Infinite Inning 221: Sports and Our Missing Legos

Craig Calcaterra returns to discuss his new book RETHINKING FANDOM, plus tales: A visit to the home of one of the earliest baseball games for a deadly attack and the story of two rookies who couldn’t hang on—in more ways than one.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Murder at Elysian Fields*Spirit Ballplayers III*Awards Predictions, Top Rookies, and the Llama*The Gary Scott Story Outlined*Thake’s Epilogue*Craig Calcaterra: RETHINKING FANDOM*The Sports-Industrial Complex*When It’s About Frustration, Ohio State Edition*The Decadence of Immersive Fandom*The Impermanence of Our Highs and Lows*Steve’s 1996 World Series Story*Being a Fairweather Fan*Re Constantinople (not Istanbul)*Vin Scully Under the Desk*The Stadium Dodge*And Housing?*Trading Down Cities*Move the Rays to Brooklyn!*The Pirates Extend a Player?*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?