Shows
All About Baseball with Byron CopleyA Foolproof Way to Protect Your SignsSign stealing is an ancient discipline and it perfectly legal when people directly involved in the game observe base coaches with the naked eye. At all levels, signs are a visual code that communicates plays like bunt, hit-and-run, steal, squeeze play — and more. I learned a foolproof way to protect our signs from the third-base coach that the opposition never deciphered, and that our own player never had to remember. This podcast covers how MLB teams traditionally flash sign and the novel method we employed that, to my knowledge, has never been duplicated.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
...2025-06-0414 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe MLB Baseball Uniform is Anything but UniformA curious assertion, given that the majority of MLB ballplayers wear their uniforms in one of two ways: with the pants at knee-level (or above) or as full-length pants that drape over the shoes. Unimaginative is lending credit to today’s current “style”. The point is that the art and ritual of donning a baseball uniform in the Major Leagues has given way to a more bland, utilitarian, and un-nuanced necessity.
Dressing in a baseball uniform used to be a ritual. Not anymore.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
www.byroncopley.com
Music: “Field Grass,”...2025-05-3014 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Day that Babe Ruth Should Have Retired from BaseballNinety years ago today, May 25, 1935, Babe Ruth, now with the last-place Boston Braves, capped his 22-season career with a banner day against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field. This podcast expresses the significance of that day, excoriates Braves’ owner Emil Fuchs, and identifies perhaps the actual day, June 13, 1948, when Babe Ruth retired from the game.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
www.byroncopley.com
Music: “Field Grass,” by Sergei Pavkin
“Babe Bows Out”
Braves vs. Pirates Box Score, May 25, 1935
2025-05-2521 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Mystery of Javier Baez’s TransformationWhat is up with Javier Baez? I looked at the numbers in detail to find out HOW Javier Baez has improved so dramatically in 2025 compared to 2024, because they can’t lie. Many of Baez’s stats are drastically different in 2025 compared to 2024. However, many others are surprisingly the same, or worse, in 2025 compared to 2024.
What did I discover? More affirmation that baseball is a random game that gives and takes away.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
www.byroncopley.com
Music: “Field Grass,” by Sergei Pavkin
2025-05-2021 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyA Losing Bet: The Reinstatement of Pete RoseNot much more to say about the content of this podcast, except for that it references, obviously, the movies American Grafitti, Casablanca, and Animal House. More to the point, it’s somewhat ironic to me that MLB Commissioner Manfred waited until Rose died before removing him from the “permanently ineligible” list. This entire situation reeks of irony and contradiction. And convenience.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
www.byroncopley.com
Music: “Field Grass” by Sergei Pavkin
2025-05-1518 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyYou Need to Listen to “The Midnight Library of Baseball”“The Midnight Library of Baseball,” by Ben Orlando, is the podcast that inspired me to create “All About Baseball,” and my podcast is loosely modeled after Orlando’s. I want to share Orlando’s podcast with you because it is worth listening to. I just finished his three-part series on the 1919 World Series, and if you think that there’s nothing more to say or write about the Black Sox’ Scandal, I invite you to listen to check out Orlando’s, with the help of several other authorities on the subject, fresh perspective on the event that shook the nation to its foun...2025-05-1014 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWhen is it Time to Call Time?In a recent game between the Reds and the Braves, where Braves’ first basemen Matt Olsen was awarded an inside-the-park home run, I think that the umpires missed the opportunity to apply Rule 5:12 (b) (3). In my opinion, Olsen should have been awarded two bases and no runs allowed, in the spirit of the game and in the name of player safety, which should be the #1 priority of the game at all levels. This episode begins with an anecdote where a little-league umpire called time when he should have let play proceed.
bcposcastbaseball@gmail.com
www.by...2025-05-0714 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyIs the Torpedo Bat a Dud?The numbers seem to indicate that the players who regularly use the Torpedo Bat are not, in most cases, hitting the target in regards to improved offense when compared to March/April 2024. Only a few of the 19 MLB players reviewed in this podcast (and by all accounts, who are the only players who use the Torpedo Bat ) have experienced improved performance in the key metrics of Batting Average, On-Base Percentage, Weighted On Base Average, Weighted Runs Created Plus, Hard Hit Percentage, Batting Average Balls in Play, and Line Drive Percentage.
This podcast takes a deep delve into...2025-05-0115 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyInfield PracticeThe sounds of baseball that emanated from the high school behind my back yard on a warm Sunday prompted me to walk over there and investigate. What I discovered was a softball team of young women at practice who obviously love the game and a coach who instills confidence and courage in his players.
byroncopley@gmail.com
www.byroncopley.com
Music: “FIeld Grass,” by Sergei Pavkin
2025-04-2814 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWho is Brad Havens?Brad Havens is one of the 23,431 men, as of this podcast release, to have ever played Major League Baseball in the history of civilization. He is also the only player from my high school, Royal Oak Kimball, to have made the major leagues. This podcast briefly accounts his story, based on limited personal experience and limited press coverage. Why spend time on a largely anonymous MLB player? Because most of them are.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: “Field Grass,” by Sergei Pavkin
2025-04-2317 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyBaseball is A Courteous GameBaseball, unlike other sports, offers unique and subtle ways to express courtesies to teammates, opponents, and even umpires. In this podcast, I cover a few examples that should be taught from the very beginnings of a player's experience as a ballplayer. These courtesies are as much a part of the game as are the fundamentals of pitching, fielding, throwing, baserunning, and hitting.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei Pavkin2025-04-1814 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWhat Were the Pittsburgh Pirates Thinking?Just recently, the Pittsburgh Pirates removed a logo honoring Pirates' legend Roberto Clemente that was placed in the right-field corner of PNC Park and replaced it with...an alcohol ad. Thankfully the blow back from baseball fans prompted the Pirates to undo their mistake, but how this idea ever was even mentioned remains a mystery.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
www.byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin2025-04-1114 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWill the Torpedo Bat Sink Major League Pitching?In a word: No. It may adjust they way pitchers approach hitters who use the torpedo bat, but, ultimately, the torpedo bat will be an after thought by the All-Star Break. However, I would expect the marginal hitter, looking for any possible edge, to give it a serious tryout.
bcbaseballpodcast@gmail.com
www.byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei Pavkin2025-04-0414 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyBackache, The Bus Seat Rule, and BaseballWhile under the influence of painkillers to blunt the discomfort of back surgery yesterday, I had a lucid dream of relating a podcast, complete with images, words, and voice. I attempt to recreate it here.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
www.byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei Pavkin2025-03-2514 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyKirk Gibson: Hockey Player?It seems timely to share several anecdotes about the years that Kirk Gibson and I, with a select group of other great guys, played hockey together on Thursday nights at a local ice arena in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Gibson was as tenacious on the ice as he was on the diamond.
Gibson recently stepped down as a television baseball analyst for the Detroit Tigers to focus on helping others battle the same disease that he has battled for 10 years: Parkinson's.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
www.byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei Pavkin2025-03-1811 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Head-First Slide is Not a Heads-Up PlayIn this podcast, I offer three reasons why a head-first slide is not recommended by me, an alternative that is far more effective and safer, and a description of an my makeshift office-studio and the book that inspired this specific podcast.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei Pavkin
MLB Sliding Injuries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8xV5C387Lw
Siding Photo on the cover of Bill James Historical Abstract: https://www.catchershome.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Mickey-Cochrane-dive-1536x1201.jpg2025-03-1211 minAll About Baseball with Byron Copley“Wilson! I’m Sorry!”This podcast reflects on a couple of memorable heckling experiences that I witnessed 40 years apart. The first was at Tiger Stadium in 1971 with my girlfriend. The second was at Comerica Park in 2011 with my daughter.
Both were highly entertaining and perfect examples of what imaginative heckling can do to enhance the experience of attending a major league baseball game.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Brian Wilson dugout meltdown 7/1/2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkFOgF9Mmdo
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin2025-03-0612 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Rundown on RundownsWe learned how to execute rundown situations during neighborhood games of pickle. Having watched several random videos of major league baseball players failing to retire trapped runners on the basepaths, I was inspired to promote a solution that retires a runner caught flat-footed between bases with a single throw.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
https://twitter.com/allaboutba27871
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin2025-02-2613 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Automated Ball-Strike System is Not PerfectThe Automated Ball-Strike system (ABS) has intruded into Major League Baseball Spring Training games. In this podcast, I refute the wisdom and necessity of using it at this level of play, because it will not necessarily guarantee 100-percent accuracy in calling balls and strikes. And the way that selected players can challenge an umpire's ball-strike call introduces an element in the game that reverses the relationship between the two and supplants the umpire's primary function on the field.
And, because it does so, why not just replace human umpires with this infallible machine?
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: "Field...2025-02-2113 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyAlex Bregman is Not Worth 40 Million Dollars a YearIn this podcast, I apply the numbers that, in my opinion, prove that the performance Alex Bregman is expected to produce at the plate in 2025 is not proportionate to his $40,000,000 salary, especially when compared to other third basemen in the league. Even though Bregman is projected to play second base for the Red Sox, another team that offered him a substantial contract, the Detroit Tigers, would have put him at third base, and they are better off without him -- this year or any year.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei Pavkin2025-02-1512 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyMissed OpportunitiesThe 50th podcast of All About Baseball recalls two encounters I had when I was 14, in the summer of 1971. The first was a brief phone call with Detroit Tiger outfielder, Jim Northrup, who, out of left field, called me at home, with the assistance of my father. The second encounter was a face-to-face conversation with Tigers' General Manager Jim Campbell in the Executive Lounge in the recesses of Tiger Stadium. I wish that I could say that these two conversations were rich in detail and insight, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Because I uttered only a handful...2025-02-1013 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWho’s to Blame for the Walk-Up Song?That's the question that this podcast answers. Virtually non-existent before the MLB baseball strike of 1994, the walk-up song was ubiquitous by the end of the 1990s. Yet, its origins can be traced to the woman who accepted the job as the organist for the Chicago White Sox in 1970. Listen in as we explore the evolution of the walk-up song from a happy accident to part of the design of an MLB game experience.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass" Sergei Pavkin2025-02-0514 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyImmaculate Grid: The Ultimate Baseball Trivia GameI discovered this game, Immaculate Grid, a few years ago, and I consider it the best baseball trivia game I've ever played. In this podcast, I complete a specific grid and (attempt) to explain how the game is played, but the best way for you to learn is to go to immaculategrid.com and give it a try. You won't regret it.
Immaculate Grid encompasses the best aspect of good baseball trivia: it causes you to think rather than merely guess, and all the answers, right or wrong, have relevance.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
Music: "FIeld Grass," by Sergei Pavkin
https...2025-01-2911 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Honorable Sacrifice of “Jack T. Jamison”"Jack T. Jamison" (not his real name) is one of 4,486 Major League Baseball players who never got to make a 10th plate appearance. The story as to why is the the subject of this podcast, the details of which were related to me by two of my cousins.
"Jack T. Jamison" is their great uncle, who played for a National League team somewhere between the years of 1910-1930.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei Pavkin2025-01-2207 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyRemembering Bob UeckerThis podcast adds to the litany of responses in reaction to the passing of Bob Uecker (1934 - 2025), but it focuses on the fact that this funny and famous man remained humble throughout his life.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin2025-01-1607 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWhy Did The Detroit Tigers Sign Javier Baez to a Six-Year Contract?This podcast doesn't answer this question. It answers why the Tigers shouldn't have, as I said more than three years ago, before Baez made his first plate appearance in a Tigers' uniform. I delve into the numbers that should have been an alarm that signaled Baez was not a sound investment. And introduce the Tigers' signing of Gleyber Torres as a possible one-year insurance policy, who could fill in at the shortstop position.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei Pavkin2025-01-1414 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyAt What Price Victory, MLB?What does it cost a Major League team in dollars and cents to send one of its hitters on the roster to simply stride to the plate, no matter what the outcome may be? What are Major League teams paying its hitters to complete the singular most important objective in baseball -- score runs? Obviously, not all players get paid the same to make a plate appearance, or score a run. However, if I were Gunnar Henderson, I'd question the fairness of being expected to score five fewer runs than Juan Soto this season, while being paid 60 times less per...2025-01-0911 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyEnhancing the Little League Baseball In-Game ExperienceConsider these minor reforms in this podcast that could make the Little League Baseball more compelling, competitive, and compressed. The one that some may consider most radical is the one that I consider most essential.
Email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
Comments: byroncopley.com
Music: "FIeld Grass" Sergei Pavkin2025-01-0612 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyLooking Back, Looking AheadIn the initial podcast of 2025, I turn the corner to begin my second year of sharing my passion for the game of baseball with a like-minded audience. This podcast re-establishes the reasons why I initiated it, reviews selected topics, previews future episodes, and offers gratitude to you listeners and to the people who were integral in making All About Baseball a dream that became real.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass" Sergei Pavkin2025-01-0113 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyAl Kaline’s Rude Introduction to the Detroit TigersAl 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.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
byroncopley.com
Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei Pavkin2024-12-2811 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyRob Manfred’s Gone BattyA 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 rules of baseball, which is only one of a legion of reasons why it should never reach...2024-12-2114 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWhen Baseball Became WorkThe 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 Pavkin2024-12-1712 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyBaseball-Oriented Christmas GiftsFor 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 Pavkin2024-12-1114 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyBaseball Games You Can PlayAs 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 Pavkin2024-12-0515 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyIt’s Time to End Interleague Play in MLBOne 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 Pavkin2024-12-0114 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWhy is Bunting so Controversial? (Updated Dec 4)OOPS. Somehow the unedited version of this podcast was initially posted rather than the edited one. Apologies. So I encourage you to listen to what was intended to be heard.
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...2024-11-2821 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyOde to My Younger BrotherOn 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 Pavkin2024-11-2210 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyLou Whitaker is a First-Ballot Hall of FamerThis 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.
email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin2024-11-1910 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyPining for the Wood BatThere 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 King Sports for helping to define those advantages.
https://playksports.com/blog/why-youth-baseball-players-should-embrace-wood-bats/
email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin2024-11-1416 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyHow Did They Last This Long in the Major Leagues?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 as to my methods and metrics are in the podcast. Thank you for listening.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei...2024-11-0815 minAll About Baseball with Byron Copley“Miscues” and Misfortune: New York YankeesThe 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.com2024-11-0110 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Oldest Players of Major League BaseballI 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.com2024-10-2810 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyScrewball: The Ultimate Out PitchWith 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 in Peace, Fernando Valenzuela (1960-2024)
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin
email: bcpodcastbaseball...2024-10-2410 minAll About Baseball with Byron Copley2024 Tigers: How Did They Do It?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.com2024-10-1907 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWorld Series Winners and LosersThis 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 end of this podcast.
...2024-10-1421 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyMajor League Baseball: Overbranded and OverhypedI 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 both sides deliver messaging to the contrary, couched in PR word salads.
Music: "Field Grass," by Sergei Pavkin
email: bcpodcastbaseball...2024-10-0914 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Lessons of Moneyball Are Not NewHaving 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 Pavkin
email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
ps. I revised this podcast to correct a mistake that was identified...2024-10-0310 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyAfter Baseball: Hank Aguirre, Businessman and HumanitarianAfter 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 Mexican," written by my father, Robert Copley, who was Hank's friend from 1962 to 1994 and beyond.
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin
email:bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com2024-09-2818 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyObstruction, Interference, and ConfusionEven 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.com2024-09-2412 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyEpisode #21: MilestoneYou may have noticed that none of the other episodes in this podcast were numbered. This Episode #21 has a number because it represents a significant milestone: Only 1% of all podcasts ever get to Episode 21. So, now, All About Baseball us among the top 1% of all podcasts in the world in regards to the number of posted episodes. It seems like a low bar, but having put in the time effort (and money) to pursue this passion for sharing baseball content with a like-minded audience, I can see why most podcasts never reach this milestone.
In this podcast, I recognize the...2024-09-1910 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe 5,000-5,999 Plate Appearance MLB All-Time Team: 1960-2023An idea occurred to me to research former players who compiled year in and year out impressive offense while remaining in relative anonymity, so to speak, and who, by most accounts, are largely forgotten today, with a few exceptions. So I filtered, with the help of Fangraphs, those players who played from 1960 to 2023 with between 5,000 and 5,999 plate appearances and a career Weighted On Base Average, (wOBA) of .350 or higher.
wOBA is perhaps the most-effective way to measure a player's ability to generate runs. According to Fangraphs: "Weighted On-Base Average combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting...2024-09-1415 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyBaseball Match PlayA listener posed a question to me: "Is there a correlation between competitive baseball and competitive match play golf?" It inspired me to propose alternate method of scoring baseball games that could apply especially well to youth baseball. In the light of the radical rule changes that Major League Baseball has instituted in the last several years in the interest of accelerating the pace of play, my suggestion, in my opinion, isn't all that revolutionary. Listen and see if you agree.
Music: "Field Grass" Sergei Pavkin
email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com2024-09-0908 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyAs Told to Me: An Encounter with Ron LeFloreA childhood neighbor relates an experience of fielding a ground ball off the bat of Ron LeFlore, whose rise from the Jackson State Prison in Jackson, MI, to major-league all-star is well-known and -chronicled. This story, until now, was known by only a handful of witnesses and those who heard it first-hand, as I did.
Music: "Field Grass" Sergei Pavkov
email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com2024-09-0508 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyTouching all BasesThe importance of base running is undervalued. This podcast seeks to illustrate the value of base running and the consequences of making mistakes on the base paths, which, in virtually every instance, are avoidable when the key ingredients of aggression, awareness, focus, and hustle are applied.
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin
email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com2024-09-0117 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyA Game of MillimetersBaseball is unique in that the smallest margins of error can determine which team wins or loses games or even World Series championships. In this podcast, I dissect two memorable and minute events that affected the outcome of the 1962 and the 1968 World Series. Get ready to examine them through the lens of a microscope -- millimeter by millimeter.
Music: "Field Grass" Sergei Pavkin
email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
The Physics and Timing of the Outfield Bounce Throw: https://tht.fangraphs.com/the-physics-and-timing-of-the-outfield-bounce-throw/
Tiny Margins and the Math and Science of Baseball: https://www.talknats.com/2016/08/24/tiny-margins/2024-08-2924 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Anatomy of a Half-InningThis podcast examines in detail the events and circumstances of bottom of the sixth inning of the 2001 Little League World Series Championship Game between Apopka, Florida and Tokyo, Japan. I watched this game live, and I relate, here and now, my observations at the time as a way to offer an alternative approach to the strategies and tactics applied by both coaches, that possibly may have changed the outcome of what turned out to be a narrow 2-1 Tokyo, Japan victory. What I did not question, but rather celebrated, was the way that the boys from both teams comported themselves...2024-08-2618 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyTender Youth ArmsI was an assistant coach on a travel team in Southeast Michigan from 1999 to 2003, and one of our main priorities was to protect the arms of our young pitchers -- with large measures of communication, conditioning, and common sense. This podcast goes into some detail about our approach to preventing even sore arms, and there's nothing complex about it. We considered as one of our most important accomplishments over those four years to be that every single pitcher under our supervision and tutelage remained healthy and avoided even minor arm injury. However, in 2002, I was involved in a circumstance of...2024-08-2128 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleySpectator Interference: Why?In this podcast, I make an appeal for those who sit in the first row of a ballpark to let the ball come to them. There have been several famous and countless not-so-famous incidents of spectator interference that have possibly affected the outcomes of entire post seasons. I mention both and also make some recommendations that may or may not be acceptable to you listeners -- I look forward to your input and feedback -- that would minimize the opportunities for fans to inject them selves where they don't belong: on the field of play.
email: bcposcastbaseball@gmail.com
Music: "...2024-08-1415 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyJohn McGraw, Camlio Doval, and John HillerA text with a friend who is a fan of the San Francisco Giants inspired this podcast that talks about John McGraw's style of baseball, which has gone the way of the maskless football helmet, the demotion to Triple A of the National League's 2023 save leader, 27-year-old Camlio Doval, and a comparison of Doval's 2023 season to the 1973 season of reliever John Hiller, the life-long Detroit Tiger, whose life was nearly drastically shortened by a heart attack in 1971.
He was 27 years old at the time.
This podcast delves deeply into numbers, splits, and some sabrmetrics -- to illustrate the difference between...2024-08-1112 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWho is to Blame for Batting Gloves?This listener-requested topic spawned a podcast that burrows into several different rabbit holes, from how to grip the bat correctly to a discussion on the revenue-generating power of the batting-glove industry, to a Monet painting that was on display in The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, Arkansas. This journey into the logic -- and illogic -- of the grip that the batting-glove marketplace has on the hearts and minds of virtually every ballplayer from Little League to MLB is just a slice of the story you are about to hear.
MLB Team By Revenue 2024, Statista
Baseball Gloves...2024-08-0620 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyBaseball Was in Our DNA (Update)In the brief three-month summer window of June-July-August, from 1964 to 1967, we packed in countless hours of playing baseball on the neighborhood vacant lot just down the street. The value -- and the values -- we took away from that all-too-brief experience still resonate with me, and I hope with the kids who came from all around to play the only game we really loved, because baseball was in our DNA -- we were hard-wired to play it. We learned to compete fiercely and fairly, and we honed our baseball skills with endless repetition. Progress, in the form of two symmetrical...2024-07-3117 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Day I Hated BaseballIn my effort to cover content that is All About Baseball, this is a personal account of a tragedy that occurred in a tournament game that involved my high-school team in 1974. Briefly, someone died and I saw it happen right in front of me. I would like to say that this surreal moment transformed me into a better person, but the suddenness and severity of the event was too much for a 17-year-old kid to process, and they way it was handled, though considered "normal" for the era, was still harsh and hectic. So, I shoved it behind me, or...2024-07-2710 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Perfect One-Hit GameOn June 2, 2010, Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga retired 28 consecutive Cleveland Guardians (Then known as the Indians.) It just so happened that the 27th batter, Jason Donald, was called safe by veteran umpire Jim Joyce. As a result, this game stands in relief in comparison to all the other 238,000 + games that have been played by Major League baseball since 1869, because it serves as a lasting example of humility, compassion, empathy, and forgiveness -- reminding us all that baseball is a game whose lessons can extend beyond the field of play.
Joyce - Galarraga home-plate meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...2024-07-2215 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyOutfield Play: Mindset over MethodI believe that with a proper mindset of anticipation, expectation, and pro-activity, outfielders gain precious milli-seconds of reaction time that can affect the outcome of a play.
This is a personal account of the mindset I developed and refined as an outfielder from the age of 14 until I when I stopped playing organized baseball at age 19. I hope that this is also a universal story about patience, persistence, tenacity, and humility. To tell it, I have to delve into the details of what I still consider a singular approach to outfield play, because I have never seen anyone else at...2024-07-1717 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe 1971 All-Star Game: I was there53 years ago today, I attended the 42nd MLB All-Star Game at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. This is my account of my experience there, and I close with an anecdote that occurred two years earlier that involved two participants who were played in that game. Thank you, as always, for listening.
1971 All-Star Game Box Score: https://www.baseball-reference.com/allstar/1971-allstar-game.shtml
Reggie Jackson's 1971 All-Star Game Home Run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7kS5pwH0hM
Email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin2024-07-1415 minAll About Baseball with Byron Copley5 Things Every Umpire Should DoIn this podcast, I present the five things that I do in every game I call to help ensure that I represent the game of baseball to the best of my ability. These are things that any umpire can and should do from their initial to their final game. I think these are indicative of umpires who respect the game, the coaches, and players -- and that places them in the best possible position to succeed.
As always, thank you for listening. Email: bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin2024-07-1112 minAll About Baseball with Byron Copley715 – The Moment I Missed, and Then RealizedIt was a moment that I had been anticipating, along with the rest of the baseball word, for three years prior to April 8, 1974. And even though I witnessed it on television -- I missed it -- and then realized it much later in life. And it had nothing to do with the actual home run.
bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com
ps. (apologies for the occasional bird noises and the occasional audio pops, which I fixed to the best of my ability. I hope that the content compensates for these minor technical flaws)2024-07-0610 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyWillie Mays: A Tribute to His Elite Base RunningWillie Mays (May 6, 1931 - June 18, 2024) was the last five-tool player of my youth to pass away. The other five players being, in my opinion, Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Al Kaline, Roberto Clemente, and Hank Aaron. I believe that Mays was the best of all of them, because of his elite base running skills. In this podcast, I reflect on Mays's approach to base running, offer an anecdote on how he influenced the way that I ran the bases, and offer several tactics that I used to apply that I would have liked to have shared with Mays. Instead, I'll share...2024-07-0115 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyThe Strike ZoneWhat does a called strike look like from the perspective of the one person on the field who sees it most clearly: the home plate umpire? That's what this podcast explores in detail. We'll define the strike zone, how an umpire sees it best, why there is often disagreement about the location of a "questionable" pitch, and what I believe is the best approach to call the fairest, most objective game from behind the plate from first pitch to final out. As always, thank you for listening and feel free to offer your comments and input at bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com.
...2024-06-2810 minAll About Baseball with Byron CopleyAll About Baseball by Byron Copley covers baseball from all perspectives.All About Baseball by Byron Copley covers baseball from all perspectives. In this introductory episode, called "Warmup," I explain why I am doing this podcast, what I hope to achieve, and encourage your feedback and input, to generate a dialogue amongst people who are passionate about the game of baseball. Comments? E-mail me at bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com Thank you for listening!
Music: "Field Grass" by Sergei Pavkin2024-06-2009 min