Podcast Audio Episodes

Send us a text First-off we did Ted Simmons wrong since his career average was .285 which is much higher than Andruw Jones' career .254 BA. Simmons had 248 HR's which is among the best (13th) all time for a primary catcher. Simmons' speech was the best from any of the three players although Larry Walker and Derek Jeter acquitted themselves well. 10 HOFers passed away over the 2 year period but only 4 people were inducted. We feel and discuss that there could easily be 30 or more that could be i...

Send us a text Like a shooting star, sometimes players have one incredible season that they desperately try to replicate. For those that are unable to 'do it again', they are deemed 'one-season' wonders. From Rookie-of-the year to being out of MLB in 3 years actually has happened and it's not always due to injury! We remember some names that many have forgotten, and others that most people know but don't realize had one amazing outlier season! Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for list...

Send us a text We were actually kind of shocked to find out that there have only been 32 knuckleball pitchers in MLB history. Hoyt Wilhelm has the only no-hitter for a knuckleballer blanking the Yankees in 1958. The Yankees won the WS that season. There are some notable and memorable names of the 32 but also many that most fans have never heard of. Why aren't there more knuckleball pitchers? Listen to this episode to find out! Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you ha...

Send us a text There have been close to 40 complete games pitched in MLB this season so far. The modern era all-time single season record for a pitchers is 41 complete games in 1904. Since then the number has been reduced such that Shane Bieber led MLB with 3 complete games in the last full season 2019. This year 3 players already have 3 complete games. Over the years complete games have dwindled and that trend is likely to continue. Better relief pitchers compared to what used to be the case mi...

Send us a text What Shohei Ohtani is doing this season is amazing. Just making it to the Major Leagues is incredibly difficult. How about changing positions from being a position every day player to a pitcher? Or a pitcher needing to become a position player in order to stay in the big leagues? Players like the Cardinal’s Rick Ankiel come to mind but there are plenty of other MLB players who've adapted on the fly in order to remain at the highest level of baseball. We also talk about the Olympi...

Send us a text This year there were a slew of big deals for excellent players at the July 30 trading deadline. it may have even been the most good players traded ever at the deadline. We talk about the most significant trading deadline deals over the past 60 years since there were not that many before 1969 when divisional play began and there were more than two league champions. A couple of corrections. Cliff Lee went to the Phillies at the deadline and they did make the WS again in 2009 but th...

Send us a text Interleague play has been a part of MLB since 1997. This season there will be 20 interleague games for each team. We think that's too many and that winning a playoff spot should not be so dependent on performance against the OTHER league. With expansion on the horizon there will almost assuredly no longer be a need to have an interleague game played nearly every day. There are some interleague rivalries worth keeping but do fans really want to watch their favorite teams play 20 in...

Send us a text The role of baseball player-manager was fairly commonplace in the early years of #MLB, Some great players like HOFers Nap Lajoie, Lou Boudreau, Bill Dickey, Frankie Frisch, and Honus Wagner to name a few. We talk about why there are no longer player-managers in baseball and who of today's players might be a good player-manager. Then we talk about the Olympic Games not just because baseball and softball are back in the Games! Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listenin...

Send us a text As of the 2021 season there have been 413 sets of brothers who've played in a MLB game. We found some of the careers of one of the brothers were very short. Most of the time one of the brothers significantly outperforms the other brother. But not all the time thanks to brother combos like the Waners, Deans, DiMaggios, Torres and Alomars. We talked about Hank and Dick Allen not mentioning that they were teammates with the White Sox in 1972-73. Hank and Tommie Aaron were also teamma...

Send us a text The first MLB All-Star Game was in 1933. Yet it is little-known amongst even big baseball fans that because Black players were not allowed in MLB, the Negro Leagues had their own All-Star Games also beginning in 1933. And these games were both popular and well-attended. We take a look at how the All-Star game in MLB has changed over the years and with Gary Livacari's help (you can check out his old-time baseball photos page on FB and his blog baseballhistorycomesalive.com), we dig...

Send us a text The bullpen has not always been the most respected place for #MLB pitchers. The save did not even become an official statistic until 1969. Two HOF players far and away represent the best of the best when it comes to having success both starting and relieving. There are other but not many examples of former starting pitchers who became stellar relief pitchers - even HOFers! As fans might expect the real rarity is being a relief pitcher who later has success as a starting pitcher. B...

Send us a text In MLB today scheduled doubleheaders are almost extinct. Rainouts and Covid-19 protocols have caused there to be a few more DH's than in a normal year. 7-inning DH's are, well just weird but might be here to stay. We're ok with that for the most part but not if there are two separate admissions at full price! Two for the price of one does not work well for team owners in today's baseball economics. Players are probably ok with it since they get paid the full amount even if only 77...

Send us a text Official scoring in baseball is very different than it is for all the other professional sports. Part of it is due its own history. It was not all that long ago that baseball reporters doubled as official scorers. The box score 'invented' by Henry Chadwick in 1859 is still in use today! But official scoring has been the bastion for males almost universally except for just a small amount of females. Starting with E. (Eliza) Green (could not use her name in 1882), and including Susa...

Send us a text Aren't we already tired of hearing about the doctoring & defacing of baseballs? @MLB has decided to do something about it mid-season. It's always been illegal to use sticky stuff or anything on the baseball. Now the rule is going to be enforced. We just had to talk about it! Thanks for listening and if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown F...

Send us a text Most fans would argue that their favorite team had a period of time in which they were a very good team, maybe won a WS, but fell short of winning more than once. Yet there are also teams that over-performed expectations to win it all more than once over a relatively short period of time. Are the 2016-2021 Dodgers overrated? They are the current WS champions and might have actually won another WS (if you ask Dodger fans), but should they have won another already? Thanks for list...

Send us a text What makes a player a good baserunner? Speed helps for sure but there have been many adept, even good baserunners who have lacked foot speed. Picking up the ball, knowing the field, taking longer leads and reading the move home of the pitcher are all important if not underused skills. The shift to power and home runs over the past 30+ years has robbed the game of exciting plays like scoring from first on a double, or just a good old fashioned triple! We talk about the good baseru...

Send us a text Partly because baseball has been around the longest, there have been more MLB players who played other professional sports than pro athletes from other sports playing MLB baseball. Baseball players were not paid much in the early part of the 20th century and being paid for two sports beat out having a regular job! We talk about what we call the big 4 - all NFL/MLB players as well as some notable names from sports like basketball, hockey and golf who were also major leaguers! Tha...

Send us a text Do you know the 10 oldest ballparks currently in use in MLB? Sure you'd expect Fenway & Wrigley but some of the other names might surprise even the most knowledgable fans. How about groundskeeping and the differences between baseball parks? Baseball is really the only major sport in which the playing field differs depending on the park in which you're playing. What's going on with the future of the Oakland A's? We talk about all this and more in this episode. Thanks for listening...

Send us a text Ichiro Suzuki has the all-time #MLB record for hits in one season with 262. He broke George Sisler's 84 year-old record of 257 in 2004. Since then there have been a number of 200-hit seasons recorded by players but the number is decreasing. And we talk about why that is the case. Thanks for listening and if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperst...

Send us a text Good teams always seem to have a guy or two who's a versatile utility player. This helps keep the roster efficient since a good utility player can cover a variety of field positions. We discuss that being a versatile player is a good thing but overall a utility player is most often not quite god enough to have an every day place in the lineup. Have there ever been any utility players elected to the Hall-of-Fame in Cooperstown? We answer that question and more in this episode! Tha...

Send us a text Bench-clearings still happen fairly often in #MLB. Actual bench-clearing brawls are less common due to the players being suspended, losing pay, and generally hurting the team. But in the heat of the moment a batter can snap when a high hard one goes right at his head or upper body. Fortunately baseball brawls don't end up having players injured such that they can't play but even that has happened. We talk about which current MLB teams might be poised for a fight in this quick and ...

Send us a text Do you recognize the photo of the AL Rookie-of-the-Year from 2004? Jackie Robinson won the very first Rookie-of-the-Year (for both leagues) in 1947. Since then one team has dominated ROY selections. Can you guess which team it is? We talk about the Hall-of-Fame Rookies of the Year as well as a few winners whose ROY winning statistics are less than impressive. Thanks for listening and if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail...

Send us a text Before our podcast started, we like so many others, sat around and talked about baseball. What recently got us going was the idea that Ty Cobb's .366 career batting average back before and after the 'Dead-ball' era was fattened up by facing tired pitchers in innings 7/8/9. Pitchers today rarely throw complete games and today hitters have to face a bevy of hard throwing late-inning relievers who have nasty stuff. How did Cobb perform in the first six innings vs. the last three? Ho...

Send us a text Thanks to Mark Rickard for the show concept! With some sense of certainty this will be the last year in MLB in which there will not be a DH in the National League. This will be negotiated as part of the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Player's Association and MLB in what promises to be an acrimonious negotiation. No pitcher has finished the season with a .300 average since 2008 when Micah Owings hit .304. In general MLB pitchers are lousy hitters and getting ...