Allan Roth Chapter meeting recap – 12/5/2015

Twenty-four members and guests of SABR’s Allan Roth Chapter came to LA84 on December 5, 2015, and were highly entertained by Jon Leonoudakis’ documentary Hano! A Century in the Bleachers, the story of Arnold Hano, the author of A Day in the Bleachers. Arnold Hano himself was in attendance and spent an hour answering questions about his life as a writer and the ballplayers he met.

In addition, Don Zminda presented his research titled “If It’s Sunday (or Wednesday), It Must Be Woodie: Wilbur Wood, Johnny Sain, the White Sox Two Days’ Rest Experiment of the 1970s.” Zminda discussed Johnny Sain’s use of Wilbur Wood on two days’ rest, a tactic that is almost unheard of today.

Barry Mednick discussed players with low values of WAR (Wins Above Replacement). Among batters with at least 500 PA, the lowest WAR was achieved by Pablo Sandoval. Among pitchers with at least 162 IP, Rubby de la Rosa had the lowest WAR.

Tom Nahigian won the trivia contest, which focused on the 1954 World Series.

— Barry Mednick