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

SABR MVP Chapter 2022-2023, 2023-2024

November 2024

Editor:
Stew Thornley

Index to past stories in The Holy Cow!

  • Lunch McKenzie to Speak at November 2 Chapter Meeting
  • Other Big-Arse Upcoming Stuff
  • Glenn Renick’s Acrostic Puzzle
  • New Member
  • Cow Pies
  • Answers to Glenn Renick’s Acrostic Puzzle
  • Calendar
  • Board of Directors
  • Resources

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    Lunch McKenzie to Speak at November 2 Chapter Meeting
    Mark “Lunch” McKenzie, the former baseball coach at Concordia University in St. Paul, will be the featured speaker at the Fall Chapter Meeting Saturday, November 2. Lunch retired in 2019 after 20 years as head coach and is still on the staff as an assistant. The Coach of the Year in the Northern Sun Conference in 2005, Lunch has an all-time record of 456-361-1, including 281-234 in conference play. Under Lunch, the Golden Bears won the conference tournament in 2003 and 2008. Normally, the featured guest speaks in the afternoon, but Lunch will be on from 10 to 11:30 in the morning. The meeting will include up to four research presentations by members, one before Lunch, one between Lunch and lunch, and one after lunch (see descriptions of the presentations below). As usual, the meeting will conclude with a bang-up trivia quiz by Howard Luloff.

    The meeting will be 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 research presentations:

    9:15-9:45: Sam Sundermeyer, Last Ounce of Magic: Win Probability of the 2009 Twins
    The 2009 Minnesota Twins turned in one of the most exciting campaigns in team history. Although the club once again fell short to the Yankees, fans who were along for the last ride in the Metrodome remember Mauer’s MVP campaign, the September comeback, and the last ounce of Dome magic in Game 163.

    With 15 years of fond remembrance now behind us, it begs the question: was the ride as magical as we remember? Did the Twins really beat the odds to win the division? Through the use of advanced win probability statistics, memory will be checked with reality.

    11:45-12:15: Stew Thornley, Werden’s All-Stars vs. The Old Guards
    The Hennepin History Museum has an oversized souvenir bat signed by players who participated in a 1933 benefit game between Werden’s All Stars and The Old Guards of the Diamond. Perry Werden, the biggest name in Twin Cities baseball along with Mike Kelley between the 1890s and 1920s, settled in Minneapolis after his playing career. In the 1890s Werden twice hit more than 40 home runs for Minneapolis and held the professional single-season home-run record until Babe Ruth broke it in 1920. In the 1910s he operated an independent team known as Werden’s All-Stars that played in local leagues and barnstormed. Werden also umpired professionally and remained a prominent personality in Minneapolis and a frequent attendee of Millers games at Nicollet Park as a guest of team owner Mike Kelley.

    In 1933 Werden’s All Stars came together again for a benefit game against The Old Guards, a group of past players who were well known in the city. These players included a number of former professional/major league players such as Gene Ford, Al Dretchko, Rube Schauer, Spike Shannon, and Pierre “Pete” Briere, who had played professionally and became a noted coach of amateur teams in the Twin Cities. (Briere’s son, Tom, became a sportswriter at the Minneapolis Tribune for decades.) This presentation will focus on Werden and his achievements with mentions of others who played in this game as well as a description of the game itself. The Hennepin History Museum will bring the bat, signed by the participants in this game, to the meeting.

    Note: A longer version of this presentation will be made at the Hennepin History Museum the following Saturday. See below for more information on this event.

    1:15-1:45: Bob Tholkes, In The Year of Baseball Fever (1867): Baseball Clubs
    The presentation is entirely from contemporary sources and deals with diversity of the clubs, governance, activities, and interclub relations.

    One central aspect of the baseball “fever” of 1867 was that aspiring baseballists nationwide organized themselves, as they had since the pioneering Knickerbocker Club of New York City (and even before), into clubs. The presentation uses contemporary primary sources to examine the groups from which clubs were drawn and their governance, activities, and means of interclub relations.

    As always, many thanks to John Bonnes and our friends at TwinsDaily for publicizing our meeting and their ongoing support of SABR and our chapter.

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    Other Big-Arse Upcoming Stuff
    Frank White will be presenting at Target Field on Saturday, October 26 at 10:00 a.m. on 100 Years of Negro League Baseball. The event, which includes a tour of the ballpark, is $29. Register at African American Baseball Exhibit with Frank M. White & Target Field Tour.

    The Hennepin History Museum will host a reprise of the presentation from the chapter meeting on the Werden’s All-Stars vs. The Old Guards. This presentation will be Saturday, November 9 at 1:30 p.m. at the museum, 2303 3rd Avenue South, Minneapolis 55404 (near the Minneapolis Institute of Arts). The museum welcomes donations on a pay-as-you-can basis for their events. Reservations are recommended but not required. (Note: The Hennepin History Museum is not handicapped-accessible.) More information: Werden’s All Stars versus The Old Guard

    The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball will be at Manning’s, 22nd and Como in southeast Minneapolis, on Saturday, November 16 at 9:00 a.m.

    The next Research Committee meetings, via Zoom, will be November 18 and December 16at 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.

    The next Book Club meeting will be Saturday, December 7 at Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall at 9:30 a.m. The book selection is Kiss It Good-Bye: The Mystery, the Mormon, and the Moral of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates by John Moody. The group also selected The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover for the February meeting. Brent Heutmaker has organized a list of all the book selections since the book club started in August 2002: Halsey Hall Book Club Selections.

    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 307 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, wankers, trollers, and other degenerates.)

    Also:

    Regular Events

    Video Archives of Past Events

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    Glenn Renick’s Acrostic Puzzle
    The October Research Committee meeting included a quiz by Glenn Renick:

    1. This sporting goods company opened in 1918 but closed its doors for good in 2011 after 93 years in business. At one time it supplied uniforms to the Pittsburgh Pirates and almost all regional semipro and high school teams, as well as offering a full line of sporting goods to the public. The founder, a just-retired professional baseball player, had a fairly decent career. A year after his business opened, he starred in a motion picture, called Spring Fever, with Moe and Shemp Howard (of the Three Stooges).
    2. In his first season pitching in the National League he led the league in both wins and win percentage. That same year he also started a well-known sporting goods company that made major league baseballs for over a hundred years, and is still in business today.
    3. Runner-up in the first Little League World Series and champion in the second.
    4. Home ballpark of the Seattle Steelheads in 1946, Seattle Pilots in 1969 and Seattle Rainiers from 1938-1968.
    5. Iconic ballpark that hosted its last game in 1957 before being demolished in 1960.
    6. He played for the Athletics, Red Sox, Tigers, and Mets during his 8-year MLB career. Nicknamed “La Potencia,” he won the Home Run Derby twice. He is perhaps best known for making spectacular catches in the outfield but dropping routine fly balls.
    7. He played his entire 16-year career with the Chicago Cubs where he was considered the top 3rd baseman in the league in the late 1930s and early ‘40s. The story that Bill Veeck had a promotion where fans at a game were given mirrors with his picture on it, and used them to reflect the sun into the opposing pitcher’s eyes, may or may not be true. He later went on to manage, including 3 seasons with the Cubs and 10 games with the Cardinals.
    8. Known for launching long distance home runs, he once hit four in one game against four different Dodgers pitchers. After playing his first three years in the majors as an outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds he asked to be traded and went to Milwaukee, where he played first base for the Braves for the next 10 years. Then in his last four years, in the American League, he played for the Indians and Angels. He managed the Indians for one year and was replace by Alvin Dark.
    9. Known as “The Bull,” he was the 1975 National League RBI Champion and won the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award in 1978.
    10. During his thirteen year career, he won and lost a World Series as a teammate of Joe Jackson and won and lost a World Series as a teammate of Walter Johnson. In the 1917 World Series his 9th inning single drove in the final run of the final game. The little league ballfield in his home town of Butler, Indiana, is dedicated in his honor with a mural and permanent plaque.

    Super Bonus: He played his entire major league career as a catcher with the Milwaukee Grays. As a 27 year old rookie he committed 4 errors and allowed 10 passed balls in his major league debut, which might explain his short career. He later became an umpire and sports promoter. This question can substitute for #2 to solve the quiz theme.

    Glenn’s note: If you still need a hint for the puzzle, it is an acrostic. The first shall be first and the last shall be next.

    Answers below

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    New Member
    The Halsey Hall Chapter welcomes Andy Sjerven

    Our chapter has welcomed 10 new members since June 1, the beginning of the SABR fiscal year reporting period, and has 189 members.

    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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    Cow Pies
    Joe O’Connell was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Twin Cities Sports Collectors Club.

    The SABR Games Project has a couple of new game stories by a chapter member:

    The October 2024 edition of Keltner’s Hot Corner, the newsletter of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter, is on-line:

    Keltner’s Hot Corner, October 2024

    This issue includes includes an article by Jayson Stark on Danny Jansen becoming the first player to play for two teams in the same game in the major leagues. Read Jayson’s article to find out who did it in the minors.

    Past Keltner’s Hot Corner newsletters:

    Keltner’s Hot Corner

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    Answers to Glenn Renick’s Acrostic Puzzle

    1. Honus Wagner
    2. Albert Spalding
    3. Lock Haven, Pennsylvania
    4. Sick’s Stadium
    5. Ebbets Field
    6. Yoenis Cѐspedes
    7. Stan Hack
    8. Joe Adcock
    9. Greg Luzinski
    10. Nemo Leibold

    Super Bonus: Alfred “A. G.” “Alamazoo” Jennings

    Answer to the acrostic puzzle: HALSEY HALL

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    Calendar
        October 26—Frank White, 100 Years of Negro League Baseball,10:00 a.m., Target Field.

        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.

        November 9—Presentation on Perry Werden, 1:30 p.m., Hennepin History Museum, 2303 3rd Avenue South, Minneapolis 55404.

        November 16—Fred Souba Hot Stove League Saturday Morning, 9:00 a.m., Mannings’s, Minneapolis.

        November 18—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.

        December 7Book Club, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., Kiss It Good-Bye: The Mystery, the Mormon, and the Moral of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates by John Moody.

        December 8—Halsey Hall Chapter Board of Directors meeting, 7:30 p.m. For more information on attending, contact Ed Edmonds.

        December 16—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.

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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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