Episodes

  • Infinite Inning Reissue 26 (039): Trumpian Baseball Math

    Infinite Inning Reissue 26 (039): Trumpian Baseball Math
    Dec 18 2025
    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 and Connie Mack’s decision to run his team like it was the 1910s even though almost 40 years had passed.

    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 mins
  • Infinite Inning 355: Several Tragic People Named McGann, Some In Baseball, Some Not

    Infinite Inning 355: Several Tragic People Named McGann, Some In Baseball, Some Not
    Dec 13 2025
    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 same family. As for the one non-baseball McGann who chose a dark path, his isn’t a baseball story, but an American one.

    TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains extensive discussions of self-harm.

    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 mins
  • Infinite Inning Reissue 25 (077): The Death of Addie Joss Explained and Old-Time Cheating Too

    Infinite Inning Reissue 25 (077): The Death of Addie Joss Explained and Old-Time Cheating Too
    Dec 10 2025
    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 squelched by a gatekeeper. Then we go back eight years to episode 77 and the final illness of Hall of Fame pitcher Addie Joss. Finally, we go to Philadelphia for a little old-school, pre-Astros electronic cheating.

    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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    54 mins
  • Infinite Inning 354: A Pitcher Named Bumpus And Other Upbeat Tales Of Baseball

    Infinite Inning 354: A Pitcher Named Bumpus And Other Upbeat Tales Of Baseball
    Dec 7 2025
    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 got a second chance and, finally, a pitcher named Bumpus, who has something to say to RFK Jr.

    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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    53 mins
  • Infinite Inning 353: The Catcher Who Loved Me

    Infinite Inning 353: The Catcher Who Loved Me
    Nov 15 2025
    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 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?

    Cartoony Clang #6.mp3 by AUDACITIER; kick_w_bone_crunch_inspired_by_tmnt_2012 by Artninja
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    44 mins
  • Infinite Inning Reissue 24 (106): Got Those Girl Don’t Want You Team Signed Charlie Hayes Blues

    Infinite Inning Reissue 24 (106): Got Those Girl Don’t Want You Team Signed Charlie Hayes Blues
    Nov 13 2025
    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 metaphor. Then we return to 2016 for the Dodgers at third base, the tragic and not-at-all funny tale of Giants pitcher Bugs Raymond, and a lot of talk about Yoenis Cespedes falling off a horse.

    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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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Infinite Inning 352: Why Are There Bad People When There is Also Good Baseball

    Infinite Inning 352: Why Are There Bad People When There is Also Good Baseball
    Nov 8 2025
    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, though she very much was not.

    Trigger Warning: The second half of this episode contains discussion of a violent crime and some images may be disturbing.

    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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    55 mins
  • Infinite Inning Reissue 23 (021): Live! Home Run! Baseball!

    Infinite Inning Reissue 23 (021): Live! Home Run! Baseball!
    Nov 6 2025
    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 back to episode 21 for two tales of Hall of Fame catchers under extreme duress.

    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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    41 mins