2018 was a busy year for baseball reminiscence in Texas. The Rogers Hornsby Chapter of SABR provided baseball-themed programs in Austin, Kerrville, and San Antonio. We also worked with SABR members nationally to help expand and support this rewarding effort.
Our baseball reminiscence program, nicknamed “BasebALZ”, uses baseball history, anecdotes, and trivia to promote pleasant memories and discussion of the past for participants (and their family members) dealing with dementia. Reminiscence therapy is an effective technique to help improve the well-being of those dealing with dementia, along with their family and caregivers.
Here are a few 2018 highlights:
In AUSTIN we began our fourth year of operation and delivered 18 BasebALZ sessions, organized into three “seasons” consisting of six biweekly sessions apiece. The program is sponsored by Alzheimer’s Texas here in the capital city and is supported by funding from the DKR Research Fund. We currently meet at Westminster Senior Living.
Attendance has been consistently strong in Austin with varied programs delivered by a dedicated group of volunteers. Average attendance is around 14-18 participants, caregivers and volunteers; the high session attendance for the year was twenty. In addition to talking about baseball, we include other reminiscence topics such as music, “this day in history”, memorabilia, “stump the experts”, baseball bingo – just to name a few.
A periodic “Do the Twist” contest has become a favorite activity.
Our last Austin session on November 19 was “standing room only”.
Our participants and caregivers are regular contributors to the agenda. John (l) keeps order and leads the singing. Bobby and Renee (r) present a regular item called “Stump the Experts”. They provide a list of clues about the identity of a major league ballplayer and see if they can stump the SABR volunteers. They “batted” about .500 in 2018, often stumping the “experts”.
We enjoy sharing memorabilia and sometimes get some “swag” from other non-profits. Here the group sports t-shirts provided by the Eddie Gaedel Society (yes, there is one) in honor of one of owner Bill Veeck’s most notorious promotions.
We usually wrap up the spring/summer sessions with a night out at Dell Diamond in Round Rock. We enjoyed a luxury suite courtesy of Alzheimer’s Texas and United Heritage Credit Union.
We continued to offer a BasebALZ program monthly at the Veterans Administration Hospital in KERRVILLE. The administrators and staff have been very supportive of the reminiscence efforts. Our volunteers have touched twenty individual veterans at the hospital, with average attendance of veterans, staff, and volunteers around fifteen per session.
As the participants at the VA are generally institutionalized with serious physical disabilities, the BasebALZ program not only helps them to “open up” and share memories of the past, but also serves as a change of pace to relieve potential isolation or loneliness.
The vets have some great stories. A recent participant recalled his experiences at Utah Beach on D-Day.
The staff at Kerrville VA is so enthusiastic about BasebALZ that they’ve asked for our help to enable them to offer the program themselves more frequently. We’re working with them on this now.
SAN ANTONIO – on November 15 we conducted our first BasebALZ session at the Alzheimer’s Association – San Antonio and South Texas offices. We had a nice “opening day” turnout of 14 participants, caregivers, staff and volunteers.
We were very encouraged by the staff support and level of interaction among the participants and caregivers. Lunch was provided by Wrigleyville Grill and it was ballpark food at its best. We are looking forward to scheduling an ongoing program in the Alamo City in 2019.
NATIONALLY – Outside of the Lone Star State, SABR members are currently leading baseball reminiscence programs in Connecticut, New York, and Los Angeles. We have also had dialog with SABR chapter leaders in both the North New Jersey and South New Jersey chapters, as well as San Diego and San Francisco. We are available to assist, as needed, to further the adoption of this meaningful and rewarding program.
More information on BasebALZ is available on our chapter web site at: http://www.sabrhornsby.org/about-basebalz/
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