The Infinite Inning

A shortstop has two wives (but finds time to invent the padded glove), a .330-hitting outfielder is driven off because of his tan, and a Native American pitcher wills himself to begin again—but not until cutting up with America’s most ubiquitous bird.

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains a brief discussion of suicide.

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?

This week a discussion of sadism as a way to pass the time with two tales from the early 20th century, one involving a violent Red Sox second baseman and the other an obnoxious Yankees shortstop named after the wrong condiment, plus more rioting fans, players who studied dentistry for no reason, a manager who got ejected for wearing a mask (not Bobby Valentine) and a personal encounter with Morgo the Globulous.

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?

Kate Claxton’s Six Rules for Staying Young versus Satchel Paige’s, plus the changing nature of public danger; more on fighting in baseball, with some 1924 ejections; more on Ed Kontechy, the “Bohemian Chocolate-Dropper,” and what that means (plus “enrober-strokers?”); umpires versus photographers in Cincinnati; have you ever tried Kipling, the biggest tomato, so much more!

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?

Infinite Inning 268: A Broom of Twigs as Are We All Casey Stengel, Winston Churchill, the 1962 Mets, Lavengro, what a besom is, Theodore Roosevelt, the Reverend Dr. Russell M. Brougher, the efficacy of prayer, Ed Konetchy, infidelity and early marriages, early chocolate beverages, Hernan Cortes, polyamory in the early 20th century Phillies ownership suite, managed by a dentist, dear old dad, Bobo Newsom, Shanty Hogan, Dadaism, the Marx Brothers, and the Beatles, Bob’s dad and the 1940 World Series, The Man from C.I.N.C.I.N.N.A.T.I., Pronoun: Bobo, peat-bog mummies and their offspring, Targaryens and Habsburgs, Dad and Bing, Dad and Rickey Henderson, Rickey and postseason shares, ancient Dodgers first basemen with tragic ends, Tim Jordan, Jake Daubert, Del Bissonette, the Chalmers Award, the Vincent Van Gogh exit, Lefty Gomez’s last words, and 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?

A World War II hero battles his way back to the mound and is given both rough and tender treatment by Ted Williams, a discussion of the Black Sox and the 14th Amendment, and the wildest pitching day in history fails to end a career.

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?

The last episode of 2023! A pitcher undergoes a questionable treatment on his arm and loses a unique oral talent, a utility infielder gets drunk, violent, and convicted, and a clarification about Jackie Robinson’s political mission to San Francisco.

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?

Famous last words, including Casey Stengel’s, a shortstop who liked semi-pro leagues better than the majors (and desperately needed a dermatologist), and an argument about moral relativism which ends in a pyramid of skulls.

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?

No Peckinpaughs were hurt in the recording of this episode, but we do visit the 1925 World Series, where Babe Ruth makes a dad joke that tempts fate, check in on a pitcher who may or may not have been a war correspondent, consider the greatest double-play combinations of all time, and question when getting to be a major league manager is less of an opportunity than it first appears, starring the Angels and what might have been the worst clubhouse of all time.

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?

In which a rookie’s arrogance (mildly) tests Earl Weaver and a pitcher nicknamed “Bucher Boy” prompts a mass ejection event.

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?

We begin with a player whose bid for a major league roster spot was deflected by fish-on-human violence and whose sense of humor was deflected by something more tragic, then we turn to Jose Urias’s second arrest for domestic violence and take a tour through player misbehavior both inside and outside the institution of marriage.

Transition music by ERH and Klankbeeld.

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?