 1997 Giants are responsible for everythingMeeting your idolsMaking fun of Guy Fieri, not Rich AuriliaRegretting saying something critical about Ken RosenthalMid-career TV opportunity, the one that never knocksCredibilityStaying a fan (Crying for Conor Gillaspie)The Jaded, Disgruntled Sportswriters ClubBattling social media malaiseHas SB Nation’s mission changed?The Marco Scutaro rainglobe storyRemaining the informed outsiderDenard Span’s wheelsLocked into Johnny Cueto and other vetsA middle finger for Brandon BeltFinal Jeopardy: Can current Giants management fix this?Goodbyes. Dave Righetti and Hensley Meulens*
Cliff Corcoran of Sports on Earth returns to break down the action at the trading deadline, Steve discusses the sad fate of Porter Moss, the uplifting fate of Harry Heitmann, and the Phillies Phanatic makes a couple of very awkward appearances.
WARNING: There are no cusswords this week. Perhaps an adult-ish matter is discussed, but obliquely, with taste and discretion.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Porter Moss StoryThe Worst Start EverCliff Corcoran: The Furry Adventures Clippy CormorantOur condolences to Ketel MarteHow the trading deadline is like lifeBaseball discourages complacencyThe Twins’ illusory competitiveness (The Garcia trades)Sympathy for the RoyalsThe Zack Littell riddle (Jurickson Profar, Maikel Franco, and more)Tyler O’Neill for Marco GonzalezThe Ballad of Lonny FreyDo the Astros have enough pitching?The Cubs’ deadline approach vs. the Astros’Prospects traded at the deadline often disappointThe Sonny Gray tradeThe fate of Michael PinedaThe Yu Darvish tradeThe best Dodgers team of all time?The Justin Wilson-Alex Avila tradeThe Nationals’ bullpen rebuildIs the Brock-Brogilo trade still the best?*Goodbyes.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
Warning: There is a smattering of cusswords this week. Hiding the children should not be necessary unless they are very sheltered children.
In the opener, Steve talks about addiction and then details one of the origins of the non-waiver trade deadline.
Table of Contents
Darryl Strawberry, Steve Howe, and Tommy LasordaWhitey Witt, Jumping Joe Dugan, and the Magic BottleDavid Roth: The End of Vice SportsKen Rosenthal and the all-video future “I can’t say that it’s right or wrong, I just know I can’t control it”The relationships you forge in the workplace, and sometimes loseDavid’s Mike Pelfrey T-shirtEighteen Plastic molded Baseball GuysLosing your industry-leading collection of overweight ballplayer JPGsWhitey Herzog vs. Bob HornerThe Pirates’ Handsome Boys Donruss sends the All-Stars to SearsWriting the back of the baseball cardBob Walk’s rookie yearWould you believe we talked about Marty Bystrom?Avant-garde decision-making in 1980s ClevelandZack Wheeler’s stress reaction and how bad teams create good teamsThe Royals at the deadline one mo’ timeDavid’s elegy for Chris Christie and us allFinding new ways to be excited (The Tao of Whit Merrifield)Jayson Stark, eternal enthusiastThe cat in the baby carriageLooking ahead to the stretch drive*Goodbyes.
Jesse Spector returns as the Infinite Inning begins its own trading deadline negotiations. Episode #13 begins with a personal tale from Steve’s college days and proceeds to one of the most bizarre episodes in baseball history, the O’Connell-Dolan affair during the 1924 National League stretch drive. It’s a scandal that has echoes in a present-day controversy. Jesse enters with sitcoms on his mind, but in short order the subject turns to various trade and pennant race scenarios, Yoenis Cespedes, Daniel Murphy, the Royals, Cubs, and, finally, a near nervous breakdown when Jesse is forced to think of Yankees executive Randy Levine.
Say your team is done and you’re ready to quit on the season. Should you catch up on summer films? Film critic and podcaster Scott Tobias (The Next Picture Show) catches us up on the good and bad of the summer film season, revisits the experience of co-founding the lauded but ultimately short-lived film site The Dissolve, and advocates for The Brady Bunch Movie (necessary) and Albert Brooks (speaks for himself). In the first segment, Steve revisits controversies involving Greg Bird, Rickey Henderson, and Babe Ruth.
How do you go from unpaid contributor to a key man in a huge media company? And what does Cody Bellinger have to say about it? Steve is joined by Eric Stephen, the longtime auteur of True Blue LA to talk about how he got just such an opportunity and took it all the way from couch-surfing to the Dodgers clubhouse. They also talk Bellinger, Yasiel Puig, Justin Turner, and how the Dodgers are dominating the NL West. This week’s conversation starters include Joe Hauser, Bobo Newsom, Leo Durocher, and ruminations on outright lies.
We go for the Cliff Corcoran threepeat and a topical episode that encompasses the AL Central race, overly complicated uniform pants, and looks forward to both the All-Star rosters and the trading deadline.
This week, after Steve takes an esoteric approach to segments concerning Amed Rosario and the Congressional ballgame shooting, Ben Lindbergh (The Ringer MLB Podcast, the Effectively Wild podcast) arrives to talk about his investigation of the new rabbit ball, the way home runs are now dominating the game, the insomniac experience of editing Baseball Prospectus, Game of Thrones, and how he forced himself to overcome his natural reserve to become a frequent public speaker and podcast host.
Steve is joined by Hardball Talk’s Craig Calcaterra for a rollicking discussion of baseball, to stick to sports or not to stick to sports, the psychological benefits of pets, and how to survive making the hardest decision of your life. Steve discusses two controversial ballplayers in Al Simmons and Mike Donlin, the former a denizen of the Infinite Inning, the latter someone who should have been.
David Roth returns! Steve and David struggle manfully to avoid talking about the Mets, but their allure as a metaphor for the culture as a whole proves too strong to resist. There are also visits to Giants Stadium and the bleachers at old Yankee Stadium, where profane songs are sung to the likes of Rob Deer. Finally, David explains everything. Seriously, everything. Steve begins with two old-time ballplayers who met an early demise, one among the best-loved players in history, the other largely forgotten, and both object lessons in fate.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?
The most topical episode of the Infinite Inning’s brief run features visits from veteran baseball writer Jon Heyman and cohost Jesse Spector. With his finger on the pulse of the trade market, Heyman shares his sense of which teams will be adding at the deadline and talks a bit about his method, while Jesse mourns the momentary loss of Mike Trout and deplores head-hunting pitchers, or in Hunter Strickland’s case, butt-hunting. Steve’s intro features a personal encounter with a lost utility infielder and a visit with Snooks Dowd, the fastest player no one wanted.
After Steve opens with Rogers Hornsby envy and a Jeremiad on Chick Gandil, Cliff Corcoran jumps his turn in the rotation to return a week ahead of time. He leads a discussion that ranges widely from Al Leiter’s origins in Toms River, New Jersey to his condemnation of stathead perceptions of pitching to his opinion on “balls.” Along the way, there are segments on Chuck Berry and the Beatles, rising strikeout rates and the death of the squeeze play are deplored, “guts” are measured with wearable devices, and the IQ of hitting is investigated.
This week, Steve is joined by special guest Mike Ferrin, longtime host on SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio and pre- and post-game host (as well as occasional play-by-play man) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, to talk about managing fan expectations in both of his jobs, and the secret to succeeding in either of those endeavors: Don’t be a jerk. In addition, Grantland Rice appears for the second consecutive week, outfielder Johnny Cooney is compared to faking your way through a term paper, Zack Greinke’s personality is explored, Marty Brennaman is surprisingly defended, Mike admits to tuning out sometimes, Casey Stengel unsurprisingly appears about three times, and old Disney references seem to be occupying Steve’s mind.
Warning: There is exactly one cussword in this episode.
This week, Steve is joined by third regular cohost David Roth of Vice Sports for a wide-ranging discussion that tries to understand just why we watch sports, the responsibility that owners have to their teams’ fans, and how to talk to fantasy players at parties. Guest-starring Satchel Paige, Joe Jackson, Matt Harvey, and Captain America.
A baseball podcast with an equal focus on the past and present, the Infinite Inning is the misty zone where the quest for understanding never reaches the third out. Featuring Steven Goldman with Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, David Roth, and special guests.
After a series introduction by Steven Goldman, he and co-host Jesse Spector begin with the business of sportswriting and then graduate to topics ranging from the 2016 World Series as the end of history, Rockies great Neifi Perez, the flaws of Back to the Future Part II, and Eric Thames and his shadowy other, Steve Delabar.