February 2026 Newsletter
By Gilbert D. Martinez
An interstate trip down memory lane and a fun quiz to prepare us for spring training filled the Rogers Hornsby Chapter’s celebration of SABR Day on Saturday.
Fourteen members – including some from faraway lands such as Milwaukee, Michigan, Colorado Springs and Boston – joined us on Zoom to hear author Marshall Garvey read a chapter from his book, “Interstate ’85: The Royals, the Cardinals, and the Show-Me World Series.”
Garvey, who lives in the Sacramento area, read from his book, published last year. He said he sought to tell the story of the 1985 World Series by conducting new interviews with key participants on both teams, including George Brett, Ozzie Smith and Andy Van Slyke, and umpire Don Denkinger, who reflected on an infamous call that brought joy to one side and fury to the other.
But Garvey shared that his book goes beyond the play-by-play of the World Series and Denkinger’s call. He said he wanted to take a deep dive in this World Series to tell the human stories of those involved.
He described his book as a “compassionate book,” and invited all baseball fans, even Cardinals fans, to give it a read. The book, published by the University of Missouri Press, can be purchased through many booksellers, such as amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Here’s more information from the book publisher:
https://upress.missouri.edu/9780826223272/interstate-85/
Many thanks to Marshall Garvey for joining us to celebrate SABR Day! He said he’s hopeful to publish the first paperback edition of the book soon.
To see his full presentation, please check out this recording on YouTube:
At the start of the meeting, we took a moment to remember three-time World Series champion Terrance Gore, who died after a routine surgery a few days before. We remember how Gore, with his blazing speed, demonstrated his value as a late-game pinch runner to help his team win ballgames.
https://bsky.app/profile/royals.com/post/3mebwpkibsk2j
This was the 231st consecutive month in which the chapter has met, either in person or virtually.
SABR Town Ball Research Committee
Dick Butler, member of the Hornsby Chapter leadership team, has been part of the creation of SABR’s Town Ball Research Committee and shared details about the committee’s first meeting held last month. He said the committee has set a goal to create a database of all town ball teams across the country. “We hope it will be a resource for future researchers,” he said, adding that they hope it helps identify town ball players who may have gone on to play professional baseball.
Click here for more information about the committee.
Starting to feel a lot like spring…
Jim Baker put together a quiz about teams and their spring training sites to get us ready for the return of the game we love.
Cy Morong took top honors with 10 points, followed by Jerry with 9, and Don and guest Steven with 8.
Take a swing at Jim’s quiz here: Jim Baker’s spring training quiz
Here are the answers: Jim Baker’s spring training quiz answers
Contractatron Update!
(After the conclusion of the World Series last year, Ryan Pollack challenged us to predict the contracts for 10 of the biggest free agents this offseason. Now, only one from this group remains unsigned — Zac Gallen! Here’s Ryan’s update after Framber Valdez signed with the Detroit Tigers last week.)
By Ryan Pollack
Framber Valdez signed a 3-year, $115M contract with the Tigers [last] week and hoo boy did we all not see that coming!
Just like we have with the past few free agent signings, we all mostly missed big time. The median guess from this group was a $152.5M deal. Here’s how we fared, individually:
Yes, Mike Cohen came in first place with a whopping 26.1% miss. Overall it’s the third-worst we’ve done as a group:
With Framber’s signing, here are the current standings:
One more to go! Zac Gallen, we await your signing!!
Next Meeting
Next month’s meeting will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 21, at Serranos (5030 US 290, Austin, TX 78735) in Southwest Austin at the intersection of MoPac and U.S. 290. A request for RSVPs will go out on the website and Google Group at the beginning of the month. Hope to see you there as we prepare for opening day!