Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap – 6/21/2016

Fourteen members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at The Original Crusoe’s Restaurant in South St. Louis on Tuesday, June 21, 2016.

Chapter president Brian Flaspohler called the meeting to order. He announced that there were currently only two confirmed research presentations for the Chapter Research Conference that will take place August 20, 2016. He again encouraged those with research presentations to let him know as soon as possible. He was also planning to send invitations to members of other nearby chapters.

Items noted in “Today in Baseball History” was the 1939 retirement announcement of Lou Gehrig, Lefty Grove’s consecutive Fenway win streak of 20 coming to an end at the hands of the St. Louis Browns 13-9, the 1951 sale announcement of the Browns to Bill Veeck, the first major league start for the Cardinal’s Von McDaniel in 1957 when he two-hit the Dodgers and won 2-0, the final professional appearance for Satchel Paige with the Peninsula Grays of the Carolina League in 1966, the 1967 bench-clearing brawl between the Yankees and the Red Sox, and 2500 career victory for Tony LaRussa in 2009.

Flaspohler gave a research presentation on the increase since 1989 of batters being hit by pitch. Possible reasons that were discussed were the quality of pitching, the onset of the steroid era leading to increased retaliation due to the increase in home runs, and the prevalence of more body armor.

John Schoon shared a few anecdotes from the Claudia Williams book “Ted Wiiliams, My Father” and also “Baseball and Memory: Winning, Losing, and the Remembrance of Things Past” which prompted some discussion on what does it actually take to become a big-league ballplayer.

Open discussion topics included the possible upswing of the Cardinals/Cubs rivalry now that both teams are in contention, the recent Cardinals demotions and promotions, and David Ortiz’s final season.

Bob Tiemann’s trivia topic was “Lone Star St. Louis Stars”. Jim Leefers was the winner with a score of 33 out of a possible 38.

The next Baseball Fellowship Gathering (formerly known as the alternate meeting) will be on Thursday July 7 at a venue to be determined. Next month’s regular meeting will be Wednesday, July 13 at Crusoe’s.

— Jim Leefers, Secretary