Turner: Baseball historians step up to plate for Farnam Dinner

From Jonathan Turner at QCOnline.com on March 9, 2017, with mention of SABR members Tom Shieber and Tim Rask:

The Cubs, Cardinals and Q-C connections with the Baseball Hall of Fame will step up to the plate on March 16 during the annual Henry Farnam Dinner at St. Ambrose University’s Rogalski Center in Davenport.

The 14th annual event starts at 5 p.m. followed by dinner and a 7:30 p.m. program. The night will feature Tom Shieber, senior curator at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y., who will talk about early baseball and the Quad-Cities.

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The Farnam Dinner also includes:

— “Rascal on the Mound,” a poem composed and read by Dick Stahl, of the Henry Farnam Committee.

— Maquoketa native and baseball historian Tim Rask, who will talk about John O’Donnell Stadium and local baseball. The “Umpire-in-Chief” (a.k.a. chairman) for the Society for American Baseball Research’s Iowa chapter, he also wrote the 2004 book, “Baseball at Davenport’s John O’Donnell Stadium.”

— Dave Heller, president and CEO of Main Street Baseball, which owns and operates the Quad Cities River Bandits, who will discuss local links to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The annual dinner celebrates significant historical events, people and places in the Quad-Cities, especially as they relate to broader regional and national events. The event is named in honor of Henry Farnam, the principal builder of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad — the first to connect the East with the Mississippi River — who was chief engineer of the first 1856 railroad bridge across the Mississippi River.

The Farnam Dinner is not a fundraiser; all proceeds go to present high-quality programs in the future, the program says. Cost is $40; reservations are due by Monday at riveraction.org or 563-322-2969.

Read the full article here: http://www.qconline.com/news/local/baseball-historians-step-up-to-plate-for-farnam-dinner/article_463c2fed-e38f-5998-a480-a1124d9884ed.html



Originally published: March 13, 2017. Last Updated: March 13, 2017.