Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap – 6/19/2018
Fifteen members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at the Sports Cafe, located at 3579 Pennridge Drive in Bridgeton on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. Attendance was down slightly as several members were already en route for SABR 48 in Pittsburgh.
New chapter president Rick Zucker called the meeting to order and asked the attendees to raise a glass to former president Brian Flaspohler and his leadership for the past five years.
Treasurer Mark Stangl gave a brief financial report.
Items mentioned for this date in baseball history were: 1846–The first officially recorded baseball game was played under Alexander Cartwright’s rules on Hoboken, New Jersey’s Elysian Fields. The NY Nine beat the Knickerbockers 23-1 in four innings. 1903-Lou Gehrig is born. 1942-Braves outfielder Paul Waner becomes the seventh player to get 3,000 hits with a single off Pirates pitcher Rip Sewell. 1989-Dwight Gooden gets career victory #100. The only pitcher with a better record at 100 wins than Doc’s 100-37 was Whitey Ford at 100-36. 1999-Ted ‘Double Duty’ Radcliffe, at 96 years old, becomes the oldest player to ever appear in a professional baseball game. He throws one pitch for the Schaumburg Flyers to Fargo-Moorhead DH Matt Faulken at Alexian Field. 2015-DH Alex Rodriguez becomes the 29th player to get 3,000 hits with a first inning home run off Justin Verlander.
Zucker mentioned the very positive review by Joseph Wancho on the book St. Louis Browns: The Story of a Beloved Team by local member Ed Wheatley, Bill Rogers, and Bill Borst.
Morris Buenemann presented some research he had done on the Cardinals’ extra innings games since 1960. Early this season the Cardinals have played a high percentage of extra-innings games, which triggered the research.
Zucker did a short recap of Bob Gibson’s June starts in his record-setting 1968 season. Gibson began the month with a 3-5 record. He went 6-0 in June, including five straight shutouts, six complete games, allowing just 28 hits in 54 innings, and striking out 43. Bob Tiemann added some research on the three-game shutout sweep by the Cardinals over the Cubs in the middle of June 1968.
Bob Giovanni gave a good recommendation of the Joe Cox book The Immaculate Inning: Unassisted Triple Plays, 40/40 Seasons, and the Sories Behind Baseball’s Rarest Feats.
Most of the general baseball discussion was over the woes of the current Cardinals: anemic offense, terrible baserunning, and an ineffective bullpen.
Bob Tiemann’s trivia topic was “21st Century Quadruple Crown Stats Leaders – by Club – NL”. Jim Leefers was the winner with a score of 52 out of 62. He received a 2014 Cardinals HOF stadium giveaway plaque as a prize.
The Fellowship Meeting will be Tuesday, July 3 at Lester’s in Ladue beginning around 5:30 pm. The next regular monthly meeting will be Monday, July 23, 2018 at the Sports Café in Bridgeton. All baseball fans are welcome to attend.
— Jim Leefers