Mapping the many, varied routes to Cooperstown and the new toll roads through October

Is it easier to get 400 baseball writers to all agree on who is a Hall of Famer or 30 Major League Baseball owners to agree on ways to address skyrocketing payroll disparity? That's the question that begins a brand new episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball. Esteemed baseball writer Tyler Kepner, of The Athletic and formerly with the New York Times, joins host Derrick Goold to discuss Ichiro Suzuki and his peers in the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Class of 2025. It's a robust class that includes a top left-handed starter CC Sabathia who got elected on his first ballot and a top left-handed reliever Billy Wagner who got elected on his final ballot. The class also includes Dick Allen and Dave Parker to further reveal the many numerous routes available to players to reach induction in Cooperstown. There is the expressway that Suzuki takes with near unanimous support. There is the state two-lane highway that will likely welcome switc-hitter Carlos Beltran to Cooperstown in 2026, and then there's the country roads that Wagner had to drive to ultimately reach immortality. All of which brings us to the crossroads currently facing baseball. With the Dodgers spending freely and collecting all of the talent, is the only way deep into October through Los Angeles? The two baseball writers discuss the widening gap in the game and explore one reason for the dramatic change (hint: shrinking small- and mid-market television revenues) -- and whether there will be a correction in a few years. The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold. It appears weekly wherever you subscribe or listen to podcasts and is part of the newspaper's Constant Cardinals Coverage.