Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap – 8/26/2019
Twenty-eight members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter assembled at the Sports Cafe, located at 3579 Pennridge Drive in Bridgeton on Monday, August 26, 2019.
Chapter president Rick Zucker called the meeting to order. As always, our meeting started with everyone introducing themselves.
Increased attendance at last month’s meeting seemed to cause the evening to run longer than usual. With another robust crowd this evening, it was discussed and voted on that monthly meetings will now begin at 6:30 instead of 6:45.
Items mentioned for this date in baseball history were: 1912–Owen Wilson of the Pirates has 3 triples in a DH, giving him a record 32. 1939-First televised game, Dodgers vs. Reds, announced by Red Barber. 1965-Mets beat dodgers 5-2, improving their record against Sandy Koufax to 1-13. 1981-Cardinals suspend Garry Templeton and fine him $5,000. He returns Sept. 15. 1993-Mets place Vince Coleman on paid administrative leave, effectively ending his career. 2002-Yankees defeat Rangers in first internet game, streamed on mlb.com. 2018-Matt Carpenter strokes 4 doubles against the Rockies, tying Joe Medwick’s record.
Zucker again used a collection of old pennants that he won at the recent convention, to show the league standings on this date 75 years ago, during the 1944 season with the two St. Louis clubs standing atop their respective leagues, eventually meeting in the World Series.
Zucker introduced Howard Bly, a local memorabilia collector, who passed around some photos of his vast collection, which occupies his finished basement and also brought a signed beautiful leatherwork portrait of Stan Musial.
Ed Wheatley spoke about the recent St. Louis Browns Luncheon, which took place Wednesday, August 21. The highlight was a panel discussion on the 1944 All-St. Louis World Series. MC’ed by Cardinals TV broadcaster Dan McLaughlin, the panel included Wheatley, Lewis Levey, Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr., and Brian Finch of the Cardinals HOF & Museum. Two of the ten current living ex-Browns were in attendance, Don Larsen and Ed Mickelson. The oldest living former MLB player, Tom Jordan, was unfortunately unable to attend due to illness and Wheatley announced Monday evening that Mr. Jordan passed away that morning at the age of 99. Other former players at the Browns luncheon were Ken Holtzman, Art Shamsky, Charlie James, Joe Cunningham, Frank Baumann, Ron Hunt, and Ken Reitz. Several local SABR members attended and enjoyed it greatly. Jim Leefers mentioned that, with Mr. Jordan’s passing, the nine remaining Browns players would perfectly fill out a lineup with one player at each defensive position with MLB experience at that position.
Allison Levin passed out flyers for the upcoming fifth annual Jim Rygelski Research Conference to be held September 21, 2019 on the campus of Webster University. Doors will open at 10:00 AM and submissions are due by September 1. For more information, submission forms, and registration visit https://bit.ly/STLSABR19 (case sensitive). Presently, registered presentations are down from last year, so if you have some recent research you would like to share, register this week.
Zucker brought a copy of Dennis Thiessen’s new book on Tip O’Neill and the 1880’s St. Louis Browns for anyone to borrow. He also had a copy of Dan O’Neill’s new book, Celebration: The Magic of the Cardinals in the 1980s, to pass around.
Zucker also spoke briefly about the BasebALZ program begun by the Rogers Hornsby SABR Chapter in Central Texas and based upon a highly successful baseball-themed program, the Cardinals Reminiscence League (CRL), developed by the Alzheimer’s Association in St. Louis. He hoped that perhaps some of the local chapter members would be interested in a similar program.
There was some discussion of the chapter possibly looking into placing markers on unmarked graves of former MLB players that are in the area. Zucker recently discovered that former 1880s American Association Browns player William “Yank” Robinson is one such player.
Bob Tiemann presented some research on the won-lost records of all 30 teams since the year 2000 showing the Cardinals trailing only the Yankees for winning percentage. He was prompted by the grumblings at the meetings over the last couple of years of the shortcomings of the local nine. Perhaps Cardinals fans have been spoiled?
General discussions focused on the Cardinals overpaying and/or overplaying aging players leading to some spirited conversation.
Bob Tiemann’s trivia quiz was titled “2004 Cardinal Cavalcade”. Morris Buenemann was the winner with 27 out of 34 correct. He won a green St. Louis Cardinals jersey.
The next regular monthly meeting will be Monday, October 14, 2019 at the Sports Café in Bridgeton. The next Fellowship Meeting will be September 4 at Lester’s in Ladue. The Jim Rygelski Research Conference will be Saturday, September 21, 2019 at Webster University at 10:00 AM.
— Jim Leefers