Category: Chapter News

An Astros broadcaster, a major league scout, a sabermetrician, a baseball grave hunter and others shared their baseball stories and research at the 4th Annual SABR Rogers Hornsby Chapter Winter Meeting, held Jan. 16, 2010, at Texas State University.

Bill Brown, Houston Astros play-by-play broadcaster for 23 years, shared an essay titled “The Greatest Game in Astros History,” which was about the thrilling 18-inning Astros playoff win against the Atlanta Braves in the 2005 National League Division Series. He also shared stories about how he got his start in broadcasting with the Cincinnati Reds and his approach to broadcasting games. In addition, Brown was generous with his time, answering a wide range of questions for more than an hour.

Jan Larson, who helps maintain the Hornsby Chapter website, moderated a lively panel discussion with Gene Watson, coordinator of professional scouting for the Kansas City Royals; Mike Capps, the voice of the Round Rock Express who won the 2009 Broadcaster of the Year from BallparkDigest.com; and Jim Baker, former columnist for ESPN.com and Baseball Prospectus. They discussed the use of instant replay, whether international players should be included in the amateur draft and what Mark McGwire’s admission means for his Hall of Fame chances.

Other presentations included one by Dr. Fred Worth, a mathematics professor from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. He shared stories and photos of baseball player gravesites, including several notable ones in Central Texas. He also brought a binder with photos of graves he has visited. His endeavor is to visit, photograph and mark by GPS gravesites of players, managers and umpires associated with Major League Baseball.

Scott Barzilla, an active member of the SABR Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston, talked about his research, which combines statistical measures of baseball players such as win shares (WS), wins above replacement player (WARP), wins above replacement (WAR), plus those values at the player’s peak. The result is a list of players by position that attempts to quantify a player’s value as compared to other players. Barzilla said his goal isn’t to rank the top X number of players by position; instead, he hopes that those who vote in Hall of Fame balloting might use his tool to see that his method shows how some players have been overvalued or overlooked. He’s writing a book about his statistical rankings and hopes to have it published next year.

Norman Macht, author of “Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball,” talked about his interesting visit with former major league player Ted Lyons, who played 21 seasons with the Chicago White Sox and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1955. Macht played audio excerpts of his interview with Lyons. Macht also kicked off the meeting with a creative and challenging baseball quiz that entertained and stumped the audience.

Hornsby Chapter member Michael Bass brought several pieces of memorabilia to share with the group, including a "knobless" bat used by Bill North, who had a 10-year MLB career, mostly with the Oakland A’s. Bass also shared a pennant and a program from the Baltimore Orioles’ inaugural season in 1954.

Thirty-four people attended the winter meeting, which included a drawing for items brought by Gene Watson. Prizes included baseballs signed by Kansas City Royals Manager Trey Hillman and Royals first baseman Billy Butler and two copies of the Baseball America 2010 Almanac. Watson also brought some Royals T-shirts, yearbooks and signed cards by some Royals minor league prospects.

For the third consecutive year, the winter meeting was held in historic Old Main, the oldest building on the Texas State campus and home to the School of Journalism & Mass Communication and the College of Fine Arts & Communication. It was the fourth year the winter meeting was held on the Texas State campus.

Eleven members met Thursday evening, December 17, at Third Base in Austin for the monthly meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter.  New member Wells Oliver was welcomed to the group.

Jim Baker developed the trivia quiz, entitled "Tis the Football Season Baseball Quiz".  The theme was the intersection of football and baseball.  Norman Macht blitzed the field to win the quiz by several touchdowns.  Jan Larson took second.

The planning committee for the Hornsby Chapter annual Winter Meeting finalized the lineup.  The Winter Meeting will be held Saturday, January 16 on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos.  Much more information will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

Discussion revolved around recent trades and free agent signings, as well as other hot-stove issues.

Our next meeting will be the Winter Meeting on Saturday, January 16.

Eight members assembled at Third Base in Austin for the November meeting of the Rogers Hornsby chapter.  Monte Cely presented Jan Larson with a major award for winning Monte’s annual Cy Young prediction contest.

Michael Bass had prepared a trivia quiz on the decade of the 1960s.  Unfortunately a conflict prevented Michael from presenting the quiz but he did leave the answers in a hermetically sealed envelope with Tom Wancho who handled administration duties.  Dan Walsh edged Jim Baker for the win by a score of 13-12 with the other contestants relegated to also-ran status.

Tom Wancho also served in an administrative capacity as the members conducted a vote on the upcoming Hall of Fame managers/umpires and executive candidates.  Applying the same standards as the Hall of Fame, specifically requiring 75% of the votes cast for an individual to be elected, the chapter elected only one candidate – Marvin Miller, former executive director of the Major League Players Association.

The planning committee for the Hornsby Chapter Winter Meeting put together a preliminary agenda for that meeting which will be held on January 16.  Details will be finalized at a later date.

Discussion centered on the recently completed post-season and the traditional off-season "hot stove" topics.

The next monthly meeting was scheduled for Thursday, December 17 also at Third Base.

Eight members and four guests enjoyed the first-ever Rogers Hornsby Chapter Playoff Watch Party and Cookout on Saturday at the home of Gilbert and Raeanne Martinez.

The only disappointment – aside from the lackluster performance by the St. Louis Cardinals – was the postponement of the late game between the Rockies and the Phillies due to snow in Denver.

The jalapeño-onion burgers were popular, as were the raspberry-filled cupcakes with icing designed to look like baseballs (the cupcakes were courtesy Lucila Martinez, Gilbert Martinez’s sister-in-law).

There was no quiz, but the group grappled with some baseball trivia. Norman Macht pondered how many Hall of Famers (as a player or manager) had won exactly one World Series. He didn’t know how many there have been, but one candidate would be Earl Weaver. Are there others?

Gilbert Martinez repeated a question he asked on the list-serve – Which is the only team, since 1930, that had four players each with 200 or more hits in a season?

With barely a pause, Bill Gilbert named the team: the 1937 Detroit Tigers. The group came up with the four players: G. Walker (213), C. Gehringer (209), P. Fox (208) and H. Greenberg (200).

Gilbert Martinez also shared that a team with three players with 200+ hits each has occurred a handful of times. They are the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs in 1930, the ’35 N.Y. Giants, the ’63 Cardinals, the ’82 Brewers and the ’91 Rangers.

There was some discussion about a fair flyball by Joe Mauer that had been mistakenly called a foul ball in the Yankees-Twins game the night before. There was also some discussion about who the Astros should hire as their next manager. Both Bill Gilbert and Gilbert Martinez said they hoped it would be Tim Bogar, first base coach for the Boston Red Sox, and former Astros player. Bill joked that Bogar’s schedule was about to be wide open (for interview purposes) because the Angels had the Red Sox on the brink of elimination (And Bill was right – the Angels eliminated the Red Sox at Fenway with a dramatic 9^th inning come-back the following day).

The next meeting has not yet been scheduled, but will probably be in early November.