The Infinite Inning

Chats are back! David Roth returns to ask existential questions about Juan Soto, the billionaire class, and if the average person can develop Steve Blass’s disease. Plus tales: A reserve catcher has a fateful meeting with a man who brought dignity to a bodily function and several current players conjure a classic tale from the beginning of the 20th century due to their lack of vaccination.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Reds Catcher and a Man Named Sneeze*Cardinals with White Feathers*1902, WHIT*David Roth: A Random Invocation of William Saroyan*Steve Sax, Steve Blass, and Someone Else Named Steve*Being Normal is Hard*Gore Vidal on Em-Dashes*Category Error at Fenway Park*It’s “The Time of Your Life”*Radical Despairing Empathy*Interrogating Nick Castellanos and Kindness to Joey Gallo (and Mackey Sasser)*Dick Young and Dave Egan*Ted Williams and Spider-Man*Sympathy for Horace Clarke*Andrew McCutchen and “Furries”*The Mets on the Brink*Who Mourns for the Nationals?*Are Americas Billionaires Depressed?*Full Circle to the Red Sox/You Can’t Win a World Series as a Cynic*The Temperature on the Field (And Everywhere Else)*Goodbyes.

WARNING: On Roth week, we swear. Hide the sheep and console the shepherd.

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?

Infinite Inning 232: My Boyhood Pal, Marilyn Monroe
One more (really) solo episode as we gear up for the Baseball’s Brief Lives, the Infinite Inning book: The son of a Hall of Famer makes a very famous friend and gets grief for it, a great but mostly forgotten player tries to kill another future Hall of Famer with kindness, and more about Cap Anson and his underage bride.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Joe D Goes to the Movies*Joe D Gets Married, Hangs with the Boys*Joe D’s Son and New Girlfriend Bond*An Overwrought Invocation of Shakespeare*Cap Anson, the Future Virginia Anson, and Elon Musk’s Dad*All-Star Emeritus Spots*Tommy Holmes, Captive of Fate*Holmes vs. Henry Aaron*They Were Right About the Titanic*A Lopsided Trade Thwarted and a Walk-Off Homer Against Warren Spahn*Gil Hodges and the Hall of Fame*Alternative-Universe Gil Hodges and the Hall of Fame*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?

A final solo episode before a return to guests features discussions of a manager realizing he was in over his head after just one game and a Hall of Famer meets his wife—in a way that would land him in jail today.

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains discussions of abortion, murder, consent, and child abuse, among other things.

THE INFINITE INNING BOOK: Baseball’s Brief Lives: Player Stories Inspired by the Infinite Inning Podcast, is coming in August!

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overwhelmed/The Rangers’ Four Managers of 1977/Lucchesi in Pain/Stanky’s Retreat/Your Happy Place/Johnny Mize’s Coded Wheaties Ad*Cap Anson’s Courtship*The Social Purity Movement*What Anson Was and Was Not Responsible For*King Listeria IV*The Age of Consent as of the 1880s*The Works of Alice Duer Miller*The Ephemeral Nature of Values*A Marriage on Long Island*A Death in Boston*Cap Anson Rides Again*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?

One more solo episode inspired, as always, by current events in which the right player is suspended for what he didn’t do but what everyone understood he intended and a player attempts to start a fan uprising.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Brawl that No One Saw*Luke/Lute/Daniel Boone’s Strange Ejection*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?

Another solo episode as your host continues to recover from whatever is wrong with him THIS week! (Even his doctors mock him). This week: Tales of two catchers, one of whom was the best uncle baseball ever had, the other a longtime manager who had a moment of unusual frankness after making a trade.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Uncle Robbie Phones May Phone it In but He Knows His Meats*Steve O’Neill versus the Yankees*Umpires versus Fans*Steve O’Neill versus Uncle Robbie*Steve O’Neill versus Mad Monk Meyer*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?

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 CONTENTS
Mass 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?

Author Dan Good discusses a tragic player and Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession that Changed Baseball Forever. Plus tales: Casey Stengel wonders who you can ask for advice when trying to win a fifth pennant, a 20-game winner goes to the bullpen, and a disgruntled player’s momentary embrace of racism.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Casey Wonders Who You Can Ask for Instructions When You’re Trying to Do Something New*Billy Cox’s Momentary Embrace of Evil and Its Echoes Today*Dan Good: What We Ask of Players*Two Kinds of Addiction*Healing and Vanity*Why He Was Worse Away from the Astrodome?*Was Caminiti Tested for Drugs of Abuse?*Did Ken’s Friends Give Up on Him?*Ken and Craig Biggio*Ken and Younger Players*Ken and Tony Gwynn*Finding the Real Caminiti*Contrasting Two Interviews*The Effects of Using*How Did the Family Respond to the Book?*Did Ken Enjoy Baseball?*When Ken Returned to San Diego*Haunted by the Ghost*He Made It Look Hard*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?

Jesse Spector dishes on his new book/podcast/newsletter endeavor, Willets Pen, praises Buck Showalter, and considers the ins and outs of rally sex. Plus tales: A catcher drinks, knits, and recovers while another deserts his team at the worst possible moment.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Rollie Hemsley Serves Drinks and Sandwiches*Buddy Rosar’s Police Academy Dream*Jesse Spector: On the COVID IL*What is Willets Pen?*It is Not a Newsletter, But There’s a Newsletter and an Excuse to Go Off on a Lengthy Screed About Dave Kingman*“Metsing”*Mets Bandwagon ‘86*Willets Pod*The Bit About Food Erotica*The Bit About Contrasting Mets Action with Marital Action (“Rally Sex”)*When You Pretend You are Affecting the Game (Yankees at Blue Jays, 1987)*Every Day for a Year (With Max Scherzer?)*Sex and Poor Middle Relief*The Tommy Hutton Call of Dave Winfield’s Grand Slam*The Mets Mystique*The Schmoozer Predicts*Buck Showalter Rides Again*Relitigating the 1995 ALDS*The Little Dynasty that Didn’t Happen*A Brief Word on New York Broadcasters*Goodbyes.

Warning: There is no graphic language in this episode aside from a couple of cusswords, but the subject of martial relations is briefly discussed. Hide your maiden aunt.

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?

Cliff Corcoran returns to talk about the new dead-ball, pitchers fielding, and the arrival of Kelsie Whitmore in the Atlantic League, plus takes: An umpire provokes the women in the stands and a 25-run game goes down painlessly.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Ladies of Macon Rise Up*The PlayerStories Book is Coming*A Simple Point About a 25-Run Game*Cliff Corcoran: Lee Guetterman Memories*Pitchers Fielding*Players With Partial Tools*Buttplunger!”*Gold Glove Pitchers*Christy Mathewson Cameo/The [Redacted] Cubs Game/Ted Williams and Yogi Berra/Wade Boggs and Dave Righetti*Low Offense 2022 and Marcus Semien*What MLB Had Warned the Hitters?*Retraining Muscle-Memory*Kelsie Whitmore, Pioneer*Slow Throwin’*Seven of Eight Skills*A Sample of One is Not Enough (WMLB?)*Babe Ruth’s Warning*Kelsie and Harold*Women in Baseball and Justice Alito*Limitations on Opportunity*Goodbyes.

Windchime effect by InspectorJ, rhythm by Spartalien, crowd noises by Craig Smith.

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?

Jeffrey Paternostro returns for a premature look at prospects’ progress. Plus tales: A pitcher takes the wrong lesson from adversity and a Red Sox third baseman’s home run underscores present-day offensive woes.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Change Your Way, George Earnshaw (Guest-Starring Lou Gehrig and Connie Mack)* Spirit Ballplayers, Last Entry*Jim Tabor Hits a Solo Shot of Note and Other Home Runs in an Age of Low Offense*Jeffrey Paternostro: Draggy Balls*You Can’t Flip a Switch on Offese*A Moment on Jhoan Duran*The Hardest Jump*Hit-Tool Projection*Francisco Alvarez*Should Grayson Rodriguez Be Up?*On Corbin Carroll*Anthony Volpe and All the Oswalds Except Oswald the Lucky Rabbit*When Do They Start Throwing Sliders? Matt den Dekker, Robert Stratton, Eric Patterson and Other Low-Contact Prospects of Yesteryear*The Hit-Only Model*Positives of the Showcase Circuit?*Bobby Dalbec vs. Triston Casas*Nolan Gorman*Position Players in the Brewers System?*Jasson Dominguez*The Ethics of Ranking Unknown Teens*Robert Stratton Encore*Why Can’t Phillies and Mariners Prospects?*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?

David Roth returns to discuss the uplift provided by the new season, Robinson Cano, how the Reds provoke thoughts of the end of history, Pitchcom, and the 1985 arcade came “Gauntlet.” Plus tales: Teams in the 1880s outdraw the present-day A’s and mouthy third baseman Arlie Latham psyches out the Reds’ manager.

WARNING: As in all Roth-a-looza episodes, there is the occasional cussword. Please instruct the children in what these words mean so they can follow along.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Small Crowds with Animals in 1886 and 2022*Arlie Latham Distracts with Prophecy*David Roth: The Year-‘Round Shorts Guy*Cruiser*Revert to Factory Settings*The Uplift of Baseball*The Best Part of an In-Season Vacation* “Warrior is About to Die!”*Normal Gossip Prep*“Gauntlet” Redux*The Rent-Seeking Reds*Unreciprocated Support*“Part of the Deal is You’re Going to Try”*This Monopoly*Baseball and the End of History* Robinson Cano: Shakespearian*The Advent of Pitchcom*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?

Thomas W. Gilbert discusses HOW BASEBALL HAPPENED, the story of the game’s earliest years. Plus tales: The value of a famous hitting coach to a light-hitting shortstop is debatable and the real meaning of Jackie Robinson Day.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bucky Dent Hits a Homer with a Little Help from His Coach (Not THAT Homer)*Why Do We Observe Jackie Robinson Day? (And Why “Camelot” is Such a Downer)*Thomas W. Gilbert: A Stealth History*A Broad-Based Social Movement*Cricket and the Civil War Pause*The Rising Middle-Class*An Urban Game*R.I.P. Abner Doubleday*Evacuation Day*The Ah-Ha! Moment?*Spooked by Spectators*Fear of Gambling*Trolley Dodgers*Volunteer Fire Companies and Civil War Volunteers*Move the Dodgers Back to Brooklyn!*Brooklyn Invents the Farm System*Fans Crashed the Party*Baseball Follows the Railroad*Waves of Epidemic Disease*Miasmatists*The Brief Story of Jim Creighton*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?

Craig Calcaterra returns to discuss his new book RETHINKING FANDOM, plus tales: A visit to the home of one of the earliest baseball games for a deadly attack and the story of two rookies who couldn’t hang on—in more ways than one.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Murder at Elysian Fields*Spirit Ballplayers III*Awards Predictions, Top Rookies, and the Llama*The Gary Scott Story Outlined*Thake’s Epilogue*Craig Calcaterra: RETHINKING FANDOM*The Sports-Industrial Complex*When It’s About Frustration, Ohio State Edition*The Decadence of Immersive Fandom*The Impermanence of Our Highs and Lows*Steve’s 1996 World Series Story*Being a Fairweather Fan*Re Constantinople (not Istanbul)*Vin Scully Under the Desk*The Stadium Dodge*And Housing?*Trading Down Cities*Move the Rays to Brooklyn!*The Pirates Extend a Player?*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?

A solo episode about service-time manipulation, entropy, destroyed pitching prospects, “Don’t Say Gay,” and Will Smith’s slap versus the on-field variety.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Brief Invocation of John Candelaria*Oneil Cruz Can Keep the Rain Off of You*Pie Traynor Debunked*Entropy is All and Everything and I Couldn’t Possibly Be Better*Spirit Ballplayers II*Who Killed Russ Bauers?*“Say It With a Slap” and the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill*Lee Grissom vs. Al Todd*Impulse Control*Frank Robinson vs. Eddie Mathews*Al Cowens, Avenger*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?

Cliff Corcoran returns to dissect all the moves of March, plus tales: Gender uncertainty on a barnstorming team, a rowdy crowd in Chicago is given way too much leeway to attack a player, and the odd career of the pitcher who began the ruckus.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vaccines and Bloomer Girls*A Quick Note on Bleeding Dodger Blue*Your Spirit Ballplayer 1.0*Don Buford and Bart Johnson: The Ballad of Red-Butt Harry*Cliff Corcoran: We Have Baseball Now*Everyone but Michael Conforto*Rooting for Tyler Clippard and Other Elder Relievers*Rangers, Mets, and Twins*Pham?*The Yankees Skip Shortstoppalooza*Valuing Isiah Kiner-Falefa*The DJ LeMahieu Problem*Eugenio Suarez’s Last Month and the Reds-Mariners Deal*A Debate About Jesse Winker*Is There a Shortage of Center Fielders? Starring the Phillies*Should Brian Reynolds and Cedric Mullins be Traded?*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?