Episodes

  • Infinite Inning 392: Red Sox Hunt/Negro Leaguers at War

    Infinite Inning 392: Red Sox Hunt/Negro Leaguers at War
    Sep 12 2026
    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, speculate of how his homecoming could have been in a different America, and note missed opportunities to learn from the world around us, whether via the Harlem Hellfighters or the ill-fated Herrero tribe of Namibia, both of which found themselves up against the same opponent.

    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?
    Show more Show less
    50 mins
  • Infinite Inning 391: The Shohei Ohtani Trade Deficit

    Infinite Inning 391: The Shohei Ohtani Trade Deficit
    Sep 5 2026
    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 consider under obsession of the leadership by asking if the Dodgers are running a $700 million trade deficit with Shohei Ohtani. Finally, we return to 1938 to see who took the blame for the Pirates’ downfall, and find it was one of the team’s least-heralded and most-special players, stopping off with the 1980 New York Yankees along the way.

    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?
    Show more Show less
    41 mins
  • Infinite Inning 390 Baseball and Children Forever Frightened

    Infinite Inning 390 Baseball and Children Forever Frightened
    Aug 29 2026
    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 doorstep. Then we return to John McGraw, his dangerous youth, his possible encounters with Mark Twain, and an afterlife wish-list of writers, actors, and cartoonists posted by an obscure writer who soon thereafter journeyed to the next world to meet them himself. We then conclude by debating if young McGraw had better options for escaping his dilemma than we do today.

    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?
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Infinite Inning 389: The Pitcher Who Quit Midgame

    Infinite Inning 389: The Pitcher Who Quit Midgame
    Aug 22 2026
    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 that, in select circumstances, it might well be liberating to emulate. Plus: We revisit a segment on Tommy John, who passed away this week, and an occasion when his pitching arm was badly hurt—no, not that time. Another one!

    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?
    Show more Show less
    54 mins
  • Infinite Inning 388: A Ghost from the Negro Leagues

    Infinite Inning 388: A Ghost from the Negro Leagues
    Aug 15 2026
    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 great who took a drink—or a lot of them—from the wrong bottle and ended up stiff and cold in San Diego. We ought to know more. Why don’t we?

    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?
    Show more Show less
    36 mins
  • Infinite Inning 387: If Babe Ruth Were a Patriot Missile

    Infinite Inning 387: If Babe Ruth Were a Patriot Missile
    Aug 8 2026
    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 Famers, one very different from Ruth but, like the Babe and the “platinum blonde” actress Jean Harlow, he got a raw deal from his own body.

    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?
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Infinite Inning 386: The Yankees, the Giants, and the First Trading Deadline

    Infinite Inning 386: The Yankees, the Giants, and the First Trading Deadline
    Aug 1 2026
    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 possibly passing blood? And we stop in on Babe Ruth in his last days and contrast a life of actual experience with a life of artificial experience.

    Trigger Warning: There’s a cussword at about 19:35. Hide the dog!

    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?
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Infinite Inning 385: The Fourth-Worst Self-Own in Red Sox History

    Infinite Inning 385: The Fourth-Worst Self-Own in Red Sox History
    Jul 25 2026
    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 we visit the win-or-go-home American League playoff game between the Red Sox and the Indians, a contest famously mishandled by Joe McCarthy, another future Hall of Famer. What went into his thinking that day, and are the legends of pitchers ducking the job true? With stops along the way at an eight-man rotation, the A’s 1929 surprise starter, virus versus host, and so much more!

    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? Short vibraphone melody (loop) by xkeril
    Show more Show less
    53 mins