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

October 2008

John Blanchard to Speak at Fall Chapter Meeting October 18
New Member: Mitchell Fay
Authors at Work
Articles from SABR Baseball Research Journal Now On-Line
Calendar
Board of Directors

John Blanchard to Speak at Fall Chapter Meeting October 18
John Blanchard, a former catcher for the New York Yankees and other teams as well as a great all-around athlete at Central High School in Minneapolis in the 1940s and 1950s, will be the featured guest at the Halsey Hall Fall Chapter Meeting. The meeting will be Saturday, October 18 in the meeting room of the TCF Bank at 459 Lexington Parkway in St. Paul. The bank is located adjacent to the former site of Lexington Park and has a display to the ballpark, including a plaque donated by the Halsey Hall Chapter, on a plaza outside its front doors.

Registration begins at 8:30 and research presentations at 9:00. Lunch will be at noon, followed by John Blanchard at 1:00. Howard Luloff will conduct his always-popular Jeopardy-style baseball quiz around 2:30.

Attendees can head over to the Thornley-Himrich residence (1082 Lovell Avenue, Roseville, 651-415-0791) after the meeting to watch playoffs on television. Click here for a map and directions.

The cost of the meeting is $8 with lunch and $5 without lunch. Please RSVP to Events Chair Howard Luloff at 952-922-5036, hfan77@webtv.net, by October 11.

Three of the research presentations, which will take place in the morning, will be by authors of the anthology the chapter is compiling on Minnesotans in baseball. The schedule and lineup is as follows:

9:00—Welcome and Introductions
9:15—Rich Arpi on Dick Siebert and John Anderson
9:50—Anne Aronson on Jean Havlish
10:10—Break
10:30—Stew Thornley, The Polo Grounds: A Tale of Four Stadiums
11:15—Art Mugalian on Walt “Moose” Moryn
11:45—Quicksteps Season Summary

Doug Ernst will be making a video recording of the research presentations and the featured guest. The board of directors is considering buying video equipment so that presentations of all meetings can be recorded and made available to chapter members.

By-law Proposal
The board of directors has recommended the passage of an amendment to the by-laws. The amendment, which will be voted on during the business meeting at the October 18 chapter meeting, would add the following paragraph to Article I (Chapter), Section 3 (Meetings): “A quorum shall consist of a majority of board members for meetings of the board of directors and at least 10 chapter members for semi-annual business meetings.”

New Member: Mitchell Fay
Mitchell Fay, also known as Bucky or Buck (but not because of Bucky Dent or Bucky the Otter) was born in Iowa, raised in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, spent several years teaching on military bases, and now teaches communication at Century College in White Bear Lake in addition to working in semi-pro theater (including writing and directing).

On the theater side, Buck is directing a play that will open in November. On the baseball side, he learned how to hit playing ball with his dog. “I had to hit through the order, switching styles and hands,” he explains, adding that, as an exchange student in Wales, he played a little cricket and also used to coach ragball to 9- and 10-year olds. A fans of the Twins and Cubs, Bucky subscribes to Bill James Online and Baseball Prospectus. He says he doesn’t see as many games as he’d like to although he did once see a no-hitter in Mexico.

Bucky shares his March 17 birthday with Nat King Cole, Hank Sauer, Bobby Jones, Pete Reiser, Rudolf Nureyev, Cito Gaston, Dana Reeve, Danny Ainge, Jimmie Hall, Homer Plessy, Hy Vandenberg, Pierce Butler, Pat Seerey, Robb Quinlan, Clive Rosengren, Shemp Howard, Charley Root, Savannah Lowe, and former Little League coach John Wayne Gacy.

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Authors at Work
Three chapter members had articles published in SABR’s 2008 The National Pastime: Jason Christopherson with Burleigh Grimes and the 1912 Eau Claire Commissioners, Dan Levitt with Ed Barrow, the Federal League, and the Union League, and Roger Godin with The 1924 Junior World Series: The St. Paul Saints’ Magnificent Comeback. Also, John Rosengren had an article on Minnesota Gophers hockey in the September/October 2008 issue of Minnesota magazine.

Articles from SABR Baseball Research Journal Now On-Line
Articles from the 1972 to 1984, 1986, and 1989 issues of the SABR Baseball Research Journal are now available on-line at http://brj.sabrwebs.com.

Calendar
    October 18—Fall Chapter Meeting. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036, Hfan77@webtv.net.

    November 9—Research Roundtable, Perkins Restaurant, 4917 Eden Avenue, Edina, 6:00 p.m. For more information, contact Bob Tholkes, 763-781-6161, rjtholkes@msn.com.

    November 22—Hot Stove Saturday Morning, Bakers Square, 66th and Xerxes, Richfield, 9:00 a.m. For more information, contact Mark Johnson, 952-831-1153, baseballbooks@comcast.net.

    December 6—Book Club Meeting, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., Crazy ‘08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History by Cait N. Murphy. For more information, contact Tom Dolen, 651-483-8617, or Art Mugalian, 612-721-2825, amugalian@comcast.net.
   

Halsey Hall Chapter
Board of Directors 2008-2009
President—Art Mugalian
Vice President—Lee Temanson
Secretary—Armand Peterson
Treasurer—Jerry Janzen
Doug Ernst
Gary Hackenmueller
Stew Thornley

The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
Webmaster—John Gregory 

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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