July 2002
Ray Luurs Elected Chapter President
Fall Chapter Meeting
Electronic Distribution of Chapter Publications
Editor Sought
Holy Cow Extra
All-St. Paul Team
New Members: Brian Mohr and John Bonnes
What’s in an E-Name?
Cow Chips
The Baseball Index
Subscription Dues Renewal
Correction
Answers to E-Names
Electronic Forums
All-Missing-a-Body-Part Team
Calendar
Board of Directors
Ray Luurs Elected Chapter President
Ray Luurs was elected president of the Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR for 2002-03. Fred Buckland was elected vice president and Rich Arpi as secretary and treasurer. Dan Cagley, Cary Smith, Deano Thilgen, and Bob Tholkes are the other directors for 2002-03.
Fall Chapter Meeting
The Halsey Hall Chapter Fall Meeting will be held with the Field of Dreams Chapter in Iowa. The meeting will take place from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, October 20 at the Music Man Square in Mason City, Iowa. There may be a nominal charge for the meeting to cover refreshments and the cost of the meeting room. Car pools from the Twin Cities will also be arranged. Stay tuned for more details and also check for updates on the Halsey Hall Chapter e-list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/halseyhall.
Electronic Distribution of Chapter Publications
For some time, the chapter newsletters have been available on the Halsey Hall Chapter web site at http://halseyhall.org/pubs/holy.html. Members with e-mail addresses will now receive notification via e-mail when a new issue has been posted, along with links to the HTML and PDF versions of the newsletters. If anyone would prefer to be removed from the e-mail notification list, please let the editor know at 651-415-0791 or at stew@stewthornley.net.
Starting this fall, the chapter directory will be on line. It will be on a secure page within the chapter web site and will require a password to access. An advantage of this is that an up-to-date directory will be available at all times to those with electronic access. Copies of the directory will be mailed to those without e-mail addresses.
The August issue of The Holy Cow! will contain each member’s individual directory information so any corrections or additions can be made by the member.nic notices
Editor Sought
The editor of the monthly The Holy Cow! will not be seeking another term when his current term expires at the end of 2001. Those interested in being considered as editor should contact President Ray Luurs at 763-422-9699 or luurscjg@aol.com by July 31, indicating their interest and qualifications.
Holy Cow Extra
The next Holy Cow Extra, which will be out in late July, will focus on collecting.
All-St. Paul Team
C: Joe Mauer (in the near future)
1B: Chick Gandil (when he wasn’t a crook)
2B: Jack Crooks (twice led the National League in walks)
SS: Gene DeMontreville (.303 career batting average)
3B: Paul Molitor
LF: Walt Moryn
CF: Larry Rosenthal
RF: Dave Winfield
DH: Mickey Rocco
PH: Howie Schultz
P: Jack Morris, Fred Baczewski, Tom Johnson, Tom Burgmeier
Coach: Jerry Kindall (three NCAA championships as head coach of the Arizona Wildcats
New Members
Brian Mohr was born in Baltimore in 1964 and moved to Florida in 1978. He’s a lifelong Oriole fan and Yankee hater. He now goes to Fort Myers Miracle games with his wife and their eight-year-old daughter and
five-year-old son.
In 1980, Brian’s senior league all-star team played the Belmont Heights Little League team, which featured future major league pitchers Dwight Gooden, Floyd Youmans, and Vance Lovelace. In high school, Brian was one of five pitchers to strike out Mike Greenwell in Greenwell’s senior year. Brian also gave up a home run to Greenwell, probably placing him in less exclusive company.
Brian graduated from the University of South Florida in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in finance. He has worked in the finance field since graduating and has been a mortgage broker for the last nine years.
Brian has special memories of Eddie Murray in spring training in 1977, threatening to take Lee May’s job at first base; of Al Bumbry and Rich Coggins as guests at his end-of-year baseball banquet; and of Elrod Hendricks, who did numerous United Way functions and signed loads of autographs.
Brian shares his December 8 birthday with Mike Mussina, John Mizerock, Tim Foli, Ed Brinkman, Jimmy Austin, and Jim Morrison (the dead singer, not the baseball player).
John Bonnes is an independent systems professional who has lived his entire life in Minneapolis�except for when he attended Carleton College in Northfield to get his bachelor of science degree in mathematics and except for a three-year detour to Philadelphia to woo his current wife and except for a semester abroad in a small town named Krasnodar in the Soviet Union, the latter sojourn taking place in the fall of 1987. John hooked up with a pair of fellow students in Krasnador, one a Twins fan and the other a Cardinals fan. In the pre-internet days, the students used creative means to learn the fate of their teams in the World Series. They got the news of the Twins win in Game Seven by calling the Marines barracks in the U. S. Embassy three days after the World Series had ended.
In April of 1990, John met Chrissie Vernalis at a training seminar in Chicago and took her to a Cubs doubleheader at Wrigley Field. They were married in 1994 and have since had two children, Elise and John Wrigley “Riggs” Bonnes (the son being named in honor of the venue of his folks’ first date).
In 1993, John and Chrissie had season tickets for the Phillies. The day they got engaged, they saw Kim Batiste hit a game-winning grand slam in the ninth inning to win a game against the Mets.
They also attended the Phillies’ 1993 division-clinching game in Pittsburgh and the final game of the league playoffs.
John has caught foul balls at college and minor league games but never at a major league game, although he got his hand on a Dave Winfield line drive, diverting it from the head of a friend, who was looking elsewhere at the time. The friend with the still-intact head then pounced on the ball and kept it for himself.
John shares his May 9 birthday with Tony Gwynn, Ron Jackson, Billy Jurges, Floyd Robinson, Lew Drill (who is buried in Sunset Memorial Park in Minneapolis), Tony Bartirome, Joe Borden (who pitched the only no-hitter in the National Association), and Billy Joel.
Brian’s directory information, along with other updates, is below. John’s information was listed in the June The Holy Cow!
Brian Mohr
17 SE 14th Avenue
Cape Coral, Florida 33990
941-458-9674
E-mail: beach64@peganet.com
Tracy Tool (new address and phone number)
705 Oak Knoll Avenue
River Falls, Wisconsin 54022
715-426-1136
E-mail updates
Bob Kapla: kaplarj@gbonline.com
Alan Holst: alanholstfamily@hotmail.com
George Rekela: grekela@reedbusiness.com
What’s in an E-Name?
Ever wonder the story behind people’s e-mail handles, such as Bob Evans’s feldgrau1418? “I chose the moniker owing to my interest in the Great War (Erste Weltkrieg), known by the Brits as the ‘14-18 War,’ and for my particular interest in Imperial Germany during that time,” Bob explains. “Feldgrau or field-gray was the official term for the German uniform color, and became the name given to their foot-soldier, Feldgrauer, just like Doughboy, Tommie, or Poilu. Since I buy and sell militaria on the internet, the name is apt, but raises eyebrows among other buyers when I sell baseball collectibles or general antiques. I was thinking of using another name but am too lazy so far.”
Now that this mystery is cleared up, try to match up the chapter members with their e-mail addresses:
| zinnbeck@aol.com | Marc Hugunin |
| hfan77@aol.com | Erin Moore |
| pure457@aol.com | Brian Mohr |
| sunnyday2@visi.com | Brenda Himrich |
| missmets@skypoint.com | Howard Luloff |
| beach64@peganet.com | Fritz Reeker |
| ehem@worldnet.att.net | Brad Zellar |
| mr_beisbol@hotmail.com | Cary Smith |
| auricle99@aol.com | Jeff Brubaker |
| jumbo@northwired.com | Rex Hamann |
| bhimrich@umn.edu | Ron Henry |
The answers are below.
Cow Chips
Rich Arpi went to Annapolis, Maryland, to see his nephew graduate from the Naval Academy. . . . Seth C. “Dr. Fan” Hawkins and Stew Thornley went to Montreal to see the Expos-Blue Jays series. . . . On his way to and from the Amana Marble Meet in Iowa, Fred Buckland saw minor league games in Beloit, Cedar Rapids, and Quad City and a White Sox game at Comiskey Park. . . . Jeff Brubaker wore Toronto Blue Jays apparel to Yankee Stadium, prompting comments like “Canada’s that way, dumb***,” and getting two sections to chant “Blue Jays Suck.”
The Baseball Index
The Baseball Index, a project started 12 years ago by chapter member Ted Hathaway, is now online at http://www.baseballindex.org. This catalog to baseball research materials contains references and citations to more than 175,000 books, articles, videos, and other items. Over 2,000 separate terms are included as well as the names of leagues, stadiums, and baseball groups. The first 50 citations are no charge. Additional citations are available at a discounted price to SABR members.
Subscription
Dues Renewal
If you haven’t already, please send your annual subscription dues
of $12 to Rich Arpi, 2209 E. Skillman Avenue, #16, North St. Paul,
Minnesota 55109-3996. Make the check out to Halsey Hall
Chapter. Those who have joined the chapter since January 1
don’t have to pay again for another year. If you’re unsure of
your dues status, check with Rich at 651-748-9361 or at rwaces@cs.com. Anyone making an
additional donation will receive recognition in the newsletter.
Correction
Rex Hamann’s name should have been on the list of those who attended the May 11 Chapter Meeting. The total number of attendees was 29.
Answers to E-Names
Rex (pure457@aol.com) Hamann is a collector of items associated with the Pure Oil Company. He had a Pure service station near him when he was growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, at 457 Togstad Glen. “To this day, the numerical sequence 457 is mystical to me.”
Cary (zinnbeck@aol.com) chose the name of a dead-ball era player, who later became a scout for the Twins, after first getting the idea for using a player’s name when he played on-line trivia with someone who had the screen name Eppa Rixey. At that time, Cary was compiling a baseball encylopedia database, going through the list of players alphabetically. “Zinn Beck was the first name that hit me as something special. The name Zinn seemed very peaceful and Beck flowed after it smoothly. Also the symmetry of the name—both first and last names having four letters.” Cary also liked that the name would mean nothing to non-baseball fans but would have meaning to baseball experts. “The name worked in just that way when I once e-mailed the vice president of the Baseball Hall of Fame, asking if I could interview him for a class project I had to do the next week. That same week he called me and said that it normally takes him a month to reply to his e-mails, but he saw Zinn Beck in my address and figured it was something interesting. I got the interview and my class project was turned in on time.”
Brian (beach64@peganet.com) Mohr got his handle after he entered a team called the Ft. Myers Beachbombers in an ESPN fantasy league, only to have the name shortened to Beach. He combined that with the year of his birth.
Marc (sunnyday2@visi.com) Hugunin’s wife had to come up with a user name while on the phone with their internet service provider. “I guess she looked out the window,” said Marc. “I’m glad it wasn’t a rainy day.”
Fritz (ehem@worldnet.att.net) Reeker is paying tribute to Ernest Hemingway with his user name. Fritz, who had Phyllis Thornley as his school librarian at University High School in Minneapolis in the 1960s, majored in English and now is a book collector.
Howard (hfan77@aol.com) Luloff took his first initial and combined it with fan, which he is. The 77 is for WABC Radio, 770 AM, in New York, which carried New York Yankees broadcasts for years and is, according to Howard, the best Top 40 radio station of all time.
Erin (missmets@skypoint.com) Moore is showing her allegiance for her favorite team.
Ron (auricle99@aol.com) Henry says his name goes back to 1962, when he was at Control Data and the company had data links from Minneapolis to its data centers in New York, Houston, Kansas City, and Washington, D.C. “Every communication was headed with a date and a from- and to- line. I and my mentor/colleague, Raif Kulunk, built the system and went by names ORACLE and AURICLE. As this system expanded in 1965 into the Worldwide Cybernet, I continued to use the moniker AURICLE. By the time I got into PLATO (of which I was not involved in development) another brigand had stolen my name and so I added the 99 as an easy-to-remember number. And so for years I was AURICLE or AURICLE99 on Cybernet and AURICLE99 only on PLATO. These networks died about the same time that “THE SOURCE” (forerunner of CompuServe) came into being and I became both AURICLE and AURICLE99 there. By the time I switched to AOL, only AURICLE99 was available (although I do own the domain auricle.net). The name means halfhearted (or, more accurately, quarter-hearted) prophet with his ear to the ground.”
Jumbo was the first user name Brad (jumbo@northwired.com) Zellar ever had. It was assigned to him when he wrote a column called “Uncle Jumbo’s Playground) for Minnesota Sports Page.
Jeff (mr_beisbol@hotmail.com) Brubaker picked his name because Mr. Baseball was already taken. Although not a big Latin fan, he does like Carlos Delgado and Jose Vidro.
Brenda (bhimrich@umn.edu) Himrich chose her user name because her last name is Himrich and her first initial is B. Very creative, bhimrich.
Electronic Forums
The chapter e-list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/halseyhall) now has 28 members. Another electronic forum of interest to members is SABR-L, an ongoing discussion group subscribed to by about 20 percent of the total SABR membership. To subscribe, send a message to the address:
LISTSERV@APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM
In the body of the message, put the line
For more information on SABR-L, go to the SABR web site at http://www.sabr.org and scroll down to the fourth paragraph for a link to SABR-L. Within this page are more details on SABR-L as well as a link to the “The Best of SABR-L,” which contains a handful of selected posts, including one on “The Flaws of Fan Voting” by chapter member Jeff Brubaker.
All-Missing-a-Body-Part Team
C: Charlie (Legs) Bennett
P: Catfish (Toe) Hunter, Jim (Hand) Abbott, Bert (Leg) Shepard, One Arm (One Arm) Daily, Three-Finger (Two Fingers) Brown, Red (Toes) Ruffing, Monty (Leg) Stratton, Curt (Toes) Simmons, Dave (Whole Left Side) Dravecky, Bob (Fingers and Scalp) Ojeda, Wayne (Fingers) Osborne, Whammy (Eye) Douglas
1B: John (Testicle) Kruk
2B: Mike (Testicle) Gallego
SS: Roger (Fingers) Metzger, Danny (Fingers) Shay
3B: Ghost (Chunk of Nose) Marcelle,Mike (Testicle) Lowell
OF: Pete (Arm) Gray, Carlos (Thumb) May, Lou (Ear) Johnson, Buzz (Finger) Arlett, Walt (Neck) Williams
DH: Bo (Hip) Jackson
Manager: Harvey (Leg) Kuenn, Vic (Head) Morrow [Morrow portrayed Coach Turner in Bad News Bears]
Owner: Bill (Leg) Veeck
Also, according to Kit Krieger, the former clubhouse boy for the Vancouver Mounties who had a one-game pitching stint in the Pacific Coast League, Dennis Bennett has only one nipple. Kit didn’t say which one.
Calendar
August 3—Hot Stove Saturday Mid-Morning,
9:30 a.m., Baker’s Square, Sixty-Sixth and Xerxes, Richfield.
Halsey Hall Chapter
Board of Directors 2002-03
President—Ray Luurs
Vice President—Fred Buckland
Secretary—Rich Arpi
Treasurer—Rich Arpi
Dan Cagley
Cary Smith
Deano Thilgen
Bob Tholkes
The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew (vas deferens) Thornley
Holy Cow Extra Editor—Bob Tholkes
Webmaster—Deano Thilgen
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
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