Author: Gilbert Martinez

Author joins for quick turnaround August meeting

Steven Gietschier, author of “Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years,” will join us on Zoom at 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, for the August monthly meeting.

Based on the member survey earlier this year, we heard from some respondents to include more Zoom meetings throughout the year. And, if you haven’t noticed, it’s been so hot that maybe staying inside to talk baseball isn’t such a bad idea!

To join the Zoom meeting on Aug. 5, please register at this link: https://txstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIucemgpj4oHtSWKf4MM2tDyS8NKG94JT2N

Gietschier, a long-time archivist and archival consultant for The Sporting News, presented at SABR 51 in Chicago earlier this month and won SABR’s Henry Chadwick Award at the awards luncheon. You can learn more about his new book on the University of Nebraska Press website: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496235374/

With the trade deadline just days away, we’ll also talk about which teams had the best deals and which teams didn’t do enough to improve their chances for October/November glory.

Clash of titans in that ’70s quiz highlights June meeting

plate of brownies with baseball decorationsJune 2023 Newsletter

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Hornsby Chapter Commissioner

A quiz about 1970s baseball prompted an epic battle between two heavyweights as Bailey Hall and her parents, Nicole Bryan and Brian Hall, hosted the June meeting on Saturday at their lovely home in Old West Austin.

Eighteen chapter members, guests and Bailey’s family members joined us for the meeting, which was the 199th consecutive month with a meeting. Brian Hall grilled hot dogs and sausages, accompanied by cole slaw, orzo pasta salad and fruit salad made by Nicole Bryan. We also had delicious brownies for dessert. We are so grateful for their hospitality and generosity in hosting the meeting!

Over the years, Cy Morong and Jim Baker have often clashed mightily in our trivia quizzes, testing their baseball acumen, and Saturday was no different. They played to a 26-point tie, triggering Jan’s tiebreaker question. When they tied again on the tiebreaker question (both successfully naming each of the World Series winners in the 1970s), they resorted to lobbing their own questions on the fly.

How many home runs did George Foster hit in 1977, Cy asked. Jim nailed it (52). When was the last walk-off steal of home, Jim asked. We had to turn to Jan Larson, the resident expert on steals of home to end ballgames, for that answer: 1997. When the dust settled, Jim said he conceded to Cy because he had answered one of the questions in his head but didn’t write it down.

Usually, the quiz winner writes the next quiz, but Cy passed on that honor to second place finisher Ira Siegel, who had 24 points. Tom Wancho had 22 points, and Don Dingee had 21 points.

Take a swing at Jan’s ’70s quiz below. The answers immediately follow the questions.

Bailey Hall Goes to Houston

Expanding her presentation at the 17th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting, Bailey Hall has been invited to the Larry Dierker Chapter’s June meeting to talk about a brief history of the use of statistics in baseball and how technology has changed how we watch and analyze the game.

The Dierker Chapter meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday, June 12, at the Spaghetti Western Italian Café, 1608 Shepherd Dr. in Houston. All baseball fans are invited to attend.

There will also be a Zoom option for those out of town. Please contact Dierker Chapter President Joe Thompson at splendorajoe@gmail.com for details.

Baseball Memories

Chapter volunteers continue to collaborate with AGE of Central Texas in Round Rock to assist Alzheimer’s patients, family and caregivers. They’ve had four successful monthly programs thus far with the next program on June 21.

Jim Kenton and the “Baseball Guys” are active at Kerrville VA Medical Center.

Monte Cely, who manages the chapter’s baseball memories program, reports progress in starting a program in San Antonio.

Any chapter members interested in volunteering should contact Monte Cely. For more information about the program, please go to the information page: https://www.sabrhornsby.org/about-basebalz/

Research Spotlight

Last month, I meant to include this nugget noted by Jim Baker, who, among many other things, keeps track of the most productive offensive games in baseball history. One such night was authored by Adolis Garcia of the Texas Rangers in a game against the Oakland Athletics on April 23.

“Totaling it all up, Garcia had five hits, five runs scored, 16 total bases and eight RBI,” Baker wrote in an email to the chapter’s Google Group. “In fantasy baseball, each one of these is worth one point, so he had a total of 29. (This is most definitely not sabermetric or deep-dive analysis.) This puts him right outside the top 10 for all-time single-game best performances and ties him for eleventh with Mike Schmidt (1976), Jimmie Foxx (1932) and Phil Weintraub (1944). Please note that a hit by pitch does not result in a point in fantasy, but an argument could be made that it should count in this context.”

More recently, Cy Morong wrote to the Google Group a few weeks ago that he noticed a significant drop in Astros’ right fielder Kyle Tucker’s defensive WAR, from 0.9 last year in which he won a Gold Glove to -0.9 thus far in 2023. Cy wondered if Tucker’s been playing poorly or playing hurt, or if it was a small sample. As a committed Astros fan who’s seen most every game this season, I responded that I hadn’t noticed any poor play by Tucker. Ryan Pollack took a deeper dive into Tucker’s numbers and offered that it could be both that Tucker’s playing more poorly than last year and it’s still a small sample size. “Looking at Statcast, he was consistently 4-5 outs above average for his career,” Pollack wrote. “This year so far he’s -5, a gap of 9-10 outs.  The problem is coming primarily from going back on balls. He’s -4 OAA there compared to -1 OAA on going in. So he’s having trouble with balls over his head. He’s also getting less of a Jump (yes, this is a tracked stat that measures how many feet along the best route outfielders cover when reacting to a ball). This year his jump is 2 feet below average whereas before it’s been about average or only slightly below. I wonder if he’s played in unfamiliar parks to start the year, given the new scheduling format. He might be having trouble reading balls off the bat or just getting a good sense of where, in an unfamiliar RF (different walls, foul line distances, foul territory, etc) he should be heading and how far, when a ball is struck — especially on balls he has to go back on. That or he may have a lingering leg injury or soreness.”

It may be that Tucker’s defensive WAR improves as the season progresses, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Tracking the Oakland Athletics against worst teams all-time

Chapter member Syd Polk shared with us an effort to track the A’s season. “At the end of the year, we can just watch the losses mount up and see where they end up all time,” Polk wrote on his blog. “Will they lose 100 games (almost certainly)? 110 (probably)? 117, like the franchise record 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (it could happen)? 120, like the 1962 New York Mets (they are on pace to pass it)? 134, like the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (probably not)?”

Read more and follow along all season at his blog: https://sydneyrandall.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-train-wreck-that-is-2023-oakland.html

Election results and chapter leadership team

As announced in May in the email lists, Jan Larson and Ryan Pollack informed the chapter that Gilbert Martinez was unanimously voted as the chapter commissioner in the chapter’s first-ever election. His three-year term began this month. On Saturday, Martinez announced that Jan Larson, Monte Cely, Ryan Pollack and Jerry Miller have been appointed as directors in various areas. Jan will continue to organize chapter outings to ballparks; Monte will manage the chapter’s volunteer efforts in the baseball memories program; Ryan will continue to serve as webmaster, manage an annual survey of chapter members and run Awardatron; and Jerry Miller will continue to coordinate the chapter winter meeting. Martinez welcomed Don Dingee to the leadership team; he’ll serve as a membership coordinator, looking for ways to expand and retain and expand membership.

Martinez thanked Monte Cely for his work welcoming new chapter members for many years. With the addition of Don, this will allow Monte to focus on the baseball memories program. Many thanks to Monte, Don and the rest of the leadership team.

July meeting details

Please join us for our July meeting, which will be a big milestone for us! It will be the 200th consecutive month with a meeting, a streak dating to December 2006.

For our 200th meeting, we’re going out to see the Round Rock Express host the Reno Aces at 6:05 p.m. Sunday, July 23. If you’d like to attend and sit near us, go to this link to purchase tickets in Section 121, Rows 22 and 23: https://shorturl.at/cvw28

Many thanks to Jan Larson for organizing this. He has purchased Seats 12 and 13 in Row 23, so you can look for available tickets close to that.

The 1970s

By Jan Larson

(Note: For this quiz, the decade of the 1970s includes the years 1970-1979 inclusive)

  1. This club won two World Series in the 1970s defeating the same opponent on both occasions and has not returned to the World Series since. Name the club, the club they defeated and the years (4 points).
  2. Only one player hit 50+ home runs in a single season during the 1970s. Name the player, his club and the year (3 points). 
  3. One club won three consecutive World Series in the 1970s. Name this club and the years and the teams they defeated (5 points). 
  4. One of the recognized all-time best clubs played in four World Series in the 1970s, winning two and losing two. Name the club and the clubs that they defeated in their two World Series wins (3 points).
  5. How many clubs won back-to-back World Series in the 1970s? (1 point). 
  6. This Hall-of-Famer executed a walk off steal of home to win a game in the mid-1970s. The author has spoken of this feat at length and was in attendance at the game in which this occurred.  Name the player that executed the walk off steal of home, his club, the opponent and name the author of this question (4 points).
  7. In his playing days, Joe Torre, now a special assistant to the commissioner and former Yankees manager, won the National League MVP and led the NL in batting during the 1971 season. What was Torre’s batting average that season (+/- 0.010) (1 point)?
  8. This Hall-of-Fame slugger launched a massive All-Star game home run over the roof at Tiger Stadium in 1971. He went on to achieve greater notoriety later in his career with another club.  Name the player, the club he was with when he hit the All-Star home run and the later club in which he achieved notoriety (3 points). 
  9. These two players shared the National League MVP award in 1979. Name the players and their clubs (4 points). 
  10. This Hall-of-Famer hit a 12th inning walk off homerun to win Game Six of the 1975 World Series. Name the player and his club (2 points).

Tiebreaker:  Chronologically name all ten World Series winning clubs in the 1970s.

Answers

  1. Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, 1971, 1979
  2. George Foster, Cincinnati Reds, 1977
  3. Oakland A’s, (1972-74), Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers.
  4. Cincinnati Reds (The Big Red Machine), Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees
  5. 3 or 4 (if you count Oakland twice): Oakland A’s (‘72, ‘73, ‘74), Cincinnati Reds (‘75, ‘76), New York Yankees (‘77, ‘78)
  6. George Brett, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians, Jan Larson
  7. .363 (accept .353 to .373)
  8. Reggie Jackson, Oakland A’s, New York Yankees
  9. Keith Hernandez (St. Louis Cardinals), Willie Stargell (Pittsburgh Pirates)
  10. Carlton Fisk, Boston Red Sox

Tiebreaker:  Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland A’s (x3), Cincinnati Reds (x2), New York Yankees (x2), Pittsburgh Pirates

Rogers Hornsby Chapter Annual Report (June 2022 to May 2023)

Society for American Baseball Research

Rogers Hornsby Chapter (Central and South Texas)

Annual Report, June 2022 – May 2023

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Chapter Commissioner

            As precautions against the pandemic have eased in the last year, the Rogers Hornsby Chapter returned to more in-person meetings, continuing its streak of monthly meetings to 198 months in May.

            The chapter also continued long-standing traditions such as an outing to see the Round Rock Express, a World Series watch party and annual winter meeting. We also celebrated SABR Day with a Zoom meeting and added an outing to see the Austin Weirdos of the Pecos League of Professional Baseball.

            Most of our meetings involve lunches on the weekend with baseball chatter and a trivia quiz. Jim Baker continued his long-running Predictaron contest in which members try to forecast the regular and post seasons and presented trophies to the regular season and postseason winners. Ryan Pollack added Awardatron, a contest in which members try to guess the winners of the major baseball awards by making their picks before the start of the season.

            In May, under guidance from the SABR national office, the Hornsby Chapter conducted its first-ever election for chapter leadership. After a week-long self-nomination process and a three-day online voting period, chapter members unanimously elected Gilbert Martinez as chapter commissioner. He was the only candidate on the ballot and plans to appoint directors to the chapter’s leadership team.

            In April, Ryan Pollack created a poll to survey members about their overall satisfaction with the chapter and their suggestions for improvement. We had 20 out of 78 members respond, for a response rate of 25%, and 19 out of 20 rated their satisfaction with the chapter at 3 or 4 (satisfied and very satisfied). Among the suggestions from survey respondents was to incorporate an outing to a Minor League game in San Antonio, which has been tentatively scheduled for later in 2023. We’re hoping to conduct the survey annually to stay in touch with all our members and let that guide our decisions for chapter activities.

            Another change the chapter made was transforming the monthly meeting summaries into monthly newsletters, launching for the first time in April. In addition to summarizing the monthly meeting, the newsletter also includes tidbits about regular chapter activities involving the baseball memories volunteer efforts, Predictatron and Awardatron contests, baseball research and other baseball-related topics.

            At the 17th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting in January, Nancy Finley, niece of Oakland A’s owner Charlie O. Finley, talked about her book “Finley Ball: How Two Baseball Outsiders Turned the Oakland A’s into a Dynasty and Changed the Game Forever.” David Vaught, a Texas A&M history professor and author of “Spitter: Baseball’s Notorious Gaylord Perry,” told of Perry’s life and career of a pitcher known to use foreign substances while pitching. Feature writer Mike Bryan shared anecdotes of working with Cal Ripken Jr., Keith Hernandez and Kirby Puckett in writing books with them about their lives. Express General Manager Tim Jackson and broadcaster Mike Capps previewed the team’s roster and MLB’s rules experimentation with bigger bases and pitch clocks. Our youngest member and high school sophomore, Bailey Hall, gave a brief history of the use of statistics in baseball and how technology has transformed how we watch and analyze the game we love. Also, winter meeting coordinator Jerry Miller, a long-time Dodgers fan, gave a touching remembrance of Vin Scully. Members also shared their baseball memories from the 2022 season and participated in a mock Hall of Fame vote.

          In addition, Hornsby volunteers are beginning their ninth year offering a baseball memories program to participants and care partners living with Alzheimer’s, dementia, or living in isolation or institutionalized.  The chapter established a partnership with AGE of Central Texas and are offering regular sessions.

          For SABR Day, we held a meeting on Zoom and spoke with longtime Astros broadcaster Bill Brown, who is part of the Class of 2023 to be inducted into the Astros Hall of Fame in August.

 

 

           

Chapter’s first election, quiz on longest-living ballplayers and ballgame highlight May meeting

MAY 2023 NEWSLETTER

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Chapter Commissioner

A dozen chapter members and guests gathered at Mister Tramps Sports Pub in North Austin for an afternoon of baseball chatter, bar food and a game on the big screens on Saturday.

We watched the Tampa Bay Rays race to a 6-0 lead on the New York Yankees, who battled all the way back to win 9-8, bringing great joy to the Yankees fans among us.

Jim Baker brought a quiz inspired by his contemplation of his own mortality, challenging us to name the longest-lived ballplayers. Cy Morong took first place with 11 points, followed by Jerry and Jan with 10 points each for a second-place tie. Don’t waste any time taking a stab at this quiz, dubbed “Tales of the Super Aged,” below. The answers immediately follow the questions.

A frequent quiz winner, Cy declined a prize, but Jerry and Jan split a set of baseball cards for their second-place finish.

Jan’s selection of cards for his prize
Jerry’s pick of cards for his prize

It was nice to see Bailey Hall and her dad, Brian Hall, join us on Saturday. She’s been busy with her high school volleyball team, causing her to miss recent meetings. She also shared that she’s working part-time with the Round Rock Express doing a variety of things around the ballpark. She’ll go full-time once the school year ends (which can’t come soon enough for Bailey! Hang in there, Bailey! It’ll be over soon!).

Speaking of Bailey and her parents, they have graciously offered to host next month’s meeting on June 3 at their home in Central Austin. We’ll share more details and ask members to RSVP soon.

We talked about how the Rays, despite the loss at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, have been dominating MLB and what’s happened to the St. Louis Cardinals. Some Houston Astros fans among us are more optimistic about the team’s chances, despite the team hovering around .500 for most of the season thus far. We also talked about the impact of the new baseball rules. Most of us like the new pitch clock rules and the faster pace of play, but we appear split on the shift ban.

This was the 198th consecutive month in which the chapter has met, a streak dating to December 2006.

SABR 51 in Chicago

With the annual convention in Chicago in July, SABR will welcome the 20,000th attendee to a national convention. To celebrate, all attendees will be automatically entered to win free attendance and hotel accommodations at the next five annual conventions! More information about the raffle and SABR 51 at this link: https://sabr.org/latest/celebrating-20k-win-free-registrations-to-the-next-5-sabr-conventions/

First Chapter Election

Jan Larson and Ryan Pollack with the Hornsby Chapter leadership team announced the results for the chapter’s first-ever election for the commissioner position. In an election that concluded on May 12, Gilbert Martinez was elected as commissioner of the Rogers Hornsby SABR Chapter for the 2023-26 term. Gilbert received 27 of 27 votes for a 100% vote share. Turnout was 34.6%. Anyone who wishes to see the summarized, anonymized results may contact Ryan (ryan9379@gmail.com).

Baseball Memories

Monte and Linda Cely led a baseball memories session at AGE’s Thrive Social & Wellness Center in Round Rock on May 3. Chapter members Ira Siegel, Jerry Miller and Mike Dillon also volunteered their time to connect with and support Alzheimer’s patients and their families and caregivers by using their memories of baseball for therapy care. This was the fourth session by Hornsby Chapter volunteers at AGE of Central Texas. Monte also shared that he’s in touch with SABR members in San Antonio and elsewhere who are interested in starting their own baseball memories program in their communities.

For more information about our baseball memories program, please see the About page at this link: https://www.sabrhornsby.org/about-basebalz/

Rest in peace to Deacon Jones

We were sad to learn of the passing of former Major League player and coach Deacon Jones (pictured above at the 14th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting in 2020) . He filled the room with stories of his playing days with the Chicago White Sox and coaching days with the Houston Astros. May he rest in peace.

Jan’s Ballpark Quest

Jan Larson told us that he continues his lifelong ambition to visit all Major League ballparks. He’s planning to add Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves, this week, the last park he needs to complete all current 30 MLB stadiums. It would bring his overall total to 59 ballparks.

Predictatron

Jim Baker reported changes atop both divisions in the Predictatron contest, with Ryan Pollack securing the overall lead and Jim himself taking the top spot in his division. Meanwhile, last year’s division winners (Chuck Kaufman and Gilbert Martinez) find themselves in last or tied for last in their respective divisions. The most recent report of May 7 covers 21.3 percent of the season. Participants eagerly await the weekly updates to learn if fortune favors or spurns us.

Awardatron

Ryan Pollack sent his first update in May after the first month of the season. He noted that Shohei Ohtani is having another solid season on the mound and at the plate, accumulating 2 WAR (FanGraphs), more than any other AL player except for Gerrit Cole. Not only is Ohtani on his way to another MVP, Ryan writes, but he may receive a record-setting contract when he becomes a free agent this offseason (or prior, if he wants to sign an extension). Ryan also gave updates on favorites for a variety of awards, such as Ronald Acuña Jr. and Pete Alonso, favorites for NL MVP; Cole and Ohtani (quoting Ryan, “What can’t the man do? Sheesh”) for AL Cy Young; and Spencer Strider and Zac Gallen for NL Cy Young. Some of the participants are already anticipating the All-Star break when competitors can switch one (and only one) award prediction to bolster contest chances.

June meeting details

As mentioned earlier, we’re happy to accept the generous offer from Bailey Hall, Nicole Bryan-Hall and Brian Hall to host next month’s meeting on Saturday, June 3. There will be baseball on the screens inside and outside at their Central Austin home. They’ll grill food and provide salads, veggies and snacks. Please bring beverages to share with the group. There’s also a pool, so attendees are welcome to bring swimwear and towels. Please RSVP to Jan Larson (jan.a.larson@gmail.com) by May 30 if you plan to attend. Jan will share the address and Nicole’s cell phone number with attendees. Hope to see you there!

TALES OF THE SUPER AGED

By Jim Baker

(info as of May 13, 2023)

Part 1. The Centenarians

  1. This player was a four-time All Star and later went on to be the GM of the Atlanta Braves. The highlight of his career, however, was being guest speaker at the Hornsby Chapter annual meeting. He lived to be 100 years and 293 days and passed away in Bastrop in October of 2021.
  2. Silas Simmons played for the Lincoln Giants in 1926 and is considered the longest-lived man in major league history. Within two years, how old was he when he passed away?
  3. The longest-lived player who played in either the American or National Leagues was pitcher Red Hoff. He broke in at the age of 20 with the New York Highlanders. His player/manager that season was this infamous character of the early 20th Century. (For an extra point, tell us Hoff’s age when he passed; within two years.)
  4. While there are no centenarians in the baseball Hall of Fame, there is one in the Pro Football of Fame and he also spent some time as a big league ballplayer. He was NFL MVP with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1941 and was elected to Canton in 1972. He played for Philadelphia Athletics in 1937 and 1938, where he didn’t hit well, but it allowed him to eventually earn the distinction of being the last living person to have played against our own Rogers Hornsby. He passed away at the age of 101 in 2013. Hint: While not a pitcher, his nickname would suggest he was one.
  5. This question is here just so I can name drop Howdy Groskloss. Howdy played sparingly with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1932 to 1934. In 2006, he passed away at the age of 100 years and 96 days in this town, the winter home of the Dodgers until two years after his death.
  6. The last year a centenarian was active in the major leagues was:
    1. 1977
    2. 1967
    3. 1957
    4. 1947
  7. Pitcher Milt Gaston passed away in 1996 at the age of 100 years and 90 days. He pitched for five big league teams and his first roommate with the 1924 Yankees was Lou Gehrig. His career lasted 11 years in which he led the league in losses twice. He holds the dubious record for most games under .500 in a career. What was his career record?
    1. 97-164
    2. 102-211
    3. 88-125
    4. 46-159
  8. Billy Werber was a third baseman in the 1930s and early ’40s who passed away in 2009 at the age of 100 years and 216 days. He led his league in stolen bases three times and starred in the 1940 World Series. Which two (2) of the following are not about Mr. Werber?
    1. First player to ever come to bat in a televised baseball game
    2. Only player to be hit by five pitches in a game
    3. The last living teammate of Babe Ruth
    4. Once arrested by Philadelphia police for stealing signs
    5. Only player to hit four consecutive doubles in both leagues
  9. In what year did the first player reach 100 years old?
    1. 1953
    2. 1963
    3. 1973
    4. 1983

Part 2. Oldest Living Ballplayers

For the purposes of this quiz, we’re considering the start of big league play to be the National Association in 1871. Therefore, the very first so-called “oldest living ballplayer” was an active player, which makes perfect sense when you think about it. His name was Bill Lennon and his reign as such lasted exactly one day: May 4, 1871.

  1. Lennon lost the title to this 36-year-old fellow who had already made a national name for himself when he assembled and played with the famous 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings. He would also manage for 25 years, winning four National Association titles and two more in the National League. He is “credited with introducing innovations such as backing up infield plays from the outfield and shifting defensive alignments based on hitters’ tendencies.” He was so famous that when he died, baseball dedicated a day to him. What is his name?
  2. Sixty-four years later, his kid brother—also a Hall of Famer—also became the oldest living ballplayer. They were teammates on that famous Cincinnati team as well as the Boston National Association championship teams of 1872 to 1875. He shares a name with a Texas Rangers center fielder of the 1980s.
  3. This man held the title of oldest living ballplayer for an astounding 29 years and took the title away from the man who signed him in 1871—the answer to the first question in this section. He played a grand total of one game for Boston in 1871 at the age of 39, going 0-for-4. He is, therefore, the earliest-ever born major leaguer. You don’t need to give his first name, just know that his last name is synonymous with a brand of sandal footwear favored by hippies (although it’s spelled slightly differently).
  4. This all-time great former player, who had had his 92nd birthday on May 6, 2023, is the oldest living Hall of Famer.
  5. Like his 19th century contemporary Albert Spalding, this player went on to have his own sporting goods company (his name was on American League baseballs as late as 1976) and to publish a very popular annual baseball guide. As an executive, he helped found the Philadelphia Phillies in 1883. His reign as oldest living player lasted from 1912 until his passing in 1928.
  6. At 91 years and 185 days, this man is the oldest living manager of a World Champion team. He was voted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans’ Committee in 2010 on the strength of a career .532 managerial record, three division titles in the American League, three National League pennants and one World Series win. You’ve probably never heard him referred to by his birth name, which is Dorrel.
  7. This slugging Red Sox second baseman was the oldest living player for most of 2017. A longtime teammate of Ted Williams, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1986. He hit 223 career homers and was an All Star nine times. Unlike Williams, he tore it up in their lone World Series (1946), slashing .409/.458/.591.
  8. At 97 years and 229 days, this diminutive southpaw is the oldest living former MVP and the fourth-oldest living player. He won the award by going 24-7 for the 1952 Philadelphia Athletics and shares a first name with the answer to the previous question.
  9. Born deaf, this man was the oldest living player from 10/31/1956 to 12/15/1961. He amassed over 2,000 career hits in four leagues (American Assoc., Player’s League and the NL, and AL), mostly in the 19th Century. He was often a topic of conversation when Curtis Pride was playing in the 1990s. Last name only is an acceptable answer.

Bonus Question

For a whopping five points, name any one of the three current oldest living ballplayers.

ANSWERS

Part 1. The Centenarians

  1. Eddie Robinson, died at 100 years and 293 days
  2. 111 years, 15 days; died in 2006
  3. Hal Chase; 107 years, 132 days
  4. Ace Parker
  5. Vero Beach, Florida
  6. 4. 1957; Eddie Robinson on the Indians, Tigers and Orioles
  7. 1. 97-164 with the Yankees, Browns, Red Sox, Senators, and White Sox
  8. 2 and 4; He batted leadoff for the Reds in the first televised game at Ebbets Field on August 26, 1939; played with Ruth on the Yankees from 1930 to 1933.
  9. 3. 1973; Ralph Miller, who played with Brooklyn (1897) and Baltimore (1898)

Part 2. Oldest Living Ballplayers

  1. Harry Wright
  2. George Wright
  3. Nate Berkenstock
  4. Willie Mays
  5. Al Reach
  6. Whitey Herzog
  7. Bobby Doerr
  8. Bobby Shantz
  9. Billy Hoy

Bonus Question

Art Schallock; 99 years, 18 days

Bill Grearson; 98 years, 252 days

Larry Miggins; 97 years 266 days

BBQ , early season highlights and HOF quiz on the plate for April meeting

APRIL 2023 NEWSLETTER

With the baseball season under way, nearly a dozen chapter members and guests gathered for barbecue and baseball chatter on Sunday.

Among the topics of discussion were the fast start by the Tampa Bay Rays (they won 13 times to start the season but dropped the first two this weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays, who were just three games back going into Sunday’s play), the unexpectedly poor pitching early on by the St. Louis Cardinals and the slightly below .500 start for the defending World Series Champions Houston Astros.

As chapter commissioner, I made two important announcements involving the national SABR office’s efforts to work with chapters and make the SABR experience more uniform. First, under direction from SABR HQ, the Hornsby Chapter will hold an election for the chapter commissioner position next month. More details will be shared with chapter members about the self-nomination process early in May, followed by an online election open to all members who have the Hornsby Chapter designated as their primary chapter in mid-May.

Second, this month’s summary marks the chapter’s first newsletter. Moving forward, the monthly summary will be called the monthly newsletter, which will include a summary of the monthly meeting, along with other items, such as occasional research tidbits being worked on and discussed by our members, updates from Jim Baker’s Predictatron, Ryan Pollack’s Awardatron contest and other items.

As winner of last month’s quiz, Cy Morong gave us a quiz in which we had to identify teammates that led (first and second on the team) in various statistics. His hint was that all answers were Hall of Famers.

With a quiz maximum of 60 points, Jim Baker took the contest with 46, squeaking by Jerry Miller with 45, followed by Jan Larson with 42 and Ira Siegel with 37. Cy brought prizes for everyone – Jim traded a National Baseball Hall of Fame trivia book with second-place finisher Jerry (pictured below) and got the privilege of picking three postcards from a set featuring Hall of Famers who played for the Minnesota Twins.

Give the quiz a try below. The answers follow the questions.

Baseball Memories

Several of our  chapter members are actively involved in volunteer efforts in our Baseball Memories program, which uses memory therapy and exercises to support Alzheimer’s patients and their family and caregivers. The program got a nice mention in an article published on MLB.com: SABR’s ‘Baseball Memories’ keeps people with memory disorders connected to the game

For more information about our baseball memories program, please see the About page at this link: https://www.sabrhornsby.org/about-basebalz/

Predictatron

On April 9, Jim Baker shared the first update on his Predictatron contest in which 21  chapter members attempt to forecast division standings, playoff teams and the World Series champion. With divisions named after last season’s winners (Chuck Kaufman and Gilbert Martinez), Jan Larson got off to a quick start to lead the Martinez Division and the entire contest, followed by Jerry Miller and Brian Rogers. In the Kaufman Division, Syd Polk leads early, with Ryan Pollack and Chuck Kaufman trailing. In Baker’s summary, he noted that I was “anchoring” my division, which is another way of saying I was in last. Somehow, it sounds better the way he said it! But as Predictatron veterans know, the contest is cruel and merciless. Those on top can easily find themselves dropping faster than an Ohtani sinker. It’s a long season filled with twists and turns. Will Jan lead from beginning to end? Will I keep anchoring the whole contest? We’ll find out!

Awardatron

For the second consecutive year, Ryan Pollack challenged members to predict the winners of baseball’s major awards (MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year). It’s hard to predict these awards in March, but that’s what he tasked us to do. With 17 prognosticators, Ryan created two divisions named after the first MVP award winners by the BBWAA in 1931, Lefty Grove and Frankie Frisch. Among the favorites predicted are Shohei Ohtani for AL MVP and AL Cy Young, Ronald Acuña for NL MVP, Corbin Burnes for NL Cy Young, Gunnar Henderson for AL Rookie, Corbin Carroll for NL Rookie, Phil Nevin for AL Manager, and Bob Melvin for NL Manager. Contestants win points for correct predictions, but also earn some points for predictions that are near misses. Ryan also allows predictors to make one change before the All Star Break, but those selections earn fewer points. Who’s going to win these awards? Who knows, but it’ll be fun to track this all season long.

Research Spotlight

On Twitter, Cy Morong (@CyrilMorong) put together a list of active left-handed batters with the highest OPS against left-handed pitchers (minimum of 500 plate appearances). Care to guess who? That would be the Astros’ Yordan Alvarez with an OPS of 0.966, followed by Joey Votto (0.851) and Max Muncy (0.842). Others include Charlie Blackmon (0.83),  Juan Soto (0.83), Ohtani (0.824), Bryce Harper (0.821), Kyle Tucker (0.812), Seager (0.797), and Anthony Rizzo (0.794).

This is a new feature for the newsletter. If you’re a Hornsby Chapter member and have a research tidbit you’d like to share in the monthly newsletter, please email me (gmartinez46@mac.com).

On a personal note, I was very happy to receive a small gift from Jim Baker. He found old photos of the Astrodome from a thrift store. Based on printing on the back of the photos, they may have been taken in May 1967. (Thanks so much, Jim! – Gilbert)

This was the 197th consecutive month in which the chapter has met. The streak started in December 2006. Information for next month’s meeting will be shared via our email lists soon.

One-Two Quiz

By Cy Morong

This is a quiz about teammates that finished first and second in their league in some stat in a given year. The answer to each question is a Hall of Famer. Fill in the blanks. Last name is enough.

You get 1 point if a player you list is one of the two needed even if it is in the wrong slot (like you put Smith #1 but he should be #2). But if you list the correct player in the correct slot, that gets you 2 points (Smith was actually #1 and you put him #1). Then you get 1 additional point if you are within a certain range for the stat itself. If you say Smith hit 40 HRs but it was actually 44, you are within 5 so you get 1 point for that. But, the stat total goes with the player named in the same slot. If you had Smith at #2 and he was really #1 and you are off by more than 5 for Smith’s total you don’t get a point even if the HR total you listed is within 5 for whoever actually was in slot #2.

So you can get a total of 6 points for each question. That means the maximum score is 60. You have to be within .020 for AVG, 0.25 for ERA and so on.

First place wins a Hall of Fame Quiz book. Second place gets to pick 3 Hall of Famer post cards from a set of 28. Then third place gets to pick one of the cards, then 4th place, 5th and so on. Any cards left at the end go to second place. I will pass a sheet around for everyone to write their scores on. Then I will go around with the postcards so each person can pick one in order of their finish. Ties will be broken by seeing who is closer on numerical answers starting with question 1.

Answers

Chapter members gear up for opening day at March meeting

A day after St. Patrick’s Day and as teams competed in the World Baseball Classic and NCAA basketball’s March Madness, a lucky 13 members and guests gathered to talk preseason baseball on Saturday.

Some of us donated baseballs to Monte Cely for use in the chapter’s baseball memories program for Alzheimer’s patients and guests. Volunteers assisted 19 participants at AGE of Central Texas on March 15.

Jan Larson brought an Opening Day-themed quiz that proved that most of us need more spring training games to get back in quiz shape. Before the quiz, Jan remarked that most of us wouldn’t be shut out, but he doubted any perfect scores.

Cy Morong (pictured above, right) took top prize, an Adrián Beltré bobblehead, with 5 points, while Jim Baker (pictured above, left) and Jerry Miller tied for second with 4 points each. However, Jim eked by Jerry on a non-baseball tiebreaker question, winning a Kyle Tucker bobblehead.

Take your swing at Jan’s quiz below. The answers immediately follow the questions.

Our February meeting was on Zoom, so Jerry Miller (above, left) delivered to Jan the prize for winning last month’s trivia quiz – a team photo of the Atlanta Braves in 1966.

We’ve set next month’s meeting for 1 p.m. Sunday, April 16, at County Line BBQ on the Lake (5204 FM 2222 in Austin). Hope you can join us!

Opening Day Quiz

By Jan Larson

Note:  Opening Day is considered to be a team’s first game of the season, home or road, unless otherwise noted.

  1. Which franchise has the longest Opening Day winning streak? (1 point)
  2. Which franchise has the best overall winning percentage in Opening Day games?  (1 point)
  3. Which team was no-hit on Opening Day? (1 point)
  4. Name the three players tied for the most career home runs on Opening Day. (3 points)
  5. Name the team that lost its Opening Day game by forfeit. (1 point)
  6. Which president threw the first Opening Day ceremonial first pitch? (1 point)
  7. What career home run did Henry Aaron hit during the Cincinnati Reds’ Opening Day in 1974? (1 point)
  8. What pitcher holds the record for most pitching wins without a loss on Opening Day? (1 point)
  9. This Hall of Famer played his one and only game against Lou Gehrig on Opening Day of 1939. Name him.  (1 point)
  10. This Hall of Fame pitcher threw a total of nine Opening Day shutouts in his career. Name him.  (1 point)

Tiebreaker:  Who are the Mythbusters?

Answers

  1. Astros (10) (current)
  2. Mets (40-21) .656
  3. White Sox
  4. Frank Robinson, Ken Griffey, Jr., Adam Dunn (eight each)
  5. New York Giants (1907, forfeit to Phillies due to fans throwing snowballs)
  6. William Howard Taft (1910)
  7. 714
  8. Jimmy Key
  9. Ted Williams
  10. Walter Johnson

Tiebreaker: Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman

Brownie delights chapter on SABR Day for February meeting

To celebrate SABR Day, the Rogers Hornsby Chapter welcomed longtime Astros broadcaster Bill Brown for the February meeting on Zoom. Less than a month ago, he was named to the Class of 2023 for the Houston Astros Hall of Fame.

Fourteen SABR members and guests were delighted to hear about Brownie’s career – from his professional start as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Cincinnati Stingers, a professional hockey team in 1975, and later for the Cincinnati Reds. After joining the Houston Astros in 1987, he began building a Hall of Fame career.

Check out the recording of the meeting, which features Brownie’s observations on joining an Astros club one year after the team lost the NLCS to the Mets in 1986, and one year before future Hall of Fame player Craig Biggio joined the club in 1987. He also talked about how much broadcasting has changed since his professional start. He also told a humorous story about how he got a sudden baptism into broadcasting baseball for the first time in 1972 when he was tapped to fill in for beloved Reds broadcast Waite Hoyt (also legendary Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Yankees). Not only was it his first game, but the Reds went on to clinch the division in that game, and it happened in Houston.

Brownie also personally thanked chapter member Monte Cely for his help over the winter with research about Latin American baseball for his latest work, “Swinging for Glory: A baseball novel.” For Monte’s help, Brownie promised to send him a copy of the book.

Click here for the full recording of Brownie’s visit with our chapter: https://youtu.be/WFLSkReZ2a4

We’re so grateful for Bill joining us on a Saturday afternoon to help us celebrate him and SABR Day. We look forward to seeing his induction, along with second baseman Bill Doran, in August 2023 at Minute Maid Park.

Afterward, Jerry Miller challenged us with a quiz about pitchers being batters. With 18 questions totaling 20 points, Jan Larson batted .300 on the quiz (earning 6 out of 20 points) to win the quiz. Cy Morong from San Antonio and Dixie Tourangeau from Boston tied for second, batting .250 (earning 5 out of 20 points). Miller will present Jan with a the team photo of the 1966 Atlanta Braves featuring one of the quiz answers for his top prize. Cy will receive a photo of another quiz answer, whom Jerry called the “worst hitting pitcher,” for second place. Dixie will get his second-place-tie prize next time he’s in town.

You can take a swing at Jerry’s quiz below (note that the answers are at the end of this post, and also in the video recording linked above, so if you want to try taking the quiz and aren’t ready to hear the answers, avoid watching the video or pause accordingly).

This was the 195th consecutive month in which the chapter has met, a streak dating to December 2006.

As is our custom, quiz winner Jan Larson will prepare one for the March meeting, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, March 18.

We’ll be deep into spring training and quarterfinals for the World Baseball Classic by then. The regular season will start less than two weeks later! Hope to see you at the March meeting!

PITCHERS AS BATTERS QUIZ (20 points total)

By Jerry Miller

Depending on your perspective, 2022 marked either the year baseball entered the 21st (or the 20th or even the 19th) century, or the end of civilization as we know it. Barring a miracle or some bizarre Joe Madden or Tony LaRussa strategy, this year marks the end of pitchers as real athletes, errrrrrr, hitters. And so, we mark this sea change the best way we know how, by testing your knowledge of pitchers who tried (and sometimes succeeded, but mostly failed miserably) to help their own causes.

1)  Which San Diego Padres pitcher gave up Bartolo Colon’s one and only major league HR?

2)  Who was the last pitcher (in the 2018 NLCS) to hit a post-season home run? Brownie points if you know the future Hall of Fame pitcher he hit it off of.

3)  Who was the first pitcher (in 1920) to hit a home run in the World Series? More brownie points if you can name the two other firsts that occurred in that game (one of which has yet to be duplicated).

4)  Who was the last pitcher to hit a home run in the World Series? (Hint #1: he did it in 2008 for the Phillies. Hint #2: Next year is his first year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame, but he will be lucky if he even gets on the ballot.)

5)  Who are the only two pitchers to both hit a home run and win the MVP award in the same World Series? Hint: they did it in consecutive Series.

6)  Which San Diego Padres pitcher was the last to hit a walkoff home run?

7)  Who is the only pitcher to hit two grand slams in a game? (Hint: for the Atlanta Braves in 1966).

8)  Who holds the career mark for most home runs hit as a pitcher? (Hint: he isn’t in the Hall of Fame, but his brother is.)

9)  Within three, how many of his 714 home runs did Babe Ruth hit as a pitcher?

10)  Within twenty, what number home run of Ruth’s 714 was his last hit as a pitcher?

11)  Name the Hall of Fame pitcher who twice hit seven home runs in a single season.

12)  Who was the first American League pitcher to hit a home run after the adoption of the designated hitter? (Hint: his son now plays in the major leagues).

13)  What Baltimore Oriole was the last American League pitcher to hit a home run as a pitcher (not counting Shohei Ohtani)?

14)  What pitcher hit two home runs while also pitching a no-hitter the same day? Hint: He was traded, on separate occasions, for two different Hall of Famers.

15)  Which Astro (again not counting Ohtani) was the last pitcher (in Game 5 of the 2021 World Series) to bat in a major league game prior to the adoption of the universal DH? Hint: another Astro pitcher batted in the same game, but did so as a pinch hitter.

16)  Who are the only two pitchers to hit two World Series home runs? Hint #1: Both of them played for teams named after birds. Hint #2: One is a Hall of Famer; the other had a lasting impact on the game, for very different reasons, and only after he retired.

17)  The player with the most at bats against Nolan Ryan without striking out is Julian Javier, with 16. This pitcher, however, who won two Silver Slugger awards, is close by, with 12. Hint: He once beat out Ryan for the Cy Young Award (Ryan finished fourth), and his name has been in the news recently.

18)  Speaking of the Silver Slugger award, who is the only pitcher to win it more than three times (a total of five)? Hint: He did it five years in a row, for four different teams.

ANSWERS:

1)  James Shields, SDP 5/7/16.

2)  Brandon Woodruff (MIL) off Clayton Kershaw (LAD), 2018 NLCS.

3)  Jim Bagby (CLE) 1920 WS. In the same game, Elmer Smith hit the first WS grand slam, and Bill Wambsganss turned the first (and only) unassisted triple play.

4)  Joe Blanton (PHI).

5)  Bob Gibson (STL 1967) and Mickey Lolich (DET 1968).

6)  Craig Lefferts 4/25/86.

7)  Tony Cloninger.

8)  Wes Farrell (brother of undeserving HOFer Rick Farrell, 37 plus one as PH). Also holds the single season record (9).

9)  14.

10)  # 686 (10/1/33).

11)  Don Drysdale.

12)  Bobby Witt TEX (6/30/97).

13)  Zack Britton (BAL 7/3/11).

14)  Rick Wise (traded for both Steve Carlton and Dennis Eckersley).

15)  Kendall Graveman (Zack Greinke pinch hit in the game).

16)  Bob Gibson (1967 and 1968) and Dave McNally (1966 and 1970).

17)  Fernando Valenzuela.

18)  Mike Hampton (Astros, Mets, Rockies, and Braves).

Astros Hall of Fame inductee Bill Brown joins us for February meeting

We’re happy to announce that we’ll have longtime Astros broadcaster Bill Brown on Feb. 11 on Zoom for our monthly chapter meeting.

At Astros Fan Fest last week, Brownie – along with Bill Doran – were named as the Class of 2023 for the Houston Astros Hall of Fame. It’s just the latest accolade in his career, as he’s already a member of the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame and the Houston Media Wall at Minute Maid Park. In addition, he was named the Texas Sportscaster of the Year in 2013 by the National Sport Media Association in North Carolina.

In addition, Brownie has long been a good friend to the Hornsby Chapter, many of whom remember his visits in past winter meetings and on Zoom meetings.

Bill and Dianne Brown with Gilbert and Raeanne Martinez at Astros Fan Fest on Jan. 21, 2023

 

In addition, the chapter will recognize and celebrate SABR Day.

Please join us at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, on Zoom for the February meeting. To join the meeting on Zoom, please register at this link:

https://txstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJApdO6qpzgqHdTJG9xLtpP760SzqP2dKhYo

Speakers bring Charlie Finley, Gaylord Perry and Vin Scully to life at annual winter meeting

Insights about Oakland A’s owner Charlie O. Finley, biographies about major league players, perspectives about the life and career of the late Gaylord Perry and a personal remembrance of Vin Scully were among the highlights of a fun-filled day of baseball talk at the 17th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting on Saturday, Jan. 7.

For the first time in three years, the winter meeting was held in person at Old Main on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos. Forty members and guests joined us as we also got a preview of the Round Rock Express from General Manager Tim Jackson and Mike Capps, longtime broadcaster and voice of the Express. In addition, high school student Bailey Hall discussed the history of statistics in baseball and how they’ve changed how we analyze the game, and her great-uncle, Mike Bryan, shared stories about writing biographies with Cal Ripken Jr., Keith Hernandez and Kirby Puckett.

Nancy Finley

Nancy Finley, the niece of Charlie O. Finley (pictured above), shared anecdotes from her book, “Finley Ball: How Two Baseball Outsiders Turned the Oakland A’s into a Dynasty and Changed the Game Forever.” She shared how her uncle and her father, Carl Finley, ran the ballclub and oversaw the three-time champion Oakland A’s in the 1970s. She said the main motivation in writing the book, published in 2016, was to correct a common misconception about moving the franchise from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968. She said sports articles depicted her uncle as hating Kansas City and its fans, but she said it wasn’t true.

Nancy Finley also shared that she wrote her first press release for the ballclub when she was 14 years old and saw how easy they were to write. She commented that the modern-day front office in baseball, in her opinion, employs too many people compared to what she experienced in Charlie O.’s front office. “I feel like I could run a front office with my eyes closed,” she said with a smile.

She also noted that there was a great mutual respect between Charlie Finley and Marvin Miller, the longtime executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Mike Bryan

Feature writer Mike Bryan shared anecdotes of working with Cal Ripken Jr., Keith Hernandez and Kirby Puckett in writing books with them about their lives. When Ripken was interviewing writers, Bryan was invited to Ripken’s home in Florida as a possible collaborator for the book. Later, Ripken’s handler told Bryan that Ripken felt like he was the one being interviewed, instead of the other way around, likely helping him land the job. Bryan recalled writing a first draft for the book without Ripken’s help because he was too busy playing ball.   Once the season was done, Ripken wanted to make corrections on the early draft, sat down with Bryan and went through the draft line by line, making it better. He said he was impressed with Ripken’s intense focus and dedication.

Bryan also shared stories of his continued friendship and collaborations with Keith Hernandez, the former Mets great and broadcaster. He also sought the group’s help for ideas about future writing projects to pitch to Hernandez.

David Vaught

Vaught, a Texas A&M history professor and author of “Spitter: Baseball’s Notorious Gaylord Perry,” told of Perry’s life and career of a pitcher known to use foreign substances while pitching. In fact, he shared that Perry struggled early in his career, bouncing between the big leagues and minor leagues, until a catcher persuaded him. “Gaylord, it’s time to try it out,” Vaught recounted. From that point, Gaylord Perry became one of the best pitchers of his generation.

“I think (Perry)’s one of the more underappreciated Hall of Famers,” Vaught said, noting that many remember when Nolan Ryan broke Walter Johnson’s strikeout record in 1983. In fact, Ryan wasn’t alone. Two other pitchers broke Johnson’s record that year: Steve Carlton and Gaylord Perry.

While he conducted his research for this book, Vaught said he was struck at the intensity of the sibling rivalry between Gaylord Perry and his older brother, Jim Perry, who had a 17-year pitching career with Cleveland, Minnesota, Detroit and Oakland. Vaught said Gaylord was never able to escape Jim’s shadow, from childhood to the end of his life.

Round Rock Express (Tim Jackson and Mike Capps)

Express General Manager Tim Jackson (pictured on Zoom above) talked about the success of the 2022 season in which the team played a 150-game schedule, going about a month longer than they have in the past. He said he’s seen the benefits of some of MLB’s rules experimentation at the minor league level, such as the pitch clock, automatic balls and strikes, the challenge system and larger bases. He said players liked that the pitch clock brought Express games down to two hours and 38 minutes on average, and that fans liked it, too. He said that the larger bases brought about more action in the game, with more stolen base attempts.

He said MLB hasn’t yet met with the minor league clubs, so he’s not sure what other rules changes may come in the 2023 season.

He said MLB’s push to improve facilities has helped minor league baseball as a whole. He said that the effort to unionize minor league players might lead to other changes, such as the number of ballclubs.

He invited us to the Round Rock Classic at the Dell Diamond from Feb. 24 to 26, featuring LSU, Iowa, Kansas State and Sam Houston State.

Mike Capps, chapter member and longtime broadcaster for the Round Rock Express, shared his thoughts about the much-improved Texas Rangers and how that may impact the Triple-A club. He pointed to the hiring of manager Bruce Bochy and pitching coach Mike Maddux as key acquisitions to manage the mix of veterans and young players on the ballclub.

With the Rangers acquiring Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney, Capps said he wasn’t sure that prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker would pitch at Triple-A this coming season.

While the Express have a vacancy at manager, Capps said he hopes the team hires a veteran manager to help with the young players at the Express.

Capps also talked about his book, “Grinders: Baseball’s Intrepid Infantry,” published in 2022. He said he was excited when the publisher told him that an audiobook version was being recorded for the book. His excitement, however, turned to panic when he was told he was going to do the audio – and it was two days before the start of the baseball season! But nine hours and 38 minutes of recording later, he’s happy to have done it.

Bailey Hall

One of our newest members, Bailey Hall, gave a brief history of the use of statistics in baseball and how technology has transformed how we watch and analyze the game we love. She said “a wise man” told her that to truly appreciate the game, one had to learn and know the history of the game before one was born. She’s taken that to heart, learning about baseball and applying her love of numbers and statistics to better understand how the game has evolved over time.

You can download her presentation slides here: Bailey’s SABR Talk.

Vin Scully

Jerry Miller, winter meeting coordinator, gave a touching remembrance of Vin Scully, perhaps the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time, who passed away in 2022. Miller shared how Scully’s career started just before he was born and carried him and his family as Dodgers fans throughout his life. He also shared a few choice broadcasts by Scully and his brief interactions with Scully, in person and through correspondence. Jerry helped us remember that baseball creates a strong bond between broadcasters and fans, but also among parents and children.

You can download his presentation slides by clicking here: Vin Scully video project.

Miller also provided a quiz about the no-hitters Scully called during his career. Mark Wernick of the Larry Dierker Chapter took top honors with 13 points, winning a program from the 2022 All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Peter Myers and Cy Morong tied for second with 11 points.

You can take the quiz yourself at the end of this page. Answers follow the quiz.

Baseball Memories of 2022

Jerry Miller led a presentation featuring his memories and memories of some chapter members of the 2022 season. Memories by Miller, Jan Larson (who was unable to attend), Ira Siegel (pictured) and Gilbert Martinez were followed by contributions from audience members. Later, Frank Rechtorovic remarked that our group could’ve talked for hours about our baseball memories. So true, Frank!

You can download the presentation slides by clicking here: Baseball Memories 2022.

Mock Hall of Fame vote

A popular feature of the winter meeting involves participants playing the part of BBWAA voters for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Our vote has often served as an accurate prediction of the actual vote. With Jan Larson unable to attend, Ryan Pollack (pictured) grabbed the ballots and pitch-hit admirably for Larson.

With 31 ballots, no player on the ballot reached the minimum threshold of 75 percent.

The highest vote-getter was Scott Rolen with 58 percent, followed by Todd Helton with 51.6 percent. No other player reached at least 50 percent. Billy Wagner and Andruw Jones had 45.1 percent. Other notable results include Carlos Beltrán and Andy Pettitte (both 35.4 percent); Bobby Abreu and Jeff Kent (both 29 percent); and Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield (both 25.8 percent).

Predictatron

Jim Baker presented trophies to the winners of Predictatron, the full-season prediction contest and the postseason contest. For predictions for the season and postseason made in March, Chuck Kaufman (pictured above, right, with Baker) took home the trophy for the year. For his postseason predictions, David Curtoys (pictured below, right, with Baker) won the Postseason Predictatron trophy.

Kaufman also has the honor of having a division named in his honor. Gilbert Martinez successfully defended his division name for the 2023 Predictatron. Be on the lookout for a call from Jim Baker for predictions in March prior to the start of the new season.

Overview

At the beginning of the meeting, we took time to remember Bill Gilbert, the founder of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter and the Larry Dierker Chapter. He conceived of having an annual winter meeting, and we know how much he would have enjoyed the championship season by the Houston Astros and the continuing success of the Hornsby Chapter and its winter meeting.

Thanks to everyone able to join us in San Marcos! Many thanks to Jerry Miller for coordinating this year’s winter meeting, his first! We think he hit it out of the park. We also want to thank all of our special guests and presenters for talking about our favorite sport of all — baseball!

And we are so grateful for Monte and Linda Cely for organizing a ballpark lunch of hot dogs, chips, Cracker Jack and snacks for lunch on site.

We look forward to another great year of baseball in the Hornsby community.

QUIZ – 23 No-hitters called by Vin Scully

By Jerry Miller

During his 67-year broadcast career, Vin Scully called 23 no-hitters, which at one point was approximately 7% of all no-hitters ever thrown. Using the below clues, identify the pitchers that threw those 23 no-hitters (total 23 points).

  1. An easy one to get you started: this pitcher accounted for four of the 23 (4 points).

  2. Of the 23 no hitters that Vin called, three were perfect games. One of them was by the answer to # 1. Name the pitchers that threw the other two (2 points).

  3. Two no-hitters, both thrown by Dodger left-handers, would have been perfect games but for errors committed by the Dodger SS. Name these (slightly) unlucky lefties (2 points).

  4. Of the 23 no-hitters, only one did not involve the Dodgers. It came during the NBC Game of the Week and was thrown by a member of the Hall of Fame. Name him.

  5. Two of the no-hitters were pitched in the State of Texas. One broke a record established by the answer to #1. The other was thrown by a pitcher who later became persona non grata for the same team that the first pitcher played for. Name them (two points).

  6. Three of the no-hitters were by Brooklyn Dodger pitchers, all by right-handers. Two of them were by the same pitcher, who also formerly held the record for most strikeouts in a World Series game and is one of the last living Brooklyn Dodgers. The other was the losing pitcher in one of the perfect games referred to in #2. Name them (three points).

  7. Eleven of the 23 no-hitters were thrown by Los Angeles Dodger pitchers: four by right-handers, and seven by left-handers. Of the four righties, one of them was a 20-game winner and the brother of a Hall of Famer. One pitched the only no-hitter ever in this ballpark, and later pitched a second no-hitter for a different team. The other two were journeymen who had their moments in the sun in 1970 and 1992, respectively. Name them (four points).

  8. Of the seven Dodger left-handers, six of them are encompassed in the answers to #1 and #3. The remaining lefty was a Cy Young Award winner, but pitched his no-hitter nine years after his Cy Young season, on the down side of his career. Name him.

  9. Eight of the 23 no-hitters were thrown by opposing pitchers against the Dodgers. Four are encompassed within # 2 and # 5. Of the other four, two were thrown by various iterations of the Braves franchise, one of which was the first no-hitter called by Vin in his initial year of broadcasting. The third was a combined no-hitter and came during an interleague game. The last of the four was thrown by a tall, mid-70s LHP, in a city which saw no no-hitter during the 60-year history of the team’s former ballpark. (For the combined no-hitter, you need name only the starting pitcher) (four points). Note: this is by far the hardest question, so don’t spend too much time on it.

ANSWERS:

  1. Sandy Koufax (1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965).

  2. Don Larsen (1956 World Series); Dennis Martinez (1991).

  3. Jerry Reuss (1980) (error by SS Bill Russell); Clayton Kershaw (2014) (error by SS Hanley Ramirez).

  4. Jack Morris, DET vs. CWS (1984).

  5. Nolan Ryan (1981) and Mike Fiers (2015).

  6. Carl Erskine (1952 and 1956); Sal Maglie (1956).

  7. Ramon Martinez (1995), Hideo Nomo (1996), Bill Singer (1970) and Kevin Gross (1992).

  8. Fernando Valenzuela (1990).

  9. Vern Bickford (Boston Braves 1950); Kent Mercker (Atlanta Braves 1994); John Candelaria (Pittsburgh Pirates 1976); Kevin Millwood, Charlie Furbush, Stephen Pryor, Lucas Luetge, Brandon League and Tom Wilhelmson (Seattle Mariners 2012).

Here’s the complete list:

1. Vern Bickford, Boston Braves vs. Brooklyn Dodgers, Aug. 11, 1950

2. Carl Erskine, Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Chicago Cubs, June 19, 1952

3. Carl Erskine, Brooklyn Dodgers vs. New York Giants, May 12, 1956

4. Sal Maglie, Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Phillies, Sept. 25, 1956

5. Don Larsen, New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers (World Series, perfect game), Oct. 8, 1956

6. Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Mets, June 30, 1962

7. Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Francisco Giants, May 11, 1963

8. Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodgers at Philadelphia Phillies, June 4, 1964

9. Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Chicago Cubs (perfect game), Sept. 9, 1965

10. Bill Singer, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Phillies, June 20, 1970

11. John Candelaria, Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, Aug. 9, 1976

12. Jerry Reuss, Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants, June 27, 1980

13. Nolan Ryan, Houston Astros vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, Sept. 26, 1981

14. Jack Morris, Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox, April 7, 1984

15. Fernando Valenzuela, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. St. Louis Cardinals, June 29, 1990

16. Dennis Martinez, Montreal Expos at Los Angeles Dodgers (perfect game), July 28, 1991

17. Kevin Gross, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Francisco, Giants, Aug. 17, 1992

18. Kent Mercker, Atlanta Braves at Los Angeles Dodgers, April 8, 1994

19. Ramon Martinez, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Florida Marlins, July 14, 1995

20. Hideo Nomo, Los Angeles Dodgers at Colorado Rockies, Sept. 17, 1996

21. Kevin Millwood, Charlie Furbush, Stephen Pryor, Lucas Luetge, Brandon League, Tom Wilhelmson, Seattle Mariners vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, June 8, 2012

22. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Colorado Rockies, June 18, 2014

23. Mike Fiers, Houston Astros vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, Aug. 21, 2015

17th Annual Winter Meeting set for Jan. 7!

We hope y’all are having a great holiday season with the new year just around the corner. And you know that means?

It is almost time for the 17th annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting, which is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023, at Texas State University in San Marcos (directions below).  Named after our late chapter founder and president, it will be our first in-person winter meeting in three years since the pandemic.

As usual, we have arranged a series of presentations and speakers, both chapter members and others, on a variety of baseball topics.  Our tentative schedule includes the following:

Morning sessions:

  • Baseball Memories, in which chapter members will reflect on their favorite moments of 2022 that they personally witnessed, including Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run, and the Astros winning the World Series.
  • Mike Bryan is an author and uncle/great-uncle of two chapter members.  He has co-written autobiographies by Hall of Famers Kirby Puckett and Cal Ripken, Jr., as well as All-Star first baseman Keith Hernandez.  He will lend his insights into those personalities, and the experience of being a professional “ghost writer” or “as told to.”  In addition, his grandniece Bailey Hall will offer a presentation on the history of statistics in baseball, and how they have changed the game. 
  • Chapter member (and Winter Meeting coordinator) Jerry Miller will offer a presentation on “A Dodger Fan Remembers Vin Scully,” which will include a theme-related quiz (with prizes!).

Afternoon sessions:

  • We will have our annual presentations by Round Rock Express general manager Tim Jackson and broadcaster and chapter member Mike Capps, who will preview the 2023 Round Rock season and discuss developments in Central Texas baseball and with the parent Texas Rangers. (Session with Tim Jackson will be on Zoom.)
  • Local trainer Rocky Galindo is the personal trainer for a number of prominent major leaguers and will discuss the state of training and how he keeps players game-ready.
  • Nancy Finley is a Texas native who has recently moved back to her home state.  She will discuss her book, “Finley Ball: How Two Outsiders Turned the Oakland A’s into a Dynasty and Changed the Game Forever,” a unique perspective on the three-time World Series champions as the niece of former Oakland A’s owner Charles O. Finley and the daughter of his right-hand man and brother Carl. (UPDATE: This session will be in-person).
  • David Vaught is a chapter member and a professor of history at Texas A&M University who has written on baseball in rural America.  He will discuss his recent book, “Spitter: Baseball’s Notorious Gaylord Perry,” about the late Hall of Fame pitcher.  Expectorations will no doubt be high for this one. (Session will be on Zoom.)

In addition to the above, we will observe several annual traditions, including awards to the winner of chapter member Jim Baker’s annual Predictatron contest, and our highly awaited (and unfailingly accurate) mock Hall of Fame voting, conducted by chapter member Ryan Pollack (filling in for Jan Larson). 

We also encourage members to bring their baseball memorabilia for “show and tell” and to bring baseball-related books for exchange with other members.  (All non-claimed books will be donated to local libraries).

Lunch

This year, we’ll have the Inflation Buster Lunch Special! Thanks to Linda and Monte Cely, we’ll be rolling back prices for some ballpark food at lunch!  For $5 per person, you’ll get two all-beef hot dogs, a bag of chips, a box of Cracker Jack, and a 500 ml ice cold water (sorry, no beer).*  Cash only please, and exact change will be appreciated.  You can pay as you enter and register. (*You can substitute one vegan ‘dog instead of the two all-beef ‘dogs, while limited supply lasts; you can also buy an additional hot dog, water, etc., for $1 per item after everyone has been served.)

Directions to Old Main on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos

  1. From I-35, take exit 206 (Aquarena Springs Dr.)
  2. Travel west on Aquarena Springs Drive, which turns into University Drive.
  3. After crossing the San Marcos River, you will come to a traffic light. Turn right onto Sessom Drive.
  4. At the first light, turn left on State Street and go up a steep road toward Old Main.
  5. Go through a gate (the gate should be up) and continue up the hill.
  6. At the top of the hill, make a sharp left turn and drive up to Old Main.
  7. Look for parking on the road that winds around the side and back of Old Main.

You can find additional parking at the Pleasant Street Garage, located at the corner of N. LBJ and Pleasant Street. To reach this garage, after you pass through the gate, continue up the hill, then down the hill to the stop sign on Pleasant Street. Turn left; the entrance to the parking garage will be on your left.

You do not need a parking pass to park on campus – however, do not park in spaces not marked as parking spaces or in handicapped parking (unless you have the appropriate tag displayed).

The meeting room is on the third floor of Old Main in Room 320. There is an elevator on the first floor, or you can take the stairs.

A note about the Zoom sessions

The above-marked presentations with Tim Jackson and David Vaught will be conducted on Zoom. To receive the Zoom details, please use this link to register for the event:

https://txstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMvceygrT8qH9H1GHOMsG2rz_BI1e2lpn7i

This is THE annual event for baseball aficionados in Central Texas.  We hope you can join us on Jan. 7, 2023!