July 2026 Newsletter
By Gilbert D. Martinez
Chapter Commissioner
Twenty chapter members and guests were treated to a dominating 6-0 San Antonio Missions win over the Frisco RoughRiders at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium on Sunday along with a pleasant breeze throughout the game.
Missions center fielder Jake Cunningham struck a bases-clearing double in the third inning to give the hometown nine an early 4-0 lead after a sacrifice fly by second baseman Carson Tucker put them on the board. In the eighth inning, Braedon Karpathios blasted his ninth home run of the season to push the lead to 6-0.
Missions starting pitcher Eric Yost tossed six shutout innings, striking out five while allowing three hits. Three relievers combined to complete the shutout.
With the win, the Missions, the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, split the six-game series with the RoughRiders, the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.
We also had a chance to chat briefly with J.J. Jimenez, director of ticket sales for the Missions. Jimenez said the new Missions stadium is on track to be built and ready by 2028 or 2029. She and Brian Yancelson, public relations and broadcasting manager, spoke at the winter meeting in January.
Mike Bass returns for brief visit
SABR member Mike Bass, visiting from the East Coast, returned to Austin for a few days and had a group dinner on July 8. Mike, still affiliated with the Hornsby Chapter, used to live in Central Texas and continues to be active in SABR. Great to see you, Mike!
(Jim Baker shared the latest update on the email list on July 27.)
By Jim Baker
We came screaming back from the All-Star break, ready to prove that the low scores of the first 60 percent of the season were just a fluke. To make our point, we improved by 16 points each in the first 10 days since the Midsummer Classic, a fine showing by a fine bunch of people.
Leading the way was our Player of the Week, Mr. Polk, who amped up 26 points and moved from fifth place to fourth in the Mike Harrell Division. Unfortunately for those keen on having a merry chase for the title the rest of the way, the player who scored the second-most points during the marking period was our leader, Mr. Robinson. His 24-point outing increased his lead in the Harrell Division to an astonishing 51 points over Ms. Martinez and his overall lead over Tom Wancho Division leader Mr. Pollack to 27 points. If there are to be any races going forward, we can’t have our leader salting away points at the rate in the stanza just completed.
There wasn’t a lot of movement in the standings because everyone was gaining points at such a decent clip, but Mr. Rechtorovic the Elder did manage to jump two places from seventh to fifth in the Wancho Division.
With each team playing nine or 10 games since we had our last report, there was ample opportunity to go to one end of the meter or the other. The most extreme performance of this extended marking period belonged to the Miami Marlins. A week ago, they were on pace to be the third wild card team in the National League, but, by extending their losing streak the rest of the way, they ended up 0-9 since the break. This is bad news for them and good news for us as it brings them down into our Zone of Approval. They’re now costing us just six points apiece on average, a huge drop from their heady overachieving days.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox went 8-2 during the period (as part of a larger undefeated streak), dragging themselves from the pit of despair to a place where they’re just three points away from the average Predictatron pick. These two teams, more than anyone else, were responsible for our most recent success.
Here are the best and worst showings since the All-Star break:
8-2 Red Sox
7-2 Brewers
7-3 Braves
7-3 Royals
0-9 Marlins
3-7 Guardians
3-7 Cardinals
3-7 Blue Jays
Through games of Sunday, July 26, or 65.2 percent of the 2026 season:
Next meeting
Please plan to join us for our virtual meeting at 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22, when chapter member Tim Christ will talk about his just-published book, “How Boerne Made History and Played on Their Field of Dreams.” The book tells the story of the Boerne team that won the U.S. Championship at the Little League World Series in 2024. Here’s the Zoom registration link for the meeting: https://txstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/q40ZKlVqTVCd0M6pSWJmdw
We’ll also have the meeting announcement on this website and our email list in early August.
For those in the San Antonio area, Don Dingee is planning a get-together for late August, so please be on the lookout for that announcement.
Looking ahead, we plan to meet for lunch at Cover 3 in Central Austin at 1 p.m. Sept. 12. We’ll have our annual World Series watch party at Jim Baker’s house in Cedar Park in late October (teams to be determined).