Category: Hornsby News

Main course of baseball and sandwiches highlight July meeting

Photo by Raeanne Martinez.

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.

 

 

 

 

July Baseball Watch Party

Our July get-together will be held on Saturday, July 21 at the home of Ryan Pollack starting at 12:30 p.m.  Ryan has graciously offered to host a baseball watch party and will supply a sandwich platter and chips.  Attendees are requested to bring along your favorite side dishes and/or dessert along with your favorite beverage.

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

June Meeting Wrap-Up

Ten Hornsby Chapter members, including first time attendee Ryan Cafferty, enjoyed Tex Mex at Serrano’s Mopac on Saturday, June 16.

Attendees
Photo by Raeanne Martinez.

Ryan Pollack provided a challenging quiz authored by Washington Post columnist George Will.  Dan Walsh took home a Mike Piazza bobblehead for besting all others in a decisive victory.

Discussion topics included, among others, the horrible season through which the Orioles and Oriole fans are suffering, the once again outstanding season being put together by Mike Trout and the Yankees’ youth movement.

Details of the July meeting will be forthcoming.  Watch this space.

Rogers Hornsby Chapter Annual Report (June 2017 to May 2018)

Society for American Baseball Research

Rogers Hornsby Chapter

Central and South Texas

Annual Report, June 2017 – May 2018

By Gilbert D. Martinez

Chapter Commissioner

Rogers Hornsby Chapter

The Rogers Hornsby Chapter continued a long run of regular monthly meetings, celebrated three years of BasebALZ, a baseball-themed program for Alzheimer’s patients in Central Texas, took outings to the Round Rock Express and gathered for a World Series game watch party.

The chapter hosted the 12th annual Hornsby Chapter Winter Meeting, which featured memories of the historic regular- and post-season run of the World Series champion Houston Astros. The meeting also featured a presentation by Monte Cely about his visit to Cuba with other SABR members. The keynote speaker was Branch B. Rickey, president of the Pacific Coast League and grandson of Branch Rickey. Chapter member Anne Keene, the daughter of former professional baseball player Jim Raugh, talked about baseball in the 1940s and a little-known Navy team that featured Ted Williams. Her father was a batboy on that team, which also featured Johnny Pesky and Johnny Sain. Her book, The Cloudbuster Nine, was published in May 2018 and she plans to discuss her book at SABR 48 in Pittsburgh in June. The meeting was held at historic Old Main, the oldest building on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos.

BasebALZ organizers Jim Kenton and Monte Cely have been in touch with other SABR members across the country who are interested in replicating the baseball-themed program for Alzheimer’s patients elsewhere. The Hornsby Chapter continues to partner with Alzheimer’s Texas to help Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers recover baseball memories. The therapy program involves six bi-weekly meetings, which include discussing favorite players and teams, remembering details of attending a ballgame, and handling baseball items such as gloves and memorabilia. In addition to Kenton and Cely, other Hornsby Chapter members volunteer to participate in this valuable program.

The chapter had several outings to see the Texas Rangers Triple-A affiliate Round Rock Express, including a game in April 2018 in which fog delayed the game for 30 minutes. Express officials later said that the fog-induced delay was the first in franchise history.

Monte Cely also attended and filed dispatches about the Caribbean Series 2018 from Jalisco, Mexico. Puerto Rico defeated the Dominican Republic to take the Serie del Caribe crown.

In May 2018, the chapter met for the 138th 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.

 

BasebALZ Season 8 Wrap-up

It was a full house at our BasebALZ outing to Round Rock’s Dell Diamond on Monday, April 23.  Participants, caregivers, and volunteers enjoyed an 11-4 Round Rock Express victory over the visiting Colorado Springs Sky Sox.

We enjoyed the game in comfort, complete with food and drinks.   A big THANK YOU to United Heritage Credit Union and Alzheimer’s Texas for working together to host us in UHCU’s luxury suite at Dell Diamond.

Season Eight of BasebALZ, our baseball-themed Alzheimer’s reminiscence program, ran for six sessions from February through April, 2018.  We were hosted at the Austin, Texas office of our sponsor – Alzheimer’s Texas.

Just a few highlights included:

Baseball Bingo – Mike created this version of bingo and it was an immediate hit with everyone.  We had a Baseball Bingo session twice during Season Eight, as well as at one of the sessions at the Kerrville VA Hospital.

Stump the Experts – Bobby and Renee continued their feature effort to try to stump the SABR “experts” with clues about the life of a ballplayer.  Bobby threw three “shutouts” this season, successfully stumping the “experts” at three of the six sessions.

All-Time Latino All-Stars – we continued a periodic feature where we vote for various “all time” teams.  Ira led the discussion on selecting the all time line-up of Latin American players.

Singing – always a big part of every program, we devoted a full session to “Songs about Baseball”.  Above – Dodgers fans Jerry (l) and Dan (r) get ready for a rendition of “It’s a Beautiful Day for a Ball Game” and – below – we all join in for “The Eyes of Texas are Upon You”.

In addition to our now-three-year-old program at Alzheimer’s Texas here in Austin, we continue with our monthly program (every second Friday) at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Kerrville, Texas.  Our program at the VA continues to be well-received by the patients as well as administrators.

We will take a short break and then Season Nine of BasebALZ will commence on Monday, May 21, 2018.  We will have a change of venue, with Season Nine being hosted by Westminster Senior Living – 4100 Jackson Ave., Austin, TX 78731.

For more background on the BasebALZ program, see our informational page here.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Our April meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter will include a trip to the ol’ ballyard, the Dell Diamond, on Saturday, April 21 as we watch the Round Rock Express take on the Colorado Springs Sky Sox.  First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Preceding the game, we will meet at the nearby Salt Lick restaurant at 5:30 p.m. for pre-game BBQ.

Game tickets are $11 (regularly $16).  Contact Jan Larson at jan.a.larson@gmail.com to reserve your seats for the game and/or dinner.  Your reservation is final, that means you are obligated to pay for your game ticket(s) as of Saturday April 14.

SABR Day lunch in Austin part of global celebration

(Panoramic photo by Gilbert D. Martinez)

Fourteen chapter members and guests joined SABR members around the globe to celebrate the Ninth Annual SABR Day on Saturday in Austin.

While the group enjoyed a hot Italian lunch at Macaroni Grill in the Arboretum, the lack of free agent signings during the Hot Stove offseason dominated the conversation. Some commented on the Milwaukee Brewers activity – trading for Christian Yelich and signing Lorenzo Cain in recent days, bringing some warmth to the stove

Speaking of the offseason, some of us wondered whether many of the current free agents would sign one-year deals to play this season. With spring training just around the corner, time appears to be running out for these free agents.

The group also discussed the Hall of Fame announcement, revisiting familiar topics such as who’s deserving and who’s not.

In addition, SABR headquarters asked chapter leaders to get feedback about a proposed name change to the organization. The name change – from the Society for American Baseball Research to the Society for the Advancement of Baseball Research – would retain the acronym, but proponents say the new name would more accurately describe the organization as a whole and recognize baseball as an international sport.

Lunch attendees had a variety of views about the proposal, and perhaps in typical baseball fashion, you could describe our views as 1-6-3. 1: Mike Dillon said he was happy either way. 6: Jim Baker, Ryan Pollack, Raeanne Martinez, Monte Cely, Jan Larson and this author – were all in favor of the name change, with some suggesting that if a change was going to be made, perhaps a more dramatic change would be warranted. 3: Tom Wancho, Ira Siegel and Chuck Kaufman preferred the current name and would rather that the name not change.

This feedback will be shared with SABR headquarters. Other Hornsby members may contact me (email: gmartinez46 AT mac.com) with their thoughts.

To see how other chapters around the nation and the world celebrated SABR Day, check out this link: http://sabr.org/sabrday

Our next chapter luncheon will be at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18, at Serranos (MoPac and U.S. 290 in southwest Austin). More details and request for RSVPs will be forthcoming in early February.