Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap – 12/17/2013
Seventeen members and guests attended the December 17, 2013, monthly roundtable meeting of the Bob Broeg SABR St. Louis Chapter. The event was held at the usual and friendly location, the Original Crusoe’s restaurant in south St. Louis.
Concern was expressed by many members for the rapidly declining health of our chapter Secretary, Jim Rygelski, hospitalized the day after Thanksgiving. He died early Wednesday morning, December 18, at age 64.
Members discussed a number of issues, including the annual Hot Stove event scheduled for January 18, 2014 to be held at Mike Shannon’s downtown location. Speakers should be finalized shortly. This will be an evening event this year in coordination with the Cardinal’s Winter Warmup weekend highlighting the players and 50th anniversary of the 1964 World Championship.
Other topics included an unfavorable book review by Jeff Ecker. The book concerned Cardinal teams from 1926 to 1970 and was disorganized, without chapters, and included too much material unrelated to the mission of the book.
On a much better note, various Cardinal acquisitions this winter were heralded favorably by the membership. Improvements in center field and the left side of the infield appear promising both offensively and defensively.
Mark Antonacci discussed the presentation he and Jim Rygelski prepared and delivered at the meeting last November 2012. “A Proposal to Improve Baseball’s Pace” will be submitted for inclusion in a future BRJ edition. Other circulation was discussed.
The evening’s clear highlight was a presentation by new member Celeste Czarnecki. As a fan, she wanted to measure which players on her team contributed the most towards the day’s game. Therefore, she analyzed all the nearly 7,000 Cardinal plate appearances in 2013 and came up with a system she calls 4BaseScore. It measures how effectively each player contributes to pushing himself and anyone else on base in front of him around the four bases. The presentation was officially confidential, but you might be hearing more from this young lady in the future.
The chapter next convenes at the annual Hot Stove roundtable in January. Happy Holidays!
— Submitted by Wayne Hebden, Treasurer, on behalf of Jim Rygelski, Chapter Secretary