Larry Dierker Chapter meeting recap – 7/26/2021
On Monday, July 26, 2021, the Larry Dierker Chapter held its midsummer meeting in a hybrid format; of the 36 attendees, a little over 50% met in person at the Spaghetti Western restaurant in Houston while the remaining number joined in via Zoom.
Chair Bob Dorrill opened the meeting by sharing a greeting card to be sent to long-term member Jo Russell. She is now in a nursing home and not doing well. Bob also alerted us to an interview with member and former big leaguer Larry Miggins which will soon be broadcast on a local station. Larry has a rich treasury of baseball stories and anecdotes with which to entertain us!
The evening’s featured speaker was Mike Port, once a minor league player who subsequently served in many administrative positions with several major league teams, with the Arizona Fall League, and with the Umpires association. After giving a brief overview of his career, he took questions from many members. Their inquiries covered a wide range of issues: rule changes, television representation of the strike zone, schedule options, the designated hitter, interleague play, the replay/review process, the emphasis on analytics, and many more. Mike had high praise for the accuracy of the umpires and gave reasoned comments on some of the current controversies. His comments were both thoughtful and engaging, and reflected his extensive experience with all things baseball.
The trivia contest was presented by Mike McCroskey and featured several challenging multi-part questions. Tal Smith emerged the victor and will present the next quiz at the September meeting.
In August, we will gather at the Sugar Land Skeeters game on Friday, August 13. Mike McCroskey will once again act as our ticket procurer.
In closing, Bob Dorrill thanked Joe Thompson and Chris Chestnut for working the technical aspects of the hybrid meeting format. All members are grateful to them for using their expertise to allow us to gather from far and near.
— Marsha Franty