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The All-Star Game viewing party will be at Manning’s, 22nd and Como in southeast Minneapolis at 7:00 p.m. in the evening Tuesday, July 14 with pre-game debauchery beginning a half-hour or so before that.
The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be Saturday, July 18 at 9:00 a.m. at the Shortstop Bar and Grill, 1298 East Moore Lake Drive, Fridley 55432.
Earlybird registration ends May 29 for the 2026 SABR convention, which will in Cleveland will be Wednesday, July 29 to Sunday, August 2 at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown. The Arizona Diamondbacks will be in town to play the Guardians during the convention.
Speakers and panelists include Carlos Baerga, Sandy Alomar Jr., Mike Hargrove, Charles Nagy, Kenny Lofton, broadcaster Tom Hamilton, sportswriter Paul Hoynes, and Guardians president of baseball of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and assistant general manager Sky Andrecheck.
Registration information
Chapter members making research presentations at the convention:
- Thursday, July 30, 10:30 a.m.—Terry Bohn, Who Was That Guy? Identification of Unknown Minor Leaguers in Baseball-Reference
- Thursday, July 30, 11:00 a.m.—Dan Levitt, From Pennant to Picture Show: John McGraw, the New York Giants, and the Play Ball Serial
- Saturday, August 1, 2:30 p.m.—Stew Thornley, Past Speed-Up Attempts in Major League Baseball. The presenter will also be a panelist at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, July 31 at the meeting of the SABR Official Scoring Research Committee, which is co-chaired by Kris Hard.
Minneapolis SABR Convention Helps Twin Cities Make Top Five among Sports Cities
In May Sports Business Journal listed the 50 top sports business cities and metropolitan areas in the country. Minneapolis-St. Paul ranked fifth, with the 2024 SABR convention in Minneapolis listed as one of the events that contributed to the ranking.
Keep up to date with chapter activities on social media:
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Facebook page
SABR Halsey Hall Chapter Bluesky 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 Bluesky page has 124 followers/70 following, and the Facebook page 349 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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Research Roundtable
Research projects, web pages, and blogs of chapter members are highlighted on the home page of the Research Committee.
The next Research Committee meetings, via Zoom, will be June 15 and July 20 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, 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, Mike Zarling, Chrstian Towalski, and Bob Komoroski.
Let a committee member know if you would like to attend a meeting and/or join the committee.
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Dave Lande’s Royal Flush Quiz
For the May 11 Research Committee meeting, Dave Lande presented this quiz:
- While playing the outfield (primarily center field) between the World Wars, he was named to the first six All Star Games. He spent 10 of his 13 years in the majors with the same American League for which his son (with the same name) later played. He was named to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. During his career, Bob Feller would play with both the father and son.
- A four-time All Star and three-time Gold Glove recipient, this catcher received votes for league MVP on three occasions. He led American League catchers in put outs and assists for four consecutive seasons. He played for two teams in the majors, both in the American League, and in one World Series, which his team lost in seven games. He started all seven games in that World Series despite being injured in game three when he ran into a crossbar while trying to catch a foul pop-up.
- Between the majors and the minors, his baseball career lasted over six decades as a pitcher, manager and general manager. He pitched seven years in the majors, mostly with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He replaced a Hall of Famer as manager of the Atlanta Braves and several years later was replaced by Billy Martin as manager of the New York Yankees.
- A power-hitting first baseman and designated hitter, he was a six-time All Star and three-time Silver Slugger Award recipient. He received votes for league MVP on six occasions with his highest finish being third, which he achieved twice. He allegedly hit a ball into the upper deck of Tiger Stadium at age 12. In his second full year in the majors, he hit 50 home runs (his career high), making him the youngest player to hit that number. It was one less than his father’s career high.
- A nineteenth century baseball star, he played all nine positions in the field during the course of his career. Elected to the Hall of Fame as a player by the Old Timers Committee, he managed for three seasons and even umpired seven games. His autobiography, published in 1888 while he was still a player in the National League, is considered to be the first autobiography ever published by a professional baseball player. He was once sold for the astronomical sum of $10,000. He passed away from pneumonia a year after the end of his playing career.
- Signed by the Cincinnati Reds out of high school, he struggled as a hitter and was converted to a pitcher in his third year in the majors. His second year as a pitcher was his best when he won 14 games with a 2.76 ERA. That was his peak as he only won a total of 20 games in his seven years as a pitcher in the majors. He served as a coach in the majors and minors, including four years with the Toronto Blue Jays when members of his pitching staff won three Cy Young Awards. His dad, with the same first and last name, pitched for eight years in the majors.
- He’s the only player born in Utah to get over 2,000 at bats in the majors. He’s also one of two graduates of Pocatello High school to play in the majors. A solid defensive catcher, he spent the majority of his 11 years in the majors with the Cleveland Indians. He ended his major league career with exactly 100 home runs.
- He led the major leagues in home runs and RBI’s during the 1950’s. He hit 40 or more home runs during five consecutive seasons in the decade. His first home run was an inside-the-park home run, the only inside-the-park home run of his career. He’s the only player to hit four home runs in two World Series and holds the record for the most post-season home runs against a single team with 10 against the New York Yankees. He appeared in six World Series with his team winning two.
- A career .267 hitter in the minor leagues, this Hall of Famer played all the way from Class D to AAA, where he accumulated a total of 13 plate appearances. He started his managerial career as a player/manager at age 25 in the minors and after 11 seasons, was promoted to the majors where he managed one team for 17 years. Those teams won four league pennants and one World Series. He was ejected from games 96 times including once from both games of a double header and once from a World Series game.
- He was a major league pitcher for 11 years, almost all of which was in the American League where he played for two teams. He was one of the best power-hitting pitchers in baseball history as he hit 35 home runs with 111 RBIs in 740 at bats. He was the second black player to play for the last major league team to integrate. He led the league once in wins with 22 and played on one winning World Series team.
Answers below
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Membership
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
Kurt Vonnegut wrote an obituary/poem for Joseph Heller in the May 2005 New Yorker based on a conversation the two once had at a party hosted by a hedge-fund manager/billionaire on Shelter Island. Vonnegut told Heller that the host made more money in a day than Heller had earned from Catch-22.
Heller responded, “Yes, but I have something he will never have—Enough.”
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Cow Pies
A couple of chapter members were consultants on a mural commissioned by the Minnesota Twins to celebrate Black players in Minnesota. The mural was unveiled April 27 with artist Antoine Jenkins (shown in the picture speaking) on hand along with Josh Bell, Derek Shelton, Simeon Woods Richardson, and LaTroy Hawkins of the Twins. The mural is in the main concourse behind home plate.
The SABR Games Project has new game stories by chapter members:
Kurt Franke has been a multiple winner of the Guess the Stretch contest at Gophers game, earning valuable prizes such as a coozie and a bag of potato chips.
Houston reliever makes the All-Name Team:
A committee of the Capitol Area Architectual Planning Board is recommending a site for the commemorative marker for the St. Paul Downtown Ball Park, aka The Pillbox—the plaza between the office and laboratory buildings of the Minnesota Departments of Health and Agriculture, just beyond where the ballpark’s right-field fence was. The board will consider the recommendation at its June 4 meeting.
The May 2026 edition of Keltner’s Hot Corner, the newsletter of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter, is on-line:
Keltner’s Hot Corner, May 2026
Past Keltner’s Hot Corner newsletters:
Keltner’s Hot Corner
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Answers to Dave Lande’s Royal Flush Quiz
