All About Baseball with Byron Copley

I am honored to welcome Pulitzer Prize finalist, journalist, author, and accomplished historian Edward Achorn to All About Baseball. Edward’s two books about baseball in the 19th Century, Fifty Nine in ’84 and The Summer of Beer and Whiskey, place the reader “at the shoulder” (Ed’s words) of Old Hoss Radbourn and Chris Von Der Ahe respectively. And as Radbourn carried the 1884 Providence Grays on his shoulders, Von Der Ahe carried the future of professional baseball on his. Achorn, in this episode, details the personas of both men, the process of writing these two books, and adds significant bonus material on Abraham Lincoln — the subject of his last three books. bcbaseballpodcast@gmail.com Music: “Field Grass,” by Sergei Pavkin

This episode takes the lessons from a book that I read — and still read — called Quantum Golf, by Kjell (pronounced Shell) Enhager, which offers a radical yet reasonable way to approach the game of golf and asks the question: “can those same lessons be applied on the baseball field to help players enhance the game?” I think they can, and I explain why. I also identify several players who may have been playing Quantum Baseball all along without realizing it. bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com Music: “Field Grass,” by Sergei Pavkin

This episode examines in a fair amount of detail the reasons why I think that there was no World Series in 1904. The personalities who could have worked out an equitable solution — Byron Bancroft “Ban” Johnson, president of the fledgling American League, John T. Brush, owner of the National League’s New York Giants, and John McGraw, manager of the Giants — were simply too obstinate to negotiate. Instead, they waged a vicious verbal war in the newspapers during the summer and autumn of 1904: firing cocksure word salvos, rife with calumny, covered in vitriol, aimed squarely at their mutual hearts. It was baseball theater at its finest; a passion performance of three men — who refused to play games to preserve (so they thought) their reputations, their pride, and their principles.

Artificial Intelligence has infiltrated every aspect of our lives, and Major League Baseball has embraced it with boundless enthusiasm. The claims: AI will increase competitiveness, excitement, safety, and fairness. It will extend careers and enhance the quality of play. This podcast offers some opinions on the “wisdom” of surrendering human judgement to computers, possible unforeseen circumstances of AI: as an example, AI could potentially shorten careers. I also relate two historic moments in baseball involving the same MLB player that, thankfully, took place decades before AI was able to prevent them from ever happening. With special thanks to Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean, Hall of Fame pitcher, who inspired this podcast and who, more than 90 years ago, often exhibited the property that many today value most about AI: Dizzy often predicted specific outcomes and then made them real. bcbaseballpodcast@gmail.com Music: “Field Grass,” by Sergei Pavkin

A listener asked me to provide more information about the story that I offered in the episode published on January 19, 2026, “Humility Personified,” to fill in the details, add color and context, and clear up some questions she had about Lou Gehrig and Wally Pipp. So, this episode, called “Humility Personified (Continued)” hopefully does just that, as it focuses on the impact that Wally Pipp, the man Lou Gehrig replaced as the first basemen of the New York Yankees in 1925, had on his team, his teammate — Gehrig — and on his own family. This episode also reveals several conflicting accounts about the day that Gehrig replaced Pipp, the day Gehrig removed himself from the Yankee lineup after 2,130 consecutive games, and the day Gehrig revealed his vulnerability in front of 61,808 fans. Wally Pipp was as premier player of his era and this podcast episode honors him and his accomplishments, on and off the field. I thank this listener for inspiring me to delve deeper into a topic that I mistakenly thought was so familiar to my audience. bcpodcastbaseball@gmail.com Music: “Field Grass,” by Sergei Pavkin