By Gilbert D. Martinez
Chapter Commissioner
The Rogers Hornsby Chapter continues to be active with regular monthly meetings, baseball outings to the Dell Diamond in Round Rock and Wolff Municipal Stadium in San Antonio, an annual winter meeting, World Series watch party and robust participation on the group’s email list.
Highlights from the year include the 20th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting at Texas State University, which featured MLB veteran Keith Moreland and long-time broadcaster Mike Capps, Michael Gibbons, director emeritus of the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore, and book authors Doug Kurkal (“It’s a Beautiful Day for Baseball: The National Pastime in the 1960s”) and Rob Sheinkopf (“Baseball Imposters: The Dark Side of Fandom”). Representatives from the Round Rock Express (General Manager Tim Jackson), the San Antonio Missions (J.J. Jimenez, director of ticket sales, and Brian Yancelson, public relations and broadcasting manager) and John Fredland, head of SABR’s Baseball Games Project, also joined. We also had presentations from members and guests.
In Zoom meetings for SABR Day and one in August, the chapter welcomed book authors Kevin Hurd (“From Randy Johnson to Dallas Braden: No-hitters Beyond the Box Score”) and Marshall Garvey (“Interstate ’85”).
In addition, with Membership Coordinator Don Dingee’s leadership, we have instituted quarterly lunch meetings in the San Antonio area to increase engagement with members in Central and South Texas.
The chapter had a slight growth in membership from 89 last year to 92 in May. Members with 10+ years in SABR was 33.7% (31 members) with new members at 21.7% (20 members). Membership retention also had a slight increase from 88.1% last year to 89.9% this year. Month-to-month in-person and virtual meeting engagement remains strong with an average of 15 attendees (16.3% active participation). There’s also regular participation among members on the Google group email list.
A continuing volunteer commitment for the chapter is the baseball memories program. May 2026 marks 11 years that the chapter has fielded baseball reminiscence programs with monthly programs at the Kerrville Veterans Affairs Medical Center since 2016. Since 2023, monthly programs have also been conducted at Williamson County AGE of Central Texas in Round Rock. In 2026, two additional programs have been added at Grace Place in San Antonio and at the South Austin office of AGE. All four programs achieved a record monthly high of 96 participants.
In May, the chapter conducted its second commissioner election, re-electing Gilbert D. Martinez for a second three-year term. In accordance with the chapter’s bylaws, he has appointed Ryan Pollack, webmaster and facilitator, Don Dingee, membership coordinator, Jerry Miller, winter meeting coordinator, Dick Butler, election coordinator and Nicole Bryan, at-large coordinator. Monte Cely, who has long been involved with the chapter, has stepped down as coordinator. We thank him for his long service to the chapter and leadership in the baseball memories program. He’ll stay on as director emeritus and baseball memories coordinator for the chapter.
Monte Cely, baseball memories coordinator, and Don Dingee, membership coordinator, contributed to this report.