Almost Cooperstown
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 should be more players included. In these podcasts we also discuss current seasons & trends. Please send any messages to almostcooperstown@gmail.com.
Baseball articles can be found here: https://almostcooperstown.substack.com/publish/posts
Almost Cooperstown
Pitchers are STILL in danger - featuring former MLB pitcher Willie Blair - Ep. 134
Pitchers don't often get hit by line drives and get it to the skull even less frequently. But it does happen, as much as 2 - 3 times per season. We note a number of well known current MLB pitchers that have been the victim of a shot to the head. Currently there are no MLB pitchers wearing protective headgear on the mound. There are a number of reasons for that and we discuss all that and more with former major league pitcher Willie Blair who was felled by a line drive off the bat of Julio Franco in 1997 and returned to pitch not only the same season, but for four more seasons. We are grateful for the introduction to Willie from Jason Berge - a friend of the podcast. Willie Blair a terrific guy and very open and honest about his own experience as well as what might be done to protect pitchers from a catastrophic injury or even worse. Thank you Willie!
If you are interested in reading there's also a related article posted on Gary Livacari's site https://www.baseballhistorycomesalive.com/protecting-pitchers-from-line-drives/
Thanks for listening and if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page.
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