The Infinite Inning

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Eleven Bites*Scooter and Where to Find Grover Cleveland When He’s Dead*The Children of Greater Boston Want Twinkies*Vice-President in the Clubhouse*All Alone on the Mound*Grantland Rice and “To Any Athlete” Redux*Stephen Strasburg’s Surgery*“I’m An Outfielder Now”*Ed Morris Callback/“Poker Face” Crossover*The Lonesome Death of Deerfoot Milan*The Lonesome Photographs of Lewis Hine*Early Wynn 299 vs Early Wynn 300*Distance and Enchantment*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?

“The $100,000 Muff” as a state of being and the tale of a shortstop who tried to play only when he felt up to it.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Casey Stengel’s Imitation of Fred Snodgrass in America*A Very Simple But Important Note About the Hazardous Nature of an Open Drawbridge*Ray Chapman vs. Charlie Hollocher*How Many Shortstops Have Hit .340?*The Phantom Stomachache*Playing Through Pain*Going Home and the Sad Finish*The Hopeful Ending*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?

An episode about having generosity for broken infielders, both the capable and relatively incapable, the healthy but unproductive and the productive but slain by inanimate objects.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Meet Linus*Meet Linus’s Watercooler*A Listener Makes a Complaint*Frameworks and Platforms*The Great Nations of Europe*George Stovey’s 1.13-ERA Season*What is This Show About, and Who Gets to Decide?*The Greatest Shortstop in Browns History*The Anti-Greatest Shortstop in Anyone’s History*Undersized in the 20th Century*McGraw Thwarted, Bresnahan Cursed*Cleveland Regrets*The Switch-Hitter Gambit*Inky Strange and Other Prospects*Enter the Steelers and Other Saving Throws*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?

In which the player called “Honey-Boy” is traded by the Cubs to great derision and a rebuild movement is compared to the art of long-term self-deception.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
All the Lies That Are My Life: A Story by Harlan Ellison and/or Self-Deception by a Dead-End Manager*You Don’t Belong Here*The Challenge-Trade*An Odd Swap of Catchers*My Outfield for Your Outfield*All the Lies That Are Your Rebuild*A’s Center Fielders in 2022*Esteury vs. Estuary*Zen and the Art of Dode, or Vice-Versa*The Etymology of Dode*Honey-Boy*Burning Ballparks and Fatal Catches*Live Ashes*Haunted Hospital Beds*Cleveland Fire Rescue!*Cy versus Dode*Cubs in Center*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 tale for New Year’s Eve: A Giants prospect wins a job but fails to cope with harsh fate. Plus the usual asides and digressions, including Satchel Paige’s Six Rules for Staying Young, with commentary.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Satchel Paige’s Six Rules for Staying Young, with Commentary*The Shinners Factor*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 solo because-it’s-Christmas episode in which Casey Stengel stages a protest but it’s the umpire who pays the ultimate price.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Intro: A Branch Rickey Christmas*The Reserve Clause, Player Choice, Happiness, and “Richard Corey”*Is Steve Cohen a Rational Actor?*Casey Stengel sulks in Pittsburgh*The Yellow Telegram*Saranac Lake*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 solo episode dashes from umpires stranded on foggy seas to a Savage pitcher who received multiple Purple Hearts—and somehow conquered his control while doing so—and reflects on what his story warns us about our own times.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Day the Umps Heard “Ahooga!”*Burt Uniform Tops and Burnt YouTubers*Old Starting Rotations and Starting Pitcher Tandems, Starring Justin Verlander et al*Angels Priorities*The Ancient 2005 Yankees*“I’ll Bonk Alone”*Cosplaying Fascism*Bob Savage, High School Pitcher (?), Major Leaguer, War Hero*Fred McGriff Misread*The Only Two Reasons to Have an Elder Rotation*Attenuated 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?

Cliff Corcoran returns to discuss the new Hall of Fame ballot, negative associations with certain players and even uniforms, the disparate interpretations possible when reading a key “Peanuts” strip, and more. Plus tales: A pitcher with a problem pitches a no-hitter and then things get weird—and potentially fatal.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Spirited Thanksgiving*Intergalactic Union Day*It Wasn’t the Alcohol that Killed Him*Cliff Corcoran*Hollywood Stars Hats and the Holocaust*Here’s the World War I Flying Ace*Escapism of Different Kinds*The Gertrude Question Two Ways*The New Hall of Fame Ballot*Carlos Beltran*The Triumph of WAR*The Bernie Williams Discontents*The Carole King Digression*Brian Cashman and Jacoby Ellsbury*Nick Senzel Was Not One of Them*Skipped “The Sound of Music”*“Gone with the Wind”/“The Best Years of Our Lives”*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

A solo episode features a controversial managerial decision that might have lost the 1935 World Series for the Cubs and a look at a moment in baseball and the rest of the nation on August 14 of that year that hints at where we are now.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
A World Series Inflection Point, 1935*Best Lefties in Cubs History?*Jolly Cholly Visits a Chinese Restaurant*Mr. Rogers on the Interstate*Unresolved Traffic Bottlenecks*Woodrow Wilson at Versailles*Blue Tribe vs. Green Tribe*August 14, 1935 in Baseball* A Litany of Phelpses*Blondy Ryan vs. Michael Harris et al*Ducky Schofield ‘60*Lynching ‘35*The Social Security Act*Insecurity*Sam Leslie Leaves the Game and Possibly Everything Else*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?

David Roth returns to discuss the postseason thus far, remember bad Braves teams and worse shortstops, wonder at the complacency of the AL Central, and be psychically assaulted by “Citizens for Sanity.” Plus tales: The Reds’ revival in, and the Yankees aftermath, of the 1976 World Series, and the story of Liz Funk, an outfielder who came up with the wrong team at the wrong time.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Anti-Complacency and the 1976 World Series*The Ballad of Liz Funk, Man in the Wrong Place*David Roth: Random Ron Gant Reference*Which Leads Inevitably to Alfredo Griffin*The Guardians Were Cheap*The Byron Buxton Conundrum*Every AL Central Team is Annoying In It’s Own Way*Rooting for Dusty/Joe Maddon, Numbers, and Nerds*The Wrong Pizza Hut*Once Again: George Steinbrenner’s Shrimp Scambi*Aaron Judge and Jacob deGrom’s Pizza Hut(s)*“Stop the Insanity”*Cheesy Cheddar Biscuits*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?