January 2001
Blyleven Set for Spring Meeting
New Member: Joel Rippel
Chapter Profiles: Dave Hahn and
Chuck Blomquist
Cow Chips
Hathaway Chips In
Holy Cow Extra to Focus
on Collecting
Chance to See Saints in Winnipeg
Quicksteps Gearing Up
Cool Baseball and Research
Web Sites
Halsey Hall Chapter
Web Site Only 2,630 Hits Behind Musial
January Birthdays
Calendar
Board of Directors
Blyleven Set
for Spring Meeting
Bert Blyleven has agreed to be our featured guest
at the April 28 Spring Chapter Meeting at the United Methodist Church,
950 Gould Avenue in Columbia Heights. (However, if the Twins games are
not televised that weekend, Bert won’t be able to attend. When he does
not have television announcing duties, he usually flies back to his home
in Florida.) Bert will appear at 1:00. This leaves time for research presentations
in the morning as well as a trivia contest or other activities following
Bert�s appearance. A business meeting, which will include the election
of four new directors, will take place sometime during the day. The group
will attend the Twins-Orioles game starting at 6:00 that evening.
Contact Joe O’Connell at 651-776-8093 if you would like to make a research presentation. Tickets for the game are must be ordered by April 14. Send a check for $10 for each ticket to Joe at P. O. Box 600007, St. Paul, Minnesota 55106 (make the check payable to Joe).
Other Upcoming
Events:
Hot Stove League Meeting
The 2001 Hot Stove League Meeting—featuring free
food, fine conversation, and a Dead or Alive quiz—will take place on Saturday
night, January 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Julian H. Sleeper House, 66 St. Albans
Street S. in St. Paul.
Twins Fest
The Halsey Hall Chapter is planning on having a
table at Twins Fest at the Metrodome on February 3 and 4. This is always
a good opportunity to meet people and get some exposure for SABR and the
Halsey Hall Chapter. Contact Cary Smith at 952-471-9357 if you would like
to help staff the table.
Hot Stove Saturday Morning
The December Hot Stove Saturday Morning breakfast
drew eight members to the Baker’s Square in Richfield. The next get together
will be at the same spot on February 10, one week later than the usual
first Saturday to avoid a conflict with Twins Fest.
New Member:
Joel Rippel
A native of Trimont, Minnesota, Joel Rippel is a
news assistant in the sports department at the Star Tribune, Newspaper
of the Twin Cities. He saw his first major league game when he was
14 and, as a newspaper employee, has been to thousands more since then.
He spent five years writing on minor league baseball for the Orange County
Register in California and recently helped local sports author Ross Bernstein
with the editing on his latest book, Pigskin Pride. Joel also wrote
several stories on Joe DiMaggio, who was stationed in Orange County during
World War II and played on the base team. Joel shared some of his stories
with Richard Ben Cramer when Cramer was working on his just-released book
on DiMaggio. A couple of other notable things about Joel: He has been to
all 50 states, and he shares a birthday with Halsey Hall.
Directory Information and Update
Joel A. Rippel
1818 14th Avenue S., #57
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404
h) 612-874-9088
w) 612-673-4447
E-mail: joelrippel@hotmail.com
Lee Temanson and Dan Levitt have new e-mail addresses.
Lee: lateman843@aol.com
Dan: danrl@attglobal.net
Chapter Profiles: Dave Hahn and Chuck Blomquist
Chuck Blomquist was born October 27, 1933 in Rockford, Illinois. He was raised in the area and grew up as a fan of the Chicago Cubs as well as the Rockford Peaches in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. “My cousin played in the minors for the Cubs back in the thirties. I well remember the excitement and then big disappointment of the 1945 Cubs vs. Tigers World Series. I was in junior high at the time, and they would interrupt class to give the scores.” Chuck got to watch Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, Swish Nicholson and also remembers Lou Boudreau’s 1948 Indians with Early Wynn, Bob Lemon, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige. “But my fondest memory is of that very brief pause after Gaetti’s throw to Hrbek to end Game 7 of the 1987 World Series.”
Chuck has a strong interest in Rockford baseball history and intends to do something about that interest, including visiting Ross Barnes’s grave when he goes to Rockford again next spring. Chuck also collects pins from minor league teams and thinks “my Salt Lake Buzz pin just became a collector’s item.”
Chuck has a Ph.D in biochemistry and directs a research laboratory in reproductive endocrinology at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. He’s also an associate professor of obstetrics/gynecology at the University of Minnesota medical school.
A lifelong interest in illustrating baseball and an enduring love of the St. Louis Browns are Dave Hahn’s legacies of growing up in St. Louis in the 1940s and 1950s. “My whole family were fans,” he explains, “and with two teams in town, either the Cardinals or Browns were discussed daily. My dad and I were outnumbered but survived many seasons of grief as Brownie fans in an era of great Cardinal teams. I now look back with great sadness on the loss of the Browns but with a feeling of fondness for fabulous Cardinal teams of Marion, choendienst, Musial, Slaughter, and Brecheen.”
Dave saw his first game—Browns vs. Tigers—in 1945 at the age of eight and then started drawing ballplayers. “It was those creamy white Brownie uniforms with brown and orange piping against the infield dirt and worn grass that has hooked me to this day.” As a fan, Dave was on hand to see Dizzy Dean come out of the broadcast booth to pitch the final game of the 1947 season for the Browns, Jackie Robinson lead the Dodgers to the pennant that same season (“The Cardinal fans were livid,” he recalls), and Ned Garver win his 20th game for the last-place Browns in 1951.
About 15 years ago, Dave began illustrating for the Browns Fan Club; when the Cardinals decided to include the Browns in their Hall of Fame, several of Dave’s illustrations ended up in the Hall along with a line drawing of all members of the 1944 pennant-winning team. “Needless to say, I was thrilled to see my work exhibited in such a place.”
Dave, who has lived in the Minneapolis area since 1963, retired last July after 44 years as an illustrator and art director. He and Virginia, married 37 years, have two children and five grandchildren. Dave’s mom and dad, both 95, are still alive, and, Dave adds, “You should hear their baseball stories!”
Cow Chips
Jerry Janzen went to the Fargo-Moorhead Beez
season opener in the International Basketball Association. The Beez beat
the Des Moines Dragons. . . . Cary Smith went to Omaha for Thanksgiving.
. . . Howard Luloff is now in his sixth season of doing the public-address
announcing for the basketball teams at Trinity High School. . . . George
Rekela is going to Florida to see the Gophers football team play North
Carolina State in the Micronpc.com Bowl. . . . . Ray Luurs, George Rekela,
Joel Rippel, and your scribe met Jim Bouton in late November
during the Bulldog’s book tour for Ball Four: The Final Pitch. .
. . Brenda Himrich accompanied her husband to New York to do publicity
for his book on the Polo Grounds. New York SABR member Evelyn Begley
also joined them for a day of graveyard hunting in New Jersey, Delaware,
and the Philadelphia area.
Several Halsey Hall Chapter members were on hand
to see, hear, and meet Jim Bouton at the downtown Minneapolis Barnes &
Noble on November 24. Bouton told the group that he has now written the
final edition of Ball Four. “There will not be a Geezer edition,”
he promised.
Hathaway Chips
In
A Halsey Hall Chapter member is a major contributor
to the newest SABR publication, a handy booklet titled, How to Do Baseball
Research. Ted Hathaway wrote the chapter on “Using the Computer for
Baseball Research.” A librarian with the Minneapolis Public Library, Ted
has spoken on this subject at chapter meetings and has been a great resource
for many members
Holy Cow Extra
to Focus on Collecting
The focus of the next Holy Cow Extra will
be collecting and will feature articles by Kevin Hennessy, Lee Temanson,
Mark Johnson, and Bob Evans.
Editor Bob Tholkes will distribute the Extra to those present at the Hot Stove League meeting on January 27 and mail the remainder to those who aren’t there.
Chance to See
Saints in Winnipeg
Don Hunt, a SABR member in Winnipeg, invites Halsey
Hall Chapter members to venture to his city for baseball and other adventures.
Don points out that the St. Paul Saints are in town to play the Winnipeg
Goldeyes the weekend of June 22-24. If you are interested in attending
or organizing a group of chapter members to go to Winnipeg, contact Don
at 204-235-1721 or via e-mail at Don_Hunt@excite.com.
Quicksteps
Gearing Up
The Quicksteps 19th-century re-creation base ball
team is getting ready for another season, according to organizer Bob Tholkes,
who is back after a one-year hiatus. Bob reports that the schedule is still
in the formative stages, but that the nine is seeking “a mixture of old
and new venues for two dates per month from May through September.”
The Quicksteps have an inviation from Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa, to play their nine, the Walnut Hill Bluestockings. An amateur team, the Litchfield Blues, is interested in an event in conjunction with the Litchfield Watercade festival on July 7-8.
Cool Baseball
and Research Web Sites
Minneapolis Public Library Newspaper and Magazine
Search: www.mpls.lib.mn.us/catalog/database.asp
All-Time Statistics and Rosters: cnnsi.com/baseball/mlb/all_time_stats/index.html
Jim Bouton and Ball Four: www.ballfourbook.com/index.shtml
Baseball Online Library: www.sportsline.com/u/baseball/bol/index.html
Newspapers in the United States: www.newspapers.com/npcom1.htm
Baseball in the Virgin Islands: members.aol.com/vibaseball
Society for American Baseball Research: www.sabr.org
Major League Baseball: www.majorleaguebaseball.com
Web Sites of SABR Members: www.sabr.org/links.shtml
Minor League Baseball: www.minorleaguebaseball.com
Santurce Cangrejeros: www.santurcebaseballclub.com
S. Thornley List of Baseball Hall of Famer Graves: www.tc.umn.edu/~thorn017/halloffame_graves.html
Babe Ruth Museum: www.baberuthmuseum.com
Baseball Hall of Fame: baseballhalloffame.org
Baseball Almanac: baseball-almanac.com
New York Times: www.nytimes.com
Minnesota Twins: twinsbaseball.com
Ballparks: www.ballparks.com
Library of Congress: www.loc.gov
Reference Desk: www.refdesk.com
Baseball America: www.baseballamerica.com
Total Baseball: www.totalbaseball.com
J. Skilton’s Baseball Links: www.baseball-links.com/
Halsey
Hall Chapter Web Site Only 2,630 Hits Behind Musial
The Halsey Hall Chapter web site—started several
years ago by John Gregory and now administered by Cary Smith—racked up
its 1,000th hit recently, with a little help from a friendly chapter member.
“I pulled up the Halsey Hall web site and saw that I was the 999th hit,” said Lee Temanson. “So naturally I logged out and came back on again so I can say I was the 1,000th.”
Members can help the web site get a good start to its 2,000th hit by logging in at: member.aol.com/halseyhall/Home.html
January Birthdays
4—Kevin Hennessy (also Charlie
Manuel, Daryl Boston, Tito Fuentes, Twinkletoes Selkirk, Herman Franks,
Al Bridwell, Oscar Vitt, and Tommy Corcoran)
7—Lee Temanson (also Bob Gorinski,
Ross Grimsley, Tony Conigliaro, Joe Keough, Jim Lefebvre, Johnny Mize,
Alvin Dark, Kenny Loggins, and Millard Fillmore)
10—John McNeil (also Willie McCovey,
Chick Stahl, Harry Wright, Kelvin Torve, Richard Dotson, Chuck Dobson,
Jim O’Toole, Jim Croce, and Linda Lovelace)
11—R. J. Lesch (also Silver King,
Max Carey, Don Mossi, Elmer Flick, Schoolboy Rowe, Ben Crenshaw, Darryl
Dawkins, and Alexander Hamilton)
17—Glenn Gostick and Alan Holst
(also Pete LaCock, Arnold Rothstein, Don Zimmer, Chili Davis, Darrell Porter,
Hank Leiber, Muhammad Ali, Ben Franklin, Mark Littell, Darrell Porter,
Lum Harris, Mayo Smith, and Al Capone)
January 27—Hot Stove League Meeting, 7:30 p.m., Julian H. Sleeper House, St. Paul
February 3-4—Twins Fest, Metrodome
February 10—Hot Stove Saturday Morning, 8:30 a.m., Baker’s Square, 66th and Xerxes, Richfield
April 28—Spring Chapter Meeting, United Methodist Church, Columbia Heights
Halsey Hall Chapter
Board of Directors 2000-01
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
Holy Cow Extra Editor—Bob Tholkes
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