Category: Chapter News

Baseball Reminiscence program celebrates 100th session

The “Talking Baseball” reminiscence program celebrated its 100th session on Monday April 8 at Westminster Senior Living in Austin.  Our SABR chapter’s program in Austin, offered in conjunction with Alzheimer’s Texas, has been running for four years.  This session concluded our 11th “season” in Austin.  The monthly program in Kerrville, in cooperation with the Veteran’s Administration there, has been in operation for three years.

We had “standing room only” with 26 participants, caregivers, family, guests and volunteers in attendance.  This also set a record for attendance at a single session.

Two special guests joined us for our Centennial program.  Former Texas Longhorn and professional baseball pitcher Jim Gideon (standing) entertained the group with stories of his years at U.T. and in the Texas Rangers organization.  Jim also fielded questions and autographed baseball cards and baseballs for the attendees.  Local radio personality and Alzheimer’s Texas board member Ed Clements (seated) added to the fun.  We sincerely thank Ed and Jim for joining us.

Very special thanks to our long-time sponsors at Alzheimer’s Texas.  In addition to all their logistical support, they even brought the cake!

Our next scheduled events are the monthly program at Kerrville VA Hospital and then a night at Dell Diamond in May (in one of the luxury suites courtesy of United Heritage Credit Union).   Planning for Season 12 is underway.  Stay tuned! 

 

March BBQ

Our March lunch meeting will be held at the birthplace of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter – the County Line BBQ located at 5204 Ranch Road 2222 in Austin (a short distance east of Hwy 360 on 2222) at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 23.  Members, guests and baseball fans in general are welcome to attend.

Please RSVP to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

World Series Watch Party

Hornsby chapter member, Jim Baker, will be hosting his annual World Series watch party on Saturday, October 27. Game time for Game Four between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers is 7:09 p.m. Jim will be providing food. Bring along something to drink if you have specific beverage requirements. Please RSVP to Jim at jimbaker1066@yahoo.com if you plan to attend and for directions, if required, to Jim’s house in Cedar Park, TX.

Remembering chapter founder Bill Gilbert at monthly meeting

Sixteen chapter members and guests, gathering for the first time since the passing of chapter founder Bill Gilbert, paid tribute to him on Saturday and remembered his contributions to our community.

We had an empty chair, a World Series edition Astros cap and some fresh garden flowers at the head of the table in Bill’s remembrance. We owe so much to him, not least of which his hand in creating our vibrant baseball community. May he rest in peace.

Jan Larson recounted how Bill contacted SABR members in the Austin area for regular lunch meetings, starting in 2003. Three years later, the group officially became a SABR chapter. Later, Bill worked hard to create the chapter’s annual winter meeting, starting in 2007 and has become a recurring signature event for the chapter every January since.

As we sometimes do at our monthly meetings, we had a trivia quiz; this one supplied by Jim Baker. The theme of the quiz was teenagers who have played in the big leagues, and it was won by Tom Thayer, earning him the prize of the movie poster from the baseball movie, “Bang the drum slowly.”

In addition, Dan Walsh brought his collection of baseball stadium postcards to share with the group. It included major and minor league team stadiums, and even a few from Japanese ball clubs.

The next chapter meeting will be the World Series Watch Party at Jim Baker’s house on Saturday, Oct. 27. World Series Game 4 is scheduled for that evening. More details to follow next month.

BBQ accompanies dog-days-of-summer baseball chat

A dozen chapter members and guests endured the dog days of summer with large slabs of baseball talk and sides of post-season prognostications on Saturday.

The group gathered at County Line on the Lake for delicious barbecue, meeting for the 141st consecutive month. A wide range of professional team logos were represented at the meeting, including the Astros, Dodgers, Indians, Rockies and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Ryan, who attended the Sabermetrics, Scouting and the Science of Baseball conference in Boston earlier this month, sported a shirt from the conference – a periodic table of baseball statistical abbreviations. While he’s bummed at the tough season his Orioles are having, he’s hoping his team will hold on to secure the first pick in next year’s draft. Meanwhile I sported an Ichiro Suzuki shirt that featured a chart showing his 1,000th, 2,000th, 3,000th, and 4,000th hits. Jan grabbed one of his many caps and sported one of the Washington Nationals, a team rapidly fading from contention.

Speaking of contention, some in the group see the Boston Red Sox as the strongest team in the American League while the National League is a complete toss-up. One attendee said he hoped the Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners slip past the Houston Astros for playoff qualification, though there were others who disagreed with this outcome!

The group also welcomed first-time Tom to the group. He’s an Indians fan, just like another Tom in the group, so we all agreed that this will help us remember his name. Jeremy traveled the furthest to join us for lunch, having driven from San Antonio and planning on taking in a Round Rock Express game that evening.

Ira shared how much he enjoyed touring Wrigley Field during a trip to Chicago earlier this month. He said he was surprised at how close second base looked from the center field bleachers.

Next meeting will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, at Serranos (5030 W. U.S. 290 service road) in Southwest Austin. A request for RSVPs will be forthcoming.

 

 

BasebALZ Season 9 wrap-up

Season Nine of our baseball reminiscence program wrapped up on July 30 at Westminster Senior Living in Austin.  All six sessions were well-attended, with 15-20 participants, caregivers, volunteers and guests present.

We enjoyed presentations on Baseball Bobbleheads (authored by Jerry), The Curveball (Jerry), The Evolution of the Glove (Monte & Linda), Baseball Lingo (Ira), The National Anthem and Baseball (Dan), an Eddie Gaedel update (Jim) … just to name a few.  Recurring agenda items were Today in Baseball (Mike and Jim),  and Stump the Experts (Bobby and Renee).  We also had some fun hands-on activites including Baseball Bingo (Mike) and Beanbag Baseball (Bob and Diane).

A highlight of the July 30th session was “Let’s Do the Twist”.  We had some serious twistin’ goin’ on, including Bob & Diane and Bobby & Renee (top) and John & Vicki.  We all enjoyed the dancing and listening & singing to Chubby Checker.

Fellow SABR member and author Anne Keene joined us.  She added some very interesting memories from her research on her current book – The Cloudbuster Nine.

In his “Stump the Experts” segment, Bobby once again stumped the SABR volunteers.  The answer was “Matt Batts”, a San Antonio native who played 10 years in the majors from 1947-1956.

Mike was the emcee for Season Nine.  Here he chats with Dave and Diana before one of our sessions.

Our leader Jim Kenton was on the “DL” for Season Nine, but we expect him to complete his rehab assignments and rejoin the BasebALZ team for Season Ten.

Speaking of Season Ten – dates for the six sessions are September 10,24; October 8, 22 and November 5 and 19.  We expect to return to Westminster and we extend our most sincere thanks to them for hosting BasebALZ in 2018.  Many thanks, as always, to Alzheimer’s Texas for sponsoring our program.

We are also taking August “off” at the Kerrville Veterans Administration Hospital.  Volunteers Dan & Ann and Bob & Diane will return to Kerrville in September to resume the monthly program there.

The fun continues … “See you in September”.

July Baseball Watch Party

Our July get-together will be held on Saturday, July 21 at the home of Ryan Pollack starting at 12:30 p.m.  Ryan has graciously offered to host a baseball watch party and will supply a sandwich platter and chips.  Attendees are requested to bring along your favorite side dishes and/or dessert along with your favorite beverage.

Please RSVP to jan.a.larson@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

Rogers Hornsby Chapter Annual Report (June 2017 to May 2018)

Society for American Baseball Research

Rogers Hornsby Chapter

Central and South Texas

Annual Report, June 2017 – May 2018

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Chapter Commissioner

Rogers Hornsby Chapter

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter continued a long run of regular monthly meetings, celebrated three years of BasebALZ, a baseball-themed program for Alzheimer’s patients in Central Texas, took outings to the Round Rock Express and gathered for a World Series game watch party.

The chapter hosted the 12th annual Hornsby Chapter Winter Meeting, which featured memories of the historic regular- and post-season run of the World Series champion Houston Astros. The meeting also featured a presentation by Monte Cely about his visit to Cuba with other SABR members. The keynote speaker was Branch B. Rickey, president of the Pacific Coast League and grandson of Branch Rickey. Chapter member Anne Keene, the daughter of former professional baseball player Jim Raugh, talked about baseball in the 1940s and a little-known Navy team that featured Ted Williams. Her father was a batboy on that team, which also featured Johnny Pesky and Johnny Sain. Her book, The Cloudbuster Nine, was published in May 2018 and she plans to discuss her book at SABR 48 in Pittsburgh in June. The meeting was held at historic Old Main, the oldest building on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos.

BasebALZ organizers Jim Kenton and Monte Cely have been in touch with other SABR members across the country who are interested in replicating the baseball-themed program for Alzheimer’s patients elsewhere. The Hornsby Chapter continues to partner with Alzheimer’s Texas to help Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers recover baseball memories. The therapy program involves six bi-weekly meetings, which include discussing favorite players and teams, remembering details of attending a ballgame, and handling baseball items such as gloves and memorabilia. In addition to Kenton and Cely, other Hornsby Chapter members volunteer to participate in this valuable program.

The chapter had several outings to see the Texas Rangers Triple-A affiliate Round Rock Express, including a game in April 2018 in which fog delayed the game for 30 minutes. Express officials later said that the fog-induced delay was the first in franchise history.

Monte Cely also attended and filed dispatches about the Caribbean Series 2018 from Jalisco, Mexico. Puerto Rico defeated the Dominican Republic to take the Serie del Caribe crown.

In May 2018, the chapter met for the 138th consecutive month, a streak dating back to December 2006.

Many of the monthly meetings include lunch at a restaurant in the Austin area, sometimes involving baseball trivia quizzes.