The Infinite Inning #047: Baseball Was His One Consuming Passion

Steve is joined by Marty Appel, author of Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character and other books, plus a cautionary tale about time and Bob “Fats” Fothergill and another about all the times Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons failed to duck.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Fats Fothergill, Ronald Acuña and the tyranny of time*Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons, Human Target*Marty Appel: “Give me a good team”*Stengel vs. Joe Torre*Stengel vs. Phil Rizzuto*Stengel vs. Joe DiMaggio*Stengel vs. Mickey Mantle*Mrs. Stengel’s memoir*Stengel vs. The Color Line*Elston Howard’s post-career disappointment*A hypothetical: Stengel vs. George Steinbrenner*Stengel vs. Billy Martin*

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?