Infinite Inning 151: Which American Dream?

Eric Nusbaum, author of Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught In Between discusses the long tug-of-war over Chavez Ravine, who had it, who lost it, and who was to blame—featuring a cast of thousands. Plus Cap Anson situated in his times (meet the old times/same as the new times) and one more look at Addie Joss’s passing.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ten Men Out of the Hall Revisited (Don’t Cry for Cap Anson)*Addie Joss and John Keats Revisited (On First Looking Into Joss’s Cerebellum)*Eric Nusbaum: A Widescreen Approach to History*Santa Anna’s Chewing Gum and Hitler’s Bathtub*The Human Vultures of Chavez Ravine*Immoral Egg Metaphors vs Society’s Need to Build*How Can a Private Ballpark Be a Public Good?*A Hypothetical Sewage-Treatment Plant*The Great Frank Wilkinson and the FBI*“Slum Clearance” and Public Housing*Private Real Estate vs. Chavez Ravine*The People of Palo Verde vs. the City of Los Angeles vs. the American Dream*Little Wrigley Field*The Death of the Red Cars*Research Addiction*Walter O’Malley’s Monument to Himself*O’Malley Was Not a Villain*The Part of the Story Still to be Told*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?