Resources
Full House for Spring Chapter Meeting
The Halsey Hall Chapter spring meeting drew 32 people in person: Jerry Janzen, Rich Arpi, Howard Luloff, Dave Lande, Stew Thornley, Art Mugalian, Jacob Sayward, Jim Cox, Ed Edmonds, John Swol, Brian Larson, Armand Peterson, Jim Cox, Joe O’Connell, Brenda Himrich, Roger Godin, Bill Axness, Daniel Dorff, Ed Edmonds, Terry Bohn, Kelly Bohn, Kris Hard, John Buckeye, Barry Bengtsson, Fred Buckland, Al Strauss, Paul Spyhalski, Bob Komoroski, Darryl Sannes, Doug Skipper, Mike Haupert, Dan Levitt, Steve Bratkovich, John Gallo, Phil Lowry in addition to Cary Smith, Bob Tholkes, and The Twins Almanac via Facebook Live courtesy of Brenda Himrich’s iPad.
Terry Bohn, John Swol, Ed Edmonds, and Rich Arpi gave research presentations in the morning. During the business meeting at lunch Ed Edmonds, Mike Haupert, and Terry Bohn were elected to two-year terms on the board of directors. The expiring directors are Ed Edmonds (who had served out the term of David Karpinski), Bob Tholkes, and Jerry Janzen. Jerry has served as treasurer since 2008 (as well as in 1995-96) and was saluted for his years of service to the chapter.
At the chapter board meeting on June 9, the 2024-2025 board of directors will elect, from among themselves, a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer.
Board members are encouraged to review the chapter by-laws as well as the procedures for officers and other duties, committee functions, and procedures for business meetings, nominations, and elections.
Mary Geisler, the legal counsel for the Minnesota Twins, was the featured guest in the afternoon.
The meeting concluded with Howard Luloff’s Jeopardy quiz with Team B beating Team A 460 to 370.69. Howard had a fun “Hall of Fame Before & After” category with these posers (which Team A member Jacob Sayward nailed):
Answer: Dodgers shortstop-turned-broadcaster who was later Legally Blonde
Question: Who is Pee Wee Reese Witherspoon?
Answer: Yankees second baseman and first Royals manager who had a hit song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Question: Who is Joe Gordon Lightfoot?
Answer: After this early 20th century outfielder’s career ended, he held this Congressional leadership position for years.
Question: Who is Tris Speaker of the House?
Answer: Don’t look back! This Negro and Major Leaguer has a long-lost relative who played on the U Conn women’s basketball team.
Question: Who is Satchel Paige Bueckers?
Answer: 19th-century player, manager, and sporting goods magnate who became a movie director with Swimming to Cambodia
Question: Who is Albert Spalding/Spaulding Gray?
Along those lines, how many Baseball Hall of Famer Before and After combinations can you name? For example, there is Frank Thomas McCarthy. With this one there could be many other Thomas/Tom/Tommys, including one in which Thomas is the middle name that he used as his primary name: Connolly, Seaver, Yawkey, Lasorda, and Glavine. How many others can you come up with?
Answers below (and spelling counts)
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Big-Arse Upcoming Stuff
Just in time for Fathers Day, Steve Bratkovich will be signing his book, Baseball Puzzles: Word Finds, Crosswords, Trivia, and More, on Wednesday, May 29 at 5:30 p.m. at Chapter2 Books, 226 Locust Street, in Hudson, Wisconsin. The book has more than 125 puzzles divided into various difficulties to entertain and challenge everyone from rookies to seasoned experts. All author profits are being donated to research on neurological diseases.
The next Book Club meeting will be Saturday, June 8 at Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall at 9:30 a.m. The book selection is Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball by Keith O’Brien. Brent Heutmaker has organized a list of all the book selections since the book club started in August 2002: Halsey Hall Book Club Selections.
The next Research Committee meetings, via Zoom, will be June 17 and July 15 at 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, Ed Edmonds, and Bob Komoroski. Let Dave or Gene know if you would like to attend and/or join the committee.
The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball will be at Manning’s at 22nd and Como in southeast Minneapolis on Saturday, July 20 at 9:00 a.m.
Ball games:
At 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 16 Litchfield will play at Howard Lake for our annual townball outing. Pre-game fun will happen at 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon at Troubles Restaurant & Bar, 928 6th Street, Howard Lake 55349, For more information, contact Howard Luloff.
Another chapter outing will be a Northwoods League game in Rochester on Saturday, July 13. The game is at 6:35 p.m. with a pre-game gathering at Brothers Bar & Grill (812 Broadway Avenue South, Rochester 55904) at 4:00 p.m. at which members will be able to meet and masticate with a Rochester Honkers broadcaster and a real gynecologist. For more information, contact Stew Thornley.
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 295 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, trollers, and other wankers.)
Also:
Regular Events
Video Archives of Past Events
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SABR 52
The SABR Convention is back in Minneapolis, from Wednesday, August 7 to Sunday, August 11, at the Hyatt Regency, 1300 Nicollet Mall. The Core Four (John Buckeye, Daniel Dorff, Gene Gomes, and a retread) encourages members to indicate your interest to be a volunteer by sending a note to Jessica Smyth, jsmyth@sabr.org. We can use people during the day on Tuesday, August 6 to assemble swag bags at the hotel (Hyatt Regency at 13th and Nicollet). During the convention, warm bodies are needed for a whole plethora-load of things: greeters, timekeepers for researcher presentations, staffers at the registration table. Let Jessica know if you have a particular interest in any of those things or if you’re up for anything.
Jeff Nelson, Tim Tschida, and Emma Charlesworth-Seiler will be on a panel of umpires, and another panel will have four Hall of Famers: Rod Carew, Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva, and Bert Blyleven (the latter two also former chapter featured guests). Frank White will moderate a panel on Black baseball with Pete Gorton, Todd Peterson, and Carl Rogan. Other speakers and panelists include Hans Van Slooten, Kris Atteberry, LaTroy Hawkins, Josh Kolk, Thad Levine, Glen Perkins, Derek Falvey, and Josh Ruffin.
During the convention, the attendees will have a choice between a tour of Target Field or a St. Paul Saints game, which will feature a tour of the Saints’ City of Baseball museum and a pre-game meeting with the game’s official scorer, Sarah Johnson. For those hanging around until Sunday, there will be an outing to a townball game. Drivers may be needed to pick up and drop off conventioneers at the hotel.
Registration is now open with early-bird registration rates available through June 7.
Also related to the convention, SABR Games Project Chair John Fredlund writes, “We’re looking to put together a group of stories relating to major-league, minor-league, and college/amateur ball in Minnesota for the week of SABR 52. So far, we have Kurt Blumenau’s article on the Twins’ 2,000th win (in 1985) and Mike Worley is working on an article on an exhibition game that the Giants played at Metropolitan Stadium in 1959. I’d like to do one on the first interleague regular season game at the Metrodome (Pirates-Twins in 1997), and we may also use an article that Mike Huber submitted on Gary Ward hitting for the cycle as a September call-up in 1980. If any of our other Halsey Hall members would like to contribute an article, they are welcome to do so!“ Contact John Fredlund if you are interested.
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Ed Edmonds’s Two Themes Quiz
The May Research Committee meeting included a quiz with two themes submitted by Ed Edmonds.
- Nicknamed the Needle, this Oregon native grew up close to a Pacific Coast League team’s home park, and he has a landmark at Fenway Park named for him. A Navy veteran in World War II, he played for four American League franchises during his 10-year career. This man has a career batting average over .300, but he hit only 17 career home runs.
- A first-round draft choice from Oklahoma State University, this player spent sixteen years in Major League Baseball split equally between two NL clubs and two AL clubs. He hit nearly 300 career home runs and drove in 100 or more runs three times. He won six Gold Gloves. Speaking of gold, he also won the Golden Spikes Award and an Olympic Gold Medal.
- A six-time All-Star, he started and finished his career for two different franchises in the same city. He played for over a decade for the first of those two teams. In his 16-year career, he hit one or zero home runs in 14 of those years. His career high was four dingers in 1969. This man played in the same infield with two Hall of Fame favorites. He played in the College World Series but never played in one in his MLB career. His son played in eleven games for the Cincinnati Reds, and his grandson is a current major leaguer.
- This player finished ninth in the MVP voting in 1948 when he hit .290 for his third NL team. He served in the 97th Infantry of the First Army in World War II. He hit a total of eight home runs in his 9-year MLB career, but he is better known for his post-player MLB career with his final NL team where he retired from his spot in the dugout four different times. He did win a World Series in two different decades.
- A keystone combo partner with Ron Hunt, Billy Martin, Johnny Temple, and Grady Hatton, this bespeckled native of Bonham, Texas, spent 16 years in the big leagues for three NL teams. His career batting average of .243 was coupled with three consecutive Gold Gloves. He played 150 or more games in six consecutive years in the 1950s. He amassed 665 career walks (57 times intentionally) with 711 strikeouts. This former Texas Aggie never enjoyed the opportunity to play in a World Series.
- A veteran of five different Fall Classics, he played 23 years in the major leagues for four different teams. He had over 10,000 career plate appearances and over 2,700 hits. He stole a total of 49 bases with 10 coming in one championship season. He is the father of a current baseball broadcaster.
- This son of an MLB pitcher hit eight home runs in a ten-year career with a .228 career batting average. His on-base percentage was only marginally better at .255. He did, however, average over 110 games played per year in his career. He was a teammate of Willie Mays for eight years.
- This man finished second in the MVP voting in the second of his 17 years in baseball and matched that MVP runner-up spot one more time. He drove in 90 or more runs ten times and hit 40 or more home runs in four seasons. He also walked over 100 times in five seasons. He was born in Texas but graduated from Santa Barbara High School in California. He finished his career playing for the Detroit Tigers.
- This ten-year MLB player spent time in the minor leagues with the Richmond Virginians and the Rochester Red Wings after breaking into minor league baseball with the Suffolk Goobers of the Virginia League. During the Korean War, he spent two years with the Army Combat Engineers. He was a teammate with the answer to an earlier question, and he also wore glasses on the field. He played for Fred Hutchinson on two different NL teams, and he hit over .300 in his one World Series appearance. He got a base hit in his only All-Star game appearance after he was inserted into Roberto Clemente’s starting spot in the batting order.
- After graduating from Coushatta High School in Red River Parish, Louisiana, he played college basketball at LSU, leading the SEC in scoring. Needing players, the baseball coach convinced him to play baseball for the first time. He was signed by the Cincinnati Reds, ultimately became their clean-up hitter, but he is better known for his time with a different team that appeared in back-to-back Fall Classics. This man is known for breaking up the most well-known extra-inning near perfect game in history. He drove the ball out of the park for his team’s first hit, but it was converted to a double after he passed a Hall of Famer. Name this teammate for the bonus answer.
Answers below
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But You Plug One Toilet . . .
In honor of Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, Big Dumper t-shirts and jerseys are hot items in Seattle these days. Mariners radio announcer Rick Rizzs said Raleigh doesn’t like the nickname foisted on him by former teammate Jarred Kelenic, although he at least accepts it. Rizzs said he initially wondered if he should even use the nickname on the air but now figures it must be okay if it is on apparel and stadium scoreboards, including at Target Field, around the league.
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New Members
The Halsey Hall Chapter welcomes Eric Nelson, Nathaniel Wagner, Connor Reese, and Bob Bradt.
Our chapter has welcomed 28 new members since June 1, the beginning of the SABR fiscal year reporting period, and has 184 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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Missive from a Member
New member Bob Bradt sent a strongly-worded letter to the St. Paul Dispatch after the Dispatch put the above photo on the front page of its June 27, 1977 edition.
More than 45 years later, Bob discovered that the fool was a fellow member of the Original Old Timers’ Hot Stove League America Inc. group. Bob graciously autographed his letter, which is in the fool’s scrapboard next to his front-page photo.
Footnote: A cogent rebuttal letter appeared in the Dispatch three weeks after Bob’s comments:
Footnote to the footnote: The fool’s fine was $25, approximately $8.33 per story.
Another Missive:
Sarah Johnson got a letter from Owen Greene, who was awarded the topical award for State History Day and received a check from the Halsey Hall Chapter. Sarah has led our efforts with History Day for several years. This year Rich Arpi, with judging help from Bob Tholkes, took charge. Owen wrote:
Thank you so much for supporting me for the Topical Prize for State History Day. Baseball is my passion and I’m very grateful that I got to go to State History Day and share my project of the Negro Leagues. I learned a lot more about the Negro Leagues through your website which I used as part of my citations. One of those things that I learned was that Cum Posey was one of the most successful Owners/General Managers in the Negro Leagues. I am honored to win your award and thank you again for your support of my project and the game of Baseball.
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Thought for the Month
One big difference between men and women is that if a woman says, “Smell this,” it usually smells nice.
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Cow Chips
Mike Bosanko—the great-nephew of Joe Cantillon and great-grandson of Mike Cantillon—has written a book on his ancestors, Joe and Mike Cantillon: Firebrands of Baseball. The Cantillons were owners/managers of the Minneapolis Millers in their powerhouse years in the 1910s and 1920s. The book is available on-line or through Mike, mikebosanko@gmail.com.
The SABR Games Project has new game stories as well as a theme of tie games by members:
Phil Lowry, who has researched long and late games, is seeking assistance in tracking down such games. If you are up for helping, contact Phil at philip.lowry7777@gmail.com.
The May 2024 edition of Keltner’s Hot Corner, the newsletter of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter, is on-line:
Keltner’s Hot Corner, May 2024
Past Keltner’s Hot Corner newsletters:
Keltner’s Hot Corner
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Answers to Ed Edmonds’s Two Themes Quiz
- Johnny Pesky
- Robin Ventura
- Don Kessinger
- Danny Murtaugh
- Roy McMillan
- Tony Perez
- Hal Lanier
- Eddie Mathews
- Eddie Kasko
- Joe Adcock (Bonus: He passed Hank Aaron, who had abandoned the bases.)
Theme:
The players were primarily infielders and also future major-league managers.
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Answers to Hall of Fame Before and After
Branch Rickey Henderson, Dave Bancroft Johnson, Steve Carlton Fisk, Joe Morgan Bulkeley, Waite Hoyt Wilhelm, Whitey Ford Frick, Marvin Miller Huggins, Pop Lloyd Waner, Grover Cleveland Alexander Cartwright
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Calendar
May 29—Steve Bratkowski book event, 5:30 p.m., Chapter2 Books, Hudson, Wisconsin.
June 8—Book Club, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball by Keith O’Brien.
June 9—Halsey Hall Chapter Board of Directors meeting, 7:00 p.m. For more information on attending, contact Rich Arpi.
June 16—Townball: Litchfield at Howard Lake, 6:30 p.m. (pre-game gathering at Troubles Restaurant & Bar at 4:30 p.m.). For more information, contact Howard Luloff.
June 17—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
July 13—Northwoods League: Waterloo at Rochester, 6:35 p.m. with pre-game debauchery at 4:00 p.m. For more information, contact Stew Thornley.
July 15—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
July 20—Fred Souba Hot Stove League Saturday Morning, 9:00 a.m., Mannings’s, Minneapolis.
August 7-11—SABR Convention, Minneapolis.
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Board of Directors 2023-2024
President—Rich Arpi
Vice President—Bob Tholkes
Secretary—Daniel Dorff
Treasurer—Jerry Janzen
John Buckeye
Ed Edmonds
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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