Midnight Library of Baseball - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

Midnight Library of Baseball — Baseball
Midnight Library of Baseball

Midnight Library of Baseball is a documentary-style baseball history podcast for listeners who want something deeper, quieter, and more reflective than the typical sports show.

Hosted by Ben Orlando, the series blends immersive storytelling with deep research to explore the game’s most iconic figures, like Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, and Honus Wagner, alongside forgotten players and unlikely stories that shaped baseball in surprising ways. Told without loud music or jarring production, each episode unfolds with a calm, narrative style that lets the history breathe.

Season 1 explores foundational questions about the game, from how players were paid across eras to the evolution of equipment, and even the stories of famous figures who nearly chose baseball, including Kurt Russell, Billy Crystal, and John Dillinger.

Season 2 is a deep, narrative journey into the making of Field of Dreams, from its origins as a short story to the creation of one of the most beloved films in baseball history.

Season 3 features long-form series on the Black Sox Scandal and the enduring fascination with baseball’s consecutive games played streak, examining legends like Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken Jr.

Season 4 explores the intertwined evolution of baseball, radio, and television, and how each helped shape the way fans experience the game.

If you love baseball history, storytelling, and the quiet details that bring the past to life, this is a show designed to be listened to, not just heard.

Copyright: © Copyright 2023 All rights reserved.

Latest Episodes:

Ep7: The Voices We Carried Nov 14, 2025

Show notes

In the 1950s, baseball broadcasts on television were expanding, and this fairly new technology was starting to catch up to radio in sports coverage, until a groundbreaking innovation cemented radio for the next sixty years as the most flexible, reliable way to experience a game away from the ballpark. In this episode, I discuss the history of this breakthrough, along with some of the iconic personalities that benefited from the invisible waves that carried their voices to the most remote reaches of the country, and world.

Ep6: Homer at the Bat Nov 07, 2025

Show notes

Like broadcasts and broadcasters of the early days, the 1992 Simpsons episode, Homer at the Bat, shaped the lives of millions. It made people laugh, it connected people more deeply with their favorite sports heroes by humanizing these mythical figures, and it instilled a deeper curiosity for those on the periphery of the game. If you’re a fan of the Simpsons and baseball, there are many great stories about the making of this episode you won’t want to miss.

Ep5: The Golden Age of Baseball and Radio Nov 01, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, I discuss the complicated relationship between radio and baseball, and how, when baseball was resisting, radio was sneaking in through every back door in America. I tell the stories of some iconic announcers of the day, like Red Barber, who nearly quit when he heard Branch Rickey was going to sign Jackie Robinson.

Ep4: The Recreators Oct 26, 2025

Show notes

Step into the forgotten world of baseball recreation, a unique phenomenon created to fill an enormous void in baseball coverage during the 1920s to the 1950s, a strange blending of truth and fiction that connected millions to the game and their heroes, and introduced millions to a young recreator named Ronald Reagan, who cited baseball recreation as a valuable tool in his journey through American politics.

An Interview with Kelyn Ikegami, director of "The Streak" Oct 20, 2025

Show notes

The story of Kelyn Ikegami developing and completing this documentary is as fascinating as the story itself: a bunch of ragtag minor leaguers relegated to the baseball graveyard, only to resurrect their story in legendary fashion. I really enjoyed our conversation just as I really enjoyed the documentary, which you can find on Apple TV and Amazon Prime. Links to film at Apple and Amazon

Ep3: The Day Baseball Found Its Voice Oct 17, 2025

Show notes

Before Graham McNamee, there was basic reporting of the game by broadcasters, and long dead silences between plays. But the opera singer turned broadcaster changed the way people listening to their radio interacted with the game, and he paved the way for the type of broadcasting we know and love today. Tune in to listen to this story and more.

Ep2: The Swing Heard 'Round The World Oct 12, 2025

Show notes

Radio was floundering in its early days. People didn’t know what to make of it. Baseball owners were afraid of it, and for the first years of radio broadcasting, there was no banter, only dead air between plays. In the midst of this lull came an athlete and personality who bewitched a nation, and was single-handedly responsible for the spread of millions of radios across the country. But the reasons for the “Babe Ruth addiction” are not as obvious as they may seem.

Ep1: A Love Letter to Phil Rizzuto Oct 03, 2025

Show notes

In this first episode of Season 4, I discuss a lie I’ve been telling myself for 40 years about who my favorite team actually was, and I begin the amazing journey of baseball broadcasting. Before there was television, there was radio, and before that, there was the telegraph and the amazing broadcasting innovations that came from this limited technology, like scoreboard baseball, and ballgames performed, live, in opera houses. But the first radio broadcasts were missing one crucial ingredient.

Bonus Episode: Rounders Host Jeffrey Lambert Stops by the Library Aug 16, 2025

Show notes

I sit down with Jeffrey Lambert to have a fun debate about whether or not certain players should be included on record lists, and whether we should be comparing players from different eras in the first place. You can find the Rounders podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rounders-a-history-of-baseball-in-america/id1415099174. And you can find a new MLoB episode at https://www.patreon.com/midnightlibraryofbaseball/about?

Ep. 19: What if They Lived in Each Other's Time? Aug 01, 2025

Show notes

It’s easy to compare numbers on paper, but what happens when we do a deep dive into the times and worlds in which Cal Ripken Jr and Lou Gehrig lived? In this final episode of Season 3, I pull back the curtain on what training, medicine, culture, and competition looked like for each man in his day, to get a much better idea of where each man stood in the realm of baseball legacy.

Related Podcasts