Category: Hornsby News

BasebALZ – 2018 Texas Recap

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.

More information on BasebALZ is available on our chapter web site at:  http://www.sabrhornsby.org/about-basebalz/

Ben Reiter, author of Astroball, joins the Hornsby hot stove

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.

Bosox bounce back, take commanding World Series lead at watch party

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).

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”.

Main course of baseball and sandwiches highlight July meeting

Photo by Raeanne Martinez.

A dozen chapter members and guests beat the heat and enjoyed an afternoon of baseball with sides of sandwiches, desserts and beverages in air conditioned comfort on Saturday.

Many thanks to Ryan Pollack for providing a sandwich platter and hosting the July meeting, the 140th consecutive month in which the chapter has had a meeting. Other members brought beverages, desserts and homemade side dishes for a nice food spread. We watched the Chicago Cubs host the St. Louis Cardinals, and then saw part of Aroldis Chapman’s meltdown in the ninth inning against the Mets (Yankees held on for the win).

Later, Ryan showed the many facets of game play in the Playstation 4 game “MLB – The Show 18,” a realistic-looking baseball simulation game that allows a player to build a team and player from scratch and play full-length baseball games. The game also offers challenges and accomplishments to earn a variety of virtual items, including player cards and uniforms. When Ryan’s not working or attending chapter meetings, he’s likely testing his mettle in this game.

In addition, Gilbert Martinez (pictured above) returned after having spent five weeks in Japan. Wearing a Chunichi Dragons shirt and cap, he brought homemade chocolate cupcakes. The Dragons play in the Central Division of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 25. More details to follow next month.

 

 

 

 

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.

June Meeting Wrap-Up

Ten Hornsby Chapter members, including first time attendee Ryan Cafferty, enjoyed Tex Mex at Serrano’s Mopac on Saturday, June 16.

Attendees
Photo by Raeanne Martinez.

Ryan Pollack provided a challenging quiz authored by Washington Post columnist George Will.  Dan Walsh took home a Mike Piazza bobblehead for besting all others in a decisive victory.

Discussion topics included, among others, the horrible season through which the Orioles and Oriole fans are suffering, the once again outstanding season being put together by Mike Trout and the Yankees’ youth movement.

Details of the July meeting will be forthcoming.  Watch this space.