Eleven chapter members and guests pondered the final two weeks of the season while enjoying an Italian lunch on Saturday.
Inspired by a discussion of journeymen players at a prior meeting, I put together a quiz asking participants to name the franchises that the top five journeymen have played for. Edwin Jackson, currently pitching for the Detroit Tigers, is the all-time leader with 14 franchises, followed by Octavio Dotel (13), and Mike Morgan, Matt Stairs and Ron Villone (each with 12). Details can be found at baseball-reference.com (https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/leaders_most_franchises.shtml).
Jim Baker bested the field with 35 total points, correctly naming the most franchises for these players. For his effort, Jim took home a framed poster with baseball sayings by famous ballplayers (see photo above). For example, Rogers Hornsby is quoted on the poster (“I don’t want to play golf. When I hit the ball, I want someone else to go chase it”). Yogi Berra is also featured (“All pitchers are liars or crybabies”). And Nolan Ryan (“It helps if the hitter thinks you’re a little crazy”). Baker said he’s looking forward to adding the poster to his baseball-themed library at home.
Baseball-themed gear represented at our meeting included the Astros, Yankees, Cardinals, Orioles, Athletics, Rangers and Indians. Also making an appearance were the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate Round Rock Express, the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball and the Naranjeros de Hermosillo of the Mexican Pacific League. Jerry Miller sported a cool baseball shirt with a clever equation: 6+4+3 = 2.
Also, Linda Nichols, who attended Game 3 of the Pacific Coast League Championship Series the night before, shared the giveaway for fans: a 2005 National League Championship Replica Ring with Craig Biggio’s name (see photo below)
Mike Dillon posed an interesting question for discussion — are starting pitchers worth or valued less today because they’re typically not pitching deep into games like in years past, or are pitchers who pitch 200+ innings worth or valued more today? Jan Larson surmised that in the coming years, the value for starting pitchers will likely decrease as they’re not expected to go much longer than five innings. It made us wonder: Would you rather have a pitcher go seven innings but give up two runs, or a pitcher that goes five innings with no runs?
With this meeting, the chapter met for the 154th consecutive month, matching the amount of games played in a baseball season before it was expanded to 162 games in 1961. This streak dates to 2006.
Next month’s meeting will be the long-anticipated World Series Watch Party at Jim Baker’s house on Saturday, Oct. 26. We don’t yet know who the pennant winners will be, but we do know that we’ll be watching Game 4 of the World Series. A call for RSVPs and details will be forthcoming in mid-October.
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