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


March 2008

Spring Chapter Meeting May 3
New Members: Dalton Little, Debbie Shattuck, and Alex Wenzel
Authors All Around Us
Calendar
Board of Directors


Spring Chapter Meeting May 3

The Spring Chapter Meeting will be Saturday, May 3 at the Grace University Lutheran Church, 324 Harvard Street SE, Minneapolis, 612-331-0125. Parking is in lot AA, across Harvard Street from the church. Parking info is also available by clicking here. The group will attend the Twins-Tigers game that evening.

Events Chair Howard Luloff is attempting to arrange a panel of Minnesota catchers, including Terry Steinbach and Tim Laudner.

Members are invited to submit a proposal to make a research presentation at the meeting. Proposals must be made in writing (e-mail is fine) to Research Committee Chair Cary Smith, P.O. Box 271, Spring Park, Minnesota 55384-0271, zinnbeck@aol.com, and should include a title and brief outline of what the presentation will consist of with emphasis on the research that will be included. Standard 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. Generally, up to five presentations may be accommodated, and these will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. The Research Committee (which also consists of Tom Swift, Dan Levitt, and Stew Thornley) will finalize the schedule of research presentations by April 19, two weeks before the meeting, so proposals must be submitted by then.

Registration for the meeting is $8, which includes lunch. There is also a meeting-only price of $5. Those wanting lunch must RSVP to Howard Luloff at 952-922-5036, hfan77@webtv.net, by April 26.

Tickets for the Tigers-Twins game are $21 each. To attend the game, send a check payable to Halsey Hall SABR by April 11 to Howard Luloff, 2509 Princeton Court, St. Louis Park 55416.

Other events:
The next Hot Stove Saturday Morning is scheduled for 9:00 on March 8 at Bakers Square in Richfield.

The next selection for the book club, which will meet on April 12 at 9:30 a.m. at Barnes & Noble in at Har Mar Mall in Roseville, will be Wild, High and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin by Peter Golenbock. (If there is not enough seating in the coffee-shop area of Barnes & Noble, the group will find a location in a public area in the mall.)

The SABR convention will be in Cleveland June 26-29.


New Members: Dalton Little, Debbie Shattuck, and Alex Wenzel

Dalton Little is from Grand Forks, North Dakota, and is now a graduate student in history at the University of North Dakota. Dalton is a third-generation Red Sox fan. “I went to my first game in ’88. It was a Red Sox-Twins game at the Metrodome. I have been to three games at Fenway Park, two of which were Red Sox-Yankees games.”

Dalton shares his August 25 birthday with Rollie Fingers, Albert Belle, Darrell Johnson, Gary Matthews Jr., Doug Glanville, Pablo Ozuna, Oddibe McDowell, Pete Redfern, Choo Choo Coleman, Pea Ridge Day, Althea Gibson, Leonard Bernstein, George Wallas, Sean Connnery, Elvis Costello, and Anne Archer.

Debbie Shattuck hails from Vermilion, Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie and now lives in Rapid City, South Dakota. She is recently retired as an Air Force colonel after 25 years, 8 months of service and now plans to get her PhD and publish a book on women in baseball.

During her research for her master’s thesis on women in baseball, Debbie was surprised to learn that her hometown was where Alta Weiss, daughter of an Ohio physician, first gained fame as a pitcher on a men’s semi-pro team. “She made quite a stir in northern Ohio beginning in 1907. She even pitched in Cleveland on a few occasions. The papers said they ran �special trains’ to handle the crowds that flocked to witness the games. She eventually followed in her father’s footsteps as a physician.”

Debbie assisted Ken Burns on his baseball documentary and provided much of the information he used on women baseball players, including the segment on Alta Weiss. She also attended the 50th reunion of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players in 1993. “What an honor it was to meet with those wonderful women and hear their stories. I have a ball many of them signed that night. I cherish it as a special piece of baseball history.”

Debbie grew up wondering why girls weren’t allowed to play baseball. “It struck me odd that we had to play softball with a ball that was much more difficult to grip and throw than a baseball and which seemed to hurt every bit as much if it hit you. That’s what sparked my interest in the All American Girls Baseball League and in the history of women baseball players in general. I did my masters thesis at Brown University on the subject and published a few articles back in the early 1990s while I was teaching history at the Air Force Academy. I saw my first professional baseball game when I was in 5th grade at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. I will never forget the sense of awe I felt when we crested the top of the ramp leading to the seating area and I first saw that incredibly beautiful expanse of green grass and dirt. I was hooked and became a diehard Indians fan from that day on. I used to pretend I was Gaylord Perry, pitching balls to my friend in the backyard. My biggest regret as an Indians fan was that after all those years of heartache, when the Indians FINALLY made it to a World Series, I was stationed in Germany and could only watch the games by getting up at 3:00 a.m. . . . but you can bet I did!”

Debbie and her husband of 24 years have three kids: David, 23, Kristen, 21, and Katie, 18.

Debbie shares her September 26 birthday with Dave Duncan, Mel McGaha, Bobby Schantz, Olivia Newton-John, Marty Robbins, Dru Sjodin, George Gershwin, T. S. Eliot, and Craig “Ironhead” Heyward.

Alex Wenzel signed up for SABR at Twinsfest. Alex shares his October 27 birthday with fellow chapter member Chuck Blomquist as well as Buck Ewing, Ralph Kiner, Lee Stange, Brad Radke, Bip Roberts, Bill Swift, U. L. Washington, Pumpsie Green, Jason Johnson, Jayne Kennedy, Teresa Wright (played Eleanor Gehrig in Pride of the Yankees), Teddy Roosevelt, H. R. Haldeman, and John Gotti.


Authors All Around Us

Tom Swift’s long-awaited book, Chief Bender’s Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star, has been published by University of Nebraska Press.

John Rosengren’s book about the 1973 season, Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty & The Say Hey Kid: The Year that Changed Baseball Forever, is being published in March by Sourcebooks, Inc.

Peter Schilling’s Book, The End of Baseball, is being published by Ivan R. Dee and received this review from Publishers Weekly: “With this debut, sportswriter Schilling has written one of the best baseball novels since Howard Frank Mosher’s Waiting for Teddy Williams. Using actual events, Schilling has fictionalized a fantasy scenario in baseball history—the integration of black players into the major leagues in 1944. Bill Veeck Jr., a Marine veteran from a prestigious baseball family, buys the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943, becoming the youngest man to ever own a major league club. Veeck is a genius at publicity and promotion who wants to win the World Series—but using black players. He signs the best of the Negro League to the Athletics, against all conventional feeling and the opposition of Judge Kennesaw [sic] Mountain Landis, the vicious commissioner of baseball. The Athletics romp through the 1944 season behind the on-and-off diamond antics of real-life stars like Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Roy Campanella, with Veeck struggling to raise money, avoid race riots and flummox Judge Landis. This exciting, fast-paced story is a fine commentary on baseball lore, race relations, and American sentiment during World War II, and it will have the reader hanging on every pitch, wondering how Veeck and his players will overcome racial discrimination to prove they can play in the major leagues.”

Pete will be on a book tour from Chicago to Cooperstown to Brooklyn in April and May.

Jim Johnson has completed his book about Esten Hanson, Dummy, which will be published early this summer by Beaver’s Pond Press.

“Beginning in 2001, I began researching the life of Esten Hanson, later known in western Minnesota baseball circles in the early 1900s as ‘Dummy’ Hanson. He was born deaf, one of nine surviving children of Norwegian immigrant parents, in Swift County, Mn. He became a student at the deaf school in Faribault, Mn, in 1887 and finished his education in 1898 trained as a printer. It was at the deaf school where he learned and acquired his baseball skills.”

Jim’s research involved many hours of view microfilm of Minnesota and North Dakota newspapers as well as visiting and consulting state and county historical societies and the records of the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf in Faribault.


Calendar

    March 8—Hot Stove Saturday Morning, Bakers Square, 66th and Xerxes, Richfield, 9:00 a.m. For more information, contact Mark Johnson, 952-831-1153, baseballbooks@comcast.net.

    March 9—Research Roundtable, Perkins Restaurant, 4917 Eden Avenue, Edina, 6:00 p.m. For more information, contact Cary Smith, 952-807-8767, zinnbeck@aol.com.

    April 12—Book Club Meeting, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, 2100 Snelling Avenue North, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., Wild, High and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin by Peter Golenbock. For more information, contact Tom Dolen, 651-483-8617, or Art Mugalian, 612-721-2825, amugalian@comcast.net.

    May 3—Spring Chapter Meeting. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036, Hfan77@webtv.net.
   

Halsey Hall Chapter
Board of Directors 2007-2008
President—Dan Levitt
Vice President—Lee Temanson
Secretary—Armand Peterson
Treasurer—Doug Ernst
Art Mugalian
George Rekela
Stew Thornley

The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
Webmaster—John Gregory 

Halsey Hall Chapter Web Page: http://halseyhall.org

Halsey Hall Chapter E-list/Message Board: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/halseyhall

Past issues of The Holy Cow! are available at http://halseyhall.org/pubs/holy.html

  

Chapter History: http://halseyhall.org/officers_history.html

Chapter Procedures and By-Laws: http://halseyhall.org/bylaws.html

Society for American Baseball Research: http://sabr.org

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