x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

All About Baseball with Byron Copley

A podcast where baseball is the main character, a supporting player, or a silent partner. The possibilities are vast and varied.

sports baseball

All Episodes

11:04

Al Kaline’s Rude Introduction to the Detroit Tigers

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/12/28

Al Kaline, first-ballot Hall of Fame right fielder for the Detroit Tigers, whose career spanned 22 seasons from 1953 to 1974, was rejected, ostracized, and ridiculed by many teammates during his rookie season -- primarily because the core of veteran outfielders perhaps knew that their days as Detroit Tigers were dwindling, and this rookie phenom bonus baby was accelerating the timeline. Who were these players who resented Kaline's presence? That what this podcast reveals

en-US

14:27

Rob Manfred’s Gone Batty

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/12/21

A listener sent me a link to a story that revealed the latest in a long line of "reforms" that Rob Manfred, MLB Commissioner, has proposed to "enhance" the game of baseball and "engage" the fans more thoroughly. Having already ushered in pitcher's and hitter's clocks, limits in pickoff moves, a placing a runner on second base in extra-inning games, larger bases, banning the shift on the infield, and the universal designated hitter, Manfred has proposed an idea that actually violates the present

en-US

12:03

When Baseball Became Work

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/12/17

The transition from Little League baseball to playing for my Junior High was abrupt, blunt, and unapologetic. Here's just a sample of the experience, that occurred in the spring of 1970. My no-nonsense, demanding, but fair-minded coach set expectations for our conduct on and off the field that forever changed my perception of the purpose of playing baseball: it was no longer simply to win; it was to do well.bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com byroncopley.com Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei

en-US

14:41

Baseball-Oriented Christmas Gifts

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/12/11

For the baseball fans in your family, I offer several Christmas-gift suggestions that should delight them. None of them are all that expensive, but I hope that they would become priceless over time. The best gift is that which is unexpected and appreciated. And I expect that few listeners have considered what I am going to propose in this podcast. byroncopley.com bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin

en-US

15:17

Baseball Games You Can Play

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/12/05

As we enter the Holiday Season, it's often a time for fun-filled games as a way to laugh and bond with friends and family. In this podcast, I offer a few games that only require a simple love and knowledge of baseball and a desire to experience it with others. Oh, and a little sidetracking on the 1981 MLB baseball strike. It's relevant to the topic. Comments: byroncopley.com (or on the platform of your choice) email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin

en-US

14:12

It’s Time to End Interleague Play in MLB

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/12/01

One way or another, it's time to end interleague play in MLB. Either merge the leagues into one and create even more balance in the scheduled games to blur the lines between the leagues completely, or revert to the days when the two leagues were separate and distinct.Comments: byroncopley.com email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin

en-US

Why is Bunting so Controversial?

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/11/28

For decades, bunting was a staple of a Major League Baseball team's offensive strategy. Now, it's considered a penalizing measure in the effort to score runs. And the abandonment of the bunt in MLB has filtered down into the lower ranks of baseball, even down to Little League. In answering this question, and in providing a counter argument to the controversial nature of bunting, I went down several rabbit holes before finding my way to the surface. My bottom line: Bunting should not be

en-US

10:17

Ode to My Younger Brother

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/11/22

On November 22, 2015, my younger brother, Christopher, passed away in his sleep. This podcast commemorates his death and expresses sadness for my not spending more time sharing my passion for baseball with him. email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com Music: "Field Grass" Sergei Pavkin

en-US

10:54

Lou Whitaker is a First-Ballot Hall of Famer

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/11/19

This rather rash statement, to some, is axiomatic to me, and I think that the numbers back up my claim. Yet, Whitaker, who played 19 seasons for the Detroit Tigers and saved some of his best seasons for last, was only on the Hall of Fame ballot once, where he received only 2.9% of all ballots cast. I make the case that the Baseball Writers Association of America snubbed Whitaker, for reasons that only the Writers know, because, in my opinion, it is the most-egregious Hall of Fame snub to date

en-US

16:11

Pining for the Wood Bat

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/11/14

There are inherent and lasting advantages for youth baseball players to use wood bats, which have been supplanted by the proliferation of metal and composite bats. This podcast enumerates those advantages, and advocates the value of the experience of stepping to the plate with a bat made of wood -- an experience that every youth player should have.Credit to K Sports for helping to define those advantages. email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin

en-US

15:13

How Did They Last This Long in the Major Leagues?

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/11/08

As a counterpoint to an earlier podcast, "The 5,000-5,999 Plate Appearance MLB All-Time Team: 1960-2023," I flipped that idea on its head and researched MLB players, using Fangraphs and Baseball Reference, with more than 3,500 plate appearances and who consistently "underachieved" at the plate and in the field yet still managed to remain in the Major Leagues for 10+ years. I then selected an "all-time" team -- by position -- for players whose careers took place from 1960 to 2024. More details

en-US

10:23

“Miscues” and Misfortune: New York Yankees

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/11/01

The top of the 5th inning of World Series Game 5 reinforced the capricious and chaotic nature of baseball, compounded by chance and circumstance, amplified by critics who, according to Theodore Roosevelt, are "cold and timid." This podcast takes a dispassionate look at this inning and offers a hopefully empathic view of it.Music: "Field Grass" Sergei Pavkin email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com

en-US

10:19

The Oldest Players of Major League Baseball

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/10/28

I was ruminating over a conversation that I had with a client more than 15 years ago in which I discovered that he was the grandson-in-law to a Hall-of-Fame ballplayer who was one of the oldest players alive at the time. This prompted me to look into who were the oldest-living players in the present day and I discovered one mind-blowing fact that will hopefully amaze you, the listener, as well.Music: "Field Grass" Sergei Pavkin email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com

en-US

10:18

Screwball: The Ultimate Out Pitch

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/10/24

With the passing of Fernando Valenzuela, who pitched the majority of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, I was prompted to produce a podcast about his most effective pitch: the screwball. He is one of the very few pitchers in MLB who relied on the screwball to get hitters out, and he and other prominent pitchers of his era, as well as pitchers from the nascent times of MLB, used the screwball without suffering the career-ending arm injuries that pundits warned as its final consequence.Rest

en-US

7:39

2024 Tigers: How Did They Do It?

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/10/19

On August 2nd, the Detroit Tigers were 52-59, 16 games behind the Cleveland Guardians with little to no chance of making the playoffs. On September 30, the Tigers were 86-76 and had qualified for the playoffs. How did they do it? I offer a rather basic explanation that involves chance as much as it does skill, that isolates a single baseball metric: BABIP -- Batting Average of Balls in Play.Music: "Field Grass" Sergei Pavkin email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com

en-US

21:59

World Series Winners and Losers

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/10/14

This is about as "seat of the pants" as I have ever been, as I express my "nerdity" about the game of baseball in the form of waxing spontaneously over the winners and losers of World Series from 1903 to 2023 -- I have memorized them. During this "podcast without a safety net" I reveal a "license plate" game I play to keep the data base fresh in the "junk drawer" that is my mind, I offer some selected World Series stories, and, as a special bonus, I list all the winners and losers in order at the

en-US

14:45

Major League Baseball: Overbranded and Overhyped

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/10/09

I expect that the title of this podcast reveals my opinion of MLB's current approach to partnering with corporations to raise revenue, awareness, and ROI. In my opinion, in-game advertising, that appears virtually everywhere in the course of a television broadcast, is a distraction to the play on the field. And, in the past, there was an organic connection between company sponsors and major-league teams. Now the arrangement seems stripped down to the contrived and transactional, no matter how much

en-US

10:49

The Lessons of Moneyball Are Not New

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/10/03

Having read the book Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, I recognized that the approach that the Oakland A's front office took to hitting in 2002 was virtually identical to the approach that we applied in Little League in 1967. Yet, it was rejected and ridiculed by the "common wisdom" of MLB at the time. Why it did so remains a mystery, especially considering that a patient and deliberate approach to hitting was evident to us from the time we played organized baseball. Music: "Field Grass" Sergei

en-US

18:18

After Baseball: Hank Aguirre, Businessman and...

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/09/28

After a 16-year Major League career, Hank Aguirre established a company called Mexican Industries in 1979, with the intent of employing fellow Mexicans and other minorities who lived in an area of Detroit called "Mexicantown." After several lean years, the company blossomed in to a $150,000,000 business by the time Hank died in 1994.Entrepreneur, community leader, and benefactor, Aguirre's story of a literal nuts-and-bolts beginning to an enterprise business is chronicled in the book "The Tall

en-US

12:56

Obstruction, Interference, and Confusion

All About Baseball with Byron Copley ·

2024/09/24

Even at the highest levels of the game, in the most critical situations, obstruction and interference create confusion and controversy among the best and brightest baseball minds. Here, I offer three examples of this, as well as one that I judged in much more obscure circumstances. Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com

en-US

121 results

Similar Podcasts

Keeping Karlsson Fantasy Hockey Podcast

Elan Dubrofsky and Brian Kom

Daily Fantasy Sports by Ship It Nation

Ship It Nation

Fantasy Football Today

CBS Sports, Fantasy Football, FFT, NFL,...

Bring The Pain

Heat00veride

ESPN SportsCenter Update

ESPN