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Spring Chapter Meeting April 19 Recap
Thirty-one medium-to-old white guys—Art “Arthur” Mugalian, Ben Ernst, Howard Luloff, Ed Edmonds, Brian Larson, Stew Thornley, Rich Arpi, Armand Peterson, Dave Lande, Jacob Sayward, Jeff Napierala, Kris Hard, Terry Bohn, Kelly Bohn, Glenn Renick, Jim Cox, Bill Axness, Daniel Dorff, Eric Berg, Al Strauss, Fred Buckland, Bob Komoroski, Doug Skipper, Barry Bengtsson, Jeff Lenz, Dan Levitt, Aaron Sinner, Paul Spyhalski, Jed Levitt, John Buckeye, and Lloyd Kepple—showed up for the Halsey Hall Chapter spring meeting April 19, one that concluded with a Howard Luloff quiz, which Team Red won by a score of 369-5 over Team B.
In the opening ceremonies, Howard also noted that this is the 40th anniversary of the formation of the Halsey Hall chapter, one that was prominently noted in the May 16, 1985 Minneapolis Star and Tribune:
For more on the history of the chapter, here are items from a 1986 newsletter:
A Brief History of the Chapter: The Unorganized Years
A Model Chapter
The charter members of the Halsey Hall Chapter (along with some of the interests they noted in parentheses in the 1986-1987 chapter directory): Greg Bistram, Terry Bohn (Twins Statistics), Andy Clendennen (Boston Red Sox History), Gary Clendennen (Biographies), John Dietrich, John DiMeglio (Non-Trivial History), Fred Friedman (Ball Parks; Sociology of Baseball), Mark Frobom (Steve Dalkowski), John Gendler (Yankees), Glenn Gostick, John Gregory (Statistics), Pete Hepokoski, Alan Holst (Statistical Analysis; Baseball History), Rick Kayser, Brian Larson, Angelo Louisa (Pittsburgh Pirate, Bibliography), Howard Luloff (New York Mets, Records), Andy Lurth, Jerry McGovern (Twins; Ball Parks), Alden Mead, Mendal Mearkle, Dave Moore, Joe O’Connell (St. Paul Saints), Ken Ottoson (Old Photos of Players), Paul Rittenhouse (Ball Parks, Umpires), Terry Siegford (Books, Magazines, 1950s), Fred Souba (Baseball in the 30s; Baseball Cards), Bob Tholkes, Howard Thornley, Stew Thornley (Local Baseball History; Marla Collins), Bob Tibbetts, Jay Weiner, John Wessels, Donald Wiese (American League). Three of the charter members were at the April 19 meeting.
At the business meeting, Jacob Sayward, Rich Arpi, John Buckeye, and Howard Luloff were elected to the board of directors to fill the spot of expiring directors Daniel Dorff, Rich Arpi, John Buckeye, and Howard Luloff. In addition, President Ed Edmonds discussed a plan to change how the board members are elected. The structure of a proposed by-laws amendment, which will be voted on at the fall chapter meeting, calls for an annual election of a vice president/president-elect, who will automatically ascend to president after a year and then to being an ex-officio non-voting board member for a year. Directors will be elected to three-year terms, one each year. The secretary and treasure positions may be appointed by the board or elected along with the president-elect and one director at the spring chapter meeting. The length of the terms for secretary and treasurer is under discussion. In addition, a plan will be proposed for the transition to the new board structure. If the by-laws amendment is passed this fall, the new structure will take effect with the elections in the spring of 2026. Members are invited to provide their thoughts to any board member.
In between all this, lots happened and was carefully chronicled by our special correspondent.
By John Buckeye
We started off with a presentation by native son of Virginia, MN, Rich Arpi. He gave a taste of the large scope of his Spread of Baseball in Minnesota Project through discussing the teams involved in the 1908 Northern League pennant race.
He first talked about the nature of baseball coverage in those areas at around that time, and concluded that, like politics, “All Baseball is Local.” The local papers and people of that time would not have had much of a feel for the baseball happening in the bigger cities further to the east and south. And even as far as their local teams, the papers may have only covered games played at home.
There was plenty of coverage of the Virginia, Bemidji, and Hibbing teams, respectively, though, and those area papers and fans covered and supported their teams the best way they knew how. But we got a great look at the ups and downs of that season, and enticement to come contribute to the greater Spread of Baseball project at any time.
South Dakotan Ben Ernst made the trip up to the Twin Cities to give us our second presentation of the morning, about the Aberdeen Pheasants, a storied ball club from his hometown. Interestingly, he was able to commission a collage painting from the mother of current MLB pitcher Lucas Giolito, Lindsay Frost, featuring the Pheasants and their history. He showed it off in the first slide and says the original is hanging in his office at home.
Ben went through a little of his history as a baseball fan, discussing what led him to working for the California Angels in his younger days, and ultimately to his current passion for baseball.
The Pheasants were an Orioles farm team from 1946-’71, and featured a lot of future MLB talent at various times, including Don Larsen, Bob Turley, Terry Francona, and Bo Belinsky. One of the great moments in their history was when the major league O’s stopped by Aberdeen in 1964 to play an exhibition game with them.
Ben is a part of our chapter, but he also joined the Babe Ruth Chapter in Baltimore, who were able to help him apply for a grant to get a plaque set up commemorating the team placed on the campus of Northern State University. The city also features the team in some displays in their local airport.
Eric Berg is a Ph.D from northern Minnesota, who gave us a taste of baseball of all kinds as it happened in the northern latitudes of the state. He titled his presentation “Baseball above 47 Degrees,” which as he explained refers to both the degrees north latitude as well as the fact that his high school baseball coach in northern Minnesota growing up would only let them practice outside if it was that warm.
Eric scoured a lot of different resources to look for any reference to the earliest instances of organized baseball in this area. One of those was a famous picture of a women’s team from 1893, of which very little is known. There was also reference in the area’s papers to a Boston women’s team that played an organized game in Bemidji in 1900.
It was around this time that the sport began to gain momentum, and Bemidji itself was able to garner support for a baseball field for its local high school team to play on. This was a big deal at this time.
And by the 1920s there was a whole league established among the towns of this area, connecting the cities—several of whose teams we learned about. The league itself often even established better relations with the local native tribespeople.
We were also lucky to welcome former Los Angeles Dodgers GM Dan Evans (shown above) as our guest speaker after lunch and the business meeting. Dan Levitt gave the introduction for his friend Dan, who began by praising us profusely for the great Convention we helped host last summer.
Dan Evans is originally from the Chicago area, and got his real start in baseball with the White Sox, for whom he eventually became the assistant GM. He was also childhood friends with Twins legend Kirby Puckett, both hailing from the South Side.
We got to hear a great deal of stories about his travels around the world for scouting and other baseball reasons—whether it was Japan, Taiwan, Latin America—almost anywhere that plays baseball, it seems. He’s also a big ball cap aficionado, and praised the look of the old Minneapolis Millers hat he was wearing.
Having worked for the White Sox, he had some pretty good stories about announcer Harry Caray, such as how he helped Caray out of a jam one morning. There was a fantastic tale about how he found out his GM for the White Sox had traded Bobby Bonilla and the way it immediately affected the team on the field that day. Dan also got to give us a look into the early career of future Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, dating from when he was a rookie shortstop, irritating the likes of the Hall of Famer Tom Seaver.
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Upcoming Events
The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be Saturday, May 3 at 9:05 a.m. at Stanley’s Northeast Bar Room, 2500 University Avenue NE (northwest corner of Lowry and University), Minneapolis 55418.
Charlie Vascellaro, communications/programming manager for the Jackie Robinson Foundation and Museum, will present on last season’s major-league game at Rickwood Field on a joint Zoom meeting between the Halsey Hall and Ken Keltner chapters on Wednesday, May 14 at 7:00 p.m. Central time. Registration information.
The next Book Club meeting will be Saturday, June 14 (also the final day of Jerry Janzen being 69) at Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall at 9:30 a.m. The book selection is The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball by John W. Miller.
Brent Heutmaker has organized a list of all the book selections since the book club started in August 2002: Halsey Hall Book Club Selections.
Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Bluesky page
Halsey Hall Chapter Twitter page
Please visit the pages, and, if you haven’t yet, “Like” the Facebook page and “Follow” the Bluesky page and set your notifications to be alerted to new posts. (The Bluesky page has 76 followers and the Facebook page 313 members. Bob Komoroski has established rules—essentially, don’t be a dink. The page is still public although Bob has set up a series of questions for new members to cull out spammers, wankers, trollers, and other degenerates.) Bob Komoroski is overseeing the Bluesky page.
Also:
Regular Events
Video Archives of Past Events
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Research Roundtable
The next Research Committee meetings, via Zoom, will be May 26 and June 16 at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom.
Research projects:
Ed Edmonds will be the master of ceremonies for a panel at the SABR convention for the 50th anniversary of the Messersmith-McNally decision. In preparation for that, he is 200 pages into an 800-page transcript of the hearing.
Rich Arpi and Bob Tholkes served as judges for this yearös Minnesota History Day and chose the best baseball exhibit, Tony Stone: Gaining a Fair Chance by Reece Johnson and Easton Schwartz, who will split a $150 prize from the Halsey Hall Chapter.
Terry Bohn is part of a group in Bismarck working to get a statue of Satchel Paige erected to go with planned renovations to Municipal Ballpark, which is on the same site where Paige pitched for a Bismarck integrated semi-pro team in 1933 and 1935. Negro Leagues historian Phil Dixon will be coming to Bismarck this summer to promote the project.
The chapter’s proposal to erect a marker on the site of the Pillbox ballpark in St. Paul passed unanimously, with strong support from the chair of the Capitol Area Architectural Planning Board, Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan. A 30-day public comment period is underway now with a deadline of 4:30 p.m. on May 5. Chapter members are encouraged to indicate support with comments directed to Tina Chimuzu, 625 Robert Street North, St. Paul 55155, tina.chimuzu@state.mn.us.
In addition, a public hearing will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 15 in conference room 116B in the Administration Building (50 Sherburne Avenue, St. Paul 55155).
Among the conditions that must be met for the project to move forward is documented public support, so input from members is encouraged.
More information: Pillbox (Ballpark): Proposed Commemorative Work
John Shipley wrote a story that appeared in the April 13, 2025 St. Paul Pioneer Press on the Pillbox plaque as well as Brent Peterson’s efforts to get a marker on the site of the Old Athletic Field, where Bud Fowler played in 1884, in Stillwater:
At Capitol and Stillwater, a swing to commemorate baseball history
Peter Cox did a report on the project on Minnesota Public Radio on April 18: Minnesota baseball lovers make a pitch to honor bygone ballpark, 2 historic St. Paul teams
Chapter members are often meeting Friday mornings at the Minnesota History Center to work on the Minnesota Spread of Baseball Project, 1857-1923 and identifying Pre-pro Clubs and Games in Minnesota.. For more information, contact Rich Arpi.
Research Committee members are co-chairs Dave Lande or Gene Gomes as well as Brenda Himrich, Sarah Johnson, Dan Levitt, Doug Skipper, Stew Thornley, Rich Arpi, Hans Van Slooten, Mike Haupert, Bob Tholkes, Daniel Dorff, Darryl Sannes, Tom Swift, David Karpinski, Glenn Renick, John Buckeye, Terry Bohn, Ed Wehling, John Gregory, Art Mugalian, John “Sparky” Seals, Ed Edmonds, Chrstian Towalski,and Bob Komoroski.
Let a committee member know if you would like to attend a meeting and/or join the committee.
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Sparky Seals’s Short Quiz
Here is the quiz from the March Research Committee meeting:
- This HOF player bridged the 19th and 20th centuries and is known for “hitting them where they ain’t.”
- Nicknamed “The Cricket” this SS played for three teams from 1968 until 1981 and was known mostly for his ability to turn double plays.
- This HOF SS and 2B-man played 23 years in the majors for 5 different teams and was known as one of baseball’s most famous clowns. In 1925, after 53 games with him as the manager, the Cubs were in last place with a 23 and 30 record. Not long after that, he was out on the street outside Ebbets Field in Brooklyn mimicking a newsboy hawking papers. He cried out, “Read all about it! fired!” And so he was—the next day.
- This SS and 3B-man boasts the second-lowest strikeout rate in the history of Major League Baseball. In 1932, he struck out only three times the entire season, owning the single-season record for his excellent plate discipline that year.
- A pitcher who played 16 years in the majors, he had 1,072 strikeouts, was a three-time All Star, had a league-leading ERA of 2.45 in 1957, and was named AL MVP in 1952. As of this writing He’s the oldest-surviving Philadelphia Athletic.
- An excellent power hitter, he hit 56 HR in 1930 and led the NL in HR four times. He still holds the record for RBI in a season and a sportswriter once wrote of him: “For a brief span of a few years, this hammered-down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth.”
- This SS played for the hated Yankees for 13 years. The Hilltoppers won seven World Championships during his time with the team. A defensive wizard, his 1217 career double plays still rank in the top 20 of all time at his position. Also was a decent hitter.
- This HOF 2B-man hit with power and excelled at middle of the field defense, winning five Gold Gloves. He was a 10-time All Star and played on two World Champions.
- Former Twins SS played but 4 years in the majors and finished with a batting average significantly below the “Mendoza Line.” He managed to play just one complete year at the Major League level. He had much greater success as both a player and a manager “south of the border” being named ROY in the Mexican League in 1976.
- He played 2B, 3B, and SS for 10 years in the majors winning a batting title in 1945 hitting .309. A two-time All Star, he played on three World Championship teams. Sadly, he was killed in 1958 when the train he was riding on, for reasons still unknown, drove straight through signals and flew off the open Newark Bay lift bridge and into the bay itself.
Answers below
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New Members
Jim Shoulak was born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and grew up in Fond du Lac. He lived in the Akron area of northeast Ohio, where he was a member of the Jack Graney SABR Chapter. Jim and his wife of 40 years, Judy, have three children: Jake, Sarah, and Joe.
“For most of my life, I was a ‘Mr. Mom,’ staying home while Judy worked at various companies— ending up as President of North American Operations at Buffalo Wild Wings. (That’s what brought us to Minnesota 24 years ago.) I was ordained a Deacon in the Episcopal Church in 2010 and served 2 parishes before retiring. I’m now a Police Reserve Officer and Chaplain for the Corcoran Police Department. I also manage our 18-acre hobby farm next to our home.
“I started collecting baseball cards in 1970, and hope to someday complete that set. I also have a nice collection of Kellogg’s 3D cards from cereal, and have a growing collection of Negro League cards. I played T-ball in Fond du Lac for the Hank Aaron team (all the teams were named after famous Milwaukee Braves’ players). Saw my first game at County Stadium in 1971 with two of my three brothers. Marty Pattin pitched a win for the Brewers over Yaz, El Tiante and Rico. Our family drove down to Milwaukee to see Hank Aaron play for the Brewers in 1975 or ’76. Hank, along with Bart Starr, were my two biggest heroes all my life. While attending a few Brewer Fantasy Camps, I turned into a 10-year-old kid again, struggling to say something intelligible, but what usually what came out was, ‘Um, hi, ah, I have a baseball card of you!’ Yount, Gantner, Sheets, Cooper, Fingers, Vaughn . . . truly a dream come true!
“I enjoy stats and research projects (mostly my own). To this day, I guess I’m the world’s foremost authority on George Boehler, an otherwise obscure pitcher who played on Ty Cobb’s Tigers and three other MLB teams. He was the only MLB player with my mother’s maiden name. George was a much better minor league pitcher. I have a passion for the Negro Leagues, got Buck O’Neil’s autograph after a spring training game in Arizona, and have toured the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City. I’m also a singer-songwriter of nearly 50 years, currently working on a song about the mostly-unknown Negro League players: ‘The Man with No First Name.’”
Jim was born September 6, 1958, one day before former Brewers catcher and current broadcaster Bill “Rock” Schroeder, whom Jim met when he attended a Brewers fantasy camp. Jim shares his birthday with Derrek Lee, Greg Olson, Fran Healy, Vince DiMaggio, Urban ’Red“ Faber, Tommy Thevenow, Socrates Brito, Mitch Moreland, Hal Jeffcoat, Del Bissonette, Larry Lucchino, Claire Chennault, Dow Finsterwald, Roger Waters, Marquis de Lafayette, Billy Rose, Rosie Perez, Alphonso Lunt, Slappsie Maxie Rosenbloom, Jane Addams, Idris Elba, Jane Curtin, Moses Mendelssohn, Carol Wayne, and Swoosie Kurtz.
Christian Towalski, born in and back as a resident of St. Cloud, is the son of a SABR member, which is how he heard of the organization. A technical writer by education, he now works as a copywriter and SEO (search engine optimization) strategist at an advertising agency.
“I’ve been involved in baseball in some form my whole life. I played little league as a kid in Woodbury, Minnesota. I’ve followed both the Twins and the Cubs very closely ever since. I remember attending Twins games at the Metrodome when I was very young, but the earliest game I can remember fully was the Twins vs. The Cardinals on April 2nd, 2010.
“I haven’t witnessed anything particularly notable in-person, but I did watch the Cubs historic 2016 season on TV.”
Christian has a particular interest in all baseball leagues—majors, minors, independent—and is learning more about the historic leagues that have influenced the modern game. He hopes to see a game at all levels, including collegiate summer ball (“Go St. Cloud Rox!”) and needs to carve out time to get to Fargo for an independent-league game.
Christian shares his October 14 birthday with Oscar Charleston, Julian Merryweather, Willie Mays Aikens, Art Shamsky, Tommy Harper, Al Oliver, Willie Mays Aikens, Max Macon, Williams Astudillo, Harry Brecheen, Jimmy Ripple, Joe Start, Tom Cheney, Boof Bonser, Brent Strom, Ed Figueroa, Lori Petty, Black Jack Lanza, C. Everett Koop, e e Cummings, Stephen A. Smith, John Wooden, Dwight Eisenhower, Dwayne Schintzius, Harry Stuhldreher, Kitty Menendez, George Floyd, and Yvon “The Fighting Fisherman” Durelle.
Also new to the Halsey Hall Chapter: Laurel Krahn and Victoria Monte
Our chapter has welcomed 26 new members since June 1, the beginning of the SABR fiscal year reporting period, and now has 193 members.
Know a potential member? Here are resources for getting that person happily involved in SABR:
Membership application
Get more out of your membership experience by checking out SABR Member Benefit Spotlight Series.
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Thought for the Month
“The mouth is quicker than the brain.” —Linus Van Pelt
Be careful of what you measure, and especially what you reward, because after a while that is all you will get.
Non-verbal thought of the month: Tommy Pham says hello to a fan
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A Pitch for the BioProject
The SABR BioProject is a great resource to learn more about players and as a writing opportunity, one that many chapter members have taken advantage of. On the March 27, 2025 SABR-L forum Michael Trzinski wrote of his experiences writing for the project:
I have written 14 SABR bios over the last 3-4 years. I enjoy writing
bios on players that are not considered stars. Everybody knows about
Hank Aaron’s past or can recite the history of Willie Mays. But how many
know about the childhoods of Nyls Nyman or Dave Machemer. Did you know
that Don Rose was included in the Nolan Ryan trade back in 1971? These
are the players I like writing about.
My reason for this post is to ask if any other biographers use the
following methodology. In my process of researching the player, I use
the newspapers.com archives to dig for the player’s history. I print out
anything of interest: game stories, special box scores, pictures of the
player, etc. For the dozen players I have made contact with, I get their
home address and send my research papers to them. Upon receipt, without
exception, all of them called or texted me to thank me for their new
“scrapbook” material. They say stuff like, “I never even saw some of
this stuff,” or “I’m reliving my childhood and minor league past.”
I have also recommended that they use a three-hole punch on the pages
and insert them into a three-ring binder. Instant scrapbook!!
Does anyone else do this? Do you think it is a good idea? The only
downside for me is the cost of postage. But $20 a couple times a year is
not a big deal, really.
I now consider a handful of these players ‘friends.’ A couple of them
call me once a month or so just to shoot the breeze.
Becoming a SABR biographer is a great thing and if you haven’t done a
player bio, you should try it!
Thanks for listening!
Michael says he uses on-line directories to locate players. In the past, the Jack Smalling Address Book was a great source although it appears that this is not published anymore. Baseball Almanac has some addresses and much more.
Consider being a writer for the BioProject or SABR Games projects.
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Cow Pies
Art Mugalian and Bob Komoroski got rarity scores of 0 (the best score) on Immaculate Grid on April 1, both using the same first names for all players and both using all players who were on their favorite teams (Art with the Cubs and Bob with the White Sox).
The Zits comic of April 3 gave a shout out of sorts to the Society for American Baseball Research.
A couple of chapter members were prominent on Jackie Robinson Day. Frank White and Carl Rogan talked about Robinson on the Twins pre-game show, and Carl, grandson of Bullet Rogan, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Twins-Mets game April 15.
Dan Levitt wrote the profile of Chadwick Award recipient Rob Fitts in the Spring 2025 Baseball Research Journal.
It took three generations, but there is finally a Caray I like: St. Louis Cardinals announcer Chip Caray really loves to make 69 references: “Who can forget the day Sonny Gray got to 69 strikeouts away from 1,800 in his career”
The SABR Games Project has new game stories by chapter members:
The April 2025 edition of Keltner’s Hot Corner, the newsletter of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter, is on-line:
Keltner’s Hot Corner, April 2025
Past Keltner’s Hot Corner newsletters:
Keltner’s Hot Corner
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Answers to Sparky Seals’s Short Quiz
- Wee Willie Keeler
- Freddie Patek
- Rabbit Maranville
- Joe Sewell
- Bobby Shantz
- Hack Wilson
- Phil Rizzuto
- Joe Morgan
- Houston Jimenez
- Snuffy Stirnweiss
Theme: Vertically challenged players
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Calendar
May 3—Fred Souba Hot Stove League Saturday Morning, 9:05 a.m., Stanley’s Northeast Bar Room, Minneapolis. Contact John Buckeye for more information.
May 14—
Charlie Vascellaro on last year’s game at Rickwood Field. Joint zoom meeting with the Ken Keltner Chapter. 7:00 p.m. Registration information.
May 26—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
May 30—Townball game at Cologne. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-994-5217.
June 14—Book Club, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball by John W. Miller. Contact Ed Edmonds for more information.
June 16—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
May 26—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
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Board of Directors 2024-2025
President—Ed Edmonds
Vice President—Mike Haupert
Secretary—Daniel Dorff
Treasurer—Rich Arpi
Terry Bohn
John Buckeye
Howard Luloff
Board of Directors 2025-2026
Ed Edmonds
Mike Haupert
Jacob Sayward
Rich Arpi
Terry Bohn
John Buckeye
Howard Luloff
Events Committee Co-Chairs—Howard Luloff, Bob Komoroski
Research Committee Co-Chairs—Dave Lande, Gene Gomes
Membership Committee Co-Chairs—Stew Thornley, John Buckeye
MVP Chapter Committee Chair—Gene Gomes
The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
Ass. Editors—Jerry Janzen, Brenda Himrich, and John Buckeye
Webmaster—John Gregory
Ass. Webmasters—Frank Kadwell, Hans Van Slooten, and Stew Thornley
Social Media Directors—Bob Komoroski, Facebook and Bluesky; Hans Van Slooten, Twitter
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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