Honoring chapter founder Bill Gilbert, videoconferencing with acclaimed baseball writer Rob Neyer and hearing about the playing career of Bob Joyce were among the highlights at the 13th Annual Winter Meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter on Saturday, Jan. 12. Nearly 40 chapter members and guests attended the winter meeting at Old Main on the Texas State University campus in San Marcos.
It was the first time our winter meeting lacked chapter founder Bill Gilbert, who passed away last fall. He originated the idea of a winter meeting; the inaugural winter meeting was in 2007. In fact, Gilbert had been instrumental in creating vibrant baseball communities, having also founded the Larry Dierker Chapter of SABR in Houston prior to moving to Central Texas and leading the effort to establish the Hornsby Chapter in 2006. Chapter members and guests shared Bill Gilbert remembrances and stories.
Hornsby Chapter Commissioner Gilbert Martinez announced that from this point forth, the annual winter meeting would be named in Bill Gilbert’s honor as the Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting.
Rob Neyer, commissioner of the West Coast League and a writer for ESPN, SB Nation and Fox Sports, connected with the meeting via Skype and was interviewed by Martinez. Neyer discussed his newly published book, “Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game,” inspired in part by Arnold Hano’s “A Day in the Bleachers” and Dan Okrent’s “Nine Innings.”
Neyer shared his views about how baseball is played today, in sharp contrast to how it had been played in the past. Using some details of an inning-by-inning description of a single game between the Oakland Athletics and Houston Astros in September 2017, Neyer’s book weaves in a wide range of topics related to baseball – from the use of newer statistical measures to Statcast to pace of play. During the videoconference, he also shared his experiences as commissioner of the West Coast League, the premier summer college league west of the Mississippi.
In addition, Bob Joyce, son of former Major League pitcher Bob Joyce, recounted his father’s career, pitching with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1939 and with the New York Giants in 1946. In addition, Joyce won 94 games as a starting pitcher for the Double-A San Francisco Seals from 1942 to 1945, including a 31-game win total in 1945. In addition, Bob Joyce shared his own collegiate baseball experiences playing for the University of San Francisco.
Bob Joyce, son of former pitcher with the Double-A San Francisco Seals Bob Joyce. (Photo by Gilbert D. Martinez)
Other presentations included Gilbert Martinez’s “Baseball in Japan,” in which he described attending Chunichi Dragons games in June 2018, visiting the Ichiro Suzuki museum near Nagoya, Japan, and presenting Ichiro’s father with a photo of Ichiro’s 3,000th professional hit (Nippon Professional Baseball hits plus MLB hits).
Longtime broadcaster for the Round Rock Express Mike Capps shared details about the long-anticipated return of the Triple-A affiliate to the Astros’ farm system. He said he’s looking forward to seeing the talented pitchers, hitters and fielders on the Astros minor league clubs. He also described a new addition to the Dell Diamond: the Home Run Dugout, a Top Golf-like attraction that serves as an augmented reality batting cage, set to open in the spring.
Dierker Chapter member Mike McCroskey shared details of his visit to Hot Springs, Arkansas, a site of early spring trainings. Included in his presentation were audio clips from the sites of historical markers. McCroskey also described how he found the home plate location from which Babe Ruth launched a 573-foot home run blast to an alligator pond across the street from the stadium during a spring training game.
The newest winter meeting activity involved a version of bingo, baseball style. Winter Meeting Coordinator Ryan Pollack created bingo cards with a variety of baseball experiences and called on meeting participants to fill their cards by chatting with others. Experiences on the baseball bingo card included such things as catching a foul ball, owning more than 500 baseball cards, attending a non-MLB game played outside the United States and seeing a no-hitter or perfect game. Jan Larson was the first to bingo, winning a signed copy of Rob Neyer’s book (many thanks to Rob Neyer for providing the prize!).
In recent years, Jim Baker has done an excellent job providing an opening group activity to kick off our winter meetings. Because of the Bill Gilbert memorial, we asked him to close this winter meeting instead, and he didn’t disappoint. His trivia presentation included photos of renowned baseball players who ended their careers in unfamiliar surroundings. With various caveats, Jim led the group through a wide range of players to fit his criteria. For example, Hank Aaron played the bulk of his career with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, but ended with the Milwaukee Brewers. Another example included Willie Mays (started with the San Francisco Giants and ended with the New York Mets).
Another recent tradition of our winter meetings included a Mock Hall of Fame vote by attendees. The group has proven to be miserly with its vote, often voting for fewer eventual inductees than the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. With 30 ballots in our mock vote, 23 votes were necessary for election. Of those on the current ballot, only two achieved that goal: Mariano Rivera (26 votes) and Edgar Martinez (23). Other players who received double-digit votes were Roger Clemens (17), Barry Bonds (15), Mike Mussina (15), Curt Schilling (13), Larry Walker (12), Roy Halladay (10) and Billy Wagner (10).
Many thanks to our presenters and attendees! We were glad to hear that many participants enjoyed a great day of talking about baseball.
The next Hornsby Chapter activity will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, when the chapter will join with other chapters across the country and around the world to recognize SABR Day! A call for RSVPs will be shared on the chapter email list soon.
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