Society for American Baseball Research
Rogers Hornsby Chapter
Central and South Texas
Annual Report, June 2019 – May 2020
By Gilbert D. Martinez
Chapter Commissioner
Rogers Hornsby Chapter
The Rogers Hornsby Chapter had another active year of monthly meetings and shifted online as the coronavirus pandemic disrupted all facets of our lives, including our regular meetings.
The chapter met online via Zoom in April and May, extending our consecutive monthly meeting streak to 162. Though we were sad that we couldn’t meet over lunch as usual, we enjoyed meeting SABR members from across the country who joined our Zoom meetings.
In January, we had our 14th annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting, which included visits by former Major League ballplayer Deacon Jones, Round Rock Express general manager Tim Jackson, and a video conference with Jon Pessah, journalist, founding editor of ESPN the Magazine and author of recently published “Yogi: A Life.” In addition, longtime Express broadcaster Mike Capps visited us. We also had presentations about new rules for the 2020 season, an examination of competitive balance through the years and an exploration of one member’s Hall of Fame memorabilia.
Under Jim Kenton’s leadership, the chapter’s “BasebALZ/Talking Baseball reminiscence program had another active year using baseball as therapy for Central Texans with Alzheimer’s and expanded to include to new sites in 2019. In addition to our programs in Austin (since 2015) and at the Kerrville VA (since 2016), we now have offerings in Georgetown and San Antonio. We had a record 51 participants at a February 2020 event held at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock.
Monte Cely also attended and filed dispatches about the Caribbean Series 2020 from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Dominican Republic defeated Venezuela to take its first Serie del Caribe crown.
Before the pandemic, many of the monthly meetings include lunch at a restaurant in the Austin area, sometimes involving baseball trivia quizzes.
As we look ahead to the coming year, we hope to continue our meeting streak – in person or online, get back to watching minor league ball as a group and host the winter meeting next January.