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.
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