The Infinite Inning

WARNING: There are a couple of cusswords abroad in the land. TABLE OF CONTENTS Rogers Hornsby’s War With Baseball (Stop it! Cut it out!)*Go See “They Shall Not Grow Old”/The Paths of Glory Lead Only to the Latrine/Hank Gowdy Falls Down*Connie Mack and The Difficulty of Getting Good Takeout in the Suburbs*Goodbyes. THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra. THE INFINITE INN...

Table of Contents The Embedded Yankee: An Analogy*Babe Ruth’s Rough Year*Jane Leavy: A New View of the Babe*Felicitous Accidents of Research (Johnny Bassler and the Babe’s Childhood)*The Crimes of Babe Ruth’s Parents Against Babe Ruth*Ruth’s Right-Wing Connection*The Indispensable Christy Walsh*There is No Asterisk!*Fifty-Ounce Bats (What Would Ruth Do Today?)*In Search of the Inner Babe*The Unpre...

TABLE OF CONTENTS Hans Christian Andersen’s Negro Leagues*Why I Was Not at the Winter Meetings*Bill Lange Goes Home Forever*Liz Roscher: The Winter Meetings Social Ramble Ain’t Restful*Martyrs to Baseball*A Late-Blooming Phillies Fan*Can You Earn Your Angry Fandom?*Pessimistic Mets Fans*“Fair-Weather Fans” and Other Accusations of Inauthenticity*More Fannish Pessimism*The “We Really Suck” Chant*Ho...

WARNING: The odd cussword is heard herein. Hide the kids. TABLE OF CONTENTS The Ballad of Kewpie Dick*Stroopwafel Update*Patreon Update*Ty Cobb Chooses a Catcher*Alex Belth: O.G. Baseball Bloggers*The Golden Age of Magazine Writing*The Joy of Microfilm*A Writer’s Fame is Fleeting*Heinz and J. Lardner*Terry Southern, Bruce Jay Friedman, and Helen Lawrenson*The Yankees of Your 20s vs. Those of Your...

TABLE OF CONTENTS You Too Can Have a Duck for a General Manager*I Learned the Truth from Rickey Henderson*Lincoln Mitchell: Baseball and Politics/Your Wife and Your Mistress*Reframing the Dodgers-Giants Move as a Good Thing*Who Mourns for the Nightlife in Babylon?*Yankees Fans Kept Going to the Games*What If One NL Team Had Stayed?*“Sitsee”*The Least Significant Victim of Fascist Aggression*Decent...

TABLE OF CONTENTS When the Bass Comes Falling From the Sky*Remembering William Goldman and Stan Lee*Meg Rowley: An Argument About Coffee*Full Time at FanGraphs*Empathy for Recalcitrant Writers Who Are Also Plumbers*Loving Baseball During the Apocalyse*The Blown Save in Non-Baseball Environments*The Mixed Bag That Was MLB 2018*Knowing When to Go Off and When to Hang Fire*Lorena Martin vs. the Seatt...

TABLE OF CONTENTS Willie McCovey and Sparky Schulz, The Brave & The Bold*A Program Note or Two*Jackie Robinson Goes to Cincinnati*Cliff Corcoran: Election Reflection*J.D. Martinez and the AL MVP Vote*Bookie Metts and Mucky Betts*Willie Stargell and Keith Hernandez*Jacob DeGrom NL MVP Disrespect*Blake Snell vs. Justin Verlander*The Aaron Nola Conundrum and The Chris Sale Deprivation*The Phillies’ D...

TABLE OF CONTENTS Hack Wilson Gets Hacked Off*When Babe Ruth Homered for the Giants*Jesse Spector: Jesse Has a Cold/Sharing Hats*Racist Dodgers Fans Against the Special Prosecutor*The President as World Series/Rich Hill Commentator*Were the Red Sox a Historic Team?*When 1988 Failed to Validate the Regular Season*What Boston’s Record Does and Does Not Prove*All Postseason Teams Should Get a Home Ga...

TABLE OF CONTENTS Casey Stengel vs. the Nazi Warlord*The Secret New York Conspiracy to Destroy the Red Sox*Rob Neyer: Elevator Pitch for a Baseball Book*The Zobrist*What is “Postmodern” baseball?*Who Takes Responsibility?*The Best of All Possible Baseballs is For the Best?*Pay (Or at Least Feed) the Minor Leaguers!*Here Comes the Flood*Well-Known Facts, Whether You Like It or Not*Love on the Sands...

TABLE OF CONTENTS Addie Joss is Defunct*The Phillies Are On the Wire*Grant Brisbee: Tongue Tied*“To Glorgle”*Joe West’s Greatest Ejections*The Greatest Hits Theory of Joe West Fans*Hate Mail (Never Criticize Matt Wieters)*Back On Bullpenning? (No; Still On It)*Life After Team Blogging*Gonna Be in L.A. For Game 6*The San Francisco Giants’ Beard Deficit and Other Problems*Leaving Latin America Alone...

TABLE OF CONTENTS The Cubs Buy Sushi*Chop the Chop (in Colorado)*Ryan Davis: Credentialed and Fatigued*A Dynasty Simultaneously Achieved and Denied*Were the Brewers Just Better?*Chili Davis is an Innocent Man!*Do Joe Maddon’s Lineup Changes Hurt Young Players?*In Praise of Tommy La Stella*The Terrance Gore Memorial Roster Spot*If You Swing Enough Times…*Kyle Hendricks, Pitching Detective (Guest-St...

TABLE OF CONTENTS The Trial of Dizzy Dean*Dizzy Dean Balks*David Roth: Let’s Remember Guys Named Herm*Misplacing Bob Melvin and Maligning Tony Armas*A Quick Look at Dominic Smith*Questions of Confidence and Security in Baseball and Other Areas*And $200,000 in Nationals Tickets*Drunk People Are Boring*The 2018 Postseason*The A’s and the Brewers (1982 Milwaukee Brewers Appearances Appraised and Rick...

TABLE OF CONTENTS The Baltimore Orioles Were Over So Long Ago*McGraw/Chase Redux*Tommy and Roy*Jeff Pearlman: Why is the USFL remembered more fondly than other failed sports leagues?*It’s not the players, it’s the owners*The Strange Owner of the Los Angeles Express and Other Fallacies About the Rich*Did the USFL Need Ban Johnson?*The Dumbest Trade in the History of Mankind*The Villain Arrives (It’...

An Addison Russell Problem of Morality*The Pennant Race Decided By a Squeeze Play* Cliff Corcoran: A False Start*Who should be NL MVP?*Ban the Bullpen!*Possibly ignorant analogies from basketball and hockey*Openers and Followers*Shrink the Strikezone!*Mid-Inning Pitching Changes Are the Spawn of Satan*Bring Back Long Relievers*The Poignancy of Taking One For the Team*The 2018 Pennant Races, Such A...

Baseballs Try to Murder Fritz Ostermueller* Permanent Rainout, September 21, 1938*Stephon Johnson: The New York Amsterdam News/Advocacy Journalism*When Did African Americans Lose Interest in Baseball?*The Buttoned-Down Culture of Baseball*Fisk and Sanders, Showalter and Griffey*Racists on the Rise*“Baseball Needs Another Rickey Henderson”*Dexter Fowler Calumnied*John Kruk: J’Accuse!*Keith Hernande...

TABLE OF CONTENTS Wes Ferrell Walks Off*Mediocre White Players/Jimmy Collins’ Unplanned Vacation*Mike Bates and Bill Parker: The historic 2018 season: The Baltimore Orioles and Shohei Ohtani*Rudy Pemberton and Phil Clark*Babe Ruth’s Warning to Ohtani*Who are the Angels?*The Past is More Populous Than the Present*Ski Melillo?*Charlie Hollocher*Elmer Flick and Bill Bergen Too*Gary Gaetti ‘s Awakenin...

WARNING: One excretory cussword. TABLE OF CONTENTS Tony Horton and Dolphin Shows of the Apocalypse*Extinctions and an Apology*Jeff Heath’s Bat*The West Coast is on Fire*The Kendrys Morales Sublimations*Don’t Gamble on Baseball Because the Orioles*Goodbye for Now, Troy Tulowitzki*Fare Thee Well, Josh Donaldson*Do the Blue Jays Need to Bottom Out?*The Thrill of Discovery at Baseball-Reference*Expert...

TABLE OF CONTENTS Casey Stengel removes a pitcher*The Babe Ruth Visitors Center*Potential, with Andy Cohen and Rogers Hornsby*Hairstons and Harstons*The Great Gee Walker*Goodbyes. THE INFINITE INNING ARCHIVE: All episodes available, popcorn extra. THE INFINITE INNING FACEBOOK GROUP: Socialize with like-minded people! The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldma...

TABLE OF CONTENTS WARNING: The odd cussword is spoken aloud and sometimes thought in this episode. In addition, there is a discussion of an ancient case of rape and manslaughter in the second segment. Pea Ridge Day chooses free will*Fatty Arbuckle and Benny Kauff*David Roth: Bodega cats*The one bad review (Your mother-in-law and the Portland Sea Dogs)*Offending Will Pennyfeather*Easy-access basket...

TABLE CONTENTS Tall Tales of Josh Gibson*Call-In Radio and WAR*Will Leitch: Productivity*Writing while disappointed*Don’t check the numbers*Cutting High School Memories*Why social media?*Cookies from Twitter*Jaded in the press box*“My fandom is mine”*Mike Matheny and Mike Schildt and The Matheny Manifesto*Ranking 900 Woody Harrelson movies*”Star Wars” vs. “Annie Hall.”*Goodbyes. THE INFINITE INNIN...

TABLE OF CONTENTS Hartnett, Landis, and Capone*Willie Montanez: Tap-Tap*Jesse Spector: Rockies players like tacos and chess*Pregame non-conversations with Derek Jeter and Paul O’Neill at the old Yankee Stadium*Reconciling with Paul O’Neill’s affiliations*The Trevor Story story*The Dome Over Fenway Park*Why take owner finances on faith?*David Wright and Brandon Webb*The parsimony of the Lerners*Rob...

TABLE OF CONTENTS Ken Hunt’s Half-Season of Glory*Jack Morris/Yoenis Cespedes*More on Luke Heimlich*Cliff Corcoran: Diseases of cattle and ballplayers*The pointlessness of trade coverage*Trades that ripple through history*Revising opinions of the Francisco Mejia trade*The Jesus Montero analogy*Everything wrong with the Indians*Red Sox needs*Moving Salvador Perez*The Billy Hunter digression*Mike Mo...

Mary Craig (Baseball Prospectus, The Hardball Times podcast) returns to talk Manny Machado, Papa John-style privilege, and the Home Run Derby. Plus, Steve tells stories of a Hall of Famer with a bigger heart than Josh Hader and the Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the America First Committee. WARNING: Luke Heimlich, an amateur pitcher with a record of child abuse, is discussed extensively during the second...

Steve is joined by Christopher Bonanos, author of Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous to discuss the photographic great who documented what went on in the naked city, the nighttime New York of the 1930s and 40s, after the ballplayers had put their gloves away for the day. Plus, Tom Seaver is traded as the ‘70s Mets force a big-market team into a small-market suit, and a Dodgers fan gets ribbed...

Business of baseball writer Maury Brown (Forbes) joins Steve to talk about the future of labor relations in the game, the shift from television to on-line viewing, the stadium-financing boondoggle, and more, plus tales of Pepper Martin and Joe DiMaggio in distress. TABLE OF CONTENTS Pepper Martin’s breaking point*Joltin’ Joe’s lack of leverage*Maury Brown: The usual hat talk*Do the players get a c...