August 2000

SABR Convention
Hennessy Retrosheet Achievement
Cow Chips
Chapter Profile
Directory Update
Dues
August Birthdays
Quicksteps
Board of Directors
Calendar

SABR Convention

An appearance by Eldon Auker and Monte Irvin
was a highlight of the Society for American Baseball
Research (SABR) convention in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Halsey Hall Chapter members who attended the SABR convention in West Palm Beach, Florida, were Joe O’Connell, Jim Wyman, Rich Arpi, Ray Luurs, Howard Luloff, Dan Levitt, Ted Hathaway, and your scribe (with the latter two making research presentations at the event). Jim, Rich, and Howard participated in a vintage base ball exhibition prior to a Jupiter Hammerheads game, and Howard, playing second base, took part in a 1-4-3-5 triple play. (In an unrelated note, Howard officially retired his New York Mets shorts, a longtime staple of his wardrobe.)

At the convention, SABR introduced its new executive director, George W. Case III, son of the Washington Senators outfielder and former Twins coach.

Go to Top

Hennessy Completes 1920 Season for Retrosheet
Kevin Hennessy, one of the original volunteers for the Retrosheet project when it began in the early 1990s, completed logging play-by-play results for all available American League games for the 1920 season. Kevin used a variety of sources, including scoresheets from the period and newspaper accounts. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Chicago Daily News, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch were the best at providing complete accounts of the games, according to Kevin, who added that the 1920 season was an interesting one to chronicle, especially with the tight pennant race among the Yankees, White Sox, and Indians, the breaking of the Black Sox scandal and suspension of Chicago players in the final week of the regular season, and the beaning of Ray Chapman that resulted in his death. Kevin spent two months each year working on the project—one month immediately following the end of the baseball season and his first month of his vacation from his teaching job each summer. After getting the information, Kevin transferred it to paper, using special scoring codes, and then into electronic format before sending it to Dave Smith, the Retrosheet founder. Kevin’s efforts, as well as the results of many other games, are available from Retrosheet at 20 Sunset Road, Newark, Delaware 19711 or through their web site at: http://www.retrosheet.com.

Go to Top

Cow Chips
John McNeil went to Arizona to find out why the baseball season for his eight-year-old grandson, Miles, ended in early June. . . . The 2000 edition of SABR’s The National Pastime contains two articles by chapter members, one of them by Bob Tholkes on his lengthy quest to track down information on the elusive Andy Nelson. . . . Connie Hill and Barry Bengtsson went to Illinois the first weekend of July. They visited Taliesin and also saw three games: a 15-inning game between the Cubs and Brewers in Milwaukee, a Twins-White Sox game in Chicago, and a Midwest League game between the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Kane County Cougers in Appleton, an event which also featured fireworks. The fans were given prismatic spectales to enhance the pyrogenic experience. "The lenses quadrupled the effect and reminded some of the baby boomers in the audience of the chemistry of their college years," said Connie. . . . Kevin Hennessy also went to two of the Twins-White Sox games at Comiskey Park. After the final game of the series, Kevin stuck around to watch the “Senior Citizens Run the Bases” promotion. . . . Seth C. “Dr. Fan” Hawkins made it to games at his 63rd major league ballpark, Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco, on a trip that also took him to Safeco Field in Seattle (where he had seen a game last year) and to Victoria on Vancouver Island. . . . Bob Tholkes and his family went to Australia at the end of June and first half of July. Among other things, they visited their former residence in Narrabri, New South Wales. Bob also snuck into International Baseball Stadium, the site of the upcoming Olympic Games baseball competition in Sydney, and he spent a day in Cairns watching the amateur Cairns Baseball League.

Go to Top

Chapter Profile
Frank Bigelow grew up in Brooklyn Center when it was a farm community and when he could play baseball in its cornfields. He hit .409 in the Brooklyn Center Little League. Frank attended his first game, between the Millers and Saints, as a seven-year-old at Nicollet Park in 1955. He saw Wayne Terwilliger play for the Millers and later saw him coach for the Twins. Frank worked at the Minneapolis Star and Tribune with Halsey Hall. An even greater achievement is that he sufficiently stirred Sid Hartman’s ire to be fired from the newspaper. Frank now works as a file clerk for the state tax department (and makes sure that Carl Pohlad pays his taxes, he adds). Frank is also a member of the Centennial Nooners Toastmasters Club and has a 600-volume sports library. His family consists of three lefties and three righties.

Directory Update
Alden Mead and George Rekela have new e-mail addresses:

Go to Top

Dues Due
If you haven’t already done so, please submit your subscription dues of $12. If you’re not sure of your dues status, contact Treasurer Kevin Hennessy at 651-227-5183 or via e-mail at BBWSMIN@aol.com.

Send a check, made out to Halsey Hall Chapter, to Kevin Hennessy, 608 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota 55102.

(Note: Members who joined after January 1, 2000 will not have to pay dues again until 2001.)

Go to Top

August Birthdays
    22—Mendal Mearkle (also Carl Yastrzemski, Paul Molitor, Ned Hanlon, Urban Shocker, Happy Felsch, Hipolito Pichardo, and Norman Schwarzkopf)

Go to Top

Quicksteps Keep Rolling
The Quicksteps, the Chapter’s vintage base ball nine, upped its record to 2-0 with a 3-2 win over the St. Croixs on July 4 at Murphy’s Landing in Shakopee. Jim Wyman’s two-run homer into the trees in the fourth inning provided the winning margin.

Upcoming Matches
Saturday, July 29, 6th and Orleans, Stillwater, noon
Saturday, August 12, Pipestone, 12:30 p.m.
Monday, August 14, 611 Mississippi Street, Fridley, 7 p.m.
Saturday, August 19, Richfield, 70th and Lyndale, 1:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 26, Woodbury, 1:00 p.m.

Go to Top

Go to Top

Calendar

    August 5—Hot Stove Saturday Morning, 8:30, Baker’s Square, 66th and Xerxes, Richfield
 

Please direct news about chapter events, about yourself or about other chapter members to:
S. Thornley
1082 Lovell Avenue
Roseville, Minnesota 55113-4419
E-mail Stew Thornley

http://member.aol.com/halseyhall/Home.html

Go to Top