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:
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.
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.
(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!
A former Chicago Cubs favorite, an author on the hunt for baseball imposters, the director emeritus of the Babe Ruth museum and an author who examined baseball in the 1960s were among the headliners of the 20th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting on Saturday.
In addition, we heard from representatives of the Round Rock Express and the San Antonio Missions and a Texas State master’s graduate who interned with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys. Chapter members offered presentations about their personal experiences with baseball, sabermetrics, tabletop baseball simulations and a clever presentation evaluating AI and our very own Cy Morong.
One member previewed his book about Depression-era baseball in the Hill Country, to be published later this year.
It was a fun-filled day for 44 members and guests packed with everything baseball, thrilling and entertaining attendees throughout the day.
Keith Moreland and Mike Capps
Longtime broadcaster and journalist and chapter member Mike Capps led a conversation with Keith Moreland, who played mostly for the Cubs and Phillies in a 12-year MLB career. Capps, himself the author of “Grinders: Baseball’s Intrepid Infantry,” noted how much he admired how Moreland played the game. Moreland was also a key member of the Texas Longhorns team that won the 1975 College World Series.
“I grinded every day,” Moreland said, pointing out that he knew his role – to do whatever he could to help the team win. He also described himself as a sponge to learn as much as he could from veteran stars such as Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Greg Luzinski, Steve Carlton and Tug McGraw, among many others.
Asked about how the game has changed from when he played, Moreland remembered when he joined the Cubs broadcast booth in 2011. He said he was surprised that players didn’t stick around after games.
“I was stunned,” he said. “We used to sit around… and talk about the game.”
He said one of his concerns about baseball today is the prevalence of gambling despite how ingrained the gambling prohibition has been in baseball for years. He described Pete Rose as a good friend, having talked to him regularly, including a week before he died in 2024.
“He’s a Hall of Famer, but he bet on the game,” Moreland said.
Capps asked him what he would change about the game for the better. Moreland said he’d let pitchers bat again, which drew some applause from the audience. He also described himself as a traditionalist but believes games need more action and need to be concluded more quickly. He said he’s not opposed to putting a runner at second in extra innings.
He said he would reduce commercial breaks and emphasize a faster pace of play to be more entertaining to fans.
Moreland shared several stories from his playing days, including catching pitcher Mark Davis early in his career. It was a rough start for Davis, in which opposing batters teed off on him. In an early mound visit, manager Dallas Green asked Moreland what Davis had. “I don’t know,” Moreland said. “It hasn’t gotten to me yet.” Moreland also noted that Davis went on to win a Cy Young in 1988 as a closer for the San Diego Padres.
Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum (Baltimore)
In a virtual presentation, Michael Gibbons, director emeritus of the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore, shared the history of the museum, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024. This independent, nonprofit educational institution is devoted to preserving and perpetuating the legacy of Babe Ruth.
He noted that the museum has fielded many inquiries from media and fans from all around the world, especially with the success of Shohei Ohtani, who has drawn comparisons with the Bambino because both had tremendous success as pitchers and batters. He said that Ohtani’s performance has brought renewed interest in Ruth.
Gibbons shared that one of his favorite artifacts in the museum is Babe Ruth’s rookie card, valued in the millions. He shared that in safeguarding the card, the museum employed the same company that created the secure enclosure for Dr. Martin Luther King’s handwritten “I Have a Dream” speech.
It should also be noted that Ryan Pollack shared that he had several birthday parties at the museum growing up in the Baltimore area, and that he met Gibbons through his father, who shared a yoga class with Gibbons.
Doug Kurkul
Author of “It’s a Beautiful Day for Baseball: The National Pastime in the 1960s,” Doug Kurkul joined us via Zoom to talk about his book and the significance of the decade in baseball history. He notes that there were 56 Hall of Famers who played in the ’60s, a decade he describes as the last one in which baseball was the undisputed national pastime. He interviewed a number of former ballplayers and executives, including Tommy John, Jim Kaat, Bob Aspromonte, Pat Gillick and Branch Rickey III. He also compared baseball in the ’60s and the modern day in terms of salaries, player movements, postseason play and use of statistics.
To learn more about his presentation, use the link to see his presentation slides:
Author of “Baseball Imposters: The Dark Side of Fandom,” and “Hey, Mom, Wanna Have a Catch? A Collection of Baseball Stories Honoring Moms and Dads Who Taught Us How to Love America’s National Pastime,” Rob Sheinkopf shared entertaining stories about both books.
In “Baseball Imposters,” he had come across more than a few accounts of relatives who had a dad or uncle who they believed had played professional baseball, only to learn that it wasn’t true. Sheinkopf took to investigating some of these claims to resolve questions from relatives who wanted to know the truth. He recounted how he made an appointment with a chiropractor to confront him about his false claims. He just had to know the truth, and he wanted to understand why people persist in making these false claims.
In “Hey, Mom, Wanna Have a Catch?” Sheinkopf shares heartfelt stories about how parents have played a pivotal role in fostering a love and joy for the game of baseball. The book includes a contribution from Hornsby Chapter member Monte Cely about his father taking him to his first ballgame.
Tim Jackson, general manager of the Round Rock Express, shared highlights from the 2025 season, including a franchise record of walkoff wins (12). He talked about infielder Cody Freeman earning the Triple-A batting crown, batting .336, and making his Major League debut with the Texas Rangers.
He said the Express got off to a slow start in 2025 but rebounded with a strong second half, prompting hopes for an improved outlook for 2026. This month, the Express announced their coaching staff for 2026, including naming Kyle Moore as the club’s manager.
Jackson also talked about the Dell Diamond hosting Athletes Unlimited Softball Association games in 2026. In fact, the Dell Diamond set attendance records for AUSA exhibition games in 2025. He said they expect details on the upcoming season to be announced soon.
Jackson shared that the Express begin their season on the road on March 26 and have their home opener on March 31.
For the first time in chapter history, representatives from the San Antonio Missions joined our winter meeting to share updates about the team and possible directions for the future. In recent years, the Hornsby Chapter has scheduled outings to a Missions game during the summer to expand the chapter’s reach into other areas of Central Texas.
J.J. Jimenez, director of ticket sales, and Brian Yancelson, public relations and broadcasting manager, talked about their roles with the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres.
“We drive up to a ballpark every day and go to work,” Jimenez said, reflecting both her and Brian’s love of the game and joy working with the Missions.
Brian also talked about the challenges of getting to know young ballplayers in the system who can and often are traded, especially when the big league club has been active in trades in recent years.
J.J. also talked about ongoing plans to build a new stadium for the Missions in downtown San Antonio and the hope that it will add to an already active and thriving business and entertainment destination. Current plans are to build the new stadium in the northern part of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park near the intersection of I-35 and I-10 in time for the 2028 season.
Texas State master’s graduate Carly Earnest, who interned with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, shared her experiences taking photos and managing social media content during the 2025 season. She got to know many of the prospects and saw some get called up to the Houston Astros.
Some of her social media content involving fun questions with some of the Space Cowboys went viral and drew lots of online attention. She shared a few of her favorites:
Carly graduated with a master’s degree in digital media from the Texas State School of Journalism and Mass Communication in December, and her final project about the use of AI in professional sports photography was supervised by Gilbert D. Martinez, professor of instruction at Texas State.
Dick Butler gave a presentation about his book, “Town Ball: Depression-Era Baseball in the Texas Hill Country,” set to be published by Texas Tech University Press in September. He shared some baseball history in the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He also noted that town ball offered one of the few, if not only, public outlets for Black baseball players to express pride and unity during the Jim Crow era. You can learn more about his presentation at this link: Butler Power Point-SABR January 2026 FINAL
Chapter members Larry Rice and Dick Butler gave a brief presentation about tabletop baseball simulation games and how they can allow enthusiasts to play out “what if” scenarios involving some of the most famous games and series in baseball history. By using player cards that provide statistical information about the player’s abilities, these games use dice to dictate game play based on statistical probabilities.
They demonstrated how it worked by replaying an inning from the American League East tiebreaker between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox on Oct. 2, 1978. To see how that turned out (or could’ve turned out, depending on the roll of the dice), check out their presentation at this link: TABLETOP BASEBALL SABR JAN 26
Bailey Hall and Brian Hall said they’ve enjoyed Cy Morong’s analysis and trivia questions that he poses on the chapter’s Google Group email list. Brian said he likes to test popular AI applications to see how they fare with Cy’s complex baseball questions.
Bailey and Brian found that AI often had trouble with complicated questions and in some instances, the software provided incorrect answers.
This led them to pose a simple question: “Can AI top Cy? Find out more about their study and the answer via this link to their presentation: The Halls SABR 2026 Winter Meeting
Ryan Pollack explained the balance between traditional baseball statistics and modern formulas and how they help us understand the game better. To learn more, click on this link for his presentation slides: Ryan Pollack – Why Sabermetrics_
Following up on his presentation from last winter meeting, Frank Rechtorovic shared more details about his military career and his life in Seattle and Japan and intersections with baseball, particularly with witnessing parts of the Hall of Fame careers of Ichiro Suzuki (both in Seattle and Japan), Edgar Martinez, Tom Seaver and Reggie Jackson. To learn more about Frank’s presentation, click on this link to his presentation: Rechtorovic SABR Presentation 2026
Ballpark Memories – Ryan Pollack and Gilbert D. Martinez
Ryan Pollack also gave a presentation recounting a summer trip to see baseball in four ballparks in the Midwest: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Cincinnati. In addition to watching stars Paul Skenes, José Ramirez, Riley Greene and Elly De La Cruz play in their home parks, Ryan also shared the local cuisine and sights he enjoyed.
Chapter Commissioner Gilbert D. Martinez shared that a photo he took of Ichiro Suzuki in 2008 – which happened to capture Ichiro’s 3,000th professional hit (NPB plus MLB) – was donated to and accepted by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Gilbert presented the photo to the hall during Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, when Ichiro, Billy Wagner, C.C. Sabathia, Dave Parker and Dick Allen were honored.
The Los Angeles Dodgers were not the only winners this past season, having successfully defended their World Series title with their second consecutive championship. Their success translated to boosting the prognostication prowess of two avid Dodgers fans, who took home trophies for the two Predictatron contests.
Predictatron impresario Jim Baker presented the trophies, with newly added nameplates for winners Mike Harrell (pictured above, right, with Jim), for the full-season Predictatron contest, and Jerry Miller (pictured below), for the postseason Predictatron contest.
Congratulations to Mike and Jerry for their impressive accomplishments, and to Jim for running Predictatron. Mike and Jerry can proudly host and display their trophies this year until the next winners are crowned.
In addition, Mike will have a division named in his honor along with Tom Wancho, who won his division.
You can join in the fun when Jim puts out a call for your predictions for the 2026 season in the full-season Predictatron contest just prior to the start of the season in March.
Mock HOF voting
Continuing a favorite winter meeting tradition, Ryan Pollack conducted a mock Hall of Fame vote of the chapter, collecting votes from online balloting and in-person ballots at the winter meeting.
None of the players on the 2026 ballot reached the minimum 75 percent threshold to be chosen in our mock election. The only two players to gain a majority were Andy Pettitte with 53.3 percent and Andruw Jones with 51.1 percent. Only two players achieved 40 percent or more: Carlos Beltrán (48.9) and Manny Ramirez (42.2).
The BBWAA will announce the official vote on Jan. 20, when we’ll find out if anyone from this year’s ballot gets elected.
See below for how all candidates fared on the ballot.
SABR Baseball Games Project
John Fredland, head of SABR Baseball Games Project, was in attendance and invited members to consider pitching a story about game, explaining its historical context along with personal experiences. Fredland also authored the SABR 50 at 50: Greatest Games feature to help celebrate SABR’s golden anniversary in 2021.
Trivia Quiz
Syd Polk crafted a trivia quiz in two parts about MLB franchise starts and moves that resulted in a tie! Tom Thayer and Jim Baker each scored 66 out of 75 points. The second part of the quiz involved a table of all 30 MLB teams and asked for a variety of information such as league, division, original city name, the year it entered MLB and so forth.
Syd collected those tables at the end of the meeting and graded those afterward.
Jim Baker emerged the victor with 192 points, squeaking by Tom Thayer (190) and Cy Morong (188).
Want to see how you might fare on Syd’s quiz? Here are the quiz and the answers:
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of our members, guests, presenters and attendees for making the 20th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting so special and the best yet! Special thanks to Jerry Miller, winter meeting coordinator for assembling the schedule and arranging for pizza lunch!
Hornsby and Dierker chapters founder Bill Gilbert
We also took some time to remember chapter founder Bill Gilbert, who passed away in 2018. He founded the Hornsby Chapter after he moved to Central Texas from Houston, where he also founded the Larry Dierker Chapter. He was instrumental in creating this vibrant baseball community.
This was the 230th consecutive month in which the chapter has met, extending a streak begun in December 2006.
Next Meeting
The chapter plans to celebrate SABR Day on Saturday, Feb. 7, with a virtual meeting on Zoom. We’ll share more details about this meeting via our email lists once we finalize plans.
[Please see below for updated parking information]
Happy New Year, everyone! If you’re already struggling with keeping up with your new year’s resolutions, here’s an easy one you can fulfill: attending the 20th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting!
Join us for a great day of baseball at our biggest meeting of the year from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, at Texas State University in San Marcos!
The winter meeting features Keith Moreland, a 12-year major league veteran, and longtime minor league broadcaster Mike Capps. We’ll also have representatives from the Round Rock Express and San Antonio Missions, along with various baseball presentations and activities during the day. See the agenda below for the full schedule.
Please consider bringing new or gently used baseballs, gloves, bats and other gear to donate to our baseball memories program.
IMPORTANT: The deadline to opt in for pizza is Thursday, Jan. 8. Payment is due on arrival Saturday: $5 cash (exact amount appreciated) for a few slices of pizza and a bottle of water. There will also be vending machines for snacks and beverages available onsite.
Also, a longtime tradition of the winter meeting is for chapter members to participate in our Mock Hall of Fame vote. You can vote the day of the meeting or submit your ballot online. Note that you can only vote once!
Schedule for the SABR Hornsby Chapter 20th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting
[Please note that while some presentations will be done via Zoom, we will not have a Zoom option for those unable to attend the meeting in person.]
All Day Accepting donations of donations of old baseballs, gloves, bats, and other gear for use in our “Baseball Memories” program, which supports baseball reminiscence activities as a means of improving the lives of persons dealing with dementia, chronic health problems, isolation, or loneliness.
9:30-9:45 a.m. Welcome from Gilbert Martinez (Chapter President) and Jerry Miller (Winter Meeting Coordinator); Predictatron (Jim Baker) and Awardatron (Ryan Pollack) Presentations
9:45-10:15 a.m. Michael Gibbons, Director Emeritus, Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, Baltimore (via Zoom)
10:15-10:35 a.m. Ballpark Memories, featuring chapter members Ryan Pollack and Gilbert D. Martinez
10:35-10:55 a.m. Author and former chapter member Doug Kurkul, “It’s a Beautiful Day for Baseball: The National Pastime in the 1960s” (via Zoom)
10:55-11:05 a.m. Morning break
11:05-11:25 a.m. Author, Rob Sheinkopf , “Baseball Impostors: The Dark Side of Fandom” and “Hey Mom, Wanna Have a Catch? A Collection of Baseball Stories Honoring Moms and Dads Who Taught Us How to Love America’s National Pastime” (via Zoom)
11:25 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. “Speed dating” presentations – a series of individual workshops featuring chapter members, including SABRmetrics (Ryan Pollack) and “Tabletop Baseball Simulation Games: Introduction and Overview” (Dick Butler and Larry Rice)
12:10- 1 p.m. Lunch (pizza lunch available for pre-order)
1-1:20 p.m. Frank Rechtorovic, “The Emerald City”
1:20-1:40 p.m. Dick Butler, “Town Ball: Depression-era Baseball in the Texas Hill Country”
1:40-2:20 p.m. Honored guest former University of Texas national champion and 12-year major league veteran Keith Moreland, interviewed by author, broadcaster, and chapter member Mike Capps
2:20-2:30 p.m. Afternoon break
Minor League reports, featuring:
2:30-2:50 p.m. Tim Jackson, General Manager, Round Rock Express (via Zoom)
2:50-3:10 p.m. Texas State graduate Carly Earnest (master’s in digital media), photo presentation about the Sugar Land Space Cowboys
3:10-3:25 p.m. Afternoon break (may be cancelled in order to accommodate presentations)
3:25-3:45 p.m. J.J. Jimenez, Director of Ticket Sales, and Brian Yancelson, Public Relations and Broadcasting, San Antonio Missions
Directions to Old Main at Texas State, site of the Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting
Directions to the winter meeting are as follows:
From I-35, take exit 206 (Aquarena Springs Dr.).
Travel west on Aquarena Springs Drive, which turns into University Drive.
After crossing the San Marcos River, you will come to a traffic light. Turn right onto Sessom Drive. At the first light, turn left on State Street and go up a steep road toward Old Main (pictured above). Go through a gate (the gate should be up) and continue up the hill.
At the top of the hill, make a sharp left turn and drive up to Old Main (pictured above).
Look for parking on this road that winds around the side and back of Old Main. You can find additional parking at the Pleasant Street Garage, located at the corner of N. LBJ and Pleasant Street. To reach this garage, after you pass through the gate, continue up the hill, then down the hill to the stop sign on Pleasant Street. Turn left; the entrance to the parking garage will be on your left.
UPDATED Jan. 9: Texas State no longer has free parking, even on the weekends. Instead, please purchase a $5 parking permit. This is done online. You enter your name, car information and license plate number. You will not receive a permit or anything to display. Your license plate number is your permit, so be sure to enter it correctly.
Steps to register for parking:
Click here to Order Event Permit (Do Not use the login button at the top of the Page)
Select Event Type Department Sponsored Events / Meetings
Select 20th Annual Winter Meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research 01/10/26
Select permit type Single Day Event Standard Vehicle
Click add vehicle button, enter vehicle information, click the add button at the bottom.
Enter your Name and click Confirm followed by the red continue button.
Scroll to the bottom of the checkout page. Enter your email address for receipt and email attachment with permit and parking information/instructions click continue.
You will be taken to the payment gateway to complete your payment by credit/debit card or E-Check.
Meeting is on the third floor – both stairs and elevator are available.
Seventeen chapter members and guests gathered ’round the hot stove to reflect on the major off-season deals so far and the winners and losers of such deals at the December meeting on Sunday at County Line on the Lake in Austin.
Jerry Miller, still very much basking in his Dodgers’ thrilling second consecutive World Series title, brought his Managers as Players Quiz to challenge the group.
Cy Morong (above, right) took top prize with 20 points, followed by Jim Baker (above, left) with 18, friend-of-the-chapter Gene with 14, and Monte Cely and Dick Butler with 12 each. Cy presented the top two finishers with prizes. Cy won “Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments” by Joe Posnanski, and Jim won “The Man in the Dugout: 15 Big League Managers Speak Their Minds” by Donald Honig.
Take a swing at Jerry’s quiz at this link (the answers follow the questions): Managers as Players Quiz
Good luck!
20th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting
Meanwhile, we’re excited to share the tentative meeting agenda for the 20th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting, scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. It’s our biggest meeting of the year!
Jerry Miller, winter meeting coordinator, has put together a fun schedule featuring a conversation with Keith Moreland, a 12-year MLB veteran, University of Texas Longhorns national champion and broadcaster, and longtime minor league broadcaster Mike Capps. We’ll also have representatives from the Round Rock Express and San Antonio Missions, along with various baseball presentations and activities during the day.
See more details in Jerry’s winter meeting announcement and RSVP form below.
Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting Announcement By Jerry Miller
The holidays will soon be behind us and, although never far from our minds, the National Pastime will soon again be front and center. It all starts with the 20th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting, sponsored by the Rogers Hornsby (Central Texas) Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). This year’s meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 10, 2026, at Texas State University in San Marcos (see directions at the end of the newsletter below).
Named after our late chapter founder and president, the meeting will include our traditional chapter activities, as well as a series of presentations from both chapter members and outside speakers, with some new surprises. Through the efforts of chapter member and friend Mike Capps, we are honored to welcome University of Texas legend and 12-year major leaguer Keith Moreland, who will discuss the Longhorns’ 1975 national championship, as well as his long association with the Chicago Cubs, including as a member of the 1984 NL East champions and a team broadcaster. Through the efforts of chapter member and Maryland native Ryan Pollack, we are also pleased to welcome, via Zoom, Michael Gibbons, director emeritus of the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum in Baltimore, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary as the repository of all things Bambino. The meeting will also feature:
A Zoom presentation by Rob Sheinkopf, author of the recently published “Baseball Impostors: The Dark Side of Fandom,” and “Hey Mom, Wanna Have a Catch?: A Collection of Baseball Stories…Honoring Moms and Dads Who Taught Us to Love America’s National Pastime” (featuring a chapter by our own Monte Cely);
A Zoom presentation by Douglas Kurkul, a former chapter member and author of “It’s a Beautiful Day for Baseball: The National Pastime in the 1960s”;
Reports from representatives of our local minor league teams, the San Antonio Missions and Round Rock Express, as well as a presentation by Texas State master’s graduate and former Sugar Land Space Cowboys creative marketing associate Carly Earnest on their season;
Presentations from chapter members Dick Butler (“Town Ball: Depression-era Baseball in the Texas Hill Country”) and Frank Rechtorovic (“The Emerald City”);
A new feature, i.e. a series of mini-workshops on different topics, including various baseball statistics and Strat-O-Matic and other baseball simulation games, presented in a “speed dating” format allowing participants to jump from one small group to another;
Our traditional features, including our mock Hall of Fame voting, the presentation of awards to the winners of our Predictatron, Awardatron, and Contractatron contests, and presentations by chapter members regarding their 2025 baseball experiences; and
Best of all, the opportunity to meet and interact with friends and colleagues from the local baseball community.
Please note that we will have an onsite pizza lunch available for pre-order. We will also be soliciting donations of old baseballs, gloves, bats and other gear for use in our “Baseball Memories” program, which supports baseball reminiscence activities as a means of improving the lives of persons dealing with dementia, chronic health problems, isolation, or loneliness.
We hope that you will be able to join us for our biggest and hopefully best event of the year, as we reflect upon the season past and whet our collective appetites for the season ahead.
Watch for a winter meeting reminder and meeting schedule in early January on our email list and on this chapter website.
RSVP for the Winter Meeting
To RSVP for the Winter Meeting (required if you want to partake in the pizza lunch), please fill out this online form.
Mock Hall of Fame ballot
If you’d like to participate in the chapter’s mock Hall of Fame vote, you can do so online or at the meeting (one or the other, not both!). Use this link to the online ballot for those who want to submit their ballot before or are unable to attend the winter meeting. Many thanks to Ryan Pollack for managing our HOF vote!
Baseball Memories Program Report for 2025 By Monte Cely
May 2025 marked 10 years that our chapter has fielded baseball reminiscence programs. In 2015, Hornsby Chapter volunteers led by Jim Kenton started SABR’s first program in partnership with Alzheimer’s Texas. Reminiscence, recalling pleasant memories of the past, has proven to be an effective way to improve the quality of life of those dealing with dementia, chronic health problems, isolation or loneliness. Since then, the number of programs using baseball as a reminiscence topic has grown both locally and nationally.
We continued our long-running program with the Kerrville Veterans . Chapter member Larry Rice has assumed command of this important offering. Although the catastrophic Kerrville flooding and new VA vetting requirements caused a mid-year pause, the program was back in action on Dec. 1. Larry and his San Antonio-area team have a long-standing excellent relationship with the VA Recreation Therapy staff in Kerrville.
Since 2023, our Austin-area team has been presenting a 90-minute monthly program at Williamson County AGE of Central Texas in Round Rock. The audience at this adult day care facility is a large, diverse group. We have a tremendous relationship with the AGE management team, and they are very supportive and enthusiastic about the program.
Over the past 10 years, 15 Hornsby Chapter members, along with family, have volunteered to facilitate or otherwise assist with these programs. We have positively affected the well-being of participants and their care partners. Currently, 10 SABR volunteers and several family members are involved in delivering the VA and AGE programs. In total, we have held 22 in-person sessions in 2025, reaching 35 to 45 participants monthly.
Two other items of note:
Chapter member Peter Myers, now living in the Denver area, has taken a leadership role in the Rocky Mountain Chapter’s baseball memories programs. Peter previously volunteered for our program at AGE of Central Texas.
Round Rock Express General Manager Tim Jackson arranged for the team to donate 15 game-used baseballs for our programs. Participants love to grasp a hardball! Thanks, Tim!
In 2026, we plan to add one additional program in each of our major metros (San Antonio and Austin). Grace Place, an adult care center in San Antonio, will come online in January. A second branch of AGE of Central Texas in South Austin is also interested in hosting a program. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in this valuable community service program. In addition to plenty of baseball (of course), we also add music, cinema/TV, history and other sports in order to evoke a broad range of pleasant memories from a diverse audience.
We would welcome more volunteers! It’s a rewarding experience for us!
For more info, please contact: Monte Cely – Austin Metro area coordinator at cely@swbell.net
Larry Rice – San Antonio Metro area coordinator at ukisno1@gmail.com
Baseball Memories programs: Call for donations of used baseball equipment
Our chapter’s Baseball Memories programs are soliciting donations of old baseball gear. These are used for show-and-tell segments of our programs and they really help to stimulate the senses and memories of participants. Recall that Jim Bouton wrote in “Ball Four,” “You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.” We’ve found this is so true when we see a veteran’s eyes light up when getting their hands on a hardball, or a participant tries on an old baseball glove.
If you have an old baseball, glove, bat or other gear taking up space in your closet or garage, please consider donating them for use in our Baseball Memories Programs. A good opportunity would be to bring any donations to our chapter’s upcoming annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting at Texas State University in San Marcos on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.
If you have questions or need more information, please contact: Larry Rice at ukisno1@gmail.com
Directions to Old Main at Texas State, site of the Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting
Directions to the winter meeting are as follows:
From I-35, take exit 206 (Aquarena Springs Dr.).
Travel west on Aquarena Springs Drive, which turns into University Drive.
After crossing the San Marcos River, you will come to a traffic light. Turn right onto Sessom Drive. At the first light, turn left on State Street and go up a steep road toward Old Main (pictured above). Go through a gate (the gate should be up) and continue up the hill.
At the top of the hill, make a sharp left turn and drive up to Old Main.
Look for parking on this road that winds around the side and back of Old Main. You can find additional parking at the Pleasant Street Garage, located at the corner of N. LBJ and Pleasant Street. To reach this garage, after you pass through the gate, continue up the hill, then down the hill to the stop sign on Pleasant Street. Turn left; the entrance to the parking garage will be on your left.
You do not need a parking pass to park on campus – however, do not park in spaces not marked as parking spaces or in handicapped parking (unless you have the appropriate tag displayed).
Meeting is on the third floor – both stairs and elevator are available.
A music-themed baseball quiz, a World Series to remember, a host of baseball awards and a first-time meeting attendee filled the November meeting on Saturday.
Thirteen chapter members and guests – including Wyatt, a Cubs fan from La Grange – gathered for lunch at Cover3 in Central Austin.
Tom Thayer, winner of last month’s trivia quiz, brought the beats–er, questions–in his Musical Baseball Quiz. Asking questions that spanned much of baseball history, he challenged us to recall baseball lyrics and music history related to baseball.
Jerry Miller, who was overjoyed to watch his Dodgers win back-to-back World Series, eked out a one-point win over Jim Baker, 22 to 21, to take Tom’s a capella quiz. The author came in third with 16 points, followed by the author’s spouse, Raeanne Martinez, with 15.
For his thrilling win, Jerry was awarded “The Best of Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine” (Pocket Sports, 1988).
Does this quiz sound like music to your ears? Care to see if you can bridge the gap between baseball trivia and music (as conceived by Tom Thayer)? Click below to give it a go!
Meanwhile, Jim Baker announced the winners of the full-season Predictatron contest.
Dodgers fan Mike Harrell won the full-season Predictatron contest, riding his favorite team to the top of the standings. He’ll have a division named in his honor for the 2026 edition. Meanwhile, Tom Wancho won his division, so he’ll likewise have a division in his name for next year. This is especially impressive considering their picks were made in March!
Congratulations to all the winners!
Previously, Jim shared that if the Dodgers won the World Series, then Jerry Miller would be crowned the post-season Predictatron champion. He bested the author, who was the only person in the post-season contest to predict the Toronto Blue Jays to win the World Series. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
Jim Baker will present trophies complete with the winners’ names for both contests at the 20th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting at Texas State University in San Marcos on Jan. 10, 2026.
By Jim Baker
HARRELL WINS IT ALL!
WANCHO TOPS ROGERS DIVISION
Congratulations are in order for our 2025 Predictatron Champion, Mr. Harrell. After posting the best regular season record with 803 points, he tacked on 40 more in the postseason to carry the day 843 to 834 over his nearest competitor, Mr. Miller. Meanwhile, Mr. Wancho racked up 830 points to carry off the Brian Rogers Division title.
The average score this year was 798 points with a median of 803. Mr. Dillon led the way with five perfect picks, nailing it exactly on Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Cincinnati and San Francisco. Mr. Martinez had four such picks while Mr. Polk, Mr. Siegel and Mr. Miller had three each. No player had a perfect pick on any of their Locks, which is the ideal. Interestingly enough, our champion didn’t have any perfect picks, but he was just one point off on six teams.
Rookie Mr. Windham had an impressive first outing, finishing with a fourth-best score of 823. He even led the contest as late as June 22. Our other rookie, Mr. Barnes, got off to a hot start before settling in to finish at 784.
In the end, the right thing to have done was pick the team with the biggest payroll to win it all again. Who knew? Of course, they didn’t play that way during the regular season, finishing with just the third-best record in the National League and fifth overall. The top three finishers in the Brian Rogers Division all picked the Dodgers to go all the way, while no less than eight of the 13 players in the Eric Robinson Division did so. It will be interesting to see how many players predict a threepeat for Los Angeles in next year’s contest.
In recent weeks, we had another prediction contest wrap up and another start up, thanks to Ryan Pollack adding to the suite of prognostication contests.
Awardatron 2025
[Editor’s note: Ryan Pollack shared this Awardatron 2025 wrapup with the email list on Nov. 15.]
By Ryan Pollack
Hello everyone! Can you believe we’ve come to the end of the 2025 baseball awards season? I sure as hell can’t. Do you remember when everyone thought Jacob Wilson was going to run away with the AL ROY award, and then Nick Kurtz hit 4 bombs in one game, and we were all like “Nick who?”? Seems like forever ago. But here we are.
Below are the final tallies and standings for the contest.
Sam Jethroe Division
Bob Windham took the division title here with a solid 71 points. Bob’s predictions were as follows:
AL MVP: Aaron Judge (changed from Bobby Witt, Jr. at the ASB, thus getting fewer points)
NL MVP: Shohei Ohtani
AL Cy Young: Tarik Skubal
NL Cy Young: Paul Skenes
AL ROY: Jasson Dominguez
NL ROY: Jacob Misiorowski (changed from Dylan Crews at the ASB with no effect on points)
AL MOY: Dan Wilson
NL MOY: Terry Francona
It was a solid showing that was held back only by whiffing on both Rookies of the Year. As you’ll see below, these were the hardest picks for everyone.
Standings:
Walt Dropo Division
Ryan Pollack took the crown here (look, I know, just bear with me as I stay with the 3rd person voice here) with 81 points, beating runner-up Jan Larson 10. His picks were:
AL MVP: Bobby Witt, Jr.
NL MVP: Shohei Ohtani
AL Cy Young: Tarik Skubal
NL Cy Young: Paul Skenes
AL ROY: Jacob Wilson (changed from Kristian Campbell at the ASB)
NL ROY: Drake Baldwin (changed from Dylan Crews at the ASB, thus getting fewer points)
AL MOY: Alex Cora
NL MOY: Craig Counsell
Strategy note: By holding on to his Bobby Witt, Jr. pick all year, Ryan netted 8 points for Witt Jr’s fourth place finish. If Ryan had switched to Aaron Judge mid-year, he would’ve gotten only 7 points (15 points for Judge’s first place finish, divided in half and rounded down per the rules). Something to think about as far as strategy next year; sometimes changing from a high-but-not-first finisher to a first place finisher is a poor move.
Standings:
Overall Winner
With 81 points to Bob’s 71, Ryan Pollack wins the 2025 contest! If you’re booing right now, you can thank Jim Baker who reminded me last year that I could enter, seeing as how I have no special knowledge of baseball’s outcomes prior to the season starting 😉
Stats
The point totals for each award show us how difficult each was to predict. A higher point total in the category means it was easier to predict who was going to win the award.
Ranked from easiest prediction (highest point total) to lowest, they are:
NL MVP: 233 points scored in the category. Many of us picked Shohei to start the year and were rewarded handsomely.
NL Cy Young: 177 points. Many of us picked Paul Skenes.
AL Cy Young: 150 points. Most of us picked Skubal or Crochet.
AL MVP: 140 points. Most of us picked Bobby Witt, Jr. to start the year. Several switched to Judge mid-season which, as I mentioned above, resulted in one fewer point!
AL MOY: 121 points. A lot of us picked Alex Cora and he ended up finishing 4th.
NL MOY: 86 points. The most common pick was Terry Francona who finished runner-up. However, this was balanced out by other people’s picks (Snitker, Roberts, Mendoza) not giving any points at all.
AL ROY: 62 points. This was a hard one to start the year as there was no clear-cut frontrunner. Many people switched to Wilson at the ASB; while this got them some points, the halved point total meant it was many fewer than if they’d guessed him in March.
NL ROY: 26 points. This was a tire fire that reflected the crowded field in the NL. Misiorowski’s breakout came just before the ASB and many of us fell victim to recency bias, using the NL switch on him. However he finished 11th, zeroing out any point total.
That’s a Wrap!
I love doing all of these for you and keeping tabs on the races all year. I think I’ve dialed things in with the scoring system and I hope you appreciated the tweak to be able to change one pick in each league instead of one pick overall. I think this strikes a better balance of difficulty while maintaining interest in the season.
Thank you for playing; please tell your friends about it next year so we can get even more people in!
Contractatron (winter 2025 edition)
[Editor’s note: Ryan Pollack shared this first update on Nov. 8 about Contractatron, which dares us to predict how much prominent free agents will make in the off-season.]
By Ryan Pollack
Hello & welcome to the 2025 Contractatron contest! Thanks to everyone who entered. I had a fun time with this last year and am glad to be repeating the contest.
I’m your host (and also contestant), Ryan. Get ready for a winter of what appears to be a fairly mediocre free agent class. Kyle Tucker is the clear #1, but he is not in the class of Judge, Ohtani, or Soto who headlined the last few free agent classes. His inconsistent 2025 leaves a lot of room for doubt.
Additionally, there’s a steep drop-off in talent after him. I don’t project anyone else to clear $200M in guaranteed money. The next highest prediction I personally made was Bo Bichette at $170M.
Am I wrong?! Are you??? We’ll have to stay tuned to find out.
To kick things off, here is a look at the range of our predictions in boxplot form:
For each player, the black vertical line is the median prediction among our contestants. The white boxes to either side end at the 25% and 75% prediction levels, and the dots are outliers. Yes, someone predicted Framber Valdez to get a $40M deal. I think that person is likely to be off by a large amount. But who knows? Maybe he’ll sign a one-year, $40M deal and the rest of us will look silly.
Settle in, it’s a long offseason. But at least we have this contest to distract us.
I’ll send an update after the first free agent on our list signs.
Future meetings
We’re scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14, at County Line on the Lake (5204 FM 2222, Austin) which was the site of the initial meeting of what has become the SABR Rogers Hornsby Chapter. In fact, this meeting will come five days after the 22nd anniversary of the very first meeting. A call for RSVPs will go out on our Google Group email list and on this website in early December.
As mentioned above, the Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting, which will feature executives with local professional baseball teams, perhaps a former major leaguer and baseball presentations, will take place on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, at Texas State University in San Marcos. Save the date for a fun and full day of baseball chatter. More details to come next month as we finalize the schedule.
A baker’s dozen gathered at Jim Baker’s house on Saturday for our annual World Series Watch Party and watched Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto shut down the Blue Jays, retiring the last 20 consecutive batters and evening the series at one game apiece.
By tradition since 2011, Jim Baker generously provided pork sliders, sides, dessert and beverages for the watch party with delicious dessert additions by Linda Cely and Raeanne Martinez.
In the middle innings, quizmaster Jerry Miller treated us to a trivia contest focusing on players who were born or grew up in either the Greater Los Angeles area or Canada.
The room grew as quiet as Rogers Centre as Yamamoto continued to deal. Unlike the Blue Jays sluggers, four contestants made some noise. Tom Thayer took the contest with 17 points, followed by Ryan Pollack (14), host Jim Baker (13) and Ira Siegel (12).
Miller presented book prizes to the top three finishers.
Tom Thayer (middle) took top honors on the quiz, followed by Ryan Pollack (right) and Jim Baker (left).
As for the 5-1 Dodgers victory, Cy Morong shared on the chapter email list that Yamamoto’s game score was an 83, the highest in a World Series game since Madison Bumgarner’s 87 game score in a 5-0 Giants victory over the Royals in 2014. Cy also shared the list of highest game scores in the World Series on statheadbaseball.com.
Many thanks to Jim for his generosity and for opening his home to host the watch party, to Linda and Raeanne for adding to the dessert spread, to Jerry for his worldly trivia quiz, and to everyone able to join us!
Post-season Predictatron update: It’s Miller vs. Martinez!
By Jim Baker
With all but two teams cleared off the board, we’ve come to just two possibilities for the winner of the 2025 Hornsby Chapter Postseason Tourney. It’s pretty simple:
If the Dodgers win the World Series, Jerry Miller is the champion.
If the Blue Jays win the World Series, then Gilbert Martinez claims the trophy.
Unless…
There is one slight chance that they could be co-champions. If the Blue Jays sweep the Series, Gilbert will lose two points and drop down into a 24-24 tie with Jerry. Since they both predicted 36 games for the postseason, there would be no way to break the tie and, as is written, the trophy will be sawed in half at the January meeting. [Editor’s note: With the Dodgers winning Game 2, this possibility, as intriguing as it might seem, is now off the table.]
One thing worth noting is that, while nobody broke the magic 40-point threshold this year, just about everybody is going to finish with a positive score. That doesn’t happen very often, so bully for us!
Full-season Predictatron update
Jim Baker shared that the full-season Predictatron contest also hinges on the outcome of the World Series. The winner of this prestigious contest (in which prognosticators committed to their picks in March!) and the winners of their respective divisions will all be announced at the November chapter meeting on Nov. 16 (meeting details below).
Trophy presentations for both the full-season and postseason Predictatron contests will occur at the 20th Annual Hornsby Chapter Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, at Texas State University. Make your plans to be there!
Announcing: Contractatron!
By Ryan Pollack
STEP RIGHT UP, FOLKS!
Gather ’round, ladies and gentlemen, and feast your eyes on the most thrilling, the most dazzling, the most sensational contest of the baseball offseason – IT’S THE CONTRACTATRON!
Yes, sir, yes, ma’am, it’s your chance to outguess the experts, outwit the wise guys, and predict the biggest free-agent contracts in all the land! Can you forecast how many of those glorious greenbacks the mightiest ballplayers in the world will land? Well, step right up and test your wits in this rip-roarin’, high-flyin’ extravaganza!
CONTEST BEGINS WHEN?! Ballots are open! Your entries are due at high noon CST on November 5th – that’s right, folks, don’t delay, don’t dilly-dally! If a player signs before this time, poof! They’re gone from the contest! And we’ll keep the good times rollin’ right up until 9 AM CST on Opening Day of the U.S.-based season! Any signings that happen after that? Why, they’re as good as erased! Overseas MLB games? Japan, Korea, Australia? Bah! They don’t count for this here contest!
HOW DO YA PLAY, YA ASK?
PICK YOUR PLAYERS and predict their contracts with your finest crystal-ball skills!
SCORIN’ IS SIMPLE! We’ll judge ya on how close you can get to the real deal! The closer you are, the lower and better your score – it’s as easy as pie! We measure the difference as a percentage of the actual contract, and the smaller the number, the better!
EXAMPLES, YOU SAY?
You guess Charles Johnson will get $500M, but he only gets $300M. That’s a 66% score!
You guess Frank Smith will get $5M, but he ends up with $6M. That’s a 25% score!
Average ‘em out and ya get a grand total of 45.5%! Ain’t that somethin’?!
TIE-BREAKERS?! If it’s neck and neck, we’ll settle it the old-fashioned way: whoever guessed first wins! It’s all about timing, folks!
RULES AND REGULATIONS, NOW DON’T FORGET ‘EM!
ONLY THE GUARANTEED BUCKS COUNT! We’re talkin’ cold, hard cash, no incentives, no options, no escalators – and certainly no conditional salaries!
MAJOR LEAGUE MONEY ONLY! None of that minor league mumbo-jumbo here!
QUALIFYIN’ OFFERS ARE FAIR GAME! If a player accepts one, it counts!
AND IF THEY DON’T HIT FREE AGENCY? Why, then we never heard of ‘em! Gone, forgotten, erased!
NO EXTENSIONS ALLOWED! It’s free agency or bust, folks!
So, step right up! Roll up your sleeves, sharpen those pencils, and let’s see who’s got the sharpest mind in the land when it comes to predictin’ those big money contracts! It’s the Contractatron, folks – the contest that’ll have ya on the edge of your seat all winter long!
It just so happens that your chapter commissioner shares a birthday (Oct. 20) with two members of the Baseball Hall of Fame and two MVP winners: Mickey Mantle with 110.3 WAR, Juan Marichal with 62.87 WAR (turned 88), Keith Hernandez with 60.4 WAR (turned 72) and Juan Gonzalez with 38.7 WAR (turned 56). Cap tip to Cy for letting me know!
The November meeting will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, at Cover 3 (2700 Anderson Lane, Austin). We’ll post a meeting announcement and request RSVPs at the beginning of November, and we’ll make a reservation for the group.
A dozen chapters members and guests gathered on Saturday to ponder the tightening races for spots in MLB’s postseason (some were more enthused than others) and the potential MVP in each league.
Over lunch at Hurricane Grill & Wings in Round Rock, we marveled at the unreal winning streak by Tom Wancho’s Cleveland Guardians and wondered if the Seattle Mariners’ time has come to overtake the Martinezes’ Houston Astros.
We also talked about New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge’s substantial lead by WAR over the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh. Some thought that Judge, by the numbers, should be the AL MVP, but others thought that Raleigh is the better story that might attract votes from baseball sportswriters. We won’t know until November when the baseball awards are announced. Stay tuned!
Before we find out about the awards, we have a week left in the season and the World Series Watch Party next month to look forward to! As is our long tradition, chapter member Jim Baker will host the watch party. It will be the evening of Saturday, Oct. 25. We know that it will be World Series Game 2, but it’s anyone’s guess as to who will battle for the championship. Speaking of guesses, see the Predictatron update below from Jim Baker to see how our group of prognosticators are doing with a week left!
We’ll announce the meeting in early October and call for RSVPs later in the month. In the meantime, save the date for one of the chapter’s most anticipated meetings of the year!
Chapter member and winter meeting coordinator Jerry Miller attended lunch honoring the late Robert Redford with the New Yorks Knights cap and shirt featured in “The Natural.”
Cubaball in November By Monte Cely
Cubaball is back and heading to Havana in November. There are a few seats left on the tour and if you’ve ever dreamed of seeing baseball and the many wonders of the “Pearl of the Antilles,” now’s your chance.
Fellow SABR member Kit Krieger is again leading the popular Cubaball journey, the first since the pandemic. The tour runs November 14-21. You’ll stay at a private hotel in Havana and take in béisbol cubano in Havana (2 games), Matanzas, Pinar del Rio, and Artemisa.
Cubaball is very popular among SABR members, and I went on the tour in 2017. I can say that it’s a great experience and a unique baseball journey that you’ll never forget!
For more information, email Kit Krieger at ejkrieger@shaw.ca – or contact me at cely@swbell.net and I’ll forward your inquiry to Kit.
Predictatron Update: Topmost Turvy!
By Jim Baker
With but a single week to go in the season, we’ve got ourselves a case of the upheavals in both divisions and for the very control of this contest! Mr. Harrell has reasserted himself as the leader of these proceedings after posting one of the better performances this week while previous pacesetter Ms. Martinez was experiencing a negative week. Meanwhile, in the Brian Rogers Division, Mr. Martinez has surged to the lead on the back of a nine-point outpouring of pointly goodness.
As we head into the final turn, here’s how the top five look:
809 Mike Harrell 800 Raeanne Martinez 797 Gilbert Martinez 794 Ryan Pollack 793 Bob Windham
Our Player of the Week is Mr. Dillon who led the way with 13 points. This afforded him a two-place jump in the Eric Robinson Division. Our best weeks look like this:
13 Mike Dillon 12 Mike Harrell 12 Tom Wancho 10 Michael Bass 9 Gilbert Martinez, Jerry Miller
We now have four pursuers in single digits out of first in the Brian Rogers Division and the final week is going to prove pivotal in the outcome of that particular argument.
As you can see from the playoff grid now affixed to the standings, only six players still have their full load of potential playoff points. They are:
Tom Wancho Don Dingee John Rechtorovic Mike Harrell Raeanne Martinez Jerry Miller
Buckle up, batten down the hatches and brace yourself for a wild finish to the regular season portion of the 2025 Hornsby Chapter Predictatron!
Through games of Sunday, September 21, or 96.3 percent of the 2025 season:
PLAYER
Points
PB
Last
^/v
prev
move
alcs
alcs
nlcs
nlcs
alws
nlws
champ
Pot
1
Gilbert Martinez
797
788
9
3
2
BAL
HOU
PHI
LAD
HOU
PHI
HOU
44
2
Ryan Pollack
794
3
797
-3
1
-1
BOS
HOU
ATL
LAD
BOS
LAD
LAD
44
3
Jim Baker
792
5
790
2
2
-1
BAL
NYY
PHI
LAD
BAL
LAD
BAL
20
4
Tom Wancho
791
6
779
12
6
2
BOS
NYY
LAD
SDP
BOS
LAD
LAD
48
5
Scott Gay
789
8
786
3
4
-1
BAL
NYY
PHIL
LAD
BAL
LAD
LAD
36
6
Team Hall
781
16
780
1
5
-1
BAL
BOS
ATL
LAD
BAL
ATL
BAL
8
7
Brian Rogers
777
20
776
1
8
1
BAL
HOU
ATL
LAD
BAL
ATL
ATL
8
8
Don Dingee
776
21
773
3
9
1
BOS
SEA
NYM
LAD
BOS
NYM
BOS
48
9
Kevin Barnes
775
22
778
-3
7
-2
NYY
TEX
PHI
LAD
TEX
PHI
TEX
20
10
John Rechtorovic
752
45
745
7
10
0
BOS
NYY
NYM
LAD
NYY
NYM
NYY
48
11
Mike McNulty
749
48
742
7
11
0
BOS
TEX
ATL
LAD
TEX
ATL
ATL
8
12
Syd Polk
714
83
714
0
12
0
BAL
TEX
ATL
LAD
TEX
ATL
TEX
4
PLAYER
Points
PB
Last
^/v
prev
move
alcs
alcs
nlcs
nlcs
alws
nlws
champ
Pot
1
Mike Harrell
809
797
12
2
1
BOS
DET
PHI
LAD
BOS
LAD
LAD
48
2
Raeanne Martinez
800
9
805
-5
1
-1
BOS
HOU
CHC
LAD
HOU
CHC
HOU
48
3
Bob Windham
793
16
789
4
3
0
BOS
NYY
ATL
LAD
DET
LAD
LAD
44
4
Jerry Miller
786
23
777
9
8
4
BOS
SEA
ARI
LAD
SEA
LAD
LAD
48
5
Eric Robinson
785
24
780
5
7
2
BAL
TEX
ATL
LAD
BAL
LAD
LAD
28
6
Gary McIntosh
781
28
782
-1
5
-1
BAL
DET
PHI
LAD
DET
LAD
LAD
44
7
Dan Walsh
777
32
785
-8
4
-3
BAL
HOU
ATL
LAD
BAL
LAD
LAD
32
7
Ira Siegel
777
32
771
6
10
3
NYY
KCR
MIL
LAD
NYY
LAD
NYY
44
9
Mike Dillon*
775
34
762
13
11
2
BOS
NYY
ATL
LAD
NYY
LAD
NYY
44
10
Frank Rechtorovic
774
35
775
-1
9
-1
NYY
TEX
ATL
LAD
LAD
NYY
NYY
40
10
Chris Crombar
774
35
782
-8
5
-5
BAL
TEX
ATL
LAD
TEX
LAD
LAD
28
12
Jan Larson
757
52
761
-4
12
0
BAL
SEA
PHI
LAD
BAL
LAD
LAD
36
13
Michael Bass
702
107
692
10
13
0
BAL
SEA
PHI
LAD
BAL
LAD
BAL
20
*Player of the Week
Colorado Rockies evade a dubious honor
Some of us have been watching the Rockies’ serious attempt to top the Chicago White Sox for most losses in a season, achieved just last year. Jan Larson shared on our Google group email list when the Rockies saved themselves on Sept. 19.
“The Rockies won their 42nd game of the season this evening and have thereby mathematically eliminated themselves from any chances of breaking the 2024 White Sox modern Major League Baseball record for most losses in a season. The Sox continue to hold that record with 121 losses having wrested that title from the ’62 Mets.”
SABR Rocky Mountain Chapter member and friend to the Hornsby Chapter Peter Myers, who just finished his third year as an usher at Coors Field, responded, “And I was there to experience the joy.”
Upcoming meetings
As mentioned above, the October meeting will be the World Series Watch Party for Game 2 on Saturday, Oct. 25, at Jim Baker’s home in Cedar Park.
For the November meeting, we’ll meet for lunch at Cover 3 on Anderson Lane in Central Austin on Sunday, Nov. 16.
We haven’t set the date yet for the December meeting, but we’re planning a mid-month lunch meeting at County Line on the Lake. Details will be forthcoming soon.
Thirteen chapter members and guests were treated to a deep dive about the pitchers who have thrown no-hitters and the catchers who caught them throughout MLB history at the August chapter meeting on Zoom.
Kevin Hurd, a member of the SABR Banks-Bragan Chapter in Dallas-Fort Worth and retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, has long been intrigued by no-hitters. In fact, as a high school senior, he witnessed San Francisco Giants pitcher Ed Halicki’s no-hitter at Candlestick Park in 1975, which, in part, inspired him to research and write about no-hit games.
After retirement, he’s devoted four years to writing and publishing two volumes called “From Randy Johnson to Dallas Braden: No Hitters Beyond the Box Score.” His books addressed things he was curious about, such as whether no-hitters were attributable to skill or luck (his conclusion: both). He was also interested in examining no-hitters by eventual Hall of Fame pitchers and journeymen who were among the unlikeliest pitchers to author a no-hit gem.
His book includes descriptions of no-hit games, interviews with pitchers and catchers and informational tables to offer insight into these games.
In Volume I, he assesses the greatest no-hitters in history. In Volume II, he identifies the most unlikely no-hitters of all time.
For the Hornsby Chapter, he included a brief discussion and lists of no-hitters by Astros and Rangers pitchers.
Many thanks to Kevin for joining us for our August meeting!
Baseball memories program seeks volunteers, baseball props for sessions
By Larry Rice
Fellow SABR Members,
Do you have any old baseball gear or equipment sitting idle in your garage or attic? Do you enjoy browsing at garage sales, yard sales or estate sales?
As you may be aware, several Hornsby Chapter members are associated with the SABR Baseball Memories program and, in particular, I volunteer with other Hornsby Chapter members to provide monthly presentations and visits to veterans with long-term mental and physical disabilities at the VA facilities in Kerrville and San Antonio (Audie Murphy). These visits are very enjoyable and therapeutic to both volunteers and patients.
For use in these presentations, I’m interested in obtaining some used (as in low/no cost) baseball gear to use as “show and tell” items. Letting these vets hold, grip, touch and see some of these items can be powerful memory motivators and bring back thoughts and joys of a simpler, happier time in their lives and – if able – they usually want to tell you all about it, a great way to gain some social interaction.
If you have or obtain any such items that you would be willing to donate and think I might be interested in, feel free to contact me at ukisno1@gmail.com. I’ll be out of the country until mid-August and still putting thoughts together about the fall programs, so there’s no immediate rush; I just wanted to make you aware of this opportunity.
Speaking of opportunities, there’s also plenty of opportunity to participate in the visits as well. If you live in the Kerrville/San Antonio and surrounding areas and wish more information, just let me know at the email address above and I’ll be glad to send you more information.
Next meeting: Sept. 20
Join us for the next monthly chapter meeting at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, at Hurricane Grill & Wings (2701 Parker Dr. in Round Rock).
Looking ahead, please save Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, for the 20th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting! We’re planning another fun day of baseball chatter at Texas State University.
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.
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.
Society for American Baseball Research Rogers Hornsby Chapter (Central and South Texas) Annual Report, June 2024 – May 2025
By Gilbert D. Martinez Chapter Commissioner
The SABR Rogers Hornsby Chapter continues to provide members with a wide range of monthly activities, volunteer opportunities and in-person and online interactions related to many facets of baseball.
The chapter’s biggest event was the 19th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting at Texas State University in January, which featured former Major League pitcher Ross Ohlendorf and longtime broadcaster and chapter member Mike Capps. Also joining the winter meeting was Rylan Kobre, manager of public relations and broadcasting with the Round Rock Express. A long-time winter meeting tradition, a mock Hall of Fame vote was conducted and trophies for the winners of Jim Baker’s regular season and post-season Predictatron contests were presented. In addition, member Tom Thayer presented a research project that offered a new way of evaluating catchers. Members Jerry Miller, Jan Larson, Frank Rechtorovic and Nicole Bryan-Hall also presented at the winter meeting.
At SABR 52 in Minneapolis, chapter member Bailey Hall won top poster presentation at the annual conference. Her poster evaluated whether a leadoff walk is worse than a leadoff hit.
For SABR Day on Feb. 1, Texas State graduates Remle Herzberg, the social media manager for the Texas Rangers, and Aaron Peralta, who worked on the social media team for the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, joined the chapter via Zoom to share their career experiences with chapter members and Texas State students.
In a Zoom meeting in August, award-winning sportswriter, editor and multimedia journalist Aaron Fischman, author of “A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back,” told the story of Tony Barnette, a pitcher who didn’t know if he’d ever achieve his dream to pitch in MLB when he signed a lucrative contract to join the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in Nippon Professional Baseball. He later went on to pitch for the Texas Rangers and the Chicago Cubs.
The year also included outings to Minor League Baseball games such as the Round Rock Express on May 17 for Star Wars Night and the San Antonio Missions in July. The chapter also added a supplemental meeting in February with an outing to UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin to watch the Texas Longhorns host the Dartmouth Big Green.
We also had chapter members thrice host a monthly meeting – Ryan Pollack in June, Jim Baker in October for our World Series Watch Party and Bailey Hall, Nicole Bryan-Hall and Brian Hall in April.
In the summer, the chapter was awarded $250 for meeting specific benchmarks and achieving All Star status. With the national SABR office’s help, the chapter now has a bank account. The chapter leadership team approved $125 to purchase gifts for the baseball memories programs. As of May 2025, $60 has been used for two large table-top baseball puzzles and a catalog of baseball-themed word scrambles for the baseball memories program, leaving $190 in the bank account.
In the second year of a three-year term, Chapter Commissioner Gilbert D. Martinez continued to serve on the chapter leadership team with directors Jan Larson, Monte Cely, Ryan Pollack and Jerry Miller. In June, chapter member Don Dingee joined the leadership team as membership director. Cely, Pollack, Miller and Dingee will continue as directors in the coming year while Larson will step down. For his many years of service, we thank Jan Larson, who was a founding member of the chapter in 2005 and has long served on the leadership team, leading chapter outings to Whataburger Field’s owners’ experience and running the mock Hall of Fame voting at the winter meeting for many years.
Baseball Memories Program
By Monte Cely
Hornsby Chapter Director
In May 2015, Hornsby Chapter volunteers led by Jim Kenton started SABR’s first chapter-supported baseball reminiscence program in partnership with Alzheimer’s Texas. Reminiscence, recalling pleasant memories of the past, has proven to be an effective way to enhance the quality-of-life of those dealing with dementia, chronic health problems, isolation, or loneliness. Since then, the number of programs using baseball as a reminiscence topic has grown both locally and nationally.
Chapter members led by Larry Rice in San Antonio have started a new program at the Audie Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Administration Medical Center there, as well as continued the popular program at the Kerrville Texas VA Medical Center. Volunteers in the Austin metro area have continued their program at the AGE of Central Texas adult day care center in Round Rock. On a monthly basis, these three programs are reaching 35 to 50 participants. Fourteen SABR members, as well as spouses and other relatives, actively volunteer for these three programs.
There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in this valuable community service program. In addition to plenty of baseball (of course), we also add music, video, history and other sports in order to invoke a broad range of pleasant memories from a diverse audience. If you’d consider volunteering, have an idea for a new program in your community, or just would like to learn more, contact Monte Cely at cely@swbell.net or Larry Rice at ukisno1@gmail.com. Information is also at our chapter website at: https://www.sabrhornsby.org/baseball-memories/
Membership Report
By Don Dingee
Hornsby Chapter Membership Coordinator
SABR Hornsby extends along a 376-mile-long swath of Texas from Waco to the Rio Grande Valley, including territories of three MiLB teams (one AAA and two AA). Ninety-two percent of our members live in one of four metro clusters: Austin, San Antonio, San Marcos and Waco/Temple/Killeen. We currently stand at 221 consecutive monthly meetings thanks to our active members. Highlights for the period ending May 15, 2025:
Growth – 89 primary members, compared with 84 in 2024 and 82 in 2023.
Engagement – In-person meetings at various restaurants or member homes average 15 attendees, a 16.9% “active” member level. Game outings average seven attendees. Virtual or hybrid meetings average 26 attendees, drawing on an additional 43 affiliate members and non-members in event-specific outreach.
Retention (excluding students) – 88.1%, compared with 91.6% in 2024 (SABR 2024 national average: 91%).
Thirty percent of our members have 10 or more years of SABR tenure, with three-quarters of our members being 50 and over. Our member Survey cites monthly meetings, Predictatron, Awardatron and baseball discussions in our Hornsby Google Group as essential social interactions. It also indicates a desire to see younger members at meetings — we are tailoring outreach and engagement efforts with the 35-49 and 18-34 age groups in mind.
https://bsky.app/profile/royals.com/post/3mebwpkibsk2j
Dick Butler gave a presentation about his book, “Town Ball: Depression-Era Baseball in the Texas Hill Country,” set to be published by 
For each player, the black vertical line is the median prediction among our contestants. The white boxes to either side end at the 25% and 75% prediction levels, and the dots are outliers. Yes, someone predicted Framber Valdez to get a $40M deal. I think that person is likely to be off by a large amount. But who knows? Maybe he’ll sign a one-year, $40M deal and the rest of us will look silly.
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