The Infinite Inning

Latest Episodes:

Infinite Inning 258: Only Harmless Rebellions Jun 02, 2023

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 257: In Immensity One Lonelier Than You May 14, 2023

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 256: Welcome the Bear Inside Apr 30, 2023

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 255: After Jackie Robinson Day What Apr 21, 2023

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 254: The War Between the Cubs and Other Stories Apr 14, 2023

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 253: Let's Gooooo Apr 01, 2023

Show notes

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) Mar 18, 2023

Show notes

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?

Infinite Inning 251: Not That Rainbow Mar 03, 2023

Show notes

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Eleven Bites*Scooter and Where to Find Grover Cleveland When He’s Dead*The Children of Greater Boston Want Twinkies*Vice-President in the Clubhouse*All Alone on the Mound*Grantland Rice and “To Any Athlete” Redux*Stephen Strasburg’s Surgery*“I’m An Outfielder Now”*Ed Morris Callback/“Poker Face” Crossover*The Lonesome Death of Deerfoot Milan*The Lonesome Photographs of Lewis Hine*Early Wynn 299 vs Early Wynn 300*Distance 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?

Infinite Inning 250 Baseballs Keep Falling on My Head Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

“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 CONTENTS
Casey Stengel’s Imitation of Fred Snodgrass in America*A Very Simple But Important Note About the Hazardous Nature of an Open Drawbridge*Ray Chapman vs. Charlie Hollocher*How Many Shortstops Have Hit .340?*The Phantom Stomachache*Playing Through Pain*Going Home and the Sad Finish*The Hopeful Ending*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 249: The Great Shortstops of Europe Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

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 CONTENTS
Meet Linus*Meet Linus’s Watercooler*A Listener Makes a Complaint*Frameworks and Platforms*The Great Nations of Europe*George Stovey’s 1.13-ERA Season*What is This Show About, and Who Gets to Decide?*The Greatest Shortstop in Browns History*The Anti-Greatest Shortstop in Anyone’s History*Undersized in the 20th Century*McGraw Thwarted, Bresnahan Cursed*Cleveland Regrets*The Switch-Hitter Gambit*Inky Strange and Other Prospects*Enter 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?

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