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The Infinite Inning

Steven Goldman

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?

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25 episodes
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Avg 50 min
English

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#394
Saturday · 49 min
Infinite Inning 394 The Rogers Hornsby Theory of Leadership
In a column that suggests that sportswriters never change, a “writer’s wing” scribe makes a weak excuse for the negative qualities of one of baseball’s greatest hitters and weakest leaders, the “Rajah of Swat,” Rogers Hornsby. First, though, we stop...
- Transcript
#393
September 19 · 45 min
Infinite Inning 393: Yankee Stadium Goes Fascist
First we visit a very close-by alternative reality in which a momentary weakness on the part of the original Yankee Stadium gives someone in a position of power the opportunity to slap his own name on the building (this should be starting to sound...
- Transcript
#392
September 12 · 50 min
Infinite Inning 392: Red Sox Hunt/Negro Leaguers at War
An odd tale of a pitcher unboxing a stuffed and mounted boar in the clubhouse leads to speculation about the nature of marriage and the trial of giving gifts and getting what you want at the same time. Then we check in on the Great War Exploits of one...
- Transcript
#391
September 5 · 41 min
Infinite Inning 391: The Shohei Ohtani Trade Deficit
The 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates blow the pennant race in one of the most dramatic losses of baseball history, but according to one of the current lords of our realm the Cubs should have just handed them the win. Yes, “The Homer in the Gloamin’” has...
- Transcript
#390
August 29 · 1 hr 7 min
Infinite Inning 390 Baseball and Children Forever Frightened
Two tales of children whose adult life in baseball might have been influenced by childhood fears real and imagined (but mostly real). First, the speed-king of 1880s baseball (since dethroned or at least debunked) has to watch his parents await the...
- Transcript
#389
August 22 · 53 min
Infinite Inning 389: The Pitcher Who Quit Midgame
Two stories featuring one of the more rage-addicted pitchers of all time (no, not Johnny Allen, but good guess), one in which he overestimated a Hall of Famer’s rigidity and got ejected for it, another when he had simply had enough and removed himself...
- Transcript
#388
August 15 · 35 min
Infinite Inning 388: A Ghost from the Negro Leagues
Two stories in which the players’ absence from the narrative is the point: First, we go back to John McGraw’s first right fielder with the Giants, a speed-based player who was supposed to be a nice guy, but still found occasion to heave this bat at...
- Transcript
#387
August 8 · 1 hr 3 min
Infinite Inning 387: If Babe Ruth Were a Patriot Missile
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...
- Transcript
#386
August 1 · 1 hr 2 min
Infinite Inning 386: The Yankees, the Giants, and the First Trading Deadline
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...
- Transcript
#385
July 25 · 53 min
Infinite Inning 385: The Fourth-Worst Self-Own in Red Sox History
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...
- Transcript
#384
July 18 · 56 min
Infinite Inning 384: Dodgers of Dubious Abilities & Moralities
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...
- Transcript
#383
July 11 · 59 min
Infinite Inning 383: When Babe Ruth's Car Turned Turtle
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...
- Transcript
#382
July 3 · 55 min
Infinite Inning 382: Joe DiMaggio Weeps for Lou Gehrig
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),...
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#381
June 27 · 48 min
Infinite Inning 381: Yogi Berra versus Roy Cohn
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...
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#380
June 20 · 47 min
Infinite Inning 380: The Cubs Outfielder Who Hated Evolution
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...
- Transcript
#379
June 13 · 47 min
Infinite Inning 379: Requiem for a Reds Pitcher
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...
- Transcript
#378
June 6 · 30 min
Infinite Inning 378: Casey, the Muscle or the Bone
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...
- Transcript
#377
May 30 · 32 min
Infinite Inning 377: The Negro Leagues were a Ceiling
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,...
- Transcript
#376
May 23 · 41 min
Infinite Inning 376: A Dog's Breakfast with the Yankees, Mets, and Shanty
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...
- Transcript
#375
May 16 · 51 min
Infinite Inning 375: The A's, Murder in Camden, and the Spiders from Cleveland
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...
- Transcript

Showing 1–20 of 25 episodes