Almost Cooperstown

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 Cooperstown channel.

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

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 subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

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! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

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 Cooperstown channel.

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

www.almostcooperstown.com

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 for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

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 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.

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 
 

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 and use Baseball Reference to check whether he played somewhere or not!

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.

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

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 major U.S. sports (and soccer is gaining on hockey) pays its players the most?  The least? Which sport has the longest average career? We talk about all kinds of non-baseball-y stuff but fear not. We can't help ourselves when it comes to talking about baseball!

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.

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

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 Tommy John qualify based on the sum total of his excellent playing career and the being recipient  of the most famous 'baseball' surgery of all time?

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.

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

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 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 us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!