The Infinite Inning

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

Infinite Inning Reissue 18 (067): Ballplayers and Pastries Above Replacement-Level

October 8, 2025 • 47 mins
In both this week’s new remarks and in the reissue segment we revisit our obligation to think critically and how the concept of WAR can help us frame the abstract concepts of “better” and “worse,” and that comes to baseball players, politics, and, yes, chain and independent-bakery coffee rolls—that is, WADD (Wins Above Dunkin Donuts). How many more apples is Aaron Judge than the number of apples you need or want? We even find Luke ...
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Infinite Inning 347: Spahn, Bringer of Screwballs; Mars, Bringer of War

October 4, 2025 • 44 mins
We begin by fixing the Rockies with the 1987 Cardinals, stopping off at the intersection of George Steinbrenner gaslighting and (one more time) my Chuck Knoblauch Story. Then we journey back to World War II and look at some dire events adjacent to some future Hall of Famers and try to place them in context of some current events involving today’s fighting forces. And then we come back to the Rockies, who turn out to be the key to t...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 18 (007): Lou Gehrig and Austin McHenry Haunt the ACA

October 1, 2025 • 33 mins
We revisit an early episode about two great ballplayers who sickened at midcareer and, sadly, could not come back in any sense. What can we learn from them? This week’s new remarks expand on that theme, the government shutdown, and on the idea of the Infinite Inning podcast itself.

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often re...
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Infinite Inning 346: Minnesota Twins Columnated Ruins Domino

September 27, 2025 • 52 mins
Collapsing teams this September inspire a visit with a Twins journeyman who has a huge day at the plate, keeping an unexpected contender in first place for a little longer (though the magic leaves when Elvis does), and then reveals the way he’s tried to take charge of his destiny, Rod Carew wonders if he’s been accepted, and three old guys living near Cincinnati go to jail for “contumely.”

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the pas...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 17 (076): Sammy Sosa and the Illuminati

September 25, 2025 • 70 mins
Before we go back to 2018 for a discussion of the only Cubs general manager who was moonlighting from his job at the fish-market and a non-baseball tale, one of the more obscure and unflattering episodes of America’s westward expansion, we discuss our need for a shared reality and one of the earliest conspiracy theories. How are you going to be here with us if you believe that we’re being controlled by them?  

The Infinite Inning is...
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Infinite Inning 345: In Which Babe Ruth Marries a Man and Mickey Mantle Feels Poorly

September 20, 2025 • 56 mins
Babe Ruth backs the attack as Babe Ruth gets married, but to a guy named H.C., not a former model named Claire. Cal Raleigh goes on a rampage and Mickey Mantle finishes 1961 quietly, but why did the latter happen and what can we learn from the way he and Billy Martin lived their lives?

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball refle...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 16 (011): You Have to Be Resilient in Baseball

September 17, 2025 • 40 mins
...Because you might just field the ball with your skull. This week’s new remarks include further reflections on the national calamity unleashed last week, leading into a reissue episode focused on a time the manager of the Dodgers, a chronic lie, told a self-protective, CYA fib that got away from him and nearly cost him his job. We also get a look back at slugging first baseman whose knee quit in spectacular fashion, and, in part ...
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Infinite Inning 344: If Czolgosz Had Read the Box Scores

September 13, 2025 • 48 mins
In which the outfielder called Zaza is rediscovered, as is the hit “dirty” turn-of-the-century play that gave him his name. We then briefly pause for a Dodgers outfielder’s career to come to a sudden end, leading to an unusual inning in more ways than one, and the ride concludes with a visit to the world of September 1901 and an argument about who acts, who doesn’t, and what games they might have attended instead.

The Infinite Inni...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 15 (055): A Baseball Conversation with Davey Johnson

September 10, 2025 • 68 mins
We return to 2018 and a conversation with the late great manager Davey Johnson, with a cameo from his very excited dogs. This week’s new remarks expand on Johnson’s Hall of Fame case, though it’s now beside the point. We also have a brief story in which Babe Ruth gets hurt, but someone else suffers a worse injury.

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, Ame...
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Infinite Inning 343: Yankees First Baseman America I

September 6, 2025 • 47 mins
First a catcher and an umpire supposedly participate in a physically impossible act, a computer program vexes the host and leads to a discussion of one possibly beneficial use of AI, and the Yankees acquire a very good hitter because everyone else is in the Army. Will it happen again in a darker way?

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror,...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 14 (209): Baseball Before Vaccines

September 4, 2025 • 74 mins
This week’s new remarks are occasioned by the Florida surgeon general’s decision (which he may or may not have the power to enforce) to repeal all vaccine mandates in the state. Then we return to the first time the Pirates traded a future MVP and revisit the sad story of Cardinal catcher Bill DeLancey.

Apologies for the lack of a farewell note--the mixdown was being very wonky and I couldn't get through it without it crashing

The In...
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Infinite Inning 342: To Kill a Baseball Team

August 29, 2025 • 53 mins
An obscure umpire-punching incident by a Washington Senators outfielder helps cement the death of the franchise, the slowness of catchers is recalled when a famously leadfooted example steals a base, a sad manager and a sadder junior high school history test recalled.

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, ...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 13 (041): The Yankees, the Senators, and the Circle of Cows

August 27, 2025 • 53 mins
In this week’s new remarks, we consider a revival of the baseball musical Damn Yankees which may let the bigoted owners of the original Washington Senators off the hook for destroying their franchise, with a quick look at the Homestead Grays’ residency in the District of Columbia. In the reissue part of the show, we return to “The Turtle Who Was Hated By God,” which is exactly what it sounds like, make a quick stop with a catcher w...
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Infinite Inning 341: Oh Say Can You See Bad Yankees Trades

August 22, 2025 • 69 mins
We’re back after an unanticipated medical time out! Casey Stengel gives a medical report and so does the host; why the bad parts of American history give meaning to the good parts, and vice-versa; a whirlwind tour of Pirates-Yankees trades, including one that should have happened but was preempted by an overzealous commissioner.

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machin...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 12 (068): The Dodgers, the Giants, and Being More Criminal Than You Have a Right to Be

July 30, 2025 • 48 mins
In this week’s new remarks, a sentimental farewell to the great Ryne Sandberg, the traffic en route to Citi Field and the world outside our windows, and a lesson from position players pitching. Then in our flashback segment, the entertaining but ill-fated Pea Ridge Day and the oddly parallel fates of a 1920s movie star and a New York Giants center fielder.

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using...
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Infinite Inning 340: The Yankees, Buhner, Phelps, and the Pinstriped Excuse

July 26, 2025 • 47 mins
In a Yankees-centric episode for deadline week, we revisit a rare homegrown Yankees third baseman at a moment he refused to sit down even as injuries ate him alive. Then we take another look at the Buhner-Phelps deal. The Yankees could hardly have done worse... But could they truly have done better?

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, ...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 11 (019): The Greatest Pitcher in A’s History and the Death-Dealing River

July 23, 2025 • 38 mins
The recent tragic flooding in Texas causes us to revisit the passing of one of baseball’s greatest and strangest southpaws and, in this week’s new remarks, wonder just when it is that anyone actually learns anything, and then how long will it be until they forget it again?

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. Baseball, America's brighter mirror, often reflects, a...
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Infinite Inning 339: The Greatest Deadline Deal and the L.A. White Sox Bring the Hall of Famers

July 19, 2025 • 38 mins
We revisit one of the greatest baseball trade deadline deals. Hint: It came on June 15, 1964, and then visit early 20th century Los Angeles and take a look at a neglected corner of baseball history, starting with Joe DiMaggio’s father in Sicily, journeying to Japan, and wrapping up in Texas with a player called “Goo-Goo.” And don’t forget “Sore” Feets!

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using base...
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Infinite Inning 338: Superman Almost Defunds the Negro Leagues

July 12, 2025 • 52 mins
The baseball content in Action Comics no. 1 has a bad effect on those who appeared, particularly the Yankees, the new Superman film, the nature of the character, and Superman vs. the gamblers in a 1939 issue with a Casey Stengel (Braves) and Ducky Medwick (Cardinals) appearance. Then we revisit a statement of values (the opposite of “Nazi” is “baseball”) and dip into Baseball’s Brief Lives to review the career of player, coach, and...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 10 (053): On Cobb, Robinson, American Values, and 3000 Hits

July 9, 2025 • 57 mins
In new remarks for this week’s baseball, history, and politics reissue, we discuss the Infinite Inning creed and ask what it is we can infer about whole groups if Johnny Bench was a better player than Johnny Roseboro or Lou Gehrig more of a slugger than Vic Power? (Hint: not a damned thing). Then we return to stories of Paul Waner’s 3000th hit and Ty Cobb’s racism and how it intersected with American attitudes during his formative ...
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