Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap – 9/19/2016
Sixteen members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at The Original Crusoe’s Restaurant in South St. Louis on Monday, September 19, 2016.
Chapter president Brian Flaspohler called the meeting to order. Treasurer Wayne Hebden had promotional ink pens for everyone, imprinted with “St. Louis SABR – Bob Broeg Chapter – Baseball Biggest Fans – Making History Monthly”. Thanks Wayne! Items noted in “Today in Baseball History”: 1910 – A Southern Association game between Mobile and Atlanta takes just 32 minutes to complete. Batters were swinging at every good pitch and there was little time between pitches in this experimental game that ended with Mobile winning 2-1. 1926 – The Cardinals pounded the Phillies in both ends of a doubleheader 23-3 and 10-2, in route to their first NL Championship. 1931 – Lefty Grove wins his 30th game of the season, beating the White Sox 2-1. 1955 – Ernie Banks sets a Major League record with his 5th grand slam of the season. 1997 – Mark McGwire hits his 54th home run of the season and his 20th with St. Louis to become the first player ever to hit 20 or more home runs with two different teams in the same season.
Celeste Czarnecki presented an update on her innovative 4BaseScore scoring method for baseball. She has available, on her website www.4basescore.com, a complete run of scorecards on both the Cardinals and the Cubs this year using her system. You can also see accolades from both MLB Network’s Brian Kenny and the BBWAA President, Derrick Goold.
In contrast, Bob Tiemann brought a copy of a scorecard kept, by Henry Chadwick, for an 1875 ballgame, who employed an interesting method himself.
A recap of the second annual Bob Broeg Chapter research conference was very favorable from those that participated and attended. Flaspohler said he felt a little embarrassed that he had to present the top prize to himself as the judges deemed his presentation, “Racial Bias in Hit By Pitches,” the best of the day.
The five chapter members, who attended the National SABR Convention in Miami this year, were also able to give positive reviews on their experiences at the convention.
Jim Leefers’ trivia topic was “St. Louis Cardinals All-Star Trivia”. Bob Tiemann was the winner with a score of 35 out of a possible 37 and won a book on American League History provided by Wayne Hebden.
The next SABR chapter Baseball Fellowship Gathering (formerly known as the alternate meeting) will be on Wednesday, October 5 at the Sports Café, 3579 Pennridge Drive in Bridgeton. Next month’s regular meeting will be Monday, October 17 at Crusoe’s. All baseball fans are welcome to attend.
— Jim Leefers