An All-Star Home Run Derby ball from Cleveland and a fun and challenging quiz about the 3,000 Hit Club were the highlights of the August monthly meeting at County Line Bar-B-Que on the Lake on Saturday.
Scott Jarret (pictured above) brought the baseball he caught during the Home Run Derby last month. He snagged it on the fly off of Joc Pederson’s bat, which was his 19th home run during the derby. This writer did not notice if Dodgers fan Jerry Miller was devising a plan to secure that home run ball for himself. More details may be known in time for next month’s meeting.
Tom Wancho brought a simple but challenging quiz to name all 32 MLB players with 3,000 hits or more in a career. Jim Baker (shown below) won a Gerrit Cole bobblehead for his score of 28. Tom said he was inspired to make this quiz based on a conversation with Jim in a prior meeting. The aforementioned Jerry walked away with second with a score of 27. A tiebreaker question, which was not needed in this contest, asked us to name the three players who achieved Hit No. 3,000 with a home run (bonus question answers are featured at the bottom). For a list of the 3,000 Hit Club, go to this link by baseball-reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/3,000_hit_club
Chuck Kaufman brought extra copies of the Dell Diamond program featuring Reid Ryan, owner and founder of the Express and currently the president of the Houston Astros. On Friday, Aug. 16, Ryan was inducted into the Express Hall of Fame. Thanks, Chuck!
Jan Larson shared some details of his Seven Days of Baseball last week (including an Express game in Round Rock, a pair of Astros games in Houston and four games in Detroit). He said he had a front row seat at Comerica Park just beyond the first base dugout, expecting to have a great vantage point from which to watch the game, but the rolled-up tarp blocked some of his view. He said he couldn’t see the bases on the field! After consulting with customer service, he was moved to a nearby seat with a better view.
Monte Cely told of an interesting play in a recent St. Louis Cardinals game in which Yadier Molina, while on the basepaths, was struck by a batted ball but, upon review, was not called out. The play in question involved a drawn-in infield, so because the fielder had a chance at the ball, Molina was not declared out, per MLB rules, even though he was struck by the ball.
Fourteen chapter members and guests enjoyed an afternoon of barbeque with heaping sides of baseball chatter. This meeting was the 153rd consecutive month in which the chapter has had a meeting.
A wide variety of baseball related gear appeared at our lunch meeting, including a shirt with the logo of the MLB All-Star Game in Los Angeles (Jerry); the Mexico team cap from the 2012 Serie del Caribe (Monte); an Albuquerque Isotopes shirt (Tom); an interesting pairing of a Dodgers cap and a Red Sox shirt (Mike); a Royals T-shirt (Dustin); a Chester Charge shirt (Raeanne); a New York Yankees shirt (Ira); a Detroit Tigers cap (Jan); a Cleveland cap (Scott); and an Ichiro Suzuki shirt (myself). Also included was a Gridley’s Bar-B-Q shirt (Jim).
As the regular season winds down, we have some favorite gatherings coming up. For many years, Jim has hosted a World Series Watch Party. He announced that World Series Game 4 on Saturday, Oct. 26, would be the date for this year’s watch party, which will also be our monthly meeting for October. Save the date!
Meanwhile, next month’s meeting is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at Macaroni Grill (Arboretum). A call for RSVPs will be made in the weeks leading up to the meeting.
(Bonus question answers: Wade Boggs, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez)
You must be logged in to post a comment.