BasebALZ Season 6 Wrap-up

Season Six of the BasebALZ program wrapped up on July 10 at the Alzheimer’s Texas offices in Austin.  This “season” marked over two years that the Rogers Hornsby Chapter of SABR has been offering this program for those dealing with Alzheimer’s disease.

We opened the season on May 8 with a record attendance of 13 participants and caregivers, plus nine volunteers:

Over the course of the six bi-weekly sessions, we presented and discussed topics targeted to the interests and memories of our participants.  These included:

Recalling if anyone once used a slide-rule:

Talked about the world’s most valuable baseball card:

Sang some polkas:

Played “Stump the Experts”, where one of our participants presented a short bio of a ballplayer to see if our volunteers could determine who it was.  This became a regular feature of each meeting:

Talked about a trip to “The Field of Dreams” in Iowa:

We recognized our program leader, Jim Kenton, with the presentation of an honorary “Doctor of Baseball Reminiscence” diploma:

Chapter member Dan Walsh wrapped up the closing session with a vote for the “All Star Team of the 1960s”:

A good time was had by all:

After a short summer break, Austin-based BasebALZ will start up again in September.  In the meantime, our volunteers continue to make a monthly visit to the Veteran’s Administration in Kerrville to present BasebALZ there.

More information on the BasebALZ program is here.

 

June meeting features Express win, bbq

Fourteen chapter members and guests dined at Salt Lick BBQ and watched the Round Rock Express beat the New Orleans Baby Cakes, 4-2, on Saturday, June 3.

The Express-Baby Cakes game included several players with Major League experience, such as Jurickson Profar (with the Texas Rangers), Will Middlebrooks (with the Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres and briefly with the Milwaukee Brewers), and Brandon Barnes (with the Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies).

Jim Baker also noted that Baby Cakes third baseman Steve Lombardozzi is related to Domenick Lombardozzi, an actor most notably known for playing Det. Thomas “Herk” Hauk on HBO’s “The Wire.”

It was the 127th consecutive monthly meeting for the chapter. Jim Baker provided an interesting quiz on naming all 30 of the current Major League managers. Other questions included naming the managers with the most wins, most losses, highest winning percentage, and highest career postseason winning percentage. In addition, Jim asked us to name the five current managers who did not play in Major League Baseball.

Various topics of discussion included the Houston Astros’ hot streak, Edinson Vólquez’s no-hitter (first no hitter of the 2017 season), and the Texas Rangers’ struggle with one-run games this season, in sharp contrast with their record-setting performance in such games last season.

UPDATE: The July meeting will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, July 22, at Macaroni Grill at the Arboretum (9828 Great Hills Trail, Austin).

 

 

Rogers Hornsby Chapter Annual Report (June 2016 to May 2017)

Society for American Baseball Research

Rogers Hornsby Chapter

Central and South Texas

Annual Report, June 2016 – May 2017

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Chapter Commissioner

Rogers Hornsby Chapter

 

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research in Central Texas continues to be a highly active chapter, with an annual winter meeting, several group outings to watch the Round Rock Express, and watch parties for the World Series and regular season games. In addition, chapter members have volunteered to help Alzheimer’s patients in the baseball reminiscence project.

The chapter extended its consecutive meeting streak, reaching 126 straight months with a meeting in May 2017. Many of the monthly meetings include lunch or dinner at a restaurant in the Austin area, sometimes involving baseball trivia quizzes.

The highlight of the year was the chapter’s 11th Annual Winter Meeting at historic Old Main at Texas State University in San Marcos. Guest speakers at the meeting included Dr. Bobby Brown, former World Series champion with the Yankees and retired cardiologist; Mark Saccomanno, former Astros first baseman who hit a homerun on the first pitch he saw in the big leagues; Mike Capps, entering his 18th season as broadcaster for the Round Rock Express; and Bo Carter, longtime college sports information director who co-authored a book about Dizzy Dean, and Sara Kirby Burke, daughter of longtime broadcaster Gene Kirby who collected and wrote much of the text in the Dizzy Dean book.

Meanwhile, chapter member Jim Kenton continues to lead the chapter’s effort in BasebALZ, a partnership 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 ball game, and handling baseball items such as gloves and memorabilia.  The BasebALZ effort here was also expanded to include monthly sessions at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Kerrville, Texas. We have also been in touch with other SABR chapters in hopes of expanding this program around the country.

Another highlight of the year was Monte Cely’s dispatches from the Caribbean World Series in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. Posting daily updates during the tournament, Cely shared photos and details of Puerto Rico’s 1-0 championship win in extra innings over Mexico.

The chapter also created a WordPress site to house all of the chapter’s meeting summaries and photos, giving the leadership team an effective means to collect and preserve the chapter’s activities and to communicate with other chapters and the general public.

 

BasebALZ Season 6 Sets Attendance Mark on Opening Day

Our baseball-themed Alzheimer’s reminiscence program, BasebALZ, opened “Season Six” on Monday May 8 at the Alzheimer’s Texas offices in Austin.  We had thirteen participants, caregivers and guests in attendance, and we’re expecting more as this “season” progresses.  Nine volunteers from the SABR-Hornsby Chapter and Alzheimer’s Texas were there to deliver and support the program:

BasebALZ leader Jim Kenton opens the session.

In a discussion of “Things from 1960 that we don’t use anymore”, we see if anyone can remember how to use a slide rule …

Season Six of BasebALZ will run through July.  For more information on the BasebALZ program, click here.

 

June Meeting or Let’s Play Two

Following our entertaining trip to the ol’ ballyard for our May meeting, the June Hornsby Chapter meeting will include a return trip to the Salt Lick BBQ and the Dell Diamond on Saturday, June 3 when the Round Rock Express take on the New Orleans Baby Cakes at 7:05 p.m.

Preceding the game, we will meet at the nearby Salt Lick BBQ for dinner at 5:30 p.m.  A limited number of game tickets have been reserved at the discounted price of $12 each.  If you plan to attend please RSVP with the number of game tickets you require and number in your party that will attend the dinner to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com no later than Monday, May 29 (Memorial Day).

Express fall in group’s first outing to the ballpark in ’17

Thirteen chapter members and guests enjoyed a gorgeous night for baseball and saw the Round Rock Express fall 5-1 to the Oklahoma City Dodgers on Saturday, the group’s first outing to Dell Diamond this season.

A tight 1-1 game through 6 innings involved good pitching performances from Dillon Gee for the Express and former Major Leaguer Justin Masterson for the Dodgers. But the Dodgers tagged Tanner Scheppers for four runs in the 7th inning to secure the victory.

Meanwhile, Gilbert Martinez, taking his usual stroll around the ballpark recognized Wesley Wright, a relief pitcher in the Express bullpen. Wright, a lefty reliever for the Houston Astros for six years, has since pitched for the Blue Jays, the Cubs, the Orioles and the Angels. Wright pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the Express.

Ryan Pollack (pictured below) represented the group well by twirling his way during the Chicken Dance. Jennifer Kaufman appreciates Ryan’s happy dance moves.

Prior to the game, many in the group joined for a barbecue dinner at The Salt Lick.

This was the chapter’s 126th consecutive month with a meeting.

Next chapter meeting will be a return engagement at Dell Diamond on June 3. More information will be forthcoming from Jan Larson.

(Photos by Gilbert D. Martinez)

May Baseball and BBQ

Our May meeting will take us on our first 2017 trip to the ballpark on Saturday, May 6 when the Round Rock Express host the Oklahoma City Dodgers with game time at 7:05 p.m.  Preceding the game, we will meet at the nearby Salt Lick BBQ for dinner at 5:30 p.m.  A block of seats has been reserved for $12/seat.  If you plan to attend please RSVP with the number of game tickets required and number that will attend the dinner to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com no later than Sunday, April 30.

Bill Gilbert swings a big bat at April meeting

Eleven members and guests met for Mexican food and baseball chatter in southwest Austin on Saturday.

Topics included the start of the new season, including the good baseball thus far by the Houston Astros (in sharp contrast to their start in April last year), Manny Machado’s spike-ful slide into Dustin Pedroia’s calf the night before, and the New York Yankees’ surprising start in a so-called rebuilding year.

Dan Walsh provided a quiz based on the two 2016 editions of SABR’s Baseball Research Journal. Bill Gilbert trounced the competition with a score of 9 out of 12 (note: previous report of 11 of 12 was author’s error). Tom Thayer took second with 8 points, and Jim Baker took third with 5 points. Others may or may not have scored any points on this quiz, but they could not be reached for comment after the meeting. Dan also provided trivia prizes – Bill won a mini-bat with Babe Ruth’s signature; Tom won a baseball trivia book; and Jim won a replica of an advertisement for Ken-Wel brand gloves. Many thanks to Dan for the quiz and prizes.

Next meeting will be dinner and a ballgame at the Dell Diamond on Saturday, May 6. Watch for information about tickets from Jan Larson in the coming weeks.

 

 

BasebALZ wraps up successful 5th season

Our chapter’s Alzheimer’s reminiscence program — BasebALZ — wrapped up a fun and successful fifth season with an outing to Dell Diamond on Monday, April 11.

The completion of Season Five (which ran from January through April) marks two years that the Hornsby SABR chapter has been delivering the baseball-themed Alzheimer’s program in Austin.  Eleven participants and caregivers enjoyed talkin’ baseball, music, TV … and yes, in Texas, even some football.

Besides presentations and discussion, we had some activities such as oiling up some ball gloves …

… autographing some baseballs …

… playing “stump the experts”, where our participants try to stump the SABR volunteers on baseball history …

… and deciding who was going to “pick first” or “bat first” in a simulated game.

Plans are already underway for Season Six, to begin in May, 2017 at the Alzheimer’s Texas offices in Austin.

In addition to the program in Austin, SABR volunteers are delivering the program at the Kerrville Veteran’s Administration hospital on a monthly basis.  Program leader Jim Kenton is also working with the Alzheimer’s Association, the U.S. Army at Ft. Sam Houston, and the VA in San Antonio to start programs in the Alamo City.

For more information on BasebALZ, visit our informational page here.