Oklahoma Chapter meeting recap – 10/6/2019
The Oklahoma Chapter of SABR met on October 6, 2019, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Several presentations ensued.
1. Jake Cornwall described his experiences playing “wooden bat” baseball with the adult sandlot team, the Tulsa Rumblers. The Rumblers play games, some with similar teams from elsewhere in the region, or, failing that scrimmaging among themselves each Sunday at a local Tulsa field which formerly hosted games played by a local professional African-American team.
2. Jesse Asbury reported on the University of Oklahoma’s victory in the 1951 NCAA College World Series. His showed box scores and news accounts of the tournament, the second one played at the event’s longtime site in Omaha, Nebraska. His interest in the tournament arose because his grandfather played for the runner-up Tennessee Volunteers.
3. Ron Elliott pointed to a number of career statistical milestones reached by Matt Holliday during his 14-year career in MLB. The Stillwater, OK product is one of only 19 major-league players who have attained at least 2,000 hits, 300 home runs, 1200 RBIs, 400 doubles, and 100 stolen bases, and also ended with a career slugging percentage of at least .500.
4. Howard Johnson reported on his attendance at the opening of an exhibit at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Park Hill, OK, which features Native American ballplayers in the major leagues prior to 1947. The exhibit, based on research by Rob Daugherty, will continue through the end of April.
5. Kevin Johnson stumped the audience with a quiz on the physics of baseball. This supplemented Howard Johnson’s trivia questions which were presented during the course of the meeting.
6. Ken Fischer showed a video of a television program he had made while working for a New Mexico television station which included an interview with minor league home run “king” Joe Bauman who swatted 72 circuit blasts in 1954 while playing the Roswell Rockets of the Class C Longhorn League. Bauman was an Oklahoma native.
The meeting was an enjoyable and productive one. The chapter will convene again sometime during the first quarter of 2020. Stay tuned.
— Howard Johnson
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