Author: Monte Cely

Fifty one participants, caregivers, and volunteers enjoyed a day of “Spring Training” on February 19 at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas.  Our BasebALZ and “Talking Baseball” groups from Austin and Sun City/Georgetown were hosted by the AAA Round Rock Express baseball club.

We had planned to play whiffle-ball on the pro diamond, but inclement weather forced the event indoors.  Not to worry, the Express opened up the clubhouse and batting cages to the group:

After Express GM Tim Jackson welcomed the group, former major league pitcher Ross Ohlendorf threw “batting practice” to the participants (above).  For those not wanting to “step up to the plate”, a game of baseball beanbag toss was underway in the next batting cage.

Other highlights of the day included:

Trading baseball cards with new/unopened packs of cards provided by Card Traders of Austin.  Several Nolan Ryan cards were located – but none were traded!

Breaking in and oiling up baseball gloves.

Lunch provided by Alzheimer’s Texas.  After lunch, Ross Ohlendorf led a very interesting Q&A session with the group.

The day was viewed as a great success by all involved.  Perhaps it is best summed up by one of the SABR volunteers, who stated: “I am proud to have been involved in the organization of our group and feel supremely lucky to associate with such a great group of guys and gal. I find it interesting that our efforts to help others has resulted in such a great gift to ourselves.  Or at least that’s how I feel. Being involved has rekindled my baseball juices, which died along with my playing career.”

An excellent video about the event (6 min.) can be viewed here.

The event was also covered by local media.  An article can be found on page 2 of the local newspaper:  Williamson County Sun

We hope to make this an annual event.  Many thanks to Tim Jackson and the Round Rock Express, to Ross Ohlendorf, to Card Traders of Austin, to our long-time sponsor Alzheimer’s Texas, and to our many dedicated volunteers.  

 

 

 

“Talking Baseball” (aka BasebALZ) opened its Texas 2019 season with a session at the Kerrville, Texas VA Hospital.  Six veterans, plus hospital staff and administrators, were in attendance.  This is the 30th program session that we’ve delivered at Kerrville, and we continue to get great feedback from our staff contacts there.

SABR volunteers Jim, Mike, Dan & Ann join VA staff for the January 18 session.

On January 28, we kicked off our 11th “season” of Talking Baseball programs in Austin.  We were very happy to welcome several new participants and their caregivers.  Eleven participants, caregivers and guests joined our eight volunteers.

In addition to our usual program offerings, we experimented with some new segments.  One, entitled “Baseball Time Machine“, asked “If you could go back in time to one ballgame, what game would it be?”  We had some lively (and funny) examples, for instance – one of the participants missed Kirk Gibson’s classic World Series walk-off homer because his wife sent him out for Chinese food!

Another new segment was “Get Up and Move”.  The idea is to add some light physical activity to the program.  Our first try at this was “The Chicken Dance”, a staple at our local AAA ballpark.  As you can see from the pictures above, we did get up and move.

One of our regular segments is “Stump the Experts”.  Bobby (far end of table in Yankee pinstripes) and Renee attempt to stump the SABR “experts” with a series of clues about a ballplayer’s identity.  Bobby took it easy on us today, as we were able to successfully identify that the ballplayer was former Rangers star Josh Hamilton.

Our 2019 season will continue in February with a session at Kerrville on February 8 and sessions at Westminster Senior Living in Austin on February 11 and 25.

We have been offering the Talking Baseball reminiscence program since the Spring of 2015.  Our April, 2019 session in Austin will be our 100th session!  It has been a fun and rewarding experience for all of us.

2018 was a busy year for baseball reminiscence in Texas.  The Rogers Hornsby Chapter of SABR provided baseball-themed programs in Austin, Kerrville, and San Antonio.  We also worked with SABR members nationally to help expand and support this rewarding effort.

Our baseball reminiscence program, nicknamed “BasebALZ”, uses baseball history, anecdotes, and trivia to promote pleasant memories and discussion of the past for participants (and their family members) dealing with dementia.  Reminiscence therapy is an effective technique to help improve the well-being of those dealing with dementia, along with their family and caregivers.

Here are a few 2018 highlights:

In AUSTIN we began our fourth year of operation and delivered 18 BasebALZ sessions, organized into three “seasons” consisting of six biweekly sessions apiece.  The program is sponsored by Alzheimer’s Texas here in the capital city and is supported by funding from the DKR Research Fund.  We currently meet at Westminster Senior Living.

Attendance has been consistently strong in Austin with varied programs delivered by a dedicated group of volunteers.  Average attendance is around 14-18 participants, caregivers and volunteers; the high session attendance for the year was twenty.  In addition to talking about baseball, we include other reminiscence topics such as music, “this day in history”, memorabilia, “stump the experts”, baseball bingo – just to name a few.

A periodic “Do the Twist” contest has become a favorite activity.

Our last Austin session on November 19 was “standing room only”.

Our participants and caregivers are regular contributors to the agenda.  John (l) keeps order and leads the singing.  Bobby and Renee (r) present a regular item called “Stump the Experts”.  They provide a list of clues about the identity of a major league ballplayer and see if they can stump the SABR volunteers.  They “batted” about .500 in 2018, often stumping the “experts”.

We enjoy sharing memorabilia and sometimes get some “swag” from other non-profits.  Here the group sports t-shirts provided by the Eddie Gaedel Society (yes, there is one) in honor of one of owner Bill Veeck’s most notorious promotions.

We usually wrap up the spring/summer sessions with a night out at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.  We enjoyed a luxury suite courtesy of Alzheimer’s Texas and United Heritage Credit Union.

 

We continued to offer a BasebALZ program monthly at the Veterans Administration Hospital in KERRVILLE.  The administrators and staff have been very supportive of the reminiscence efforts.  Our volunteers have touched twenty individual veterans at the hospital, with average attendance of veterans, staff, and volunteers around fifteen per session.

As the participants at the VA are generally institutionalized with serious physical disabilities, the BasebALZ program not only helps them to “open up” and share memories of the past, but also serves as a change of pace to relieve potential isolation or loneliness.

The vets have some great stories.  A recent participant recalled his experiences at Utah Beach on D-Day.

The staff at Kerrville VA is so enthusiastic about BasebALZ that they’ve asked for our help to enable them to offer the program themselves more frequently.  We’re working with them on this now.

 

SAN ANTONIO – on November 15 we conducted our first BasebALZ session at the Alzheimer’s Association – San Antonio and South Texas offices.  We had a nice “opening day” turnout of 14 participants, caregivers, staff and volunteers.

We were very encouraged by the staff support and level of interaction among the participants and caregivers.  Lunch was provided by Wrigleyville Grill and it was ballpark food at its best.  We are looking forward to scheduling an ongoing program in the Alamo City in 2019.

 

NATIONALLY – Outside of the Lone Star State, SABR members are currently leading baseball reminiscence programs in Connecticut, New York, and Los Angeles.  We have also had dialog with SABR chapter leaders in both the North New Jersey and South New Jersey chapters, as well as San Diego and San Francisco.  We are available to assist, as needed, to further the adoption of this meaningful and rewarding program.

More information on BasebALZ is available on our chapter web site at:  http://www.sabrhornsby.org/about-basebalz/