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


October 2010

Editor:
Stew Thornley

Ron Coomer Scheduled to Speak at Fall Chapter Meeting October 16
Name’s the Same
Blast from the Past
New Members
Answer to Name’s the Same
Calendar
Board of Directors


Ron Coomer Scheduled to Speak at Fall Chapter Meeting October 16

Former Twins All-Star Ron Coomer is scheduled to be the featured guest at the 2010 Halsey Hall Chapter fall meeting will be Saturday, October 16 at Community United Methodist Church, 950 Gould Avenue, Columbia Heights 55421-3905, 763-788-9009. (Ron’s availability will be subject to their not being any conflicts because of a Twins game.)

The research presentations from members will be:

  • Can You Hear The Noise: The St. Paul Gophers 1907-1911 by Todd Peterson
  • Integrating Major League Baseball: A Counterfactual Analysis by Mike Haupert
  • Comparisons and Contrasts between the Quadrennial FIFA World Cup and the Quadrennial MLB World Baseball Classic by Phil Lowry

Registration for the meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. with opening ceremonies, hosted by Howard Luloff, starting at 9:00. The research presentations will take place in the morning with Ron Coomer speaking in the afternoon. The business meeting will be held during lunch between noon and 1 p.m.

Attendees, along with other SABR members and family, can head over to the Thornley-Himrich residence (1082 Lovell Avenue, Roseville, 651-415-0791) after the meeting to watch playoffs on television. Map and directions.

Other upcoming events:
The book club will meet Saturday, October 9 at 9:30 a.m. at the Barnes and Noble cafe in Har Mar Mall in Roseville. The group is reading Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball by Bill Madden.

The next Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be at 9:00 on November 13 at Bakers Square in Richfield (66th Street to the east of Xerxes Avenue). Gary DeSmith, Gary Hackenmueller, Jerry Janzen, Mark Johnson, Dan Levitt, Howard Luloff, Art Mugalian, Jim Sexton, Fred Souba, Jack Stanton, and Bob Tholkes attended the September 11 breakfast and helped Mark celebrate his 78th birthday. It was the 75th Hot Stove Saturday morning, which debuted on August 1, 1998 at the Thornley-Himrich home in Roseville. Following two meetings at the Grandview Grill in St. Paul, three meetings at Old Country Buffet in Richfield, and one meeting at Key’s Cafe in Roseville, the bi-monthly get-together moved to the Bakers Square in Richfield. Mark notes that the regular server has been Ann Marie, who was been there 26 years and takes most orders by memory, merely asking, “The usual?”

The Research Committee will meet Sunday, November 14 at 6 p.m. at Perkins, off 50th Street and Minn. Hwy. 100, in Edina. The local organizing committee for the 2012 SABR convention in Minneapolis will meet prior to the research meeting, at 5:00.

The annual Hot Stove League gathering, part of SABR Day in America, will be at Kevin Hennessy’s home on Saturday, January 29 at 7:00 p.m.

In other news the Halsey Hall Chapter board of directors voted to add guidelines regarding accessibility to its website and web-based publications by amending its procedures for the webmaster and newsletter.

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Name’s the Same

During the last week of September, two similarly named (though unsimilarily spelled) athletes came to Minnesota to play against the Vikings and Twins. What is the name?

Answer below

Blast from the Past
Mickey Mantle at bat in the 1965 season opener

Images from the 1965 Twins opener, versus the New York Yankees. Howard Thornley, who took his son, nephew, and mother-in-law to the game, got photos of Mickey Mantle batting against Jim Kaat and the double-decked grandstand under construction in left field. A construction worker was able to corral a home-run ball hit by the Yankees’ Elston Howard during the game, won by Minnesota 5-4 in 12 innings, the start of the Twins’ American League championship season.

Construction on the grandstand in left field at Met Stadium during the 1965 season opener


New Members

Clyde Doepner was born in 1944 at Mounds Park Hospital in St. Paul. He grew up in North St. Paul and graduated from North High in 1962. He played Little League, VFW, and American Legion baseball in addition to playing on the 1961 Minnesota State High School championship team. He attended Winona State College, which finished fourth in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics tournament in 1963, on a baseball scholarship, but his playing career ended the next year because of an arm injury.

Growing up, Clyde attended Millers and Saints games at Nicollet and Lexington parks and followed the strong townball tradition in North St. Paul. He went to his first Twins game, with his dad, at the home opener at Metropolitan Stadium on April 21, 1961. He also went to the All-Star Game and World Series in 1965 as well as the Beatles concert at the Met that summer (and still has his ticket stubs from all those events). Clyde has collected much more than ticket stubs and added greatly to his memorabilia after getting to know Calvin Griffith in the fall of 1966. Griffith provided season passes to high-school coaches (Clyde coached and taught American History in high school, retiring in 2000 although he still runs the driver-education program in North St. Paul), and Clyde stopped by to say thanks. From that, Clyde formed a long-term relationship with Griffith, who gave him access to thousands of Twins items that were going to be thrown out after the Twins left Met Stadium following the 1981 season. “It was my ‘mega leap’ in collecting as I obtained hundreds of rare, unique, and valuable items relating to the history of not only the franchise, but to the history of our national pasttime itself.”

Clyde began working informally with the Twins in 1988 and in 2009 became their official team curator (giving our chapter two curators for major league teams, Roger Godin of the Minnesota Wild being the other). He has merged his collection of over 7,000 items with that of the Twins and has them displayed at Target Field.

Clyde has also officiated more than 1,600 basketball games. He and his wife, Jan, have three sons, all married, and two grandsons.

Clyde shares his May 13 birthday with Barry Zito, Dusty Rhodes, John Roseboro, Jose Rijo, Leon Wagner, Bill Dailey, Bobby Valentine, Jimmy Archer, Lenny Faedo, Stevie Wonder, Stephen Colbert, George Papanicolaous (creator of the Pap Smear), Joe Louis, Ritchie Valens, Pope Pius IX, Pope Innocent XIII, and a few people (such as Dennis Rodman) that he’d rather not mention.

The Halsey Hall Chapter also welcomes back Marshall Tanick, a prominent Twin Cities lawyer who has authored many articles on baseball and the law and will be contributing to the publication for the 2012 SABR convention in Minneapolis.


Answer to Name’s the Same

Shaun/Shawn Hill.

Shaun Hill of the Detroit Lions passed for 237 yards in a 24-10 loss to the Vikings on Sunday, September 26; four nights later, Shawn Hill of the Toronto Blue Jays pitched 4-2/3 innings and didn’t get a decision as the Blue Jays beat the Twins 13-2.

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Calendar

    October 9—Book Club Meeting, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball by Bill Madden. For more information, contact Tom Dolen, 651-483-8617, or Art Mugalian, 612-721-2825, amugalian@comcast.net.

    October 16—Fall Chapter Meeting, Community United Methodist Church, Columbia Heights. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036, Hfan77@webtv.net.

    November 13—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.

    November 14—Research Committee Meeting, Perkins, Edina. For more information, contact Stew Thornley, 651-415-0791, stew@stewthornley.net.

    December 5—Halsey Hall Chapter Board Meeting, 6 p.m. For more information, contact Kevin Hennessy, 651-492-2298, kwhennes@ties2.net.

    January 29—Hot Stove League Meeting as part of SABR Day in America, 7:00 p.m.. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036, Hfan77@webtv.net.

    Summer 2012—SABR Convention, Minneapolis  


Board of Directors 2010-2011
President—Kevin Hennessy
Vice President—George Rekela
Secretary—Bob Tholkes
Treasurer—Jerry Janzen
Fred Buckland
Scot Johnson
Cary Smith

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

Halsey Hall Chapter Web Page

Past issues of The Holy Cow! are available on-line.

  

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