Resources
Halsey Hall Chapter Goes Live
The Halsey Hall Chapter Research Committee’s On-line Baseball Research Tools workshop, held February 12 at the Brookdale Library, became the first chapter event to have a streaming audience. In addition to 23 people at the event, more than 40 others watched and participated on Facebook Live, with the virtual visitors submitting questions for the presenters. Frank Kadwell provided the steady hand for the camera for the hour-and-a-half event, and the chapter plans to use Facebook live for future events, such as the upcoming spring chapter meeting.
Frank Kadwell, in the back of the room, operated the camera to beam the research workshop to Facebook Live.
The workshop was the idea of Gene Gomes, and it was successful in terms of participation and content. Many attending had seen the publicity and are considering joining SABR. The workshop also brought out some new SABR members, as well as a few who had not been to an event in a while. Brenda Himrich moderated the workshop and led off with a look at the chapter’s Baseball Research Primer. Hans Van Slooten, the primary developer of baseball-refererence.com, gave an overview of the site, Stew Thornley did the same with Retrosheet as well as Paper of Record, which contains digitized copies of The Sporting News. Tom Flynn demonstrated on-line newspaper research through newspapers.com. Jim Cox demonstrated resources from the Library of Congress; one of the highlights of this presentation was the discovery of Spalding’s Minneapolis Amateur Base Ball Year Book for 1905, a 164-page guide with information and statistics on amateur and semi-professional teams in Minnesota.
The video of the workshop is available on the Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page.
Go to Top
Pertinent Poop from the Prez
Halsey Hall Chapter President Tom Flynn is asking for feedback from members on a proposal the Society for American Baseball Research board of directors is considering.
The board is considering replacing the word “American” with “Advancement.” Society for American Baseball Research would change to Society for the Advancement of Baseball Research, thus keeping the SABR acronym. This is a revisitation of a proposal first made in 2005. At that time, a member vote produced a majority (51.9 percent) in favor of the change although it fell short of the 2/3 approval needed to pass the motion.
Members have been asked to express their thoughts on such a change through their chapter leaders. Anyone wishing to offer thoughts and opinions may contact Tom Flynn,
Go to Top
Spring Chapter Meeting April 21 with Book Exchange
The 2018 Spring Chapter meeting will be Saturday, April 21 at Faith Mennonite Church, 2720 E. 22nd Street in south Minneapolis.
Registration for the meeting is at 8:30 with research presentations beginning at 9:00. A business meeting will be held during lunch with a featured guest to follow. The cost for the meeting and lunch is $10. The meeting only is $5. Those wanting lunch must RSVP to Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.
Members are invited to submit a proposal to make a research presentation at the meeting. Proposals must be sent to Research Committee co-chairs Brenda Himrich or Sarah Johnson and include a title and brief outline of what the presentation will consist of with emphasis on the research that will be included. Standard 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 (which also consists of Dan Levitt, Jim Cox, Doug Skipper, Stew Thornley, Rich Arpi, Dave Lande, and Bob Tholkes) will finalize the schedule of research presentations by April 7, two weeks before the meeting, so proposals must be submitted by then.
Four presentations have been approved by the Research Committee:
- Establishment of the Joe Jackson Scholarship by Warren Woods
- From Deadball to Techball: The Evolution of Baseball Innovation by Dan Levitt
- Official Scoring Analytics by Stew Thornley
- Baseball Career and Life of William Porter “Spike” Shannon by Rich Arpi
The meeting can handle a maximum of five research presentations, although one of the approved presenters has indicated he will step aside, if needed, to make room for someone who has not presented before.
During the business meeting, the chapter will elect three members to a two-year term on the board of directors. Jim Cox and Jerry Janzen have entered their names as nominees for election to the board of directors. Anyone interested may contact nominating committee chair Stew Thornley, 652-415-0791.
The meeting will feature a baseball book exchange. Bring baseball books you’re willing to part with and/or take books you like. Those bringing books will be asked to take away any of their unclaimed books (unless someone would like to organize a donation of the unclaimed books for a library or other recipient).
Other upcoming events:
Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning
The next Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be at 9:00 on Saturday, March 3 at Bunny’s Northeast, 34 13th Avenue NE, Minneapolis 55413, 612-545-5659 (in what was the keg warehouse of the Grain Belt Brewery).
Dairy Queen Classic Baseball Tournament
Howard Luloff is organizing a chapter outing to see the Washington Huskies play the Minnesota Gophers in the DQ Classic at U. S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m. Gather by the ticket windows at 6:30 or join others starting at 5:30 p.m. at Erik the Red Bar (formerly Hubert’s) on Sixth Street and Chicago Avenue. The group will be sitting on the first-base side and should be easy to find. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.
Signs of Spring: Glimpses of Twin Cities Ballparks will be hosted by the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota Wednesday, March 28 at the University Club, 420 Summit Avenue, St. Paul 55102. The description for the program reads, “With baseball season just around the corner, we’ll look back at two ambitious projects for Twin Cities sports: the Athletic Parks of the 1880s. They were simple structures, by today’s standards, but architects Gilbert & Taylor (St. Paul Athletic Park) and the Orff Brothers (Minneapolis Athletic Park) were involved in the projects. Using the oldest known photographs of Twin Cities ballparks, we will visit and explore these two sports spaces.” The program is from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., and attendees are invited to come early and/or stay late and enjoy the view of the river and have a drink at the club’s bar, which reportedly has F. Scott Fitzgerald’s initials carved in it (by F. Scott Fitzgerald, not some cretin with a knife who goes around carving other people’s initials into historic bars). Admission is $15 and a couple of chapter members have already gotten tickets, which can be obtained at Preservation Alliance of Minnesota.
Season Opening Viewing Party
The Twins open the season at Baltimore Thursday, March 29 at 2:05 p.m. (Central time). Come to the viewing party at Eastlake Craft Brewery, 920 E. Lake Street, #123 in Minneapolis. This is in the Midtown Global Market, which is the old Sears building, at 10th Avenue South and East Lake Street. For more information, contact T. S. Flynn.
Tom Sheehan Birthday Commemoration, Viewing Party, and Grumpy’s Gang Get-Together of Baseball Enthusiasts
Tom Sheehan’s 134th birthday is coming up and will be commemorated at Grumpy’s Bar and Grill, 2200 4th Street Northeast, Minneapolis 55418 on Saturday, March 31. People will start gathering by 5 p.m. to talk baseball and death, imbibe, and watch the Twins and Orioles on television. Tom Sheehan won’t be there, but one of his descendents will be. For more information, contact Thomas Sheehan Flynn.
Book Club
The Halsey Hall Chapter Book Club will meet Saturday, April 7 at 9:30 a.m. at the usual spot, Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall in Roseville. The book selection is Down to the Last Pitch: How the 1991 Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves Gave Us the Best World Series of All Time by Tim Wendel.
Vintage Base Ball
Chapter members plan to venture to Pettitt Park in Lake St. Croix Beach Sunday, May 20 for a vintage base ball game between St. Croix and the Afton Red Sox at 12:30 p.m. For more information, contact Jim Cox.
Road Trip
This year’s Northwoods League outing will be Saturday, July 21 to see the St. Cloud Rox at the Willmar Stingers at Bill Taunton Stadium. The game is at 7:05 p.m., and Howard Luloff is arranging pre-game activities with the Stingers.
Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page
Halsey Hall Chapter Twitter page
Regular Events
Go to Top
New Members
Anders Koskinen is from Madison, Wisconsin, where his dad, mom, younger brother, and sister still live; he has an older brother in the Army in Alaska, where he has a wife and two sons.
Anders graduated from the University of Minnesota, where he had a double-major in journalism and political science, in December 2016 and is looking for a full-time, permanent position that is more relevant to his studies than is the data-entry job he has now. In the interregnum and beyond, he plans to use this writing and editing training in SABR activities.
“I only played a few seasons of little league baseball. My batting average was atrocious, I’m sure, though an inside the park home run I hit stands out as a career highlight. The little league season kept creeping earlier and earlier into spring, and conflicted too much with soccer, and that was an easy choice for me as a player. While I love baseball, soccer was always my favorite sport to play.
“My first game was a Brewers game versus the Mets, I believe in either 2001 or 2002. It was either the first year of Miller Park or the second; I’d have to double check with my dad. On June 19, 2008, I saw Dave Bush take a no-hitter into the eighth, and watched the bullpen nearly blow an 8-1 lead in the ninth. In the sixth inning my Dad said to me, ‘Bush hasn't given up a hit yet,’ to which I said, ‘He hasn’t walked anybody, either.’ So we’re very apologetic to Dave Bush.
“Not a game I attended, but CC Sabathia’s one-hitter on August 31, 2008 should have been a no-hitter. To me it was a clear error on [Andy] LaRoche’s infield hit. Ryan Braun’s home run in the eighth inning of the last game of that ‘08 season was a great moment. Braun’s later PED reveal was soul crushing.
“I also attended Game 1 of the 2011 NLDS between the Brewers and Diamondbacks with my dad and younger brother, and we watched Nyjer Morgan’s walk off hit in the bottom of the tenth in Game 5 at my grandma’s house a few days later. My dad and both of my brothers and I were in attendance of Game 6 of the NLCS and left very dejected as the Brewers lost another series to the Cardinals.
“I know the 1982 club as well as, if not better, than many of the teams I have actually watched. This is thanks to excellent story telling on my dad’s part, and a complete set of that team’s baseball cards I saved up $25 dollars to buy from the local card shop. ”
Anders is exactly 40 years older than Kevin Costner. He and Kevin share their January 18 birthday with Curt Flood, Brett Lawrie, Michael Pineda, Billy Grabarkewitz, Pinky May, Gift Ngoepe, Mike Lieberthal, Satch Davidson, Bill Sharp, Brady Anderson, Scott McGregor, Bill McGowan, Carl Morton, Bozo (Bob Bell), Tobin Rote, A. A. Milne, Ted DiBiase, Danny Kaye, Dave Attell, Mark Messier, Cary Grant, and Oliver Hardy.
Tom Froemming is a native of Minnesota who now lives in Richfield with his wife and 1-½ year old daughter. He has an Uncle Bruce, but it’s not Bruce Froemming the umpire. By day, Tom works for a payroll service provider; by night, he writes for Twins Daily.
Tom caught baseball fever at a young age; he was two and six with the Twins won the World Series. He played baseball as early as he could and continued through high school. He was at the Twins-Athletics scheduled doubleheader at the Metrodome May 26, 2001 and Cal Ripken’s 2,000th consecutive game August 1, 1994. His favorite game, though, was an August 23, 2005 duel between Johan Santana of the Twins and Freddy Garcia of the White Sox August 23, 2005. The game was scoreless in the last of the eighth when Jacque Jones broke up Garcia’s no hitter with a home run, and the Twins won 1-0.
“ I love looking at the numbers, but I think the thing I’m most excited about in regard to joining SABR is looking back. Baseball history is not my strong suit, so I was excited to see so many great resources even just on the SABR.org site. A lot of my free time is either spent with my wife and daughter or writing, but I’m hoping to find more time to discover the game’s past.”
Tom shares his February 3 birthday with Larry MacPhail, Bake McBride, Fred Lynn, Joe Coleman, Live Oak Taylor, Slim Sallee (who was born 100 years before Tom), Dick Tracewski, Celerino Sanchez, Rougned Odor, Gale Gillingham, Fran Tarkenton, Norman Rockwell, James Michener, Kerry Von Erich, Gertrude Stein, Emile Griffith, Les Kouba, and Pretty Boy Floyd.
Also new to the Halsey Hall Chapter: Sam Schneider, Chris Horgen, and Scott Magnuson
Know a potential member? Here are resources for getting that person happily involved in SABR:
Membership application
Have you attended a Minnesota college, and would you be willing to contact it about the possibility of integrating SABR into some departments? If so, please contact Membership Committee Chair Hans Van Slooten.
Hans has written an article on SABR and our chapter for Twins Daily: Interested in Baseball Research? Join SABR!
Go to Top
Cow Chips
Emma Charlesworth-Seiler was an instructor at The Umpire Training Academy in Vero Beach, Florida. She is only the second woman ever (Ria Cortesio was the other) to instruct at one of the major umpire schools. Emma umpired in the Gulf Coast League in 2017.
Emma also umpired the Twins’ first spring-training game of the season, against the Minnesota Gophers February 22. Jerry and Robin Janzen motored down from Anna Maria, Florida, to watch (and photograph) Emma.
Near the house they are renting in Anna Maria, Jerry and Robin went for a walk and saw this gate (below) for a private house. Eddie and Warren weren’t home.
Gary Hackenmueller, a longtime member who served on the Halsey Hall Chapter board of directors from 2008-2010, died January 24.
|
|
| Brenda Himrich was in Houston in early February and was trained at Minute Maid Park on the use of the pitch clock, which at the time was expected to be implemented by Major League Baseball this season. Brenda delayed hip-replacement surgery so she could attend the Houston training. She finally got the new hip February 20 and returned home two days later. |
Sarah Johnson had an article published in the SABR BioProject, a profile of official scorer Gregg Wong.
Another member had an article published in the Games Project: October 4, 1970: Orioles’ Bats Blast Twins to Take 2-0 ALCS Lead
An article in the Fall 2017 Baseball Research Journal by members B. Tholkes and S. Thornley, From Recorder to Judge: The Evolution of the Scorer in the Nineteenth Century, is a finalist in the Historial Analysis/Commentary category for the 2018 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards.
Dan Levitt and Mark Armour have a series about team building in their blog, Important Moments in Team Building.
Pete Gorton and Paul Irmiter have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to produce a film, 39 Seconds, about John Donaldson.
Go to Top
Calendar
March 3—Fred Souba Hot Stove League Saturday Morning, Bunny’s, Minneapolis, 9:00 a.m.
March 3—Minnesota Gophers vs. Washington Huskies, 7:00 p.m, U. S. Bank Stadium. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.
March 28—Signs of Spring: Glimpses of Twin Cities Ballparks, 6:30 p.m., University Club, St. Paul. For tickets ($15 each), go to Preservation Alliance of Minnesota.
March 29—Season Opening Viewing Party, 2:00 p.m., Eastlake Craft Brewery, Minneapolis. For more information, contact Tom Flynn.
March 31—Tom Sheehan Birthday Commemoration et al., Grumpy’s Bar and Grill, Northeast Minneapolis, starting at 5:00 p.m. For more information, contact T. S. Flynn.
April 7—Book Club, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., Down to the Last Pitch: How the 1991 Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves Gave Us the Best World Series of All Time by Tim Wendel.
April 21—Spring Chapter Meeting, 9:00 a.m, Faith Mennonite Church, Minneapolis. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.
May 20—Vintage Base Ball, 12:30 p.m., Pettitt Park, Lake St. Croix Beach. For more information, contact Jim Cox.
July 21—Northwoods League: St. Cloud Rox at Willmar Stingers, 7:05 p.m. (pre-game events starting mid-afternoon), Bill Taunton Stadium. For more information, Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.
Go to Top
Board of Directors 2017-2018
President—Tom Flynn
Vice President—Frank Kadwell
Secretary—Brent Heutmaker
Treasurer—Jerry Janzen
Gene Gomes
Bob Komoroski
Hans Van Slooten
Membership Committee Chair—Hans Van Slooten
Events Committee Chair—Howard Luloff
Research Committee Chairs—Brenda Himrich and Sarah Johnson
The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
Webmaster—John Gregory
Ass. Webmasters—Stew Thornley and Frank Kadwell
Social Media Director—Tom Flynn
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
Go to Top
Resources
Go to Top
