The Infinite Inning

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 Cold*Notes/ Jay Johnstone/China’s Fault*Bob Feller Gave Names to All the Animals*A Home Run in Boston (Casey Stengel Rides Again)*Bob Gibson vs. Tom Seaver*Goodbyes. The Infinite Inning is not only about b...

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 Tie*Ballparks Go Condo and the Shibe Park Spite Fence*Broadway Bill (Absolutely Bill’s Mood)*Craig Calca...

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 Uniform*Ron Gardenhire*1980 in the AL East*Cliff Corcoran: Negro Leagues Caps*Inconclusion, the Negro Le...

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 Kids*Failing Ed Whitson*Jesse Spector: Tom Seaver: The Yankees Years*The Serious Seaver*Aroldis Chapman vs. the Rays*Twitter Homerism*“J. Guerra”*Mike Clevinger: Persona Non Grata*Most Overrated Players*“Jeter...

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 Wilson*A Fight in Oakland: “Here’s My Chance”*Ginny Searle: What Can Be Done to Make Baseball a More...

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 41*From Episode 23: Tom Seaver’s Prayer for Peace*Tom 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 di...

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 2040*Thom Brennaman: “Bye Bye Blackbird”*Paul Dickson: A Timely Recollection (An Army in Ya...

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 Media*Three Announcements Invoking Craig Calcaterra*New Baseball Song: “The American Game”*Bevos and Hippos (Oh My)*David Roth: “Jeopardy...

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 Questions*Shad Rhem*Cliff Corcoran: Branded Masks*First Baseman-Leadoff Hitters*Cubs 2020 Lineup*Slow Leadoff Men (Part 1000)*The Blue and the Gold of Milwaukee*Expansion is Contingent*The...

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 Uncle*Rod Carew and the Poisoned Handshake*Rod Carew: Hall of Famer in the Pandemic*A Private Player in the Public Eye/A Father’s Promise*It’s...

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 Rep*Lefty Gomez Has a Weight Problem*Jennifer Earl: Life in Arizona*Remote versus In-Person Teaching*Optimized T...

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 (...

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 Copes*Wear Your Mask...

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 Marsans*Earl Wilson’s Cryptic Reply*...

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 Pledge*Between Jackie Robinson and the Deep...

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 Curfew*The...

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 One*Death at the St...

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 Giants*Blue Stockings, Bigotry, and Bacteria*Cliff Corcoran: The Puppy is Not Ill*I Want a Pony/A Toddler with Sharp Teeth*Are Cats In It For Themselves?*P...

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 Winners*Johnny Allen Bravado*...

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 M...

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 Traveler*The...

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 Story*The Giants Attacked in Their Barouches*Brendan Kuty: Home/Unselfish*...

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...

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 Soul*Joe DiMaggio’s Trying Year*Emily Nemens: Players in Spring Trai...

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 Series*Why D...