Resources
Charles Clark Dies
Charles Clark died August 23 at 91. A longtime chapter member, Charles hosted our group at his home in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, three times. The first was in June 1985, when we got to meet Burleigh Grimes and tour the Clear Lake Area Museum. We later went back to see Burleigh’s grave, along with that of another famous Clear Lake resident, Gaylord Nelson. Charles and his wife, Ardeth, provided loads of food, and a trip to the Clarks in Clear Lake was an all-day event. After Ardeth died, some members went back to Charles’s home, where the hospitality was as good as ever—with his sons pitching in on the food fest, and we were treated to stories about Bob Feller, Charles’s good friend, and his many trips to Cooperstown. Charles is being buried in Clear Lake Cemetery, where Burleigh Grimes and Gaylord Nelson are also buried along with other dead people.
Charles Clark obituary
Above: Burleigh Grimes (center) with Halsey Hall SABR members who went to Clear Lake to meet him in June of 1985. Below: Charles Clark (on the right in the front row) with his sons and Halsey Hall Chapter members, including Joe Niese, Art Mugalian, and Tom Flynn in November 2015. (Joe has written books about Burleigh Grimes and other area athletes, including Andy Pafko and Gus Dorais.)
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By-Laws Amendments Passed/Recommended by Board of Directors
The Halsey Hall Chapter board of directors approved a recommendation for an amendment to the chapter by-laws that will change the structure of the board and officers. If ratified by the membership at the October 25 chapter meeting, each spring the chapter will have a direct election of a president-elect. This person will automatically ascend to president the following year and then to immediate past president, the latter being an ex-officio, non-voting member of the board of directors. Elections of a secretary and treasurer will occur every three years. Three directors will serve rotating three-year terms with one director elected by the membership every year.
The proposed method is geared toward getting and keeping valuable experience and also getting new people involved while rotating rather than recycling officers and board members. Other details of the plan include a provision that a person completing the president-elect/president/past president cycle could not immediately run for president-elect again. A waiting period would also apply to directors, who would have to wait at least one year to run for director again.
Here are the current and proposed by-laws:
By-laws of the Halsey Hall Chapter, Society for American Baseball Research—Current and Proposed
The new system, if approved at the fall chapter meeting, will begin in 2026. The board of directors will adopt a transition plan for the change-over between the current and new system.
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Chapter Annual Report for 2024-2025 Now Available
Gene Gomes has come through again and submitted our chapter annual report to SABR.
Halsey Hall SABR Annual Report, 2024-2025
It is on this page, with other annual reports plus minutes from board, chapter, and research meetings:
Minutes and Reports
Annual reports submitted by other chapters are at:
SABR Annual Reports
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Fall Chapter Meeting October 25
The October 25 meeting is set for Faith Mennonite Church, 2720 E. 22nd Street in south Minneapolis. Registration begins around 8:15 a.m. with the program starting 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.
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.
Three presentations have been approved so far:
One presentation slot is always reserved for a first-time presenter until four weeks before the chapter meeting (September 27). If a slot remains after that, any member can submit a proposal until October 11, two weeks before the meeting, when the Research Committee will wrap up the schedule of presentations.
The research presentations will be in the morning, with a featured guest and Howard Luloff’s trivia quiz in the afternoon.
Also at the meeting will be a display of baseball cards, with a focus on Joe Hauser, that Glenn Renick is assembling.
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Upcoming Events
Phil Lowry is organizing a chapter townball outing to Brownton for the Class C championship game at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 31. Contact Phil, lowrypj@appstate.edu, for more information.
Mike Haupert will give a Zoom presentation, Business of Being the Babe," for the Babe Ruth Museum on Wednesday, September 3 at 6:00 p.m. Central time. Registration for Business of Being the Babe
The Fourth Anal. 9-ONLINE: A Virtual Baseball Conference will be held September 4-5.
The Seventh Annual SABR/International Women’s Baseball Center Conference will be held on-line September 19-21. Early registration at a discounted rate is open throught September 12.
The Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be Saturday, September 13 at 9:00 a.m. at the Shortstop Bar and Grill, 1298 East Moore Lake Drive, Fridley 55432.
Mary Shea has organized a joint Zoom meeting among several SABR chapters and the International Woman’s Baseball Center to have Jane Leavy discuss her new book, Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It at 7:00 p.m. Central Time on Wednesday, October 1. Mary and Mike Haupert will co-host the event. Registration for Joint Chapter Meeting: Jane Leavy
The next Book Club meeting will be Saturday, October 4 at Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall at 9:30 a.m. The book selection is A Baseball Memoir: Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals, and Cooperstown by Bill Madden.
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 Halsey Hall Chapter is planning a Zoom meeting with Mark Armour regarding his research on Satchel Paige and his attempt to document every pitching appearance by Paige. The meeting with our chapter will focus on Paige’s appearances in Minnesota and the Dakotas.
The 2026 SABR convention in Cleveland has the dates set: 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.
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 Bluesky page has 100 followers and 69 following, the Facebook page 318 members, and the Xwitter page 816 followers. 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.) Bob Komoroski is overseeing the Bluesky page.
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 Research Committee.
Dave Lande is working on a story for the SABR Games Project for a book SABR is doing on Henry Aaron, which will be released next year. Dave is writing about a July 14, 1956 game when Aaron had four hits, including a single that drove in the winning run in the last of the 10th in a 3-2 win for Milwaukee over Brooklyn.
MIke Zarling (who will be presenting on milestones at the fall chapter meeting) has been researching deserving players for the Hall of Fame who have not been inducted.
Kris Hard is the co-chair, along with John Bauer, of the revived SABR Official Scoring Research Committee. The original committee focused heavily on the official part of official scoring. The revived committee will continue to do this although it is also more open to people who just like to keep score of games and as a discussion spot for everything from the quality of scorecards at different ballparks to how people mark such new-fangled things as the start-of-inning runner in their scorebooks. The committee has a discussion board open to all committee members as well as anyone in SABR. A Zoom meeting will be at 7 p.m. Central time on Tuesday, September 9. Registration for September 9 Official Scoring Committee Meeting
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.
The next Research Committee meetings, via Zoom, will be September 22 and October 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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Ed Edmonds’s Decipher the Theme! Quiz
Here is the quiz from the August Research Committee meeting.
- This Indiana native began his MLB career with the Minnesota Twins in 1995. He had double-digit losses in 1997, 1998, and 1999 before moving to the bullpen. After the 2003 season when he was 9-3 with a 1.86 ERA, he signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs. He finished his 21-year career in 2015.
- This left fielder/third baseman was born in 1939 in Brooklyn, but he made his debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1959. He won the National League batting title in 1962 and 1963, the only two years in his 18-year MLB career when he was selected to an All-Star team. He played on the 1963 World Series winning Dodgers, but he followed that with appearances on four straight playoff losing teams.
- This Canadian native had two cups-of-coffee with the Montreal Expos in 1992 and 1993. He played a few more games for the Boston Red Sox in 1995 before becoming an Oakland Athletics in 1996 and a regular player from 1997-2000. In Oakland he displayed a power bat including 38 home runs and 102 RBIs in 1999. He played for the Cubs in 2001 and the Brewers in 2002, and he retired after the 2011 season.
- This left fielder is an active player this year. He started his career playing for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2014 and was traded to Tampa Bay in 2018. His next stop was in 2020 with San Diego before landing in Cincinnati in 2022. Some will remember him for slapping Joc Pederson over a fantasy football incident in a league they both participated in.
- This center fielder started his career in 2013 for the Toronto Blue Jays where he enjoyed most of his best years. He split 2019 with the Blue Jays and Giants before spending the following season playing for the Red Sox and Rockies. In 2025, he played 20 games for the Texas Rangers before being released on May 30. He also played for the Mets, Dodgers, and Braves.
- This Californian is largely remembered as a corner infielder after starting his MLB career as a catcher. He spent seven years (1989-1995) with the St. Louis Cardinals before a mid-season trade to the Cubs. From 1996-1999, he played for the Phillies, Orioles, Dodgers, Marlins, and Rangers. He completed his 16-year career with 2,004 hits in 2,158 games.
- This native of the Dominican Republic won nearly 250 games in his MLB career spanning 21 years. He was an ace starter for the Cleveland Indians before moving to the Expos during the 2002 season. He won 15 games for the White Sox in 2003, and 21 games for the Angels in 2005. He also played for the Red Sox, Yankees, Athletics, and Mets. He even played for the Twins before retiring in 2018 after a 7-12 log for the Rangers.
- This center fielder amassed a total of 2,428 hits and a .299 batting average during his 17-year career that started with a short stint in Houston in 1991. He moved in 1992 to Cleveland where he became a star. This 6-time All-Star (1994-1999) also played for the Braves, White Sox, Giants, Pirates, Cubs, Yankees, Phillies, and Dodgers.
- This pitcher was born in Neu-Ulm, Germany in 1983. Beginning in 2003, he appeared in a total of 19 games over three years with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2006, he moved to Tampa Bay where his workload increased. He moved on to the Tigers in 2009 for his lone All-Star year before pitching for the Diamondbacks, White Sox, Cardinals, Nationals (twice), Cubs, Braves, Marlins, Padres, Orioles, Athletics, Blue Jays, and (Tigers again). He retired after the 2019 season with a 17-year career log of 107 wins and 133 losses.
- The inning with a “ghost runner“ — This pitcher was just granted free agency on August 1, 2025. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and owns a 90-76 W-L log in 21 years of pitching. He is tied with the answer for question 9 in a key figure that is part of the theme for this quiz. He has played for the Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs, Indians, Pirates, Rays, Orioles, Yankees, Athletics, Mets, Padres, Twins, Angels, and Royals.
Answers below
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Research Presentations from SABR Convention Available for Viewing
All research presentations from the recent SABR convention in Texas are available for listening and viewing of Powerpoint slides at SABR 53: Research Presentations. They include the presentation by Mark Armour (mentioned above in Upcoming Events) and ones by chapter members Dan Levitt and Mike Haupert.
In addition, audio is available from the panel Ed Edmonds was on with Steve Rogers and Don Fehr regarding the 50th anniversary of the Peter Seitz decision at SABR 53: Listen to highlights from the Seitz Decision 50th Anniversary Panel.
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New Members
The Halsey Hall Chapter welcomes new member Ethan Schmid.
Our chapter has welcomed 4 new members since June 1, 2025, the beginning of the SABR fiscal year reporting period, and now 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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Thought of the Month
Boog Sciambi: “Yes, you’re a champion. Heeeey . . .”
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Banana Ball
How many members were at CHS Field in August to see the Banana Ball World Tour with games between the Texas Tailgaters and Party Animals? Here are some images:
Jake Skole of the Party Animals digs for second on a walk. Banana Ball rules require all fielders touch the ball before making a play on a walk.
In keeping with the Family Friendly atmosphere, which includes a focus on beer chugging at Banana Ball games, the Party Animals mascot is nicknamed Pharty.
Jonathan Luders of the Tailgaters batting on a unicycle, which he ditched and ran to first on his own after lining a single to left.
A sacred Banana Ball between-innings tradition is teams singing Hey Baby followed by a hearty “Hoo Haw!”
The Savannah Bananas, the original Banana Ball team, added the Hoo Haw! to the song and also made a fun music video worth viewing:
Sing, boogie, and Hoo Haw! along with the Savannah Bananas.
In the games in St. Paul, the Party Animals beat the Tailgaters 2-1 each night even though the Tailgaters scored more runs in one of the games. One point is awarded to a team by winning an inning (although all runs in the ninth inning count as points). Also noted on the scoreboard are the number of trick plays by each team even though they have no effect on the outcome of the game.
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Cow Pies
The SABR Games Project has new game stories by chapter members:
Ben Ernst, who presented on the Aberdeen Pheasants at our spring chapter meeting, made his first trip to Baltimore, got the royal treatment from the Babe Ruth Chapter, and got to meet Tim Kurkjian, Adrienne Roberson, and Jim Palmer.
As reported at the August 25 chapter board meeting, a distinguished member once did a variation of the Ding Dong Ditch prank. Instead of leaving a flaming bag of dog poop on someone’s doorstep before ringing the bell and running away, said member and his Dubuque homies performed the trick with a box that had contained a pepperoni pizza. Although not officially an independent-study science experiment, the feat taught the aspiring Einsteins that leftover grease in such a box produces flames far more spectacular than feces.
The August 24 death of Marc Hill brought back some warm, fuzzy, feel-good moments to a chapter member who was seated near the White Sox bullpen down the left-field line at Met Stadium in September 1981. Hill came out to warm up a pitcher and, while doing so, engaged in conversation with said member. Done with his duties, Marc pulled out a pouch of Levi Garrett Chewing Tobacco and, upon a request from his conversation partner, gave him the pouch. Such a fan-friendly player deserved a birthday card, which said member finally sent when Marc turned 69 in 2021.
The Summer 2025 edition of Keltner’s Hot Corner, the newsletter of the Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter, is on-line:
Keltner’s Hot Corner, Summer 2025
Past Keltner’s Hot Corner newsletters:
Keltner’s Hot Corner
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Answers to Ed Edmonds’s Decipher the Theme! Quiz
- LaTroy Hawkins
- Tommy Davis
- Matt Stairs
- Tommy Pham
- Kevin Pillar
- Todd Zeile
- Bartolo Colon
- Kenny Lofton
- Edwin Jackson
- Rich Hill aka Dick Mountain
Theme: Played for at least 10 teams (with Jackson and D. Mountain having played for 14 teams)
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Calendar
August 31—Class C Title Game, 7:00 p.m., Brownton. For more information, contact Phil Lowry.
September 13—Fred Souba Hot Stove League Saturday Morning, 9:00 a.m., Shortstop Bar and Grill, Fridley. For more information, contact John Buckeye.
September 22—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
October 1—Zoom meeting with Jane Leavy, 7:00 p.m.
October 4—Book Club, Barnes & Noble, Har Mar Mall, Roseville, 9:30 a.m., A Baseball Memoir: Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals, and Cooperstown by Bill Madden. Contact Ed Edmonds for more information.
October 12—Halsey Hall Chapter Board of Directors meeting, 7:30 p.m. For more information on attending, contact Ed Edmonds.
October 20—Research Committee meeting, 7:00-9:00 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, contact Dave Lande or Gene Gomes.
October 25—Fall Chapter Meeting, 8:45 a.m., Faith Mennonite Church, Minneapolis. For more information, contact Howard Luloff, 952-994-5217, or Bob Komoroski.
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Board of Directors 2025-2026
President—Ed Edmonds
Vice President—Mike Haupert
Secretary—John Buckeye
Treasurer—Rich Arpi
Terry Bohn
Howard Luloff
Jacob Sayward
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 and Bluesky; John Buckeye, 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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