Podcast Audio Episodes

Send us a text Since the division races and wild card chases have not changed all that much from last week this week we talk about the also-rans. The teams that are waiting for next year or even the years after that. We also talk about the rookies and there are some really good ones. The George Kirby story is more interesting than you might think. We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you...

Send us a text Babe Ruth & Barry Bonds. They are two of the greatest hitters who ever played and that cannot be argued. Who was better? That depends on your point of view so we decided to argue - Mark mostly for Ruth, Gordon mostly for Bonds. The more we talked about their statistics the more impressive they became! We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode...

Send us a text What was the signature moment of the past week in #MLB? Was it Alex Cobb's near no-hitter? Bryce Harper's 300th HR? Ronald Acuna's 121.2 MPH home run - the hardest hit ball in 5 years? We talked about all of those and the state of the races in all the divisions in our weekly TWIB update! We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop u...

Send us a text Thankfully bloodying a fellow MLB player is no longer something of which to be proud. That was the case in the earlier days of baseball. Baseball is still played hard and sometimes it still can get dirty but on the field dirty play happens much less frequently. With the advent of the Universal DH, pitchers no longer have to worry about batting against an opposing pitcher right after that pitcher knocked down an opposing player earlier in the game. Doesn't that create dangerous po...

Send us a text Which was the bigger story this week - Shohei Ohtani's UCL injury ending his pitching for 2023 and into 2024, or Stephen Strasburg's retirement? Strasburg's story is one of what could have been. Ohtani is THE story of this season and what will happen given that he is due for a new MLB contract. The races have settled in and while a lot can happen in the next 30+ games the playoff picture is rounding into focus. We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooper...

Send us a text Are players less weird today than they used to be? Surely today's players with their understanding of social media are more sensitive to public opinion. We already had episode 106 'Baseball Oddballs' https://www.buzzsprout.com/1066072/4412837 in which we talked about Bill 'Spaceman' Lee and Bill Veeck to name a couple. No midgets in this episode but there are some very colorful characters! We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please...

Send us a text We often discuss historical aspects of baseball and we love doing that, but we're fans and we watch what's going on in baseball at the moment. So this week we're starting a weekly Monday wrap-up show on what happened in MLB last week. We will try to keep it to 15 minutes and of course we will drop our regular episodes on Thursday as always. We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening!...

Send us a text Kind of a loaded question isn't it? In this episode we start with a short run through what's interesting in MLB this past week. Then we discuss the history of baseball commissioners before current commissioner Rob Manfred. Manfred truly raises the ire of so many baseball fans. Is he the same, better, or worse than his predecessors? We talk about all 10 commissioners in MLB history and there have been some doozies! We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Coop...

Send us a text Entering the AL East in 1977 the Blue Jays did not always play inside. Like most expansion teams they started slowly but won a World Series (actually 2 back to back) 16 years after their founding. The Jays have had some HOFers and also some bizarre incidents in their history. A fun team to root for and talk about! We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion f...

Send us a text The trading deadline has passed and for some teams making bold moves has brought their fans hope for the rest of the season and the playoffs. We talk about baseball mascots - the history, the oddity, and a few bizarre events involving well-known mascots. But we had to let our Mets angst out too and we recorded this the day before the end of the trading deadline so the sell-off of the Mets was not yet even complete. Now all Mets fans have is the future and Mr. and Mrs. Met. We've...

Send us a text We admit that we're already addicted to the Immaculate Grid MLB. Now there's NFL, NBA and soon NHL! It's hard and that's the cool thing! We had a great time talking again with Sean Forman founder of Baseball Reference and Sports Reference who joined the podcast to talk about the acquisition of Immaculate Grid, how fast it came about and the opportunities for future development. To do it off the top of your head is the coolest thing but Sean said it's ok if you think of the player...

Send us a text When your team is having a less than great season you start thinking about fall and winter sports earlier than when your team is doing well. With the Mets moribund season coming up on 2/3 thru, we're already looking ahead to what we will watch other than baseball while the regular season runs its course. Football training camps open this week, it seems hockey players are already sharpening their skates for a season that begins 2 1/2 weeks after the end of summer. Which of the 4 m...

Send us a text We're joined by HOF expert & baseball historian David Metter - @CooperstownDave if you follow him as we do. One can gain entrance to the Hall of Fame by combining different aspects of their baseball contribution. For some it could be as a player and manager (Lou Piniella and Davey Johnson and eventually Dusty Baker). For others like baseball executives and even umpires their contributions to the game are hall-worthy. There are only 10 umpires in the HOF and 22 managers. Does Tomm...

Send us a text In a season full of changes there also have been a bunch of surprises. Like the Cincinnati Reds, Texas Rangers, and Arizona Diamondbacks. Not to mention the Mets, Padres, and Cardinals. The Braves continue to dominate and the Rays just find new ways to win. We were wrong and it's Jon Gray not Sonny Gray is pitching for the Texas Rangers this season. Gray areas always screw things up. We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working out a few kinks so bear with us. Here is the...

Send us a text Met fans like us are still smarting from the 2015 loss in the World Series to those overachieving Royals. Entering the AL as one of 2 expansion teams in the league in 1969 (the Seattle Pilots now Milwaukee Brewers was the other), the Royals got good fast with a winning record only 4 years after their birth and reaching the AL playoffs multiple times in their first 10 years. Winning the 1985 World Series was also a glorious time for the Royals. But they've been bad more than they'...

Send us a text We recorded on Father's Day weekend & hope all the Dads had a great day! It's interesting that MLB player father's almost always outperform their MLB player sons. Except for Barry Bonds & Roberto Alomar at least! It must be both amazing and challenging to grow up the son of a MLBer. You get advantages but also compared each and every day! We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working out a few kinks so bear with us. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Pleas...

Send us a text The 1st MLB All-Star game was played 90 years ago in 1933. As it is today the American League played the National League. The players really wanted to win the game since they were paid more if they did win and league supremacy was much more important than it is today. Even if the MLB ASG is the best of the 4 major U.S. sports, could it be made better by making a few changes? 90 years is a long time to do anything the same way! We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working o...

Send us a text With more than a third of the 2023 MLB season played there's still hope for most of the teams to claim at least a Wild Card slot. Is being in 1st place June 1st a key to a guaranteed playoff spot? Well mostly yes. But as we've seen teams can even below .500 after May and still make the playoffs and even win or play in the World Series (Nationals, Braves, Phillies). Are teams going to be buyers or sellers? Or neither? WE talk about all that and more. We've added a YouTube Channel ...

Send us a text A question was posed from a listener - Nile A. What does a baseball manager actually do? Besides sit and watch the game? Baseball has managers, Soccer has team managers, but football, basketball, and ice hockey all have coaches. Why are baseball team leaders called coaches until the players turn professional? We answer those and other questions related to 'what does a baseball manager do?' Thanks for the fun question as we had fun talking about the various aspects of the baseball ...

Send us a text When it comes to doing a deep dive on our favorite team we could have spent hours. But we kept in mind that listeners may not love the Amazin's as much as we do. We didn't even talk about the greatest managers in NY Met history. (Gil Hodges and Davey Johnson headline with Yogi, Bobby V, and TC right behind. You can hear the pain in our voices, and the hope! We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working out a few kinks so bear with us. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperst...

Send us a text HOFer 'Candy' Cummings is credited with 'inventing' the curveball. But as you'd expect a pitcher's fastball has almost always been the #1 pitch. Pitchers throw more varieties of pitches today than ever before. They have to because hitters are so good! We talk about how different the average pitcher arsenals are today versus 50, 100, and 150 years ago! We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working out a few kinks so bear with us. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown ch...

Send us a text As long as baseball has been played people have bet on the game and events during the playing of games. Today we see updated betting lines posted during coverage of the games! A far cry from when bets were made through a casino or a bookie! We ask the question are baseball bettors real fans of the game? Do they watch the game the way non-betting fans do? Betting on baseball is here to stay and will likely get even more reach. We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working o...

Send us a text We start with the obvious 4 - Miguel Cabrera, Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. But Mike Trout is already in HOFer in our book. But how about Joey Votto? Zach Greinke? Evan Longoria? Evan Longoria!!!? Since Cabrera is retiring after this year and playing beyond this season is not certain with Kershaw, Votto, and Greinke, you do well to watch these players carefully as it may be for the last time! There are players who've played more than 8 MLB seasons that we ta...

Send us a text Of course Shohei Ohtani would not have been able to play in the 1920s. The first Japanese-born player Masanori Murakari appeared in an MLB game in 1964. And it might have been the same for Aaron Judge who is bi-racial but may have been deemed 'acceptable' 100 years ago. But we use our imaginations and wonder what Babe Ruth would have looked like (fitter and stronger) in 2023 vs. 1923. And Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani playing in the 1920's would not have them looking the way they ...