The Hornsby Chapter will hold a watch party for World Series Game 2 at the home of generous host Jim Baker on Saturday, Oct. 28!

Please RSVP to him directly at <jimbaker1066@yahoo.com> by Thursday, Oct. 26.

September Newsletter

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Eleven chapter members trekked to Nelson Wolff Municipal Stadium on Sunday to watch the San Antonio Missions drop their regular season finale to the Springfield Cardinals.

Though the Missions, the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, lost 7-5 to Springfield, the Double-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, most of us enjoyed the shady seats and comfortable breeze for the afternoon matinee of baseball under partly cloudy skies.

This was the chapter’s first outing to a baseball game in San Antonio, which was part of an effort to cater to members in the area. Thirty percent of Sunday’s participants were from San Antonio, so the chapter may explore more outings to Wolff Stadium in the future.

Upon arriving, San Antonian Cy Morong sprung a question on the group, asking if we knew what happened on Sept. 17, fifty-five years ago. It roused the group with a series of guesses until we narrowed down the answer: Gaylord Perry of the San Francisco Giants no-hit the St. Louis Cardinals and out-dueled Bob Gibson in 1968.

Mike Lassman shared a little bit of the history of the Missions, including when it was a Dodgers farm team and saw players such as Pedro Martinez, Fernando Valenzuela, Dennis Eckersley and Adrian Beltre. Some of the illustrious alumni of the Missions are features on banners around the ballpark.

We also welcomed 14-year-old Torin, who said he joined SABR in February and was attending his first Hornsby meeting. An eighth grader from Austin, he pitches and plays shortstop for a travel baseball team and hopes to make the Westlake baseball team when he reaches high school. At the game with his parents, he shared that he’s a Texas Rangers fan and enjoys collecting baseball cards.

This was the 202nd consecutive month in which the chapter has met, a streak dating to December 2006.

Home stretch for Predictatron

Jim Baker’s Predictatron contest continues to its inevitable conclusion just as the baseball season winds down. Our predictions made in the pleasant temperatures as winter gave way to spring before the start of the season have endured the hard summer rays, beating many of us into oblivion. Or maybe just the author, who – despite lifting himself out of the cellar for one week (or was that a mirage?) – is nearing the end of a campaign in which he has anchored the entire contest, and not in a good way! But who cares about him. We all bow to Ryan Pollack, who led his division and the entire contest as of Sept. 10, and Jan Larson, leader of his division. With just weeks to go, we’ll soon find out if they’ll hold on to their leads, or if upstarts such as Brian Rogers or Raeanne Martinez will catch them before the end. Hold on to your caps, folks!

Research spotlight

Chapter leadership sometimes receives email inquiries about baseball or Rogers Hornsby or the like. We received one such email from Scott Henson, who lives in East Austin and is working on a book about the Austin Black Senators, a team that once played near where he lives now. He shared that he’s done some research and spoken with experts such as Bill Staples, Jr., an independent baseball historian who has researched and studied Black baseball organizations. We put Scott in touch with chapter member Eric Robinson, who has also done his share of research of the Negro Leagues. If you have information or contacts that may be useful to Scott’s research for his book, please contact him by email at <gritsforbreakfast@gmail.com>.

Next month: World Series Watch Party!

Save the evening of Saturday, Oct. 28, on your calendar! Predictatron impresario and host extraordinaire Jim Baker will throw his annual World Series Watch Party with a scrumptious spread of food while we watch Game 2 of the World Series (teams to be determined). All members are invited, and there’s really no excuse to miss the chapter’s biggest party of the year. One acceptable excuse would be if you’re actually attending World Series Game 2, like, in person. But other than that, you should join us for the watch party! We’ll share more details in mid-October.

 

 

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter’s September meeting will involve an outing to Wolff Stadium in San Antonio where we will be afforded the opportunity to mingle and watch baseball with chapter members from the southern end of the Hornsby Chapter’s coverage area.  The game will be played on Sunday, September 17 against the visiting Springfield Redbirds starting at 1:05 pm.  Don’t worry, we can sit in the shade in section 200 directly in front of the suite/press box area.  Please login to the Missions’ website (https://www.milb.com/san-antonio), select “Tickets and Schedule” from the drop down menu, then select “Schedule” and “September” and then the September 17 game.  Select your seats near the “seed” seat in section 200, row V (last row), seat 12.  If you already have an account with the Round Rock Express, you may have to create another account for the Missions.

August 2023 Newsletter

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Eleven chapter members and guests joined an award-winning author on Zoom on Saturday to discuss baseball in the mid-20th century.

Steven Gietschier, author of “Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years,” shared how he was inspired by the work of Dr. Harold Seymour and Dorothy Seymour Mills, including their three-volume history of the early days of baseball: “Baseball: The Early Years,” “Baseball: The Golden Age” and “Baseball: The People’s Game.”

“I asked Dorothy what she would think if someone picked up the ball where she and her late husband had laid it down and wrote a solid narrative and analytical history of the game since 1930,” Gietschier said. “Without hesitation, she said this was a good idea. She heartily approved.”

He looked for others who might be interested in taking on this project, but everyone turned him down. However, he was told over and over again, “Steve, you should do it.”

Gietschier, who presented at SABR 51 in Chicago last month and won the Henry Chadwick Award, saw an opportunity to write about the next phase of baseball in the context of history, politics, economics and other broader themes from the Great Depression to post-World War II. He focuses on baseball owners, executives and players to tell the story of baseball.

As a longtime archivist and archival consultant for The Sporting News, Gietschier had access to lots of resources, including the notes and notecards created by Seymour and Seymour Mills.

He also shared baseball owners were initially against broadcasting games in the early days of radio for fear that it would decrease attendance. The same fear arose during the widespread adoption of televisions. He noted that a similar dilemma is playing out today with regional sports networks, cable, streaming and blackouts.

You can watch Gietschier’s presentation and Q&A session at this link on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7ghgjOdtLDI

You can learn more and purchase his new book on the University of Nebraska Press website: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496235374/

 

Upcoming Meeting Schedule

As the baseball season continues during the dog days of summer, the chapter has plans to attend a minor league game in San Antonio in September and a World Series watch party in October.

Please save Sunday, Sept. 17, for next month’s meeting. At 1 p.m., the San Antonio Missions, the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, will host the Springfield Cardinals at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium. We’ll share details in early September about where the group plans to sit and how you can purchase tickets.

In October, chapter member and Predictatron showrunner Jim Baker will continue a long tradition to host a watch party for a World Series game. Mark your calendar for the evening of Saturday, Oct. 28, for World Series Game 2 (teams to be determined). Regardless of the competing teams, the group has a fun time jointly watching the World Series with great food, commentary and insight.

Also, we have set Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024, as the date for the 18th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting at Texas State University in San Marcos. Winter meeting coordinator Jerry Miller is working on the schedule. If you are interested in making a presentation about baseball, please contact Jerry.

Research Spotlight

Two chapter members – Mike Lassman and Monte Cely – are working on contributions to the Spring Training Anthology, edited by David Krell, chair of SABR’s Spring Training Committee. Lassman is focusing his essay on spring training in San Antonio while Cely is expanding earlier research about spring training in Marlin, Texas.

Baseball Memories Program

Monte Cely reported volunteers continue to work with AGE of Central Texas and Kerrville VA Medical Center to help Alzheimer’s patients, family and caregivers. AGE is also opening a new facility in South Austin and efforts are being made to bring a program to San Antonio. Anyone interested in helping out should reach out to Monte Cely. More information about the program can be found on the information page: https://www.sabrhornsby.org/about-basebalz/

Jan’s Excellent Ballpark Tour

Jan Larson reported that with his visit to Truist Park in Atlanta earlier this season, he has now attended a game at all 30 of the current ballparks. This brings his overall MLB ballpark total to 59. He’s planning a presentation about his ballpark journey at the winter meeting in January.

Caribbean Series in Miami

Monte Cely, a veteran of past Caribbean classics, shared that the Caribbean Series (Serie del Caribe) is coming to loanDepot Park, home of the Miami Marlins in February. The series, which features teams from the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Mexico, and one representative each from Panama and Colombia), puts on 25 ballgames in nine days (Feb. 1 to 9).

Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo

I shared that I was able to attend a Tokyo Yakult Swallows game at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo in June. It’s renowned for being one of the few remaining active stadiums where Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and other Major League ballplayers participated in a baseball tour in 1934. This tour and its immense popularity gave birth to Nippon Professional Baseball. However, there are plans to demolish the stadium and the surrounding area in the face of intense local and international opposition.

Steven Gietschier, author of “Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years,” will join us on Zoom at 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, for the August monthly meeting.

Based on the member survey earlier this year, we heard from some respondents to include more Zoom meetings throughout the year. And, if you haven’t noticed, it’s been so hot that maybe staying inside to talk baseball isn’t such a bad idea!

To join the Zoom meeting on Aug. 5, please register at this link: https://txstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIucemgpj4oHtSWKf4MM2tDyS8NKG94JT2N

Gietschier, a long-time archivist and archival consultant for The Sporting News, presented at SABR 51 in Chicago earlier this month and won SABR’s Henry Chadwick Award at the awards luncheon. You can learn more about his new book on the University of Nebraska Press website: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496235374/

With the trade deadline just days away, we’ll also talk about which teams had the best deals and which teams didn’t do enough to improve their chances for October/November glory.

July 2023 Newsletter

Monthly Meeting Summary

On July 23rd, 12 chapter members braved the 102-degree heat and 65-degree dew point to watch the Round Rock Express host the Reno Aces at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, TX.

The game was a tense affair that the Aces won by a score of 3-1. They took an early 1-0 lead and threatened to expand it with 10 hits, but failed to actually increase the lead until Pavin Smith hit a two-run home run in the 8th inning. In the bottom half, the Express managed to load the bases with a few walks but could push across only one run. The Aces won, 3-1. Here’s the box score.

The gathering was the 200th consecutive monthly meeting of the chapter, dating from December 2006. Hornsby Chapter Commissioner Gilbert Martinez was unable to join the meeting but praised chapter members for their dedication and commitment. “This streak demonstrates the strong community that founder Bill Gilbert created and that we have all maintained for more than 16 years during the streak,” Martinez said. “We’ve fostered strong friendships built around all aspects of baseball.”

Here’s a photo of attendees gathered around a commemorative “200” sign comprising two baseball jerseys:

The #20 jersey is from a Josh Gibson Homestead Grays jersey; behind it is the “0” from a #10 worn by chapter member Jerry Miller.  

While watching the game unfold, members discussed many baseball topics including the Orioles’ takeover of first place in the AL East (and conversely, the once-dominant Rays falling to second place), speculation on whether the Angels will trade Shohei Ohtani, the absence of 15+ inning games due to the automatic runner on second base, and LSU’s recent victory at the College World Series. Additionally, several on-field challenges to balls and strikes prompted discussion about whether this challenge system should be used instead of automated balls and strikes, or even at all!

Prior to the game, chapter member Nancy Finley threw out the first pitch. Here she is walking off the mound:

Nancy’s book, Finleyball, is an excellent history of the A’s move from Kansas City to Oakland under owner Charles Finley. Nancy is Charles’ niece and had a close-up view; her father Carl helped run the team for many years. 

Chapter News

Hornsby Chapter Named as One of Best

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter proudly received the “Starting Lineup” certification from SABR HQ. It’s one of only eight chapters, out of more than 80 worldwide, to receive one of the available “Starting Lineup”, “All Star”, or “MVP” certifications. SABR HQ now certifies chapters nationwide who do things like elect officers and establish chapter bylaws.

“We’re thrilled with this recognition from SABR,” Commissioner Gilbert Martinez said. “We’ve long known that we’re a good, active chapter with great members, but it’s encouraging to be recognized by the national organization.”

In addition to having regular monthly meetings, an annual winter meeting and baseball prediction contests and trivia quizzes, the Hornsby Chapter took major steps to meet criteria created by SABR. For example, the chapter held its first election for chapter commissioner in May. In addition, the chapter is working on bylaws to meet another requirement by SABR.

“We look forward to doing more to achieve a higher ranking in the coming years,” Martinez added.

Research Highlights and Discussions

Chapter members utilize the email listserv to share research and socialize between meetings. Here’s some of what we shared since the last update:

• Syd Polk kept us apprised of the Oakland A’s chances at being a historically bad team. He’s been updating us on their chances all season! And he had plenty to write about: not only did the A’s win seven in a row to start June, but the team may not even finish with the sport’s worst record, thanks to the fumblings of the we-thought-they’d-be-bad-but-not-this-bad Kansas City Royals.
• Tom Thayer quizzed the group with the question: “Who is the only player who played at least 10 years in MLB with an OPS+ of 125 or more each year in the majors?” (You can find the answer at the bottom of this post.)
• The group panned the A’s seemingly finalized move to Las Vegas. The main discussion revolved around the fact that Las Vegas is not only a much smaller market than the Bay Area, the city also has popular NHL and NFL teams that will compete for fans’ attention and dollars.
• Jerry Miller shared an informative New York Times article about Carl Erskine, still going strong at age 96. 
• Don Dingee started a lively discussion about the rule that prevents catchers from blocking home plate if they don’t have the ball in hand. The rule reared its head on back-to-back days in June; first Texas’ Jonah Heim was called for violating it, then San Diego’s Gary Sanchez was called the very next day.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg! We talked about many more things. If you’re a chapter member, email Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com to participate in the discussions. 

Baseball Memories Project Update

On July 19th, Monte and Linda Cely, Ira Siegel, Jerry Miller and Mike Dillon facilitated a Baseball Memories session at the Round Rock AGE of Central Texas for a diverse group of 29 attendees at the facility. The Baseball Memories project, active since 2015, is a community service outreach program that uses baseball as a theme to improve the quality of life for those living with dementia, isolation, loneliness, and other long-term health issues. The program is resuming in-person sessions after a hiatus caused by the pandemic.

Likewise, Jim Kenton and the “Baseball Guys” team are now back in person at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Kerrville.  This program is a big hit with the resident veterans, and Jim advises that twelve vets attended the most recent gathering.

For more information or to get involved, visit the website.

Predictatron Update

Jim Baker runs the chapter’s Predictatron contest, wherein members submit pre-season predictions of teams’ end-of-season win totals and predict who will make the playoffs. Jim updates the standings weekly as teams’ records change.

In the most recent update, he shared how he had gained enough points recently to tie Ryan Pollack for the most points in not just his division, but also the entire contest. Many other players improved their scores as well, a contrast to earlier updates in which many players lost points overall.

Awardatron Update

The Awardatron contest challenges chapter members to predict the four major BBWAA awards in both leagues: MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year. Members submit predictions prior to the season’s first pitch and receive points for how their picks place in the voting. Members can change one pick during the All-Star Break in exchange for reduced points.

At the Break, two categories shuffled around the most. Perhaps owing to a large amount of uncertainty around pitchers’ value, three members changed their AL Cy Young pick and three also changed their NL Cy Young pick. In the AL, two participants changed to Framber Valdez; one changed to Shane McClanahan. In the NL, Spencer Strider, Marcus Stroman, and Zac Gallen got midseason votes of confidence. Shohei Ohtani remains the AL MVP favorite, Ronald Acuña Jr. remains the NL MVP favorite, Gunnar Henderson remains the AL ROY favorite, and Corbin Carroll remains the NL ROY favorite.

Next Meeting

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter isn’t satisfied with 200 consecutive monthly meetings! The 201st is planned for Saturday, August 5th at 1 PM. It will be an online Zoom meeting; link details will be shared on the Google Group listserv soon.

Trivia Answer: “Indian” Bob Johnson who played for the A’s and Red Sox in the 30’s and 40’s.

The July meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter will be at the Dell Diamond on SUNDAY, July 23 to see the home standing Round Rock Express take on the Reno Aces.  The first pitch will be at 6:05 pm.  With the pitch clock speeding up games, there is a good chance that the game will wrap up before 9:00 pm.  This will mark the 200th consecutive monthly meeting for the chapter and we will take group photos to commemorate this milestone.

For anyone interested, we will gather at the adjacent Salt Lick restaurant at 4:00 pm (don’t be late!) for a late lunch/early dinner.  Anyone at the Salt Lick by 4:00 pm is welcome to join the group to kick off our 200 meeting festivities.

Game tickets may be purchased ON YOUR OWN from the Express’ website.  We will be sitting at the rear of section 121 which is under cover, close to restrooms and concessions and usually is situated where a welcome (especially in July) south breeze can be easily felt and enjoyed.  Get your tickets at the link below.  The group is centered on sec. 121, row 23, seats 11 and 12, so if you get seats near these, you’ll find yourself in the middle of our group.

https://mlb.tickets.com/?orgId=22433&agency=MILB_MPV&eventId=22625&tfl=#/event/E22625/seatmap/?seatmapId=9504&selectBuyers=false&minPrice=13&maxPrice=72&quantity=2&sort=price_desc&ada=false&seatSelection=true&onlyCoupon=true&onlyVoucher=false

 

 

June 2023 Newsletter

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Hornsby Chapter Commissioner

A quiz about 1970s baseball prompted an epic battle between two heavyweights as Bailey Hall and her parents, Nicole Bryan and Brian Hall, hosted the June meeting on Saturday at their lovely home in Old West Austin.

Eighteen chapter members, guests and Bailey’s family members joined us for the meeting, which was the 199th consecutive month with a meeting. Brian Hall grilled hot dogs and sausages, accompanied by cole slaw, orzo pasta salad and fruit salad made by Nicole Bryan. We also had delicious brownies for dessert. We are so grateful for their hospitality and generosity in hosting the meeting!

Over the years, Cy Morong and Jim Baker have often clashed mightily in our trivia quizzes, testing their baseball acumen, and Saturday was no different. They played to a 26-point tie, triggering Jan’s tiebreaker question. When they tied again on the tiebreaker question (both successfully naming each of the World Series winners in the 1970s), they resorted to lobbing their own questions on the fly.

How many home runs did George Foster hit in 1977, Cy asked. Jim nailed it (52). When was the last walk-off steal of home, Jim asked. We had to turn to Jan Larson, the resident expert on steals of home to end ballgames, for that answer: 1997. When the dust settled, Jim said he conceded to Cy because he had answered one of the questions in his head but didn’t write it down.

Usually, the quiz winner writes the next quiz, but Cy passed on that honor to second place finisher Ira Siegel, who had 24 points. Tom Wancho had 22 points, and Don Dingee had 21 points.

Take a swing at Jan’s ’70s quiz below. The answers immediately follow the questions.

Bailey Hall Goes to Houston

Expanding her presentation at the 17th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting, Bailey Hall has been invited to the Larry Dierker Chapter’s June meeting to talk about a brief history of the use of statistics in baseball and how technology has changed how we watch and analyze the game.

The Dierker Chapter meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday, June 12, at the Spaghetti Western Italian Café, 1608 Shepherd Dr. in Houston. All baseball fans are invited to attend.

There will also be a Zoom option for those out of town. Please contact Dierker Chapter President Joe Thompson at splendorajoe@gmail.com for details.

Baseball Memories

Chapter volunteers continue to collaborate with AGE of Central Texas in Round Rock to assist Alzheimer’s patients, family and caregivers. They’ve had four successful monthly programs thus far with the next program on June 21.

Jim Kenton and the “Baseball Guys” are active at Kerrville VA Medical Center.

Monte Cely, who manages the chapter’s baseball memories program, reports progress in starting a program in San Antonio.

Any chapter members interested in volunteering should contact Monte Cely. For more information about the program, please go to the information page: https://www.sabrhornsby.org/about-basebalz/

Research Spotlight

Last month, I meant to include this nugget noted by Jim Baker, who, among many other things, keeps track of the most productive offensive games in baseball history. One such night was authored by Adolis Garcia of the Texas Rangers in a game against the Oakland Athletics on April 23.

“Totaling it all up, Garcia had five hits, five runs scored, 16 total bases and eight RBI,” Baker wrote in an email to the chapter’s Google Group. “In fantasy baseball, each one of these is worth one point, so he had a total of 29. (This is most definitely not sabermetric or deep-dive analysis.) This puts him right outside the top 10 for all-time single-game best performances and ties him for eleventh with Mike Schmidt (1976), Jimmie Foxx (1932) and Phil Weintraub (1944). Please note that a hit by pitch does not result in a point in fantasy, but an argument could be made that it should count in this context.”

More recently, Cy Morong wrote to the Google Group a few weeks ago that he noticed a significant drop in Astros’ right fielder Kyle Tucker’s defensive WAR, from 0.9 last year in which he won a Gold Glove to -0.9 thus far in 2023. Cy wondered if Tucker’s been playing poorly or playing hurt, or if it was a small sample. As a committed Astros fan who’s seen most every game this season, I responded that I hadn’t noticed any poor play by Tucker. Ryan Pollack took a deeper dive into Tucker’s numbers and offered that it could be both that Tucker’s playing more poorly than last year and it’s still a small sample size. “Looking at Statcast, he was consistently 4-5 outs above average for his career,” Pollack wrote. “This year so far he’s -5, a gap of 9-10 outs.  The problem is coming primarily from going back on balls. He’s -4 OAA there compared to -1 OAA on going in. So he’s having trouble with balls over his head. He’s also getting less of a Jump (yes, this is a tracked stat that measures how many feet along the best route outfielders cover when reacting to a ball). This year his jump is 2 feet below average whereas before it’s been about average or only slightly below. I wonder if he’s played in unfamiliar parks to start the year, given the new scheduling format. He might be having trouble reading balls off the bat or just getting a good sense of where, in an unfamiliar RF (different walls, foul line distances, foul territory, etc) he should be heading and how far, when a ball is struck — especially on balls he has to go back on. That or he may have a lingering leg injury or soreness.”

It may be that Tucker’s defensive WAR improves as the season progresses, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Tracking the Oakland Athletics against worst teams all-time

Chapter member Syd Polk shared with us an effort to track the A’s season. “At the end of the year, we can just watch the losses mount up and see where they end up all time,” Polk wrote on his blog. “Will they lose 100 games (almost certainly)? 110 (probably)? 117, like the franchise record 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (it could happen)? 120, like the 1962 New York Mets (they are on pace to pass it)? 134, like the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (probably not)?”

Read more and follow along all season at his blog: https://sydneyrandall.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-train-wreck-that-is-2023-oakland.html

Election results and chapter leadership team

As announced in May in the email lists, Jan Larson and Ryan Pollack informed the chapter that Gilbert Martinez was unanimously voted as the chapter commissioner in the chapter’s first-ever election. His three-year term began this month. On Saturday, Martinez announced that Jan Larson, Monte Cely, Ryan Pollack and Jerry Miller have been appointed as directors in various areas. Jan will continue to organize chapter outings to ballparks; Monte will manage the chapter’s volunteer efforts in the baseball memories program; Ryan will continue to serve as webmaster, manage an annual survey of chapter members and run Awardatron; and Jerry Miller will continue to coordinate the chapter winter meeting. Martinez welcomed Don Dingee to the leadership team; he’ll serve as a membership coordinator, looking for ways to expand and retain and expand membership.

Martinez thanked Monte Cely for his work welcoming new chapter members for many years. With the addition of Don, this will allow Monte to focus on the baseball memories program. Many thanks to Monte, Don and the rest of the leadership team.

July meeting details

Please join us for our July meeting, which will be a big milestone for us! It will be the 200th consecutive month with a meeting, a streak dating to December 2006.

For our 200th meeting, we’re going out to see the Round Rock Express host the Reno Aces at 6:05 p.m. Sunday, July 23. If you’d like to attend and sit near us, go to this link to purchase tickets in Section 121, Rows 22 and 23: https://shorturl.at/cvw28

Many thanks to Jan Larson for organizing this. He has purchased Seats 12 and 13 in Row 23, so you can look for available tickets close to that.

The 1970s

By Jan Larson

(Note: For this quiz, the decade of the 1970s includes the years 1970-1979 inclusive)

1. This club won two World Series in the 1970s defeating the same opponent on both occasions and has not returned to the World Series since. Name the club, the club they defeated and the years (4 points).
2. Only one player hit 50+ home runs in a single season during the 1970s. Name the player, his club and the year (3 points). 
3. One club won three consecutive World Series in the 1970s. Name this club and the years and the teams they defeated (5 points). 
4. One of the recognized all-time best clubs played in four World Series in the 1970s, winning two and losing two. Name the club and the clubs that they defeated in their two World Series wins (3 points).
5. How many clubs won back-to-back World Series in the 1970s? (1 point). 
6. This Hall-of-Famer executed a walk off steal of home to win a game in the mid-1970s. The author has spoken of this feat at length and was in attendance at the game in which this occurred.  Name the player that executed the walk off steal of home, his club, the opponent and name the author of this question (4 points).
7. In his playing days, Joe Torre, now a special assistant to the commissioner and former Yankees manager, won the National League MVP and led the NL in batting during the 1971 season. What was Torre’s batting average that season (+/- 0.010) (1 point)?
8. This Hall-of-Fame slugger launched a massive All-Star game home run over the roof at Tiger Stadium in 1971. He went on to achieve greater notoriety later in his career with another club.  Name the player, the club he was with when he hit the All-Star home run and the later club in which he achieved notoriety (3 points). 
9. These two players shared the National League MVP award in 1979. Name the players and their clubs (4 points). 
10. This Hall-of-Famer hit a 12^th inning walk off homerun to win Game Six of the 1975 World Series. Name the player and his club (2 points).

Tiebreaker:  Chronologically name all ten World Series winning clubs in the 1970s.

Answers

1. Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, 1971, 1979
2. George Foster, Cincinnati Reds, 1977
3. Oakland A’s, (1972-74), Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers.
4. Cincinnati Reds (The Big Red Machine), Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees
5. 3 or 4 (if you count Oakland twice): Oakland A’s (‘72, ‘73, ‘74), Cincinnati Reds (‘75, ‘76), New York Yankees (‘77, ‘78)
6. George Brett, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians, Jan Larson
7. .363 (accept .353 to .373)
8. Reggie Jackson, Oakland A’s, New York Yankees
9. Keith Hernandez (St. Louis Cardinals), Willie Stargell (Pittsburgh Pirates)
10. Carlton Fisk, Boston Red Sox

Tiebreaker:  Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland A’s (x3), Cincinnati Reds (x2), New York Yankees (x2), Pittsburgh Pirates

Our youngest member, Bailey Hall, along with her parents Nicole and Brian have graciously offered to host a lunch cookout at their house in Central Austin on Saturday, June 3 starting at 12:00 noon.  Please bring along any specific beverage that you may like along with a swimsuit and towel (if you choose to make use of the pool).  The address will be provided to anyone sending their positive RSVP to jan.a.larson@gmail.com.