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Spring Chapter Meeting April 19
Former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Dan Evans will be the featured speaker at the Halsey Hall Chapter spring meeting Saturday, April 19.
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.
One presentation slot is always reserved for a first-time presenter until four weeks before the chapter meeting (March 29). If a slot remains after that, any member can submit a proposal until April 5, two weeks before the meeting, when the Research Committee will wrap up the schedule of presentations.
Members are invited to submit a proposal to make a research presentation at the meeting. Proposals may be sent to Research Committee co-chairs Dave Lande or Gene Gomes and include a title and brief outline of what the presentation will consist of with emphasis on the research that will be included. Standard oral 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.
Election of Officers
The business meeting during lunch will include the election of four members to two-year terms on the board of directors to fill the spots of expiring directors Daniel Dorff, Rich Arpi, John Buckeye, and Howard Luloff. Any chapter member is eligible to run for the board and is encouraged to express interest to any of the committee members. Candidates will be asked to submit a candidate statement for the newsletter. Anyone interested may contact the nomination committee: Darryl Sannes (Chair), Dan Levitt and Bob Komoroski.
The incoming directors, along with holdovers Ed Edmonds, Mike Haupert, and Terry Bohn will elect, from among themselves, a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer to serve a one-year term beginning July 1.
Those interested in running or looking for more information are encouraged to check out the duties and functions of the various positions and committees at Chapter Procedures.
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Even More Exciting and Titillating Upcoming Stuff
The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball will be Saturday, January 11 at 9:05 a.m. at a new location, Stanley’s Northeast Bar Room, 2500 University Avenue NE (northwest corner of Lowry and University), Minneapolis 55418. (Stanley’s doesn’t open until 9:00, so don’t get there too early.)
The next Research Committee meetings, via Zoom, will be January 20 and February 17 at 7:00 p.m. Research Committee members are co-chairs Dave Lande and 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.
Research projects:
Chapter members are often meeting Friday mornings at the Minnesota History Center to work on the Minnesota Spread of Baseball Project, 1857-1923 and identifying Pre-pro Clubs and Games in Minnesota.. For more information, contact Rich Arpi.
John Buckeye is researching celebrations by players and teams after a big hit (something other than a home run) and may develop a research presentation and/or article on the topic.
An ongoing project of a chapter member is identifying year-by-year changes in playing and scoring rules: Baseball Rules Changes. The page has links to a summary of changes, grouped by topic, and changes by year since 1950 (with pre-1950 to come). In addition, the page as a link to an official scoring quiz for determining earned and unearned runs.
Ongoing project to get a commemmorative marker on the site of the St. Paul Downtown Ball Park (The Pillbox) with approval to place a marker being sought with the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board.
Terry Bohn has learned that in 1938 the Kansas City Monarchs and Chicago American Giants played a game in the Negro American League in Bismarck, making it the first major-league game played in North Dakota. Terry is doing more research on the game.
Also coming up:
The NINE Spring Training Conference in Tempe March 5 to 8. A number of chapter members attend each year. Consider joining them.
A chapter outing is planned to see the Minnesota Gophers play Purdue at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 9 at U. S. Bank Stadium. A restaurant will be identified as a gathering place for food, boilermakers, and pre-game debauchery. Possible sites are the Hen House Eatery (in the former Peter’s Grill site) and Key’s Cafe downtown.
The 36th Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, which examines the impact of baseball on American culture from interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspectives, will be May 28-30 at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Proposals for papers are invited from all disciplines and on all topics; the deadline for submission is December 31.
Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Bluesky page
Halsey Hall Chapter Twitter page
Please visit the pages, and, if you haven’t yet, “Like” the Facebook page and “Follow” the Bluesky page and set your notifications to be alerted to new posts. (The Facebook page now has 313 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.) John Buckeye is overseeing the Bluesky page.
Also:
Regular Events
Video Archives of Past Events
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Halsey Hall Chapter Now on Bluesky
The Halsey Hall Chapter, in ensuring that it is not only the best and most active chapter but also the hippest chapter in SABR, has a page on Bluesky. Sign up and join the cool crowd.
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John Buckeye’s Flippin’ Off Quiz
Here is the quiz John provided for the Research Committee for its December meeting:
- The original name of this franchise who now brags about having the “Best Fans in Baseball”™ was originally the Perfectos, until the owner’s wife commented on what a lovely shade of [BLANK] their socks were.
- The current name of the triple A franchise which belonged to the Twins back in 2000 when it was named something slightly different (more 90s let’s say), which fits with the state nickname for the state which their home city is the capital of.
- Hall of Fame pitcher for the Phillies throughout the 50s and 60s, who finished in the top 7 in MVP voting five times (but never won it, nor a Cy Young) and also finished only 14 games shy of 300 wins.
- The original franchise of this name was a dominant force in the 1890s and featured several hall of famers, before they moved to greener pastures. The next franchise to bear this name shares a division with their forebears, having moved to a new location after having been muscled out of their old home city by a team referenced earlier in this quiz.
- Craig, Jeff, and Derek (two of whom became shoe-in Hall of Famers) had a group nickname for a team that would only see serious postseason success after switching leagues and ownership. What was that nickname?
- Phenomenal rookie starter for the Detroit Tigers in 1976, this guy gained a reputation for talking to the ball, throwing a lot of innings, and just becoming an all-around weird guy. He flamed out after several years, but his nickname relates to this quiz’s theme!
- Andy Pettitte did a testimonial at the end of his playing days for this hygiene brand, who were releasing their “. . . Men Plus Care” line of body washes, soaps, and shampoos.
- These almost delayed a game between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks on May 1 of this past season. But then a heroic specialist came in to save the day. It was not Jason Statham. I don’t think.
- This solid starter fits phonetically with the theme, having pitched for eight teams in his career and collected 35 WAR, with a respectable 109 career ERA+. His best years were with the A’s, D-backs, and Angels, and he was finished by 2016.
Bonus: Before killing something with a pitch that could have fit in this theme, this pitcher was also known by a nickname that morphed into one we now him by better (presumably because he was not a huge fan of the first one). He was a WS MVP, Cy Young winner, and Perfect Game thrower in his career. What was that original nickname?
Extra Inning (jammed in by a pushy editor): This owner of a major-league team allows his alma mater to host a college tournament in his team’s ballpark every February. A hint is in this picture of Brenda Himrich next to a painting she did that was on display at the White Bear Lake art show:
Answers below
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New Members Simon Steeves and Kurt Franke
Simon Steeves is a 12th grader in western New Brunswick, headed for University next year, and the son of a man from a larger New Brunswick city and of a woman whose family is partly from South Africa and Holland. How does all of this add up to Simon being in the Halsey Hall Chapter? In Simon’s words:
“I’ve had a love for sports as long as I’ve known what sports are mostly from my older brothers. Here in Canada, Hockey is the natural first option which from approximately ages 5 to 12, I took somewhat of an interest in. Once my older siblings moved away, I started exploring the other options the North American sports world has to offer and baseball stood out from the pack from the beginning. Whether it was the concept of home runs or the battle between pitcher and hitter, there was something different about baseball to me. This interest very quickly became a passion that quite rapidly grew into by far my favorite sport. I’ve played baseball through my teenage years which has allowed me to see the game through the competitors eye which has probably added to my love of the game. My obsession for MLB truly began with listening to ballgames on a local radio station here in NB which would broadcast Red Sox games through the words of the great Joe Castiglione. I suppose the Red Sox created a prominent anchor for my love of baseball, which sounds strange to say now but it is probably the truth.
“Over the past few years, I’ve seen games in both Boston as well as Seattle on a west coast vacation that pitted the Mariners against the Twins coincidentally and it was roughly around that time when I saw something special about baseball and Minnesota. As a baseball fanatic, a website like Twins Daily was one that I frequently have visited over the years that always peaked my interest for Upper Midwest baseball. The writings and content produced by Minnesotans such as Stew Thornley and the Gleeman and The Geek duo always caught my eye as fascinating and it helped that one of my baseball idols as a catcher was the now Hall of Famer, Joe Mauer. I suppose in retrospect, it was the Twins community online that strongly influenced my decision to become a Twins fan, and now that I’ve been one long enough to say it proudly, I know I’ll be a member of Twins Territory for the long haul, through the highs and the lows. Thank you Twins fans, you can count me as one more added to the best group of baseball fans alive. An equal amount of thanks to those who read this and welcome me from afar to the Halsey Hall chapter as well, it is an honor.”
Born in 2007, Simon shares his January 19 birthday with Chris Sabo (“corked bat and all”), Jim Morris, Chick Gandil, Rich Gale, Jon Matlack, Dolly Stark, Byung-Hyun Kim, Phil Nevin, James Bereford, Anthony Young, Brad Mills, Ed Sadowski, Ken Frailing, Robert E. Lee, Dolly Parton, Ed Allan Poe, Tippi Hedrin, Junior Seau, Alison Gordon, Joe Kelly (World War II general, not the whiny pitcher with the Dodgers), Paula Deen, Janis Joplin, Jean Stapleton, Shelley Fabares, Eleanor Mondale, Nicholas Colasanto, Hwang In-Youp, Putter Smith, William Seaman, Hopalong Hannigan, Minnesota Fats, and Bart the Bear.
Kurt Franke (who was Kurt Dudding from 5 to 20 and known through school as “Duds” which he never liked until Coach started calling him that) has three sons, two daughters-in-law, and three grandchildren with his wife of 39 years, Karla, who is from Roseville, where they just moved back to after Kurt spent most of his adult life in St. Cloud though he was born and raised in Fairmont, a great baseball town where he played for Coach Herb Wolf in high school (his highlight being a late-inning pinch-hit home run against St. James in the playoffs though they still lost 5-3) as well as VFW and American Legion baseball and then three different amateur teams as a, in his words, washed-up wannabe catcher.
Kurt is now a retired as a fire fighter, serving six years in Albert Lea and 20 in St. Cloud. He then taught Emergency Vehicle Operations at the Minnesota Highway Safety and Research Center at St. Cloud State University.
“I wasn’t much of an academic,” he writes, “but I did manage to wrangle a History BA out of Saint John’s University (79) and it is there I discovered baseball history, research, and SABR. Needed 4 credits in a Modern American History survey class to graduate. It was a pick your focus course. I chose the Color Barrier in Baseball and it was Jackie, Josh, Cool Papa, Satchel, etc... I was hooked. Way more fun then studying Wars and Politics, while still studying wars (WARs), politics, and base hits.
“People that know one thing about me know I ride my bike.” They should also know that he just renewed his Gophers baseball season ticket.
Born in 1956, Kurt shares his June 5 birthday with Jack Chesbro, Ray Lankford, Joe Ryan, Royce Lewis, Mike Coolbaugh, Russ Ortiz, Bill Spiers, Paul Siebert, Duke Sims, Lou Brissie, Eddie Joost, Truck Hannah, Robinson Chirinos, Jake Petricka, Adam Smith, John Carlos, Ron Livingston, Jeff Garlin, Ron Livingston, Nick Kroll, Bill Moyers, Marion Motley, Art Donovan, Mark Wahlberg, John Maynard Keynes, Pancho Villa, Bushrod Washington, Kenny G, Peggy Blow, and Bob Probert.
Also new to the Halsey Hall Chapter: Christian Towalski
Our chapter has welcomed 16 new members since June 1, the beginning of the SABR fiscal year reporting period, and now has 195 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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Thought for the Month
Education is what you have left over after you have forgotten everything you’ve learned.
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Cow Pies
Howard Luloff had an entry, “What Baseball Means to Me,” in a new book by Nick Del Calzo, My Baseball Story: The Game’s Influence on America.
The SABR Games Project has a new game story of local interest a SABR member who grew up in Minnesota:
Lloyd Kepple played in the Forever Young Division of the Roy Hobbs World Series with his team edged out 4-3 by the New England BoSox in the semi-final round. Reported Lloyd, “As anticipated, Spaceman Bill Lee pitched and went all the way for the BoSox. Several of us on the current Team Cambria roster played for several years with the BoSox, and Dick Peters and I won an Over-70 AAAA Championship playing with Spaceman and the BoSox in 2019.” (Lloyd and Spaceman shown from that World Series in the photo to the right)
The December 2024 edition of Keltner’s Hot Corner, the newsletter of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter, is on-line:
Keltner’s Hot Corner, December 2024
Past Keltner’s Hot Corner newsletters:
Keltner’s Hot Corner
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Answers to John Buckeye’s Flippin’ Off Quiz
- Cardinal
- Bees (was Buzz)
- Robin Roberts
- Orioles
- Astros (Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, and Derek Bell were the Killer Bees)
- Mark “The Bird” Fidrych
- Dove
- Bees
- Dan Haren
Bonus: Big Bird (later The Big Eunuch)
Extra Inning: Jim Crane, owner of the Houston Astros and alumnus of Central Missouri State University, which hosts a yearly tournament at the former Enron Field.
Theme: If you didn’t already notice, John flipped you the bird (and other flying things) with this quiz.
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Calendar
January 11—Fred Souba Hot Stove League Saturday Morning, 9:05 a.m., Stanley’s Northeast Bar Room, Minneapolis.
January 20—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
February 8—Book Club, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover.
March 9—Minnesota Gophers vs. Purdue Boilermakers, 1:00 p.m., U. S. Bank Stadium
February 17—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
April 19—Spring Chapter Meeting, 8:45 a.m., Faith Mennonite Church, Minneapolis. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036, or Bob Komoroski.
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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' John Buckeye, Bluesky; 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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