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WPBL and Northwoods League to be Featured at Fall Chapter Meeting
The fall chapter meeting will be Saturday, October 17 at the Plymouth branch of the Hennepin County Library system, 15700 36th Ave North, Plymouth 55446. Registration begins when the library opens at 9:00 a.m. with the program beginning soon after, so punctuality is encouraged. Instead of a set admission price, it will be a Pay as You Can with donations of all amounts accepted.
The featured guests will be Emma Charlesworth-Seiler, a former professional umpire and now a coach on the Los Angeles Queens of the Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL), and a panel of notables from the Northwoods League, including gynecologist emeritus Kyle Traynor, who is a broadcaster and official scorer for the Rochester Honkers.
On the topic of the WPBL, our president, Mike Haupert, attended the WPBL World Series and met Maybelle Blair (or a reasonable facsimile), who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League with Peoria in 1948.
The chapter meeting will include three research presentations:
Remembering Saul Davis by Terry Bohn
Abstract: Saul Davis spent eight seasons in the Negro Leagues on teams that included stars such as Satchel Paige, Rube Foster, Cool Papa Bell, Pop Lloyd, Mule Suttles, Willie Wells, and Turkey Stearnes. He played on semi-pro and barnstorming teams well into his forties competing against white major leaguers including Babe Ruth, Cy Young, and Grover Cleveland Alexander.
However, Davis lived most of his life in Minot, North Dakota. This presentation will touch on his career in baseball but emphasize the remarkable life he lived until age 92, at which time he was recognized as the oldest living member of the original Negro National League. The talk will conclude with the effort to place a fitting marker on his grave site at Rosehill Cemetery in Minot.
The Demise of the Reserve Clause 1966-1975 by Stew Thornley
Abstract: This will focus on the period from Marvin Miller becoming the full-time executive director of the Players Association and the 1975 Seitz decision that created free agency. Miller and Bowie Kuhn were among the most visible people (Kuhn becoming commissioner in 1969) during this period. I had the chance to interview Kuhn in a small media scrum and got some responses to questions about all that happened. I had more contact with Miller—via telephone and mail and interviewing him in New York in 2003. Miller explained the strategy the union followed, and I cover the players who played into the regular season on unsigned contracts and became challengers to the interpretation of the reserve clause.
Simulating Satchel by John Graf
Abstract: John Graf’s presentation will discuss the context, content, and significance of his simulation of what might have happened had Satchel Paige and nearly 100 of his Negro Leagues contemporaries not been banned from the white majors in their prime years. Simulating Satchel is a rundown of a replayed 1934 season, integrated and expanded. The fictional account’s journalistic-style reporting is presented as though it was being covered in a pre-season annual publication, daily and weekly newspapers and magazines, as well as radio broadcasts featuring both invented and real-life fictionalized writers and announcers.
Mary Shea will be coming to the meeting from Milwaukee and possibly at least one other out-of-town SABR member, so, as we did last year, we will have a gathering the night before, October 16, at Manning’s at 22nd and Como in southeast Minneapolis. This can also serve as a watch party for the any playoff games that might be on television.
In other fun meeting news, Fred Buckland will have a display of old-time baseball postcards.
Howard Luloff’s Jeopardy-style quiz will also be part of the October 17 meeting. As a warm-up, provide the question for this answer (category— Penalties):
Two minutes in hockey, 15 yards in football, and nothing if it’s Dock Ellis pitching a no-hitter.
Question below
And if you really think you’re hot stuff at this, consider going to the History of Sports trivia contest at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 29 at the Washington County Heritage Center, 1862 Greeley Street South in Stillwater. Call 651-439-2298 for more information or with any questions.
By-Laws Amendment
At its September 13 meeting, the board of directors recommended passage of an amendment to the by-laws, specifically, a passage within Article III, Section 1, which now reads:
In order to be eligible for the position of president-elect, a member must have served at least one year on the board of directors within the previous five-year period, but may not have served as president-elect for at least three years.
The amendment, if passed, would delete the words “within the previous five-year period.” The passage in the amended by-law would then read:
In order to be eligible for the position of president-elect, a member must have served at least one year on the board of directors but may not have served as president-elect for at least three years.
The membership must ratify the amendment with a two-thirds affirmative vote of those voting at the October 17 chapter meeting.
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Upcoming Events
Besides the October 17 chapter meeting, lots else is on the docket:
The next Book Club meeting will be Saturday, October 3 (the 75th anniversary of Bobby Thomson’s Shot Hear ‘Round the World) at Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall at 9:30 a.m. The book selection is Land of the Giants: New York’s Polo Grounds.
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 eighth annual SABR/International Women in Baseball Virtual Conference will be October 9-11, 2026.
The University of St. Thomas School of Law has scheduled an internal Salary Arbitration Competition for Friday and Saturday, October 23-24. The expected hours will be 2:00 pm-dinner time Friday with Saturday morning being used for championship rounds. The judges for the Friday sessions will probably be asked to meet prior to 2:00 p.m. to review the rules, and the judges for Saturday will probably be asked to meet prior to the beginning of those rounds. The number of rounds and the needs for judges will depend on student interest. Anyone interested in serving as a judge or anyone with questions may contact Ed Edmonds.
The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be Saturday, November 14 at 9:00 a.m. at the Shortstop Bar and Grill, 1298 East Moore Lake Drive, Fridley 55432.
Professor Mike Haupert’s students in the sports economics class are working on projects related to baseball salaries and will present their research posters during the semester-ending Critical Thinking Colloquium on Monday, December 14 from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. at the student union at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. The event is open to guests, and Mike invites SABR members to attend and learn about the relationship between player salaries and various measures of performance. For more information on attending, contact Mike Haupert.
Dave Lande will work with the Events Committee to organize a group outing for a play on Toni Stone, which will be at the History Theatre January 30 to February 12, 2027.
The 34th Annual Nine Spring Training Conference will be March 3-6, 2027 in Tempe, Arizona. A call for papers will happen soon.
Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Bluesky page
Please visit the pages, and, if you haven’t yet, “Like” the Facebook page and “Follow” the Bluesky page and set your notifications to be alerted to new posts. The Bluesky page has 135 followers/71 following, and the Facebook page 365 members.
Bob Komoroski has established rules for the Facebook—essentially, don’t be a dink. The page is still public although Bob has set up a series of questions for new members to cull out spammers, wankers, tossers, trollers, and other degenerates.
Also:
Regular Events
Video Archives of Past Events
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Research Roundtable
Research projects, web pages, and blogs of chapter members are highlighted on the home page of the Research Committee. They include:
The next Research Committee meetings, via Zoom, will be October 19 and November 23 at 7:00 p.m.
Research Committee members are co-chairs Dave Lande or Gene Gomes as well as Brenda Himrich, Sarah Johnson, Dan Levitt, Doug Skipper, Stew Thornley, Rich Arpi, Hans Van Slooten, Mike Haupert, Bob Tholkes, Daniel Dorff, Darryl Sannes, Tom Swift, David Karpinski, Glenn Renick, John Buckeye, Terry Bohn, Ed Wehling, John Gregory, Art Mugalian, John “Sparky” Seals, Ed Edmonds, Mike Zarling, Chrstian Towalski, and Bob Komoroski.
Let a committee member know if you would like to attend a meeting and/or join the committee.
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Stew Thornley’s Thrice Quiz
For the September 21 Research Committee meeting, Stew Thornley presented this quiz:
- So enamored were the Twins after this player hit a ninth-inning, game-winning three-run homer against them in 2015 that after the season, they sent Aaron Hicks to the Yankees in exchange for him. He played 26 games for Minnesota and 83 for Rochester of the International League in 2016. Fun fact: In 2009 he was the second-team high school All-American catcher behind Bryce Harper.
- Starting in 1964, he hit 139 home runs in his first five full years with the Giants. He tailed off a tad but in 1973 at Metropolitan Stadium, he hit a three-run homer to cap a five-run eighth inning to lead the Yankees to a 5-2 win. Fun fact: He was cremated after he died.
- Before he died, he portrayed Art Howe in Moneyball. Fun fact: He was a big fan of the New York Jets (although that is not what killed him).
- A southpaw who pitched for six teams between 1979 and 1992, he first pitched against the Twins in Minnesota in the second game of a doubleheader, going eight innings and getting win, the night before the first gathering of SABR members in Minnesota (which can be found on the chapter’s Officers and History web page). Fun fact: After his playing career, he was an assistant coach for the baseball team at Howard Payne University in his hometown of Brownwood, Texas (where Jim Morris of The Rookie fame was coaching when he tried out for and was signed by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays).
- As a Milwaukee Brewers prospect, he displayed power in the minors, hitting 23 home runs with El Paso in 1985 when he was the Texas League Player of the Year, and he added three as a September call-up by the Brewers that year, but he hit only two more in a career that ended in 1990. Fun fact: When he got to the majors, he dropped the last letter from his middle name because, “It’s much easier to sign baseballs that way.”
- An outfielder, he finished his seven-year major-league career with a bWAR of -0.8. In 1962, he played in 112 games with three teams in the National League, New York, Chicago, and St. Louis. Fun fact: He was born and died and buried in Hood River, Oregon.
- He played the Whammer in The Natural as well as Buford Pusser in the first Walking Tall movie. Fun fact: He was overly sensitive when Mystery Science Theater 3000 lampooned one of his movies and threatened to kick their arses. This did not stop the MST3000 crew from roasting him in another movie.
- He finished a 10-year career with the Twins in 1986. Fun fact: He helped a young fan find Jesus in the Metrodome parking lot.
- A first-round draft pick by the Twins (after being named the college Player of the Year by The Sporting News), he made his major-league debut in the second game of the 1971 season as a pinch-runner for Harmon Killebrew and scored the final run of the game as Bert Blyleven shut out the Brewers. He ran for Killebrew and scored again in the Twins’ next game. He started and played in center field in the next game and homered in his fifth time up. Fun fact: Sometimes called P. R. by his teammates, he was later traded for Bobby Darwin.
