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


June 2021

Editor:
Stew Thornley

Index to past stories in The Holy Cow!

  • Gene Gomes Elected President for 2021-2022
  • More Than 40 Attend Spring Chapter Meeting
  • Membership
  • History Day in Minnesota
  • Switch-Hitter Quiz
  • Cow Pies
  • Answers to Switch-Hitter Quiz
  • Calendar
  • Board of Directors
  • Resources

    Gene Gomes Elected President for 2021-2022
    Gene Gomes was elected president, Stew Thornley vice president, Sarah Johnson secretary, and Jerry Janzen treasurer for 2021-2022. They will join other board members John Swol, Daniel Dorff, and Dave Lande. Outgoing president Dave Lande and outgoing directors Frank Kadwell, Anders Koskinen, and Hans Van Slooten were saluted for their service along with Jim Cox, who served until May 8 of this year.

    The new vice president appointed chairs of standing committees: Howard Luloff, Events; Dave Lande and Gene Gomes, Research; Stew Thornley, Membership.

    A list of board members, past and present, is at Halsey Hall Chapter: Officers and History.

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    More Than 40 Attend Spring Chapter Meeting
    The Halsey Hall Chapter held its spring meeting virtually May 8 with the following attendees: Dixie Tourangeau, Brenda Himrich, Gene Gomes, Cary Smith, Doug Ernst, Frank Kadwell, David Hunt, Dave Lande, Paul Hensler, Stew Thornley, Tom Merrick, Joe Niese, Jim Cox, Bob Komoroski, Dirk Lammers, Howard Luloff, Jim McKernan, Ed Wehling, Hans Van Slooten, Rich Arpi, Howard Luloff, Sarah Johnson, Mike Frank, Manley Olson, Roger Godin, Terry Bohn, Pete Hepokoski, Tom Flynn, Anders Koskinen, John Bentley, Dan Levitt, Bill Nowlin, Joshua Burstein, Alan Reifman, Lon Hildreth, Daniel Dorff, Steve Bratkovich, Mike Haupert, Rich Cohen, Molly Pederson, John Swol, and David Peng.

    Ed Wehling displayed his collection of baseball jerseys, Joe Niese talked about Zack Wheat, and Hans Van Slooten ran a demonstration of the first computer baseball simulation. During the business meeting, S. Thornley was elected to an unexpired term on the board of directors that runs through June 30, 2022, and Sarah Johnson, Daniel Dorff, John Swol, and Gene Gomes were elected to two-year terms that will begin July 1.

    Other Events
    Hot Stove Saturday Stroll is resuming Saturday, June 12 at 10 a.m. with the group walking, ambling, or in some other manner such as moseying around Lake of the Isles. Park and gather at 21st and Newton, a block from the lake. The distance around Lake of the Isles is about 2.63 miles.

    The Research Committee will meet July 12 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Anyone wanting to participate may contact co-chairs Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.

    Research Committee members are Brenda Himrich, Sarah Johnson, Dan Levitt, Doug Skipper, Stew Thornley, Rich Arpi, Dave Lande, Anders Koskinen, Hans Van Slooten, Gene Gomes, Mike Haupert, and Bob Tholkes.

    The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be Saturday, July 17 at 10:00 a.m. at Dock & Paddle at the Como Park Lakeside Pavilion.

    The Halsey Hall Chapter Book Club will meet Saturday, August 7 at 10:00 a.m. at Dock & Paddle. The book selection is The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip through Buck O'Neil’s America by Joe Posnanski.

    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 Fall Chapter Meeting will be in-person again, back at our usual spot at Faith Mennonite Church, 2720 E. 22nd Street in south Minneapolis on Saturday, November 13. Members are invited to submit a proposal to make a research (oral or poster) presentation at the meeting. Proposals must be sent to Research Committee co-chairs Dave Lande or Gene Gomes and include a title and brief outline of what the presentation will consist of with emphasis on the research that will be included. Standard oral 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. The Research Committee will finalize the schedule of research presentations by October 30, two weeks before the meeting, so proposals must be submitted by then.

    One presentation slot will be reserved for a first-time presenter until four weeks before the chapter meeting (October 16). New, never-before-presenting presenters are highly encouraged to present.

    Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:

    SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page

    Halsey Hall Chapter Twitter page

    Please visit both pages, and, if you haven’t yet, “Like” the Facebook page and “Follow” the Twitter page and set your notifications to be alerted to new posts.

    Also:

    Regular Events

    Video Archives of Past Events

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    Membership

    Baseball’s Better Together logo

    SABR is having a Baseball’s Better Together drive in which new memberships are discounted 21 percent in honor of the 2021 season.

    Get more out of your membership experience by checking out SABR Member Benefit Spotlight Series.

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    History Day in Minnesota
    For the second year, the Halsey Hall Chapter sponsored a prize for National History Day in Minnesota, an annual project based competition for high school students. With a theme of "Communication in History," the prize this year went to Dylan Bergeson, a senior at Bagley High School (near Bemidji), for his exhibit, Baseball: Communicating Integration. His exhibit was chosen from a range of projects involving baseball and other sports. Dylan will receive $150, an invitation to present his exhibit at an upcoming chapter meeting, a complimentary SABR student membership, and information on other student opportunities to get involved with SABR.

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    Switch-Hitter Quiz
    Ed Wehling put together this quiz related to the 62 switch-hitters in Twins history (as of May 2021)

    1. The first person to bat as a switch-hitter for the Twins was the starting pitcher for the very first Twins regular-season game.
    2. The last person to bat as a switch-hitter for the Twins is the only switch-hitter on the roster for 2021.
    3. The record for seasons played for the Twins as a switch-hitter is 11 by this player.
    4. Who has the most playoff plate appearances as a Twins switch-hitter?
    5. There were three players who played for the Twins from 1988 to 1990 but did not play on either the 1987 or 1991 pennant-winning teams. One was Jim Dwyer. The other two were switch-hitters. Name them.

    Name the player at each position who has played the most games as a switch-hitter for the Twins.

    P:
    C:
    1B:
    2B:
    3B:
    SS:
    LF:
    CF:
    RF:
    DH:
    PH:

    Twins switch-hitters: Wally Backman, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Tom Herr, Terry Tiffee, Sergio Ferrer, Ryan Doumit, Ruben Sierra, Roy Smalley, Robbie Grossman, Rob Bowen, Quinton McCracken, Pedro Ramos, Pedro Florimon, Otis Nixon, Orlando Merced, Orlando Hudson, Niko Goodrum, Nick Punto, Matt Walbeck, Matt Tolbert, Marwin Gonzalez, Marty Martinez, Marcus Jensen, Luis Rodriguez, Luis Quinones, Luis Castillo, Larry Milbourne, Kennys Vargas, Kendrys Morales, Jose Offerman, Jose Morales, Jorge Polanco, John Moses, Joe Mays, Jim Perry, Javier Valentin, Ildemaro Vargas, Glenn Williams, Gene Larkin, Ehire Adrianza, Eduardo Escobar, Doug Baker, Donnie Hill, Denny Hocking, David Lamb, Dave McKay, Dave Hollins, Darrell Brown, Danny Santana, Cleatus Davidson, Cristian Guzman, Chris Pittaro, Chris Latham, Chili Davis, Butch Wynegar, Brent Gates, Bobby Kielty, Augie Ojeda, Alexi Casilla, Al Newman, Aaron Hicks. (Note: Jerry Terrell was briefly a switch-hitter during part of the 1974 season.)

    Answers below

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    Cow Pies
    Dan Levitt spoke to the New York Giants Preservation Society May 20 on his upcoming book, and video of the event is available:

    Dan Levitt: Balk! Baseball’s Thin Line between Innovation and Cheating

    Terry Bohn has written about Ernie Burch and Bill Burdick for the SABR SABR BioProject.

    The Spring 2021 Baseball Research Journal has an article by Mike Haupert, The Business of Being the Babe. In addition, Mike Kaszuba, a longtime writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune who now lives in Florida, has an article on Dave Nicholson. Also, Dan Levitt co-wrote the bio of Alan Nathan, a recipient this year of the Henry Chadwick Award.

    Mike also has a pair of articles—A History of the Chicago Cubs Franchise in the Late 19th Century and 100 Years Ago: The Babe Ruth Bonus—in the Spring 2021 Outside the Lines, the newsletter of the SABR Business of Baseball Committee.

    Brenda Himrich anniversary party

    Brenda Himrich organized a bash for her 25th wedding anniversary and received a rose from her husband that was fake—but still spectacular. Said husband was continuing a tradition that started in 1996 when he stopped at a Holiday Gas Station for a cup of coffee on the way to the wedding and saw a bucket of cheap roses, so he bought one and gave it to Brenda. Each anniversary he continued to stop at Holiday for a rose, but this year Holiday didn’t have any so he had to buy one at Walgreen’s instead and didn’t notice it was fake (because, you know, he’s a guy). Everyone ate well at the anniversary party, which concluded with a rousing game of Cards Against Humanity.

    Soon after the party, Brenda revised her will.

    A couple of SABR members who compared the distance of Target Field to CHS Field to the distances between other major-league teams and their top affiliates were featured in a St. Paul Pioneer Press article by John Shipley:

    SABR Colleagues Used Their Cars to Determine Saints Are Closest AAA Team to the Parent Club

    Dane Huber, who now works at the Minnesota Department of Health after a stint with the city of Minneapolis when he took a black light around to places like Sex World and other fine establishments to monitor for stains of concern, is also a baseball fan with like-minded friends, some of whom created this snazzy video:

    Twins-Saints Interdependence Cross-Border CATCH

    A member with a book about ballparks in the Twin Cities was allowed to do some free shilling about it on the WCCO-TV news May 16:

    Minnesota’s Deep Connection to Baseball

    The June 2021 edition of Keltner’s Hot Corner, the newsletter of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter is on the newsstands:

    Keltner’s Hot Corner, June 2021

    All Keltner Badger State SABR newsletters

    Blast from the past—Nancy Mudge Cato and John Blanchard, special guests at the Fall 1992 Halsey Hall Chapter meeting:

    Nancy Mudge Cato and John Blanchard

    Answers to Switch-Hitter Quiz
    1. Pedro Ramos
    2. Jorge Polanco
    3. Denny Hocking
    4. Cristian Guzman
    5. John Moses, Doug Baker

    P: Jim Perry
    C: Butch Wynegar
    1B: Gene Larkin
    2B: Al Newman
    3B: Nick Punto
    SS: Roy Smalley
    LF: John Moses
    CF: Danny Santana
    RF: Gene Larkin
    DH: Chili Davis
    PH: Denny Hocking

    Ed adds that 1972 is the only season that no switch-hitters batted for the Twins and that the Twins have seven switch-hitters who batted in 1999, 2014, and 2017. Ed also says, “I take full responsibility for any errors, mistakes, or otherwise bad trivia.”

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    Calendar
        June 12—Hot Stove Saturday Stroll, 10:00 a.m., Lake of the Isles. For more information, contact Stew Thornley.

        July 12—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.

        July 17—Fred Souba Hot Stove League Saturday Morning, 10:00 a.m., Dock & Paddle at the Como Park Lakeside Pavilion, St. Paul.

       August 7Book Club, Dock & Paddle at the Como Park Lakeside Pavilion, St. Paul, 10:00 a.m., The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip through Buck O'Neil’s America by Joe Posnanski.

        August 15—Halsey Hall Chapter Board of Directors meeting, 6:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information on attending, contact Dave Lande.

        November 13—Fall Chapter Meeting, 9:00 a.m., Faith Mennonite Church, Minneapolis. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.

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    Board of Directors 2020-2021
    President—Dave Lande
    Vice President—Hans Van Slooten
    Secretary—Anders Koskinen
    Treasurer—Jerry Janzen
    Gene Gomes
    Frank Kadwell
    Stew Thornley

    Events Committee Chair—Howard Luloff
    Research Committee Co-Chairs and Co-Chair-in-waiting—Brenda Himrich, Stew Thornley, Gene Gomes
    Membership Committee Chair—Frank Kadwell

    Board of Directors 2021-2022
    President—Gene Gomes
    Vice President—Stew Thornley
    Secretary—Sarah Johnson
    Treasurer—Jerry Janzen
    Daniel Dorff
    Dave Lande
    John Swol

    Events Committee Chair—Howard Luloff
    Research Committee Co-Chairs—Dave Lande, Gene Gomes
    Membership Committee Chair—Stew Thornley

    The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
    Webmaster—John Gregory 
    Ass. Webmasters—Frank Kadwell, Hans Van Slooten, and Stew Thornley
    Social Media Directors—Tom Flynn, Twitter; Bob Komoroski, Facebook

    Halsey Hall Chapter Web Page

    Past issues of The Holy Cow! are available on-line.

    Chapter History

    Chapter Procedures and By-Laws

    Society for American Baseball Research

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    Resources

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