Barbecue and holiday treats fuel World Series quiz attempts (to no avail for some)

December 2024 Newsletter

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Sixteen chapter members and guests mulled the latest free agent signings and trades while Dodgers fans continued celebrating their team’s World Series win at the December chapter meeting.

In addition to barbecue with all the fixings at County Line on the Lake in Northwest Austin, we were treated to delicious trays of homemade cookies and treats brought by Linda and Monte Cely. They also brought small holiday bags so everyone could take home more treats. This has become another favorite chapter tradition.

In addition to the Mets’ signing of Juan Soto and the Cubs’ acquisition of Kyle Tucker, we also talked about MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s interest in the so-called Golden At-Bat, in which teams could call up any player, once a game, for any at bat. We didn’t like the idea, but based on published reports, Manfred said he’s not in favor of this change and noted that changes to the game can take a long time to be implemented.

With memories of the latest World Series fresh in our minds, Cy Morong assembled a quiz of World Series trivia spanning centuries. For some of us, our hopes of doing well on this multiple-choice quiz were quickly dashed just a few questions in!

But Jerry Miller was up to the task as the only contestant to reach double digits, taking first place with 12 points. Jim Baker and Ira Siegel tied for second with nine points each, with Jim winning by acing all three of the tiebreaker questions. For their efforts, Cy awarded Jerry and Jim with baseball books (pictured in photo at top, Jerry on left).

Take a swing at Cy’s World Series Quiz below (answers immediately follow the questions) and see if you can top Jerry’s total.

This was the 217th consecutive month in which the chapter has had a meeting, a streak dating to December 2006. The site of the December lunch meeting – County Line on the Lake – was also the group’s very first meeting spot on Dec. 9, 2003, three years before the official creation of the Hornsby Chapter.

Awardatron Winners!

By Ryan Pollack (shared via email to the Hornsby Chapter on Nov. 25)

Greetings everyone! Hope you’re having a wonderful offseason. Thanks for being patient with me as I tally up the scores from last week’s voting.

To recap, your award winners are:

MVPs: Judge, Ohtani

Cy Youngs: Skubal, Sale

ROYs: Gil, Skenes

MOYs: Vogt, Murphy

As a reminder, our divisions this year were named after the 1973 Cy Young Award winers (Palmer, Seaver).

Champion

Your 2024 Awardatron Champion is Mike McNulty! In a difficult year that saw two major favorites (Spencer Strider, Ronald Acuña, Jr.) sidelined early on, one favorite under-perform after the All-Star Break (Gunnar Henderson), and favorite youngsters fizzle (Jackson Holliday, Evan Carter) — Mike emerged victorious. We’ll take a look at his picks in the divisional breakdowns below.

Now, let’s look at the divisional standings.

Jim Palmer Division

Rookie Brian Bowser is your 2024 Division Champion! Brian led the division with 39 points, finishing ahead of second-place finisher Jan Larson (32 points) and third-place finisher, another rookie in Joe Sheehan (30 points). Brian won his division in part by hitting on Aaron Judge for AL MVP and getting good points for Jackson Merrill (2nd place finish, AL ROY) and AJ Hinch (3rd place finish, AL MOY). He also picked up points for his pick of Wyatt Langford as AL ROY (7th place).

The naming of a first-place award finisher prior to the season is what separated Brian from Jan. Jan also named a first-place award finisher — Chris Sale for NL Cy Young — but did so during the All Star Break, so he got fewer points for the pick. To his credit, he got points for Soto (3rd place, AL MVP), Corbin Burnes (5th place, AL Cy Young), and Hinch as well. Finishing 7 points back in this contest is not bad.

Full Standings:

Note that Jerry finishes ahead of Kevin because he submitted his preseason picks first.

Tom Seaver Division

Mike McNulty is your 2024 Division Champion! Mike tallied an impressive 51 points, locking Tarik Skubal in as his pre-season AL Cy Young award favorite and reaping the rewards when the young left-hander won the award easily. He also placed well in AL MVP voting (Soto) and in both MOY races (Quatraro, Shildt). He gained a further 7 points for picking Chris Sale for NL Cy Young at the All-Star Break.

Within the division, Mike bests fellow SABR Hornsby Chapter member Ira Siegel, who racked up 38 points. Ira had Pat Murphy as his preseason NL MOY pick, netting him 15 points, and had top 5 picks in several other races.

Full Standings:

Closing

This was a difficult year for predictions. Mike’s point total of 51, albeit more than enough to win, is a far cry from last year’s winning point total of 94. That’s what happens when popular picks get sidelined early on or underperform. But what matters is in-season performance, and Mike had plenty of that.

Congratulations to Mike! Thanks to everyone who played and start planning your 2025 picks now!

Cool Baseball Stories

(One of the Hornsby Chapter’s newest members, Brandon Olivarez, attended his first chapter meeting this month and shared that he attended the MLB winter meetings in Dallas. I asked him to share his experience with us here. – Martinez)

By Brandon Olivarez

Hi, I’m Brandon Olivarez. I am a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in economics with a minor in analytics and the business of sports. My favorite team/American League team is the Texas Rangers. I am originally from San Antonio, making my National League team, and second favorite team overall, the San Diego Padres. This is due to the San Antonio Missions being the Double-A affiliate of the Padres.

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending the MLB Winter Meetings in Dallas. It was truly an amazing experience from the people I met to the stories I heard. Going into the week, my main objective was to just meet as many people as possible, and to hopefully secure an internship with a team. There were a lot of resources for job seekers at the winter meetings, such as two separate networking events, where you could get a chance for one-on-one time with MLB organizations. Also, there were two days of panels and breakout sessions with more teams. These were all courtesy of MLB and the Diversity Program, which was great for students like myself and for early career connections.

While at the winter meetings, I also had the opportunity to watch the MLB Draft Lottery, and the Rule 5 Draft. At the latter, I was able to meet and talk to Jon Daniels, the former general manager of the Texas Rangers. I got to thank him for helping me fall in love with baseball, with the creation of the 2010-2011 Rangers team, which was surreal.

Another awesome interaction was meeting Rajai Davis at a breakout session. He talked about how if it weren’t for one coach that vouched for him while in High A ball, he would have been cut and would never have gotten the chance to play a Game 7 of a World Series. The moral of the story being: You never know who is watching, so be sure to always give 100% effort.

Overall, the experience and connections from the winter meetings was definitely worth the trip. I truly learned a lot from organizations and other job seekers when it comes to early career options to build your resume. My plan is to go again next year in Orlando.

(Have a cool baseball story related to something recent you’d like to share with the chapter? Please contact Martinez for details.)

Next meeting: The Winter Meeting!

It’s almost time for the biggest chapter event of the year – the 19th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting! It will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, at Texas State University. More details to come on Dec. 26. Hope you can join us!

World Series Quiz

By Cy Morong

  1. Who was the first player to hit 2 HRs in a World Series game?
    Patsy Dougherty           
    Harry Hooper                  
    Benny Kauff                      
    Babe Ruth
  1. Who was the first player to hit 2 HRs in a World Series game in the 21st century?
    Tim Salmon                     
    Jeff Kent                              
    Troy Glaus                        
    Ryan Howard
  1. Who was the first player to hit 3 HRs in a World Series game?
    Jimmie Foxx                    
    Lou Gehrig                       
    Mel Ott                                
    Babe Ruth
  1. Who was the first player to hit 3 HRs in a World Series game in the 21st century?
    Barry Bonds                    
    Ryan Howard                  
    Albert Pujols                    
    Pablo Sandoval
  1. Who was the first player to hit 4 HRs in one World Series?
    Jimmie Foxx                     
    Lou Gehrig                        
    Mel Ott                                 
    Babe Ruth
  1. Who was the first player to hit 4 HRs in one World Series in the 21st century?
    Barry Bonds                     
    Ryan Howard                  
    Albert Pujols                    
    Pablo Sandoval
  1. Who was the first player to hit a Grand Slam in a World Series game?
    Elmer Smith                     
    Elmer Flick                        
    Elmer Valo                         
    Elmer Fudd
  1. Who was the first player to hit a Grand Slam in a World Series game in the 21st century?
    Chase Utley                     
    Paul Konerko                   
    Addison Russell           
    Ryan Howard
  1. Who hit the first walk-off HR in World Series history?
    Bill Mazeroski                 
    Tommy Holmes            
    Joe DiMaggio                   
    Tommy Henrich
  1. Who hit the first walk-off HR in the World Series in the 21st century?
    Alex Gonzalez                 
    David Freese                   
    Scott Podsednik           
    Derek Jeter
  1. Who was the first pitcher to strike out 10+ batters in World Series game?
    Bill Dinneen                     
    Bill Donovan                    
    Deacon Phillippe         
    Ed Walsh
  1. Who was the first pitcher to strike out 10+ batters in World Series game in the 21st century?
    Roger Clemens             
    Orlando Hernández   
    Randy Johnson              
    Mike Mussina
  1. Who was the first pitcher to have 9+ IP & allow 2 or fewer hits in a World Series Game?
    Ed Reulbach                    
    Ed Walsh                             
    Eddie Plank                       
    Mordecai Brown
  1. Who was the first pitcher to have 9+ IP & allow 2 or fewer hits in a World Series Game in the 21st century?
    Josh Beckett                    
    Madison Bumgarner 
    Johnny Cueto                  
    Randy Johnson
  1. Who was the first pitcher to win 3 games in a best of seven World Series?
    Babe Adams                    
    Jack Coombs                  
    Christy Mathewson   
    Smoky Joe Wood
  1. Who was the first pitcher to win 3 games in a best of seven World Series in the 21st century?
    Jered Weaver                  
    Josh Beckett                    
    Madison Bumgarner 
    Randy Johnson
  1. Who was the first pitcher to win at least 1 game & have at least 1 save in a World Series?
    Grover Cleveland Alexander   
    Joe Page        
    Larry Sherry                      
    Doc White
  1. Who was the first pitcher to win at least 1 game & have at least 1 save in a World Series in the 21st century?
    Mariano Rivera              
    Keith Foulke                     
    Adam Wainwright       
    Madison Bumgarner
  1. Who was the first team to win two World Series?
    A’s         
    Cubs                     
    Giants                                    
    Red Sox
  1. Who was the first team to win two World Series in the 21st century?
    Cardinals                            
    Giants                                    
    Red Sox              
    Yankees

Tie breakers

  1. How many career World Series HRs has George Springer hit?  
  2. How many career World Series HRs did Mickey Mantle hit? 
  3. How many career World Series HRs did Babe Ruth hit? 

Answers

  1. Patsy Dougherty  
  2. Troy Glaus   
  3. Babe Ruth
  4. Albert Pujols  
  5. Babe Ruth
  6. Barry Bonds  
  7. Elmer Smith   
  8. Paul Konerko 
  9. Tommy Henrich
  10. Derek Jeter
  11. Deacon Phillippe 
  12. Orlando Hernández
  13. Ed Reulbach
  14. Johnny Cueto    
  15. Christy Mathewson 
  16. Randy Johnson
  17. Doc White
  18. Mariano Rivera
  19. Cubs  
  20. Red Sox

Tie breakers

  1. 7
  2. 18
  3. 15

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