The Infinite Inning

Latest Episodes:

Infinite Inning 278: Delia's Gone Mar 23, 2024

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 277: No Boxers, No Briefs, No Mercy Mar 16, 2024

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 276: The One With the Anatomical Impossibility Mar 09, 2024

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 275: Saving Mr. Williams Mar 02, 2024

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 274: Who Looks Out for the Lookouts? Feb 24, 2024

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 273: All the Three-Fingered Young Dudes Feb 17, 2024

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 272: The Schiappacasse Files Feb 10, 2024

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 271: Pigeon of the American Mind Feb 03, 2024

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 270: The HOBE Factor Jan 27, 2024

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 269: Between the Fire and Us Jan 20, 2024

Show notes

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?

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