Category: Chapter News

Rogers Hornsby Chapter Annual Report (June 2018 to May 2019)

Society for American Baseball Research

Rogers Hornsby Chapter

Central and South Texas

Annual Report, June 2018 – May 2019

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Chapter Commissioner

Rogers Hornsby Chapter

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter enjoyed another year of baseball-related activities and said goodbye to chapter founder Bill Gilbert in the last year.

Gilbert, who also founded the Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston prior to moving to Central Texas in the mid-2000s, brought baseball enthusiasts together in the Austin area to form the Rogers Hornsby Chapter. He also started our tradition of annual winter meetings filled with research presentations and visits from former ballplayers, managers, umpires, agents and front-office staff. In recognition of his contributions to SABR and the chapter, we have named our annual winter meeting after him, which will now be known as the Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter.

At the 13th annual winter meeting in January 2019, we honored Bill Gilbert and had a videoconference with acclaimed baseball writer (and commissioner of the West Coast League) Rob Neyer. 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). In addition, 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.

The chapter’s “Talking Baseball” reminiscence program celebrated its 100th session in April 2019. Our SABR chapter’s program in Austin, offered in conjunction with Alzheimer’s Texas, has been running for four years.  This session concluded our 11th “season” in Austin.  The monthly program in Kerrville, in cooperation with the Veteran’s Administration there, has been in operation for three years.

Monte Cely also attended and filed dispatches about the Caribbean Series 2019 from Panama City, Panama. Panama defeated Cuba to take the Serie del Caribe crown.

In May 2019, the chapter met for the 150th consecutive month, a streak dating back to December 2006.

Many of the monthly meetings include lunch at a restaurant in the Austin area, sometimes involving baseball trivia quizzes.

“Talking Baseball” enjoys evening at Dell Diamond

Twenty participants, volunteers and family from the baseball reminiscence program enjoyed an evening at Dell Diamond in Round Rock on Monday May 13. 

In a “rematch” (of sorts) of the 2017 World Series, the Astros and Dodgers AAA affiliates squared off.  The Express prevailed 5-2 over the OKC Dodgers.

A big “THANK YOU” goes out to United Heritage Credit Union for arranging the use of their luxury suite plus food and drink.  Thanks, as always, to our great sponsors at Alzheimer’s Texas.  A good time was had by all. 

Baseball Reminiscence program celebrates 100th session

The “Talking Baseball” reminiscence program celebrated its 100th session on Monday April 8 at Westminster Senior Living in Austin.  Our SABR chapter’s program in Austin, offered in conjunction with Alzheimer’s Texas, has been running for four years.  This session concluded our 11th “season” in Austin.  The monthly program in Kerrville, in cooperation with the Veteran’s Administration there, has been in operation for three years.

We had “standing room only” with 26 participants, caregivers, family, guests and volunteers in attendance.  This also set a record for attendance at a single session.

Two special guests joined us for our Centennial program.  Former Texas Longhorn and professional baseball pitcher Jim Gideon (standing) entertained the group with stories of his years at U.T. and in the Texas Rangers organization.  Jim also fielded questions and autographed baseball cards and baseballs for the attendees.  Local radio personality and Alzheimer’s Texas board member Ed Clements (seated) added to the fun.  We sincerely thank Ed and Jim for joining us.

Very special thanks to our long-time sponsors at Alzheimer’s Texas.  In addition to all their logistical support, they even brought the cake!

Our next scheduled events are the monthly program at Kerrville VA Hospital and then a night at Dell Diamond in May (in one of the luxury suites courtesy of United Heritage Credit Union).   Planning for Season 12 is underway.  Stay tuned! 

 

March BBQ

Our March lunch meeting will be held at the birthplace of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter – the County Line BBQ located at 5204 Ranch Road 2222 in Austin (a short distance east of Hwy 360 on 2222) at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 23.  Members, guests and baseball fans in general are welcome to attend.

Please RSVP to Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

World Series Watch Party

Hornsby chapter member, Jim Baker, will be hosting his annual World Series watch party on Saturday, October 27. Game time for Game Four between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers is 7:09 p.m. Jim will be providing food. Bring along something to drink if you have specific beverage requirements. Please RSVP to Jim at jimbaker1066@yahoo.com if you plan to attend and for directions, if required, to Jim’s house in Cedar Park, TX.

Remembering chapter founder Bill Gilbert at monthly meeting

Sixteen chapter members and guests, gathering for the first time since the passing of chapter founder Bill Gilbert, paid tribute to him on Saturday and remembered his contributions to our community.

We had an empty chair, a World Series edition Astros cap and some fresh garden flowers at the head of the table in Bill’s remembrance. We owe so much to him, not least of which his hand in creating our vibrant baseball community. May he rest in peace.

Jan Larson recounted how Bill contacted SABR members in the Austin area for regular lunch meetings, starting in 2003. Three years later, the group officially became a SABR chapter. Later, Bill worked hard to create the chapter’s annual winter meeting, starting in 2007 and has become a recurring signature event for the chapter every January since.

As we sometimes do at our monthly meetings, we had a trivia quiz; this one supplied by Jim Baker. The theme of the quiz was teenagers who have played in the big leagues, and it was won by Tom Thayer, earning him the prize of the movie poster from the baseball movie, “Bang the drum slowly.”

In addition, Dan Walsh brought his collection of baseball stadium postcards to share with the group. It included major and minor league team stadiums, and even a few from Japanese ball clubs.

The next chapter meeting will be the World Series Watch Party at Jim Baker’s house on Saturday, Oct. 27. World Series Game 4 is scheduled for that evening. More details to follow next month.

BBQ accompanies dog-days-of-summer baseball chat

A dozen chapter members and guests endured the dog days of summer with large slabs of baseball talk and sides of post-season prognostications on Saturday.

The group gathered at County Line on the Lake for delicious barbecue, meeting for the 141st consecutive month. A wide range of professional team logos were represented at the meeting, including the Astros, Dodgers, Indians, Rockies and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Ryan, who attended the Sabermetrics, Scouting and the Science of Baseball conference in Boston earlier this month, sported a shirt from the conference – a periodic table of baseball statistical abbreviations. While he’s bummed at the tough season his Orioles are having, he’s hoping his team will hold on to secure the first pick in next year’s draft. Meanwhile I sported an Ichiro Suzuki shirt that featured a chart showing his 1,000th, 2,000th, 3,000th, and 4,000th hits. Jan grabbed one of his many caps and sported one of the Washington Nationals, a team rapidly fading from contention.

Speaking of contention, some in the group see the Boston Red Sox as the strongest team in the American League while the National League is a complete toss-up. One attendee said he hoped the Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners slip past the Houston Astros for playoff qualification, though there were others who disagreed with this outcome!

The group also welcomed first-time Tom to the group. He’s an Indians fan, just like another Tom in the group, so we all agreed that this will help us remember his name. Jeremy traveled the furthest to join us for lunch, having driven from San Antonio and planning on taking in a Round Rock Express game that evening.

Ira shared how much he enjoyed touring Wrigley Field during a trip to Chicago earlier this month. He said he was surprised at how close second base looked from the center field bleachers.

Next meeting will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, at Serranos (5030 W. U.S. 290 service road) in Southwest Austin. A request for RSVPs will be forthcoming.

 

 

BasebALZ Season 9 wrap-up

Season Nine of our baseball reminiscence program wrapped up on July 30 at Westminster Senior Living in Austin.  All six sessions were well-attended, with 15-20 participants, caregivers, volunteers and guests present.

We enjoyed presentations on Baseball Bobbleheads (authored by Jerry), The Curveball (Jerry), The Evolution of the Glove (Monte & Linda), Baseball Lingo (Ira), The National Anthem and Baseball (Dan), an Eddie Gaedel update (Jim) … just to name a few.  Recurring agenda items were Today in Baseball (Mike and Jim),  and Stump the Experts (Bobby and Renee).  We also had some fun hands-on activites including Baseball Bingo (Mike) and Beanbag Baseball (Bob and Diane).

A highlight of the July 30th session was “Let’s Do the Twist”.  We had some serious twistin’ goin’ on, including Bob & Diane and Bobby & Renee (top) and John & Vicki.  We all enjoyed the dancing and listening & singing to Chubby Checker.

Fellow SABR member and author Anne Keene joined us.  She added some very interesting memories from her research on her current book – The Cloudbuster Nine.

In his “Stump the Experts” segment, Bobby once again stumped the SABR volunteers.  The answer was “Matt Batts”, a San Antonio native who played 10 years in the majors from 1947-1956.

Mike was the emcee for Season Nine.  Here he chats with Dave and Diana before one of our sessions.

Our leader Jim Kenton was on the “DL” for Season Nine, but we expect him to complete his rehab assignments and rejoin the BasebALZ team for Season Ten.

Speaking of Season Ten – dates for the six sessions are September 10,24; October 8, 22 and November 5 and 19.  We expect to return to Westminster and we extend our most sincere thanks to them for hosting BasebALZ in 2018.  Many thanks, as always, to Alzheimer’s Texas for sponsoring our program.

We are also taking August “off” at the Kerrville Veterans Administration Hospital.  Volunteers Dan & Ann and Bob & Diane will return to Kerrville in September to resume the monthly program there.

The fun continues … “See you in September”.