Resources
Levitt and Armour Receive Seymour Medal for Intentional Balk
Dan Levitt and Mark Armour have received the Seymour Medal for their 2022 book, Intentional Balk: Baseball’s Thin Line between Innovation and Cheating.
This is the second time a Halsey Hall Chapter member has received the award. Tom Swift was honored in 2009 for Chief Bender’s Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star.
Dan had twice before been a finalist for the Seymour Medal, in 2016 for In Pursuit of Pennants: Baseball Operations from Deadball to Moneyball (co-authored with Mark Armour) and in 2009 for Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees’ First Dynasty.
Go to Top
Spring Chapter Meeting April 15
Events Committee chair Howard Luloff announced April 15, 2023 as the date for the next Spring Halsey Hall Chapter meeting at Faith Mennonite Church. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. with the program beginning 15 minutes later.
The cost for the meeting and lunch is $10. The meeting only is $5. Those wanting lunch are asked to RSVP to Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036. People can pay by cash (with correct change appreciated) or check at the door.
There will be a featured speaker in the afternoon, and the morning will consist of research presentations by chapter members. The business meeting, during lunch, will include the election of four members to the chapter board of directors for a two-year term. Howard Luloff is a declared candidate. Anyone else interested in running for the board may contact Gene Gomes. Nominations will be taken from the floor at the business meeting.
Members are invited to submit a proposal to make a research presentation at the meeting. Proposals must be sent by April 1 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.
One presentation slot is always reserved for a first-time presenter until four weeks before the chapter meeting (March 18). If a slot remains after that, any member can submit a proposal until April 1, two weeks before the meeting, when the Research Committee will wrap up the schedule of presentations.
Two research presentations have been approved so far: The Inglorious Exit of Cap Anson by Mike Haupert and Joe Cantillon and the Western All-Star Tours by Terry Bohn.
Go to Top
Upcoming Events
Howard Luloff is organizing a chapter outing to see the Minnesota Gophers play Ole Miss (or Ole’s brother, Sven Miss) at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 4 at U. S. Bank Stadium. Look for the group on the first-base side (at the top of the stands to accommodate members with disabilities, of at least one of whom will be present).
Justin Mckinney will make a zoom presentation about the 1884 St. Paul team in the Union Association on Thursday, March 9 at 7:00 p.m. According to Justin, a baseball researcher and archivist living in Canada, “The Union Association was formed as an upstart major league in September 1883. Led by an impulsive 26-year-old millionaire named Henry Lucas, the league endured a tumultuous, bizarre, and memorable 1884 season, before it disbanded in early 1885. This presentation will tell the story of how an 8 team league became home to 12 teams in 13 cities, including the odd plight of the nomadic St. Paul, Minnesota club, who joined the league in late September and never played a home game.”
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, March 11 at 9:00 a.m. We can get tables reserved if we have some idea of how many are coming. Please RSVP to me, stew@stewthornley.net, if you plan to attend. This is an informal RSVP, so feel free to show up even if you haven’t RSVP’d and/or don’t sweat it if you RSVP and can’t make it (although an un-RSVP, if possible, would be appreciated).
The next Research Committee meeting, via Zoom, will be Monday, March 20 (with the next meeting Monday, April 10). Contact co-chairs Dave Lande or Gene Gomes if you would like to attend. Other Research Committee members are 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 and Bob Komoroski.
The next joint convocation of SABR and the the Minneapolis Ass. of Baseball Enthusiasts will be at at Grumpy’s Northeast, 2200 4th Street NE, Minneapolis 55418 (one block east of University Avenue and three blocks south of Lowry Avenue) on Saturday, March 25. The gathering begins anytime after 5 p.m. and goes as long as anyone wants to stay.
A hearty turnout there was for the last Grumpy’s gathering. Grumpy’s Northeast was recently ranked as one of the top dive bars in the Twin Cities (The 15 best dive bars in the Twin Cities) by Joy Summers in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. What is a dive bar, you ask? Never fear. Tom Flynn has the answer: Calling Regular Bars ‘Dives’ Is an Insult . . . to Dive Bars, which includes questions such as “Is there a condom machine in the restroom?” that must be asked by a discerning dive-bar devotee.
The book club will meet at Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 1 and discuss The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series by Tyler Kepner. 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.
Also:
Regular Events
Video Archives of Past Events
Go to Top
A St. Patrick’s Day Riddle
What’s green and figure skates?
Riddle answer below
Go to Top
New Members
The Halsey Hall Chapter has welcomed five new members since our previous chapter meeting and has 234 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.
Go to Top
Quiz by Gene Gomes
The February Research Committee meeting, held on Presidents’ Day, included a quiz submitted by Gene Gomes. There is a theme to the quiz.
- Last name of the player who led the AL in homers for three different teams, was a five-time Series Champ with ten WS homers, and was the first player to strike out 2,000 times.
- The last name of the player who was a one-time Series Champ, and is the only player to have “Pinch Run” listed as his position on his baseball card.
- What’s the middle name of the player who led his league in hitting once, led in stolen bases twice, won a Rookie of the Year, and won an MVP as a Dodger.
- Last name of the lefty HOF pitcher who was a six-time Series Champ with ten WS victories to his credit.
- The last name of the last AL pitcher to homer in a regular season game versus an AL opponent, before the DH rule. He later also pitched for Atlanta and Cleveland. Extra credit if you can guess the date of his home run.
- Last name of the player drafted by the Twins out of the Univ. of New Orleans, who was a two-time Series Champ, and had 96 career homers—all as a Twin.
- Last name of the HOF catcher with 324 career homers, was a Series Champ with two WS homers, and led his league in assists as catcher five times.
- Last name of the player who led his league in triples five times in the 1980s, had 668 stolen bases, was a one-time Series Champ, and ranks first all-time in fielding Range Factor as a left fielder (2.77).
- Give the first and middle name of the HOF pitcher who was a Series Champ in the 1920s versus the Yankees, and led his league in wins and complete games six times.
- Name the birthplace city of this HOF pitcher who was a “World Champion” in 1892, and had 532 career complete games (fourth all-time).
- Give a possible nickname and the real last name—which combined would fit this quiz—of the player who played in the same outfield with Hank Aaron and Dusty Baker, and who replaced Aaron in the 1974 game in which Hank hit his career homer number 715.
Quiz answers below
Go to Top
Cow Chips
Several chapter members have done or are doing field timing for Major League Baseball and have trained at Minute Maid Park during the Houston Winter Invitational, an annual tournament involving Division II teams. Sarah Johnson and Brenda Himrich have trained at multiple Houston tournaments. This year Al Strauss and another chapter member attended the training, which was more intense because of the upcoming between-pitch clock. Anthony Castrovince wrote an interesting article for mlb.com about the recent training:
A behind-the-scenes look at how the pitch timer works
The SABR Games Project has new entries by chapter members:
The February 2023 edition of Keltner’s Hot Corner, the newsletter of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter, contains a nice profile of Scott Bush and is on-line:
Keltner’s Hot Corner, February 2023
For past Keltner’s Hot Corner newsletters:
Keltner’s Hot Corner
Go to Top
Answer to A St. Patrick’s Day Riddle
Peggy Phlegm
Go to Top
Answers to Quiz by Gene Gomes
The theme is dead or soon-to-be-dead presidents.
- [Reggie] Jackson
- [Herb] Washington
- Roosevelt [Jackie Robinson]
- [Whitey] Ford
- [Roric] Harrison, October 3, 1972 (Harrison is the last American League pitcher to homer before the designated-hitter rule. Since then, a number of AL pitchers have homered in inter-league games. The last player to homer as a pitcher was Shohei Ohtoni on August 9, 2022 in an Angels at Athletics game.)
- [Randy] Bush
- [Gary] Carter
- [Willie] Wilson
- Grover Cleveland [Alexander]
- Madison, Wisconsin [Kid Nichols]
- [Rowland “Oval”] Office
Go to Top
Calendar
March 4—Gophers vs. Ole Miss, U. S. Bank Stadium, 7:00 p.m., Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.
March 9—Zoom presentation on the 1884 St. Paul Union Association team by Justin Mckinney, 7:00 p.m.
March 11—Fred Souba Hot Stove League Saturday Morning, 9:00 a.m., Mannings’s, Southeast Minneapolis.
March 20—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
March 25—SABR/Minneapolis Association of Baseball Enthusiasts hang out, Grumpy’s Northeast, around 5 p.m. or so.
April 1—Book Club, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series by Tyler Kepner.
April 2—Halsey Hall Chapter Board of Directors meeting, 6:00 p.m. For more information on attending, contact Gene Gomes.
April 10—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
April 15—Spring Chapter Meeting, 8:45 a.m., Faith Mennonite Church, Minneapolis. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-922-5036.
Go to Top
Board of Directors 2022-2023
President—Gene Gomes
Vice President—David Karpinski
Secretary—Sarah Johnson
Treasurer—Jerry Janzen
Daniel Dorff
John Swol
Bob Tholkes
Events Committee Chair—Howard Luloff
Research Committee Co-Chairs—Dave Lande, Gene Gomes
Membership Committee Chair—Stew Thornley
The Holy Cow! Editor—Stew Thornley
Ass. Editors—Jerry Janzen and Brenda Himrich
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
Go to Top
Resources
Go to Top
