Infinite Inning 203: Why Are Those People in the Outfield

Hall of Fame senior curator Tom Shieber, co-author of Picturing America’s Pastime, talks about great images of the game as art and as documentary. Plus tales: Bobby Grich feels provoked and responds in kind, the Phillies achieve “a truly elite system” with mixed results.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Bobby Grich Method of Anger Management*When the Phillies Actually Rebuilt*Tom Shieber: You’ll Believe Johnny Bench Can Fly!*Inferring Biography from Photos*Preservation (and Lew Fonseca)*No Buzz Arlett Bat*The Secret Casey Stengel Photo*How is PICTURING AMERICA’S PASTIME Different?*The Conlon Photos*Strangeness at the All-American Girls Game (What Are These People Doing in the Outfield?) and Other Hard-to-Explain Artefacts*Remember the Baseball Team of the Maine*Posed Versus Candid Images (Ichiro and Blyleven)*The Secret Baseball Artefacts in Old Films (Baseball Movies vs. Baseball in Movies)*Frank Chance vs. Satan*The Help Desk*What’s Left to Be Discovered?*Babe Ruth at a Typewriter/Uncle Robbie on a Bicycle*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?