After the inductions this July, 58 of the 273 (21%) players elected to the Hall of Fame will have played only for one franchise. As Gordon pointed out, before baseball had free agency players did not move around nearly as much not because they didn't want to but because they…
Red Sox Cam Booser made his MLB debut at 32. 34YO Oriole Alberto Suarez pitched in the bigs for the first time in 7 years. We lost Whitey Herzog, Ken Holzman, and 97YO 'Boys of Summer' star Carl Erskine. We talk about each team in each division from the Yankees…
A conversation around MLB player union issues can easily make your eyes roll. So we sprinkled in a little Scott Boras since he's one guy everyone loves to hate. Except for his clients of course. When MLB brought in the MiLB players into the union 2 years ago it went…
Are the Pirates and Royals for real? Both teams have gotten off to great starts but we've seen it before. We're at nearly 10% of the 2024 season has been played and there are a bunch of things that are happening as predicted. But not everything! How about Mookie Betts?…
Remember 'chicks dig the long ball'? That was in the 1990s when Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine did a TV spot about the baseball's obsession with home runs. Today's pitchers love to light up the radar with triple digits or at least get as close to that as they can.…
Guardians Shane Bieber, Braves Spencer Strider, Marlins Eury Perez all came up with elbow injuries last week and now face 18 months after they get Tommy John Surgery. The NL Central has gotten off to a better start as a division led by the Pirates and Brewers. But the NL…
A hot foot during game play? In MLB it was fairly commonplace for a long time but no longer. Rookie still get hazed but we don't often hear about it. Being thought of as a character is not as cute as it once was either. Because players make too much…
What's the biggest story coming out of the first week of MLB? Injuries to Justin Steele and Royce Lewis? Opening Day records being set by the Diamondbacks and Tyler O'Neill who hit a home run in his 5th straight opening day! Mookie Betts doing Mookie Betts things hitting 4 home…
Last season we had Michael Orton join the podcast to talk about his book 'Opening Day 50 for 50'. We enjoyed that so much that we asked Michael to rejoin us to talk about what's gone on in Baltimore with the Orioles and his favorite team the Nationals. But we…
The first episode in our 5th season of Almost Cooperstown! We pick all 30 teams in order of finish in their individual divisions. Yes we picked the Dodgers and no we didn't pick the Rockies or A's to win much at all. Who will win AL MVP. NL MVP? 2024…
MLB careers can be short and fleeting. Players that love the game like Pat Ahearne did and does will keep on trying even when the going gets tough. We talk with Pat about his experiences gained through playing baseball all over the world and he has some great stories about…
The Los Angeles Dodgers are already winning in 2024. Can any NL West team beat Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamaomto, and the rest of the boys in blue? The Arizona Diamondbacks are back and still hungry for more. The San Diego Padres still have a great lineup…
Is Justin Steele the best pitcher in the NL Central? Our division primer podcast on this division answers this & other questions as we dive deep into all the teams' 40 man rosters. The NL Central is better than the AL Central. But that's about it. The Cubs with new…
Our 4th division primer on the NL East. The Braves and Phillies are the class of the division with the Mets, Marlins and Nationals all hoping that they are the team that will surprise. We talk about all 5 teams 40-man rosters, and who the best players are in the…
We noted that Rangers are under-appreciated. The Astros are still formidable and the Mariners not to be ignored. The AL West will be fun to watch this season unless you're a fan of the Angels or A's. The 3rd of our 6 division breakdowns. Listen to the audio version: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1066072/14614729…
Jose Ramirez is one of the best players fans under-appreciate. The Guardians are not at the top of the list of AL Central favorites but should not be ignored either. We talk about the rosters of all 5 teams in what will be a dogfight of teams all lacking a…
While we didn't pick the teams which we will do in our season preview episode, we did dig deep into each team's 40 man roster. The AL East is the best division in baseball and yet we had trouble picking more than 3 top starting pitchers! This is the first…
2024 MLB Spring Training has begun and would-be rookies impact teams ultimate performance (think Corbin Carroll and Evan Carter last year) more and more frequently . But some Rookie's of the Year never reach the heights they touched in their first campaign. That doesn't mean they don't have a career…
We hear about the unwritten rules of baseball all the time. Don't walk the leadoff hitter. Don't bunt in a no-hitter. Some of the unwritten rules are more strategic preferences than unwritten rules. We discuss that as well as how stealing signs has evolved over the years and if it…
This is it! The last of our MLB teams deep dives. The Yankees are saved for last since they are first in World Series wins. They have 3x or more as many World Series titles compared to any team but the St. Louis Cardinals who have 11 WS titles. The…
This is our 200th episode and we are so grateful that we have listeners that are interested in hearing us talk about baseball. So THANK YOU to all who take a few minutes here and there to listen and engage with Almost Cooperstown! Since we recorded this podcast Jorge Soler…
The 11-time World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals actually won an American Association championship in 1882. Besides winning in 1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, and 1946 - 6 championships in 21 seasons, they also won in 1964, 1967, 1982, 2006, and most recently in 2011. There are amazing Hall-of-Fame players spread…
We don't often focus on the negative aspects of baseball in the Major Leagues. But there have been some bad people who've made it to the game's grandest stage. Some of the things these heinous characters did during and after their playing career are almost unbelievable. We should have mentioned…
The nine time champion A's won 5 World Series before 1931. They won three in the 1970s. And one more in 1989. That's it. Nine WS is 2nd all-time tied with The Red Sox and Cardinals who we will deep dive on next week. The Athletics turned A's (thanks to…