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 can’t get anybody out?
Episodes
October 24, 2026 • 51 mins
The Tampa Bay Rays’ return to the World Series inspires a look at the best players to come out of Florida, and—surprise—we discover that the most prominent Hall of Famers may not be the ones who have the most to teach us. Then we visit with Babe Ruth’s two daughters, one delighted, the other disappointed, and track down a story that broadcaster Mel Allen told about the Bambino concerning an improbable Yankee...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
October 17, 2026 • 55 mins
Meet the Milwaukee Brewers of yesterday and today—1944, 1982, and 2026—as well as that time Casey Stengel managed them to a pennant and had to leave anyway. Then we go back to the world of 1982, take a high-level view of the American League pennant winners, and spend a regrettable amount of time with a very sick teacher named Carl.
TRIGGER WARNING: The episode contains a discussion of recent violent episodes in ...
TRIGGER WARNING: The episode contains a discussion of recent violent episodes in ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
October 9, 2026 • 59 mins
Two players who destroyed their careers before they got anywhere close to the major leagues. Maybe they never would have, but who can say? A first baseman with a high on-base percentage throws it all away just to get some pants—a lot of pants. All the pants. Then, in our own time, a college pitcher is charged with sexual assault, but despite his lawyers insisting that the victim had “put herself in harm’s way,&rdq...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
October 3, 2026 • 61 mins
A .500 Astros team that slipped into the playoffs because of a faulty league structure bashes its own fans, something for which a long-ago cranky sportswriter had an answer that still obtains. Then we discuss the Cornell Rape Inquiry and note how some of the responses to it echo two long-ago cases involving major league ballplayers, one a completely incident in the career of a St. Louis Cardinals team captain.
TRIGGER WARNI...
TRIGGER WARNI...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
September 26, 2026 • 49 mins
In a column that suggests that sportswriters never change, a “writer’s wing” scribe makes a weak excuse for the negative qualities of one of baseball’s greatest hitters and weakest leaders, the “Rajah of Swat,” Rogers Hornsby. First, though, we stop off with a pitcher who never made it—or, more accurately, he never made the majors, but he pitched long enough and successfully enough that he ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
September 19, 2026 • 45 mins
First we visit a very close-by alternative reality in which a momentary weakness on the part of the original Yankee Stadium gives someone in a position of power the opportunity to slap his own name on the building (this should be starting to sound familiar). Then we visit a father and son, one who played the game at the highest level available to him, another who made art that celebrated it—and, oh, he was an astronaut too. <...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
September 12, 2026 • 50 mins
An odd tale of a pitcher unboxing a stuffed and mounted boar in the clubhouse leads to speculation about the nature of marriage and the trial of giving gifts and getting what you want at the same time. Then we check in on the Great War Exploits of one of the less celebrated Negro Leagues greats, speculate of how his homecoming could have been in a different America, and note missed opportunities to learn from the world around us, w...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
September 5, 2026 • 41 mins
The 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates blow the pennant race in one of the most dramatic losses of baseball history, but according to one of the current lords of our realm the Cubs should have just handed them the win. Yes, “The Homer in the Gloamin’” has retroactively been declared unamerican. Then we consider under obsession of the leadership by asking if the Dodgers are running a $700 million trade deficit with Shohei Oht...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 28, 2026 • 67 mins
Two tales of children whose adult life in baseball might have been influenced by childhood fears real and imagined (but mostly real). First, the speed-king of 1880s baseball (since dethroned or at least debunked) has to watch his parents await the arrival and Robert E. Lee and his hordes on their doorstep. Then we return to John McGraw, his dangerous youth, his possible encounters with Mark Twain, and an afterlife wish-list of writ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 21, 2026 • 53 mins
Two stories featuring one of the more rage-addicted pitchers of all time (no, not Johnny Allen, but good guess), one in which he overestimated a Hall of Famer’s rigidity and got ejected for it, another when he had simply had enough and removed himself from the situation—a self-destructive impulse that, in select circumstances, it might well be liberating to emulate. Plus: We revisit a segment on Tommy John, who passed a...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 15, 2026 • 35 mins
Two stories in which the players’ absence from the narrative is the point: First, we go back to John McGraw’s first right fielder with the Giants, a speed-based player who was supposed to be a nice guy, but still found occasion to heave this bat at the opposition. Then we visit a St. Louis Stars great who took a drink—or a lot of them—from the wrong bottle and ended up stiff and cold in San Diego. We ought t...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 8, 2026 • 63 mins
Over a hundred years ago, a forward-thinking sportswriter suggests that a certain Yankees slugger might solve a munitions crisis much like the one the United States military is reportedly suffering from today. Then we turn to the Giants of the John McGraw era for one of the more obscure Hall of Famers, one very different from Ruth but, like the Babe and the “platinum blonde” actress Jean Harlow, he got a raw deal from h...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 1, 2026 • 62 mins
In 1922, two New York teams make July trades that provoke a change in the way the game is played. Both were successful in their way, but how successful were they, really? And why did one of them involve a pitcher throwing up on Casey Stengel’s floor and a future Hall of Fame third baseman possibly passing blood? And we stop in on Babe Ruth in his last days and contrast a life of actual experience with a life of artificial exp...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
July 25, 2026 • 53 mins
Hall of Fame Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog gets stuck in the Yankees system—and the Army—leading to a discussion of social responsibility when it comes to risking the lives of citizen-soldiers (whether Herzog or Ted Williams in the Korean War years or something closer to the present day). Then we visit the win-or-go-home American League playoff game between the Red Sox and the Indians, a contest famously mishandled by...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
July 18, 2026 • 56 mins
Two instructive tales of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who, as Casey Stengel said, were at that time in Brooklyn. The 26-inning man places a clever comeback among his last words, but not before pilfering some stocks that didn’t belong to him, marrying the bosses daughter, and going broke, not necessarily in that order. Then a Deadball Era shortstop is spectacularly overrated compared to his betters, which included one of the best of ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
July 11, 2026 • 59 mins
We ask of various figures past and present (as Mark Twain once did) “Is He Alive or Is He Dead?” finishing with the time Babe Ruth was reported to have fatally crashed his car. Then we try to compare players across eras and find too many irreconcilable differences for comfort, and conclude with an Expos semi-great, the writer who seemingly inspired his parents, and the decline of reading.
The Infinite Inning is ...
The Infinite Inning is ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
July 3, 2026 • 55 mins
A July 4th episode: Lou Gehrig’s farewell and slight return, Joe DiMaggio flashes back to the Iron Horse streak, the National League is founded in the Centennial year as things go very wrong for George Custer (couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy), one of Sitting Bull’s kids gets baseball fever, and a .400 hitter sickens and vanishes from history because of a sometimes-flexible “rule.”
The Inf...
The Inf...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
June 27, 2026 • 48 mins
A young Yogi Berra battles his own pitching staff just as Dalton Rushing struggles to call pitches for Shohei Ohtani, Casey Stengel drags Yogi into the Joe McCarthy mess in Washington, Lefty Grove throws at a catcher and Dorothy Thompson tries to help war refugees. And John McGraw thought tennis-playing pitchers were effeminate? All that and more in this week’s episode!
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to ...
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
June 20, 2026 • 47 mins
The San Francisco Giants’ botched attempt at Pride Night prompts a look at Billy Sunday, the Cubs outfielder who had a religious awakening and became one of the most popular traveling evangelists of the early 20th century. Plus pitchers named Head, an ERA of 6.66, a no-hitter pitched with the wrong arm, and a young woman whose name baseball shouldn’t have forgotten.
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past t...
The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past t...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
June 13, 2026 • 47 mins
Trigger Warning: Discussions of self-harm.
A Reds pitcher confuses the end of his arm for the end of his life, several other players take the easy way out, a bizarre trade is deconstructed, the Marlins compared to the Browns and a certain IPO, and much more.
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, an...
A Reds pitcher confuses the end of his arm for the end of his life, several other players take the easy way out, a bizarre trade is deconstructed, the Marlins compared to the Browns and a certain IPO, and much more.
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, an...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.