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The Newsletter of the Halsey Hall Chapter
Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)


January 2021

Editor:
Stew Thornley

Index to past stories in The Holy Cow!

  • Spring Virtual Chapter Meeting May 8
  • Who Pitched the Second-Most No-Hit Innings in a Game?
  • New Members
  • Saints and Twins Closest Ever?
  • Cow Pies
  • Thought for the Month
  • Calendar
  • Board of Directors
  • Resources

    Spring Virtual Chapter Meeting May 8
    The Halsey Hall Chapter spring meeting will be held on-line on Saturday, May 8 (which is also the birthday of extinguished chapter member Mike Haupert as well as Turkey Stearnes, Bigg Edd Roush, Admiral Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter, and Son of Sam victim Christine Freund) from 9:30 a.m. to noon. A link will be sent to all chapter members before the meeting. Members may begin gathering on the site at 9:00 to chat.

    Two research presentations have been approved:

    • Ed Wehling on baseball jerseys
    • Joe Niese on Zack Wheat

    One presentation slot will be reserved for a first-time presenter until four weeks before the chapter meeting (April 10). New, never-before-presenting presenters are highly encouraged to present and may submit a proposal to any member of the Research Committee: Brenda Himrich, Sarah Johnson, Dan Levitt, Jim Cox, Doug Skipper, Stew Thornley, Rich Arpi, Dave Lande, Anders Koskinen, Hans Van Slooten, Gene Gomes, Ed Wehling, Mike Haupert, and Bob Tholkes.

    The business meeting will include the election of four members to two-year terms on the board of directors. Any member interested in running may contact Dave Lande.

    Other Events
    The Research Committee will meet on Zoom January 11 and February 8 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Anyone wanting to participate may contact co-chairs Brenda Himrich or Stew Thornley, 651-415-0791.

    The Halsey Hall Chapter Book Club will meet virtually Saturday, February 6 (which is Babe Ruth’s birthday) at 9:30 a.m. The book selection is Pouring Six Beers at a Time and Other Stories from a Lifetime in Baseball by Bill Giles.

    Brent Heutmaker has organized a list of all the book selections since the book club started in August 2002: Halsey Hall Book Club Selections

    The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be on hold for a while, either until it is safe to gather indoors again or nice enough to meet outdoors.

    Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:

    SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page

    Halsey Hall Chapter Twitter page

    Please visit both pages, and, if you haven’t yet, “Like” the Facebook page and “Follow” the Twitter page and set your notifications to be alerted to new posts.

    Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:

    SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page

    Halsey Hall Chapter Twitter page

    Please visit both pages, and, if you haven’t yet, “Like” the Facebook page and “Follow” the Twitter page and set your notifications to be alerted to new posts.

    Also:

    Regular Events

    Video Archives of Past Events

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    Who Pitched the Second-Most No-Hit Innings in a Game?
    Who threw the second-most hitless innings to start a game? He is one of six different pitchers (who did it seven times) to start a game with at least 10 hitless innings. Who are the others?

    For the answers, see:

    Lost in the Ninth: No-Hitters Broken Up in the Ninth Inning 1871-1960

    Here is a companion page to one with a list of all no-hitters broken up in the ninth inning since 1961:

    Lost in the Ninth: No-Hitters Broken Up in the Ninth Inning Since 1961

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    New Members
    Carol Castle grew up in Minneapolis listening to her dad read Bill Veeck stories at bedtime. She played and read baseball, and her most notable baseball moments are when the Twins have done well.

    Carol had two kids, a son who died three years ago and a daughter who lives in Indiana. She founded Wrestling 4 Life, a program within the Minnesota Wrestling Hall of Fame dedicated to stopping the suicide epidemic of first responders, and Life Coins, a mission to put a Life Coin in the pocket of every first responder in the country.

    She spends her time reading old baseball books, gardening when possible, working with her dogs, and traveling to different law enforcement agencies speaking and teaching about the Life Coins.

    Carol learned about SABR through Facebook and is excited for when she will be able to join in-person events.

    Carol shares her January 19 birthday with Chick Gandil, Rich Gale, Jon Matlack, Dolly Stark, Byung-Hyun Kim, Phil Nevin, Anthony Young, Brad Mills, Chris Sabo, Robert E. Lee, Dolly Parton, Ed Allan Poe, Tippi Hedrin, Junior Seau, Joe Kelly (World War II general, not the whiny pitcher with the Dodgers), Janis Joplin, Shelley Fabares, Hopalong Hannigan, Minnesota Fats, and Bart the Bear.

    Also new to the Halsey Hall Chapter: Mike Klingensmith and Erik Sjogren

    Free student memberships available: SABR, at its 2019 End of Year Campaign, pledged to donate 10 percent of all member gifts back to the Chapters the donors are affiliated with in the form of free student memberships. Halsey Hall Chapter members donated more than $2,800 during the campaign, resulting in 11 free student SABR memberships. The chapter has committed to pay for four additional student memberships if that many are interested.

    Know a potential member? Here are resources for getting that person happily involved in SABR:

    Membership application

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    Saints and Twins Closest Ever?
    The question has come up as to whether the Twins and Saints will become the closest major-league parent and top farm team in history in 2021. The distance from CHS Field in St. Paul to Target Field in Minneapolis has been measured as 10.4 miles. Were the distances between the Polo Grounds and Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City or Yankee Stadium and Bears/Ruppert Stadium in Newark closer (when the New York Giants had Jersey City and the New York Yankees had Newark as a top affiliate)? Prompted by the offer of a beer from a Halsey Hall Chapter member, Dan Cichalski of Clifton, New Jersey, and his wife drove the shortest routes between these ball park sites. Yankee Stadium to their former farm team’s park in Newark was 18.4 miles; the distance from the Polo Grounds to where the Giants’ top affiliate used to play was 16.4 miles. Dan wrote up the journeys in a blog:

    With Clubs in NJ, the Yankees and Giants Kept Their Top Affiliates Close

    It has been pointed out that in 1914 and 1915 the Cleveland teams of the American League and American Association both played at League Park in Cleveland. If this was considered to be a parent-affiliate relationship, it would make it the shortest distance (0). Both Cleveland teams had the same owner, who could transfer players back and forth, although scholars can debate if it was really an arrangement comparable to the working relationships between major- and minor-league teams today.

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    Cow Pies
    Two chapter members (including Frank White with They Played for the Love of the Game: Untold Stories of Black Baseball in Minnesota) made the Minnesota Monthly list of 10 Must-Read Minnesota Sports Books From the Past Decade.

    The first batch of game stories from SABR’s Babe Ruth book have been put on the web site, including these:

    July 9, 1920: Bambino Homers on Babe Ruth Day at the Polo Grounds and June 13, 1921: Ruth’s Yankees Knock Out Cobb’s Tigers as Babe Reaches Polo Grounds Bleachers by T. S. Flynn.

    Mike Haupert and Steve Smith also have articles in the Babe Ruth book.

    Here is one from the First Games Back project of the SABR Games Project:

    July 28, 2020: Twins Highlight George Floyd and Racial Justice in Home Opener

    And two from the SABR BioProject: Ralph Bell by Terry Bohn and Andy Oyler.

    The Fall 2020 edition of the newsletter of the SABR Business of Baseball Committee is available for downloading: Outside the Lines. It contains two articles by Mike Haupert—one a history of the Chicago Cubs franchise in the 19th Century and the other on the birth of the Negro League— and an update on the team employee directory, a project headed by Dan Levitt.

    The December 2020 newsletter of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter of SABR is now available for downloading: Keltner’s Hot Corner. It contains the usual good stuff such as a Sabermetrics Primer by Dave Weller and recaps and links to recent chapter Zoom meetings with an official scorer and with Tom Flanagan, vice president of minor league operations for the Milwaukee Brewers.

    Bob Kendrick speaking to the New York Giants Preservation Society December 16, 2020

    A number of chapter members, including Daniel Dorff, Dan Levitt, Brenda Himrich, and Tom Flynn, were part of the December 16 Zoom meeting of the New York Giants Preservation Society, which serendipitously had scheduled Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick as the speaker. Kendrick’s topic was going to be the museum and the New York Giants, but the focus changed after the announcement earlier in the day that the Negro Leagues would be recognized as major leagues. Kendrick was still able to devote an hour-and-a-half for the group even though he was in demand from media outlets across the country. “Major League Baseball today started the process of rewriting American history,” said Kendrick, who interspersed stories about players from Lou Brock to Josh Gibson (“Imagine Bo Jackson as a catcher. That’s Josh Gibson.”) with a summary of planned activities for the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues. The celebrations got derailed by the pandemic, including a trip to Indianapolis to commemorate the first Negro League game and the placement of a new gravestone for Oscar Charleston. A “Tip Your Cap” day in June, with all current players tipping their caps to the Negro Leagues, was canceled since baseball wasn’t happening then. Kendrick turned it into a virtual tip your cap as many celebrities—including all four living ex-presidents—took a picture or video of them tipping their caps. (See Tipping Your Cap.) A video of the meeting is online: New York Giants Preservation Society meeting of December 16, 2020

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    Thought for the Month
    The essential mystery of baseball—what goes on between pitcher and batter—remains forever hidden in plain sight.

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    Calendar
        January 11—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Brenda Himrich, 651-415-0791.

       February 6Book Club via Zoom, 9:30 a.m., Pouring Six Beers at a Time and Other Stories from a Lifetime in Baseball by Bill Giles.

        February 8—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Brenda Himrich, 651-415-0791.

        May 8—Fall Virtual Chapter Meeting, 9:30 a.m. (with social at 9:00). For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.

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    Board of Directors 2020-2021
    President—Dave Lande
    Vice President—Hans Van Slooten
    Secretary—Anders Koskinen
    Treasurer—Jerry Janzen
    Jim Cox
    Gene Gomes
    Frank Kadwell

    Events Committee Chair—Howard Luloff
    Research Committee Co-Chairs and Co-Chair-in-waiting—Brenda Himrich, Stew Thornley, Gene Gomes
    Membership Committee Chair—Frank Kadwell

    The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
    Webmaster—John Gregory 
    Ass. Webmasters—Frank Kadwell, Hans Van Slooten, and Stew Thornley
    Social Media Directors—Tom Flynn, Twitter; Bob Komoroski, Facebook

    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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