Category: Chapter News

A total of 15 members and guests gathered at Iron Works BBQ for dinner and baseball talk.  Discussion topics included the sale of the Houston Astros to Jim Crane and the impending move of the club to the American League West.  The Astros fans in the group were not happy about this turn of events, to put it mildly.

Chapter member Monte Cely discussed his trip to game seven of the 2011 World Series in St. Louis.  Monte had purchased a game seven ticket prior to game six and flew to St. Louis a few hours after game six ended and was there to witness the Cardinals clinch their eleventh World Series championship.

Other topics included the 2011 post-season awards, the Marlins’ new uniforms, the addition of a second wildcard team to each league and the 2011-12 free agent season.  The Hornsby Chapter Winter Meeting agenda was also discussed.  The program is shaping up nicely and it should be an interesting day of presentations and discussions on January 14.

Bill Gilbert presented a trivia quiz on the 2011 regular season.  Steve Fall and Jan Larson tied for the top spot and with no tie-breaker question available, the judging committee declared the contest to be a draw.

The place, date and time of the December meeting is TBD.  Watch this space for details.

Eight chaper members gathered in Cedar Park to watch Game 3 of the World Series and witnessed Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals hit three home runs in three consecutive at-bats.

The Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers, 16-7, in a slugfest. Pujols led the charge; his three home runs in a World Series game matched Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth, who accomplished the feat twice.

During the game, the group discussed the broadcast team of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Raeanne Martinez posted on Twitter something Jim Baker said here’s something you never hear in discussing Buck: "No, no, here’s why Joe Buck is good." That tweet was re-tweeted by eight others on Twitter! Our conversation was in Jim’s living room, but thanks to the magic of social media, it was viewed and read by countless people that night.

Speaking of Jim, he was the perfect host, serving scrumptous pizza with homemade toppings and delicious cookies. Much thanks to Jim for hosting the watch party.

We spoke longingly of Monte Cely, who is well known as a Cardinals fan and unable to join us. We figured he enjoyed the game.

Next meeting will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, at Iron Works. A reminder will be sent out next month.

Fifteen members and guests enjoyed “Moneyball” Saturday evening, finding lots to like for die-hard baseball fans and nonfans alike. The statistical approach to baseball gets the royal treatment — with mentions of Bill James, the importance of having players reach base and small-market tactics against big, rich ballclubs.

Scouts don’t get portrayed real well, but as you may have heard, this movie, which is based on the book, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” by Michael Lewis, focuses on Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane. The movie opens with the A’s losing to the New York Yankees in the AL Division Series, after a 102-win season in 2001. In the off-season, the A’s lose stars Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and Jason Isringhausen to free agency. Looking for a different strategy, Beane recruits a sabermetrician who argues that players with high on-base percentages can help a small-market team compete against the richer clubs.

Beane’s relationship with his daughter also figures in the story-telling, providing character development to balance out the baseball talk. But it is a baseball movie, so it’s no surprise that the film devotes a lot of time to the team’s 20-game winning streak in 2002, which is still an American League record.

Afterward, we were joined by Brian McNulty (pictured above, center), a production manager on a number of Hollywood films, including “A Perfect Storm,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” and most recently, “The Help.” While he was not involved with “Moneyball,” he gave his insight into the movie making process and discussed what he liked about the film.

Having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, he said he was impressed with the movie’s accurate depiction of Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. He also noticed the sharp work on art design. Brian is a friend of Jim Baker’s and participates in Jim’s fantasy baseball league. Brian’s wife, Jennifer, and a couple of their friends also joined us at Hyde Park Bar & Grill.

Much thanks to Brian for visiting with us to share his insight about the movie, and to everyone who turned out for our change-up meeting, a movie and dinner.

In other news, Connie Larson announced that she won a week-long Caribbean cruise in a drawing at the Dell Diamond. She is taking a good friend of hers who missed an Alaska cruise earlier this year when her friend broke her foot. No word yet if Winter League games are on the cruise schedule. We hope Connie and her friend have a great time.

We’ve not yet set the October meeting, but we’re thinking of having a playoffs watch party. More details soon.

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter met for the 57th consecutive month in August, “breaking” Joltin’ Joe’s consecutive game hitting streak.

Twenty-one members and guests enjoyed a tight 8-7 game won by the visiting Tacoma Rainiers. The back-and-forth game featured impressive homeruns by Carlos Pequero and Johan Limonta of the Rainiers and Val Majewski of the Express. Rainiers starting pitcher, Nate Robertson, got the win and had once started a game in the 2006 World Series for the Detroit Tigers against the St. Louis Cardinals.