Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap – 3/24/2015
Sixteen members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at The Original Crusoe’s Restaurant in South St. Louis on Tuesday, March 24, 2015.
Chapter president Brian Flaspohler called the meeting to order.
The original date, for the Jim Rygelski Research Conference, of Saturday, July 11 has become tentative and may be changed due to a conflict. Flaspohler stated that so far four or five individuals have expressed interest in participating and it was suggested that there be a ‘call for papers’ to encourage others from nearby chapters to participate as well.
Bob Tiemann gave a research presentation on the phenomenal 1909 season of the World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, who finished with a 110-42 record and defeated the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 3 in the Fall Classic.
Items noted in ‘Today in Baseball History’ were the 1911 death of St. Louis Cardinal president Matthew Stanley Robinson, which resulted in his niece, Mrs. Helene Hathaway Britton becoming the first female owner of a major league club; Babe Ruth becoming a victim of the continuing depression in 1933 and taking a $23,000 pay cut from his previous $75,000 salary; the 1952 spring training, line drive incident that cost Cardinals prospect Bob Slaybaugh his left eye and curtailed his career; and the 1961 approval by the New York State Senate for a $55,000,000 stadium in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens.
Several of those present submitted their predictions for the upcoming MLB season. Once again the local team was the overwhelming favorite to win it all with a couple of votes for the Washington Nationals.
In an informal poll, the subject of Pete Rose’s possible reinstatement was voted down 9-4.
Steve Gietschier mentioned the Sabermetrics 101: Introduction to Baseball Analytics course being offered on www.edx.org through Boston University. The course offers an introduction to sabermetrics, baseball analytics, data science, the R Language, and SQL.
John Schoon shared some anecdotes from J. Frank Cashen’s book, Winning in Both Leagues: Reflections from Baseball’s Front Office.
Bob Tiemann’s trivia topic this month was Sportsman’s Park History 1866-1966. Mark Stangl was the winner, getting 15 correct answers out of a possible 23.
The next chapter meeting will be Monday, April 20 at Crusoe’s.
— Jim Leefers, Secretary