The Infinite Inning

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...