Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap – 11/14/2017
Thirteen members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at the Sports Cafe, located at 3579 Pennridge Drive in Bridgeton, Missouri, on Tuesday, November 14, 2017.
Chapter president Brian Flaspohler called the meeting to order. Items noted in “Today in Baseball History”: 1957 – Hank Aaron receives 239 points from the baseball writers to win the National League MVP, narrowly beating Stan Musial and former Cardinal Red Schoendienst who collect 230 and 221 points respectively. 1986 – The Doubleday Publishing Company agrees to sell the World Champion Mets to Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon for $80.75 million. The company had purchased the Mets for a then-record $21.1 million in 1980. 2011 – Mike Matheny is named to replace recently retired Tony LaRussa as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.
At the March meeting, prior to the regular season, 10 members submitted predictions for the division winners, wild card teams, LCS participants, league champions and World Series champions, with varying points awarded for each correct prediction. With 22 points, out of a possible 45, Jim Leefers was the top prognosticator, helped by the fact that he was the only one to select the Houston Astros as the World Series champions. Craig Carter, Mark Stangl, and Rick Zucker all tied for second with 14 points.
Ballots were passed out for the Modern Baseball Era Hall of Fame election. With 13 voting, a total of 10 votes were required for election. With 11 votes, Marvin Miller was ‘elected’ by those present. Other vote totals were Ted Simmons (7), Jack Morris & Dale Murphy (6), and Alan Trammell (5). The other five candidates received 3 or fewer votes. Also discussed were the finalists for the Ford Frick Award, with the general consensus being that Joe Buck, Bob Costas, or Al Michaels were the favorites. Some lengthy Hall of Fame discussion took place afterward.
There was some discussion about having a special meeting & event in March of next year to commemorate what would have been Bob Broeg’s 100th birthday.
Other topics of discussion were the World Series, the Giancarlo Stanton sweepstakes, and the intriguing case of Japanese sensation Shorhei Ohtani.
Bob Tiemann’s trivia topic was “World Series Game Sevens”. Mark Stangl was the winner with a score of 36 out of 53.
The next regular monthly meeting will be Monday, December 18, 2017 at the Sports Café.
— Jim Leefers