Larry Dierker Chapter meeting recap – 4/22/2024
On Monday, April 22, 2024, thirty-two people gathered in person at the Spaghetti Western restaurant in Houston and over Zoom for the Larry Dierker Chapter’s monthly meeting.
After a few brief announcements, including that the chapter chapter newsletter will be released later this month, chapter President Joe Thompson turned the meeting over to the guest speakers for the evening.
The special guest was chapter member and Houston historian Mike Vance. Mike spoke with us about his new baseball fiction novel, Wingo. He also read a few excerpts from the book. Mike is the one in the chapter leading up the project to get a Texas historical marker at the site of Houston Colts stadium. He spoke with the group about this process.
Chapter Vice-President Herb Whalley gave an update to the group on this year’s Astros win contest for the chapter. Chapter newsletter editor-in-chief Tony Cavender gave a few brief book reviews over some newly released books including the biography of Johnny Wright, “The Wright Side of History: The Life and Career of Johnny Wright, Co-Pioneer in Breaking Baseball’s Color Barrier” by chapter member and daughter of Johnny Wright, Carlis Wright Robinson. Tony then gave this month’s trivia contest with Fred Soland emerging as this month’s winner.
Next month our meeting will take place on THURSDAY, MAY 23. The meeting will take place in-person at the Spaghetti Western and over Zoom. Our very special guest will be David Jerome who will be flying in to Houston to speak with us about former Astros manager Bill Virdon and his wife Shirley, both of whom have recently passed away. David will also speak with us about his book, “Bill Virdon: A Life in Baseball” now available from booksellers everywhere.