Podcast Audio Episodes

Send us a text 2016 slayed a lot of demons for the Cubs. Considering that their prior WS championships were back-to-back in 1907 and 1908. They have a winning record all-time and 11 pennants since 1901. Born as the Chicago White Stockings (but not the White Sox) the Cubs have fewer all-time great players than you might think for a 148 year old franchise! Again thanks to all of our listeners and followers. We appreciate that you listen and like our podcast! Listen or watch as we've added a YouT...

Send us a text The 2020 Pandemic season changed (finally) baseball forever with the ending of rained out games. No longer were legitimate accomplishments expunged when games were less than 4 1/2 innings. Forfeited games are more rare today but surprisingly there have been a few since 1970. Babe Ruth would have had 716 home runs. Al Kaline would have surpassed 400 homers. But rained out games took those few extra homers away. Gordon wishes all stadiums had retractable roofs so there'd be even fe...

Send us a text The Orioles were born the Milwaukee Brewers as an original AL franchise in 1901. They left for St. Louis after one year and became the St. Louis Browns for the next 52 years before finally decamping for Baltimore in 1954. They never won a World Series in in St. Louis although they did reach the Fall Classic in 1944 losing the 'Streetcar' or 'Trolley' Series to their archrivals the Cardinals. But once the Orioles got started they became a force and won three WS between 1966 and 19...

Send us a text We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! The 2024 HOF ballot came out this week and there are some very compelling names that are appearing on ballots. Adrian Beltre and Joe Mauer are strong 1st year candidates and holdovers like Todd Helton and Billy Wagner are hoping this is their year. We also discuss how numbers like 400 career home runs don't mean certain enshrinement. Which players won't get at least the 5% of the votes needed to stay on the ballot? Again thanks to all o...

Send us a text Who is the greatest National of all-time? Some might say Walter Johnson since when he was with the Senators they were also called the Nationals. But Ryan Zimmerman has a claim as does Max Scherzer. And then there's Gary Carter, and Andre Dawson, and Tim Raines, and Vlad Guerrero Sr.. They were all Expos but they are a big part of the franchise history. We pick out best Nat/Expo at each position and there are some big time names. Listen or watch as we've added a YouTube Channel -...

Send us a text We've already had a bunch of manager hirings and firings. With that are several 1st time MLB managers like Joe Espada of the Astros and Carlos Mendoza of the Mets. Can it really be expected that a 1st year manager can lead a team all the way to a World Series championship? It's happened before. Just ask Bruce Bochy! We talk about that and other weird manager things as they relate to teams winning and losing. Listen or watch as we've added a YouTube Channel - https://youtu.be/xLbJ...

Send us a text The Twins were once the Washington Senators AND at the same the the Washington Nationals. The team actually won the 1924 World Series while being called the Nationals! Even though they were actually the Senators. Because the Twins - who moved to Minneapolis in 1961, won 2 WS in 5 years in 1987 and 1991, we sometimes forget that it's been more than 30 years! We talk about the history of the franchise which dates back before 1900, it's struggles and successes as well as the greates...

Send us a text Fans and players have said good-bye to future HOFer Miguel Cabrera and a host of other very well-known players who ended their careers in this just completed 2023 season. We love talking about them! Correction: Ryan Goins was an infielder not a pitcher. Listen or watch as we've added a YouTube Channel - https://youtu.be/xLbJIPGfNRI 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 While they are not an original National League team the Philadelphia Phillies have been in the league since 1883 only 7 years after the birth of the NL. They've won 2 WS in 141 years but 2 WS in the past 43 years so it doesn't seem as bad as it was before 1980. We deep dive into the history of the team, its best players at every position, best managers and also some of the more frustrating moments for the franchise. Like this past season when they really had a great chance to win ...

Send us a text The Texas Rangers born as the 2nd Washington Senators have finally won a World Series! A dispatching of the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks in 5 games was for any fans anti-climactic after two very exciting LCS clashes. Unsung heroes abounded for Texas but not for Arizona even though the D'Backs outhit the Rangers. We talk about the games, the managers and the brilliance of Corey Seager. Listen or watch as we've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown cha...

Send us a text Dusty Baker retired. He's now a pretty sure bet to be elected to the HOF as a manager or a Rule B candidate. It also happened last week that Craig Breslow became President of Baseball Operations of the Red Sox. We talked about that as well as Bob Melvin going from the Padres to the Giants - after they signed Farhan Zaidi to a long term deal as GM. Oh and also we talked about the 1st two games of the 2023 World Series! Listen or watch as we've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the ...

Send us a text Before the season did you pick the Rangers to play the D'Backs in the World Series this year? We didn't. But then NOBODY else did either! Both teams vanquished their LCS foes in 7 games and finally we had some exciting playoff baseball! We recap the LCS and all the weird stuff that happened and preview what should be an awesome World Series! Listen or watch as we've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel Please subscribe to our podcast and th...

Send us a text Game 6 of the ALCS will be played after this episode was recorded and Game 6 of the NLCS will happen tonight - Monday night. Finally the LCS had some real live excitement and drama! We talk about that and we talk about the Marlins power play that caused excellent GM Kim Ng to get off the boat. The Contemporary Era Committee has met and nominated 8 candidates to be voted upon in December. We don't yet know the names of the 16 voters. The candidates need 75% of the votes - 12 out o...

Send us a text The 5 teams having the best regular season records in MLB this season - Braves, Dodgers, Orioles, Brewers, and Twins are all out of the playoffs and went 1-13 in the games that they played. Is the playoff system instituted in 2022 a failure? Some think so and we talk about that and how we feel about the current playoff structure and what might be done in the future before and after baseball expands to 32 teams. Gordon throws out the idea of a double elimination tournament. Which ...

Send us a text We thought the amazing double play turned in by Atlanta's Michael Harris to Austin Riley to Matt Olson would propel the Braves into the NLCS. Nick Castellanos had other ideas. That combined with great pitching from Wheeler, Nola and the Phillies bullpen put them back into the NLCS vs. the equally surprising D'Backs. The Astros keep marching on and the Rangers can flat out bludgeon teams and pitch better than people think. We recap the Division Series and note that the big 4 NL MV...

Send us a text MLB won't do its 2023 MVP, Cy Young, ROY and other awards until after the World Series. So we decided that since the awards are for the regular season only we'd release our picks now. After all we should not be swayed by great playoff performances as we think voters are when they finally are asked to vote! Listen or watch as 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 su...

Send us a text The Wild Card Series were mostly a snore-fest unless your team was the winner. All the series were wrapped up in 2 games. Tampa Bay Rays didn't need to travel after they lost 2 straight at home in front of meager playoff crowds. The Jays could not pitch well enough to overcome a good hitting team in the Texas Rangers who've continued mashing winning the 1st two games of the Division Series in Baltimore. The Phillies dispatched the Marlins like a big brother dismisses his younger ...

Send us a text It was great to receive so many responses to our podcast Episode 434 from last week on Total Bases Per Plate Appearance. We wanted to go further with it and apparently listeners want that too. So we've created another new stat - Bases created per plate appearance. This stat includes BB, IBB, HBP and net Stolen Bases for each player and each team. This season's Atlanta Braves reign supreme with this stat as well as the more productive hitting team in MLB history! We're still tweak...

Send us a text And suddenly the 2023 season is all over. Pitch clocks, larger bases, limits to shifting the infield all proved to be welcome and significant changes in MLB. The 2023 Braves have reason to claim they are the greatest hitting team of all time. The Marlins & D'Backs are back in the playoffs and somehow the Astros managed to win the AL West after all. The Wild Card Series being Tuesday and will end no later than Thursday with the NL and AL Division Series both starting on Saturday. ...

Send us a text We love that Hank Aaron has the most Total Bases in baseball history. In fact the list of players for all-time Total Bases is filled with Hall of Famers and would-be HOFers. Mark recently wrote an article on Total Bases per Plate Appearance - sort of a new way to look at a player's offensive contribution. It can be accessed here: https://open.substack.com/pub/almostcooperstown/p/if-war-is-hell-could-there-be-one?r=6m2o9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web. We take it further by dis...

Send us a text This week was very full. The Rays and St. Pete have come to a deal for a brand-new domed but artificial turf stadium in a private/public partnership for reportedly $1.3B . Great news for the city and the team. Blue Jays Yusei Kikuchi said he became injured due to not getting the11 hours of sleep as he normally does every night. Sandy Alancantra is out for the season - a big blow to Miami's playoff run and hopes. Listen to us discuss all that happened last week and what will be h...

Send us a text Why don't players bunt? Is it a lost art in baseball? Was baseball better when there were 8 teams in each league and only one league champion that would represent the league in the World Series? We debate and contemplate whether today's baseball is the best it's ever been. The athleticism of modern players is at the highest level ever and we question if players are pulling off more extraordinary catches and plays than ever before. We’ll consider whether free agency has changed th...

Send us a text Mike Rizzo is back in for the Nationals, and Chaim Bloom is out for the Red Sox. Cole Ragans fell down for and on the Royals, and a knuckleballer finally reappeared and got a win in MLB. Have you ever pondered the paradox of the LA Angels - a team struggling despite housing the sport's finest player for nearly a decade? We unpack this baseball enigma and explore the Hall of Fame candidacy of Zach Greinke. We also weigh in on Ohtani's potential return (NOT) to the Angels and the p...

Send us a text The Marlins won 47% of their games and 2 WS when they were the Florida Marlins. Once they changed their name to the Miami Marlins they win at a 43% pace and have only made the playoffs once in the pandemic season of 2020. This week we dive into the Marlins who are fighting for a playoff spot this season. They are the fastest expansion team to win a World Series doing that in their 5th season. We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Plea...