October 2026 Newsletter
By Gilbert D. Martinez
Chapter Commissioner
In one of the chapter’s longest and most enjoyable traditions, 15 members gathered at Jim Baker’s house to watch a thrilling World Series game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers.
Though the Rays took an early four-run lead in the first inning of Game 2 on Saturday, the Brewers instantly got the crowd back in it with two runs of their own in the bottom half.
A tight game ensued with the Brew Crew chasing Rays ace Drew Rasmussen after 3 1/3 innings, pulling to within one of the lead. A fence-scrapper to dead center by Sal Frelick in the sixth tied the game, and an RBI single by Cooper Pratt, scoring Brice Turang, gave the Brewers the lead for good.
The Rays threatened in the ninth inning with Yandy Diaz at the top of the lineup with the tying run on third. However, a very close checked-swing call ended Diaz’s at bat, and the game, giving the Brewers a commanding 2-0 lead in the World Series. On Monday, the scene shifts to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where the Rays hope to get back in the fall classic.
Prior to first pitch, Jim had attendees draw numbers from a Rays cap to assign half innings for a contest related to runs scored in a half inning. The winner would be the one whose half inning had the most runs. Little did we know that the Rays’ four-run first inning would give Tom Wancho – who had the top of the first — the win. Congrats, Tom!
Jim shared that he had had his eye on the old-school scoreboard for many years but passed on purchasing it at antique stores until he was able to pick it up in recent years. He also said he remembers his dad would have contests like this related to sporting events in his childhood.
Jim Baker generously treated us to delicious sausage fare with buns, chips, pretzels and potato salad, plus a whitefish dip appetizer to represent the Rays. Desserts from Monte Cely, Ryan Pollack, Nicole Bryan, Ira Siegel, and Raeanne Martinez and beverages and snacks from others filled out the menu. Many thanks to Jim for the hospitality!
Decked out in Seattle Pilots gear, Jerry Miller highlighted the fact that the Pilots left Seattle in 1969, creating the Milwaukee Brewers the following year. From his baseball collection, Jerry shared the last program of the defunct Pilots in 1969 and the first year of the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970.
Dan Walsh, winner of the September trivia quiz, brought a World Series-themed quiz to challenge our knowledge. Jerry Miller brought his A-game, reaching an impressive 29 points out of a maximum 33 points. Tom Thayer was second with 23 points, Jim Baker was third with 18 points and Ryan Pollack was fourth with 13 points.
Take your best World Series swing at Dan’s excellent quiz here: World Series Quiz 2026
Check your answers here: World Series Quiz 2026 Answers
Boerne Book Festival features two chapter members
Hornsby Chapter members Tim Christ and Dick Butler were two of the featured authors on a Hill Country baseball panel at the Boerne Book Festival on Oct. 3. Tim reflected on his book, “How Boerne Made History and Played on their Field of Dreams,” recounting the team’s path to the Little League World Series in Williamsport. Tim also highlighted the magical feeling of playing in Williamsport and the strong support of the Boerne community.
“I greatly appreciated the audience questions, especially about how parents can develop their young kids to work to achieve this goal, and how we kept them grounded while they are in the midst of all this media and hype!” Tim said.
Dick presented an overview of town baseball teams in the Hill Country from his book, “Hill Country Ball/Depression-Era Baseball in the Texas German Belt.” Dick pointed out that town baseball helped to bring Hill Country communities together, especially in the face of hard times during the Depression. He also chronicled how future Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean got his start in the Hill Country in the late 1920s and the significance of a Black team, the Kerrville All-Stars, in the Jim Crow era.
“I enjoyed talking about how important baseball was to every town in the Hill Country 100 years ago,” Dick said.
The presentations of Tim and Dick complemented each other well. Dick featured the origins and rise of town baseball in the early 20th century, establishing a legacy of outstanding baseball in Boerne, which is reflected in the success of Boerne Little League today.
Postseason Predictatron: Latest Update on Oct. 21
By Jim Baker
The Guardians are gone and with them go the hopes of Tom Wancho, both on a personal level and in terms of this contest. As the only entrant to pick Cleveland to go all the way, he would have waltzed to the title had that occurred. Now, he has been relegated to a down-standings position.
Only two players picked the Rays to go all the way: Andy York and Eric Robinson, while eight players have the Brewers winning it.
Naming all seven series winners correctly
It sounds like the easiest thing in the world to do: name all the four winners of the LDS, the two winners of the LCS and the winner of the World Series. As it has turned out, however, it is not.
This year, however, we could double that number. If the Brewers win the World Series, Michael Bass, Gilbert Martinez, Mike McNulty and Jim Baker will have all named the seven winners.
Naming both World Series participants correctly
Once again, this seems like the easiest thing a person could do, but it’s not. In fact, not a single player did it last year. And, we’ve had two three-season spans where nobody did it. From 2009 to 2011 and from 2021 to 2023, not one entrant was able to name both participants. This year, though, we’ve got seven players who did so. In addition to the four mentioned above, Don Dingee, Joe LeBritton and Syd Polk got the A.L. and N.L. entrants right.
If Tampa Bay wins the World Series:
Michael Bass is champion.
Gilbert Martinez and Mike McNulty tie for second.
If Milwaukee wins the World Series in four or seven games:
Michael Bass is champion.
Gilbert Martinez and Mike McNulty tie for second.
If Milwaukee wins the World Series in five or six games:
Gilbert Martinez and Mike McNulty are co-champions.
Jim Baker finishes third.
Assessing the tiebreaker
As you know, we use total LDS, LCS and World Series games to break our ties. The Brewers sweep brought the total to 20 and the ALCS was another six games, bringing us to 26 games total heading into the World Series. This means there will be a minimum of 30 postseason games and a maximum of 33, so the players with the lowest total games are going to do better in the tiebreakers.
See exactly where you’ll finish
The attachment has the eventuality for every possible Series outcome by games, so you’ll be able to find out where you’ll finish no matter what happens.
Awardatron
[Note: Ryan shared this on the chapter email list at the conclusion of the 2026 season.]
By Ryan Pollack
Well wouldn’t you know it, time flies and here we are at the end of the regular season. Time to hand out some hardware before we find out who actually won in mid November!
AL MVP: Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros
Close here between Bobby Witt Jr. and Alvarez, but the WAR totals are basically identical, Houston would not be in the postseason hunt without Alvarez whereas Witt Jr.’s Royals were eliminated awhile ago, and Yordan’s 42 dingers (entering play Sunday) feel like an easy reason to justify breaking any kind of tie. Plus, he was in a Triple Crown race for a good long while.
NL MVP: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Chicago Cubs
Easiest call of the season. He should not only win but also be unanimous. PCA had a 40/40 year and is an elite defender at center fielder by all measures, including the eye test. No one else in the NL, not even Shohei, is anywhere close to his offensive stats.
AL Cy Young: Cam Schlittler, New York Yankees
Schlittler was so good this year he might get Top-10 MVP votes. By FanGraphs WAR he’s essentially tied with Alvarez and Witt Jr.
Schlittlerbahn combined swing-and-miss filth (31.4% strikeout rate) with exceptional command (6.4% walk rate) across almost 200 innings of work. He also as a sub 2 ERA to please the more traditionally minded voters. Joe Sheehan has pointed out for awhile now how the Yankees have become a run prevention team. Cam is just the latest example of this.
NL Cy Young: Jacob Misiorowski, Milwaukee Brewers
Everything I wrote about Schlittler above I could write about ‘The Miz’, just moving some numbers around here and there and (duh) in the NL instead of AL. Just a dominant season from start to finish.
AL ROY: Kevin McGonigle, Detroit Tigers
McGonigle hit the crap out of the ball and got on base at a great clip (.276/.375/.424) with 17 HR and added average defense at key infield positions to boot. No other rookie came really close to his value this year, even if the Tigers disappointed. He was so good that he’ll likely get Top-15 MVP votes as well.
NL ROY: Sal Stewart, Cincinnati Reds
When it comes to whom I think will actually win, this is the first award I struggled with. The Cardinals’ JJ Wetherholt leads all rookies with 4.5 fWAR and the Mets’ Carson Benge is essentially tied with 4.1. Nolan McLean had an excellent season as well.
But even with slightly over 2 WAR, many have highlighted Stewart because of his 32 HR and 111 RBI as being standout for anyone, let alone a rookie. I personally wouldn’t vote for him, as I think defensive capabilities at difficult positions matter in terms of helping your team win games and value. But I think BBWAA voters will overlook this and give Stewart the hardware for his (admittedly impressive) season.
AL Manager of the Year: Will Venable, Chicago White Sox
Sure, Cleveland won the division, but Vogt has won the award a lot recently. And sure, the Red Sox came back from the brink of oblivion to lock up a playoff spot, but they were always supposed to be good.
The White Sox — in case you weren’t aware — lost 100+ games the past three years before landing a Wild Card spot this year and being in the division race for much of the season.
NL Manager of the Year: Craig Stammen, San Diego Padres
This is the other award I struggled with. You could make the case for Pat Murphy, whose Brewers continually confound expectations. You could also make the case for Walt Weiss for leading the Braves to a division title one year after winning only 76 games.
But the Padres had to overcome early season slumps by key players to get to the playoffs, and while they didn’t win the division, I think voters give them a pass given the Dodgers still rule the NL West roost. The Dads did well enough to lock up the 4 seed and host the Cubs in the Wild Card game.
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Thank you so much for playing Awardatron this year. I’ll be back with the final totals in mid-November!
Contractatron is back!
By Ryan Pollack
Greetings one and all,
As the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers battle it out in a best-of-seven bonanza, it’ll be the first championship for the winning squad.
It’s time to kick off Contractatron 2026!
This year, as in years past, you will guess how much money major free agents will sign for. I decided this year to ignore anyone with an option decision, so we just have a straight list of free agents to choose from. It’s a rather weak class with two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal as the only true star. But there are still some interesting names to think about, including ALCS MVP Freddy Peralta and Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Your ballots are due by 5 p.m. Central Time on Monday, Nov. 2. Get predicting here!
Upcoming meetings
Join us next month when we meet at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, at Serranos at 5030 U.S. 290 (MoPac and Ben White) in Southwest Austin for the November chapter meeting. We’ll have lots to talk about then – the World Series and MLB’s award winners.
For December, we return to the restaurant that hosted the birth of this chapter in 2003 at 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20, at County Line on the Lake on RM 2222 in Northwest Austin.
The Hornsby Chapter’s 21st Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 9, 2027, at Texas State University. We’re working hard on the schedule and will share more information soon. Please save the date for a fun, full day of baseball chatter!