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Home > Chapter Publications > Holy Cow! Newsletter > 2004 newsletters > May 2004 issue

 

The Holy Cow

May 2004


Spring Meeting Summary

        The annual spring meeting of the Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR was held on Saturday May 1st at the Community United Methodist Church in Columbia Heights. Former major league infielder Roy Smalley (actually Roy Frederick Smalley III) lead off the meeting with stories of his baseball career followed by questions and answers session. Smalley , of course, is the son of another former major league shortstop of the same name and Roy mentioned he learned how to play baseball and shortstop from his father. His uncle, was Gene Mauch, who turned out to be his manager during Roy’s first few years as a Minnesota Twin. Roy recalled that some fans got it all backwards and declared he was the Twins shortstop only because he had married owner Calvin Griffith’s daughter! Smalley said Mauch was a good manager who never publicly praised Smalley (afraid of nepotism charges) but was a great psycologist in getting Rod Carew into agreeing to move to first base. Rather than say negative things about his play at second base, Mauch told Carew that he could win a Gold Glove at first base. Carew then eagerly agreed to the change and the Twins infield defense was greatly improved. Asked about what he remembered about the  1964 season, by a Twins cities sportswriter, Mauch answered, “only every f.......g pitch of the last two weeks.”

        Smalley also had some stories about his days with the Yankees and one good one about Billy Martin, who was the manager of the Texas Rangers when Smalley broke into the major leagues. In one incident Martin was trying to show the rookie Smalley a few pointers at shortstop only to have one pitch go through his legs, one bounce of his shoulder and another one roll up and off his arm declared, “Smalley, you have this position so screwed up, no one can play it.” The highlight of Smalley’s career was finally winning a World Series ring with the Twins in 1987 on his 35th birthday, the only World Series ring won by him, his father, and uncle in over 50 years of service in the major leagues.

        Following Smalley was a presentation by Roger Godin on the 1944 spring training games of the St. Louis Browns in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Rex Hamann then gave a plug for his American Association Almanac, a bimonthly published since November 2001, that has 95 subscribers.  Armand Peterson and Tom Tomashek gave a rather lengthly presentation next on amateur baseball in Minnesota 1945-1960. They handed out a 20 page or so handout that summarized their work to date and they hope to finish a rough draft this fall and hopefully find a publisher. Among the information in their handout were lists of major leaguers who played amateur ball in Minnesota after their major league career, men who played amateur ball in  Minnesota before reaching the major leagues, and Minneapolis Laker basketball players who also played amateur baseball in the summer.

        After lunch, Dick Radatz, Jr. spoke about his father’s baseball career and some about his own front office career in the Florida State League. But most of his talk centered on the Northwoods League, a wooden bat league for college players that has been operating in the upper Midwest for 12 years. He mentioned some of the alumni of the league who have gone on to the major leagues and how this year the league will feature the sons of former major leaguers Ned Yost, Ron Gardenhire, Jack Morris, Frank Viola, Dave Roberts and Gary Gaetti. The league is the first for profit summer college league and players live with host families and receive money only for expenses on road trips so as to maintain their amateur status for college play.  A handsome and possibly very handy Northwoods League media guide was handed out to everyone in attendance. 2004 league teams include the Alexandria Beetles, Duluth Huskies. LaCrosse Loggers, Madison Mallards, Mankato Moondogs, Rochester Honkers, St. Cloud River Bats, Thunder Bay Border Cats, Waterloo Bucks, and Wisconsin (Wausau)Woodchucks. Radatz mentioned possible expansion has been discussed for Eau Claire and the western suburbs of the Twin Cities. If members have some free time this summer, the Northwoods League might be worth checking out.

 

“ This space for rent.”


 


This umpire looks like he is breaking up a fight between two businessmen rather than two managers...

 


By-Laws Revision Passes without much ado

         Article II will be replaced and Section 4 of Article III, of the current by-laws, will be deleted since it will be incorporated in the new Article II (as section 2) in the revision to the by-laws passed by the membership at the May 1st chapter meeting. The new article:
      ARTICLE II: PUBLICATIONS AND WEB SITE.  Section 1 - Publications and Web Site.  The board of directors shall oversee the management of a web site as well as determine the publications to be distributed to members and determine the fees, if any, to be charged.

Section 2 - Publication Editors/Webmaster.  The editor (s) of the chapter publications and the webmaster shall be appointed by the board of directors to a term of one year. The term shall start January 1. The term is renewable.

 In other chapter business, Gregg Omoth, Cary Smith, Stew Thornley and Rich Arpi were elected to succeed Bob Tholkes, Dean Thilgen, and Rich Arpi (somehow I keep succeeding myself..) whose terms expired and to fill the one-year remaining in the term of Jim Wyman, who stepped down from the board of directors. Stew, in a later e-mail, offered to be the person to fill the one year remaining of Jim Wyman’s position. So far nobody has objected, so Stew’s offer has been accepted and his board position will be one of the four up for election in the spring of 2005 along with those of Rex Hamann, Chuck Blomquist, and Tom Swift. 

 

May 15: Barbecue at Stew’s, 5:30, bring beverage or something to share (651-415-0791)

 

May 16: Stark @ New Ulm Brewers...2 p.m. Meet at Jerry Janzen’s at noon. Call 952-941-8685 for directions.



Breakfast and Book Club and Board alert

        It was agreed at the spring chapter meeting to hold the next breakfast meeting at the normal spot of the Baker’s Square at 66th and Xerxes in Richfield at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 5th. Note that the time has been moved up one-half hour because the Twins have an early afternoon game starting at 12:10.

        The book club will meet on Sunday afternoon, June 6th,  at Stew Thornley’s around five o’clock (after the Twins game is over ). The selected book is the Duke of Havana by Steve Fainru and Ray Sanchez;  most recently published by Villard in paperback in 2001. It is the story of  “El Duque,” Orlando Hernandez and other Cuban players attempts to leave Cuba and break into the major leagues in the United States. A board meeting probably will follow. 

 



 


The Holy Cow


Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR

Rich Arpi, editor

2445 Londin Lane, # 410

Maplewood, Mn.  55119


Lamest cop out of all time...? 

 

“I did my job, but the ball did’t do it’s job.”

 

          Indians outfielder, Coco Crisp,

          after dropping a fly ball vs. Twins.

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