Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap – 9/18/2014
The Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at The Original Crusoe’s Restaurant in South St. Louis on Monday, September 22, 2014 with 17 members and guests in attendance.
Chapter president Brian Flaspohler called the meeting to order.
Items noted in “Today in Baseball History” were Cy Young winning his 511th and final Major League victory as the Boston Rustlers defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0 in 1911, Duke Snider hitting the final two home runs at Ebbets Field in 1957, Willie Mays becoming the second player to reach the 600 home run club in 1969, and Bobby Bonds establishing a new strikeout record (176) in the same game.
Jeff Ecker announced that an exhibit highlighting the art of Amadee Wohlschlaeger was currently on display at the downtown St. Louis Library. Known simply as “Amadee”, Wohlschlaeger spent 52 years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and also worked as a cartoonist for The Sporting News. The exhibit will run through November 30 in the library’s hall, at 1301 Olive St.
Rich Applegate’s presentation on baseball personnel who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country featured Keith Bissonnette, who reached AA ball in the early 1940s with St. Paul of the American Association. Bissonnette from Enderlin, North Dakota, played both the infield and outfield over three seasons in the minors. He reported for service with the Army Air Force in February 1943 and by the end of the year he had earned his pilot’s wings. Bissonnette flew over 200 missions in the China-Burma-India Theater as a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt pilot, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross with one Oak Leaf cluster and the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf clusters. On March 28, 1945, he was killed when his plane crashed near the Burma-China border.
Larry Porschen presented some interesting research both for and against the sacrifice bunt.
Bob Giovanni gave a book report on “”The Fight of Their Lives – How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball’s Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption” by John Rosengren.
Barb Scheinbein gave a report on attending the Annual St. Louis Browns Fan Club Reunion Lunch on September 18. There are 22 remaining ex-Browns players and four were in attendance. Ed Mickelson, J.W. Porter, Bud Thomas, and Roy Sievers made up the players panel with Ned Garver joining them by phone.
Bob Tiemann passed out an interesting research paper on the debut September of Stan Musial in 1941 and his farewell September in 1963.
After some brief discussion on the possible St. Louis Cardinals post-season roster, Bob Tiemann presented this month’s trivia quiz on Season-Ending Showdowns. Steve Gietschier was the winner with 21 out of 24 possible answers and received a recent stadium giveaway of a St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame inductee plaque.
Monday, October 20 is the date for the next roundtable meeting at Crusoe’s.
— Jim Leefers, Secretary