Baseball stories involving Yogi Berra, Tommy Lasorda, Andre Dawson and Dizzy Dean were among the gems shared at the 11th Annual Rogers Hornsby Chapter Winter Meeting on Saturday, Jan. 14, at Texas State University.
Thirty-nine chapter members and guests enjoyed presentations by Dr. Bobby Brown, former World Series champion with the Yankees and retired cardiologist; Mark Saccomanno, former Astros first baseman who hit a homerun on the first pitch he saw in the big leagues; Mike Capps, entering his 18th season as broadcaster for the Round Rock Express; and Bo Carter, longtime college sports information director who co-authored a book about Dizzy Dean, and Sara Kirby Burke, daughter of longtime broadcaster Gene Kirby who collected and wrote much of the text in the Dizzy Dean book.
In addition, chapter member Jim Baker presented “Stadia Mania,” a quiz involving images of ballparks, and led the group to select baseball season predictions for 2017. The group, more or less, predicted a rematch of the last World Series, Cubs-Indians, with Cleveland chosen to win it all in 2017.
The group also held its own Hall of Fame vote. Using the same ballot as the one used by eligible baseball writers, our group elected only one to the 2017 class: Houston Astros slugger Jeff Bagwell, by 89.2 percent of the vote. Tim Raines, in his last year on the ballot, was one vote short with 73 percent of the vote. Other notables in our vote included: Ivan Rodriguez, 67.6 percent, Edgar Martinez, 54.1 percent and Roger Clemens, 48.6 percent.
Larry Dierker Chapter member Joe Thompson made a call for anyone interested in helping out with research about Mexican-Americans in baseball in Central Texas. Thompson has helped on a book project that discusses Mexican-Americans in baseball in Houston and El Paso and sais that those books are set to be published in the summer.
Many thanks to everyone who joined us on Saturday. Please consider joining us at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, when the Hornsby Chapter celebrates SABR Day. Watch for more information on our email list.
(Photos by Ryan Pollack)
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