Category: Chapter News

July Meeting at Dell Diamond

The July meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter will bear a striking resemblance to the recent April meeting as we will again be venturing to the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas to take in the Round Rock Express vs. Iowa Cubs game.  The game is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, July 24.  As before, we will gather for a pre-game meal at the Salt Lick restaurant near the southwest corner of the Dell Diamond parking lot.  Plan to meet at the Salt Lick at 5:30 p.m.

If you plan to attend please indicate (1) the number of people that will attend the pre-game meal (for the purposes of making a reservation at the Salt Lick) and (2) the number of game tickets required ($12 plus $1 convenience charge each).  Please send an email with those numbers to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com no later than Sunday, July 18.

Tickets will be purchased on July 18 and the pdf file containing the tickets will be sent to each attendee shortly thereafter.

June Meeting Summary

Heavy afternoon rain and lots of traffic did not deter chapter members from returning to Third Base with the largest turnout for a monthly meeting in more than two years. Fourteen members and guests were treated to a Dan Walsh quiz, College Baseball and the College World Series.

Bill Gilbert, showing no ill effects from his stint on the DL last year, won the trivia quiz with 28 total points. It should also be noted that for the first, and perhaps last time, Gilbert Martinez bested Jim Baker by two points in the quiz.

Tentative plans for the July meeting include dinner at the Salt Lick followed by a Round Rock Express game (versus the Iowa Cubs) on Saturday, July 24. More details to follow.

Rogers Hornsby Chapter Annual Report for 2009

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter, serving Central and South Texas, was officially recognized as a SABR chapter early in 2006. The Chapter held 12 meetings in 2009 with one meeting in each month, continuing a streak of 37 straight months with a meeting. Nine were dinner meetings, held on a monthly basis at a local sports bar, with an average attendance of ten people. In addition to baseball talk, these meetings allowed members to discuss areas of their research and were also used to plan chapter activities. Members are encouraged to bring guests to these meetings and some new active members have been added as a result.

The third annual winter meeting of the chapter was held in January 2009 on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos. Thirty five people were in attendance at the meeting which included 3 research presentations by Chapter members and a trivia quiz conducted by Norman Macht. The featured speaker was Larry Dierker, former pitcher, manager and broadcaster with the Houston Astros. Other guests included authors, Talmage Boston and Milton Jamail and Round Rock Express Broadcaster, Mike Capps.

One of the meetings in 2009 was held at Dell Diamond, the home of the Triple-A Round Rock Express. The meeting included a pre-game get together and attendance at the game as a group. The October meeting was held at the home of Gilbert Martinez in connection with an NLDS game on television.
 
The chapter website ( http://chapters.sabr.org/hornsby/ ) was officially launched in April 2009.  Jan Larson spearheaded the effort working with Peter Garver of the SABR office. The site is used to announce chapter meetings/events, make prediction contest results available to chapter members and to make various research papers, book reviews, etc. available to SABR members and the general public.
 
The site has information about the history of the chapter, chapter meeting summaries and membership information.  Trivia quizzes (and correct answers) that have been presented at regular chapter meetings are also available for use by interested parties. There are currently three chapter members with editing rights that maintain the site.
 
Chapter member Monte Cely served as one of three judges for the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award.  This annual award honors outstanding research projects completed during the preceding calendar year (2009).  Eligible projects must be the product of original research or analysis, must significantly advance our knowledge of baseball, and must reflect factual accuracy and notable insight.
 
Fourteen books were submitted for consideration.  The three award winners have been announced and will be honored at the 2010 SABR Annual Convention.  They are:
 
  • "The Rise of Milwaukee Baseball" by Dennis Pajot
  • "Death at the Ballpark" by Robert Gorman and David Weeks
  • "Ball, Bat and Bitumen: A History of Coalfield Baseball in the Appalachian South" by L.M. Sutter
 
The chapter has continued the monthly meetings in 2010.  Another very successful Winter Meeting was held in January 2010 with Astro TV broadcaster Bill Brown as the featured speaker. The Winter Meeting is expected to be an annual affair.

May Meeting Summary

Nine members gathered at Cover 3 for the May chapter meeting. Jim Baker wrote a quiz, 30 Teams/30 Questions, featuring multiple choice and open-ended questions on all 30 current Major League franchises (Look under the Contests tab above to view the quiz and answers). Cy Morong, who traveled the farthest to attend the meeting, also left as the winner of the quiz, answering 23 questions correctly.

Next meeting is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 29, with location to be determined.

April Meeting Summary

 

On Saturday, April 17, ten members and guests enjoyed a hearty meal at the Salt Lick restaurant followed by the Round Rock Express vs. New Orleans Zephyrs game at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas.

After dinner we made our way across the parking lot and into the stadium.  Shortly after finding our seats, the Texas skies opened up and the game was delayed nearly 90 minutes by rain. RR_041710_1

Eventually the rain ceased, the tarp was removed, the field prepared and a baseball game was played on what turned out to be a fairly pleasant evening.

RR_041710_2

Several members suffered from divided attention while following not only the action on the field, but also following (via smart phone) the action in St. Louis where the Mets defeated the Cardinals 2-1 in 20 innings and in Atlanta where the Rockies’ Ubaldo Jiminez threw the first no-hitter in franchise history at the Braves.

Although the visiting Zephyrs left the field with a 5-4 win, a good time was had by all.

The date for the May meeting is TBD.

 

April Meeting – Baseball!

For the April monthly meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter, we will be attending the Round Rock Express vs. New Orleans Zephyrs game scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 17 at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock.  Tentative plans are for a pre-game meal at the Salt Lick restaurant near the southwest corner of the Dell Diamond parking lot.  Plan to meet at the Salt Lick at 5:30 p.m.

If you plan to attend please indicate (1) the number of people that will attend the pre-game meal (for the purposes of making a reservation at the Salt Lick) and (2) the number of game tickets required ($12 plus $1 convenience charge each).  Please send an email with those numbers to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com no later than Monday, April 12.

Tickets will be purchased on April 12 and the pdf file containing the tickets will be sent to each attendee shortly thereafter.

 

March Meeting Recap

Eight members of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter met Tuesday evening, March 30, 2010 for dinner at Cover3 in Austin.  Discussion centered around the upcoming season and the Astros’ prospects for the 2010 campaign.  Interest was expressed in a summer road trip to see the Corpus Christi Hooks or San Antonio Missions.

Monte Cely presented a quiz on the history of the Cy Young Award (a copy of the quiz is under the "Contests" tab above).  Michael Bass won the quiz and a copy of the book, "Cy Young Award Winners".  Jan Larson was also presented with a St. Patrick’s green Astros cap for winning the February quiz.

The next chapter meeting will be an outing to Dell Diamond to see a Round Rock Express game.  Tentative date is Saturday evening, April 17.  More information will be forthcoming.