Podcast Audio Episodes

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 ...

Send us a text Established in 1962 (like the Mets) the Astros were originally the Houston Colt 45's and played in Colt Stadium. The Astrodome opened in 1965 as the self-proclaimed 8th wonder of the world. The first 20+ years of the franchise did not go very well but since 1997 things have gone better and the 'Stros have only missed the playoffs once since 2015. We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working out our own kinks. No videos yet but if you care to listen from YouTube here is the...

Send us a text We spent the entire episode calling him I-Rod without ever mentioning Ivan Rodriguez by name! We didn't mention a few catchers like Carlton Fisk and Gary Carter who were close. We also did not talk about Josh Gibson who may have been the best of all time?! We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working out our own kinks. No videos yet but if you care to listen from YouTube here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for lis...

Send us a text Most baseball fans know the Dodgers have the most Rookies of the Year, 18, since the award now named for the 1st winner Jackie Robinson in 1947. Jackie was the 1st Dodger with Cody Bellinger being the most recent. The Yankees are 2nd with 9. Are some teams better at handling rookies? Is it an organizational thing? Or are some teams luckier than others. It's interesting that most of the teams with the most ROYs have been more consistently in contention than the others. We've adde...

Send us a text All 30 MLB teams will play on Opening Day March 30 - the day this podcast drops! We were lucky to be joined by Michael Ortman to talk about his book Opening Day 50-for-50, One fan, One game, A half century of baseball stories. The history of what was going on at the time of each Opening Day in baseball is woven into his book in a very compelling way. This season's Opening Day debuts new rules that will make watching baseball in 2023 faster and we think better. We've added a YouTu...

Send us a text Here we go with season 4! This is our longest episode ever which we really did not expect since we talk fast. But when you talk about all 30 teams it takes awhile. And we make our picks for division, playoffs, and the World Series. We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working out our own kinks. No videos yet but if you care to listen from YouTube here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a sug...