Society for American Baseball Research
The Major League Baseball playoffs are underway and cool weather has finally returned to Central Texas. Both are reasons for joy.
To celebrate, the chapter will meet for Game 3 of the World Series on Saturday, Oct. 22, at the home of Jim Baker in Cedar Park.
More details to come, but please save the date. It’s going to be fun!
Fifteen members and guests enjoyed “Moneyball” Saturday evening, finding lots to like for die-hard baseball fans and nonfans alike. The statistical approach to baseball gets the royal treatment — with mentions of Bill James, the importance of having players reach base and small-market tactics against big, rich ballclubs.
Scouts don’t get portrayed real well, but as you may have heard, this movie, which is based on the book, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” by Michael Lewis, focuses on Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane. The movie opens with the A’s losing to the New York Yankees in the AL Division Series, after a 102-win season in 2001. In the off-season, the A’s lose stars Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and Jason Isringhausen to free agency. Looking for a different strategy, Beane recruits a sabermetrician who argues that players with high on-base percentages can help a small-market team compete against the richer clubs.
Beane’s relationship with his daughter also figures in the story-telling, providing character development to balance out the baseball talk. But it is a baseball movie, so it’s no surprise that the film devotes a lot of time to the team’s 20-game winning streak in 2002, which is still an American League record.
Afterward, we were joined by Brian McNulty (pictured above, center), a production manager on a number of Hollywood films, including “A Perfect Storm,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” and most recently, “The Help.” While he was not involved with “Moneyball,” he gave his insight into the movie making process and discussed what he liked about the film.
Having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, he said he was impressed with the movie’s accurate depiction of Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. He also noticed the sharp work on art design. Brian is a friend of Jim Baker’s and participates in Jim’s fantasy baseball league. Brian’s wife, Jennifer, and a couple of their friends also joined us at Hyde Park Bar & Grill.
Much thanks to Brian for visiting with us to share his insight about the movie, and to everyone who turned out for our change-up meeting, a movie and dinner.
In other news, Connie Larson announced that she won a week-long Caribbean cruise in a drawing at the Dell Diamond. She is taking a good friend of hers who missed an Alaska cruise earlier this year when her friend broke her foot. No word yet if Winter League games are on the cruise schedule. We hope Connie and her friend have a great time.
We’ve not yet set the October meeting, but we’re thinking of having a playoffs watch party. More details soon.
Here are the details for this month’s chapter meeting. Consider this a change-up from our usual routine.
On Saturday, Sept. 24, we’ll watch the 4 p.m. showing of Moneyball at the Regal Westgate Stadium 11, 4477 S. Lamar Blvd. (in the same shopping center as Central Market and Hyde Park Bar & Grill). Click here for a map.
To order tickets ahead of time, you can use fandango.com. Click here for more details. We don’t know if the movie will sell out, but if you know you’re attending, it may be wise to order tickets in advance.
After the movie, we have reservations at Hyde Park Bar & Grill. Click here for their website. We’ll get a chance to talk about the movie and may have a guest or two with movie industry experience to give us an additional perspective on Moneyball.
IMPORTANT: Please RSVP to Gilbert (gmartinez46@austin.rr.com) by Friday, Sept. 23, if you plan to attend dinner so we can reserve enough seats at Hyde Park.
The next meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter will be held on Saturday, September 24 and will include a visit to an Austin-area movie house where we will view the latest Brad Pitt film, Moneyball. Moneyball is based on Oakland Athletics’ general manager Billy Beane’s "radical" approach to scouting players. We will gather for dinner and share our individual reviews of the production immediately following. The theater and restaurant will be announced at a later date.
The Rogers Hornsby Chapter met for the 57th consecutive month in August, “breaking” Joltin’ Joe’s consecutive game hitting streak.
Twenty-one members and guests enjoyed a tight 8-7 game won by the visiting Tacoma Rainiers. The back-and-forth game featured impressive homeruns by Carlos Pequero and Johan Limonta of the Rainiers and Val Majewski of the Express. Rainiers starting pitcher, Nate Robertson, got the win and had once started a game in the 2006 World Series for the Detroit Tigers against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Join us for the historic August meeting of the Hornsby Chapter on Monday, August 8 at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas as the Express take on the Tacoma Rainiers. Game time is 7:05 p.m. As an added bonus, it is $1 hot dog and soft drink night!
This meeting will mark the 57th consecutive monthly meeting of the Hornsby Chapter thereby surpassing Joe DiMaggio’s streak of 56. We will mark the occasion by gathering for a photo before the game at approximately 6:45 p.m.
Please contact Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com by Friday, August 5 if you would like to purchase advance tickets.
For the 56th consecutive month, the Rogers Hornsby Chapter met to talk baseball, thereby “tying” Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak. In addition, chapter founder Bill Gilbert was presented with the Rajah Award for significant achievements with the Hornsby Chapter. A number of members chipped in and gave input on the design of the trophy, named after Hornsby’s nickname.
An active member of the Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston, Bill moved to Central Texas and, using the SABR member directory, he invited other SABR members in the area for a meeting in December 2003. In January 2006, members signed a petition for chapter recognition and the Rogers Hornsby Chapter was born.
As chapter commissioner, Bill encouraged regular meetings, founded the annual winter meetings at Texas State University that allowed for special guests and research presentations and organized occasional trips to watch Round Rock Express games. Though he stepped down as chapter commissioner last year, he has remained an active and vital part of the Hornsby Chapter.
The plaque on the trophy reads: “Bill Gilbert is hereby presented the inaugural Rajah Award for lifetime achievement.” The SABR logo and the date of the winter meeting in 2011 are also on the plaque. Members intended to present the award at the winter meeting, but when Bill was unable to attend, the presentation was postponed until the July meeting.
At the meeting, fourteen members and guests enjoyed BBQ and discussed a wide-range of baseball topics such as Ichiro Suzuki’s off year and the historically bad season of the Houston Astros, which is one of just three franchises that has not lost 100 games in a season. Most agreed that the Astros appear on track to fall out of that club this season (the other two are the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim).
In honor and memory of Joe DiMaggio, Bill Gilbert recounted a time when he and his son saw Joltin’ Joe at the airport in Dallas. Coincidently, Bill was reading Roger Kahn’s book, “Joe & Marilyn: A Memory of Love,” which recounts DiMaggio’s relationship with Marilyn Monroe. Bill encouraged his son to ask DiMaggio’s for his autograph. DiMaggio, agreed, but when presented with this book, he declined to sign it.
Bill Gilbert brought a trivia quiz about home run and pitching leaders. Dan Walsh, fresh from a Hawaiian vacation, scored the most points with 21. You can take your stab at the quiz by clicking here.
One member brought late-breaking news that Houston Astros Second Baseman Jeff Keppinger had been traded to the San Francisco Giants for two minor league pitchers. Those of us who are Astros fans also noticed that the trade allowed for the call-up of Second Baseman Jose Altuve, who was most recently with the Corpus Christi Hooks and played in the 2011 All-Star Futures Game last week in Phoenix. According to media reports, Altuve could get his major league debut as soon as tomorrow, Wednesday, July 20.
In addition, Dan Walsh and Gilbert Martinez recounted some of their experiences at SABR 41 in Long Beach, California earlier in the month. A native of Long Beach, Walsh especially enjoyed hearing former Dodgers first baseman Wes Parker speak. Walsh and Martinez both thought that super-agent Scott Boras gave a very interesting and insightful keynote address. Martinez brought back some of the extra items from the conference bag to share with members at the meeting, including programs for the Angels and the Dodgers, a book entitled, “How Bill James Changed Our View of the Game of Baseball,” a catalog of sports books published by McFarland, among other items.
We will be gathering at Iron Works BBQ located at 100 Red River in downtown Austin on Tuesday, July 19 starting at 6:00 p.m.
There is a small parking lot on-site, a larger lot on the south side of Cesar Chavez plus large pay lots across the street to the east. Please RSVP to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com if you plan to attend.
Also mark your calendars for Monday, August 8th when we make history as we gather at the Dell Diamond to watch the Express take on the Tacoma Rainiers. More details to come.
Fifteen members and guests of the Rogers Hornsby SABR chapter met Saturday, June 25 at Salt Lick in Round Rock for BBQ and then enjoyed an evening of baseball at Dell Diamond.
There was a large crowd at the game, partly due to it being Nolan Ryan bobblehead night. Although it was hot, our seats were in the shade and there was a pleasant breeze at the ballyard. The hometown nine sent the fans home happy with a run in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Oklahoma City Redhawks 4-3.
Discussion topics included the MLB standings at mid-year, who’s hot and who’s not, movements in Predictatron, the probability of Ichiro reaching 200 hits this year, prospects for the Astros franchise moving forward, and preparations of chapter members for attending the SABR National Convention in July. Gilbert Martinez reported that his presentation on pitcher "no-decisions" has been accepted and he’s on the agenda at the Convention.
Speaking of Ichiro, Frank Rechtorovic presented Gilbert with a framed Japanese newspaper page picturing Suzuki in his days with the Orix Blue Wave. Frank had kept this from an army tour of duty in Japan in the ’90s.
A big "Thanks" to Jan Larson for arranging the dinner and game tickets! This was the 55th consecutive month that the Hornsby chapter has held a meeting. A meeting date and location for July will be announced shortly.
The Rogers Hornsby Chapter, serving Central and South Texas, continued its strong streak of monthly meetings, hosted a successful winter meeting and watched minor league baseball and Major League playoff games in 2010, the fifth year since the chapter was founded.
During the year, the chapter met monthly, extending its consecutive monthly meeting streak to 49 consecutive months with a meeting. The chapter also recognized SABR Day in January with a dinner gathering in which baseball memorabilia and stories were shared.
Earlier that month, the chapter hosted the Fourth Annual Winter Meeting at historic Old Main on the Texas State University campus in San Marcos, Texas. Thirty-four members and guests enjoyed a visit from Houston Astros Broadcaster Bill Brown, who shared an essay titled “The Greatest Game in Astros History,” which was about the thrilling 18-inning Astros playoff win against the Atlanta Braves in the 2005 National League Division Series.
Norman Macht, Hornsby chapter member, a former SABR board member and author of “Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball,” shared audio clips from his interview with Ted Lyons, a 21-year veteran with the Chicago White Sox who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.
There was also a lively panel discussion with Gene Watson, coordinator of professional scouting for the Kansas City Royals; Mike Capps, the voice of the Round Rock Express and recipient of the 2009 Broadcaster of the Year from BallparkDigest.com; and Jim Baker, Hornsby chapter member and former columnist for ESPN.com and Baseball Prospectus.
Other presentations included one by Dr. Fred Worth, a mathematics professor from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. He shared stories and photos of baseball player gravesites, including several notable ones in Central Texas. He also brought a binder with photos of graves he has visited. His endeavor is to visit, photograph and mark by GPS gravesites of players, managers and umpires associated with Major League Baseball.
Scott Barzilla, an active member of the SABR Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston, talked about his research, which combines statistical measures of baseball players such as win shares (WS), wins above replacement player (WARP), wins above replacement (WAR), plus those values at the player’s peak. The result is a list of players by position that attempts to quantify a player’s value as compared to other players. This research served as the basis for his book, “The Hall of Fame Index,” published in November 2010.
In addition to the Winter Meeting, the chapter took in a Round Rock Express game against the Iowa Cubs in July and watched Carlos Zambrano pitch in a rehabilitation assignment.
Later in the year, members gather for an MLB Playoffs Watch Party and Cookout. A few members also traveled to Arlington in October to watch Game 1 of the American League Championship Series between the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees, and Game 4 of the World Series between the Rangers and the San Francisco Giants.
In the second of a three-year term, Hornsby Chapter Member Monte Cely served on the committee to select winners of the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award, which recognizes outstanding baseball research in areas other than history and biography. The 2010 recipients are: Timothy M. Gay (Vienna, VA) for Satch, Dizzy, and Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson (Simon & Schuster); Chris Jaffe (Schaumburg, IL) for Evaluating Baseball’s Managers: A History and Analysis of Performance in the Major Leagues, 1876–2008 (McFarland); and L.M. Sutter (Norton, VA) for New Mexico Baseball: Miners, Outlaws, Indians and Isotopes, 1880 to the Present (McFarland).
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