PODCAST · sports
The Infinite Inning
by Steven Goldman
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
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Infinite Inning 396: The Pitcher Who Wouldn't Stop
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…
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Infinite Inning 395: The Cardinals Center Fielder Who Pled Guilty
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…
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Infinite Inning 394 The Rogers Hornsby Theory of Leadership
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...
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Infinite Inning 393: Yankee Stadium Goes Fascist
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…
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Infinite Inning 392: Red Sox Hunt/Negro Leaguers at War
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,...
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Infinite Inning 391: The Shohei Ohtani Trade Deficit
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...
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Infinite Inning 390 Baseball and Children Forever Frightened
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...
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Infinite Inning 389: The Pitcher Who Quit Midgame
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...
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Infinite Inning 388: A Ghost from the Negro Leagues
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...
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Infinite Inning 387: If Babe Ruth Were a Patriot Missile
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...
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Infinite Inning 386: The Yankees, the Giants, and the First Trading Deadline
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…
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Infinite Inning 385: The Fourth-Worst Self-Own in Red Sox History
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…
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Infinite Inning 384: Dodgers of Dubious Abilities & Moralities
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...
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Infinite Inning 383: When Babe Ruth's Car Turned Turtle
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…
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Infinite Inning 382: Joe DiMaggio Weeps for Lou Gehrig
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,...
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Infinite Inning 381: Yogi Berra versus Roy Cohn
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...
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Infinite Inning 380: The Cubs Outfielder Who Hated Evolution
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…
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Infinite Inning 379: Requiem for a Reds Pitcher
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…
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Infinite Inning 378: Casey, the Muscle or the Bone
A shorter episode about bad timing as exemplified by the time that Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel was run over by a car. 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…
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Infinite Inning 377: The Negro Leagues were a Ceiling
A shorter episode that takes a quick look at the Homestead Grays and the attenuated career of the late Bob Horner. 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…
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Infinite Inning 376: A Dog's Breakfast with the Yankees, Mets, and Shanty
A grab-bag episode in which the title says it all: The 40th anniversary of the 1986 Mets, how failed Yankees shortstop Bobby Meacham would have performed if Baseball-Reference had his name correctly, the possibility of women playing major league baseball, Thurman Munson’s Hall of Fame twin...
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Infinite Inning 375: The A's, Murder in Camden, and the Spiders from Cleveland
Infinite Inning 375: The A's, Murder in Camden, and the Spiders from Cleveland Several attempts at finding empathy through self-denial this week: We ask if it’s right to laugh at the players trapped by vile ownership into performing like abused seals for the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, if restraining...
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Infinite Inning 374: The 100th Anniversary of the 1927 Yankees One Year Early
We go back to the early days of the Angels (California, Los Angels, Anaheim, or anywhere in-between) for the untimely death of a pitcher, then look forward to next year, when one of the most famous and consequential baseball teams of all time will mark its 100th anniversary. What will Major…
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Infinite Inning 373: Baseball and Helen's Missing Cup
Two managers dropped this week, but four teams haven’t fired a manager in-season since the last century. Which were they, and is there even a point? Then we travel back to 1887, the ill-fated marriage between a Hall of Famer and an actress, her personal gift to baseball, and the birth of a...
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Infinite Inning 372: The Yankees' Owner’s Mistress and the Bomb
A major metropolitan newspaper contends a pitcher “blows,” while he insists he is in “the best shape of his life.” Which would prove to be closer to the truth? Then we revisit the birth of the atomic bomb, the Yankees’ decision to start a farm system in spite of their wealth, and the mysterious...
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Infinite Inning 371: One of the Jackie Robinson Generation Weak Arm and All
We note the recent passing of some stalwart ballplayers, some of all too recent a vintage, then travel back to the 1950s and the breaking of the Braves color line by an outfielder who everyone liked to pick on. The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball…
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Infinite Inning 370: The Ballplayer's Lost Bones
In which we track the posthumous career of one of baseball’s earliest players, who might simultaneously lie in three different places or maybe nowhere at all. Then we wish Parker Meadows a quick recovery by recalling an earlier outfield collision which injured two future Hall of Famers. And in...
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Infinite Inning 369: An Odd Cardinals Walk-Off or a Typical Cubs Loss?
Infinite Inning 369: An Odd Cardinals Walk-Off or a Typical Cubs Loss? First we ask an evergreen question prompted by Konnor Griffin’s promotion: Were Casey Stengel’s expectations of Mickey Mantle unfair? Then we visit 1949 for one of the more unusual walk-off hits in Cardinals history and the...
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Infinite Inning 368: Baseball, War, and the Day the $100,000 Infield Buried a Child
Two players who might have made the Hall of Fame if not for time missed to national service during World War II stand in for all of those whose trajectories were deflected by the games played by those in high places, then we visit turn-of-the-20th century Philadelphia for a forgotten first…
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Infinite Inning 367: Baseball, the Yankees, and Bitterness
In which we talk about some of our own broken relationships, the war of Billy Martin’s ear and what George Steinbrenner’s plan to bring him back for a sixth tour says about his own morality, the way the Washington Senators loved their own players so much they ended up in Minnesota, very small...
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Infinite Inning 366: The Yankee Who Went to Sea (The Wife Sent Him)
A pitcher named Bob becomes Sailor Bob all because his wife wanted him out of the house in a fatal way, then we revisit the 1880s and a truly ridiculous ballpark that led to a player having both an inflated home-run total and an inflated liver. The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to...
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Infinite Inning 365: When the Yankees Tried to Be the Cardinals
How the King of France once had an illicit love life that bore both a great resemblance to that of some of our current villains, but was also kind of similar to one of Branch Rickey’s greatest innovations. Then we join a glowering Yankees owner who absolutely wrecked his team because he was Vince...
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Infinite Inning 364: The Pitcher Who Didn’t Duck and the Artist Who Was a Hypocrite
This week, a light-hearted tale of a pitcher who braved the injury nexus in a body that just refused to flinch when under hostile fire, preceded by the story of a favorite cartoonist who pontificated on the subject of children and divorce even as he proceeded to get divorced and abandon his...
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Infinite Inning 363: The Shortstop Sets Us Free
A player who is remembered as “Jumbo” even though that was neither his name or his shape is described in both complimentary and critical terms, oysters are considered, and one of the greatest shortstops of all time, John Henry Lloyd, Pop, teaches an important lesson about why the past matters…
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Infinite Inning 362: The Cardinals-Giants 1935 Ethiopia Incident
A future Hall of Fame outfielder gets into a tiff with the first Hall of Fame umpire and the umpire says a rude word, but how rude was it? Then we briefly consider the worst 900-plus games careers before joining the 1935 season in progress for a fight at home plate that fizzled, but not before...
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Infinite Inning 361: Pitching for Our Lives
A rare three-segment episode this week. First, in what is very much NOT a story, the host quotes Casey Stengel in a totally context-free way. Then a pitcher has to work hard to keep a team he doesn’t like IN the World Series or risk professional extinction. Finally, a personal reflection on the…
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Infinite Inning 360: Ballgame Called for Yellow Jack
An episode in which yesterday’s headlines are today’s. First, we find not William Bell the Negro Leagues great, but William Bell the victim of a false accusation in 1920s Chicago, the only murder of its kind. Then we travel south to the apprenticeship of one of the low-key center field greats and...
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Infinite Inning 359: Famous Yankees Knee You in the Crotch
A wide-ranging journey inspired by the impulse-control problems of a 1950s catcher that provked, depending on Billy Martin’s mood, two, no three, no four on-field fights, with pints of blood flowing onto the infield dirt. Some of it is true, some of it is better. Also, said catcher gets up close...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 27 (017): The Yankees Shortstop Who Went to War
In this week’s new discussion, the story of a Yankees prospect who might have made it if not for a certain United Nations police action overseas. Then we return to 2017 for a look back at one of the show’s earliest episodes and what was happening in the game on the days the United States went to...
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Infinite Inning 358: Ring Lardner Sent Flowers
In our second and last holiday mini-episode of the season, we wonder how a sore-armed Yankees pitcher went on a crash diet, then turn to Kid Gleason, manager of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, for a little lesson resilience. Featuring a baserunning tale that isn’t true, but it ought to be. (Drum Roll...
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Infinite Inning 357: Angels Up the Where and Baseball True Love
Infinite Inning 357 Angels Up the Where? and Baseball True Love In a holiday mini-episode we talk about secular vs. religious holidays in America, the films of Powell and Pressburger, and the faith-based baseball comedy (in which it’s the nuns who object most strongly to seeing a manifestation of...
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Infinite Inning 356: Did a Hall of Fame Manager Break Three Prospects?
Infinite Inning 356 Did a Hall of Fame Manager Break Three Prospects? A long-promised Casey Stengel episode asks why the press reacted badly when the Ol’ Perfesser was named Yankees manager in the fall of 1948, and what it had to do with three busted Braves prospects. And with Venezuela on our...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 26 (039): Trumpian Baseball Math
In this week’s new commentary, we wonder how major league strikeout leader James Wood can reduce his strikeouts by 600 percent in 2026. Then we return to early 2008 for a look at some deleterious, franchise-damaging or -destroying decisions, including a regrettable early mistake in free agency…
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Infinite Inning 355: Several Tragic People Named McGann, Some In Baseball, Some Not
Pete Alonso’s exit from New York triggers an exploration of an earlier first baseman who was not only dispensable, but mocked for the very fact of his aging. Expect more John McGraw shouting, Deadball Era statistics, and four separate tragic endings for people named McGann, three of them in the...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 25 (077): The Death of Addie Joss Explained and Old-Time Cheating Too
Infinite Inning Reissue 025 (077) The Death of Addie Joss Explained and Old-Time Cheating Too In this week’s new segment, we talk about some fringe major leaguers named Truck and Hunky who were big in the minors and ask what degree of bitterness and resentment is acceptable when your dream is...
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Infinite Inning 354: A Pitcher Named Bumpus And Other Upbeat Tales Of Baseball
We return from the IL with Casey Stengel’s endorsement of the designated hitter, and of astronauts too, then springboard from the recent Red Sox-Pirates trade into a discussion fo the latter’s inability to turn prospects into consistent major leaguers, a long ago pitcher who turned outfielder and...
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Infinite Inning 353: The Catcher Who Loved Me
A pitcher throws a great game in the World Series and is congratulated by a backstop unknown to him, but once he was known to the game. Then we travel back to 1917 when gamblers tried to fix a White Sox-Red Sox game by throwing their bodies in front of it—and the one player who struck back. The...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 24 (106): Got Those Girl Don’t Want You Team Signed Charlie Hayes Blues
In this week’s new material, we compare a team signing a low-OBP player to the girl you were crushing on choosing the only suitor you would have had her avoid (not that it was up to you, but also not that the universe isn’t cruel that way), all of which may turn out to be a tortured political...
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Infinite Inning 352: Why Are There Bad People When There is Also Good Baseball
We look at an ordinary day of baseball, May 8, 1949, and some extraordinary—and tragic—things that happened. First, a couple of good pitchers get shelled, then we witness some typically disposable regular season games before noticing a young woman who was treated as if she too were disposable,...
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Infinite Inning Reissue 23 (021): Live! Home Run! Baseball!
In the new commentary segment of this week’s reissue episode, we talk about childhood fears of the end times, the degraded state of Times Square in the 1970s and 1980s, the slugging 1964 Twins, and one way the Colorado Rockies might go out in a blaze of fire, weird new GM hire or no. Then we go...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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?
HOSTED BY
Steven Goldman
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Infinite Inning have?
The Infinite Inning currently has 424 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Infinite Inning about?
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:...
How often does The Infinite Inning release new episodes?
The Infinite Inning publishes regularly with 424 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Infinite Inning?
You can listen to The Infinite Inning on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Infinite Inning?
The Infinite Inning is created and hosted by Steven Goldman.
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