Oklahoma Chapter meeting recap – 3/7/2020
The Oklahoma Chapter got in just under the wire with its March 7, 2020, meeting in Norman.
Rob Daugherty relayed biographical profiles of 28 major league players (1897-1947) of confirmed Native American ethnicity. Careers extended from Louis Sockalexis’s 1897 debut with the Cleveland Spiders through Allie Reynolds’s relief appearance in game 6 of the 1947 World Series. The list included several “cup of coffee players” as well as stars, such as Hall-of-Famer Albert “Chief” Bender, Bob and Roy Johnson, Chief Meyers, Reynolds, and Cal McLish, plus the famous for non-baseball exploits, Jim Thorpe.
In other news, the front page of the Seamheads.com website features four articles by OK-SABR member Kevin Johnson related to that site’s Negro Leagues statistical data base. Kevin is also largely responsible for the park factors database resident on that site. Kevin is a co-editor of the 5th edition of the ballpark compendium Green Cathedrals.
For those interested, the archives of Baseball Digest are available online free of charge until July 15. The monthly archive begins in 1942 and is available at baseballdigest.com/free (hat-tip to Ron Elliott).
Stay safe, stay well, stay patient. Best wishes to all.
— Howard Johnson
oldwx@yahoo.com