Chapter members watch Express come back to win

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(Photo by Raeanne R. Martinez)

Nine chapter members and guests had a pre-game meal at Dell Diamond’s Intel Club and then watched the Round Rock Express come-from-behind late to win 4-3 against the Salt Lake Bees on Sunday, Aug. 23.

We had some of the best seats in the park, located directly behind home plate. We also had the benefit of the cool air conditioning in the Intel Club when we needed a break from the warm summer night.

For September, we hope you consider attending the Inaugural Baseball History Forum on Saturday, Sept. 19, in Waco. Click here for more details.

This was the 105th consecutive month that the chapter has had a monthly meeting.

Later in the month, the chapter will have its regular monthly meeting at lunch in southwest Austin on Sunday, Sept. 27. More details to come.

Inaugural Fall Forum in Waco a Big Success

SABR members and guests turned out in force for the inaugural Fall Forum held in Waco on Saturday, September 19. The Fall Forum was organized and hosted by SABR member David Skelton, with the goals of providing an enjoyable baseball-themed forum and promoting interest in SABR in the Waco area.

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Former major league pitcher Lindy McDaniel was the Fall Forum headliner

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Eric Robinson presented and David Skelton hosted

More information and a picture slideshow are at the sabr.org site here.

* agenda follows *

Inaugural Baseball History Fall Forum

Saturday, September 19, 2015

9:30am – 4:15 pm

Emergency Services Education Center

7601 Steinbeck Bend Drive, Waco, Texas 76708

Join SABR members and other interested baseball fans for the inaugural Fall Forum to be held in the Heart of Texas.

The current roster of guests and presenters include:

Lindy McDaniel – will share memories from his 21-year major league career.

John Wood (retired Baylor professor) – will preview his book on ethics in baseball.

Mark Presswood (author) – will discuss Texas League history and teams.

Eric Robinson (educator) – will present some of his research on Negro League baseball, with a focus on the Waco area.

Eugene Baker (Baylor professor emeritus) and David Lintz (museum director) – will tell the story of Waco’s Katy Park.

Robert Gamboa (civic leader and historian) – will discuss Hispanics in baseball.

Gale McCray (SABR member) – will present a skit on baseball and life.

Admission is free and attendees will be able to order lunch online for delivery.

If you have any memorabilia you’d like to discuss with the audience, feel free to bring it and there will be time to discuss.

To help with planning the logistics for this event, please RSVP your intent to attend to:

David Skelton — phone at 254-723-9603 or via email at dsbaseballfan@yahoo.com

July meeting summary

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Nineteen Hornsby Chapter members and guests gathered in north Austin on Saturday, July 11, to chatter about baseball over an Italian lunch. This was the 104th consecutive month that our chapter has had a monthly meeting.

After a long string of regular monthly meetings during the week in downtown Austin at a barbeque restaurant, we decided to try meeting on a Saturday away from the traffic congestion and construction in downtown. This first effort proved promising, with nearly 20 in attendance.

Over the remainder of the year, we’ll endeavor to move the meeting around some in the Austin metro area.

For the meeting in August, we’ll return to the Dell Diamond for a 6 p.m. game on Sunday, Aug. 23. The Round Rock Express take on the Salt Lake Bees, the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California.

More details to come on next month’s meeting.

June Meeting Summary

A total of 19 members and guests gathered for BBQ and baseball on Saturday, June 6. The group enjoyed a pre-game meal at the Salt Lick BBQ and then ventured to the nearby Dell Diamond where we watched the hometown Round Rock Express fall to the visiting Oklahoma City Dodgers by a score of 9-6. The game featured not only six home runs but also six errors.

Starting in July, we will be changing our chapter meetings from the traditional Tuesday or Thursday evening dinner meetings to Saturday lunch meetings. These will be held at various locations around the Austin area in order to make it easier for more people to attend. Watch this space for details.

July Meeting – Saturday lunch

We’re going to change things up a bit starting in July and begin a series of Saturday lunch meetings at various locations around the Austin area instead of the Tues or Thurs evening meetings at Iron Works. The hassle of traveling downtown during rush hour is becoming just too much of … well, a hassle, so we thought we would dial back the travel intensity a bit and make it easier for more people to attend.

Our first Saturday lunch meeting will be at the Macaroni Grill at Great Hills Trail and 183 in the Arboretum Area. This is the same location as we’ve met for SABR Day lunches in recent years.

We will plan to meet at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday, July 11. Please RSVP so we can provide an accurate headcount for seating purposes to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com.

May Meeting Summary

Nine members of the Hornsby Chapter gathered on May 19, 2015 at Iron Works BBQ in downtown Austin. After consuming goodly portions of tasty barbeque, the topic of baseball was addressed. The main focus of discussion was the tremendous (and unexpected) start by the AL West leading Houston Astros. Two trivia quizzes were presented, the first by Ryan Pollack and the second by Bill Gilbert. The June meeting will be held on Saturday, June 6 and will be the first chapter outing of the season to the Dell Diamond for the Round Rock Express vs. Oklahoma City Dodgers game.

April Chapter Meeting Recap

Nine chapter members met for dinner at Iron Works in downtown Austin this Thursday, April 23. This is the 101st consecutive monthly meeting for the Rogers Hornsby Chapter of SABR.

Activities and points of discussion included:

Optimism about the Astros’ good start to the season. Several members had already been to Astros’ games and are looking forward to continuing improvement.

General discussion around replay reviews (positive) and rules to shorten length-of-game (early results look favorable).

Jim Baker conducted a lottery drawing to assign Predictatron contestants to two divisions. In honor of last year’s two division winners, this year’s divisions will be named the Tom Thayer Division and the Raeanne Martinez Division. Jim will have Predictatron data entered and a first round of results available within the next week or so.

Monte Cely gave a brief report, on behalf of Jim Kenton, as to the status of the Alzheimer’s Baseball Memories project. The Austin Alzheimer’s Association is currently soliciting for participants for a "trial season". The season will consist of six 90-minute sessions, held every other week from Monday May 18 to Monday July 27. Each session will include baseball content such as box scores, videos, audios, etc. with the goal being to engage the participants in recalling and discussing memories about baseball. Next steps will then be determined, based upon experiences and feedback from this trial.

Gilbert Martinez solicited interest from the group in volunteering to form a committee to oversee the agenda for the next chapter Winter Meeting, to be held in January, 2016.

Upcoming chapter meetings are tentatively set as follows (more information will be forthcoming):

May Monthly Meeting – Tuesday, May 19

June Monthly Meeting – Saturday, June 6 at Dell Diamond vs. Ok. City Dodgers

Book Review: Joe Black – More Than a Dodger

Joe Black: More Than a Dodger
354 pages
Chicago Review Press, 2015

One wouldn’t think a book about a "single-season wonder" could hold enough information to fill 350 pages. But this engaging life story written by Joe Black’s daughter, Martha Jo, and AP/UPI sportswriter Chuck Schoffner, captures the essence of a determined competitor in sport as well as life. Joe was raised in the integrated town of Plainfield, New Jersey, but beginning in his university years, he faced life’s toughest curves from the challenges of Jim Crow. As a young man in 1944, he aspired to pitch in the major leagues but was surprised to learn that he would probably never have that opportunity. Not only did he achieve his dream in 1952, but he led his Brooklyn Dodgers to the pennant, leading the club in wins, earning Rookie of the Year honors, and finishing third in the MVP race. That season he became the first African-American to win a World Series game.

But Joe Black was so much more than a one-dimensional sports figure. Joe had an over-sized, magnetic personality that matched his later-in-life physical presence, allowing him to become a beloved school teacher and the first African-American Vice-President of a corporation of its size, when he worked at and later consulted for Greyhound. From the 1980s until the end of his life he worked hard on behalf of major league baseball to aid retired ballplayers who had fallen upon hard times.

After divorcing Martha Jo’s mother, Joe was determined to win sole custody of his daughter, perhaps his biggest life challenge. After all, the odds were clearly stacked against a black man in conservative Arizona during the early 1970s, especially considering that Martha Jo’s mom was also a "fit" parent. But Joe miraculously prevailed and Martha Jo, who today works for Jerry Reinsdorf with the Whitesox, penned this labor of love to honor a top athlete, a great humanitarian, and an exceptional dad.

Though a great portion of the book has to do with his career leading up to, and during, his days with Brooklyn, you need not be a Dodger fan at all to enjoy this uplifting biography.

100th Consecutive Month with a Meeting Quiz

by Gilbert D. Martinez

Presented at chapter meeting March 21, 2015

(Move the mouse over the blank space to see the answer)

	I. Chapter questions
1.	In what year did Bill Gilbert have an initial meeting in Austin in the hopes of creating a new SABR chapter?	2003
2.	In what year did participants sign a petition asking for SABR recognition, thereby creating the Rogers Hornsby Chapter?	2006
3.	Many of our monthly meetings have occurred at a restaurant. Name as many of these restaurants as you can (each worth one point).	County Line Cover 3 Hyde Park Bar and Grill Iron Works BBQ Macaroni Grill Restaurant at the Dell Diamond Salt Lick Scholz Garten Serranos Siena The Tavern Third Base
4.	We have also had meetings at non-restaurant locations. Name as many of these as you can (each worth one point).	Dell Diamond Jim Baker’s house Bill and Evelyn Gilbert’s home in Lakeway Chuck Kaufman’s house Jan and Connie Larson’s house Gilbert and Raeanne Martinez’s house Minute Maid Park Texas State University/Old Main Whataburger Field
	II. Member questions
5.	Name the Hornsby Chapter member that has covered the last five consecutive La Serie del Caribe (Caribbean World Series). Bonus question – Which team won the 2015 contest?	Monte Cely — Cuba
6.	On Aug. 17, 1976, this Hornsby Chapter member watched a player steal home to win a game in extra innings. This kicked off a research project and later, a presentation by which Hornsby member? Bonus question: Which player stole home in that game in 1976?	Jan Larson – George Brett
7.	This former Hornsby Chapter member is nearly done with his three-volume biography of Connie Mack. Yeah, I know you know who this is, so name him! Two bonus questions – 1) Name the publisher of the three-part biography, and 2) Name the university that is now housing all the archival material collected for this biography.	Norman Macht – University of Nebraska — SMU
8.	The Hornsby Chapter has the Rajah Award for lifetime achievement and service to the chapter. Thus far, only one person has received it. Who?	Bill Gilbert
	II. Speaker questions — In the following questions, name the speakers who have visited us at our annual Winter Meetings.
9.	I was the Houston Astros’ first 20-game winner, a two-time National League All-Star, and a National League Manager of the Year. Who am I?	Larry Dierker
10.	I am the director of professional scouting for the Kansas City Royals and played college baseball with the University of Texas at Arlington. Who am I?	Gene Watson
11.	I am a former broadcast journalist who covered the first Persian Gulf War and the siege in Waco, but am now the director of broadcasting for the Round Rock Express. Who am I?	Mike Capps
12.	I was a former professional baseball scout credited with scouting players such as Dale Murphy, George Bell, Cito Gaston and David Wells. Who am I?	Al LaMacchia
13.	I am the president of the Pacific Coast League and grandson of the man who signed Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Who am I?	Branch B. Rickey
14.	I am the longtime Houston Astros television broadcaster and member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Who am I?	Bill Brown
15.	I was a member of the 1948 World Series Champion Cleveland Indians, a scout, general manager, and head of player development for the Houston Colt .45s. Who am I?	Eddie Robinson
16.	I won a World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers three times and once had a devoted fan name her parakeet after me. Who am I?	Wally Moon
17.	I covered the playoff runs of the Houston Astros in 2004 and 2005 and had, perhaps, the last Budweiser beer at Busch Stadium II. Who am I?	Alyson Footer
	Tie-Breaker Question: Most SABR chapters are in the United States, but there are a few that are international chapters. Name these international chapters (country or city in which the chapter is based).	Toronto, Canada Quebec, Canada Great Britain Sorrento, Italy Tokyo, Japan South Korea The Luis Castro/Latin America Chapter serves Spanish-speaking SABR members in all Central and South America countries and the Caribbean, including Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Panamá and Nicaragua.

Chapter celebrates 100th with pizza and trivia

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Twenty-one members and guests celebrated the Rogers Hornsby Chapter’s 100th consecutive month with a meeting on Saturday at the Martinezes’ home in southwest Austin.

We enjoyed good pizza (from Yaghi’s New York Pizzeria) and a dazzling array of side dishes, appetizers, beverages and desserts.

Jan Larson won a trivia contest created by Gilbert Martinez that covered information about the chapter history, members and guest speakers. Like the namesake of the bobblehead that Jan won for his victory, Jan slugged away all challengers and stood tall on the mound. He scored 33 out of a possible 40 points on the quiz. Try your hand on the quiz by clicking here.

Many thanks to everyone who joined us for the celebration.

Now that we have reached 100th consecutive months with a meeting, we return to our usual programming and start working toward 200 consecutive months with a meeting! The next meeting will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 23, at Iron Works BBQ in downtown Austin.