To celebrate SABR Day, the Rogers Hornsby Chapter welcomed longtime Astros broadcaster Bill Brown for the February meeting on Zoom. Less than a month ago, he was named to the Class of 2023 for the Houston Astros Hall of Fame.
Fourteen SABR members and guests were delighted to hear about Brownie’s career – from his professional start as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Cincinnati Stingers, a professional hockey team in 1975, and later for the Cincinnati Reds. After joining the Houston Astros in 1987, he began building a Hall of Fame career.
Check out the recording of the meeting, which features Brownie’s observations on joining an Astros club one year after the team lost the NLCS to the Mets in 1986, and one year before future Hall of Fame player Craig Biggio joined the club in 1987. He also talked about how much broadcasting has changed since his professional start. He also told a humorous story about how he got a sudden baptism into broadcasting baseball for the first time in 1972 when he was tapped to fill in for beloved Reds broadcast Waite Hoyt (also legendary Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Yankees). Not only was it his first game, but the Reds went on to clinch the division in that game, and it happened in Houston.
Brownie also personally thanked chapter member Monte Cely for his help over the winter with research about Latin American baseball for his latest work, “Swinging for Glory: A baseball novel.” For Monte’s help, Brownie promised to send him a copy of the book.
Click here for the full recording of Brownie’s visit with our chapter: https://youtu.be/WFLSkReZ2a4
We’re so grateful for Bill joining us on a Saturday afternoon to help us celebrate him and SABR Day. We look forward to seeing his induction, along with second baseman Bill Doran, in August 2023 at Minute Maid Park.
Afterward, Jerry Miller challenged us with a quiz about pitchers being batters. With 18 questions totaling 20 points, Jan Larson batted .300 on the quiz (earning 6 out of 20 points) to win the quiz. Cy Morong from San Antonio and Dixie Tourangeau from Boston tied for second, batting .250 (earning 5 out of 20 points). Miller will present Jan with a the team photo of the 1966 Atlanta Braves featuring one of the quiz answers for his top prize. Cy will receive a photo of another quiz answer, whom Jerry called the “worst hitting pitcher,” for second place. Dixie will get his second-place-tie prize next time he’s in town.
You can take a swing at Jerry’s quiz below (note that the answers are at the end of this post, and also in the video recording linked above, so if you want to try taking the quiz and aren’t ready to hear the answers, avoid watching the video or pause accordingly).
This was the 195th consecutive month in which the chapter has met, a streak dating to December 2006.
As is our custom, quiz winner Jan Larson will prepare one for the March meeting, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, March 18.
We’ll be deep into spring training and quarterfinals for the World Baseball Classic by then. The regular season will start less than two weeks later! Hope to see you at the March meeting!
PITCHERS AS BATTERS QUIZ (20 points total)
By Jerry Miller
Depending on your perspective, 2022 marked either the year baseball entered the 21st (or the 20th or even the 19th) century, or the end of civilization as we know it. Barring a miracle or some bizarre Joe Madden or Tony LaRussa strategy, this year marks the end of pitchers as real athletes, errrrrrr, hitters. And so, we mark this sea change the best way we know how, by testing your knowledge of pitchers who tried (and sometimes succeeded, but mostly failed miserably) to help their own causes.
1) Which San Diego Padres pitcher gave up Bartolo Colon’s one and only major league HR?
2) Who was the last pitcher (in the 2018 NLCS) to hit a post-season home run? Brownie points if you know the future Hall of Fame pitcher he hit it off of.
3) Who was the first pitcher (in 1920) to hit a home run in the World Series? More brownie points if you can name the two other firsts that occurred in that game (one of which has yet to be duplicated).
4) Who was the last pitcher to hit a home run in the World Series? (Hint #1: he did it in 2008 for the Phillies. Hint #2: Next year is his first year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame, but he will be lucky if he even gets on the ballot.)
5) Who are the only two pitchers to both hit a home run and win the MVP award in the same World Series? Hint: they did it in consecutive Series.
6) Which San Diego Padres pitcher was the last to hit a walkoff home run?
7) Who is the only pitcher to hit two grand slams in a game? (Hint: for the Atlanta Braves in 1966).
8) Who holds the career mark for most home runs hit as a pitcher? (Hint: he isn’t in the Hall of Fame, but his brother is.)
9) Within three, how many of his 714 home runs did Babe Ruth hit as a pitcher?
10) Within twenty, what number home run of Ruth’s 714 was his last hit as a pitcher?
11) Name the Hall of Fame pitcher who twice hit seven home runs in a single season.
12) Who was the first American League pitcher to hit a home run after the adoption of the designated hitter? (Hint: his son now plays in the major leagues).
13) What Baltimore Oriole was the last American League pitcher to hit a home run as a pitcher (not counting Shohei Ohtani)?
14) What pitcher hit two home runs while also pitching a no-hitter the same day? Hint: He was traded, on separate occasions, for two different Hall of Famers.
15) Which Astro (again not counting Ohtani) was the last pitcher (in Game 5 of the 2021 World Series) to bat in a major league game prior to the adoption of the universal DH? Hint: another Astro pitcher batted in the same game, but did so as a pinch hitter.
16) Who are the only two pitchers to hit two World Series home runs? Hint #1: Both of them played for teams named after birds. Hint #2: One is a Hall of Famer; the other had a lasting impact on the game, for very different reasons, and only after he retired.
17) The player with the most at bats against Nolan Ryan without striking out is Julian Javier, with 16. This pitcher, however, who won two Silver Slugger awards, is close by, with 12. Hint: He once beat out Ryan for the Cy Young Award (Ryan finished fourth), and his name has been in the news recently.
18) Speaking of the Silver Slugger award, who is the only pitcher to win it more than three times (a total of five)? Hint: He did it five years in a row, for four different teams.
ANSWERS:
1) James Shields, SDP 5/7/16.
2) Brandon Woodruff (MIL) off Clayton Kershaw (LAD), 2018 NLCS.
3) Jim Bagby (CLE) 1920 WS. In the same game, Elmer Smith hit the first WS grand slam, and Bill Wambsganss turned the first (and only) unassisted triple play.
4) Joe Blanton (PHI).
5) Bob Gibson (STL 1967) and Mickey Lolich (DET 1968).
6) Craig Lefferts 4/25/86.
7) Tony Cloninger.
8) Wes Farrell (brother of undeserving HOFer Rick Farrell, 37 plus one as PH). Also holds the single season record (9).
9) 14.
10) # 686 (10/1/33).
11) Don Drysdale.
12) Bobby Witt TEX (6/30/97).
13) Zack Britton (BAL 7/3/11).
14) Rick Wise (traded for both Steve Carlton and Dennis Eckersley).
15) Kendall Graveman (Zack Greinke pinch hit in the game).
16) Bob Gibson (1967 and 1968) and Dave McNally (1966 and 1970).
17) Fernando Valenzuela.
18) Mike Hampton (Astros, Mets, Rockies, and Braves).
Insights about Oakland A’s owner Charlie O. Finley, biographies about major league players, perspectives about the life and career of the late Gaylord Perry and a personal remembrance of Vin Scully were among the highlights of a fun-filled day of baseball talk at the 17th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting on Saturday, Jan. 7.
Jerry Miller, winter meeting coordinator, gave a touching remembrance of Vin Scully, perhaps the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time, who passed away in 2022. Miller shared how Scully’s career started just before he was born and carried him and his family as Dodgers fans throughout his life. He also shared a few choice broadcasts by Scully and his brief interactions with Scully, in person and through correspondence. Jerry helped us remember that baseball creates a strong bond between broadcasters and fans, but also among parents and children.
Jerry Miller led a presentation featuring his memories and memories of some chapter members of the 2022 season. Memories by Miller, Jan Larson (who was unable to attend), Ira Siegel (pictured) and Gilbert Martinez were followed by contributions from audience members. Later, Frank Rechtorovic remarked that our group could’ve talked for hours about our baseball memories. So true, Frank!
A popular feature of the winter meeting involves participants playing the part of BBWAA voters for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Our vote has often served as an accurate prediction of the actual vote. With Jan Larson unable to attend, Ryan Pollack (pictured) grabbed the ballots and pitch-hit admirably for Larson.
Jim Baker presented trophies to the winners of Predictatron, the full-season prediction contest and the postseason contest. For predictions for the season and postseason made in March, Chuck Kaufman (pictured above, right, with Baker) took home the trophy for the year. For his postseason predictions, David Curtoys (pictured below, right, with Baker) won the Postseason Predictatron trophy.
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