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PODCAST

The Infinite Inning

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 about our world today. Baseball Prospectus"s Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we"ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you

sports baseball

All Episodes

75:26

Infinite Inning Reissue 5 (173): Lou Gehrig Dreams of...

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/06/04

In early February 2021 it seemed as if the danger of internally-inflicted fascism might be over, and so we looked at an occasion when Lou Gehrig was confronted with the same kind of movement and had a visceral reaction. Plus a lighter tale of a semi-pro pitcher who injured himself in an unusual way. We also revisit some of Twins executive Kevin Goldstein’s comments on the Colorado Rockies from this episode. In this episode’s new introduction: The naivety of some of this episode’s comments about the

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52:09

Infinite Inning 333: Leadership, Dodgers Style

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/05/31

We take another trip around a past sun with the Brooklyn Dodgers, wondering about the origins of Uncle Robbie’s pronounced facial scar and then question a couple of old stories involving his lack of education: Were umpires really policing his spelling? Then, after a brief pause to ponder the nature of unrequited love, we rejoin the pennant-winning 1941 Dodgers for a future Hall of Fame shortstop with the yips and the unfairly derided first baseman who tried to calm him. The Infinite Inning is a

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41:27

Infinite Inning Reissue 4 (044): Cookie Says Just the...

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/05/28

We return to the program’s first year for two of our more fun baseball profiles, both featuring Brooklyn Dodgers—one from the 19th century, one from the 1940s, and both a little uncomfortable. In a new introduction, we explore different modes of parenting and a form of relationship for which we lack the right word. The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, anticipates, and even mocks

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66:45

Infinite Inning 332: Women at the Park and Dictators...

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/05/24

Infinite Inning 332: Women at the Park and Dictators in the Dugout The Chicago Cubs push hard on Ladies Day promotions, but a few object claiming that women don’t know the game of baseball Then baseball managers as autocrats compared to the real thing, and why confusing one for the other is a very dangerous idea, featuring Ossie Vitt and the Crybaby Cleveland team, Stengel vs. Spahn, McGraw vs. Groh, Buchanan vs. emancipation, and everyone vs. “virtue signaling.” The Infinite Inning is a journey to

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37:21

Infinite Inning Reissue 3 (013): Derek Jeter, Joe...

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/05/21

Before we revisit episode 13 and it’s discussion of the O’Connell-Dolan scandal, starring a player and a coach lately sprung off the banned list by Rob Manfred, we have a new introduction discussing Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis, the death of Franklin Roosevelt, Derek Jeter’s refusal to move off of shortstop, and we give one more encore to the most perceptive thing Grantland Rice every wrote.The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine

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58:48

Infinite Inning 331: Runners Down in the Lanes

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/05/17

The secret to managers’ success is revealed and dispensed with, in a hypothetical version of 1976, George Steinbrenner gifts Reggie Jackson with a plane, Hal Chase isn’t off the list because he was never on the list, a pre-Orioles pitcher becomes ill indeed, and baserunners are obstructed in 1928 and 2025, with differing outcomes suggesting the ways baseball can be like a sloppily-written document. (Snare Drum Buzz Roll, then Tada by TheRandomSoundByte2637)The Infinite Inning is a journey to the

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31:34

Infinite Inning Reissue 2 (006): Go Home, Snooks!

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/05/14

In this return to one of this baseball podcast’s earliest episodes, we discover two utility infielders, the Yankees’ Wayne Tolleson and, well, nobody’s Snooks Dowd (he was a Tigers, A’s, and Dodgers reject) who weren’t where they were supposed to be—or maybe they were exactly where they were supposed to be, but those in authority had a different opinion. This episode features a new introduction reflecting on how these lost players relate to some of the displaced people of our own times.The Infinite

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55:27

Infinite Inning 330: The Great Boston Red Sox Depression

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/05/10

A pope who supposedly wanted baseball but caved to the Nazis instead, an amateur pitcher who cost a team a pennant, the Perdicaris incident, a Pirates manager is fired and the way his predecessor resigned, and the 2025 Colorado Rockies versus the 1932 Boston Red Sox and both in the hands of 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

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67:44

Infinite Inning Reissue 1 (146): The Rulebreakers &...

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/05/08

For the show’s first reissue, we return to an episode from almost precisely five years ago which compares players who wouldn’t follow rules and inspired their clubs not to follow rules back, a subject framed by our once and possibly future public health crisis. We then turn to one of the great baseball stories, the misbegotten career of Don Padgett, who Branch Rickey tried to squeeze into a catcher’s mask. This episode features a new introduction and occasional other interruptions.The Infinite

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63:46

Infinite Inning: 328 Some of Us Just Have a Type

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/05/03

We consider the legacy of the great Venezuelan players who have graced the game going back to Alex Carrasquel in 1939, constructing an all-star team of players from that beleaguered nation. What can any one of them tell us about Venezuelans as a whole? Hint: it’s the same thing that a highway serial killer can tell us about your best friend’s gramma. Then we return to the strange, inebriated world of Shufflin’ Phil Douglas. Did he betray not just the game and himself, but his wife as well?The

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53:52

Infinite Inning 327: Moon, Sheriff, Dutch, and the...

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/04/26

We begin with two players who would have been crowded off of modern rosters, and also couldn’t have made the 1970s Oakland A’s due to the owner’s insistence on carrying two pinch-runners at once. Then we travel to Philadelphia and visit two pitchers seemingly on parallel tracks, one who might pitch forever as the other confronts a life-threatening illness.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

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47:23

Infinite Inning 326: The Cult of Pennant Park

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/04/19

We visit the high-flying world of Florida real estate speculation 100 years ago with the volatile manager of the New York Giants John J. McGraw. When the bubble burst, would it be a case of 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

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46:57

Infinite Inning 325: No Dead Man Should Have a Watch...

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/04/12

We examine the Los Angeles Angels’ hot start in light of the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers’ hot start and what happened afterwards, and stumble across a writer saying inappropriate things about Spike Owen and Teddy Higuera. Then we talk about the tragic loss of Octavio Dotel, “The Pitt,” and Philadelphia’s 1903 “Black Saturday.” Trigger Warning: There’s nothing graphic about any of the above, but we do talk a bit about more than one tragic building collapse. It’s tasteful, it’s respectful and, we hope,

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46:10

Infinite Inning 324: The Way We Live Now (Again)

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/04/05

Infinite Inning 324: The Way We Live Now (Again) In a largely improvised episode we reexperience current events through the lens of Joe DiMaggio’s 1941 hitting streak, counting the days while the war stays away, while once again a government effort requires us to rally ‘round Jackie Robinson—and Abraham Lincoln too, and we do so while checking in on the better brand of shortstops offered by the Negro Leagues’ Newark Eagles and Philadelphia Stars (and shame Connie Mack one more time). The Infinite

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44:17

Infinite Inning 323: I Fought the Law

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/03/29

We debate whether a victim of the First World War and the 1918 influenza pandemic was the heretofore unidentifiable Greatest Lost Prospect, we make a quick stop to compare takes on the 1915 World Series to Social Darwinism, and rediscover a dirty owners’ trick after a pitcher gathers up all his many girlfriends and drives into a wall. 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

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65:04

Infinite Inning 322: Hollywood Crossed with Uz

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/03/22

A pitcher reaching a breaking point with his creator sends us scurrying back to the Old Testament for guidance, and then we unpack the stories behind Steve’s Baseball Prospectus column this week, a reaction to the Department of Defense labeling Jackie Robinson as “deisports.” Should you wish to read the column, it’s available free (no paywall) at BP. Trigger Warning: There are extensive discussions of slavery, and a brief one of rape, in the second part of the show. There is also perhaps one mild

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56:19

Infinite Inning 321: Man's Life's a Gamble

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/03/15

Casey Stengel (our mascot, hero, and deity) steals a couple of uniforms and feels bad about it, and then a successful manager of the Red Sox is fired under dubious circumstances, and then virtually everyone in the story catches tuberculosis. Trigger Warning: There are a couple of fleeting mentions of self-harm in the second act of the show. 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

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55:14

Infinite Inning 320: The Fatal Bellow of the Man They...

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/03/08

A sportswriter faces his own irrelevance on the morning after Pearl Harbor and finds a way back to baseball, and then a pitcher loses it and reignites a brawl that had already ended—featuring more future Hall of Famers than wound up in the Hall of Fame. Yes, it all makes sense in the end. 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,

en

52:15

Infinite Inning 319: Songs of Innocence and Experience

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/03/01

The way we live today prompts a tale of two future Hall of Famers inflicting pain on one another, yet another Hall of Famer, Phil Rizzuto, suffers pain and the host does too, and finally a story of a catcher who decided to engage with a world of corruption and paid a high price.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,

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53:47

Infinite Inning 318: A Murder in Albany and Other Tales

The Infinite Inning ·

2025/02/22

A minor leaguer gets involved with the wrong woman, but who does she get involved with in the aftermath? And why did the pitcher throw the inkstand? Tigger Warning: There is one mild cussword early on, but one supposes there are a few adult matters related to sexuality that come up in passing. You might want to say “La la la” over that if the kids are around. 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

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