Publishing Details
About This Podcast
Midnight Library of Baseball is a documentary-style baseball history podcast for listeners who want something deeper, quieter, and more reflective than the typical sports show.
Hosted by Ben Orlando, the series blends immersive storytelling with deep research to explore the game’s most iconic figures, like Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, and Honus Wagner, alongside forgotten players and unlikely stories that shaped baseball in surprising ways. Told without loud music or jarring production, each episode unfolds with a calm, narrative style that lets the history breathe.
Season 1 explores foundational questions about the game, from how players were paid across eras to the evolution of equipment, and even the stories of famous figures who nearly chose baseball, including Kurt Russell, Billy Crystal, and John Dillinger.
Season 2 is a deep, narrative journey into the making of Field of Dreams, from its origins as a short story to the creation of one of the most beloved films in baseball history.
Season 3 features long-form series on the Black Sox Scandal and the enduring fascination with baseball’s consecutive games played streak, examining legends like Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken Jr.
Season 4 explores the intertwined evolution of baseball, radio, and television, and how each helped shape the way fans experience the game.
If you love baseball history, storytelling, and the quiet details that bring the past to life, this is a show designed to be listened to, not just heard.
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Recent Episodes
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 from Season 4.
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 endlessly fascinating story. And…
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 listeners chose as their favorites.…
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 explore the strange and…
S4E17 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 future path of broadcasting.…
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 tournament. And what it…
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 turned six seasons of…
S4E15 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 commercial changed everything,…
S4E14 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, and The Wonder Years, each…
S4E13 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 that is both unique and…
S4E12 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 unanswered questions behind the…
S4E11 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 facts, Maris paid a heavy price…
S4E10 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 see how baseball has changed,…
S4E9 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 athlete millions didn’t just read…
S4E8 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 one would trade the color of…
S4E7 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 groundbreaking innovation cemented radio…
S4E6 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 more deeply with their…
S4E5 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 America. I tell the stories…
S4E4 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 blending of truth and fiction…
S4 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 graveyard, only to resurrect…
Frequently Asked Questions
Midnight Library of Baseball has published 90 episodes since November 2023, covering topics in Baseball, History.
Midnight Library of Baseball is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 38m.
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