March 2003
Gophers beat Fighting Irish 8-2
Ten Halsey Hall members took in a game at the annual Dairy Queen (formally the Hormel) Baseball Tournament at the Metrodome on Saturday afternoon March 1. They witnessed the home town, defending Big Ten champion Gophers, dismantle the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a team that made the eight team College World Series in 2002. Pitching was the key for the Gophers, who evened their 2003 record at 3 wins and 3 losses. Starter C.J. Woodrow retired the first 14 Notre Dame batters and in his six innings of pitching allowed only four hits, one unearned run, no walks and eight strike-outs. Brian Bull pitched the last three innings for the Gophers allowing an unearned run along with two hits, one walk and one strike-out.
Batting stars for the Gophers were third baseman David Hrncirik (three for three, a walk, three runs and a double) and second baseman Luke Appert (two hits including a homerun and 3 rbis). The defensive play of the game occurred in the 5th inning when Gopher center-fielder Sam Steidl raced in to grab Irish first baseman Joe Thaman’s two-out, two runner on, line-drive at his shoe tops. The score was 3-0 Gophers at that point and Thaman easily could have had a double and two rbis and the score would have closed to 3-2.
Upcoming Gopher games at the Metrodome are March 5 vs UMD (6:30) and Cal-State Fullerton, March 7 at 6:30; March 8 at 2 at March 9 at noon. The first home games at Siebert Field are scheduled for March 28-30 against Michigan State.
SPRING REGIONAL
is scheduled for Saturday, May 10th at the Minnesota History Center at 345 Kellogg Boulevard West in St. Paul (right off I-94 across from the St. Paul Cathedral). The meeting will start at 9 a.m. and will break for lunch around noon. Members can then buy lunch at Cafe Minnesota, at the History Center, or go elsewhere. The meeting will resume shortly after 1 p.m. and continue until 3:30 or so.
Contact Fred Buckland if you would like to give a presentation and if you would like to attend that night’s game against the Boston Red Sox, send $ 13.00 per ticket to Howard Luloff by April 1st. A special feature of this meeting will be the baseball exhibit (opening on March 22) and a chance for a behind the scenes tour of the museum storage areas and time to view other exhibits.
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Book Club Meets on April 5th
This meeting of the Halsey Chapter Book Club will be focused on the topic of labor relations in baseball. At the last meeting on February 8th, it was decided that everyone would read Marvin Miller’s memoir, “A Whole New Ball Game,” Carol Publishing Group, 1991. Members were encouraged to also read another book on baseball labor relations and report to the group. Thus in one meeting there could be a good discussion of many of the current books on baseball’s labor relations without members having to read them all. Other books mentioned for possible reading were “Hardball” by Bowie Kuhn, “The End of Baseball as We Knew It” by Charles Korr; “Money Pitch” by Roger I. Abrams, “The Last Commissioner” by Fay Vincent; and “Lords of the Realm” by John Helyar.
The April 5th meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the coffee shop of the Edina Barnes & Noble, which is located one block south of the Southdale Mall in the Galleria shopping center.
The book club has been meeting every other month since summer 2002 and is open to all members of SABR or potential members of SABR. Attendance at the last meeting was double of the original meeting and included Mark Johnson; Stew Thornley; Art Mugalian; Tom Swift; Jim Sexton; Tom Dolen; Bob Tholkes; and Rich Arpi. Organizer Tom Swift welcomes suggestions concerning future book or topic selections.
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READY FOR PRIME TIME?
Proposal by Bob Tholkes to revive the Chapter’s cable access televison show
For most of its existence, the Halsey Hall Chapter has sponsored a local access cable TV show, under the original title Baseball Roundtable and later The On Deck Circle. This half-hour show has had a free-discussion format centering on different contemporary or historical baseball topics, with the occasional interview.
The show usually ended when its volunteer producer either moved away or quit, but the last effort ended in 2000 when participation dwindled to the point where it could no longer be sustained. There were several problems. Its always-informal structure was liable to decline into aimlessness. Distribution of the show to a wide (potentially, at least) audience was difficult. Equipment and production problems at Minneapolis Television Network (MTN) seemed constant, making participation a frustrating experience. Competition for members’ time with other Chapter activities (notably the Quicksteps vintage base ball team) increased, so that MTN’s requirement of a monthly schedule became a burden.
Having found another volunteer producer (Bob Tholkes, who presently edits the Holy Cow Extra quarterly journal), the Chapter board is interested in reviving the show if sufficient member interest exists, with some changes:
1. Adopt a magazine-style format, with segments on specific topics presented by different members, to encourage broader participation and add structure.
2. Move the show to the production studio of Columbia Heights Community Television. There is no minimum schedule requirement, so that the frequency of production can be suited to the level of participation. It is also a small operation - the facility coordinator on duty would have no other claims on his time when assistance with equipment or production is needed. As a Heights resident, Bob can produce the show there free of charge, so that participation can be free to chapter members.
3. Each local access cable system requires that a show be submitted by a resident of its local area. Produce sufficient copies of the show (on VHS) and arrange to get them to Chapter members who will submit them to their local systems.
The Chapter board will decide at its April 6th meeting whether to launch this effort, or not, depending on how much participation can be expected.
Chapter members are needed to:
Distribute the show to their local access cable provider. This usually means filling out a form and either dropping off or mailing in the VHS tape.
Contribute segments to the show. These may be on any conceivable baseball topic, and can be presentations of research or other factual matters, shows of baseball collectables and memorabilia, or a presentation of opinion or viewpoint, and can be either individual or joint efforts. Guests may be invited as joint presenters or interview subjects. No minimum or maximum length has been set.
If you are interested in contributing segments, HOW OFTEN?
Operate a camera or the sound system at the production sessions. For in-studio productions, only brief on-the-spot training by the studio coordinator is required.
Participants must be available on Monday evenings, the only evening offered by Columbia Heights Television on a regular basis. Weekend hours are not available. Production sessions will be scheduled well in advance.
The Halsey Hall Chapter board hopes that this revised television format sounds like a fun and different addition to your baseball hobby. If interested in participating in one OR MORE or these functions, please contact Bob Tholkes by April 6th, either by e-mail at rjtholkes@msn.com or by phone at 763-781-6161.
Veterans Committee Voting
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 81 of 85 ballots were returned meaning that 61 votes were needed for selection. Nobody was elected this year. Results were listed as follows; Gil Hodges (50); Tony Oliva (48); Ron Santo (46); Joe Torre (29); Maury Wills (24); Vada Pinson (21); Joe Gordon (19); Roger Maris (18); Marty Marion (17); Carl Mays (16); Minnie Minoso (16); Allie Reynolds (16); Dick Allen (13); Mickey Lolich (13); Wes Ferrell (12); Ken Boyer (11); Don Newcombe (11); Curt Flood (10); Ken R. Williams (8); Rocky Colavito (7); Elston Howard (6); Bob Meusel (6); Bobby Bonds (5); Ted Kluszewski (4); Thurman Munson (4) and Mike Marshall (the pitcher), (3).
1850s/1860s Minnesota Baseball Research Continues
Project update by Dean Thilgen
I’m certainly not the first person to research 19th century Minnesota baseball history. The definitive article on the subject remains Cecil O. Monroe’s article in the Minnesota History magazine from 1938. However, my curiosity rose after I started playing vintage base ball five years ago. I joined others in the quest to build on Monroe’s work and we are now developing a big picture of how the fraternal game from the big city of New York found a place in the fast-growing Minnesota Territory and how it grew in popularity in the small towns and countryside. Our research is building up to the 2007 sesquicentennial of the first established baseball club in Minnesota (editors note...the Nininger club of 1857)
Monroe’s disadvantage of having to flip the pages of the old, heavy bound newspapers was a slow and tedious process. And in the 1930s, not all ot the extant newspapers were gathered in one place. It is clear he focused on papers from St.Paul, Red Wing, and Lake City, Minnesota. Despite these shortcomings, his work is thorough and correct. Today, we have the luxury of virtually every known surviving Minnesota newspaper on microfilm at the Minnesota History Center. These frames of film can be accurately reproduced with the press of a button. Monroe would undoubtedly be envious.
In his article, Monroe hinted that many of Minnesota’s towns had base ball clubs in 1867, but now we can prove it. The base ball fever so oft’ repeated in standard base ball histories applies to Minnesota in a big way. It was the big fad of the summer here. And recent research in a Minnesota farmer’s diary tells us it reached all the way into the rural countryside, too.
Monroe mentions that General Henry Hastings Sibley was elected president of the new state base ball players association in 1867, but he did not understand why “the convention ignored the delegates and active ballplayers in electing” General Sibley. Now we have a better idea. The most influential and successful Minnesota club of that day was the North Star Club of St. Paul, and the player held in the highest regard was their ace pitcher, Captain Rollin C. Olin. Our research has found that Olin was Sibley’s judge advocate at the Dakota trials in 1862 and his aide-de-camp during the Sibley Expedition in 1863. Sibley’s relationship to Olin continued in base ball a few years later. The players association elected Olin vice president.
While not as popular as it would become, base ball was played in Minnesota before the Civil War.......
Research now focuses on the first organized Minnesota club in Nininger, a planned community on the west bank of the Mississippi River, upstream from Hastings. All the grandiose plans for Nininger, including its base ball team, evaporated quickly when the financial depression, known in history textbooks as the Panic of 1857, set in. That first club was formed just as the new lot owners in town were defaulting on their mortgages and pulling up stakes. There is no indication that the club continued into 1858. We know baseball was played casually in Hastings after that time and upriver in St. Paul, starting in the summer of 1859, when the Olympic club was playing twice per week. There is evidence that Red Wing, Stillwater, and Afton had organized clubs in 1860, but further research is needed to fill in these stories.
Rich Arpi and I have spent most Saturdays digging up these stories of the long forgotten first Minnesota base ball teams from the newspaper microfilm. With the help of several other people, the Minnesota 19th century base ball project is progressing. We should have a good handle on the 1860s sometime next year. If you have anything to add to our research or would like to join us, contact either Rich or myself.
Note from the editor: Much of the research done by SABR members over the last thirty years has centered on professional base ball or on the early days of base ball in New York, Massachusetts and other eastern states. This project hopes to document amateur base ball in Minnesota in the nineteenth century, and thus add a valuable piece to the base ball history puzzle. Hopefully, sometime in the next few months, members will be able to access the Halsey Hall Chapter web-site and find the articles on 19th century Minnesota base ball history uncovered by Deano and myself.......Rich Arpi
Hall of Fame Voting:
In case you missed it, the voting results for the 2003 induction class for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York were as follows:
496 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America were eligible to vote, which meant 372 (75 %) votes were needed for election. Eddie Murray (423) and Gary Carter (387) were elected. The following men received votes but fell short of election; Bruce Sutter (266); Jim Rice (259); Andre Dawson (248); Ryne Sandberg (244); Lee Smith (210); Rich Gossage (209); Bert Blyleven (145); Steve Garvey (138); Jim Kaat (130); Tommy John (116); Jack Morris (113); Alan Trammell (70): Don Mattingly (68); Dale Murphy (58); Dave Concepcion (55); Dave Parker and Fernando Valenzuela (51); Keith Hernandez (30); Darryl Kile (7); Vince Coleman (3); Brett Butler, Sid Fernandez, Rick Honeycutt,Tony Pena (2); and Darren Daulton, Mark Davis and Danny Tartabull (1)
Chapter Authors
Three chapter members have finished or are working on books that should be published shortly. Roger Godin has finished a manuscript entitled “The Brooklyn Football Dodgers: The Other Bums” that he hopes will be published sometime during 2003. He is also working a on book about the St. Paul Athletic Hockey Club, 1914-1926, that might be published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. Stew Thornley is researching a book with a working title of “A Tour of Minnesota Graveyards” that will be part of the Minnesota Historical Society Press’s “Explore Minnesota History!” series with a projected publication date of Halloween 2004. The focus will be on notables buried in the state. Stew is trying to balance the book by getting diversity in race, gender, species, and reason for notability, as well as burial location. Send nominations to Stew; particularly if you have a non-white, non-male, or non-Twin Cities burial spot in mind. Dan Levitt has a book on baseball due out this spring and more information will be forthcoming in a future newsletter, which will be closer to the release date.
Calendar:
March 22 - Baseball exhibit opens at Minnesota History Center. Come visit with chapter members and talk baseball. Afternoon 1 to 5.
April 5 - Book Club meeting at Barnes and Noble at Edina Galleria.
April 6 - Chapter Board meeting at Dan Cagley’s home in Bloomington. 5
May 3 - Chapter breakfast at Baker’s Square at 66th and Xerxes in Richfield. 9:30
May 10 - Chapter Regional meeting at the Minnesota History Center. 9
Halsey Hall Chapter Board of Directors
President: Fred Buckland
Vice-President: Bob Tholkes
Secretary-Treasurer: Rich Arpi
Other Board Members: Dan Cagley, Cary Smith, Dean Thilgen, and Jim Wyman.
Web-master: Dean Thilgen
Halsey Hall Chapter web-site:
http://halseyhall.org
Membership information: contact
Rich Arpi at address below.
The Holy Cow
Halsey Hall Chapter - SABR
Rich Arpi, Editor
2445 Londin Lane East, # 410
Maplewood, Minnesota 55119-5593
“The ball once struck off, Away flies the
boy to the next desired post
And then home with joy.”
Anonymous, 1774.