Larry Dierker Chapter meeting recap – 12/15/2025
The last SABR Houston Larry Dierker Chapter meeting of 2025 was held on Monday night, December 15, at 7:00 pm central at the Spaghetti Western Italian Restaurant, 1608 Shepherd Dr, Houston, TX 77007. Thirty people joined the meeting in person and via Zoom. Those who could not attend were given the option to join via Zoom.
Click here to watch a video replay on YouTube.
Chapter President Joe Thompson opened the meeting by wishing all a happy holiday and making a few announcements. First, he handed out a holiday treat to all who attended: pieces of Big League Chew bubble gum. He then announced several gifts that would be given out at the end of the evening to those who participated in the trivia contest, including a book, some of his personal Dodgers memorabilia (those who attended the last few meetings knew why), and baseball card packs. He then reminded all in attendance, whether in-person or via Zoom, to renew their SABR membership if it was set to expire. Finally, he went over the upcoming January schedule for the chapter.
As the chapter continued with our year-long 60th anniversary Astrodome celebration, Joe thanked all the guest speakers from 2025, who mostly covered topics related to the Astrodome.
The speaker list for 2025 included:
- Mike Acosta
- Samuel Barrett
- Scott Barzilla
- Bill Brown
- Scott Carter
- Larry Dierker
- Bienvenido “Benny” Gilbert
- Jonathan Goodwin
- Andy Greenstone
- Greg Moore
- Matthew Rejmaniak
- Jimmy Scruggs
- Tal Smith
Additionally, the chapter would like to thank all who shared an Astrodome memory this past year, whether at one of our meetings or by writing an article for the chapter newsletter. Thanks again to all who helped the chapter celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Astrodome!
The first two speakers at the December meeting spoke about topics related to the Astrodome. Our main speaker of the evening was chapter member Scott Barzilla, author of “The Hall of Fame Index,” who talked about the HOF credentials of Jimmy Wynn, Cesar Cedeno, and Jose Cruz, some of the best Astros outfielders during the era of the Astrodome. A couple of interesting notes from Scott’s talk were that Scott feels that the Astrodome represented the toughest hitting environment in baseball history, Jose Cruz is the #1 defensive left fielder in history and Jimmy Wynn SHOULD BE IN THE HALL OF FAME.
Our next two speakers gave outstanding book reviews. First up was Greg Moore, who gave a review of “The Astrodome – Building an American Spectacle” by James Gast. One of the more interesting notes from the review was when the author talked about how the Astrodome would be able to keep all who came to events in the Dome cool with air conditioning. Before the Astrodome was built, no such volume of space had been attempted to be air conditioned before. To Greg, those who built the Dome succeeded because he remembers that no matter where he went in the Astrodome, it was a cool 73 degrees. Greg also showed a video of Mickey Mantle hitting the first home run in the Astrodome. Second up was Jimmy Scruggs, who gave a review of “The Pride of Sudlersville” by Mark R. Millikin. The book was a look at the life of Jimmie Foxx, nicknamed XX or “The Beast.” Ted Williams said Foxx was one of the nicest guys in baseball, and he rated Foxx the #3 hitter in his book “Hit Men.” SABR has Foxx ranked the #14 hitter in the 20th century.
To conclude the night, Mike McCroskey won the trivia contest. Mike will write the first trivia contest of 2026.
The chapter would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season and we will see all of you in 2026!