February 2025 Newsletter
By Gilbert D. Martinez
In celebration of SABR Day, two Texas State University graduates who have handled social media accounts for MLB teams shared their behind-the-scenes experiences and offered career advice for students who joined the meeting Feb. 1.
Remle Herzberg, the social media manager for the Texas Rangers, and Aaron Peralta, who worked on the social media team for the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, told more than 30 members and guests on Zoom about how playing and loving baseball helped them find a career in MLB.
Herzberg said she signed the contract with the Rangers on graduation day in May 2023 and has already covered some of the biggest moments in baseball, including the Rangers’ World Series Championship in 2023, Rangers great Adrian Beltré’s induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and MLB’s All-Star Game in Arlington in 2024.
After learning about photographing and covering sports in high school, she sought a degree at Texas State that would allow her to develop her skills in content creation with a focus on sports media.
“The World Series (in 2023) was really an awesome experience,” Herzberg said when asked about career highlights so far. “But I think that’s almost too easy of an answer. For me, the reason it was so important is because there’s this running joke in the marketing department that I’ve done everything backwards. Because I got to the team, I hadn’t even done a spring training yet… The time that I’m doing it is for the World Series, the highest stake moments you can possibly get to.”
She remembered counting down to the final out at Chase Field when the Rangers won the World Series. She had the graphics for social media ready to go within moments of the final out.
“I think the moment of hitting ‘post’ on those graphics to go live, knowing in your head that this is going to be the highest engaged post that this social media account has ever put out was one of the coolest things.”
Aaron Peralta’s hopes for a baseball career were derailed with a bad knee injury, though he was the bullpen catcher for the Texas State baseball team. He was nearly done with a history degree at Texas State when he realized he wanted a career in sports, so he switched majors to mass communication in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, shocking his parents and everyone around him. While at Texas State, he worked with ESPN+ in sports broadcasting, especially producing and directing Texas State baseball games.
“I wanted to be on the inside, in the heart of the sport,” Peralta said. “I was fortunate enough to find an opening with the Seattle Mariners. Mind you, I had no professional work as a social media coordinator, or a social media anything, beside my own personal account, but I worked on trying to form my portfolio and I went through the interview process. I think my knowledge and my love for the game (helped me get the job).”
Peralta said he thought he missed out on the opportunity because he didn’t hear anything for three or four weeks. He got the offer four days before the start of the season in 2023.
“I get the call, and they offer the position, and I was like, absolutely,” he said. “Five days later, I drove up to Seattle.”
Both Herzberg and Peralta credited the School of Journalism and Mass Communication for developing their content creation skills and preparing them for a career in sports.
Texas State students who joined the call asked for advice and suggestions that could help them as they seek internships and jobs in the sports industry.
Dr. Amber Hinsley, journalism coordinator at SJMC, noted that Herzberg took a class called Sports as News to learn more about creating sports-focused content and shared that the program is working on updating and improving sports course offerings.
Herzberg recommended an app called Gondola that lets content creators share their social media posts and tracks engagement analytics. She shared her Gondola account to show us how she maintains her portfolio: https://gondola.cc/remleherzberg
Peralta, who is now the social media manager for the Houston Dynamo professional soccer team, also shared his portfolio for students: https://aaronperalta19.wixsite.com/portfolio
Both Herzberg and Peralta encouraged students to network and seek out opportunities to improve their storytelling skills. Texas State graduates are well known as mentors and supporters of fellow Bobcats, and both encouraged students to connect with them via LinkedIn and social media.
Many thanks to Herzberg and Peralta for being so generous with their time with the Hornsby Chapter and with current Texas State students.
The entire interview with Herzberg and Peralta can be found on YouTube at this link.
Tom Thayer’s catcher-themed quiz
Based in large part on Thayer’s efforts to create a catchers database and his research presentation at the 19th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting last month, Thayer prepared a quiz about catchers.
Cy Morong took top prize with a score of 14, followed by me with 12, Peter Myers with 11, Don Dingee with 9 and guest Brenden Gilbreath with 8.
Chapter member Chris Crombar donated a nice limited-edition print of Johnny Bench by artist Tristan Votta, which served as the prize for Thayer’s quiz. I’ll deliver the print to Morong at the next meeting.
Click this link to take a swing at Thayer’s catcher quiz: 020125 Hornsby Chapter Thayer Quiz
Here are the quiz answers: 020125 Hornsby Chapter Thayer Quiz Answers
Negro Leagues compensation proposal
Brenden Gilbreath, a second-year student at Texas Tech University School of Law, reached out to the Hornsby Chapter to seek feedback on a research article he’s written about a critique of the 2024 MLB Negro Leagues financial assistance program.
“It doesn’t go far enough in helping the people that actually played in the league,” he said. So, he’s come up with a proposal to address the inequity.
Working closely with Sean Gibson, great-grandson of Negro Leagues legend Josh Gibson, Gilbreath has examined previous plans that provided compensation for Negro League players and their families.
Here’s a draft of his research article entitled “Heroes Get Remembered, but Legends Never Die: Properly Recognizing the Contributions of Negro League Veterans”: Brenden Gilbreath Heroes Get Remembered, but Legends Never Die
Gilbreath, who can be reached by email at <bregilbr@ttu.edu>, invites feedback and suggestions on his proposal. We also encouraged him to consider presenting his work at SABR 53 in Irving in June. The deadline for proposals is Feb. 16.
For more information about the SABR 53 convention, go this link: https://sabr.org/convention/
Many thanks to Mr. Gilbreath for sharing his research and draft with us.
UT baseball outing on Feb. 23
Chapter member and high school senior Bailey Hall pitched an idea to have an outing to Disch-Falk Field to watch the UT Longhorns baseball team take on Dartmouth later this month. We are hoping for good weather to organize an outing to the game on Sunday, Feb. 23, which is likely to be an afternoon game.
Once UT Baseball announces the start time, we’ll select a section at the stadium where we can buy tickets and sit together. Watch for an email announcement to the group list and on this website with more details soon.
Brian Rogers receives Predictatron trophy
Unable to attend the 19th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting last month, Brian Rogers recently received his hard-earned Predictatron trophy for the 2024 full season contest. His name has been added to the trophy, and Rogers becomes the trophy’s caretaker for this season.
Would you like to see your name on a trophy and take possession of it at next year’s winter meeting? You’ll need to win Predictatron (either the full season or postseason contest) to accomplish that dream! Look for more details next month when Jim Baker invites us to submit our predictions for the 2025 season.
Remembering Rickey Henderson
[The baseball world has been in mourning ever since baseball legend Rickey Henderson died in December 2024. Chapter member Syd Polk shared the time he met the Man of Steal.]
By Syd Polk
Rickey Henderson was one of the all-time great players. I did not get to see him play live that much, but I did have a memorable encounter with him.
In 2005, my wife and my baby girl went to see a traveling tour of the National Baseball Hall of Fame at the Oakland Museum on a Saturday afternoon. The exhibit was packed. Basically, there was a line snaking through the entire exhibit. It was a really cool exhibit with lots to see.
While we were looking at a display, a docent was bringing somebody through the museum not in the line. Initially annoyed, I looked up, and there was Rickey Henderson! The docent was giving him a personal tour. He told her that he had never had time to learn much about the history of the game; he was too busy trying to play it. He seemed particularly fascinated at the exhibit of a mechanical scoreboard device where somebody would recreate a game based on telegraph signals when the team was on the road.
I looked over at my wife, who had our almost-toddler in her arms, and they both were staring at Rickey. My wife looked every bit as starstruck as I was. Rickey saw my daughter, and said, “Oh, and who is this cutey?” and walked over to both of them, and said, “Goochey-goochey-coo!” and reached out and tickled my daughter, who giggled. He said, “That’s a beautiful baby!” to my wife, then waved bye to the baby and moved on.
Later, as we were nearing the end of the tour, Rickey was still talking to the docent. My wife told me to hold the baby and dug around in the baby backpack for the Sharpie she always had. She then took the baby over to Rickey, and said, “Excuse me, Mr. Henderson, would you sign the back of my daughter’s onesie?”, and he said, “Of course!”, took the pen, and signed it. He smiled at the baby again, waved, and then left the museum. We were on Cloud 9 the rest of the weekend.
Appendix
My wife has a cousin, who collects memorabilia. They had not talked in a while. She called him, and he recognized the Caller ID, and answered, “OK, who’d you get?”
He said that Rickey’s signature was difficult to get, and he normally did not sign things. The cousin sent us some memorabilia and baseball cards to make a shadow box display with. We’ll get around to that someday.
Research Spotlight: The Most Productive Players in 2024
Those who knew Bill Gilbert, who founded both the Rogers Hornsby and Larry Dierker chapters, remember his annual research to identify the most productive offensive players in baseball. Dierker Chapter member Christopher Chestnut has continued Bill’s work with an analysis of the 2024 season. He also includes a table that shows the Bases per Plate Appearance leaders from 1912 to 2024.
Many thanks to Chris for this research and keeping Bill’s memory alive and well. Click here to see Chris’ report: 2024 BPA Report
Next meeting
For next month’s meeting, we’ll be back in person at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 16, at Hurricane Grill and Wings (2701 Parker Dr., Round Rock). With spring training winding down then, we’ll be gearing up for the 2025 season! Hope you can join us. Watch for a call for RSVPs early next month.
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