The Infinite Inning

On the road to grandmother’s house, we ask whether a 19th-century game purported to be the greatest of all time was any fun, stopping along the way to admire the marital problems of a star second baseman and various other acts of criminality. Plus Walter Johnson avoids comparisons with a young star. The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. The Infinite Inning is a journe...

By listener request, the story of Casey Stengel and the sparrow, but first, a pitcher is mercilessly mocked for his pickoff move and a second baseman is disabled by a piece of chewing gum. The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves...

Two players are cursed with high expectations and both have their moments, but one becomes best known for sitting down and the other finds you can’t succeed if your best tool is a razor blade. Then we consider why Sam Rice finished just short of 3,000 hits and its implications for the near future. TRIGGER WARNING: The second half of this episode contains a discussion of suicide and the loss of a c...

After the week we’ve had, we’re all once again in the Infinite Inning, but is there a way out? Follow along the winding path as a Yankees ace puts his head through a windshield, toxic soup is eaten, a Negro Leagues catcher suffers an awful fate, a manager gets a duck, and a pitcher plays the William Tell Overture on the harmonica but fails to record a single strikeout, and somehow all of this tell...

An election-eve episode that begins with two notable World Series gaffes and the players who weren’t blamed and those who were, and what that says about us as a society. We then turn to contingency and its effect in history—how much of what happens to us is the result of wisdom, and how much is luck?—as exemplified by one move that Connie Mack didn’t make, and one that he did. The Infinite Inning...

First, some brief thoughts on the passing of the great Fernando Valenzuela and Fernandomania as a contrast to the great upheavals of 1200 BC. Then join Steve at the Morristown Festival of Books for a conversation with author Kevin Baker about The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City . The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time ma...

This week, stories of fathers, sons, and brothers playing baseball, one an ancestor of the current Yankees manager who witnessed a strange Phil Rizzuto baserunning blunder, and three brothers who ran a baseball school, but only two of them were major leaguers. Join Steve October 19 at the Morristown, NJ Festival of Books for a baseball panel starring Kevin Baker and Andy Martino! This week’s Baseb...

Luis Tiant’s passing provokes an exploration of both his and his father’s immigrant story and dovetails with a sequel to our discussion of Pete Rose’s passing in which four very early Negro Leagues greats—two in the Hall of Fame, two out—ask to be fairly measured against history. Join Steve at the Morristown, NJ Festival of Books on October 19! The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to under...

There is no such thing as a bad baby, but there is such a thing as a bad man. The passing of Pete Rose brings on thoughts of Darryl Strawberry’s peak and rapid fall, ice cream sundaes served in batting helmets, and the responsibility of the audience to separate art, artist, and shrine. Then take a quick tour of the best third basemen not yet in the Hall of Fame and why they and Pete Rose stand as...

This anniversary episode brings a fresh look at some of the themes that have obsessed us since the show began back in 2017, specifically humanity, empathy, and the replacement level. We revisit Joe McCarthy and Slim Jones’ pain and the former’s Hall of Fame induction, Heinie Mueller’s basepath errors, Oscar Grimes’ fielding miscues, Theodore Roosevelt’s “Fear God and Take Your Own Part” and how it...

A list of New York-centric baseball nicknames in Kevin Baker’s The New York Game sends us down a rabbit hole a hundred years deep in which we consider dozens of players and stories before being stopped by a mystery: Who—and why—was “The Lively Turtle?” Join Steve for a baseball panel at the Morristown Festival of Books , October 19! The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of min...

A 19th-century player is intentionally hit so many times he forces a crazy rules change, and then we consider one of the Negro Leagues greats in light of recent racist rumors about pets in danger.  The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdo...

Two tales of Frank Chance, who may have been the Cubs’ Peerless Leader but had a pathological compulsion to sacrifice his brain on the altar of baseball—and this after he had saved himself and a Cubs pennant from extortionist threats—or did he? Also includes too effusive an appreciation of San Diego. The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the g...

We explore what put the “Solon” in Sacramento, plus the Man of 1,000 Baseball Caps returns! We enjoy a visit with original Infinite Inning rotation member Cliff Corcoran for the usual wide-ranging discussion of hats and a variety of 2024 baseball topics! TABLE OF CONTENTS What is a Solon? *Cliff Corcoran: “I Prefer the Ones Without Guests”*Ghosting Guests and Baseball Cards*Jorge Posada vs. Yadier...

Various reflections of the Orange Confidence Man extended universe, the 2024 White Sox, and other frauds, featuring an exploration of what happens when you knock the opposing pitcher out in the first, featuring visits with Babe Ruth, Jimmy Carter, and other legendarily temperamental figures.   The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the game’s p...

The meaning of a sign in a manager’s office is considered and interlinked with one of the final Beatles singles and a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, and “The Fall and Forgiveness of Lyn Lary, 1931 and 1940,” concludes. The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discuses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at l...

Infinite Inning 293: The Pitcher Who Was at Sea Before and After He Joined the Navy One of baseball’s all-time punchlines turns out to deserve his status, but not for the reason we thought. Plus, “The Fall and Forgiveness of Lyn Lary, 1931 and 1940,” continues as Lyn grows closer to Lou Gehrig following one of the greatest baserunning gaffes of all time. Trigger warning: Mention of Suicide. Steven...

Infinite Inning 292: One for Dad On a solemn occasion, the last home run in Senators II history is recalled—did it really happen? Plus part one of a hypothetical visit to a transitional time for the Yankees and a very different take on Lou Gehrig in, “The Fall and Forgiveness of Lyn Lary, 1931 and 1940.”  The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses...

Benjamin Franklin’s warning, the course of empire, and the 1965 Yankees, Joe DiMaggio versus Casey Stengel versus the Detroit Tigers and the Red Sox, how to solve an abundance of outfielders and a lack of first basemen, and much more.  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...

Jimmie Foxx versus Cass Elliot in a battle of unfairly judged passings. 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. Alo...

In 1951 a Hall of Fame sportswriter reacts to the advent of Willie Mays in a spectacularly stupid way and we are on the spot with a stern rebuke and a bit of historical background to that moment. Then we look at not the stars of the Negro Leagues, but a pitcher who was at the opposite end of the spectrum—his pitching made the stars possible—and he in turn prompts a visit to the Minnesota Twins of...

A Negro Leagues great with a odd nickname opts out of education and into baseball, and we revisit the day that Philadelphia fans booed not Santa Claus but the President of the United States. 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, anecd...

Two stories begin in different times and places, but both converge on the same great player and the same great lesson. Starring a plethora of Hall of Famers, among them some of the greatest Yankees of all time, a third baseman better remembered today than he was in his time, and a pitcher who had just one great, strange day, but who lived happily ever after in all the ways that count. The Infinite...

Tiny Bonham and William Shakespeare revisited, Steve Trout, Don Mattingly, 20-run losses, and dealing with loss. 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...

A pitcher who only got one chance, an antisocial Hall of Famer who got many, and the one time he didn’t fight, the Max Kepler Ass-Ad (Lucky Larry) and Reggie for Panasonic, and the submarine pitcher killed by an aspect or two of the American Way. 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...