Infinite Inning 228: A Great Boy for Baseball

A solo episode in which sad past and sorry present collide in the spring of 1927, when even as Babe Ruth and the Yankees were setting records there was evil abroad in Michigan. Then we journey to 1947 and the moment Ben Chapman tried to derail Jackie Robinson and consider Josh Donaldson’s interaction with Tim Anderson as well. TRIGGER WARNING: A great deal of harm comes to children in this week’s first segment, which reflects on the recent massacre of innocents in Texas as well as previous incidents of recent years. TABLE OF CONTENTSMass Murder in a Michigan Town*The Infinite Inning Book is Coming*A Brief Thought about Shane McClanahan*The Gene Hackman Solution*A Moment with Roger Angell (A-S-D-R-U-B-A-L)*Robinson and Chapman and Donaldson and Anderson*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?