Midnight Library of Baseball

Best of Midnight Library of Baseball, Part 3

In this episode, I debate with Matt Collins the merits of comparing players from different eras, and we discuss our own experiences with broadcasting and deeper takeaways

Best of Midnight Library of Baseball, Part 2

In this episode, Matt Collins and I explore the three-part 1919 Black Sox Scandal series from Season 3, to see what fresh questions and insights we can bring to this endl

Best of Midnight Library of Baseball, Part 1

In this special “Best Of” edition of Midnight Library of Baseball, host Ben Orlando sits down with producer and collaborator Matt Collins to revisit the episodes listener

What the Heck is the World Baseball League?

A chance encounter involving the Hall of Fame plaque of Willie Mays leads to an audacious idea: reinvent baseball. In this episode, with the help of Gaines Johnson, I exp

E17: The Last Broadcast

In this season finale, I reflect on the surprising origin stories surrounding the advances in technology that made broadcasting in baseball possible. I also discuss the f

More Than Just a Game

In the spirit of the World Baseball Classic, I put together an episode about this event, its origins, and the journey of one national team that has evolved along with the

E16: The Last Laugh

A catcher with a .200 batting average. A career WAR of negative one. In most cases, a résumé like that disappears into the dustbin of baseball history. But this player tu

E15: Summer, Interrupted

There was a time when a baseball broadcast asked nothing of you. No sponsors. No jingles. Just the game and the voice describing it. Then one day, a ten-second watch comm

E14: Baseball Through the Lens of TV Drama

Baseball has always been more than a game on television. It’s a doorway. In this episode, we move through three very different TV dramas: The Twilight Zone, The X-Files,

E13: Ed Randall, The Makings of a Broadcaster

Before the voice became familiar to millions, Ed Randall was just a New York City kid who was obsessed with baseball. In this episode, I talk with Randall about a story t

E12: When They Vanished

For years, three voices defined the sound of Yankees baseball. Then one vanished. Then another. And finally, the last walked away. This episode investigates the unanswere

E11: The Curse of 61

Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth’s most sacred record, and baseball never forgave him. Labeled unfairly, burdened by an asterisk, and judged by a narrative that ignored the fa

E10: The Strange History of Home Run Derby

In this episode, I explore the strange and overlooked history of what has become an event that rivals the allstar game for American popularity. Through this history, we s

Ep9: The Athlete Television Made a Star

Jackie Robinson arrived at exactly the right moment, not just in baseball, but in media history. As television spread into American homes, Robinson became the first athle

Ep8: The Game that Sold America on Television

In the beginning, experts swore television would never matter. Viewers would tire of “staring at a plywood box.” Baseball could never be captured on one screen, and no on

Ep7: The Voices We Carried

In the 1950s, baseball broadcasts on television were expanding, and this fairly new technology was starting to catch up to radio in sports coverage, until a groundbreakin

Ep6: Homer at the Bat

Like broadcasts and broadcasters of the early days, the 1992 Simpsons episode, Homer at the Bat, shaped the lives of millions. It made people laugh, it connected people m

Ep5: The Golden Age of Baseball and Radio

In this episode, I discuss the complicated relationship between radio and baseball, and how, when baseball was resisting, radio was sneaking in through every back door in

Ep4: The Recreators

Step into the forgotten world of baseball recreation, a unique phenomenon created to fill an enormous void in baseball coverage during the 1920s to the 1950s, a strange b

An Interview with Kelyn Ikegami, director of "The Streak"

The story of Kelyn Ikegami developing and completing this documentary is as fascinating as the story itself: a bunch of ragtag minor leaguers relegated to the baseball gr