The Holy Cow! June 2003

Book Event on June 21st

Long time Halsey Hall Chapter member Dan Levitt announces a publication party for the release of his book, Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way, on Saturday evening, June 21st, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts at Open Book, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis. Dan will be reading passages from his book at 7:15 and folks will be have opportunities to have their copy authographed by Dan throughout the evening. Acquiring the authograph of co-author and fellow SABR member Mark Armour, might be a little more difficult since Mark will not be present. Beverages and snacks will be available with casual attire the norm and children welcome. Please RSVP with Dina at (612) 215-2528 or at dsweeney@mnbooksart.org as soon as possible so they know how many people to expect.

Chapter Book Club

Six regulars (Tom Swift, Stew Thornley, Art Mugalian, Greg Omoth, Bob Tholkes and Rich Arpi) and one irregular (Jim Wyman) met on Saturday June 7th to discuss biographies of Walter Johnson. Somehow, we got 45 minutes into the meeting and hadn’t even mentioned his name once. That is proof positive that you need not have read the selected book or books to participate in this book club. We started out discussing a couple of recent releases, including Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis, and various other baseball strategies. Finally we did indeed get to biographies of Walter Johnson, including the dreadfully awful (by current SABR scholarship standards) Walter Johnson: King of the Pitchers by Roger L. Treat (Julian Messner, 1948). Bob Tholkes and Rich Arpi found and read copies of this biography that is really quite typical of the baseball biographies produced before 1970 or so. The book was all very lauditory of Johnson with an emphasis on telling selected stories about Johnson’s baseball career (a good portion of the book was an account of the 1924 World Series). Other biographies written in more recent years on Walter Johnson include Jack Kavanagh’s biography released in the mid 1990s and Henry W. Thomas’ (Walter Johnson’s grandson) book Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train (1995). Unfortunately time restricted discussion of these two books to only a few comments. The next book meeting will be August 2nd at the Barnes and Noble (Edina Galleria) at 10:00 am. The book will be Dan Levitt and Mark Armour’ Paths to Glory.

June 14th - Quicksteps Vintage Baseball Game at Montevideo. 2 p.m.

June 28-29 - Quicksteps Games at Murphy’s Landing in Shakopee. Matches at 1:30.

July 5 - Quicksteps Game at Fort Ridgely. Time TBA.

July 9-13 - National SABR Convention in Denver.

July 19th - Chapter breakfast at the usual location of Baker’s Square, 66th and Xerxes in Richfield at 9 a.m. with the annual tour of Lakewood Cemetary at 10:30. Members wishing to only participate in the tour should met inside the front gate of the cemetary around 10:30

July 26th - Quicksteps vintage base ball game in Stillwater against the St. Croix Base Ball Club. 1 p.m.

August 2 or 9th: Chapter Board meeting with date depending on availability of the majority of the members of the board. Location will be at the Edina Galleria Barnes and Noble at 9:00 am (before the book club meeting) if held on August 2nd and probably an hour later at the same location if on August 9th. The new officers for 2003/2004 will be selected at this meeting.

October 25th: Tentative date of the Fall Regional with a tentative location of the Central United Methodist Church (Columbia Heights), near the residence of Bob Tholkes.

December 25: “What are you waiting for, Christmas?” - umpire to batter.

Publication party for Dan Levitt on Saturday, June 21st, 6 :30 to 9:00 p.m. RSVP to Dina at (612) 215-2528 or dsweeney@mnbooksarts.org.

IDEAS FOR HOLY COW EXTRA WANTED

Bob Tholkes, current editor of the quarterly publication of the Halsey Hall Chapter called the Holy Cow Extra, would welcome any suggestions about topics for future issues. While fourteen excellent issues have been issued since its debut in January 2000, Bob is somewhat at a loss to what to do next. Among the possible topics discussed at the Board meeting of June 7th were essays from members on how they got interested in baseball, recollections of one’s first major league game, and the future of the game of baseball (as possibly a poll that would be filled out by members and returned to the editor), or a survey of baseball interest (or lack thereof) by teenagers or folks in their 20s (somewhat younger than the average SABR member). The next issue is due the end of July, so please forword any suggestions on to Bob Tholkes at 763-781-6161 or rjtholkes@msn.com.

Northwoods League Game. On Sunday June 8th, several chapter members attended a Northwoods League game at Rochester between the Rochester Honkers and the St. Cloud River Bats. Rochester scored five runs in the first inning, including a three run home run by J.P. Moran. St. Cloud scored three runs in the third and one in the seventh, but fell one run short and left 11 runners on base. This is a college league that uses wood bats and Gopher Matt Fornasiere was in the St. Cloud lineup. Howard won a dinner from the local Red Lobster for having the signed program. Another Northwoods League outing is scheduled for August 3rd in St. Cloud at Dick Putz Field (5001 8th Street N) at 7:05. Game will be against the Mankato Moondogs. Contact Howard Luloff (952)922-5036 or Hfan77@webtv.net if interested.

To learn how to add ''Continued on page xx'' to a column, see ''Adding 'Continued' Notices to Stories'' in the User's Guide.

Electronic Newsletter Option on Renewal:

Starting in July, members will have the option of receiving this newsletter in an electronic format only. Members will receive an e-mail notice that the newsletter is available at the chapter web-site and/or the newsletter as an e-mail attachement. Members selecting this option will pay an annual $ 6.00 in subscription dues while those still wishing to receive a paper copy will pay the current subscription fee of $12.00 per year. If there is an X below you are currently paid up for the upcoming year (2003-2004). Otherwise send in either $6.00 or $12.00 to Rich Arpi (address listed below) as soon as possible.