January Newsletter
By Gilbert D. Martinez
Details of two baseball stadium tours, one author talking about the circumstances in which professional ball players got the call and another detailing 19th century baseball, a national baseball writer noting a turning point in the Texas-New York team rivalries, and an MLB trainer tasked with preparing the next generation of umpires filled a full day of presentations and discussions at the Rogers Hornsby Chapter’s 18th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting on Saturday.
More than 30 chapter members and guests attended the winter meeting at Texas State University on Saturday in person and on Zoom. The meeting also featured the Round Rock Express general manager and the team’s longtime broadcaster giving updates on the Triple-A affiliate of World Series Champions Texas Rangers and one chapter member seeking to determine which is worse: a leadoff walk or a leadoff single?
Developing the next generation of umpires
Jason Starkovich, a former minor league umpire who now works as an umpire development observer for Major League Baseball, joined us via Zoom to talk about how the pathway for umpires to reach the big leagues has changed. With four years of experience as a minor league umpire, including at Dell Diamond, Starkovich trains and develops umpires in MLB’s rookie league in Arizona.
He said recent changes in the game such as the pitch clock and replay review have reduced arguments between managers and players and umpires. He noted that aspiring major league umpires are similar to baseball prospects – doing everything they can to make the big leagues. He said training often involves helping young umpires develop good instincts and quick judgments with an eye on getting the call right. He said the umpires who demonstrate these skills best are the ones who get called up.
A product of the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School, Starkovich said the path of aspiring umpires is different nowadays. Those interested apply directly to MLB and can participate in a one-month training in Florida. Those who make the cut develop their skills at rookie and low-A ball.
He shared that when he was working a game as an umpire, he and his crew were laser-focused on getting the call right. He also said he spent every second on the field “absolutely waiting for something to explode.” He added that there’s little time for idle chitchat since everyone involved – players, coaches, managers and umpires – are all trying to make the big leagues, so it felt very much like a business.
Teams from Texas vs. Teams from New York
Joe Sheehan, national baseball writer and contributor to The Athletic, joined us via Zoom to focus on the rivalry between teams from Texas (the Rangers and the Astros) and New York. Noting the recent run of success since 2017 by the Astros with two World Series Championships, four pennants, six division titles and seven consecutive trips to the American League Championship Series, Sheehan said, “For me, the Astros are a dynasty.” And, with the Rangers winning the 2023 World Series, Sheehan noticed how the script has flipped when Texas teams face New York teams, particularly the Yankees.
Sheehan said he’s fascinated by turning points and focused on an at-bat in 2010 by Texas Ranger Bengie Molina (traded from the San Francisco Giants that year).
Up to that point, Texas teams (Astros and Rangers combined) had zero playoff series wins against the Yankees, but when Molina hit a three-run homer in Yankee Stadium to even the ALCS, Sheehan said that marked the turning point in the rivalry between the two states. The Rangers dispatched the Yankees to go on to their first World Series as a franchise. For the Yankees, they’ve since suffered playoff losses to the Astros in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022 and missed the playoffs in 2023 for the first time since 2016.
In a conversation with chapter member Ryan Pollack and with questions from the audience, Sheehan shared his thoughts about other baseball issues. He believes that revenue sharing between the teams and broadcasting issues will dominate the next collective bargaining agreement with the players. He said he thinks MLB wants to get to a point where it sells everything, but it can’t get there because some teams have highly profitable deals with broadcasting companies. Like many baseball fans, he’s been saddened by what John Fisher has done with the Oakland Athletics.
For more information about the Joe Sheehan Newsletter, click here: http://www.joesheehan.com/
Getting the call
Zak Ford, chair of SABR’s Dusty Baker Chapter in Sacramento, joined us via Zoom to share highlights from his book “Called Up: Ballplayers Remember Becoming Major Leaguers” (Oct. 27, 2023).
His book includes more than 100 major leaguers such as Bobby Grich, Bobby Witt and Ryan Rowland-Smith. He includes how each player found out they were going to the show, including who told them and the circumstances in which they were told. He also includes details about their first game in uniform and first game appearance.
To learn more about his book and how to purchase, click here:
https://www.amazon.com/Called-Up-Ballplayers-Remember-Becoming/dp/1476692793
Which is worse: Leadoff walk or leadoff single?
Building on a presentation at last year’s winter meeting about baseball statistics, chapter member Bailey Hall sought to focus on a particular baseball question and to see if she could prove her father wrong. She wanted to know which was worse: a leadoff walk or a leadoff single? Her father, Brian Hall, and other family members had long told her that a leadoff walk was much more detrimental to the pitcher and the team on defense.
She didn’t know if she could arrive at an answer to the seemingly simple question, so she asked Keith Hernandez, former New York Mets great and current team broadcaster, and former Astros pitching phenom Larry Dierker to get perspectives from both sides of the diamond. Both told her that the leadoff walk was way worse.
But Hall didn’t stop there. With help from her parents, fellow chapter member Ryan Pollack and others, she learned how to read and combine datasets from Statcast and Retrosheet and found that in 2023, leadoff walks led to 0.9836 runs while leadoff singles led to 0.9549, which was not a significant statistical difference. However, she dug deeper and found that in the 9th inning, leadoff singles (which led to 0.8829 runs) were worse than leadoff walks (0.8378 runs).
For more about Hall’s findings and how she disproved her dad, download her presentation here:
Bailey Hall Baseball Statistical Analysis Project 2024-1
Round Rock Express update
Express General Manager Tim Jackson and voice of the Express and chapter member Mike Capps gave their updates on the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. Jackson said he noticed that even casual fans started to make the connection between the minor league and major league clubs as the Rangers led the American League West for much of the season. As a minor league team with connections to both the Rangers and the Astros in recent years, he noted that more than 20 players on the rosters for the ALCS in 2023 spent some time at the Dell Diamond.
Jackson said he’s looking forward to Dell Diamond hosting the Round Rock College Classic from Feb. 23 to 25, featuring Texas State University, the University of Kansas, the University of Kentucky and Washington State University. The Express, which opens its season on March 29, will unveil a new scoreboard. Jackson said he’s looking forward to partnering with the big league club to tie in to its World Series promotions and plans to bring the World Series trophy to Dell Diamond during the season.
Mike Capps, the voice of the Express and author of “Grinders: Baseball’s Intrepid Infantry,” shared how he gets to know the minor league players, many of whom are doing everything they can to achieve their dream of making the big leagues. During a tough stretch for the Express during the season, the players sought Cappy out to talk to them and give them a boost. He said he didn’t understand at first why they wanted him to speak, but he encouraged them to play hard and lay it all on the line. His connection with the players, and this talk, was a “crowning moment of my life,” he said. “They had a huge impact on me.”
Among the Express players to watch for, Cappy said, is Justin Foscue, who’s on the Rangers’ 40-man roster. He expects that if there’s an injury on the Rangers, Foscue is likely to be the first one called up. He also recounted how Evan Carter spent a few weeks with the Express before being called up in 2023 and breaking out for the Rangers in their drive to win the World Series. He doesn’t expect him back in Round Rock anytime soon.
Baseball stadium tour
Chapter members Syd Polk and Jan Larson recounted details from their respective tours of baseball stadiums. Larson shared that he hadn’t planned to see every major league stadium, but after a baseball trip with friends to Atlanta in 1985, they decided to make it an annual thing. Over the course of 47 years (including a visit to Royals Stadium in 1976 and Arlington Stadium in 1984), Larson has visited 59 ballparks to watch an MLB game, including a few international sites and minor league parks filling in for a major league park. Because of time constraints, Larson plans to share more about his tour at next year’s winter meeting.
While Larson’s tour spans decades, Syd Polk’s was much briefer. He recounted how he planned to visit 24 stadiums in 11 weeks in 1994. He wrote a computer program to determine his itinerary and did it the old-fashioned way with paper maps and without modern conveniences such as smart phones with mapping apps. He had an impressive display of stadium cups, scorecards and other memorabilia from his trip. He noted that he didn’t make it to the Kingdome in Seattle in 1994 because the Mariners were forced to play the rest of the season on the road after ceiling tiles had fallen on the field before a game that July, closing the stadium. But he did see a game there the previous year so he counted it as part of his tally for the 12-month time period.
Baseball in the 19th century
Justin Mckinney transported all of us to the 19th century when the Union Association struggled to compete against other professional baseball leagues. Mckinney, joining us from Calgary via Zoom, shared details from his book, “Baseball’s Union Association: The Short, Strange Life of a 19th-Century Major League,” about the short-lived Union Association and ill-fated clubs that folded partway through the season, such as the Mountain Citys of Altoona, Pa., still the smallest city to host a major league baseball team. He told us about founder Henry V. Lucas, a 26-year-old millionaire from St. Louis, and how he monopolized the best players to lead the St. Louis Maroons to a .832 winning percentage.
To learn more about his book and how to purchase, click here:
https://www.amazon.com/Baseballs-Union-Association-Strange-19th-Century/dp/1476680604
Mock HOF vote
A winter meeting tradition for many years, the National Baseball Hall of Fame voting by Hornsby Chapter members and guests has often predicted what the Baseball Writers’ Association of America actually does with the vote.
This year, chapter members elected only Adrián Beltré to the Hall of Fame. Of 22 ballots submitted, Beltre appeared on 21, garnering 95.4% of the vote, easily surpassing the 75% threshold for induction.
The player with the next highest vote total was Todd Helton, who received 15 votes for a 68.1% share. Joe Mauer and Billy Wagner each received 13 votes, a 59% share. Chase Utley received nine votes for a 40.9% share. On his 10th and final ballot, Gary Sheffield received eight votes for a 36.3% share.
The following players received one or zero votes and thus would be eliminated from future ballot consideration for failing to accrue 5% of the vote: Jose Bautista, Bartolo Colon, Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Holliday, Torii Hunter, Victor Martinez, Jose Reyes, Jimmy Rollins and James Shields.
At 5 p.m. Central Time on Jan. 23, the BBWAA will announce the results of its 2024 Hall of Fame vote live from Cooperstown on MLB Network.
Highs of ushering at Rockies games
Chapter member Peter Myers, who splits time between San Antonio and Denver in his retirement, joined the ushering staff at Coors Field in 2023. He shared some of his highlights in experiencing the game from an usher’s perspective and working with other retirees and college and high school interns. He also shared what some fans have tried bringing into the stadium and how his supervisors helped him manage potentially volatile situations. He also recalled visits to the mile-high stadium in downtown Denver by his late wife’s family from Canada as well as by fellow chapter members such as Ira Siegel and Gilbert and Raeanne Martinez.
Predictatron trophy presentation
Predictatron contest-runner Jim Baker presented trophies to four-time winner Raeanne Martinez for winning the season-long prediction contest and Frank Rechtorovic for nailing the post-season contest (with what Frank noted was the “largest margin of victory”). Both had their names added to their respective trophies and have the honor of displaying their trophies at home for 2024.
But the battle to see if they will defend their titles or if other members will flex their prognostication skills to nab the trophies is just around the corner. Keep an eye out for Baker’s invitation to join the next Predictatron contest in an email to the Google group list in March before the start of the regular season.
Bill Gilbert
At the beginning of the meeting, we took a moment to remember Bill Gilbert, who founded both the Rogers Hornsby Chapter and the Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston. It was his idea to host a winter meeting to feature prominent baseball figures and presentations about baseball. Since his passing in 2018, we miss him and remain grateful for the vibrant baseball communities he helped to create.
Appreciation
Much appreciation to all presenters and speakers, and to everyone able to join us in person at Old Main on the Texas State University campus in San Marcos! Special thanks to Jerry Miller, who organized the winter meeting, Monte and Linda Cely for providing the hot dogs, chips and Cracker Jack lunch and snacks for an affordable fee, and Ryan Pollack for bringing Joe Sheehan for our meeting and leading the conversation with him and for running our mock HOF voting.
Next meeting: SABR Day on Feb. 3
SABR has designated Saturday, Feb. 3, as National SABR Day, so we plan to have a meeting on Zoom to celebrate the day and anticipate the start of spring training. More details to come on the chapter website and email list later this month.
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