Larry Dierker Chapter meeting recap – 11/20/2023
On Monday, November 20, 2023, twenty-eight attendees in person and six on Zoom met for the monthly Larry Dierker Chapter meeting. The meeting opened with chapter President Joe Thompson wishing members Vince and Lena Trovato congratulations since they were married last month. Joe then announced that Rick Bush, a Houston SABR member, had passed away last month.
Zak Ford, chair of the Dusty Baker-Sacramento SABR chapter and key speaker, joined the meeting via Zoom and talked about his newly released book Called Up: Ballplayers Remember Becoming Major Leaguers. You can order now through Amazon, Mcfarlandbooks.com, and other booksellers. Zak received the content of his book through 109 personal players’ stories. This included the orientation process and first plate appearances for newly called-up major leaguers and much more.
Jimmy Scruggs gave a book review on Ernie Harwell: My 60 Years in Baseball. He was an American sportscaster, known for his long career calling play-by-play for Major League Baseball games on the radio and/or television. He spent most of his career with the Detroit Tigers. He has been rated as a top broadcaster by some sources.
Joe announced that the chapter will be voting on who should be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown during our next meeting on Monday, December 18th.
The baseball trivia winners for November were Joe Thompson and Vince Trovato. Joe Thompson will prepare the contest for next month.
Our Fall 2023 newsletter is now available. The next issue will be out in early January and the deadline for article submissions is January 15, 20245. It needs to be 600-1500 words and can be a book review, a personal memory, or research. If you have an idea or story for the newsletter, please let Tony Cavender (anthony.cavender@
On December 18, 2023, the chapter will hold its next meeting. Greg Lucas, who many of you know from his many contributions to the chapter over the years, will be our guest speaker. Greg will talk about his update and enlargement of his 2018 book Astro Legends and his experiences as one of the few announcers to work for both the Astros and the Rangers. The update to the book will have nearly twenty new entries and at least thirty percent new material. It is expected to be released next year, hopefully in March.
We hope to have more books from Tal Smith’s donation to give away. These books will make great holiday presents for those book lovers out there!
We hope all of you can join us for the next SABR chapter meeting on Monday, December 18 starting at 7 pm central, either in person at the Spaghetti Western Restaurant on Shepherd or via Zoom. It should be a great meeting.
Thank you to Phyllis Mira and Gloria Rubac who did a great job with this month’s chapter meeting notes.
— Joe Thompson