Category: Hornsby News

Fourteen chapter members and guests – and one very good dog – gathered to watch World Series Game 4 to find out if the Washington Nationals would push their advantage to a 3-games-to-1 lead or if the Houston Astros would even the best-of-seven series.

With a dominating five innings from Jose Urquidy, only the third Mexican pitcher to start a World Series game (Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers and Jaime Garcia of the Cardinals are the others), and a two-run home run by Robinson Chirinos and a grand slam by Alex Bregman, the Astros knotted the Series to two games apiece, winning the game 8-1.

For the eighth time in the last nine years, Jim Baker hosted the annual World Series watch party on Saturday at his home, grilling burgers and hot dogs: a feast for baseball-loving fans.

Baker also rolled out his World Series-themed trivia quiz, challenging members with questions about team and individual exploits in the World Series. Jerry Miller, sporting a Washington Nationals jersey and a Montreal Expos cap, won the quiz with 61 points, outpacing second-place finisher Tom Thayer, who had 57 points, and the rest of the field. For his effort, Miller won a mini-figures set of characters from The Simpson’s “Homer at the Bat.” Tom won the Armed Service Edition paperback version of “You Know Me, Al” by Ring Lardner.

To try your hand at Baker’s quiz, click here. The questions are listed first with answers at the end of that page.

Baker also shared an autograph from Bosox slugger Carl Yastrzemski. A friend of the family secured the personalized autograph for a 7- or 8-year-old Jimmy Baker in 1967.

This was the 155th consecutive month with a chapter meeting, a streak that dates to December 2006. Many thanks to Jim for hosting the World Series Watch Party.

Next meeting is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, at Serranos in southwest Austin (MoPac and 290). A request for RSVPs will be issued in early November. By then, we’ll know the World Series champion along with the season award winners.

Jim Baker wrote and administered this quiz at the World Series Watch Party on Saturday, Oct. 26. Answers are listed at the end. Jerry Miller won the quiz with 61 points, and Tom Thayer was second with 57 points.

TEAM SECTION

The first World Series of the so-called Modern Era was played in 1903. Since then, how many seasons did not end in a World Series and which seasons were they? (1 point each)

The Nationals (nee, Expos) are in their franchise’s first World Series this year, leaving just one franchise never to have made it to the Fall Classic. Which team is that? (1 point)

Since the advent of the LDS format in 1995, which two teams became World Champions while losing only one postseason game, going 11-1? (Team, 2 points each; Year, 1 point each)

In the same era, which two teams became World Champions in spite of losing seven postseason games? (Team, 2 points each; Year, 1 point each)

If the Nationals win the World Series in 2019, they will have to win 12 games to do it and will become the second wildcard team to do so since the advent of the play-in game in 2012. Name the first team to do it (Team and Year, 2 points each)

Which team had the worst regular season record ever for a World Champion? (1 point)

1. 1985 Royals
2. 2006 Cardinals
3. 1987 Twins
4. 2000 Yankees

INDIVIDUAL SECTION

Two legendary players were on either end of the first run scored in modern World Series history. Who was the pitcher who surrendered it and the player who got the RBI? (2 points each)


Who won the very first World Series MVP Award? (1 point)

1. Mickey Mantle
2. Lew Burdette
3.  Don Larsen
4.  Johnny Podres

Name the two Florida Marlins who were World Series MVPs. (2 points each)

Four Red Sox players have been World Series MVPs in the 21^st Century. Which one of these players is NOT one of them? (1 point)

1. Mike Lowell
2. David Ortiz
3. Curt Schilling
4. Steve Pearce

Which of these players has the lowest career WAR ever by a Series MVP? (2 points)

1. Larry Sherry, 1959 White Sox
2. Ray Knight, 1986 Mets
3. Bobby Richardson, 1960 Yankees
4. Pat Borders, 1992 Blue Jays

Owing to ties, there are 13 players in the top 10 all-time World Series home run hitters. Of the 13, only four never appeared with the Yankees in a World Series. Three are Hall of Famers and the fourth is a recently retired second baseman who averaged a home run every 8 World Series plate appearances. Can you name any or all of the four? They have 11, 8, 7 and 7 Series homers respectively. (4 points each)

Three men have hit five homers in a Series and nine have hit four. Of those nine, who is the only one to do it in a sweep? It took him just 17 plate appearances. (3 points)

Who turned the first—and so far, only—unassisted triple play in World Series history? (3 points and an extra point each for naming his team and the year in which it took place and another point on top of that if you spelled his name correctly)

Give yourself a point for every member of the 1919 Chicago White Sox outside the infamous eight you can name (provided they appeared in the World Series). There are 11 of them, including a Hall of Famer, a player who shares his name with a famous modern comedian and another who shares his name with a famous sabermetrician. (11 points in total)

Did you put Lefty Williams on that list? Take him off! He was crooked and lost three games for the Black Sox in 1919. Now name the only pitcher who lost three games in a single World Series while trying to win. (3 points)

Name the only two pitchers with two World Series home runs. They each hit theirs in consecutive seasons over a four-year period from 1967 to 1970. (1 point each)

ANSWERS: Team Section

1904, 1994

The Seattle Mariners, born 1977

1999 Yankees and 2005 White Sox.

2011 Cardinals and 2017 Astros.

2014 Giants

2006 Cardinals, 82-79

ANSWERS: Individual Section

Cy Young of Boston and Honus Wagner of Pittsburgh

Johnny Podres, 1955

Livan Hernandez (1997) and Josh Beckett (2003)

Curt Schilling. Manny Ramirez was the fourth in 2004

Borders, 3.6; Sherry, 5.8; Richardson, 8.2; Steve Pearce, 9.7; Ralph Terry, 11.9; Bob Turley, 13.2; Ray Knight, 13.3

Duke Snider 11, Frank Robinson 8, Goose Goslin 7 and Chase Utley 7 in 56 PA

Lou Gehrig, 1928

Bill Wambsganss, 1920 Indians

Eddie Collins, Shano Collins, Bill James, Dickey Kerr, Nemo Leibold, Grover Lowdermilk, Byrd Lynn, Erskine Mayer, Eddie Murphy, Ray Schalk, Roy Wilkinson.

George Frazier, 1981 Yankees.

Bob Gibson, 1967 and 1968; Dave McNally, 1969 and 1970.

Hornsby chapter member, Jim Baker, will be hosting his annual World Series watch party on Saturday, October 26. Game time for Game Four between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals is 7:07 p.m. CDT. 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.

Eleven chapter members and guests pondered the final two weeks of the season while enjoying an Italian lunch on Saturday.

Inspired by a discussion of journeymen players at a prior meeting, I put together a quiz asking participants to name the franchises that the top five journeymen have played for. Edwin Jackson, currently pitching for the Detroit Tigers, is the all-time leader with 14 franchises, followed by Octavio Dotel (13), and Mike Morgan, Matt Stairs and Ron Villone (each with 12). Details can be found at baseball-reference.com (https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/leaders_most_franchises.shtml).

Jim Baker bested the field with 35 total points, correctly naming the most franchises for these players. For his effort, Jim took home a framed poster with baseball sayings by famous ballplayers (see photo above). For example, Rogers Hornsby is quoted on the poster (“I don’t want to play golf. When I hit the ball, I want someone else to go chase it”). Yogi Berra is also featured (“All pitchers are liars or crybabies”). And Nolan Ryan (“It helps if the hitter thinks you’re a little crazy”). Baker said he’s looking forward to adding the poster to his baseball-themed library at home.

Baseball-themed gear represented at our meeting included the Astros, Yankees, Cardinals, Orioles, Athletics, Rangers and Indians. Also making an appearance were the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate Round Rock Express, the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball and the Naranjeros de Hermosillo of the Mexican Pacific League. Jerry Miller sported a cool baseball shirt with a clever equation: 6+4+3 = 2.

Also, Linda Nichols, who attended Game 3 of the Pacific Coast League Championship Series the night before, shared the giveaway for fans: a 2005 National League Championship Replica Ring with Craig Biggio’s name (see photo below)

Mike Dillon posed an interesting question for discussion — are starting pitchers worth or valued less today because they’re typically not pitching deep into games like in years past, or are pitchers who pitch 200+ innings worth or valued more today? Jan Larson surmised that in the coming years, the value for starting pitchers will likely decrease as they’re not expected to go much longer than five innings. It made us wonder: Would you rather have a pitcher go seven innings but give up two runs, or a pitcher that goes five innings with no runs?

With this meeting, the chapter met for the 154th consecutive month, matching the amount of games played in a baseball season before it was expanded to 162 games in 1961. This streak dates to 2006.

Next month’s meeting will be the long-anticipated World Series Watch Party at Jim Baker’s house on Saturday, Oct. 26. We don’t yet know who the pennant winners will be, but we do know that we’ll be watching Game 4 of the World Series. A call for RSVPs and details will be forthcoming in mid-October.

The September meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter will be held at the Macaroni Grill in the Arboretum area in Austin on Saturday, September 14, 2019 at 12:30 p.m.  Please RSVP to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

An All-Star Home Run Derby ball from Cleveland and a fun and challenging quiz about the 3,000 Hit Club were the highlights of the August monthly meeting at County Line Bar-B-Que on the Lake on Saturday.

Scott Jarret (pictured above) brought the baseball he caught during the Home Run Derby last month. He snagged it on the fly off of Joc Pederson’s bat, which was his 19th home run during the derby. This writer did not notice if Dodgers fan Jerry Miller was devising a plan to secure that home run ball for himself. More details may be known in time for next month’s meeting.

Tom Wancho brought a simple but challenging quiz to name all 32 MLB players with 3,000 hits or more in a career. Jim Baker (shown below) won a Gerrit Cole bobblehead for his score of 28. Tom said he was inspired to make this quiz based on a conversation with Jim in a prior meeting. The aforementioned Jerry walked away with second with a score of 27. A tiebreaker question, which was not needed in this contest, asked us to name the three players who achieved Hit No. 3,000 with a home run (bonus question answers are featured at the bottom). For a list of the 3,000 Hit Club, go to this link by baseball-reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/3,000_hit_club

Chuck Kaufman brought extra copies of the Dell Diamond program featuring Reid Ryan, owner and founder of the Express and currently the president of the Houston Astros. On Friday, Aug. 16, Ryan was inducted into the Express Hall of Fame. Thanks, Chuck!

Jan Larson shared some details of his Seven Days of Baseball last week (including an Express game in Round Rock, a pair of Astros games in Houston and four games in Detroit). He said he had a front row seat at Comerica Park just beyond the first base dugout, expecting to have a great vantage point from which to watch the game, but the rolled-up tarp blocked some of his view. He said he couldn’t see the bases on the field! After consulting with customer service, he was moved to a nearby seat with a better view.

Monte Cely told of an interesting play in a recent St. Louis Cardinals game in which Yadier Molina, while on the basepaths, was struck by a batted ball but, upon review, was not called out. The play in question involved a drawn-in infield, so because the fielder had a chance at the ball, Molina was not declared out, per MLB rules, even though he was struck by the ball.

Fourteen chapter members and guests enjoyed an afternoon of barbeque with heaping sides of baseball chatter. This meeting was the 153rd consecutive month in which the chapter has had a meeting.

A wide variety of baseball related gear appeared at our lunch meeting, including a shirt with the logo of the MLB All-Star Game in Los Angeles (Jerry); the Mexico team cap from the 2012 Serie del Caribe (Monte); an Albuquerque Isotopes shirt (Tom); an interesting pairing of a Dodgers cap and a Red Sox shirt (Mike); a Royals T-shirt (Dustin); a Chester Charge shirt (Raeanne); a New York Yankees shirt (Ira); a Detroit Tigers cap (Jan); a Cleveland cap (Scott); and an Ichiro Suzuki shirt (myself). Also included was a Gridley’s Bar-B-Q shirt (Jim).

As the regular season winds down, we have some favorite gatherings coming up. For many years, Jim has hosted a World Series Watch Party. He announced that World Series Game 4 on Saturday, Oct. 26, would be the date for this year’s watch party, which will also be our monthly meeting for October. Save the date!

Meanwhile, next month’s meeting is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at Macaroni Grill (Arboretum). A call for RSVPs will be made in the weeks leading up to the meeting.

(Bonus question answers: Wade Boggs, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez)

Our August lunch meeting will be once again 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 Sunday, August 18.  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.

Fourteen chapter members and guests gathered for a potluck meal with a main dish of afternoon baseball games on Saturday, July 27.

Hosted by Ryan Pollack, we enjoyed a sandwich platter with a variety of side dishes and desserts. Many thanks to Ryan for hosting and to Linda Cely and Raeanne Martinez for bringing delicious homemade desserts. Thanks to everyone for their potluck contributions.

The first game of the day featured the Tampa Bay Rays hosted by the Toronto Blue Jays, giving us a chance to watch several rookies with famous names (Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Cavan Biggio). Early on, it seemed that the Rays had the game well in hand, leading 8-2 after five innings. After a vote of attendees, we opted to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers-Washington Nationals game. The Nats took a quick 2-0 lead on Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers. But by the fourth inning, the Dodgers took the lead 4-2 on their way to a 9-3 victory.

Before long, we noticed that the Blue Jays had battled to a 9-5 deficit headed into the bottom of the ninth, so, we switched back to see if the Jays had a comeback in them. Sure enough, they did! Guerrero led the charge with a three-run home run to pull the Jays within one, and then Brandon Drury homered for the second time in two innings to tie the game. It took another three innings, but the Blue Jays prevailed with a solo home run by Teoscar Hernandez (former Astros player!), his second of the game. In fact, this game did not lack for home runs – Biggio hit his seventh of the year in the second inning.

This was the 152nd consecutive month that the chapter has had a meeting, a streak dating to 2006. We often gather for weekend lunches to talk baseball. We sometimes meet at the Dell Diamond to watch the Triple-A Round Rock Express. We also host baseball playoffs and World Series watch parties in October. This meeting is one of the few in which we gather to watch andtalk baseball.

Next meeting will be at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18, at County Line Bar-B-Q on the Lake (5204 FM 2222).

Our July get-together will be held on Saturday, July 27 at the home of Ryan Pollack starting at 1:30 p.m.  Ryan has graciously offered to host a baseball watch party (games start at 2:00 p.m.) and will supply a sandwich platter.  Attendees are requested to bring along a favorite side dish and/or dessert along with your favorite beverage.

For privacy reasons, Ryan’s address is not posted here but will be given to those that indicate that they plan to attend.

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

A game-tying A.J. Reed home run late in the game, an extra inning that featured runners placed at second and a game-winning single, clinching a win for the Round Rock Express, and a former National League batting champion making his debut with the Iowa Cubs were among the highlights at the June chapter meeting for seventeen chapter members and guests.

The Express topped the Iowa Cubs 2-1 in 10 innings at the Dell Diamond. It was the first time many of us saw the new extra inning rule in which a runner is placed at second base to start every inning until a winner emerges. The base runner is the hitter in the order previous to the leadoff batter in extra innings. The public address announcer explained the new rule at the top of the 10th inning, prompting at least one of our members to boo heartily. It caused a good amount of disagreeable grumbling among our group. The Cubs were unable to score their runner, while the Express walked it off with a Lorenzo Quintana base hit.

Many in the group were hoping to see 20-year-old Yordan Alvarez, who has 20 home runs on the season, but he had a rest day. Still, we kept an eye on the dugout for Hug Watch in case an Alvarez call-up was imminent.

Another hot prospect for the Astros, right fielder Kyle Tucker, who has 16 home runs, had a quiet night at the plate, going 0-4 with two strikeouts.

The most recognizable name on the Cubs’ starting lineup was Carlos Gonzalez, the former Colorado Rockies slugger and National League Batting Champ in 2010. He was most recently with the Cleveland Indians, who signed him this season, but after a lackluster performance, released him. He joined the Iowa Cubs on May 30 in an attempt to return to the big leagues. This game was his debut with the Triple-A team; he went 0-4 with a strikeout.

Some of us stuck around for the post-game fireworks. And, for completeness, Chicken White won the chicken race, granting our section coupons for five free wings at Plucker’s.

Prior to the game, 10 of us gathered for bbq dinner at the Salt Lick. Because of other reservations, we were not able to make our own reservation, but they were able to seat our group within a half hour and we made it to the game just prior to first pitch.

This meeting was the 151st consecutive month with a chapter meeting. The July meeting hasn’t been scheduled yet, so look for an announcement later this month.