Resources
Ed Edmonds Elected President for 2024-2025
Ed Edmonds was elected Halsey Hall Chapter president for 2024-2025, Mike Haupert vice president, Daniel Dorff secretary, and Rich Arpi treasurer. The other board members for the coming year are Terry Bohn, John Buckeye, and Howard Luloff.
Ed is a Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Notre Dame. He previously taught sports law and served as the library director at three other law schools, William & Mary, Loyola New Orleans, and St. Thomas in Minnesota. Before moving to Minnesota a few years ago, Ed had been a regular presenter at sports analytics conferences in the Twin Cities.
A list of board members, dead members, and chapter meetings is at Halsey Hall Chapter: Officers and History.
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Townball on Tap
Howard Luloff led a group outing for a townball game in Howard Lake (no relation to Howard Luloff), and another townball trip is coming up: Winona at Owatonna at Dartt’s Park (429 Mineral Springs Road, Owatonna 55060), at 1:00 p.m. Sunday, June 30. Prospective member (and a member of the stat crew for the St. Paul Saints) Jacob Meiners plays for Owatonna. Food is available, but people will have to sneak in their own beer.
Another chapter outing will be a Northwoods League game in Rochester on Saturday, July 13. The game is at 6:35 p.m. with a pre-game gathering at Brothers Bar & Grill (812 Broadway Avenue South, Rochester 55904) at 4:00 p.m. at which members will be able to meet and masticate with Honkers broadcaster Kyle Traynor, who will regale us with tales of our his regular job stinks and that he loves baseball for the smell of fresh-cut grass. For more information, contact Stew Thornley.
Other Upcoming Events
The next Research Committee meetings, via Zoom, will be July 15 and August 19 at 7:00 p.m. 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, Anders Koskinen, 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, and Bob Komoroski. Let Dave or Gene know if you would like to attend and/or join the committee.
Join other baseball buffs for a viewing party of the All-Star Game Tuesday, July 16 at 7:00 p.m. at Manning’s at 22nd and Como in southeast Minneapolis.
The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball will be at Manning’s on Saturday, July 20 at 9:00 a.m.
The next Book Club meeting will be Saturday, August 17 at Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall at 9:30 a.m. The book selection is Leave While the Party’s Good: The Life and Legacy of Baseball Executive Harry Dalton by Lee Kluck. 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 Fall Chapter Meeting will be Saturday, November 2 at Faith Mennonite Church, 2720 E. 22nd Street in south Minneapolis. Registration begins around 8:15 a.m. with the program beginning at 8:45. The cost for the meeting and lunch is $10. People can pay by cash (with correct change appreciated) or check at the door.
The day will follow the usual format with research presentations in the morning and a featured guest or guest in the afternoon with a trivia quiz by Howard Luloff to wrap it up.
Members are invited to submit a proposal to make a research presentation at the meeting. Proposals may be sent to Research Committee co-chairs Dave Lande or Gene Gomes and include a title and brief outline of what the presentation will consist of with emphasis on the research that will be included. Standard oral presentations are 20 minutes (with an additional eight minutes for questions) although the duration may be longer or shorter depending on the needs of the presenter and of the schedule.
One presentation slot is always reserved for a first-time presenter until four weeks before the chapter meeting (October 5). If a slot remains after that, any member can submit a proposal until October 19, two weeks before the meeting, when the Research Committee will wrap up the schedule of presentations.
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. (The Facebook page now has 296 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, trollers, and other degenerates.)
Also:
Regular Events
Video Archives of Past Events
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SABR 52
The SABR Convention is back in Minneapolis, from Wednesday, August 7 to Sunday, August 11, at the Hyatt Regency, 1300 Nicollet Mall. The Core Four (John Buckeye, Daniel Dorff, Gene Gomes, and a retread) encourages members to indicate your interest to be a volunteer by sending a note to Jessica Smyth, jsmyth@sabr.org. We can use people during the day on Tuesday, August 6 to assemble swag bags at the hotel (Hyatt Regency at 13th and Nicollet). During the convention, warm bodies are needed for a whole plethora-load of things: greeters, timekeepers for researcher presentations, staffers at the registration table. Let Jessica know if you have a particular interest in any of those things or if you’re up for anything.
Jeff Nelson, Tim Tschida, and Emma Charlesworth-Seiler will be on a panel of umpires, and another panel will have four Hall of Famers: Rod Carew, Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva, and Bert Blyleven (the latter two also former chapter featured guests). Frank White will moderate a panel on Black baseball with Pete Gorton, Todd Peterson, and Carl Rogan. Other speakers and panelists include Hans Van Slooten, Kris Atteberry, LaTroy Hawkins, Josh Kolk, Thad Levine, Ed Gein, Glen Perkins, Hans Van Slooten, Derek Falvey, Josh Ruffin, Dave St. Peter, Derek Sharrer, Sierra Bailey, Tom Whaley, Evan Drellich, and Adam Platt.
The highlight of special guests, however, may be Melissa Ludtke, a pioneer among women’s sportswriters and the principal in a successful 1970s lawsuit against Major League Baseball for equal access to baseball locker rooms. She has been a regular presenter, via Zoom, at Lou Schiff’s annual Baseball and the Law course, which has and has had several Halsey Hall SABR Chapter members as instructors. Melissa has a book, Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside, coming out in mid-August, and the publisher is providing her with some copies to sell at the convention. She will be speaking at the Women in Baseball Committee meeting from noon to 1 on Friday, August 9. Don’t miss it.
During the convention, the attendees will have a choice between a tour of Target Field or a St. Paul Saints game, which will feature a tour of the Saints’ City of Baseball museum and a pre-game meeting with the game’s official scorer, Sarah Johnson. For those hanging around until Sunday, there will be an outing to a townball game in Cologne. Drivers may be needed to pick up and drop off conventioneers at the hotel.
Registration for the convention is now open.
Also, Gene Gomes has arranged to have Curt Brown of the Star Tribune to write a column on Walter Ball in his Sunday history column prior to the convention and will promote the event and the Black baseball panel.
The Halsey Hall Chapter has hosted the convention in 1988 and 2012 and both were big hits. For a blast from the past, check out information on the 2012 convention:
SABR 42 in Minneapolis, 2012
Handouts from the 2012 convention have been updated and are available on-line:
Minneapolis and St. Paul Ballpark Sites (one-pager)
Twin Cities Ballparks (full booklet)
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Bob Komoroski’s Guess the Theme Quiz
The June Research Committee meeting included a quiz with two themes submitted by Ed Edmonds.
- He was a journeyman infielder for four MLB teams. Under his watch, the Dodgers developed five Rookies of the Year, claimed six MVP Awards, and won five Cy Young Awards. This Dodger executive served as the team’s executive Vice President and General Manager, and presided over the successful 1968 Dodger draft, considered by many to be the most successful in team history.
- This player was one of the few MLB players killed in combat during World War I. Although he also played for Philadelphia (N.L.) and Cincinnati, the N.Y. Giants erected a monument at the Polo Grounds dedicated to his memory in 1921.
- This first baseman and World War II veteran had a rather short career playing for the Red Sox and Phillies over four full major league seasons. Although he would later be known as a long-time successful college coach, he secured his place in baseball’s labor- and veteran’s rights-struggles when he successfully challenged the Philadelphia Phillies move to demote him to the Pacific Coast League in violation of the G.I. Bill of Rights that promised returning veterans their old jobs.
- This HOF second baseman had a 24-year career for the White Sox and Athletics. In 1925, he became just the sixth player to join the 3000 hit-club and the last for the next 17 seasons.
- This player is best known for knocking in the winning run of the seventh game of the 1991 World Series.
- This outfielder played for the Phillies, Cubs and Rangers. He was known for his exceptional defense having attained double-digit assists three times in his career. He also ended his career going 293 consecutive games without an error. He has also contributed guest columns to the New York Times, ESPN, and other publications.
- He was a 12th round-pick by the S.F. Giants in 1977. He was traded to the K.C. Royals along with Vida Blue in 1982. He died from an infection brought on by complications from a stem cell transplant.
- Despite having a career losing record, this workhorse pitcher played on six MLB teams including three World Series-championship teams. On September 3, 1928 he surrendered Ty Cobb’s final career hit. He is probably best known for throwing the pitch that hit Tiger’s catcher Mickey Cochrane in the head. The pitch fractured Cochrane’s skull and ended his career. Following his retirement, he became a Boston radio and TV broadcaster for the Boston Braves, Red Sox and Bruins.
- A 1987 draft pick, this former MLB catcher played for four different teams and has also managed the L.A. Angels and the Israeli national team.
Extra innings:
- This Washington Senators pitcher, the first overall pick in the 1971 draft, was only the fifth player to go straight to the major leagues after being drafted without spending a day in the minors.
- This two-time Twin had a 12-year career and was on the pitching staff of the 2013 World Series champion Boston Red Sox.
Answers below
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Plugging for Plaques
A commemorative marker for the Aberdeen Pheasants was erected at Aberdeen Municipal Stadium, where the pheasants played from 1946 to 1971. Jim Palmer, Mark Belanger, Danny Yaccarino, Bob Turley, Andy Etchebarren, Alonzo Bumbry, Bo Belinsky, Dave Nicholson, Dick Coggins, Tito Francona, Don Larsen, and Earl Weaver played for and/or managed the Pheasants during this time. The SABR Local Grant program helped to fund the marker. [Who remembers Danny Yaccarino and why his pre-professional career is more prominent? Answer somewhere below.]
The Halsey Hall Chapter may be applying for a SABR Local Grant for a marker at St. Paul’s Downtown Ballpark (aka The Pillbox). A chapter member who now works on the site is trying to get permission from the state of Minnesota to have such a marker installed. Frank White is assisting. The Pillbox was used by the white St. Paul Saints and the St. Paul Colored Gophers between 1903 and 1910.
Below is a now-and-then diagram of the site followed by an interior photo of the capitol rotunda and a picture of fuzzy-looking chapter members in front of a plaque it funded for Lexington Park in St. Paul.
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New Member Theo Tollefson
Theo Tollefson is from Burnsville and has two parents and one sister. He is a journalist working his way full-time in the “complicated word of baseball beat writing.” He attended his first game in 2003 at the Metrodome—Twins vs. Brewers—and was more concerned over how many hot dogs he could eat than the outcome of the game. As far as milestone events he has attended, Kyle Gibson’s major-league debut tops the list.
Born February 15, 1999—the same date as Esteury Ruiz—Theo shares a birthday with Sliding Billy Hamilton, Carlton Molesworth, Russell Martin, Johnny Cueto, Larry Yount, George Earnshaw, Jimmy Ring, Jane Seymour, Galileo Galilei, Chris Farley, Susan B. Anthony, Matt Groening, Miep Gies, Alex Borstein, Harvey Korman, John Hadl, John Barrymore, Cesar Romero, Henry Shackleton, Harold Arlen, Graham Hill, Red Blaik, Kandi Barbour, Roger Chaffee, Seattle Slew, Lil Poopy, and Bucky the Wanking Otter.
Bucky
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
I was going to tell a time-traveling joke. But you didn’t like it.
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Cow Chips
Dave Lande (at left, with Steve and Janet Bratkovich) attended Steve’s book signing of Baseball Puzzles in Hudson on May 29.
The SABR Games Project has new game story by a chapter member:
Mary Shea has written an article on Toni Palermo for the SABR BioProject.
John “Sparky” Seals has a cool web page about player nicknames and other fun things. Check it out: Baseball Nickname Project
Ed Edmonds has Part 3 (though it is mislabeled as Part 2) of his article, Myths and Misconceptions About Major League Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption, in the Spring 2024 Outside the Lines newsletter of the SABR Business of Baseball Committee (which is edited by Mike Haupert).
Condolences to Howard Luloff on the death of his dad, who had an obituary that is so nice that it could be the envy of some not-yet-dead people (present company included).
The June 2024 edition of Keltner’s Hot Corner, the newsletter of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter, is on-line:
Keltner’s Hot Corner, June 2024
It contains an article by Terry Bohn about Roy Patterson. The newsletter will be taking a summer break for a couple months.
Past Keltner’s Hot Corner newsletters:
Keltner’s Hot Corner
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Answers to Bob Komoroski’s Guess the Theme Quiz
- Fresco Thompson
- Eddie Grant
- Tony Lupien
- Eddie Collins
- Gene Larkin
- Doug Glanville
- Bob Tufts
- Bump Hadley
- Brad Ausmus
Extra Innings
- Pete Broberg
- Craig Breslow
Theme:
The players all attended Ivy League Colleges: Thompson, Columbia; Grant, Harvard; Lupien, Columbia; Collins, Columbia; Larkin, Columbia; Glanville, Penn; Tufts, Princeton; Hadley, Brown; Ausmus, Dartmouth; Broberg, Dartmouth; Breslow, Yale.
Also, Danny Yaccaroni, playing for a team from Staten Island, pitched a no-hitter in the championship game of the 1964 Little League World Series.
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Calendar
June 30—Townball: Winona at Owatonna, 1:00 p.m.
July 13—Northwoods League: Waterloo at Rochester, 6:35 p.m. with pre-game debauchery at 4:00 p.m. For more information, contact Stew Thornley.
July 15—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
July 16—All-Star Game Viewing Party, 7:00 p.m., Mannings’s, Minneapolis.
July 20—Fred Souba Hot Stove League Saturday Morning, 9:00 a.m., Mannings’s, Minneapolis.
August 7-11—SABR Convention, Minneapolis.
August 17—Book Club, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., Leave While the Party’s Good: The Life and Legacy of Baseball Executive Harry Dalton by Lee Kluck.
August 19—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
August 25—Halsey Hall Chapter Board of Directors meeting, 7:00 p.m. For more information on attending, contact Ed Edmonds.
November 2—Fall Chapter Meeting, 8:45 a.m., Faith Mennonite Church, Minneapolis. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036, or Bob Komoroski.
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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
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; Hans Van Slooten and Tom Flynn, 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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