November 2000
Fall Chapter Meeting
Buckland Snares Palmeiro's 399th
Book News
New Member: Deano Thilgen
Cow Chips
Directory Updates and Corrections
November Birthdays
Calendar
Board of Directors
Fall Chapter Meeting
More than 20 members attended the Halsey Hall Chapter fall meeting at the Fairview Community Center in Roseville. The featured guest was Rob Malec, the former play-by-play announcer for the Fort Myers Miracle in the Florida State League and now a Twins account executive. Rob talked about attending the winter baseball meetings and landing an unpaid job
pre- and post-game shows in New Britain, Connecticut, which got him started on the road to Fort Myers and eventually to the Twins.
Stew Thornley (A Demonstration of Probability Fluctuation) and Jim Wyman (20-Triple Seasons) made research presentations. On the heels of Cristian Guzman’s 20-triple season with the Twins, Jim pointed out that there have been as many 60+ home run seasons as there have been 20+ triple seasons in the majors since 1949. In Dan Levitt’s trivia quiz, the team of Thornley and Cary Smith prevailed in the finals over Wyman and Mark Johnson.
Buckland Snares Palmeiro's 399th
Perched in the Metrodome’s near-empty upper deck in right field on September 19, Fred Buckland retrieved a home run ball hit by Texas’s Rafael Palmeiro in the third inning. It was the 399th home run of Palmeiro’s career, tying him with Al Kaline for 32nd on the all-time list. Since it was a milestone, Palmeiro wanted the ball back. In the last of the third, a Twins rep approached Fred and asked if he’d exchange the ball for a bat autographed by Palmeiro. “I had never gotten a home run ball before,” says Fred, “but it was still more important to him [Palmeiro] than to me.” Fred made the swap. He didn’t have a chance at number 400, though; Palmeiro was pulled for a pinch-hitter his next time up and did not come to the plate again in the series.
Other Notable Member Achievements in 2000
Mark Johnson attended 76 Twins games this past season, enough to earn him a team jacket through the Twins’ Rewards Program. Mark also got a jersey when he was named one of the team’s nine all-time fans in August. On another occasion, he won merchandise for getting the correct answer during one of the between-inning quizzes.
Cary Smith did the cybercasting of 35 Twins games for Total Sports as well as three games of the Big Ten Baseball Tournament at Siebert Field.
S. Thornley made it to 84 games this season—67 of them in the Metrodome. He also made it to regular-season games in Tokyo, Florida, New York (Yankee Stadium), Detroit, Cleveland, and Seattle as well as the All-Star Game in Atlanta and a spring training game in Japan.
Seth C. “Dr. Fan” Hawkins got to the new ballparks that opened this year (in Houston, San Francisco, and Detroit) as well as the series between the Mets and Cubs at the Tokyo Dome. As for milestones, Seth was present for Cal Ripken’s 3,000th hit.
Rich Arpi and Joe O’Connell attended the final two games at County Stadium in Milwaukee.
Book News
Roger Godin has acquired a publisher for his book on the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers football team. Scarecrow Press of Lanham, Maryland, will publish the book in 2001. Roger’s first book, The 1922 St. Louis Browns: Best of the American League’s Worst, was published in 1991. Roger, the team curator for the Minnesota Wild, also had a monograph of the 1935-36 St. Paul Saints hockey team published in the recently released second-edition of Total Hockey.
A party for the publication of Land of the Giants: New York’s Polo Grounds will be held at the Himrich-Thornley home (1082 Lovell Avenue, Roseville, 651-415-0791) at 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 18. Copies of Land of the Giants will be available at the author’s price. To reserve a copy, contact Thornley at the above number or via e-mail at thorn017@tc.umn.edu.
New Member: Deano Thilgen
Dean “Deano” Thilgen—the newest member of the Halsey Hall Chapter—works for the Minnesota Historical Society and is also the production manager at Valley History Press in Stillwater. Dean researches local history topics of the late 19th century, specializing in railroad history, and has been nominated to the board of the Washington County Historical Society (with the election coming up on November 2).
Deano grew up watching the Twins. “My dad used to get free tickets, and we’d go once a year. My interest in the game has changed considerably. I am learning how the game became the ‘National Pastime’ and the game of choice at the start of the 20th century.” Deano stopped playing baseball when he was 9 but picked it up again, this time with the vintage variety of 1860 base ball, 25 years later. He is now the manager of the St. Croix Base Ball Club and chair of the Vintage Base Ball Association Education and Interpretation Committee.
In addition to his other talents, Deano is an active genealogist and a past director of the Minnesota Genealogical Society.
Directory Information
Dean Thilgen
1687 Century Circle, #215
Woodbury, Minnesota 55125
651-702-9677
anderso3@augsburg.edu
Cow Chips
Chuck Blomquist and his wife, Joyce, took a trip out west recently. They drove on a section of Route 66, visited the Truman Home and Museum in Independence, Missouri, and stopped by the ballpark in Wichita, Kansas, and the new Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark on Mickey Mantle Way in Oklahoma City. “We couldn’t stay for the game,” says Chuck, “but we got to wander around the park a little. It’s beautiful.” . . . Kevin Hennessy went to Chicago and saw the opening playoff game between the White Sox and Mariners. In the restroom at Midway Airport, he also ran into Ron Coomer, who commented on his Twins jacket. . . . Mark Johnson attended a talk by Dave Pallone at Augsburg College and had a chance to chat with the former umpire after the program.
Directory Updates and Corrections
Jerry Janzen—jjanzen@mn.rr.com (replaces the “gowebway” address) and 612-868-2690 (which replaces the second phone number listed for him in the directory)
Paul Rittenhouse—home e-mail address (the second one listed) should be rittfam4@aol.com.
Glenn Poser—gposer@usfamily.com
Jed Levitt—jdlhstld@aol.com
November Birthdays
10—Nancy Jo Leachman (also Cal Ermer, Norm Cash, Jack Clark, Larry Parrish, Bob Stanley, Shawn Green, Butch Huskey, Kenny Rogers, Paul Thormodsgard, and Claude Rains)
12—Charles Manson (also Carl Mays, Homer Bush, Sammy Sosa, Greg Gagne, Jody Davis, and Bruce Bochte)
Calendar
November 18—Land of the Giants Publication Party, 7:00 p.m., 1082 Lovell, Roseville
December 2—Hot Stove Saturday Morning, 8:30 a.m., Baker’s Square, 66th and Xerxes, Richfield
Halsey Hall Chapter
Board of Directors 1999-2000
President—Joe O’Connell
Vice President—Cary Smith
Secretary—Rich Arpi
Treasurer—Kevin Hennessy
Dan Levitt
Bob Tholkes
Jim Wyman
Webmaster—Cary Smith
The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
Please direct news about chapter events, about
yourself or about other chapter members to:
S. Thornley
1082 Lovell Avenue
Roseville, Minnesota 55113-4419
E-mail Stew Thornley
http://member.aol.com/halseyhall/Home.html