Resources
Tink Larson to Speak at Fall Chapter Meeting November 2
Tink Larson will be the featured speaker at the Halsey Hall Chapter fall meeting Saturday, November 2 at Faith Mennonite Church, 2720 E. 22nd Street in south Minneapolis.
A longtime coach at many levels in Waseca, Tink is a legend in Minnesota amateur baseball. He may be joined by another Waseca native, Gene Glynn, who was a coach for several teams, including the Twins.
Registration for the meeting is at 8:30 with research presentations beginning at 9:00. A business meeting will be held during lunch with a featured guest and Howard Luloff’s always-a-hit trivia contest to follow. In addition, Ryan Barland of the Minnesota Historical Society will talk about his baseball oral-history project.
The cost for the meeting and lunch is $10. The meeting only is $5. Those wanting lunch must RSVP to Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.
The meeting will include four research presentations:
- Rich Arpi: 1890s Millers and Saints
- David Karpinski: This Lineup “Owned” Nolan Ryan
- Corky Gaskell: Making a 19th Century Base Ball
- Bob Tholkes: Time of Game in the Amateur Era, 1860-1865
Once again, door prizes will be presented to new and old chapter members at the meeting.
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Upcoming Events
Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning
The next Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be at 9:00 on Saturday, November 9 at Bunny’s Northeast, 34 13th Ave NE, Minneapolis 55413 (behind the keg warehouse of the old Grain Belt Brewery), 612-545-5659.
Book Club
The Halsey Hall Chapter Book Club will meet Saturday, December 7 at 9:30 a.m. at the usual spot, Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall in Roseville. The book selection is Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner by Bowie Kuhn.
Brent Heutmaker has organized a list of all the book selections since the book club started in August 2002: Halsey Hall Book Club Selections
Research Committee Meetings December 9 and January 13
The Halsey Hall Chapter Research Committee will meet Monday, December 9 and Monday, January 13 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Brookdale Library, Study Room J, 6125 Shingle Creek Parkway, Brooklyn Center 55430. All members are welcome to attend.
A number of members have been researching the first games played in each of the Minnesota counties, and the committee would like to have information for each of the counties (29 of 87 are still unaccounted for). See the MN Counties list.
Two other web pages have information on the spread of baseball, Pre-pro Baseball and Pre-pro Clubs and Games in Minnesota. In addition, a Google Docs spreadsheet is online, Minnesota Spread of Baseball Project, 1857-1923.
Anyone wanting to get involved may contact committee co-chairs Brenda Himrich, 651-415-0791, and Sarah Johnson.
Research page updated:
The Research Committee page has been updated and includes a list of research projects by members. If you would like research added, contact me, (Stew Thornley, 651-415-0791).
As always, check out the chapter’s Baseball Research Primer as a source for any research you are doing.
Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page
Halsey Hall Chapter Twitter page
Regular Events
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George Rekela Dies
George Rekela died October 6 from complications following heart surgery. A SABR member since 1988, George served as Halsey Hall Chapter president in 1996-1997 and newsletter editor from 1992 to 1999. He also played on the Quicksteps vintage base ball team when it was affiliated with the chapter. George wrote a number of books, the latest being A History of Professional Hockey in Minnesota: From the North Stars to the Wild. The Minnesota Gophers placed a photo and writeup of George in his spot in the press box (below) for their game on October 12.
A remembrance will be held Sunday, October 27 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Osseo Community Center, 415 Central Avenue, Osseo, Minnesota 55369 (parking and entrance is located in the back of the building).
George Rekela obituary
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Minnesota 19th Century Base Ball Interdisciplinary Symposium November 16
Details are set for the Minnesota 19th Century Base Ball Interdisciplinary Symposium, which our chapter will host in Minneapolis on Saturday, November 16. Bob Tholkes is the primary organizer and is working with the chapter Research Committee on the program. The symposium is a joint project of the SABR 19th Century Committee, the Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR, and Hennepin County Library.
Confirmed presenters:
- John Thorn, Historian for Major League Baseball
- Larry Millett, popular Twin Cities author and local historian
- Stew Thornley, SABR award-winning author and leading Minnesota baseball historian
- Frank White, historian and author on black baseball
- Dan Levitt, SABR award-winning author
- Mike Haupert, SABR Doug Pappas Award winner in 2014 for best convention presentation
- Kristin Anderson, award-winning teacher at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, and expert on Twin Cities sports architecture
Sarah Johnson wrote an article about the symposium in Twins Daily: SABR 19th Century Baseball Symposium Comes to Minneapolis
Registration: Minnesota 19th Century Base Ball Interdisciplinary Symposium
To get on a list to receive updates about the symposium, write to sabrMN19c@gmail.com.
Minneapolis Central Library Parking Information
Friday night reception
A pre-symposium dinner and reception will be held at 6:00 the night before, Friday, November 15, at U Garden Chinese Restaurant, 2725 University Avenue SE, Minneapolis 55414, 612-378-1255. We will have a partitioned area for our group, which will include some members of the SABR board of directors, which is in town for a weekend meeting. All SABR members are welcome to come to this, whether or not they are attending the symposium on Saturday. Please respond if you plan to attend: (stewthornley.net or 651-415-0791. There is a buffet for $11.95 plus tax and tip and an array of booze and non-booze options.
For those attending the symposium, the organizing committee is planning a dinner and reception for Saturday night.
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Metropolitan Stadium Games Still Available for Book Project
As part of the SABR Baseball Games Project, the Halsey Hall Chapter is organizing a project to write additional stories about memorable games played at Metropolitan Stadium. It will be similar to the Milwaukee County Stadium Greatest Games book, and members can check out the articles in there to get an idea of their format.
The stories should be between 1,000 and 1,569 words and will be due in mid-2020.
So far approximately more than 90 games have been identified to be included in the book. Some have already been written or assigned to SABR members, but many are still in need of authors:
- 5/8/1960 (Game 2), Dave Mann steals home on a double steal with Carl Yastrzemski going all the way from first to third and getting two stolen bases on the play.
- 7/17/1964, Right-fielder Lu Clinton throws out Earl Battey at first in the fifth inning.
- 6/6/1965, Jerry Zimmerman hits first career home run.
- 4/16/1966, Dean Chance breaks up Mudcat Grant’s no-hitter in the sixth, goes the distance, Angels win on J. J. Warner’s two-run homer.
- 7/4/1969, Twins jump on Catfish Hunter, who had held them without a runner in a game the previous year, and win the opening game of a big series versus Oakland.
- 7/5/1969, Reggie Jackson homers off the top of the scoreboard, but the Twins get two from Harmon Killebrew and beat Oakland 13-1.
- 9/20/1969, Jim Perry wins 20th game as Tony Oliva doubles home Rod Carew in the ninth. Joe “S. F.” Schultz is ejected after a ball was called because Diego Segui took too long to pitch.
- 9/21/69, Killebrew hits two homers, but the Twins miss chance to clinch division when John Kennedy—who homered off the Twins in his first major-league plate appearance in 1962—breaks a 3-3 tie with a home run with two out in the ninth. Interesting catcher-unassisted double play in this game.
- 9/7/1970, Game 2, Hal Haydel gets win and homers in debut.
- 6/21/1971, Vida Blue, amid great interest, wins 15th game.
- 9/3/71 (Game 1), Killebrew breaks tie in sixth with pinch-hit grand slam off Mudcat Grant. Late arriving crowd—some of whom got there in time to see the homer—because most were coming to see Vida Blue in the nightcap.
- 4/18/1973, Nolan Ryan strikes out 14. Angels win 3-2 on Frank Robinson’s 524th career home run to break tie in the eighth.
- 6/22/1974, Jim Kaat of White Sox beats former team in 10 innings and Kaat and Vic Albury both go the distance.
- 6/20/1976, Mark Fidrych beats Twins. Fidrych was by this time known as quirky but was not yet the celebrity he became eight days later when he beat the Yankees on Monday Night Baseball.
- 7/21/1977, Dave Goltz and Ryan pitch complete games. Twins win 3-2 with all runs in the first inning
- 9/5/1978, Steve Trout wins first game in majors, helped by Disco Dan Ford’s baserunning gaffe, trotting home backwards partway and not stepping on the plate until the trailing runner, Jose Morales, crossed and was called out for passing Ford.
- 4/17/1979, Ryan, in Twins home opener, pitches shutout in his final game at Met Stadium. Replacement umpires used. Rick Miller circles the bases when he singles and Willie Norwood lets ball through his legs.
- 7/5/1980, Twins beat Ferguson Jenkins 2-1 as Roy Smalley hits two-run homer off the right-field foul pole.
If you are interesting in writing about any of these games, contact me, stew@stewthornley.net.
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New Member: Doc Quain
Richard “Doc” Quain was born in Brooklyn on Christmas in 1946 and moved to Minnesota in 1960. He’s been here ever since except for eight years at Bowling Green State and five years getting his Ph.D at Missouri. He has coached most sports, baseball being his favorite, and he has coached Little League, high school, American Legion, college, and amateur baseball. He has been a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association for 49 straight years.
He was a pro umpire. “Harry Wendelstedt was my rabii until we got Luck with our first child” Doc is busier than ever after retiring in 2016. He was a third-generation cash grain buyer and a commodity broker for the North Dakota Mill.
“I plan to attend some of the November gatherings and am grateful to Carl Rogan for alerting me to this group.”
Doc shares his December 25 birthday with fellow chapter member Jeff Schwartz as well as Rickey Henderson, Manny Trillo, Al Jackson, Nellie Fox, Pud Galvin, Lloyd Brown, Al Jackson, Jo-Jo Moore, Hideki Okajima, Rick Renteria, Charlie Lea, Wallace Johnson, Ned Garver, Morrie Rath, Ben Chapman, Quincy Trouppe, Humphrey Bogart, Ken Stabler, Cab Calloway, Larry Csonka, Jimmy Buffett, Justin Trudeau, Sissy Spacek, Barbara Mandrell, Isaac Newton, Victory Birdseye, Bronko Nagurski Jr. Rod Serling, James Holehouse, Clara Barton, Noel Picard, Anwar Sadat, J. H. Christ, Ed “Big Guns” Hochuli, Karl Rove, and Lou the Chihuahua.
Know a potential member? Here are resources for getting that person happily involved in SABR:
Membership application
Chapter membership chair Jim Cox has been at work building the membership and contacting past members to see about them signing up again. He would love to have one or two other people on the committee with him. If you are interested, contact Jim: jcox321@hotmail.com.
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Cow Chips
Gene Gomes was in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, October 13 for the induction of his great-grandfather, Abner Powell, Jerry Wolman North Anthracite Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. Powell had a career of more than 1,000 games from 1883 to 1905 in the majors and minors as a player-manager, pitcher, outfielder, and team owner of the New Orleans Pelicans and Atlanta Crackers. A founder of the Southern Association in 1901, Powell is credited with innovations that include the infield tarpaulin in 1887 and the detachable rain check ticket stub in 1899. Gene (on the far right in the picture below) is working on a bio of Powell for the SABR BioProject.
Check out Play-by-play with Jason Benetti, which aired on CBS Sunday Morning October 13, 2019.
Several chapter members—including Tom Flynn, Howard Luloff, and Brian Madigan—attended the Black Sox Symposium in Chicago on the 100th anniversary of the 1919 World Series. One member, Mike Haupert, was a presenter with How Cheap was Charles Comiskey? Salaries and the Black Sox.
Tom Merrick had two stories published as part of the SABR Games Project: June 18, 1911: Tigers Trail by 12, Then Triumph 16-15 over White Sox and April 24, 1913: Gus Williams Hits Three Triples to Power the Browns over the White Sox.
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Calendar
November 2—Fall Chapter Meeting, 9:00 a.m, Faith Mennonite Church, Minneapolis. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.
November 9—Fred Souba Hot Stove League Saturday Morning, Bunny’s, Minneapolis, 9:00 a.m.
November 16, 2019—Minnesota 19th Century Base Ball Interdisciplinary Symposium, Minneapolis Central Library. For more information, contact Bob Tholkes, 952-922-5036. A pre-symposium reception will be held at U Garden the night before, and an after-symposium reception on Saturday.
December 7—Book Club, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner by Bowie Kuhn.
December 9—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Brookdale Library, Study Room F. For more information, contact Brenda Himrich, 651-415-0791, or Sarah Johnson.
January 13—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Brookdale Library, Study Room F. For more information, contact Brenda Himrich, 651-415-0791, or Sarah Johnson.
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Board of Directors 2019-2020
President—Dave Lande
Vice President—Hans Van Slooten
Secretary—Anders Koskinen
Treasurer—Jerry Janzen
Jim Cox
Gene Gomes
Frank Kadwell
Membership Committee Chair—Jim Cox
Events Committee Chair—Howard Luloff
Research Committee Chairs—Brenda Himrich and Sarah Johnson
The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
Webmaster—John Gregory
Ass. Webmasters—Frank Kadwell 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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