Almost Cooperstown

Send us Fan Mail Baseball's Two-Way Greats - Pitching/Batting Stars from Ruth and Rogan to Ohtani by Chris Jensen.  Is Shohei Ohtani the greatest two-way player in #MLB history? Chris Jensen isn't afraid to take on big subjects and 19th century baseball had its fair share of two-way stars.  Chris breaks down the greatest two-way players into 19th century, pre-integration era (1947), Negr...

Send us Fan Mail Sadly #whitesox closer Bobby Jenks passed away from stomach cancer at age 44. Our condolences to the Jenks family. On a happier note #Dodgers Clayton Kershaw struck out his 3,000th #MLB batter!  #RedSox Wilyer Abreu hit both a Grand Slam AND an inside-the-park home run in the same game last week!  HOFer Robbie Alomar had an ignominus end with #BlueJays having his number un-retired...

Send us Fan Mail Dave 'The Cobra' Parker passed away at age 74 less than a month before his induction ceremony in Cooperstown. His arm in right field was legendary and he won the 1978 NL MVP.  We're sorry he won't get the opportunity to be there next month.  Corbin Carrol of the #dbacks broke his wrist. Without Corbin Burnes the road got that much tougher. #Mets have been awful...

Send us Fan Mail Aaron Judge and Juan Soto are 1-2 in xwOBA. Expected Weighted On-Base Average (xwOBA) tell the story of a player's season based on quality of and amount of contact, not outcomes. It takes out being unlucky.  Why can't we get into the College World Series?  Rafael Devers is a Giant in the first pre-trading deadline deal of the 2025 #MLB season. Devers said he'd play...

Send us Fan Mail As a father and son doing a podcast we're keenly aware of the bond that baseball can bring to a family.  We loved talking with a real live recent (and possibly future) MLB player and his father about their relationship and journeys in baseball.  What's it like playing #MLB today?  How hard is it to hit today's pitchers and get out Major League hitters?   John Sr. is...

Send us Fan Mail Cal Raleigh aka 'The Big Dumper' hit his 26th home run this week to lead #MLB. If #Mets Tylor Megill was traded to Seattle they'd become a battery meaning the "Big Drip" would pitch to the "Big Dumper". Can we see that happen please?  #Braves have lost 8 of 10 and are making the task of reaching the postseason increasingly difficult. Phillies hav...

Send us Fan Mail #Phillies pfell out of pfirst place in the #nleast given a very unusually poor start on Saturday vs. #Brewers.  Phillies #Cubs, #Dodgers, #Mets all started Sunday at 36-22. They are the class of the league while in the #americanleague #Yankees  & #Tigers seem better than all the other teams.  #Braves despite the returns of Spencer Strider & Ronald Acuna can't get it t...

Send us Fan Mail Happy Memorial Day! This is episode 301 as we forgot to mention our 300th last week!  #tigers Tarik Skubal pitched a Maddux on Sunday, throwing a complete game, striking out 13, only yielding 2 hits, and he threw 94 total pitches. His Game Score was an amazing 96. Anything over 80 is special and a 100 is nearly unattainable. It's a great way to evaluate starting pitchers and...

Send us Fan Mail Three managers have been fired already before Memorial Day!  #Pirates Derek Shelton, #Rockies Bud Black, & #Orioles Brandon Hyde all were dismissed and it kind of makes sense. You can't fire 26 players!   #Twins won 13 straight before finally losing on Sunday. They move to 2nd place in the #ALCentral. #Tigers are the best team in #MLB right now and look strong enough to h...

Send us Fan Mail #Yankees Aaron Judge is now on pace for 56 home runs which would surprise exactly nobody!  Judge also has a #MLB leading 39 RBIs which over 162 games would be 156 RBIs. That hasn't been done since A-Rod did it for those same Yankees in 2007. But the real question is can Judge maintain his +.400 batting average? Doubtful but fun to watch!  #Pirates CF O'neil Cruz leads ML...

Send us Fan Mail It was more fun talking about This Week in Baseball goings-on since #MLB team captains are kinda unimportant. A vestige of 19th century baseball, there are only three team captains in the Majors today. # Yankees Aaron Judge #Royals Salvador Perez, & #Rangers Marcus Semien.  Why aren't there more? We dive into that thought in this week's episode.  Four of the five tea...

Send us Fan Mail #Pirates rookie 27 YO Matt Gorski hit a home run in his first #MLB at-bat this week!  But maybe #Dbacks Eugenio Suarez outdid him by clubbing 4 home runs in a game versus the #Braves, that Arizona ended up losing!   Are the #Giants & #Tigers built for the long haul?  Is #Yankees Paul Goldschmidt really back in HOF form?  We cover the big and little stories of the past week. Li...

Send us Fan Mail About 1/8th of the season is past so you can pretty much take #MLB player stats and multiply by eight. Tyler Soderstrom of the #athletics s is not going to hit 72 home runs. But #yankees  Aaron Judge could definitely finish with 56 or more homers. Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt was taken out by a line drive foul ball last week in the #Mets #Twins series at Citi Field. Hoping that he&ap...

Send us Fan Mail #Angels in first place is something we did not expect. Mike Trout leading the #AL in homers is not as shock but that he has 6 HRs and 10 hits is at least surprising!  The #Tigers are in 1st place as are #Yankees, #Padres, #Cubs w #Mets & #Phillies tied for 1st place in the #NLEast as of Sunday morning.  Justin Steele may have an injury to his elbow that could change the Cubs f...

Send us Fan Mail Baseball movies are rarer than they used to be. Has there been a great one that you love in the past 10 years?  Gordon and Mark participated in a roundtable with 4 other baseball writers/podcasters/personalities - Vince Wetzel (author of "Lose Yourself" and a past Almost Cooperstown guest, Scott Bolohan (host of the Twin Bill podcast and content), Kelly Franco (Three Inn...

Send us Fan Mail The #Dodgers finally lost & #Braves finally won. Yet it's the #Giants who are in 1st place in the NL West. #Padres also lost but still are off to a great start. #Cubs are looking good as are #Phillies who beat L.A. 2 out of 3 this weekend. #Mets bullpen is over-performing but they will take it for now. #D'backs have good news and bad news.  #Yankees are still clubbin...

Send us Fan Mail It's not really been a week in baseball but the Dodgers & Cubs have played 5 games now (Dodgers have won them all and are on a path to be undefeated) so that's close to a week. There are no narratives written in March for MLB teams. That goes for April too although teams will be almost 30 games into the season when April ends.  #Yankees Aaron Judge was on a pace for...

Send us Fan Mail As we launch our 6th season of Almost Cooperstown podcasts we start by saying thank you to our listeners and viewers. 280 episodes in the can and still going strong!  Thank you for liking to hear and watch us talk about our favorite thing - baseball!  We go division by division picking all 30 teams in order of finish. It's a long episode for that reason but we just couldn&apo...

Send us Fan Mail Author of 19 books, Keith O'Brien grew up in Cincinnati and had a front row seat to much of Pete Rose's career. Keith's 2024 book "Charlie Hustle" won awards from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and The New Yorker. We both enjoyed the book immensely and recommend it highly.  Pete Rose was addicted to gambling, something he finally admitted, but on...

Send us Fan Mail Even before Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis banned eight #Whitesox players for their attempted fix of the 1919 World Series, players had been banned, blacklisted and banished from baseball mostly for trying to fix games but not always. Once Commissioner Landis was given the job and power to kick players and people out of baseball he used it liberally as did his successors.  Even Wi...

Send us Fan Mail #Yankees Giancarlo Stanton is injured. Again. This time it is tennis elbow in both elbows!  #Mets FA acquisition Nick Madrigal is doing his Jed Lowrie imitation as he's out for the season before it ever started!  Injuries are part of the game but you hope to get through Spring Training!  Max Scherzer is not thrilled with ABS testing so far. But Max is never happy about, every...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Bregman homered in his first Spring Training game for #redsox. He also went 3-3. #Mets Juan Soto went oppo toco deep in his first AB with his new team. #yankees Aaron Boone got a contract extension and Giancarlo Stanton has tennis elbow. In both elbows?  Frankie Montas now of the Mets is injured. Justin Turner goes to #Cubs. Does that give them an edge?  ABS made its debut in...

Send us Fan Mail There was enough news for us to talk about what went on this week. Alex Bregman #redsox was the biggest player news. #Angels Rendon is out of action for the season. Again. Before it even started! Who will be the dark horse teams in #MLB 2025? How about caps for the HOF inductees? Is C.C. really a #Yankees player?   Then there's the Deadball era which occurred from 1901-1919....

Send us Fan Mail Well here we are with spring training at hand as pitchers & catchers are reporting for #Cubs today. Other teams will follow shortly. Football season is over and baseball is on the way!  How did the NL teams offseason go? #Dodgers, #Giants and #Mets were noisy.  #Reds have Terry Francona at the helm. #Padres are puzzling. #Dbacks are dynamic w Corbin Burnes at the top of the ro...

Send us Fan Mail #MLB Pitchers and catchers report in about 10 days. So officially baseball winter is over as the sound of balls hitting gloves is imminent!  Watching video of #Rangers Jacob DeGrom is compelling and full of promise!  The fate of the team is likely tied to how DeGrom pitches in 2025 and how much!  We talk about the American League teams and what they did of interest since the 2024...