July 2025 Newsletter
By Gilbert D. Martinez
Twenty chapter members and guests enjoyed a breezy San Antonio evening on Saturday that was less comfortable for the hometown San Antonio Missions, which got blanked 5-0 by the Amarillo Sod Poodles.
The Missions, the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, were down 4-0 after five innings and were shut down by the Sod Poodles, the Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, limiting the Missions to just two hits all night. Some of us stuck around after the game for an impressive fireworks display.
SABR 53 Reflections
(Chapter members Eric Bynum and Brenden Gilbreath gave research presentations at SABR 53 in Dallas last month. I asked them to share a little bit about their research and how the presentations went for them. Congratulations to them both! See their reflections below.)
By Eric Bynum
First, thank you, Gilbert, for the opportunity to share my story. My research presentation was on the controversy of the 1914 Texas League Pennant. As I was writing my article on the 1953-54 Waco Pirates of the Big State League for the journal, I came across a 1953 newspaper article on the 1914 controversy. In the article, writer Jinx Tucker mentioned how the Houston Buffaloes stole the title from the Waco Navigators. That was interesting to me but when he said they tried to play a tripleheader that day, I knew I had to research more. And so, for weeks, I dove into the archives of newspapers from Houston, Corpus Christi, Waco and more trying to piece together what really happened that day.
In a shortened version of the story, Houston apparently slow played the second game of a doubleheader. Yes, no tripleheader was scheduled, so the game would be called due to darkness. With that game incomplete, it gave the title to Houston by mere percentage points. Multiple teams protested, and the league president did something I have never seen before: he threw out games. He threw out the first games of doubleheaders that were seven innings. This led to a tie between Waco and Houston for the title. Now, there is still some controversy as to what went down, and there were some other accusations even before the final weekend of the season of gamblers and impropriety, but those may all be lost to history now.
As for the presentation itself, I was extremely nervous. I am a teacher by trade, and I am used to standing in front of teenagers all day long. But put me in front of adults, and I am a nervous wreck. Dan Wallach, who happened to be recording the event, was the one who really calmed me down beforehand. So, huge thanks to him. Looking back, the only thing I would do differently was look up once in awhile and engage more with the audience. I was nervous so my head was down reading my script most of the time, and I feel like I missed out on those connections. If you teach, you know what I mean. All the feedback was positive, and hearing I did well from total strangers was the boost I needed and greatly appreciated.
As for what might come next, there are a few things. I really want to write a book about the history of baseball in Waco (where I live) and Temple (where I grew up). There are some interesting stories from old minor league baseball teams that played here in the 1940s, 1950s and even back to the early 1900s. The research will continue, but now I am anxiously waiting to hear where next year’s convention will be because I want to give another presentation. And a huge shoutout to Don Dingee for arriving just in time to take some photos of me. I truly appreciate that.
By Brenden Gilbreath
I had an absolute blast speaking at SABR 53 last month. It is an opportunity that I cherished and only knew about through my first meeting with the chapter back in February. I applied for an oral presentation at SABR 53 right after that meeting, which I was honored to be invited to speak at.
As I talked about during our first meeting, my presentation came from a law review article that I wrote this past year, my second year at Texas Tech Law. I started that process back in August 2024 with the help of Sean Gibson and the Negro League Family Alliance. With the help of the NLFA and the folks at Texas Tech Law, I was able to get it published with the Estate Planning & Community Property Law Journal and the Texas Entertainment & Sports Law Journal.
It all could have stopped right there, and I would have been incredibly proud of the product I put together and the work that went into it. Whenever this chapter mentioned the oral presentations at SABR 53, I thought it would be the perfect capstone to a project that had taught me so much about baseball, the law, and introduced me to many great people. However, as I started working on the presentation to prepare, I realized I had become much more invested in this proposal than I had originally believed.
I believe the presentation itself went well, or I guess it must have to get an honorable mention for best presentation, though it sped by in my mind. I enjoyed every bit of it; from the time I introduced myself as a small-town cowhand who loved baseball and somehow got into law school to the moment I thanked the NFLA and Rogers Hornsby Chapter for their immense help in this project. I was fortunate to meet some great people who provided great feedback, including an invitation to give the presentation again to the Elysian Fields SABR Chapter in New Jersey.
Perhaps the greatest compliment was from Sean Gibson, who, even though he wasn’t there, reached out to me directly after my presentation about the great feedback that he had received back in Pittsburgh. While I had thought of this as a capstone to what was a big undertaking, feedback from Mr. Gibson and those at SABR 53 has made me want to take it up again. I am looking forward to the reception after its publication in the fall and hope to get this proposal that I believe can do some real good for people to more ears in the right places.
Next meeting
Join us at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9, for a presentation on Zoom by Kevin Hurd, a member of the SABR Banks-Bragan Chapter (Dallas-Fort Worth), and author of “From Randy Johnson to Dallas Braden: No-hitters Beyond the Box Score: Volume I” (2024).
Growing up outside of San Francisco, he’s an avid San Francisco Giants fan and recalls witnessing Ed Halicki’s no-hitter at Candlestick Park in 1975, which, in part, inspired him to write this book after a distinguished career in the U.S. Air Force.
Learn more about Hurd and his research about no-hitters at the August meeting. To register for the August meeting, please click on this link: https://txstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/gp2pvzVfQz2lyvYdsLXqJw
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