Author: Gilbert Martinez

           Honoring chapter founder Bill Gilbert, videoconferencing with acclaimed baseball writer Rob Neyer and hearing about the playing career of Bob Joyce were among the highlights at the 13th Annual Winter Meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter on Saturday, Jan. 12. Nearly 40 chapter members and guests attended the winter meeting at Old Main on the Texas State University campus in San Marcos.

            It was the first time our winter meeting lacked chapter founder Bill Gilbert, who passed away last fall. He originated the idea of a winter meeting; the inaugural winter meeting was in 2007. In fact, Gilbert had been instrumental in creating vibrant baseball communities, having also founded the Larry Dierker Chapter of SABR in Houston prior to moving to Central Texas and leading the effort to establish the Hornsby Chapter in 2006. Chapter members and guests shared Bill Gilbert remembrances and stories.

            Hornsby Chapter Commissioner Gilbert Martinez announced that from this point forth, the annual winter meeting would be named in Bill Gilbert’s honor as the Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting.

            Rob Neyer, commissioner of the West Coast League and a writer for ESPN, SB Nation and Fox Sports, connected with the meeting via Skype and was interviewed by Martinez. Neyer discussed his newly published book, “Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game,” inspired in part by Arnold Hano’s “A Day in the Bleachers” and Dan Okrent’s “Nine Innings.”

            Neyer shared his views about how baseball is played today, in sharp contrast to how it had been played in the past. Using some details of an inning-by-inning description of a single game between the Oakland Athletics and Houston Astros in September 2017, Neyer’s book weaves in a wide range of topics related to baseball – from the use of newer statistical measures to Statcast to pace of play. During the videoconference, he also shared his experiences as commissioner of the West Coast League, the premier summer college league west of the Mississippi.

            In addition, Bob Joyce, son of former Major League pitcher Bob Joyce, recounted his father’s career, pitching with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1939 and with the New York Giants in 1946. In addition, Joyce won 94 games as a starting pitcher for the Double-A San Francisco Seals from 1942 to 1945, including a 31-game win total in 1945. In addition, Bob Joyce shared his own collegiate baseball experiences playing for the University of San Francisco.

Other presentations included Gilbert Martinez’s “Baseball in Japan,” in which he described attending Chunichi Dragons games in June 2018, visiting the Ichiro Suzuki museum near Nagoya, Japan, and presenting Ichiro’s father with a photo of Ichiro’s 3,000th professional hit (Nippon Professional Baseball hits plus MLB hits).

            Longtime broadcaster for the Round Rock Express Mike Capps shared details about the long-anticipated return of the Triple-A affiliate to the Astros’ farm system. He said he’s looking forward to seeing the talented pitchers, hitters and fielders on the Astros minor league clubs. He also described a new addition to the Dell Diamond: the Home Run Dugout, a Top Golf-like attraction that serves as an augmented reality batting cage, set to open in the spring.

            Dierker Chapter member Mike McCroskey shared details of his visit to Hot Springs, Arkansas, a site of early spring trainings. Included in his presentation were audio clips from the sites of historical markers. McCroskey also described how he found the home plate location from which Babe Ruth launched a 573-foot home run blast to an alligator pond across the street from the stadium during a spring training game.

            The newest winter meeting activity involved a version of bingo, baseball style. Winter Meeting Coordinator Ryan Pollack created bingo cards with a variety of baseball experiences and called on meeting participants to fill their cards by chatting with others. Experiences on the baseball bingo card included such things as catching a foul ball, owning more than 500 baseball cards, attending a non-MLB game played outside the United States and seeing a no-hitter or perfect game. Jan Larson was the first to bingo, winning a signed copy of Rob Neyer’s book (many thanks to Rob Neyer for providing the prize!).

            In recent years, Jim Baker has done an excellent job providing an opening group activity to kick off our winter meetings. Because of the Bill Gilbert memorial, we asked him to close this winter meeting instead, and he didn’t disappoint. His trivia presentation included photos of renowned baseball players who ended their careers in unfamiliar surroundings. With various caveats, Jim led the group through a wide range of players to fit his criteria. For example, Hank Aaron played the bulk of his career with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, but ended with the Milwaukee Brewers. Another example included Willie Mays (started with the San Francisco Giants and ended with the New York Mets).

            Another recent tradition of our winter meetings included a Mock Hall of Fame vote by attendees. The group has proven to be miserly with its vote, often voting for fewer eventual inductees than the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. With 30 ballots in our mock vote, 23 votes were necessary for election. Of those on the current ballot, only two achieved that goal: Mariano Rivera (26 votes) and Edgar Martinez (23). Other players who received double-digit votes were Roger Clemens (17), Barry Bonds (15), Mike Mussina (15), Curt Schilling (13), Larry Walker (12), Roy Halladay (10) and Billy Wagner (10).

            Many thanks to our presenters and attendees! We were glad to hear that many participants enjoyed a great day of talking about baseball.

            The next Hornsby Chapter activity will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, when the chapter will join with other chapters across the country and around the world to recognize SABR Day! A call for RSVPs will be shared on the chapter email list soon.

Seventeen chapter members and guests enjoyed holiday cookies from the Celys, with ample Italian cuisine from Macaroni Grill’s kitchen and sides of baseball talk galore.

As has become a December meeting tradition, Linda Cely brought baked goods – cookies, Buckeyes, and Mexican caramel candies – to help celebrate the season. She and Monte even brought festive holiday bags for everyone to take a sampling home.

Another highlight of the meeting yesterday was a Christmas-themed trivia quiz by the incomparable Jim Baker. Rather than focus on former Major Leaguer Stephen Christmas (who had cups of coffee with the Reds, White Sox and Cubs in the 1980s), Jim researched players born on Christmas Day, including a few Hall of Fame players. The contest was won by Tom Thayer with Mike Dillon in second. For their exploits, Jim generously awarded them Macaroni Grill gift cards.

As is usual the case with our meetings, a wide range of baseball teams and leagues were represented. MLB teams that made appearances at our meeting included the Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros. Gilbert Martinez wore the Astros-orange polo shirt with the SABR 44 logo and Monte donned the ballcap of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.

Even the newest merchandise was well represented: Jan Larson sported the ball cap with the new Miami Marlins logo, and Jerry Miller wore a t-shirt with one of the newest Double-A team, the Amarillo Sod Poodles, affiliate of the San Diego Padres that features a nickname of prairie dogs in the Panhandle. Jerry also sported a red ball cap/stocking cap, and Linda wore a festive Santa suit.

Topics included the news about the election of Lee Smith and Harold Baines to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the trades that have occurred so far in the offseason, and those that haven’t, and whether the winter meetings are still necessary.

Monte also shared details of his visit to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, in early December, catching two Naranjeros games at Estadio Sonora and being a featured guest on a radio show. More details can be found at this link (scroll part way to the author’s note): http://www.sabrhornsby.org/2018/08/serie-del-caribe-2019-winter-leagues-2018-19/

It was the group’s 145th consecutive month in which the chapter has met. The group is entering the 13th year of regular monthly meetings.

Next month, the Hornsby Chapter puts on its biggest meeting of the year, the winter meeting on Saturday, Jan. 12, at Texas State University. It will be our first winter meeting without chapter founder Bill Gilbert, so we plan to have a special remembrance to honor him, along with a wide range of baseball topics and discussion. Winter meeting coordinator Ryan Pollack will be in touch soon on the chapter email list with more details. Hope to see you Jan. 12!

Senior sportswriter Ben Reiter of Sports Illustrated joined 18 chapter members and guests last week to recount how he became fascinated by the worst team in baseball in 2014 and famously predicted that that team – the Houston Astros – would go on to win the 2017 World Series.

Author of “Astroball: The New Way to Win It All,” Reiter shared with the group how he had been trying for years to embed with a major league front office only to be denied time and time again. But after three consecutive 100-plus loss seasons, the Astros appeared to be in need of positive coverage, and Reiter saw an opportunity. Making no promises and accepting no conditions from the Astros, Reiter was invited to be in the room when the Astros made their No. 1 draft selection in 2014. This unprecedented access to the Astros front office and staff led to the June 30, 2014, cover story with rookie outfield George Springer sporting the throw-back Astros uniforms.

Of course, three-and-a-half years later, the Astros did become the 2017 World Series Champs. His book, “Astroball,” recounts how the Astros built on the advanced analytics pioneered by the Oakland Athletics and incorporated insights from scouts to make smarter decisions about draft picks and player projections.

Reiter read from the preface of his book and described how his article – detailing the Astros’ plan to go from worst to first – captured his editor’s imagination and unexpectedly landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He described how his editor called him and asked, how soon do you think the Astros are expecting to win again? 2020? 2019? Reiter said he thought a moment and quickly projected the few years it might take the young core of Altuve, Correa and Springer to mature, and settled on 2017. And, just like that, Reiter’s article that examined just what the Astros were up to led to a cover story with the bold prediction.

He also shared how nervous he was in 2015 when the Astros nearly made a run in beating his prediction by two years, until the Kansas City Royals made a late-inning comeback in Game 4 of the American League Division Series on their way to their first World Series title in years.

Reiter also shared how he isn’t surprised that several important members of the Astros front office are leaving and joining other ballclubs – it’s the price of success, he said. He also said he believes the Astros should remain competitive in coming years, especially with strong talent in the farm system. However, he also noted that Astros’ success in recent years means that they don’t have high draft picks any more, so the front office may need to account for that with different strategies.

Many thanks to Reiter for joining us for our monthly meeting. The following day, he traveled to San Marcos and visited journalism classes at Texas State University. He also participated in a Common Experience event to tie to the theme of innovation. A link to the video recording of that event can be found by clicking here: https://www.facebook.com/sjmctxst/videos/350074849082212/

The next monthly meeting will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, at Romano’s Macaroni Grill Italian Restaurant (9828 Great Hills Trail at the Arboretum in northwest Austin). A request for RSVPs will be sent out in early December.

Ben Reiter, Sports Illustrated senior writer and author of “Astrosball: The New Way to Win It All,” will join us for dinner, talk about how the Astros won the 2017 World Series and how he predicted the unlikely outcome three years before! RSVP to Gilbert Martinez at gmartinez46<at>mac.com by Friday, Nov. 9.

A dozen chapter members and guests watched as the Los Angeles Dodgers took a 4-0 lead to try to even the World Series, only to see the Boston Red Sox bats erupt to give them a commanding three-games-to-one lead in the Fall Classic.

We gathered at the home of Jim Baker in Cedar Park on Saturday for Game 4, enjoying brisket and pulled pork sandwiches, homemade desserts, imported chocolate and more.

In addition, Jim Baker awarded Predictatron certificates to Jan Larson and Raeanne Martinez (pictured above), recognizing them as co-champions in this season’s prognostication contest. As a result, Larson and Martinez will have a division in their names, hyphenated, in next year’s Predicatron. In addition to the Larson-Martinez Division, the other division will be name after Dan Walsh, winner of his division.

Jim Baker also had a quiz that focused on the first time the Dodgers (Robins) matched up with the Red Sox in the World Series in 1916. Tom Thayer took top honors.

During the game, we also remarked about the resemblance between Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly and our very own, Ryan Pollack. Come to think of it, Ryan was unable to join us last night. Perhaps he had a prior engagement… in Los Angeles!

Many thanks to Jim Baker for hosting this annual watch party, and homemade desserts from Linda and Monte Cely (Mississippi mud cake) and Mike and Carolyn Wagner (ginger carrot cake and European chocolates). This was the seventh time in the last eight years that Jim has hosted the World Series watch party. This was also the 143rd consecutive month in which the chapter has had a monthly meeting.

For the November meeting, we’re excited to announce that Sports Illustrated writer Ben Reiter will be visiting with us at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, at Red Robin in Sunset Valley. Please save the date and plan to join us as Mr. Reiter will discuss his book, “Astroball: The New Way to Win It All,” and his prediction – in 2014 – that the Astros would be World Series champs just three years later. Please RSVP to Gilbert Martinez (gmartinez46 <at> mac.com).

A dozen chapter members and guests beat the heat and enjoyed an afternoon of baseball with sides of sandwiches, desserts and beverages in air conditioned comfort on Saturday.

Many thanks to Ryan Pollack for providing a sandwich platter and hosting the July meeting, the 140th consecutive month in which the chapter has had a meeting. Other members brought beverages, desserts and homemade side dishes for a nice food spread. We watched the Chicago Cubs host the St. Louis Cardinals, and then saw part of Aroldis Chapman’s meltdown in the ninth inning against the Mets (Yankees held on for the win).

Later, Ryan showed the many facets of game play in the Playstation 4 game “MLB – The Show 18,” a realistic-looking baseball simulation game that allows a player to build a team and player from scratch and play full-length baseball games. The game also offers challenges and accomplishments to earn a variety of virtual items, including player cards and uniforms. When Ryan’s not working or attending chapter meetings, he’s likely testing his mettle in this game.

In addition, Gilbert Martinez (pictured above) returned after having spent five weeks in Japan. Wearing a Chunichi Dragons shirt and cap, he brought homemade chocolate cupcakes. The Dragons play in the Central Division of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 25. More details to follow next month.