Infinite Inning 222: People Want to Watch This Game?

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?