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.