Ryan Pollack, Author at Rogers Hornsby Chapter

SABR 40 Wrap-up

By all accounts, SABR 40 in Atlanta was a big success although registration was below the total in recent years. I know I sure had a good time.

SABR is clearly in a time of transition. Executive Director John Zajc is resigning to pursue other interests. His replacement is Marc Appleman who has had an extensive and varied career in communications related to sports, particularly baseball. John received numerous, well-deserved accolades at the convention and will be staying on until the end of September to ease the transition. Mark was present for the entire convention and made a very favorable impression.

There was a great deal of discussion at the Annual Business Meeting about SABR’s demographics. Ten years ago, the average age of SABR members was 49. Now it is 59. Obviously, SABR is not attracting many younger members. This was discussed in some depth at a special, open meeting Thursday night and will be a high priority item for the Board and the new Executive Director. They are looking for ideas for attracting and retaining new members.

Probably the highlight of the convention was the Worst to First panel featuring Atlanta Braves Bobby Cox, Phil Niekro, Mark Lemke and Ron Gant. It centered on the rise of the Braves from last in 1990 to first in 1991 and what it took to keep them at the top. Former Braves broadcaster, Pete Van Wieren, did an excellent job as the moderator. Braves President John Schuerholz was the speaker at the Awards Luncheon and was very well received.

Other highlights included a Black Sox panel featuring retired sportswriter, Furman Bisher and several authors and attorneys who had done research on the case. The consensus was that, while Jackson did not return the money ($1,000) that Lefty Williams left in his room, he did not do anything to throw any games.

Another highlight was a one-man play featuring Norm Coleman as Ty Cobb, which was very entertaining.

As always there were some outstanding oral (41) and poster (14) presentations including some that didn’t mention Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Research was presented that made strong cases for Billy Wagner as the best ever left-handed relief pitcher; Kirk Reuter as the best fielding pitcher of his era; and the ages of 29-31 as the years when hitters reach their peaks.

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter was well represented. Cy Morong, Tom Wancho and Bill Gilbert were in attendance and Monte Cely was recognized at the luncheon as one of the judges for the Sporting News Award. Norman Macht contributed an excellent article to Baseball in the Peach State, the Convention Publication of The National Pastime. The article is entitled “Memories of a Minor-League Traveler” about his years with Ernie Harwell and his experiences as a minor league business manager. A highlight for me was being part of the winning four-man team in the Trivia Contest for the first time in 16 years. In the finals, we won on a tiebreaker which was to name the nine players in the starting lineup when the Atlanta Braves played their first game in 1966. We identified six and our opponents came up with four. Anybody want to take a shot at it (without looking it up?)

The game we attended was not one of my best baseball experiences. Our bus parked a long way from the stadium and then we experienced a two-hour rain delay before the game started. The game went into extra innings when the Giants scored a run without a hit off the greatest left-handed closer in the ninth inning and another one without a hit in the eleventh inning to win it. After the long walk back to the bus and some traffic delays, we arrived back at the hotel at 1:30 a.m.

The convention will be in Los Angeles in 2011 and Minneapolis has been officially announced as the site in 2012. Houston is being considered as a potential site in 2013. Since putting on a convention is very labor-intensive, there should be some volunteer opportunities for Hornsby Chapter members if Houston gets it.

On being a Houston Astros fan

By Gilbert D. Martinez

I grew up in South Texas following the Houston Astros, mostly on the radio with my dad. I remember J.R. Richard and Nolan Ryan pitching for the Astros but was too young to understand the complexities of their teams’ playoff runs.

I died with the ’86 Astros team and still dislike the New York Mets organization because of that memorable and heart-wrenching NLCS (with apologies to Jim Baker). When I lived in New Jersey for seven years, I had a hard time living around Mets fans, who loved the ’86 season.

The Golden Age of the Astros really started when Biggio and Bagwell started to carry the team in the late ’90s. When Roy Oswalt came along in 2001, the strong run of Astros teams continued.

Of course, 2004 and 2005 are among the greatest Astros seasons ever.

And during all of this time as an Astros fan, I was becoming spoiled. I didn’t know it at the time, but I know it now.

Spoiled how? I was spoiled because I expected the Astros players to be homegrown, to win a World Series and to play their entire careers with the Astros. Sure, I embraced Randy Johnson when he came via trade, but when he left after the Astros playoff run in ’98 ended, so did my acceptance of him.

But Biggio and Bagwell were still around, and would always be there. And when their candidacies for the Hall of Fame are debated, the virtue of playing for the same team their entire careers – a la Cal Ripken Jr., Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg and Kirby Puckett in recent years – will be highly touted.

I thought Oswalt and Berkman would stay. They were homegrown; they played in a World Series; so of course I expected them to play their entire careers in Houston.

In past years, Oswalt’s name would come up before the July 31^st trade deadline, but I never took it seriously. Just like I didn’t believe that the Astros wouldn’t re-sign Biggio for the 2007 season so that he could reach 3,000 hits.

Even when Oswalt publicly announced that he wanted out of Houston, I still didn’t believe that Drayton McLane would actually agree to trade him.

As for Berkman – a Texas native who had made it clear that he belongs in Texas – I didn’t think he would be traded. After all, he said he didn’t want to leave. He did say he’d listen to offers, but listening to offers is very different from agreeing to waive a no-trade clause.

And McLane would never trade away the two faces of the franchise – both of whom played in the only World Series the Astros have been in, and one of whom was the last Astros player still on the roster (Berkman) to suit up in the Astrodome.

Boy, was I wrong. I was wrong because I had been spoiled. I expected Oswalt and Berkman to play their entire careers with the Astros. I didn’t expect them to be traded away within 48 hours.

Because I’ve been spoiled, I found out how much it hurt to hear that Oswalt wanted to leave Houston – mostly because the team has been mediocre, the team had not been competitive, the team had no future because of a depleted farm system and the team couldn’t score any runs for his starts. I guess I can’t blame him, but breaking up is harder for the guy who’s not leaving.

Amid all this pain, I look to see who’s left with the Astros and find that it’s a more exciting bunch than I realized. I expect J.A. Happ to be solid, and I’m hopeful that Brett Wallace is the hitting machine he’s made out to be.

But this injection of youth has also energized other young players on our team – Chris Johnson is tearing it up, Jason Castro is coming around, and Angel Sanchez had a career game against the Cardinals in Busch Stadium, no less.

Who knows what the future holds for this Astros team? I don’t, but I know this: watching the Astros in the week since the trade deadline was a lot of fun. Solid pitching, clutch hitting, great defense – all are essential elements for good baseball.

And now, I feel like there’s hope on the horizon – those dire predictions about the Astros should be set aside. All of a sudden, the future isn’t looking so bad.

I may have been spoiled, and I may wince when I see Berkman in Yankee pinstripes or Oswalt in red Phillies shoes, but I’ve realized that it’s the Astros as a team that I love most.

2010 Cy Young Prognostication Poll

SABR Hornsby Chapter colleagues:

Time to start thinking about your Cy Young picks for this season.

Ballots are due by midnight, Sunday September 5. Email your prognostications to me at cely@swbell.net.

Due to the close race in the NL last year, the Cy Young voting is being expanded. Consequently, please predict the TOP FIVE voting finishers in each league. In case a tie needs to be broken, also predict the ERA of the NL winner.

So, your ballot should look like:

AL Winner, AL Runner up, AL #3 vote getter, AL #4, AL #5
NL Winner, NL Runner up, NL #3 vote getter, NL #4, NL #5; NL Winner’s ERA

References:

ESPN Cy Young Predictor at http://espn.go.com/mlb/features/cyyoung.
My articles on the Cy Young Award in BRJ #35, p. 48 (2006), and in BRJ#37, p. 95 (2008)

Best regards & good luck, Monte

Book Review: The Wizard of Waxahachie

The Wizard of Waxahachie

Paul Richards and the End of Baseball as We Knew It

by Warren Corbett

A Baseball Book Review

Monte Cely

cely@swbell.net

(512) 310-9777

Paul Richards was a Texas-born baseball man, a life-long resident of Waxahachie. In a career that spanned most of the 20^th Century, Richards held almost all the baseball jobs to be had on the field and in the front office.

On the field, he was what we’d today call a “AAAA player” – enjoying much more success in the minors than in the majors. He did play for the Dodgers, Giants and A’s in the early to mid-1930s; and he got a second chance as a wartime replacement with the Tigers in the 1940s (he was a member of the 1945 World Champion Detroit team).

But he was best known as a manager and executive both in the minors (Atlanta and Buffalo) and with struggling or new franchises in the majors (early ‘50s White Sox, late ‘50s Orioles, and expansion Houston). This book delves into his successes and problems as a manager and GM. Richards was one of the first to calculate and utilize the statistic that we now call on-base-percentage. He was an early adopter of pitch-counts and an early proponent of the five-man pitching rotation. He is credited with the invention of the jumbo catcher’s mitt for handling the knuckleball. Conversely, he clung to some outdated methods (such as advocating pulling teeth and removing tonsils to improve pitchers’ performance). His poor communication skills, coupled with a cold, stand-offish nature, were often criticized.

Richards’ interactions with baseball legends such as Connie Mack, Bill Veeck, and Judge Hofheinz make for interesting reading. The book delivers a balanced portrait of an innovative baseball man that was respected by many, despised by some, and loved by few. It’s a book that a Texas SABR member should enjoy.

Here are the key statistics:

Book: The Wizard of Waxahachie

Author: Warren Corbett

Author’s Credentials: Corbett’s work appears in SABR’s biography project and National Pastime. He has also contributed to the Diamond; Go-Go to Glory: the 1959 Chicago White Sox; and Lefty, Double-X, and the Kid: The 1939 Red Sox.

Published: 2009, SMU Press; ISBN: 978-0-87074-556-0

Length: 430 pages

Price: Retail list – $35.00; Online – from $13.50 (used) + shipping.

July Meeting Summary

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter met for the 44th consecutive month on Saturday, July 24, at the Iowa Cubs-Round Rock Express extra-inning affair.

Sixteen members and guests watched the Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano pitch two scoreless innings out of the bullpen and hit a single in his only at-bat. This was Zambrano’s second minor league "rehabilitation" appearance since his meltdown in the Cubs dugout last month.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Express tied up the game at 1-1. The teams exchanged runs in the 10th inning.

Brad Snyder of the Cubs hit a massive two-run home run to straightaway center over the green shed. Members surmised that the shot probably traveled some 450 feet. The Cubs held on to win in 13 innings, 4-2.

Cy Morong : So How Slow Is He?

Catcher Benjie Molina Hits for the Cycle : So How Slow Is He?

Cy examines the triple-to-double ratio as a measure of how fast or how good a baserunner a player really is.

College Baseball and the College World Series

1.	SOFTBALLS (1-8) – 1 POINT FOR EACH CORRECT ANSWER The same east coast team was runner-up in the first two College World Series (CWS), played in 1947-48. Name that college that lost both series, and never returned to the CWS.	Yale
2.	During the past 20 years, one team has won six CWS championships. Name that team.	LSU
3.	After leading his team to the NCAA championship, this college player was the first player drafted in the initial amateur draft in 1965. Name the player and his college team.	Rick Monday from Arizona State
4.	The 2010 opening day roster of the Houston Astros included five players who participated in the CWS during their college careers. Name them	Lance Berkman (Rice ’97), Geoff Blum (California ’92) Jeff Keppinger (Georgia, ’01), Tommy Manzella (Tulane ’05), Jason Michaels (Miami, ’97-’98)
5.	Name the coach with the most appearances in the CWS during his college coaching career.	Cliff Gustafson (UT – 17 appearances) Others – Rod Dedeaux(USC 15), Mark Marquess(Stanford 14), Jim Brock (Ariz St. 13), Augie Garrido (CSF & UT 13), Mike Martin (Florida St. 13)
6.	The NCAA record for HR in a season (48) and career HR (100) is held by this former Texas Ranger. Name him.	Pete Incaviglia, Wichita St., hit 48 HR in ’85 and 100 HR in ’83-85. He also holds NCAA record for RBI in a season with 143 in ’85.
7.	Name the two major league Hall of Famers who attended Columbia University.	Lou Gehrig and Eddie Collins
8.	This college has produced 67 major league ballplayers, including Cap Anson, Craig Counsell, Carl Yastrzemski, and Ed Reulbach.	Notre Dame
9.	CHANGEUPS (9-16) – 2 POINTS FOR EACH CORRECT ANSWER A "Baseball America" poll named this college second baseman the "Player of the Century". After being drafted out of college, he was NL Rookie of the Year. Name him.	Bob Horner, Arizona State (’76-’78) was NL Rookie of the Year in ’78.
10.	The NCAA record for most consecutive scoreless innings pitched in a season is 47 innings. Name the current major league 1B who holds this pitching record.	Todd Helton (Tennessee ’94)
11.	Name the only major league Hall of Fame player who was also named the Most Outstanding Player at the CWS.	Dave Winfield, as a pitcher for U. of Minnesota (’73)
12.	The NCAA consecutive game hitting streak (58 games) is held by a former major leaguer. This year, a college sophomore hit safely in all 56 games he played. Name both players.	Robin Ventura (Oklahoma State, ’87) and Garrett Wittels (Florida International ’10)
13.	The record for most hits (15) by one player in a CWS is held by this former Astros outfielder.	Jason Lane (USC, ’98)
14.	This current major league 2B holds the NCAA career record for highest batting average in a college career (min. 200 AB).	Rickie Weeks (Southern U. ’01-’03) .465 in 546 AB. He also holds career record slugging pct. at .927.
15.	This current major league manager was named the CWS outstanding player in 1980. Name him and his college.	Terry Francona, Univ. of Arizona
16.	In 1981, this player led the NCAA in stolen bases, and years later, as an NL outfielder, he led the majors in stolen bases.	Vince Coleman, Florida A&M and the Cardinals. This feat was later accomplished by Brian Roberts (North Carolina/South Carolina and Orioles).
17.	FASTBALLS (17-21) – 3 POINTS FOR EACH CORRECT ANSWER Name the only team in college baseball history that has recorded more than 4,000 wins.	Fordham has 4,225 wins in 150 seasons. Texas is second with 3,197 wins in 114 seasons.
18.	The most outstanding pitching performance in any CWS was by this Big 10 pitcher: 15 inning complete game with 20 Ks in 1965.	Steve Arlin, pitching for Ohio State, shut out Washington State 1-0. In ’65-’66 Arlin pitched 47 innings at the CWS with a 0.96 ERA.
19.	Name the two players who played on a CWS championship team, and later were head coaches for a CWS champion.	Mike Gillespie played for USC in ’61 and coached USC in ’98. Jerry Kindall played for Minnesota in ’56 and coached Arizona champs in ’76, ’80, ’86. Kindall is the only player to hit for the cycle in a CWS game.
20.	This current MLB player is the only player in college history to record a 30-30 season. In ’97 he hit 31 HRs and stole 32 bases. Name him and his college team.	J.D. Drew, Florida State. He accomplished this in 67 games in 1997.
21.	Name the six University of Texas players who have been named the Outstanding Player at a CWS.	Tom Hamilton (1B, ’49), J.L. Smith (P, ’53), Mickey Reichenbach (1B, ’75), Calvin Schiraldi (P, ’83), Huston Street (P, ’02), David Maroul (3B, ’05)
22.	THE HIGH CHEESE – BONUS COVERAGE The most career shutouts by a pitcher during their college career is 14. This record is shared by two players from Texas colleges. Name them.	Greg Swindell (UT, ’84-’86) and Jesse Trinidad (Texas Pan Am ’74-’76). NOTE: Swindell had a 17-year ML career, but Trinidad only played one year of pro ball in the Gulf States League (’76). He pitched 56 innings, going 4-1 with a 2.25 ERA.
23.	The first grand slam HR hit in the CWS was by this Texas player.	Kal Segrist in 1950. NOTE: Segrist was signed by the Yankees and had an 11-year minor league career, plus 38 major league plate appearances. In 1954, he was included in a trade to the Orioles along with Gus Triandos and Gene Woodling for Bob Turley and Don Larsen.

July Meeting at Dell Diamond

The July meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter will bear a striking resemblance to the recent April meeting as we will again be venturing to the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas to take in the Round Rock Express vs. Iowa Cubs game. The game is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, July 24. As before, we will gather for a pre-game meal at the Salt Lick restaurant near the southwest corner of the Dell Diamond parking lot. Plan to meet at the Salt Lick at 5:30 p.m.

If you plan to attend please indicate (1) the number of people that will attend the pre-game meal (for the purposes of making a reservation at the Salt Lick) and (2) the number of game tickets required ($12 plus $1 convenience charge each). Please send an email with those numbers to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com no later than Sunday, July 18.

Tickets will be purchased on July 18 and the pdf file containing the tickets will be sent to each attendee shortly thereafter.

June Meeting Summary

Heavy afternoon rain and lots of traffic did not deter chapter members from returning to Third Base with the largest turnout for a monthly meeting in more than two years. Fourteen members and guests were treated to a Dan Walsh quiz, College Baseball and the College World Series.

Bill Gilbert, showing no ill effects from his stint on the DL last year, won the trivia quiz with 28 total points. It should also be noted that for the first, and perhaps last time, Gilbert Martinez bested Jim Baker by two points in the quiz.

Tentative plans for the July meeting include dinner at the Salt Lick followed by a Round Rock Express game (versus the Iowa Cubs) on Saturday, July 24. More details to follow.

Rogers Hornsby Chapter Annual Report for 2009

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter, serving Central and South Texas, was officially recognized as a SABR chapter early in 2006. The Chapter held 12 meetings in 2009 with one meeting in each month, continuing a streak of 37 straight months with a meeting. Nine were dinner meetings, held on a monthly basis at a local sports bar, with an average attendance of ten people. In addition to baseball talk, these meetings allowed members to discuss areas of their research and were also used to plan chapter activities. Members are encouraged to bring guests to these meetings and some new active members have been added as a result.

The third annual winter meeting of the chapter was held in January 2009 on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos. Thirty five people were in attendance at the meeting which included 3 research presentations by Chapter members and a trivia quiz conducted by Norman Macht. The featured speaker was Larry Dierker, former pitcher, manager and broadcaster with the Houston Astros. Other guests included authors, Talmage Boston and Milton Jamail and Round Rock Express Broadcaster, Mike Capps.

One of the meetings in 2009 was held at Dell Diamond, the home of the Triple-A Round Rock Express. The meeting included a pre-game get together and attendance at the game as a group. The October meeting was held at the home of Gilbert Martinez in connection with an NLDS game on television.

The chapter website ( http://chapters.sabr.org/hornsby/ ) was officially launched in April 2009. Jan Larson spearheaded the effort working with Peter Garver of the SABR office. The site is used to announce chapter meetings/events, make prediction contest results available to chapter members and to make various research papers, book reviews, etc. available to SABR members and the general public.

The site has information about the history of the chapter, chapter meeting summaries and membership information. Trivia quizzes (and correct answers) that have been presented at regular chapter meetings are also available for use by interested parties. There are currently three chapter members with editing rights that maintain the site.

Chapter member Monte Cely served as one of three judges for the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award. This annual award honors outstanding research projects completed during the preceding calendar year (2009). Eligible projects must be the product of original research or analysis, must significantly advance our knowledge of baseball, and must reflect factual accuracy and notable insight.

Fourteen books were submitted for consideration. The three award winners have been announced and will be honored at the 2010 SABR Annual Convention. They are:

"The Rise of Milwaukee Baseball" by Dennis Pajot
"Death at the Ballpark" by Robert Gorman and David Weeks
"Ball, Bat and Bitumen: A History of Coalfield Baseball in the Appalachian South" by L.M. Sutter

The chapter has continued the monthly meetings in 2010. Another very successful Winter Meeting was held in January 2010 with Astro TV broadcaster Bill Brown as the featured speaker. The Winter Meeting is expected to be an annual affair.