Episodios

  • Infinite Inning Reissue 10 (053): On Cobb, Robinson, American Values, and 3000 Hits
    Jul 9 2025
    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 years.

    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, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent 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?
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    58 m
  • Infinite Inning 337: Yankees and Cubs Have Wants and Desires
    Jun 28 2025
    Infinite Inning 337: Yankees and Cubs Have Wants and Desires Babe Ruth asks for a small favor from Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert—well, 100,000 small favors—and is rebuked in the papers, suggesting a modern problem is actually an old one as well. Then a Cubs great goes to California and finds that prohibition is no impediment to his drinking, a tale which leads to stories of another drinker and a murderer who shared his last name.

    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? Mysterious Dramatic Music by tyops License: Attribution 4.0
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    50 m
  • Infinite Inning Reissue 8 (050): Everyone Rejects Roy, Even the Yankees, But Everyone Takes the Money
    Jun 25 2025
    In new remarks for this week’s baseball, history, and politics reissue, we consider the heat dome hovering over half the country and wonder what it means for baseball. Then we revisit the offensively potent but frequently discarded outfielder Roy Cullenbine and take a visit to interwar Washington for a mostly non-baseball story of political corruption.

    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, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent 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?
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    46 m
  • Infinite Inning 336: The St. Louis Cardinals, a Trade, and a Kidnapping
    Jun 21 2025
    Emotional trades happen, and the Cardinals—anticipating the exile of Rafael Devers from Boston—made one with a future Hall of Famer (who eventually wound up in Boston). Then a Cardinals pitcher is kidnapped—or was he?—and the host questions whether he once witnessed an example of the same on the mean streets of New Jersey.

    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?
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    38 m
  • Infinite Inning Reissue 7 (023) The Red Sox vs. Niccolo Machiavelli, the Mets vs. Vietnam, A’s Fans vs. the President
    Jun 18 2025
    In new remarks for this week’s baseball, history, and politics reissue, notes from the 1500s on kings and princes vs. the mob and what that might tell us about the Rafael Devers trade. Then we revisit two acts of resistance: Tom Seaver and John Lennon have an indirect team-up to remind us of our own power, and the wrong president shows up at the World Series.

    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, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent 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?
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    37 m
  • Infinite Inning 335: The Yankees-Iran Nuclear Arms Agreement
    Jun 14 2025
    A 1980s designated hitter is traded to the National League, a fish-needs-a-bicycle baseball moment reminiscent of recent US diplomacy, and a 20-game winner who pitched as Theodore Roosevelt charged up San Juan Hill throws it all away in favor of good diction.

    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?
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    51 m
  • Infinite Inning Reissue 6 (064): The Dodgers Say No to America First
    Jun 11 2025
    In new remarks for this week’s baseball and history reprise, we argue about bunts, kites, and kings—why would anyone wish for any of them? Kites are okay, of course, but the other two are problematic. We then revisit the Brooklyn Dodgers with Jackie Robinson asked to comment on a fallen Hall of Famer who had once been his teammate, then jump back to the days before World War II, when the America First Committee wanted to take over a baseball stadium for one of their isolationist/anti-Semitic rallies.

    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, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman discusses the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect history, politics, stats, and frequent 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?
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    1 h y 1 m