Resources
Spring Virtual Chapter Meeting May 8
The Halsey Hall Chapter spring meeting will be held on-line on Saturday, May 8 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. A link will be sent to all chapter members before the meeting. Members may begin gathering on the site at 9:00 to chat.
Three research presentations have been approved:
- Ed Wehling on baseball jerseys
- Joe Niese on Zack Wheat
- Hans Van Slooten: The First (Known) Computer Baseball Simulation
Joe presented on Burleigh Grimes and Andy Pafko at the Spring 2015 chapter meeting. Hans and Ed have not made research presentations at a chapter meeting.
The business meeting will include the election of four members to two-year terms on the board of directors. Any member interested in running may contact Dave Lande.
Other Events
The Research Committee will meet on Zoom February 8 and March 8 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Anyone wanting to participate may contact co-chairs Brenda Himrich or Stew Thornley, 651-415-0791.
The Halsey Hall Chapter Book Club will meet virtually Saturday, February 6 (which is Babe Ruth’s birthday) at 9:30 a.m. The book selection is Pouring Six Beers at a Time and Other Stories from a Lifetime in Baseball by Bill Giles.
Brent Heutmaker has organized a list of all the book selections since the book club started in August 2002: Halsey Hall Book Club Selections
The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be on hold for a while, either until it is safe to gather indoors again or nice enough to meet outdoors.
Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page
Halsey Hall Chapter Twitter page
Please visit both pages, and, if you haven’t yet, “Like” the Facebook page and “Follow” the Twitter page and set your notifications to be alerted to new posts.
Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page
Halsey Hall Chapter Twitter page
Please visit both pages, and, if you haven’t yet, “Like” the Facebook page and “Follow” the Twitter page and set your notifications to be alerted to new posts.
Also:
Regular Events
Video Archives of Past Events
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SABR Website Tour
On January 5 Jacob Pomrenke, SABR’s director of editorial content, gave a tour of the revamped SABR website for a joint virtual meeting of the Dusty Baker and Lefty O’Doul-San Francisco Bay Area chapters. All SABR members were invited to participate, and many of those joining it were Halsey Hall Chapter members. The SABR website has more than 65,000 pages, and Jacob’s presentation demonstrated the staggering amount of outstanding research that has been done by SABR members. Those who missed it or would like to see it again may view the video of the presentation:
Stay Home with SABR: Jacob Pomrenke
A benefit of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the proliferation of virtual meetings, which allow for participation for people from around the world. Our neighboring Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter has been having regular on-line events. On January 12, SABR’s Nineteenth Century Research Committee had an incredible talk by Tom Shieber about A. G. Spalding’s 1888-1889 World Tour and the story behind a diary of the tour. View the presentation:
SABR 19th Century Baseball Speaker Series: Tom Shieber
Others from the 19th Century Speaker Series:
SABR 19th Century Baseball Speaker Series
Many chapters and committees who have gone to virtual events out of necessity may continue with them, even after we get past the pandemic, having discovered the benefits and power of them. All members are encouraged to take advantage of these opportunities.
A whole plethora load of presentations on video are at:
SABR Virtual
In addition, a benefit of the pandemic has been the necessity for virtual meetings, which has opened up opportunities for organizations such as SABR to have a lot of ZOOM (or other types although ZOOM seems to be becoming a generic name for virtual events) meetings, which just about any can attend. Check the SABR Events page (go down to the calendar at the bottom) and see what’s happening:
Events
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New Members
Mike Klingensmith grew up in Fridley but by living 34 years on the Upper West Side in New York (after getting his bachelor’s and master’s degree at the University of Chicago), he has seen more games at Yankee Stadium than he has at Met Stadium, the Metrodome, and Target Field combined and believes he has seen more Twins losses (including getting perfect-gamed by David Wells) than any other Twins fan.
Mike has been the publisher and chief executive officer at the Star Tribune the last 10 years after many years at Time, Inc., where he was the founding publisher of Entertainment Weekly from 1989 to 1998 and the publisher of Sports Illustrated from 1998 to 2002. When he arrived at Time, Inc. in 1976, he became friends with Dick Durrell, a Minnesotan who had played for the Gophers and was a member of the Mitby-Sather team of Minneapolis that won the state Class AA amateur title in 1943. Dick, a long-time SABR member, was the founding publisher of People magazine, and Mike’s sister-in-law was a bridesmaid in Dick’s wedding.
Mike said the first game he attended was at Metropolitan Stadium, probably the first year the Twins were here. As a lifelong Twins fan, he endured the taunts of fans at Yankee Stadium as he and his children wore Twins hats. He had access to the Sports Illustrated box seats, which were about five rows behind the visitors’ dugout, so at least he got some balls tossed his way.
While he didn’t see many Twins wins at Yankee Stadium, he did see Justin Morneau win the 2008 Home Run Derby, overcoming Josh Hamilton, who had hit 28 in the first round. He also saw Reggie Jackson hit three home runs on consecutive pitches to him in Game Six of the 1977 World Series. Elsewhere, Mike says that Games Six and Seven of the 1987 and 1991 World Series stand out for him, “the loudest venues I have ever been in.” He was sitting directly behind Commissioner Peter Ueberroth when Mookie Wilson’s grounder went through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game Six of the 1986 World Series. He was at Wrigley Field April 17, 1976 when Mike Schmidt hit four home runs (the last breaking a tie in the 10th inning) to bring the Phillies back from a 12-1 deficit to beat the Cubs 18-16.
Beyond baseball, Mike has been to four Super Bowls, three Final Fours, one Masters golf tournament, and Olympics in Atlanta, Nagano, Sydney, Salt Lake City, and Athens, mostly courtesy of Sports Illustrated.
Mike has played Strat-O-Matic all his life. He bought the 2019 player cards to analyze while watching the 2020 Covid season. Thirty years ago he created an algorithm to evaluate Strat-O-Matic cards combining hitting, fielding, running (and separate measures for pitchers) into one consolidated rating.
Mike and his wife, Ruth, have a son, James, who played baseball at Pomona College, and daughter, Carly, who played softball at Macalester. Both James and Carly live in New York City.
Born in 1953, Mike shares his January 13 birthday with Andre Scrubb, Kevin Mitchell, Elmer Dessens, Fred Schulte, Steve Comer, Bob Forsch, Mike Tyson, Larry Jaster, Cactus Keck, Goat Anderson, Bama Rowell, Billy Jo Robidoux, Heath Hembree, Salmon Chase, Jersey Joe Walcott, Chas. Nelson Reilly, Tom Gola, Joe Pass, Mona Darkfeather, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Also new to the Halsey Hall Chapter: Cole Kehrberg
Know a potential member? Here are resources for getting that person happily involved in SABR:
Membership application
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Opportunities
The SABR Nominating Committee is seeking candidates for SABR offices, specifically candidates for secretary and director. Anyone interested or looking for more information may contact Clayton Trutor, ctrutor@gmail.com.
Gary Cokins is on the lookout for authors for INFORMS, an association for Operations Research & Analytics professionals. Here are a couple of sample articles:
Sports Analytics Taxonomy, V1.0
The Sports Analytics Explosion
Anyone interested may contact Gary, garyfarms@aol.com.
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Cow Pies
Doug Skipper is continuing as chair of the committee for the Larry Ritter Award, presented to the author of the best book of the year about the Deadball Era. Doug has been on the committee for more than 10 years and has chaired it the past six years.
Terry Bohn has a recent submission for the SABR BioProject on Ed Wheeler.
The Fall 2020 Baseball Research Journal had an article by a member: Andy Oyler’s Two-Foot Home Run: Is It Okay to Destroy a Legend?
Said member will also be doing a presentation for the Ramsey County Historical Society based on a soon-to-be-published books about baseball parks in the Twin Cities. The presentation, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 20, will have photos of historic and current ballparks. It is free and open to anyone. To register:
History Revealed: Historic Ballparks
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Thought for the Month
A couple of gems from Casey Stengel:
Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It’s staying up all night looking for a woman that does them in.
and a cogent follow-up:
You gotta learn that if you don’t get it by midnight, chances are you ain’t gonna get it; and if you do, it ain’t worth it.
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Calendar
February 6—Book Club via Zoom, 9:30 a.m., Pouring Six Beers at a Time and Other Stories from a Lifetime in Baseball by Bill Giles.
February 8—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Brenda Himrich, 651-415-0791.
February 21—Halsey Hall Chapter Board of Directors meeting, 6:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande.
March 8—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Brenda Himrich, 651-415-0791.
May 8—Spring Virtual Chapter Meeting, 9:30 a.m. to noon (with social at 9:00). For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.
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Board of Directors 2020-2021
President—Dave Lande
Vice President—Hans Van Slooten
Secretary—Anders Koskinen
Treasurer—Jerry Janzen
Jim Cox
Gene Gomes
Frank Kadwell
Events Committee Chair—Howard Luloff
Research Committee Co-Chairs and Co-Chair-in-waiting—Brenda Himrich, Stew Thornley, Gene Gomes
Membership Committee Chair—Frank Kadwell
The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
Webmaster—John Gregory
Ass. Webmasters—Frank Kadwell, Hans Van Slooten, and Stew Thornley
Social Media Directors—Tom Flynn, Twitter; Bob Komoroski, Facebook
Halsey Hall Chapter Web Page
Past issues of The Holy Cow! are available on-line.
Chapter History
Chapter Procedures and By-Laws
Society for American Baseball Research
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Resources
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