Southern New England Lajoie-Start Chapter meeting recap – 6/8/2019
Bernie Carbo, one of the heroes of the 1975 World Series for the Boston Red Sox, captured the attention of an audience of SABR members and guests on June 8, 2019, at the Lajoie-Start (Southern New England) SABR Chapter’s meeting at McCoy Stadium, home of the Pawtucket Red Sox.
Carbo, who now mixes baseball instruction for youngsters with evangelism, was frank in discussing his somewhat rocky life path both during and after baseball.
Besides listening to Carbo’s saga, the 40-plus attendees, led by chapter members Stephen Trimble and Mike Darowski, took part in something unique: a Hall of Fame “unelection.” They voted on players who should be “expelled” from Cooperstown on the grounds that they really don’t deserve membership in the august group of Hall of Famers. This unelection was the first of several planned over the next few meetings, and it focused on players elected to the HOF between 2010 and 2019. The clear “winner” was Harold Baines, who was named on 73 percent of the members’ ballots.
Research presentations were made by chapter members Mark Kanter (the 1919 Reds) and Jay Hurd (Babe Ruth in Bristol). Larry McCray of SABR’s Origins Research Committee the Protoball research committee discussed a planned project to unearth more information about baseball’s prehistory in New England.
Father Gerry Beirne’s trivia quiz, mostly devoted to the Red Sox and Yankees, was won by Mark Kanter.
The Pawtucket Red Sox will become the Worcester (Mass.) Red Sox starting in the 2021 season. The chapter’s June 2020 meeting will be held at McCoy Stadium; the meeting site in the years beyond is indefinite.
The chapter’s next meeting will be its annual Thanksgiving Saturday session at St. Philip’s Parish Center in Greenville, Rhode Island. The date this year is November 30. Chapter members will get more information about the meeting as plans develop.