“Talking Baseball” (aka BasebALZ) opened its Texas 2019 season with a session at the Kerrville, Texas VA Hospital. Six veterans, plus hospital staff and administrators, were in attendance. This is the 30th program session that we’ve delivered at Kerrville, and we continue to get great feedback from our staff contacts there.
SABR volunteers Jim, Mike, Dan & Ann join VA staff for the January 18 session.
On January 28, we kicked off our 11th “season” of Talking Baseball programs in Austin. We were very happy to welcome several new participants and their caregivers. Eleven participants, caregivers and guests joined our eight volunteers.
In addition to our usual program offerings, we experimented with some new segments. One, entitled “Baseball Time Machine“, asked “If you could go back in time to one ballgame, what game would it be?” We had some lively (and funny) examples, for instance – one of the participants missed Kirk Gibson’s classic World Series walk-off homer because his wife sent him out for Chinese food!
Another new segment was “Get Up and Move”. The idea is to add some light physical activity to the program. Our first try at this was “The Chicken Dance”, a staple at our local AAA ballpark. As you can see from the pictures above, we did get up and move.
One of our regular segments is “Stump the Experts”. Bobby (far end of table in Yankee pinstripes) and Renee attempt to stump the SABR “experts” with a series of clues about a ballplayer’s identity. Bobby took it easy on us today, as we were able to successfully identify that the ballplayer was former Rangers star Josh Hamilton.
Our 2019 season will continue in February with a session at Kerrville on February 8 and sessions at Westminster Senior Living in Austin on February 11 and 25.
We have been offering the Talking Baseball reminiscence program since the Spring of 2015. Our April, 2019 session in Austin will be our 100th session! It has been a fun and rewarding experience for all of us.
Chapter members grapple with the Baseball Hall of Fame Members Quiz devised by Gilbert D. Martinez
Fourteen chapter members and guests celebrated the 10th Annual SABR Day on Saturday, Jan. 26, with a fine Italian lunch in north Austin and a novel quiz about Hall of Fame members.
Attendees were treated (tortured?) by a trivia quiz I came
up with – Name all of the inductees to the National Baseball Hall of Fame who
have double letters in their first name, last name or both. The only clues provided
were the revealed double letters and blanks for the rest of the name. The names
were numbered and placed in alphabetical order.
For example, for the first name on the list, the entry looked
like this: _a__ Aa___
The answer, of course, is Hank Aaron. If the same letter as
the double letters appear elsewhere in the name, I included it in the clues
(Wheel of Fortune style).
Recently, I noticed a few other Hall of Fame players with double letters in their names and wondered how many more there were. Surely, I thought, it would just be a handful of names. Would you be surprised to learn (as I was) that more than 40 percent of Hall of Famers have double letters in their names? Try your hand at the quiz by clicking here. For the answers, click here.
Tom Thayer took away the top prize, scoring an impressive 87
points, followed by Jerry Miller with a nearly equally impressive 83 points. When
I read the answers, at times, it seemed like Tom was reading from the answer
sheet; he nailed so many of them. And to be fair, our limited time may have
prevented some contestants to do better on the quiz. One remarked he would have
filled out more names if he had more time.
For his prowess, Tom was awarded the audio book for “The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood,” which consists of 14 audio CDs.
As usual, we had a wide variety of professional teams, baseball and otherwise, represented at the meeting. David hit the trifecta by representing Philadelphia very well, wearing a new Phillies t-shirt jersey with the newest Phillie Andrew McCuthen’s No. 22, a Philadelphia Flyers cap and replica of a Philadelphia Eagles world championship ring. Other teams represented included a Seattle Mariners jersey worn by Frank (in honor of Ichiro Suzuki’s recent signing); an Astros shirt by Tom T.; Round Rock Express cap and Fredbird sweatshirt; and a Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters cap and a long-sleeved t-shirt celebrating Japan’s World Baseball Classic win in 2006 by yours truly. In addition, Tom W. wore a Cleveland Browns sweatshirt, while Tom M. wore a Cleveland Indians sweatshirt paired with a Jim Thome cap. Jerry sported a Rams Deacon Jones jersey.
With less than a month to go before pitchers and catchers report to spring training, the chapter will have its next monthly meeting on Sunday, Feb. 24. More details to come in our chapter email list.
As per our usual custom we will gather at the Macaroni Grill in the Arboretum in Austin to celebrate SABR Day on Saturday, January 26, 2019 at 12:30 p.m. Please RSVP to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com if you plan to attend.
The late Bill Gilbert, founder of the Hornsby and Dierker chapters of SABR.
Honoring chapter founder Bill Gilbert, videoconferencing with acclaimed baseball writer Rob Neyer and hearing about the playing career of Bob Joyce were among the highlights at the 13th Annual Winter Meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter on Saturday, Jan. 12. Nearly 40 chapter members and guests attended the winter meeting at Old Main on the Texas State University campus in San Marcos.
It was the first time our winter meeting lacked chapter founder Bill Gilbert, who passed away last fall. He originated the idea of a winter meeting; the inaugural winter meeting was in 2007. In fact, Gilbert had been instrumental in creating vibrant baseball communities, having also founded the Larry Dierker Chapter of SABR in Houston prior to moving to Central Texas and leading the effort to establish the Hornsby Chapter in 2006. Chapter members and guests shared Bill Gilbert remembrances and stories.
Hornsby Chapter Commissioner Gilbert Martinez announced that from this point forth, the annual winter meeting would be named in Bill Gilbert’s honor as the Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting.
Rob Neyer connected from Oregon via Skype to spend an hour talking about his book, his experiences as West Coast League commissioner and take questions about baseball. (Photo by Ryan Pollack)
Rob Neyer, commissioner of the West Coast League and a writer for ESPN, SB Nation and Fox Sports, connected with the meeting via Skype and was interviewed by Martinez. Neyer discussed his newly published book, “Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game,” inspired in part by Arnold Hano’s “A Day in the Bleachers” and Dan Okrent’s “Nine Innings.”
Neyer shared his views about how baseball is played today, in sharp contrast to how it had been played in the past. Using some details of an inning-by-inning description of a single game between the Oakland Athletics and Houston Astros in September 2017, Neyer’s book weaves in a wide range of topics related to baseball – from the use of newer statistical measures to Statcast to pace of play. During the videoconference, he also shared his experiences as commissioner of the West Coast League, the premier summer college league west of the Mississippi.
In addition, Bob Joyce, son of former Major League pitcher Bob Joyce, recounted his father’s career, pitching with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1939 and with the New York Giants in 1946. In addition, Joyce won 94 games as a starting pitcher for the Double-A San Francisco Seals from 1942 to 1945, including a 31-game win total in 1945. In addition, Bob Joyce shared his own collegiate baseball experiences playing for the University of San Francisco.
Bob Joyce, son of former pitcher with the Double-A San Francisco Seals Bob Joyce. (Photo by Gilbert D. Martinez)
Other presentations included Gilbert Martinez’s “Baseball in Japan,” in which he described attending Chunichi Dragons games in June 2018, visiting the Ichiro Suzuki museum near Nagoya, Japan, and presenting Ichiro’s father with a photo of Ichiro’s 3,000th professional hit (Nippon Professional Baseball hits plus MLB hits).
Gilbert D. Martinez shared this photo after he presented Nobuyuki Suzuki, father of Ichiro Suzuki, with a photo of Ichiro’s 3,000th professional hit taken by Martinez (Photo by Anne Keene)
Longtime broadcaster for the Round Rock Express Mike Capps shared details about the long-anticipated return of the Triple-A affiliate to the Astros’ farm system. He said he’s looking forward to seeing the talented pitchers, hitters and fielders on the Astros minor league clubs. He also described a new addition to the Dell Diamond: the Home Run Dugout, a Top Golf-like attraction that serves as an augmented reality batting cage, set to open in the spring.
Round Rock Express Broadcaster Mike Capps shares his preview of the 2019 Express season. (Photo by Ryan Pollack)
Dierker Chapter member Mike McCroskey shared details of his visit to Hot Springs, Arkansas, a site of early spring trainings. Included in his presentation were audio clips from the sites of historical markers. McCroskey also described how he found the home plate location from which Babe Ruth launched a 573-foot home run blast to an alligator pond across the street from the stadium during a spring training game.
Mike McCroskey of the Dierker Chapter told us about his trip to see baseball sites around Hot Springs, Arkansas, including finding the location of Babe Ruth’s 573-foot home run blast during spring training in 1918.
The newest winter meeting activity involved a version of bingo, baseball style. Winter Meeting Coordinator Ryan Pollack created bingo cards with a variety of baseball experiences and called on meeting participants to fill their cards by chatting with others. Experiences on the baseball bingo card included such things as catching a foul ball, owning more than 500 baseball cards, attending a non-MLB game played outside the United States and seeing a no-hitter or perfect game. Jan Larson was the first to bingo, winning a signed copy of Rob Neyer’s book (many thanks to Rob Neyer for providing the prize!).
Jan Larson, winner of the inaugural Baseball Bingo! (Photo by Ryan Pollack)
In recent years, Jim Baker has done an excellent job providing an opening group activity to kick off our winter meetings. Because of the Bill Gilbert memorial, we asked him to close this winter meeting instead, and he didn’t disappoint. His trivia presentation included photos of renowned baseball players who ended their careers in unfamiliar surroundings. With various caveats, Jim led the group through a wide range of players to fit his criteria. For example, Hank Aaron played the bulk of his career with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, but ended with the Milwaukee Brewers. Another example included Willie Mays (started with the San Francisco Giants and ended with the New York Mets).
Jim Baker’s closing session was called “You can go anywhere you want, but you can’t stay here: Career finales in unfamiliar surroundings.” (Photo by Gilbert D. Martinez)
Another recent tradition of our winter meetings included a Mock Hall of Fame vote by attendees. The group has proven to be miserly with its vote, often voting for fewer eventual inductees than the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. With 30 ballots in our mock vote, 23 votes were necessary for election. Of those on the current ballot, only two achieved that goal: Mariano Rivera (26 votes) and Edgar Martinez (23). Other players who received double-digit votes were Roger Clemens (17), Barry Bonds (15), Mike Mussina (15), Curt Schilling (13), Larry Walker (12), Roy Halladay (10) and Billy Wagner (10).
SABR members and baseball fans gave their undivided attention at another successful winter meeting! (Photo by Ryan Pollack)
Many thanks
to our presenters and attendees! We were glad to hear that many participants
enjoyed a great day of talking about baseball.
The next
Hornsby Chapter activity will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, when the chapter
will join with other chapters across the country and around the world to
recognize SABR Day! A call for RSVPs will be shared on the chapter email list
soon.
Hi everyone! It’s almost that time of year again. Here are some details about January’s winter meeting:
At a Glance
Date: Saturday, Jan. 12
Time: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; get there early and stay late to mingle
Location: Old Main, Room 320 (third floor), on the Texas State campus in San Marcos, Texas
Lunch is available for purchase prior to 10 AM.
Boxed lunch from Which Which including a bottle of water
Cost: $12. Cash only – exact change would be appreciated.
Bring memorabilia to share & discuss
We’ll have a lot of baseball books on hand to give away, all from Bill Gilbert’s collection. Feel free to bring your own to exchange
Wear your favorite team’s cap, jersey, and (if you’re feeling bold) high socks!
Agenda and Activities
Our keynote speaker will be Rob Neyer. Rob is a pioneer in baseball analysis and writing, having worked for Bill James and STATS Inc. before spending 15 years as a columnist at ESPN. Since then he’s worked at SB Nation, FOX Sports, and other outlets. He is currently the commissioner of the West Coast League.
Rob’s newest book is Power Ball, in which he uses a 2017 game between the Astros and A’s as a jumping-off point for giving his unique take on modern baseball trends, such as the increase in strikeouts, defensive shifts, and pace of play. Rob will join us via Skype and will be interviewed by Gilbert Martinez.
Mike Capps, broadcaster for the Round Rock Express, will be on hand to discuss all things Houston Astros at the minor and major league levels. Bob Joyce will be discussing his father’s playing career, and Mike McCroskey will regale us with tales of his trip to Spring Training.
We also have several presentations from local chapter members. Gilbert will tell us about his trip to Japan last summer. Jan Larson will again lead our mock HOF ballot. (Is this the year Edgar gets in? Results are released on Jan. 22.) And come prepared to share your own baseball experiences: we’ll be playing Baseball Bingo and signing each others’ cards to win a prize!
Don’t forget trivia, memorabilia sharing, and the book exchange. We’ve got you covered!
Directions
Your destination is the Old Main building on the Texas State campus. It’s at the top of a long, winding hill.
From I-35, take exit 206 (Aquarena Springs Dr.) Travel west on Aquarena Springs Drive, which turns into University Drive.
After crossing the San Marcos River, you will come to a traffic light. Turn right onto Sessom Drive.
Turn left on State Street and go up a steep road toward Old Main.
Go through a gate (the gate should be up) and continue up the hill.
At the top of the hill, make a sharp left turn and drive up to Old Main.
Look for parking on this 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 in Room 320. There is an elevator on the first floor, or you can take the stairs.
This event is free and open to all; please share this announcement with anyone and everyone. Hope to see you all there in just a couple of weeks!
Seventeen chapter members and guests enjoyed holiday cookies from the Celys, with ample Italian cuisine from Macaroni Grill’s kitchen and sides of baseball talk galore.
As has become a December meeting tradition, Linda Cely brought baked goods – cookies, Buckeyes, and Mexican caramel candies – to help celebrate the season. She and Monte even brought festive holiday bags for everyone to take a sampling home.
Another highlight of the meeting yesterday was a Christmas-themed trivia quiz by the incomparable Jim Baker. Rather than focus on former Major Leaguer Stephen Christmas (who had cups of coffee with the Reds, White Sox and Cubs in the 1980s), Jim researched players born on Christmas Day, including a few Hall of Fame players. The contest was won by Tom Thayer with Mike Dillon in second. For their exploits, Jim generously awarded them Macaroni Grill gift cards.
As is usual the case with our meetings, a wide range of baseball teams and leagues were represented. MLB teams that made appearances at our meeting included the Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros. Gilbert Martinez wore the Astros-orange polo shirt with the SABR 44 logo and Monte donned the ballcap of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.
Even the newest merchandise was well represented: Jan Larson sported the ball cap with the new Miami Marlins logo, and Jerry Miller wore a t-shirt with one of the newest Double-A team, the Amarillo Sod Poodles, affiliate of the San Diego Padres that features a nickname of prairie dogs in the Panhandle. Jerry also sported a red ball cap/stocking cap, and Linda wore a festive Santa suit.
Topics included the news about the election of Lee Smith and Harold Baines to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the trades that have occurred so far in the offseason, and those that haven’t, and whether the winter meetings are still necessary.
Monte also shared details of his visit to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, in early December, catching two Naranjeros games at Estadio Sonora and being a featured guest on a radio show. More details can be found at this link (scroll part way to the author’s note): http://www.sabrhornsby.org/2018/08/serie-del-caribe-2019-winter-leagues-2018-19/
It was the group’s 145th consecutive month in which the chapter has met. The group is entering the 13th year of regular monthly meetings.
Next month, the Hornsby Chapter puts on its biggest meeting of the year, the winter meeting on Saturday, Jan. 12, at Texas State University. It will be our first winter meeting without chapter founder Bill Gilbert, so we plan to have a special remembrance to honor him, along with a wide range of baseball topics and discussion. Winter meeting coordinator Ryan Pollack will be in touch soon on the chapter email list with more details. Hope to see you Jan. 12!
2018 was a busy year for baseball reminiscence in Texas. The Rogers Hornsby Chapter of SABR provided baseball-themed programs in Austin, Kerrville, and San Antonio. We also worked with SABR members nationally to help expand and support this rewarding effort.
Our baseball reminiscence program, nicknamed “BasebALZ”, uses baseball history, anecdotes, and trivia to promote pleasant memories and discussion of the past for participants (and their family members) dealing with dementia. Reminiscence therapy is an effective technique to help improve the well-being of those dealing with dementia, along with their family and caregivers.
Here are a few 2018 highlights:
In AUSTIN we began our fourth year of operation and delivered 18 BasebALZ sessions, organized into three “seasons” consisting of six biweekly sessions apiece. The program is sponsored by Alzheimer’s Texas here in the capital city and is supported by funding from the DKR Research Fund. We currently meet at Westminster Senior Living.
Attendance has been consistently strong in Austin with varied programs delivered by a dedicated group of volunteers. Average attendance is around 14-18 participants, caregivers and volunteers; the high session attendance for the year was twenty. In addition to talking about baseball, we include other reminiscence topics such as music, “this day in history”, memorabilia, “stump the experts”, baseball bingo – just to name a few.
A periodic “Do the Twist” contest has become a favorite activity.
Our last Austin session on November 19 was “standing room only”.
Our participants and caregivers are regular contributors to the agenda. John (l) keeps order and leads the singing. Bobby and Renee (r) present a regular item called “Stump the Experts”. They provide a list of clues about the identity of a major league ballplayer and see if they can stump the SABR volunteers. They “batted” about .500 in 2018, often stumping the “experts”.
We enjoy sharing memorabilia and sometimes get some “swag” from other non-profits. Here the group sports t-shirts provided by the Eddie Gaedel Society (yes, there is one) in honor of one of owner Bill Veeck’s most notorious promotions.
We usually wrap up the spring/summer sessions with a night out at Dell Diamond in Round Rock. We enjoyed a luxury suite courtesy of Alzheimer’s Texas and United Heritage Credit Union.
We continued to offer a BasebALZ program monthly at the Veterans Administration Hospital in KERRVILLE. The administrators and staff have been very supportive of the reminiscence efforts. Our volunteers have touched twenty individual veterans at the hospital, with average attendance of veterans, staff, and volunteers around fifteen per session.
As the participants at the VA are generally institutionalized with serious physical disabilities, the BasebALZ program not only helps them to “open up” and share memories of the past, but also serves as a change of pace to relieve potential isolation or loneliness.
The vets have some great stories. A recent participant recalled his experiences at Utah Beach on D-Day.
The staff at Kerrville VA is so enthusiastic about BasebALZ that they’ve asked for our help to enable them to offer the program themselves more frequently. We’re working with them on this now.
SAN ANTONIO – on November 15 we conducted our first BasebALZ session at the Alzheimer’s Association – San Antonio and South Texas offices. We had a nice “opening day” turnout of 14 participants, caregivers, staff and volunteers.
We were very encouraged by the staff support and level of interaction among the participants and caregivers. Lunch was provided by Wrigleyville Grill and it was ballpark food at its best. We are looking forward to scheduling an ongoing program in the Alamo City in 2019.
NATIONALLY – Outside of the Lone Star State, SABR members are currently leading baseball reminiscence programs in Connecticut, New York, and Los Angeles. We have also had dialog with SABR chapter leaders in both the North New Jersey and South New Jersey chapters, as well as San Diego and San Francisco. We are available to assist, as needed, to further the adoption of this meaningful and rewarding program.
Senior sportswriter Ben Reiter of Sports Illustrated joined 18 chapter members and guests last week to recount how he became fascinated by the worst team in baseball in 2014 and famously predicted that that team – the Houston Astros – would go on to win the 2017 World Series.
Author of “Astroball: The New Way to Win It All,” Reiter shared with the group how he had been trying for years to embed with a major league front office only to be denied time and time again. But after three consecutive 100-plus loss seasons, the Astros appeared to be in need of positive coverage, and Reiter saw an opportunity. Making no promises and accepting no conditions from the Astros, Reiter was invited to be in the room when the Astros made their No. 1 draft selection in 2014. This unprecedented access to the Astros front office and staff led to the June 30, 2014, cover story with rookie outfield George Springer sporting the throw-back Astros uniforms.
Of course, three-and-a-half years later, the Astros did become the 2017 World Series Champs. His book, “Astroball,” recounts how the Astros built on the advanced analytics pioneered by the Oakland Athletics and incorporated insights from scouts to make smarter decisions about draft picks and player projections.
Reiter read from the preface of his book and described how his article – detailing the Astros’ plan to go from worst to first – captured his editor’s imagination and unexpectedly landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He described how his editor called him and asked, how soon do you think the Astros are expecting to win again? 2020? 2019? Reiter said he thought a moment and quickly projected the few years it might take the young core of Altuve, Correa and Springer to mature, and settled on 2017. And, just like that, Reiter’s article that examined just what the Astros were up to led to a cover story with the bold prediction.
He also shared how nervous he was in 2015 when the Astros nearly made a run in beating his prediction by two years, until the Kansas City Royals made a late-inning comeback in Game 4 of the American League Division Series on their way to their first World Series title in years.
Reiter also shared how he isn’t surprised that several important members of the Astros front office are leaving and joining other ballclubs – it’s the price of success, he said. He also said he believes the Astros should remain competitive in coming years, especially with strong talent in the farm system. However, he also noted that Astros’ success in recent years means that they don’t have high draft picks any more, so the front office may need to account for that with different strategies.
Many thanks to Reiter for joining us for our monthly meeting. The following day, he traveled to San Marcos and visited journalism classes at Texas State University. He also participated in a Common Experience event to tie to the theme of innovation. A link to the video recording of that event can be found by clicking here: https://www.facebook.com/sjmctxst/videos/350074849082212/
The next monthly meeting will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, at Romano’s Macaroni Grill Italian Restaurant (9828 Great Hills Trail at the Arboretum in northwest Austin). A request for RSVPs will be sent out in early December.
Ben Reiter, Sports Illustrated senior writer and author of “Astrosball: The New Way to Win It All,” will join us for dinner, talk about how the Astros won the 2017 World Series and how he predicted the unlikely outcome three years before! RSVP to Gilbert Martinez at gmartinez46<at>mac.com by Friday, Nov. 9.
A dozen chapter members and guests watched as the Los Angeles Dodgers took a 4-0 lead to try to even the World Series, only to see the Boston Red Sox bats erupt to give them a commanding three-games-to-one lead in the Fall Classic.
We gathered at the home of Jim Baker in Cedar Park on Saturday for Game 4, enjoying brisket and pulled pork sandwiches, homemade desserts, imported chocolate and more.
In addition, Jim Baker awarded Predictatron certificates to Jan Larson and Raeanne Martinez (pictured above), recognizing them as co-champions in this season’s prognostication contest. As a result, Larson and Martinez will have a division in their names, hyphenated, in next year’s Predicatron. In addition to the Larson-Martinez Division, the other division will be name after Dan Walsh, winner of his division.
Jim Baker also had a quiz that focused on the first time the Dodgers (Robins) matched up with the Red Sox in the World Series in 1916. Tom Thayer took top honors.
During the game, we also remarked about the resemblance between Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly and our very own, Ryan Pollack. Come to think of it, Ryan was unable to join us last night. Perhaps he had a prior engagement… in Los Angeles!
Many thanks to Jim Baker for hosting this annual watch party, and homemade desserts from Linda and Monte Cely (Mississippi mud cake) and Mike and Carolyn Wagner (ginger carrot cake and European chocolates). This was the seventh time in the last eight years that Jim has hosted the World Series watch party. This was also the 143rd consecutive month in which the chapter has had a monthly meeting.
For the November meeting, we’re excited to announce that Sports Illustrated writer Ben Reiter will be visiting with us at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, at Red Robin in Sunset Valley. Please save the date and plan to join us as Mr. Reiter will discuss his book, “Astroball: The New Way to Win It All,” and his prediction – in 2014 – that the Astros would be World Series champs just three years later. Please RSVP to Gilbert Martinez (gmartinez46 <at> mac.com).
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