Infinite Inning 227: Playing the Sorrow Corner

Author Dan Good discusses a tragic player and Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession that Changed Baseball Forever. Plus tales: Casey Stengel wonders who you can ask for advice when trying to win a fifth pennant, a 20-game winner goes to the bullpen, and a disgruntled player’s momentary embrace of racism.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Casey Wonders Who You Can Ask for Instructions When You’re Trying to Do Something New*Billy Cox’s Momentary Embrace of Evil and Its Echoes Today*Dan Good: What We Ask of Players*Two Kinds of Addiction*Healing and Vanity*Why He Was Worse Away from the Astrodome?*Was Caminiti Tested for Drugs of Abuse?*Did Ken’s Friends Give Up on Him?*Ken and Craig Biggio*Ken and Younger Players*Ken and Tony Gwynn*Finding the Real Caminiti*Contrasting Two Interviews*The Effects of Using*How Did the Family Respond to the Book?*Did Ken Enjoy Baseball?*When Ken Returned to San Diego*Haunted by the Ghost*He Made It Look Hard*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?