Mike Bates and Bill Parker, hosts of the This Week in Baseball History podcast, join Steve for a discussion of Cooperstown discontents, plus terminally ill submariners and a Dee Gordon trade reaction.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Russ Christopher, Throwing Underhand in the Infinite Inning*A fight in the bullpen as Seattle acquires Dee Gordon*Mike Bates and Bill Parker: The This Week in Baseball History podcast*Reciting stats on the air*Roy Moore vs. Heinie Zimmerman*The This Week in Baseball remembered*The Monday Night Football theme and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”*I hate the Hall of Fame (Scott Rolen, Jack Morris, Jim Rice)*Edgar Martinez*The Hall of Fame, Statcast, and glove-first players (Derek Jeter’s prostate)*The Lou Whitaker-free ballot*Jimmy Wynn vs. Steve Garvey*Reggie Smith and Jimmy Wynn in context*The inevitable steroids debate (with a cast of a thousand players)*The first-time players on the ballot: Sentimental picks and long-lived players*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?