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The Newsletter of the Halsey Hall Chapter
Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)


October 2006

Peterson, Hamann, and Haupert Receive Research Grants
Fall Chapter Meeting October 21
In Other News . . .
Calendar
Board of Directors
 

Peterson, Hamann, and Haupert Receive Research Grants
Halsey Hall Chapter members Rex Hamann and Mike Haupert and chapter-member-in-exile Todd Peterson were among the six recipients this year of the Yoseloff-SABR Baseball Research Grant. Rex received his grant for Minneapolis Millers: 1910-1912, Mike for Black Ball, Red Ink: A Financial Analysis of the Negro Leagues, and Todd for 1909 St. Paul Gophers.

The Millers teams Rex Hamann is researching won three straight American Association pennants. Rex will examine the reasons for their success. “I’ll look at the general statistical breakdown of the individuals on the team and analyze them with respect to others in the league through rankings and a general quantitative look.” One area he finds particularly fascinating deals with the mean ages of the players in various roles—pitchers, infielders, etc.—and how they compare with other teams in the league.

Rex will be using box scores to compile game-by-game data. He has already assembled the entire box score collection from The Sporting Life, which accounts for the bulk of his expenses.

In addition to this research, Rex publishes the American Association Almanac. The Summer 2006 issue was devoted to 20-game winners of the Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints. This issue, along with other back issues and subscriptions, is available through Rex at The American Association Almanac, 14201 Crosstown Boulevard NW, Andover, Minnesota 55304-3311

Mike Haupert said that his work is part of a larger project involving the financial records of the New York Yankees and the salary database of American League players from 1913-1986, which is available from the Baseball Hall of Fame. “The Yankee records provide a unique financial picture of the operation of a MLB team (covering the years 1914-42),” Mike explained. “The salary database is a large collection of player contract detail. The Negro League records I am working on are for teams in Newark, Philadelphia, Birmingham, and Kansas City and cover various years from 1916 to 1954. The records allow for the comparison of the financial performance of teams in segregated leagues, including an analysis of labor markets in the two leagues. The types of questions I am interested in are how teams invested and earned money, how they compensated their players, and how profitable they were. To date my co-author and I have published some work on the Yankee records and have finished a preliminary paper on the first Negro records we began to analyze. At present we are working on a more in-depth study comparing the financial returns of the Yankees and the Hilldale Daisies.

“This grant has helped cover the costs of travel to archives in South Bend and Lawrence to gather data on additional Negro League teams. I plan to submit the initial research for presentation at the SABR convention in St. Louis (my old stomping grounds) and ultimately hope to share it with the membership there and in SABR publications.”

Todd Peterson’s research will consist of an overview of the five-year history (1907-1911) of the St. Paul Gophers, an all-black team, followed by a summary of the 1909 season with emphasis on the playoff with the Leland Giants of Chicago. He hopes to include a game-by-game chronology of the 1909 season. So far he has accounted for 102 of the games the Gophers played that year and has found more than 65 box scores in addition to hitting, fielding, and batting statistics. Todd has already spent several years researching the Gophers and the Minneapolis Keystones, as well as the Waseca and Renville teams that preceded them. He has visited the historical societies in Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

In applying for the Yoseloff grant last spring, Todd submitted excerpts from a chapter he had written on the Gophers’ 1907 season. He hopes to have a first draft of his work completed by next spring. Todd had been living in Minnesota and is now continuing his research from his home in Kansas City.

The grants Rex, Mike, and Todd received, made possible through the Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation, may be used for the reimbursement of research expenses, including travel and lodging, inter-library loan fees, research fees, photocopying, and telephone expenses.

The finished products of their research will be published by SABR.

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Fall Chapter Meeting October 21

The Halsey Hall Chapter Fall meeting will be Saturday, October 21 at the Grace University Lutheran Church, 324 Harvard Street SE, Minneapolis, 612-331-0125. Parking is in lot AA, across Harvard Street from the church. Parking info is also available by clicking here.

Registration begins at 8:30 and research presentations at 9:00. Lunch will be at noon, followed by a guest speaker (to be announced) at 1:00. The meeting will conclude with a Jeopardy-style baseball quiz around 2:30. Attendees can head over to the Thornley-Himrich residence (1082 Lovell Avenue, Roseville, 651-415-0791), which is shared by Jeter and A-Rod, after the meeting to watch Game 1 of the World Series. Click here for a map and directions to their house.

The cost of the meeting is $8. Please RSVP to Events Chair Howard Luloff at 952-922-5036, hfan77@webtv.net.

The following research presentations will take place:

  • Rich Arpi, Base Ball on a Stick, about the Minnesota State Fair Baseball Tournament, which may have been the only true state tournament between the 1860s and the current state tournament, which began in 1924.
  • Stew Thornley, Official Scoring Rules Intrepretation, a look at official scoring and an interactive examination (meaning audience participation) of the scoring rules.
  • Dan Levitt will use transcripts from the 1929 and 1931 baseball winter meetings in a presentation that demonstrates “the haphazard way that several rules changes came into effect that radically changed the relationship between the majors and minors. The changes in the operating rules made the creation of a farm system much more advantageous and led to its expansion.”

Additional proposals for research presentations may be submitted until October 7. Proposals must be made in writing (e-mail is fine) to Research Committee Chair Dan Levitt, 2205 Newton Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55405-2431, danrl@attglobal.net, and should include a title and brief outline of what the presentation will consist of with emphasis on the research that will be included. Standard presentations are 20 minutes (with an additional eight minutes for questions) although the duration may be longer or shorter depending on the needs of the presenter and of the schedule.

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In Other News . . .

Jim Sexton had an article on BF2 Ferguson Bakery felt baseball pennants published in Old Cardboard magazine.

The Quicksteps vintage base ball team wrapped up its 2006 season with a win in Brooklyn Park on September 17. Earlier in the month, team members Rich Arpi, Jim Wyman, Bob Tholkes, and Doug Ernst went to Columbus, Ohio, to participate in the Ohio Cup Vintage Base Ball Festival. Chapter member Brent Peterson also was in Columbus, playing for the St. Croix team. The entire group was able to attend an International League game between the Columbus Clippers and the Toledo Mud Hens. Doug won a Mickey Mantle statuette at the game.

David Wee
David Wee made a presentation at St. Martin’s Table on September 22 on “Baseball and American Culture,” the course he taught at St. Olaf College for more than 25 years.


Calendar

    October 14—Book Club Meeting, Barnes & Noble, Edina, 9:30 a.m., The Great Rivalry: The Yankees and the Red Sox 1901-1990 by Ed Linn. For more information, contact Tom Dolen, 651-483-8617.

    October 21—Fall Chapter Meeting, Grace University Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, 8:30 a.m. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036, hfan77@webtv.net.

    November 5—Research Roundtable, Perkins Restaurant, 4917 Eden Avenue, Edina, 6:00 p.m. For more information, contact Dan Levitt, 612-377-5154, danrl@attglobal.net.

    November 11—Hot Stove Saturday Morning, Bakers Square, 66th and Xerxes, Richfield, 9:00 a.m. For more information, contact Mark Johnson, 612-822-9638, mtjohnson10@mn.rr.com.  

Halsey Hall Chapter
Board of Directors 2006-007
President—Bob Tholkes
Vice President—Howard Luloff
Secretary—Armand Peterson
Treasurer—Kevin Hennessy
Jodi Elowitz
Dan Levitt
Art Mugalian

The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
Webmaster—Deano Thilgen 

Halsey Hall Chapter Web Page: http://halseyhall.org

Halsey Hall Chapter E-list/Message Board: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/halseyhall

Past issues of The Holy Cow! are available at http://halseyhall.org/pubs/holy.html

  

Chapter History: http://halseyhall.org/officers_history.html

Chapter Procedures and By-Laws: http://halseyhall.org/bylaws.html

Society for American Baseball Research: http://sabr.org

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