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Almost Cooperstown

Gordon Kolier & Mark Kolier

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We're a father & son who love to talk and argue about baseball! Baseball is the professional sport that has the longest history so there is a lot to talk about. We launched Almost Cooperstown noting that baseball contains a long history of players that, for whatever reasons, have been shunned by the electors of the Hall of Fame. Consequently here are many 'Almost' players still waiting their turn for induction. With less than 1.5% of the now more than 23,000 players in the HOF, we feel there ...
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Send us a text #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 wat…
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Send us a text 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…
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Send us a text #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 …
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Send us a text 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…
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Send us a text #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…
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Send us a text 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 …
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Send us a text 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…
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Send us a text 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. #Yanke…
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Send us a text 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 episo…
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Send us a text 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 fi…
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Send us a text 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 u…
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Send us a text #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 …
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Send us a text 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…
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Send us a text 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 Dea…
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Send us a text 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 dy…
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Send us a text #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 …
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Send us a text Dan was not the voter who didn't vote for Ichiro. But we all wish we knew who it was! For the 3rd straight year Dan joined the podcast to discuss the final HOF voting. He voted for Bobby Abreu, Carlos Beltrán, Andruw Jones, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki, Chase Utley, and Billy Wagner. 9 in total and we dis…
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Send us a text #pirates and #whitesox Smoky Burgess had a pretty good career with a career OPS+ of 116. But he's third all-time in pinch hits and was a beloved player at the end of his career. We talk about the changes in pinch hitting and why all-time pinch hitting records are likely safe! Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! …
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Send us a text As Director of Product Adam has been part of Sports-Reference for a long time. Keeping Baseball -Reference.com fresh, being part of the addition of Football, Basketball, (both college and pro), and hockey has proven to be groundbreaking. Adam has also worked on bringing in Negro League player data into BR. We talk Hall of Fame (Adam …
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Send us a text We don't know about you, but we forget things that happened during a baseball season even when it was LAST season! Sure the #dodgers beat #yankees in the #worldseries but besides Shohei and Aaron Judge, and Skubal, Sale and Skenes, there still were a lot of interesting and even amazing things that happened. We discuss the four no-hit…
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Send us a text Founded in 1901, the AL contains teams like #Yankees and #RedSox who have an epic list in their top 5 for players hitting home runs while a member of the franchise. Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, David "Big Papi' Ortiz, Jim Rice, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra are all in their teams top 5. All are HOFer.. …
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Send us a text Who are the home run leaders while wearing a team's uniform? Sounded like a interesting episode topic but then Rickey Henderson so sadly and suddenly passed away at age 65. Rickey's 66th birthday would have been on Christmas this Wednesday. With 1,406 stolen bases Rickey doesn't only have the most stolen bases in one season, or in a …
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Send us a text Steve Phillips has been a radio personality for 20 years starting not long after his time his time as GM for our #mets. Steve brought in Mike Piazza who had the biggest non-playoff home run in Mets history - until this year maybe? Today Steve hosts 'The Leadoff Spot' on Sirius/XM radio weekdays from 7-10AM. Steve also broadcasts some…
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Send us a text How about the #Giants finally getting their man in Willy Adames. But it was a big price to pay. Clay Holmes to the #mets as a starter? Luis Severino to Sacramento is a big deal for the franchise formerly known as the #athletics who seem like they will eventually move to Vegas. Frankie Montas to the Mets was the reason Severino headed…
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Send us a text Having worked with HOFer Roland Hemond with the Chicago #whitesox, Dan Evans took on the job of rebuilding the #dodgers in 2001. He was there for four seasons and had a winning season each year before being fired with almost 200 others. The Dodgers went 71-91 the next season and Dan tells us it did not bother him a bit! Dodgers GM fr…
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Send us a text Why aren't more teams on #MLB free agent Juan Soto? They make plenty of money but are afraid. Afraid even though they are increasing franchise value and have more revenue streams than ever before. Teams should be spending more on Free Agents. We tell you which ones. Which teams should be spending more period? After Juan Soto signs wh…
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Send us a text 79/113/122 those are the numbers representing the amount of days until pitchers & catchers report, #Dodgers #Cubs opening games in Tokyo March 18, and the REAL opening day on March 27. MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year were all awarded. There were exactly ZERO surprises. Guess that's but it's also kind of bor…
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Send us a text Baseball fans may have heard the story that Stan Musial began his career in baseball as a pitcher/outfielder. A shoulder injury forced him to become a hitter and outfielder full-time for which #MLB is forever grateful. Stan-the-Man had 3,630 hits - the same 1,815 hits at home as he had on the road! He missed only one season due to WW…
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Send us a text Japanese sensation 23-year-old Roki Sasaki wants to play #MLB. He finally got Chibu to allow him to have that opportunity. Yoshinobu Yamamoto showed the #Dodgers that top-tier NPB pitchers can dominate in the Majors. Gerrit Cole thought about leaving the #Yankees and then thought the better of it. We didn't discuss Shohei Ohtani's su…
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Send us a text If you are using Baseball-reference.com or Football or Basketball reference you will be using aspects what Sean Lahman created 30 years ago. Sean is a member of SABR and has generously donated the database to SABR so it's in excellent hands! We asked Sean how to use the database, how much and how long it took to put it all together (…
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Send us a text No longer can #dodgers be talked about as not having won a WS in this century in a 162-game season. There are a few players like Max Muncy who remember taking Covid-19 test after winning the 2020 World Series. No parades. No cheering from the fans. The 2024 championship behind a great job of managing by future HOF manager Dave Robert…
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Send us a text Just last season the #dbacks came from 2-0 down to beat the #Phillies in the NLCS. So the #Yankees being down 2-0 is not insurmountable. But their fans are going nuts and negative since presumptive AL MVP Aaron Judge has struck out 6 times in 2 games. How will the Yankee fans greet Judge upon his return to the Bronx? #Dodgers Shohei …
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Send us a text Do today's Yankee and Dodger fans care about the 1981 World Series? That was the last one between the teams. The Yanks and Dodgers played 11 times from 1941 through 1981. They did not like each other. Really. That's not the case today as all belong to a very exclusive club of millionaires and billionaires. In the #ALCS #Guardians gav…
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Send us a text As #Mets fans of course we're excited that somehow our favorite team is still in it. Yet the prospect of a subway series vs. #Yankees is very enticing and exciting. #Dodgers will have a lot to say about it and Shohei will likely not have another subpar series. #Guardians surprised #Tigers Tarik Skubal with former #National Lane Thoma…
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Send us a text If you know our podcast you know we are huge Mets fans. This week was one of the better ones in the team's history. Playing the only games in #MLB on Monday and Thursday, the Mets were the Drama Queens from Queens! Now that #Brewers are vanquished #Phillies await and will be a much tougher task. We preview the best of 5 series betwee…
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Send us a text The #Mets & #Braves split a doubleheader on Monday. Game 1 of the DH was one of the best baseball games a Met fan has ever seen. So we're naturally happy. But there were a ton of other things this week in baseball. We didn't discuss Luis Arraez 3rd straight batting crown, or Shohei Ohtani at all! Our segment on things you might not h…
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Send us a text The Rookie League championships took place at the end of July! There's have also been championships settled in Low A and High A Ball. This week the AA and AAA finals are being played with the AAA overall championship a one game 'winner take all' playoff this Saturday Sept. 28th. Do minor league players get trophies for winning a mino…
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Send us a text What was CJ Abrams of the Washington Nationals thinking when he stayed out until 8AM before a day game!! The White Sox tie the Mets record for futility with 120 losses. Tigers believe! Twins like the Royals are sinking. Mariners are hanging on and the Braves go home to play the Mets for the playoff lives. Dodgers will need to hold of…
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Send us a text #Tigers Tarik Skubal and #Braves Chris Sale are both in line to win the AL and NL pitching triple crowns this season. Most wins, most strikeouts, and lowest E.R.A. is the criteria. It was last done in 2020 in the pandemic season by #Guardians Shane Bieber. It's happened 33 times in #MLB history which is more than double the amount of…
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Send us a text Tyler Glasnow is out for the year. Yamamoto might be able to throw 6 innings by playoff time. What will the #Dodgers do? #Rangers had the future and the past happen this week with Kumar Rocker, Jacob DeGrom and Max Scherzer start consecutive games. Why did Gerritt Cole intentionally walk Rafael Devers while working on a no-hitter? It…
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Send us a text Albert Belle isn't in the HOF. Nor did he ever win an MVP although he deserved one in 1998. Instead Juan Gonzalez of the #Rangers (also not a HOFer). But Belle's not the biggest snub ever for MVP. There are lots of other more worthy, or unworthy, candidates! #Giants Barry Bonds ruined it for #Cardinals Albert Pujols in 2003. But Bond…
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Send us a text Parker Meadows had the backyard moment for the #Tigers in San Diego this week hitting a 2 out 2 strike grand slam in the 9th inning with his team down by 3 runs. #Cubs Shota Imanaga was part of a combined no-hitter this week. Meh! We didn't talk about the #Brewers because they are still in cruise mode. #Dodgers & #Phillies have best …
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Send us a text Automated balls and strikes, will be instituted in MLB, eventually NCAthers wont be able to 'steal' strikes by trying to trick the umpires. Tennis hasn't missed anything moving to an automated line calling system and neither will MLB. Will catchers be able to focus more on baserunners? Maybe. Will they have to hit more than they do n…
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Send us a text Can a team go 22-3 to make a playoff run? It can happen but it's not likely. That's where some of the teams that are on the bubble are right now. #Cubs, #Tigers, #RedSox are those kinds of teams with the #Mets not far behind. September baseball is fantastic and there are still many things left to be decided before we start hearing ab…
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Send us a text We didn't need to wait until the end of the #MLB season to review the #Mets performance. Are we happy? Yes and No? Was it a good season? Yes and No. The team has undergone a lot of changes since Opening Day. Rosters are different, a rookie manager Carlos Mendoza has navigated as best he can without having his #1 starter Kodai Senga i…
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Send us a text 40 Homers and 40 steals is cool - Ronald Acuna of the #braves showed that last year. Shohei Ohtani is vying to have a 50/50 season - 50 home runs and 50 steals! Plus Ohtani is throwing off the mound! Will he come back for the playoffs? OK not likely but wouldn't that be cool? Aaron Judge hit HR's 50 & 51 on Sunday to lead the #yankee…
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Send us a text The pitcher who has hit the most batters in MLB history is one that you have almost certainly never heard about before - Gus Weyhing. Walter 'Big' Train Johnson is 2nd and Randy 'Big Unit' Johnson third all-time hitting batters and they pitched 75 years apart. If you think players are getting hit and injured more often there's reason…
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Send us a text We did not even talk about #phillies Weston Wilson who became the first Phillie rookie to hit for the cycle! Complete game shutouts are back in vogue. Injuries still are in the picture for pitchers. Outfield defense is better than ever. We talk about why. Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spo…
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Send us a text Mark has been a SABR member for 4 years but has never attended the annual convention. This year it was in Minneapolis in early August and the Twin Cities proved to be a great location for a content-rich three days of baseball talk and presentations. HOFers Rod Carew and Tony Oliva were on a hitter's panel together and HOFers Bert Bly…
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Send us a text Episode #250! #Phillies, #Brewers, #Dodgers, #Orioles, #Yankees, #Guardians all are within a game of one another for the best record in #baseball! Juan Soto hit 2HRs Sunday to lead the Bombers over the fading #Rangers who lost Max Scherzer for the year to a bad shoulder. BTW Jacob DeGrom still has not pitched in 2024. It's getting to…
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