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June 2012 Editor:
The Fall Chapter meeting will be either October 6 or October 20. Other upcoming events: The next Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be at 9:00 on July 14 at Bakers Square in Richfield (66th Street to the east of Xerxes Avenue). SABR 42 will be at the Minneapolis Marriott City Center from Wednesday, June 27 to Sunday, July 1, 2012. Wein the home stretch now, and a lot of Halsey Hall Chapter members are already registered: Anne Aronson, Rich Arpi, Barry Bengttson, Fred Buckland, Elizabeth Christensen, Rich Cohen, Chad Collins, Scott Cummings, Doug Ernst, Tom Flynn, Stephen Ginader, Aaron Gleeman, Roger Godin, Pete Gorton, John Gregory, Kevin Hennessy, Connie Hill, Brenda Himrich, Jerry Janzen, Dave Jensen, Sarah Johnson, Dan Levitt, Howard Luloff, Ray Luurs, Dana Marshall, Alden Mead, Mendal Mearkle, Art Mugalian, Ryan Nordness, Joe OConnell, Todd Peterson, Darren Rasmussen, Fritz Reeker, George Rekela, John Rosengren, Doug Skipper, Cary Smith, Jack Stanton, Jeremy Tecktiel, Lee Temanson, Bob Tholkes, Stew Thornley, Hans Van Slooten, Benjamin Wiggins, Kenneth Woolums, Jim Wyman, and Gene Zavadil. The research presentations include several by chapter members and/or about Minnesota topics:
All available people are needed for a Stuff This party to stuff all the giveaways into goodie bags at 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 24 at the Marriott City Center (meet on the fourth floor). Members are invited to bring family and friends. Art Mugalian has been organizing the freebies. He and Dave Jensen will also be leading the ballparks tour on Saturday. The convention publication is at the printer and will be ready for the convention. Dan Levitt, with photo acquistion help from Dave Jensen, has edited this publication, titled, Short But Wonderous Summers: Baseball in the North Star State, which will include the All-Region Team selected by our chapter members. There will be much to do and choices to be made by attendees. Early arrivers on Wednesday can take a tour of the Minneapolis Central Library and a walking tour of downtown, which includes a Metrodome tour. That night is an author event at Barnes & Noble on 8th and Nicollet Mall with authors Steve Treder, Dan Levitt, Rob Fitts, John Thorn, and Mark Armour on a panel and then autographing their books. The Ross Adell First-Timers Reception back at the hotel is open to all members. The vendors and memorabilia room will also open on Wednesday. Thursday has the usual array of committee meetings and research presentations. Howard Luloff has organized the on-site volunteers, who will stand out in their red shirts as they moderate the research presentations, greet out-of-towners, provide security in the memorabilia room (no packing, were not a Stand Your Ground state), and run around and look busy. Chapter president Brenda Himrich will moderate the opening ceremonies with guest speaker Dave St. Peter, president of the Minnesota Twins. Also on Thursday:
Friday fun:
Saturday is loaded: ballpark run, donors breakfast, players panel (Bob Rocky Johnson, Ron Coomer, Roy Smalley, moderated by Frank Quilici), ballpark sites tour, the winners of the SABR Case Competition, Roland Hemond session, poster presentations, Branch Rickey one-man show, and the trivia finals. An encore presentation of the best research presentation from the convention will be repeated Sunday morning. Go to the SABR website for the most up-to-date schedule. Updates on the convention are available on the Halsey Hall Chapter website. [A final note from me (Stew): Were in the final stretch now of something big that goes back to 2004, when our chapter submitted a bid for a SABR convention. We were working on the convention from before the time we were awarded it, in 2010. Since then the efforts have been intense and steady. Special thanks to the local organizing committeeHoward Luloff, Kevin Hennessy, Jerry Janzen, Art Mugalian, Dan Levitt, Rich Arpi, Brenda Himrich, and Dave Jensenfor all youve done along with all the other volunteers as well as others, such as Mary Buckland, who designed the SABR 42 logo. Its always been satisfying for chapter members to hear from people who attended the 1988 SABR convention in Minneapolis and report their good memories of it, and I expect well be hearing from people in the coming years about what a good time they had at SABR 42. The final weeks are bringing in a lot of requests from SABR members, asking for different time slots for their committees or recommending local businesses, stuff like that. It gets a bit overwhelming, but we will continue with top-notch customer service, all the way through the convention. Many of you have ordered the red convention shirts to help you stand out as a member of our chapter. Whether youre wearing a red shirt or not, do your best to help our visitors out in any way you can for whatever they need. Greet the SABR members on behalf of the Halsey Hall Chapter, and make a special effort to introduce yourselves to those wearing the First Timer ribbon on their name badges. SABR members are a friendly bunch, but sometimes they congregate among people theyve known for years, and the new folks feel a little intimidated approaching the group. Bring a first timer over to the veterans and introduce him or her. This has been a great experience for all of us, but were not done yet. Keep going hard for another few weeks, and we will make SABR 42 a memorable one. Thanks.]
Sarah has been an urbanite my entire life, growing up in Minneapolis and now living in St. Louis Park. She has younger sisters in Minneapolis and Golden Valley, a set of parents in Minneapolis, and two young nephews and a niece whom she is working hard to ensure that they grow up baseball fans. Theyve already been on a behind-the-scenes tour of Target Field and my nephew has a foul ball from Tsuyoshi Nishioka so were off to a good start! Sarah says, I honestly dont remember going to my first game and have never played baseball or softball but I know Ive always been a baseball fan. My mother says when I was younger I would just walk into our living room and turn on the Twins game. I was at game 6 of the 1991 World Series so its pretty hard to top that one. I was also at the last game of the regular season in 2007 at Coors Field when the Rockies had to force a one-game playoff with the Padres to make it as the wild card team. It was a beautiful September day in Denver and, with a view of the mountains in the distance and a sold-out crowd into every pitch and scoreboard watching at the same time, that was an awesome game too. And of course I was at the first game at Target Field against the Red Sox! Ive been to about half of the major league stadiums around the country and I love discovering the differences between all of them. In addition to the writing Sarah does for her day job, shes written many freelance articles on history, sports, and health/nutrition topics for a variety of publications, including Minnesota History, Gameday and Edible Twin Cities. I love to bike around the lakes during the summer and am a self-proclaimed foodie you can usually find trying something at a local co-op or farmers market. Sarah has been aware of SABR since shes seen our Halsey Hall Chapter booths at TwinsFest every year. When I saw that Minneapolis was going to be hosting the convention this year I figured it was a perfect time to join! Sarah shares her April 1 birthday with Rusty Staub, Phil Niekro, Jeff Heath, Hugo Bezdek, John Axford, Will Rhymes, Willie Montanez, Ron Perranoski, Hot Rod Kanehl, Bo Schembechler, Ali McGraw, Lon Chaney, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Simon Boliver Buckner, Method Man, Art Dick, and Commodore Nutt. Benjamin Wiggins is a Ph.D Candidate and the Doctoral Dissertation Fellow in the Department of American Studies at the University of Minnesota. He researches racial discrimination in the insurance industry between the 1880s and 1940s. Ben will be presenting at SABR 42 on Major League Baseballs genetic testing in Latin America. Raised in Minnetonka and now living in Minneapolis, Ben has known about SABR for years and learned about the convention coming to Minneapolis a couple years ago by reading Aaron Gleemans blog. Ben played baseball until I realized I wouldnt get trophies for anything besides my participation. The first MLB game I attended was at the Metrodome in the late 1980s and though I barely remember it, I went to game 2 of the 1991 World Series when I was six years old. I was one of the few thousand that saw Eric Miltons no hitter, which started at 11 a.m. on a Saturday. I also saw Johan Santanas debut, Cal Ripkens 3000th hit, and Frank Thomass 500th home run. Ben enjoys cooking, cross-country skiing, and Polaroid photography. He shares his May 26 birthday with fellow chapter member Jack Stanton as well as Travis Lee, Darrell Evans, Joe Altobelli, Ben Zobrist, Kevin Mulvey, Jason Bere, Stoney McGlynn, Zola Budd, Sally Ride, Al Jolson, John Wayne, Brent Musburger, James Arness, Jay Silverheels, Washington Roebling, Stevie Nicks, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Jack Kevorkian. Gene Zavadil describes himself as a life-long ordinary baseball fan and having just recently retired [who] decided to join SABR to deepen my appreciation of the sport. He was born in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, the home of former Brewers pitcher Jerry Augustine. Married with two almost-graduated college kids, Gene says his love of baseball statistics led me to a career in accounting. Fan of the Milwaukee Braves when I was a kid, and then when they moved to Atlanta I became a Cubs fan. When I moved to Minnesota in 1977 I became a Twins fan, which I am to this day. My favorite players were Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins, Ernie Banks, and then Kirby Puckett and Michael Cuddyer. My all-time favorite player, however, is Stan Musial (Im currently enjoying his biography by Peter Vecsey). My friends and I played Strat-o-Matic almost from the time the game was invented through the 60s and 70s. I still bring out the game on occasion and toss the dice. Every summer we would go to County Stadium and watch the Braves play a scheduled doubleheader (2 for the price of 1). Lasting memories include watching pitching duels with Spahn vs. Bob Friend; Aaron hitting homeruns with a mere flick of his wrists; Clemente spinning around like a top when he missed a pitch; Frank Howard bombing HRs completely out of Country Stadium; McCovey lumbering after and missing foul pop-ups. My favorite memories though were from listening to games on the radio via Earl Gillespie and Blaine Walsh, and Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau. I remember listening with excitement to Harvey Haddixs 12 innings of perfect baseball only to be beaten in the 13th by Joe Adcocks disallowed HR turned double; also the 4 HRs by Willie Mays against my beloved Braves; and of course, I endured the utter frustration of the Cubs meltdown in the 1969 season. As a Twins fan I witnessed the last scheduled game in the Metrodome in 2009 vs. KC, as well as Game 1 of the 91 World Series. I have not yet seen a game at Target Field, so the KC game on the 29th will be my first. Born in 1950, Gene shares his December 7 birthday with Hal Smith, Alex Johnson, Tino Martinez, Kevin Kennedy, Deacon White, Ryan Theriot, Shane Mack, Ozzie Virgil Jr., Bo Belinsky, Don Cardwell, Dick Donovan, Johnny Gee, Denny Galehouse, Hobe Ferris, Larry Bird, Harry Chapin, Ching Johnson, and Ravishing Rick Rude. We are no longer getting regular updates on new SABR members in our area, and some of you who have joined recently may not have heard from us. We want you to know that were happy to have you and hope you will attend our upcoming events as well as get involved in our activities, including this summers SABR convention in Minneapolis. Wed also like to introduce you to others in our newsletter. If you have joined in the last year and not yet been contacted by our chapter, please contact Stew Thornley, 651-415-0791, the chair of the membership committee. Thanks a lot.
June 9Book Club, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., The Battle That Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy by Daniel R. Levitt. For more information, contact Art Mugalian, 612-721-2825. June 10Convention Committee. For more information, contact Stew Thornley, 651-415-0791. June 24, 2012Stuff This party, Marriott City Center Hotel, Minneapolis. June 27-July 1, 2012SABR Convention, Marriott City Center Hotel, Minneapolis. July 14Hot Stove Saturday Morning, Bakers Square, 66th and Xerxes, Richfield, 9:00 a.m. For more information, contact Mark Johnson, 952-831-1153. August 12Halsey Hall Chapter Board Meeting, 6 p.m. For more information, contact Art Mugalian, 612-721-2825. Past issues of The Holy Cow! are available on-line.
Chapter Procedures and By-Laws
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