The Infinite Inning
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?
Episodes
May 3, 2025 • 63 mins
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 ...
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April 26, 2025 • 53 mins
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 Go...
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Go...
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April 19, 2025 • 47 mins
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, explorati...
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, explorati...
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April 12, 2025 • 46 mins
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 tragi...
Trigger Warning: There’s nothing graphic about any of the above, but we do talk a bit about more than one tragi...
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April 5, 2025 • 46 mins
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 Phil...
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March 29, 2025 • 44 mins
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 g...
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses the g...
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March 22, 2025 • 65 mins
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 ra...
Trigger Warning: There are extensive discussions of slavery, and a brief one of ra...
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March 15, 2025 • 56 mins
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...
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...
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March 8, 2025 • 55 mins
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 out...
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 out...
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March 1, 2025 • 52 mins
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 fo...
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 fo...
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February 22, 2025 • 53 mins
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. Steve...
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. Steve...
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February 15, 2025 • 44 mins
Infinite Inning 317: You Can’t Be There If You’re Already Here The show must go on, and so we begin with Dodgers Hall of Fame manager Walt Alston, the overreach of the man he replaced, Chuck Dressen (and Mrs. Dressen too) and what Walt did to make ends meet, then pause for some ruminations on The Way We Live Now, then visit Opening Day at Yankee Stadium in 1957 for home-run heroics by a forgotten player, bad play-by-play, and a dir...
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February 8, 2025 • 48 mins
We begin once more with nice guys who finish last, but we confront the possibility that the qualifier was overstated, segue into the “Window Breakers” Giants of the late 1940s, Octavius Catto and Tommy Henrich, two pitchers who had more than their share of freak injuries, and so much more. Plus some more thoughts on the future of the show.
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses ...
The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman discusses ...
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February 1, 2025 • 54 mins
An embarrassing moment for Johnny Evers as he makes the reacquaintance of a pitcher he dismissed, and a certain town in Pennsylvania suffers a man-made disaster—but which Hall of Famers family lived there? And some questions about the show's next direction.
Trigger Warning: This episode contains one solitary cussword at the end of the episode. Save your dog from having his vocabulary corrupted.
The Infinite Inning is not only about b...
Trigger Warning: This episode contains one solitary cussword at the end of the episode. Save your dog from having his vocabulary corrupted.
The Infinite Inning is not only about b...
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January 25, 2025 • 40 mins
Four quick tales: Leo Durocher excoriates a baserunner and gives us some quality advice, a college player dies on the field, a player is signed by the Yankees under false pretenses, and a minor league Baltimore Oriole goes into the stands.
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. Expec...
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. Expec...
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January 11, 2025 • 32 mins
We begin the new year with two tales of pitchers who could have used a break, one an ancient Cubbie into self-deprecation, another a war-era Cardinal in need of appreciation—from Branch Rickey.
pistol_riccochet.ogg by Diboz
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, anecdo...
pistol_riccochet.ogg by Diboz
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, anecdo...
Mark as Played
December 21, 2024 • 27 mins
A half-length Casey Stengel-centric episode as we all get ready for the big holiday with all its joy and peppermint bark. Includes way too much about pinch-hitting during the Truman administration, if that’s your kind of thing.
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, ane...
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, ane...
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December 14, 2024 • 52 mins
We begin with a brief threnody on those who would say ballplayers are overpaid, spanning Babe Ruth to Juan Soto and the arbitrary nature of those ‘plaints. We then head into the darkness for the thwarted careers and prematurely-concluded marriages of two 1930s middle infielders and how they reacted to a very specific, cruel form of tragedy.
Trigger Warning: This episode contains a discussion of self-harm and attempted suicide. That...
Trigger Warning: This episode contains a discussion of self-harm and attempted suicide. That...
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December 7, 2024 • 51 mins
A manager fails to comfort a nervous rookie pitcher and an outfielder of ancient days ends his career when he overreacts to an unusual family-oriented insult.
Trigger Warning: This episode contains one unusual cussword from 1892. Hide the children.
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 lar...
Trigger Warning: This episode contains one unusual cussword from 1892. Hide the children.
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 lar...
Mark as Played
November 27, 2024 • 44 mins
On the road to grandmother’s house, we ask whether a 19th-century game purported to be the greatest of all time was any fun, stopping along the way to admire the marital problems of a star second baseman and various other acts of criminality. Plus Walter Johnson avoids comparisons with a young star. The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind.
Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with...
Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with...
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