Larry Dierker Chapter meeting recap – 3/17/2025

On St Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2025, twenty-two members and guests of SABR’s Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston met at the Spaghetti Western Italian restaurant on Shepherd Drive for our monthly chapter meeting. Fourteen more chapter members and guests joined the meeting via Zoom.  

The first speaker of the evening was SABR Executive VP Scott Carter. He invited everyone to the SABR annual convention in DFW at the Westin DFW Airport from June 25-29, 2025. Scott said the convention will have some great presentations and appearances from Pudge Rodriguez, Bruce Bochy, and Chris Young, President of Rangers baseball operations. People can also purchase a Texas Rangers game, a tour of Globe Life Field, and a ticket to see the Frisco RoughRiders.  Here is the link for all members to purchase their package to SABR 53 this summer: https://sabr.org/convention. Scott also then spoke about SABR’s new recruitment initiative called the SABR 500 Club. They hope to recruit 500 new members by April 30.

The main speaker of the evening was chapter member Benny Gilbert. Benny is one of the chapter’s youngest members but he gave a riveting presentation over his idea about a restoration project for the Astrodome called Dome: Mission 1965. He began in April of 2021. His plan focuses on restoring the Dome back to its previous glory!  He gave a list of events that could be held if it was a sports stadium, such as spring football, Texan’s pre-season events, high school sports, boxing, concerts, and car racing. Gilbert presented a list of changes to the Dome under his plan, like cleaning inside and out, new luxury skyboxes, and adding murals. A new Astros Hall of History would be added as a museum dedicated to the Dome’s history. This would educate young people about the significance of the Astrodome. 

 

Then, Benny suggested that the land where AstroWorld used to sit could be turned into an urban green park! And the Astro Needle could be brought back and put in the middle of the park. Benny also spoke of a memorial to Jim Umbricht that should be part of the renovation. Umbricht was one of the first players chosen by Houston in 1961, and his was the first number retired by the Astros. Umbricht’s brother Ed scattered his ashes at the Dome while it was still under construction, so it is Umbricht’s final resting place. Benny mentioned that the Houston SABR chapter could take a role in doing this.  

The trivia contest was given by Samuel Barrett and covered Rickwood Field, the iconic ballpark in Birmingham, Alabama, the oldest professional ballpark in the country. What a test!  The winner of the contest was Herb Whalley, who won one of the new Houston SABR t-shirts.  

 

Speaking of Herb, he would like all Astros Win predictions before 3 p.m. on March 27. People must email Herb (hcwhalley@sbcglobal.net) their Astros projections for the 2025 season.  Please send your Astros’ win totals and a guess on how many games Altuve will play in LF and how many games Yordan will play in LF.  All entries must be time-stamped before the Astros’ first regular season game begins.  The first pitch on Thursday is scheduled for 310 pm central time.