Almost Cooperstown

The Brewers have been around for more than 50 years but not always as the Brewers. We talk about the team's history, reason for being, its greatest players and most memorable seasons for this team which has unfortunately never brought a World Series win to its great fans.  

It was Ben Ogilvie and Gorman Thomas combining for 73 home runs in 1982 - more than the entire Cardinal team that beat them in the World Series! 

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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

What started as a way to pass time during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic has grown to be something that's bigger than we ever imagined.  We owe a huge thank you to all of our listeners!   Do we keep going?  Are there enough topics that can sustain another 100 episodes and beyond?  We think so and talk about how we got here from there.  

Thanks again to our guests - Willie Blair, Jillian Geib, Gary Livacari, Sean Forman, Adam Korengold, Jean Fruth, and Jeff Idelson.  And thanks to our Engineer Michele and our team artist Nader! 

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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

 

With the recent passing of Dodger announcer Vin Scully we lost one of the great voices of baseball - be it radio or television. We love to listen to baseball on the radio and once baseball on the radio began in 1921 it was the only way to follow pitch by pitch until baseball came to TV in 1939. 

We talk about some of the great radio announcers and why listening to the game on radio might be better than watching it!  

Note: The great Tim McCarver did mostly TV for the Mets and national broadcasts and little radio.  He recently retired from broadcasting.  

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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

Joe Jackson, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and a few others all are not enshrined in Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. But there is no way these are really 'Almost' guys. They were clearly not just great players, but were among the greatest players of their era as well as all-time.  Do they deserve to be members of the HOF? We think they do but even if they remain out, how can they be non-entities?  

Having a specific area in the HOF - a Corridor of Controversy where controversial players and their exploits and transgressions are analyzed and reviewed would be the right thing to do - at least!  Making believe they don't exist is...well, dumb in our view.  

Could a player be in both the Corridor of Controversy AND the HOF? Listen to us talk about that too. 

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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

When a player scores 100 runs in a single season it's considered to be a significant achievement. Yet isn't scoring runs as derivative as stat as are RBI's?  Because, it depends - on the other players in the lineup.  Fantasy baseball team owners often have to try to pick the players who will score the most runs as one of the categories. Should it be a leadoff speedy guy? Or a home run hitters - at least he guarantees that he scores!  

We talk about the importance of team runs versus individual exploits.  Rickey Henderson a leadoff hitter was both a speedy guy AND a home run hitter (most leadoff homers in history and 297 for his illustrious career).  It makes sense that he is the all-time leader in runs scored. But season by season it's surprising to find some players highly ranked in runs scored yet not so high in many other important categories. Why? Because when they do get on base, they're driven home by the batters that follow! 

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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

If it all it took to be successful only was as simple as changing a team's name that would be smart right? Well the Tampa Bay Devil Rays became the Tampa Bay Rays and they've been so much better ever since!  We talk about the franchise's history in this franchise's Silver Anniversary 25th season.  Who's the greatest Ray (or Devil Ray) of them all?  Listen and find out! 

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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

There were 8 new inductees into Cooperstown over the weekend.  The various committees finally enshrined Bud Fowler, Buck O'Neil, Minnie Minoso, Gil Hodges, Jim 'Kitty' Katt, Tony Oliva, David Ortiz  was voted in as a 1st ballot selection. We think that might have overdone it but agree Ortiz is a HOFer. 

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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

 

Unlike many who offer predictions on who's going to be a playoff team, we divulge what we predicted BEFORE this 2022 season started.  We did pretty well by our own admission although we did have a big miss.  Listen to find out what we got right and what we got wrong in this fast moving summary of the unofficial 1st half of the season!  

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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

We're fans of baseball and that includes all levels.  Driving past a Little League field seeing kids out there playing baseball makes us smile every time.  For nearly all major league players playing baseball starts in backyards, on streets, and wherever there's a ball, a glove, and even sometimes a bat. 

Jean Fruth has been photographing baseball for many years.  As team photographer for the SF Giants and Oakland A's, she's demonstrates a keen eye and a deep sensitivity for America's Pastime.   She worked with Jeff Idelson at the Baseball Hall of Fame while he was the recent past-President.  For the past 3 years Jean and Jeff have partnered  and created www.Grassrootsbaseball.org.  Its mission  is to promote and celebrate the amateur game around the glove.  Their first book 'Grassroots Baseball - where legends begin' is focused on the game around the world.  The more recent book 'Grassroots Baseball - Route 66 features essays and commentary from former & current MLB players like Johnny Bench, Jim Thome, and Alex Bregman to name a few.   We had a terrific conversation with Jean and Jeff talking about taking baseball photos, nurturing and growing the game  that we all love so much. 

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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating! 

Catching is hard and debilitating to the body.  The famed 'tools of ignorance' may be better than they were in the past but squatting for 150-200 MLB pitches a night is still incredibly difficult. There are only 19 catchers in Cooperstown.  In the past 30 years 'pitch framing' has been touted as a key skill for a receiver. With the advent of Robo-umps sometime in the near future pitch framing no longer counts for anything.  

We talk about the lack of hitting by today's catchers and if the impending loss of pitch framing as a skill will result in better hitting catchers.  

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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!