This newsletter is produced by the Bob Davids Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, which serves SABR members in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and parts of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Visit the Chapter's website at:

The quarterly newsletter is distributed electronically to members. It has been designed mainly to survive emailing; a less clunky version is available on our chapter website site and is posted on The Squibber's own website at:

1) New Feature: Dick Heller on Baseball

2) Chapter News: Fall Regional Meeting is Set for November 16, etc.

3) Crossing the Plate: New Books on Mamie, on Tigerology, etc.

4) Local Hero: Ted Williams, Indelibly -- by Dick Heller

5) From the Sultan's Shelf: The 500 Club -- Too Easy? by David Vincent

6) Theme Team: An All-Delmarvan Team -- by Bruce Brown

7) Around the Horn: Marty Reports on the HOF Symposium

8) Casey at the Byte: Our Own Jim Casey, RHP

9) Local Baseball News: Keys Fall on Their Keysters, Hope Yet to Rise

10) On Deck: -- Members' Projects: The Baseball Bluebook, etc

11) Bedsheet Banners: Whips Pix Needed

12) Dave's Stumpers and

13) Editorial Stuff

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[Note: Longtime baseball reporter and SABR member Dick Heller [Silver Spring] has offered to write occasional squibs for The Squibber.]

Every baseball fan in the Washington-Baltimore region has his own memories of Cal Ripken as a ballplayer and a man. Here are two of mine, 12 years apart.

In the spring of 1984, I was covering the Orioles' spring training camp for the Miami Herald when Ripken reported - early, as usual in those days. After the interviews, I asked Ripken if he would pose for a picture with my son Patrick at some convenient time. "Sure," Cal replied. "Bring him around."

A few days later, I did so and approached Ripken after practice. "Great," he said. "Let's do it."

While I took the pictures, Ripken chatted with Patrick and discovered that it was the boy's seventh birthday. When we had finished, Cal said, "Well, I gotta go," shook hands with both of us and started to walk away.

"Wait a minute, Mr. Ripken," Patrick said. "You forgot your bat."

Ripken turned and smiled. "That's your bat now, Patrick. Happy birthday." Then he vaulted over a chain-link fence surrounding the field and was gone.

You may be sure Patrick never hit any rocks with that bat.

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The second memory - an ironic one -- came in the summer of 1996. On the night in September 1995 when Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's record of playing in 2,130 consecutive games, I had shot a picture of the moment from the Camden Yards press box. It showed fans in the right field stands applauding, balloons descending, and smoke rising in the middle of the fifth inning when the game became official -- and, strictly through blind luck, it caught the "1" coming down over the "0" on the B&O Warehouse banner. It was a great picture, and the following season, I presented Ripken with a 12x16 copy in the Orioles' clubhouse.

Because it is verboten for journalists to request autographs while working, I asked an Orioles publicist how I could get Ripken to sign my copy of the picture. "No problem," he said. "Leave it and a cover letter with me. I'll send it over to Cal's office and you'll get it back in a couple of weeks."

Yeah, right. It took nine months to get the picture back, and when I did, Ripken had signed only his name.

But here's the kicker. I had given a copy to our friends across the street. One night a month or so later, he and his son brought the picture to a game and gave it to Ripken while he was doing autographs afterward.

"That's a nice picture," Cal said, not remembering that he had his own copy. "Let me sign a message on it for you."

So while I got only Ripken's signature on a picture I took, my friend's copy bears the inscription, "To Seamus and Mike O'Halloran. Best wishes. Cal Ripken Jr."

You think my buddy has let me live that down?

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Mark your calendar! The Bob Davids Chapter's 2002 fall regional meeting will take place at the Best Western in Baltimore on Saturday, November 16, from 9AM to 4PM, including lunch. The Program Committee comprises David Vincent [Centreville VA], John Munns [Frederick MD], Barry Sparks [York PA], and Bob Savitt [Potomac MD]. If you are interested in making a research presentation, contact Lyle Spatz at lspatz@att.net. The regional meeting will have its usual features, including the popular raffle drawing, and will also have a display on the life of Bob Davids.

Two current projects may be of interest to you: (1) The new Baseball BioProject [see http://bioproj.sabr.org/ for details] is undertaking to prepare biographies for every ballplayer who ever played in the majors. The Project would like to work with chapters and chapter members. If you would like to help organize a chapter effort on biographies, contact Bob Savitt at bobsavitt@aol.com. If you would just like to work on particular bios, contact project leader Mark Armour (

The Chapter is considering forming a team to play baseball the way a purist might prefer it-- no designated hitter, no silly "you can't even leave your glove on the field between innings" rule, etc. If you're interested in playing, or helping to organize a Vintage Base Ball Club, please contact Larry McCray at mccrayL@bellatlantic.net. We may be able to arrange a challenge match to a touring vintage club next season -- playing by, say the rules of 1865 or so.

It's said that, many generations ago, Presidents used to head down to the Ellipse on the Mall to watch lads playing ball. Now isn't that a tradition that needs to be restored? Don't you want to help restore it?

Over fifty SABR members have contributed stories to our collection of tributes to our founder. The final version is on the Squibber website at http://members.bellatlantic.net/~mccrayl/Memory_book.htm. Also included there, in Q-and-A format, is a series of 14 recollections by Bob himself, taken from a 1989 interview. Bob recalls his early writings, the foundation of SABR, favorite research findings, and favorite teams and players. The Chapter is providing the tribute book as a keepsake to Bob's family.

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Several Chapter members made contributions at the Boston SABR Convention. Mark Pattison [Washington] and Dave Raglin [McLean VA] gave a presentation on the dramatic "Showdown Series" between the Tigers and Blue Jays in the 1987 AL pennant chase. Norman Macht [Easton MD] examined myth and reality in the transfer of Nap Lajoie from the A's to Cleveland in 1902, Mark Pankin [Arlington] presented his quantitative work on how and whether having a base-stealing threat on first base affects the current batter's hitting success. Dave Smith [Newark DE] reported on the preponderance of cases in which personal recollections are inconsistent with actual game reports in the Retrosheet files. Jeff Campbell [Washington] presented a popular session on The Songs or Baseball. Tom Hetrick [Clifton VA] told the picaresque story of 19th Century Browns owner Chris Von Der Ahe. .Mark Pattison [Washington] helped present a poster session on the results of the Baseball Survivor Project [see next item]. David Vincent [Centreville VA] presented an imaginative and moving tribute to SABR Founder Bob Davids at the SABR Awards Luncheon. Skip McAfee [Columbia MD] and Larry McCray were part of an Open House on SABR Governance issues held by the Constitution and By-Laws Committee on which they serve. Bob and Babs Savitt [Potomac MD] organized a large and effective display to honor the memory of Bob Davids that included photos, letters, and memorabilia, much taken from The Founder's personal papers.

By our count, 54 members of the Bob Davids Chapter were registered for SABR32.

Several Chapter members helped lead the internet-based Baseball Survivor voting project, including Tom Hanrahan [Lexington Park MD], Mark Pattison [Washington], Joe Haardt [Herndon VA], and Ted Knorr [Harrisburg PA]. The group examined the performance of 103 stars and successively selected one to be voted "off the island." Did they throw out the Babe with the bathwater? Naw. For a report on the project and its methodology, see the link at the SABR website's home page, and for all the week-by-week and final results, go to

Babe Ruth, #1 Jim Palmer #54

Walter Johnson, #7 Al Kaline #59

Lefty Grove, #11 Harmon Killebrew #74

Frank Robinson, #22 Home Run Baker, #87

Jimmie Foxx, #24 Brooks Robinson #103

Cal Ripken Jr, #35

This is actually a pretty good little ballclub . . . assuming you can get Jimmy Palmer to play second base. [It's helpful that Foxx started out as a catcher.]

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I have received a number of inquiries from the media regarding the "cheapening" of hitting 500 home runs in a career. This is due to the fact that "too many guys" are reaching that figure nowadays.

Here are some facts to ponder. The "too many guys" are McGwire in 1999 and Bonds in 2001. And Sosa and Palmeiro are close. McGriff and Griffey have a chance, but both are now playing at lower levels than their peak performance.

Gonzalez is nearly 100 away

For comparison, look at the period 1965-1971. In that time, seven players joined the 500 Club: Mays, Mantle, Mathews, Aaron, Banks, Killebrew and Robinson. That's seven players in six years. Then, between Robinson and McGwire, four more players reached 500: McCovey (1978), Jackson (1984), Schmidt (1987) and Murray (1996). So, seven in six years, and then four in the next 27 years, and now, who knows, four or five more.

My point is that for now I see no "cheapening" of the accomplishment simply because of the number of guys getting there.

[Note: This note originally appeared as a posting to SABR-L on August 7. For a compilation of the Sultan's past Squibber offerings, go to http://members.bellatlantic.net/~mccrayl/sultan.htm]

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There's an odd, but beautiful appendage of land east of the Chesapeake Bay, but south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, comprising portions of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. They call it the Delmarva Peninsula, of course, and it's not just for chickens --some pretty fair ballplayers have gotten their starts there.

Comments? Contact us or Bruce Brown [Columbia MD] at:

bbrown8870@aol.com

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1B - Randy Bush

2B - Delino DeShields

3B - Frank "Home Run" Baker

SS - Jake Flowers

C - Jimmie Foxx

LF - Homer Smoot

CF - Dick Porter

RF - Bill Nicholson

DH - Harold Baines

RHP - Bruce Howard

LHP - Chris Short

RP - Renie Martin

PH - Dave May

Mgr - Jimmie Foxx

1)Flowers; 2) DeShields; 3) Nicholson; 4) Foxx; 5) Baker; 6) Baines; 7) Bush;

8) Porter; 9) Smoot

Delaware

Jeff Baldwin, Ed Cihocki, Harry Hoch, Spook Jacobs, Broadway Jones, Huck Betts, John Morris, Costen Shockley, Barney Slaughter, Happy Townsend, Rube Vinson

Tom Clyde

Frank Bennett, Al Burris, Troy Brohawn, Buttercup Dickerson, Hanson Horsey,

Joe Muir, Jim Stevens, Ryan Thompson, Doc Wallace

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"Baseball, like the famous ghost will not down. The noble patriotic game, like grass in the springtime, comes creeping, creeping everywhere." (Salisbury Advertiser, June 8, 1895)

Although it took place outside our chapter region, the Fourteenth Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture warrants a brief review. This event was held June 5-7 at the Hall of Fame and sponsored by the College of Oneonta and the Hall of Fame. Al Hall and Jim Gates and their respective staffs are to be commended for their efforts.

Throughout each day from noon on the fifth to noon on the seventh, attendees had a choice of three concurrent presentations. Things started with a keynote address from Charles Alexander and the quality continued. The many eclectic topics to choose from included, Engineering Baseball: Branch Rickey's Innovative Approach to Baseball Management; The Characters of Baseball; The African-Americans in Baseball Research Project; Assessing Outcomes of Baseball Labor Negotiation; and Charlie Metro. The library was closed to research during the symposium so it could be open for refreshments and informal discussion throughout the day for all that attended.

The first day's activities ended with An Evening of Baseball Poetry, and An Evening of Baseball Song. Unfortunately, the vintage baseball game scheduled for the second evening was rained out.

The conference wrapped up with a discussion with Dale Petroskey about the changing mission of the Hall of Fame. While acknowledging the traditional role of enshrining major league players, Dale emphasized the Hall's broader goal of promoting the role of baseball in American culture, and making these efforts more accessible to the public through a variety of means.

One major step is their Baseball as America series, which is a touring exhibit scheduled in several major cities over the next three years, along with a book on the topic. For more details about the Hall's mission statement, and a schedule for the touring exhibition, see their web site at

The symposium is generally scheduled for the first week in June, prior to the summer rush. The disadvantage for SABR members is that it is the same month as the national convention, and few can attend both when they are so close together. But if you have the chance, the symposium is a great opportunity to enjoy the Hall, the community of Cooperstown, and three days of baseball and its history, and the company of kindred spirits.

-- Marty Payne [St Michaels MD]

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We discovered that the 94-year-old Baseball Bluebook has a Virginia business address. Rip Montague [Norfolk] is its publisher, and its home is in Chesapeake VA. We contacted Rip, and he sent along a copy of the 886-page reference, which includes sections on play schedules, records for all players in OB and the independent leagues, team and other addresses, salaries, college programs, and more. Want to locate DC's own Don Money? Check the personnel locator. Wondering about the seating capacity of the Keys' Grove Stadium? Try section H. "Our objective is to be the most comprehensive reference in print for the baseball industry," says Montague. There's a 10% discount on the 2002 book, now listed at $35, for SABR members. For more, go to:

http://www.baseballbluebook.com/.

Edward J. Hoke

1507 Fleet Road

Troy, OH 45373

(937) 339-3688, edwardh@core.com

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Well praise be, and about time: John Stephens is up to replace Jason Johnson. It's expected that if he does well, he'll subsequently replace Travis Driskill once Johnson can return from the DL.

Stephens will have to win over converts from the many doubters who held up his promotion this long. He's been the ace of the Rochester rotation all year, with a 11-5 record and a 3.03 ERA. He's allowed just 126 hits, 23 walks and ten home runs in 142 2/3 innings, none of which tells you that he couldn't break glass with a gale-force wind at his back. He should have been up sooner, given Driskill's struggles (four bad starts in his last six), but the reservations about bringing up a young soft-tossing right-hander are pretty strong throughout the game.

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This isn't really bad news for the Orioles. Sidney Ponson has been a source of concern as far as his long-term health for a couple of seasons. The question isn't what's been done to him this year as much as what sort of workload he had to carry early in his career, along with a build that conjures up more memories of Juan Berenguer than of Greg Maddux. He finished a month early last year, and he's breaking down again. Ponson's talent was enticing in its day, but the Orioles really should have kept their ears open for offers. Ponson could get a minor surgery and could rattle off a great second half next year; he could also enter a cycle of surgeries and struggles and more surgeries that will prevent him from ever regaining the promise he showed in 2000.

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Arlington VA 22207. If you meet a Chapter member who isn't on the net, tell her/him that.

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