David Roth returns to talk about competitive balance, over-monitoring mound visits, and the pernicious nature of social media (not back on it, still on it). Meanwhile, Steve tries to turn a nonsensical Jerry Coleman call into something dark and disturbing and rants about outfielders from 1934 to the present day who were damaged, sometimes severely, by unpadded outfield walls.

The Haunting of Bruce Benedict*Hazards in the Outfield, with Billy McKinney, Dustin Fowler, Earle Combs, and Pete Reiser*David Roth: Bartolo Colon rides again*Waiting for R.A. Dickey*The cosmopolitanism of Opening-Day rosters*The Way We Never Were: When baseball was a million white guys named “Pete”*The Taylorizing of baseball*The Applebee’s of Baseball*The consequences of underpaying minor leaguers*Biometrics?*Facebook and other things that should have been obvious*How to follow two sports at once*The downtime in sports*Mound visits*The Jon Rothstein/”This is March” piece*Once more unto The Ratio*The pernicious effect of Twitter*Who we pretend to be*The Zen “Okay” Method of Pitching to Mike Trout*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?