This bimonthly 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 newsletter is distributed electronically to members. It has been designed mainly to survive emailing; a less clunky version is likely available on our site [look on the "Links" page] and is now posted at:

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1) Baseball Datebook: November, December, and Beyond

2) New Feature: The Sultan's Shelf, with David Vincent

3) Chapter News: The Upcoming Regional, The Essay Contest, Etc.

4) Around the Horn: Looking to the West

5) Across the Plate (Member Attainments) New Union, New Articles, Etc..

6) Member Profile: Bruce Adams

7) On Deck -- What Some Members Are Up To: A Commish Book, Etc

8) Local Baseball News: Homage to Griffith, Suns Try to Shine, Etc.

9) Dave's Stumpers . . .(

10) Editorial Stuff

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You may think of him as just a world-class MC of chapter meetings, but David Vincent (Woodbridge VA) is really the man who knows the most about the home run. In fact, one national columnist habitually refers to David as "The Sultan of Swat Stats." Squibber readers will be pleased to know that the Sultan has agreed to provide regular squibs on dinger-ology, starting with the following:

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The Bethesda Big Train play in the Clark Griffith Baseball League, which was founded in 1945. According to Bob it is one of the oldest and best-organized leagues of its type in the country. All players are under 21 years of age and come from colleges across the U.S. to play here. The season comprises a 40-game season and uses wooden bats. Bob reports that 34 Griffith League players [Marty Barrett! Chad Ogea! Local lad Mike Brown!] have gone on to play in the major leagues, and the circuit champion won the All America Amateur Baseball Association championship three years in a row.

The Big Train, owned by SABR member Bruce Adams [Bethesda] plays at Shirley Povich Field in the Cabin John Regional Park in Bethesda. The field features a two-story brick clubhouse, a 606-seat grandstand, a press box, and a hand-operated scoreboard reminiscent of Ebbetts Field. We are lucky to have quality baseball at so many levels throughout the area. For directions to Povich Field, go to

In the Western Maryland town of Middleton, a local park has a plaque in honor of hometown hero Charlie Keller, who played for the Yankees for many years. The late John Steadman dedicated it several years ago.

Further west, in Lonaconing, MD, [pop. 1122] a local library displays Lefty Grove's 1931 MVP trophy (he went 31-4 that year). Newspaper articles in the past year tell how the hardware got there. It seems that Lonaconing native Lefty donated the trophy to the local high school so it would always be on public display. When the school was remodeled several years ago, the forgotten trophy ended up in a dusty storeroom. It was subsequently rediscovered, and money is being raised to give it a suitable permanent showcase in the library. For those who venture out that way, the George's Creek Public Library is located at 76 Main Street. The phone number is 301-463-2629 and current library hours are posted on the web at

[Note: The cumulative set of 6 "Around the Horn" reviews is at

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Surely it was always meant to be. He is the kind of Tiger fan who doubtless knows that the Red Sox once arrived in Detroit by boat from Cleveland -- they judged that an overnight train would have been too hot. She is the kind of Red Sox fan who doubtless knows that Sox owner Tom Yawkey was born in Detroit, before the Sox had won a single World Series. In March 2001, Dave Raglin [Laurel, for now] and Barb Mantegani [McLean] each signed up to help with the SABR trivia contest at the Bowie Baysox FanFest. They met at the park. Boinnnng! Woo was apparently pitched, bases negotiated, and two singles will become a double next May. [And here we've been telling people that contra dancing is where you go to meet possible mates.] Best wishes, you two.

As part of his Baltimore Baseball Weekend in May, Glenn Spatz [Bel Air MD] distributed a 30-page handout that includes a lot of fresh writing. Included are pieces by Steve Walker [Ellicott City] on Senator players Sid Hudson, Wayne Terwilliger, and Dick Bosman, an account by Lyle Spatz of baseball's largest trade ever, the 17-player swap between the O's and Yanks in 1954 [oh, you thought Don Larsen was born a Yankee?], and Glenn's own fine appreciation of baseball's underappreciated number six hitters. If you'd like a copy of the handout, contact Glenn at gspatz@ryland.com

Writing in the August issue of By the Numbers, the newsletter of the SABR Statistical Analysis Committee, Tom Hanrahan [Lexington Park MD] and his cpu wrestled with the soggy adage, "Good pitching will beat good hitting." One of his approaches was to put the 36 best hitters into one group, and put the 27 best pitchers in another, and see how they actually matched up. Well, their OBA was .350, just what the conventional formula would predict. However, these batters show a .454 slugging average, 26 points higher than the formula predicts. Tom's conclusions: "Does good pitching stop good hitting? No more so than anyone should expect. . . . it is possible, although I'm not sure I should say "likely," that in terms of power, good hitting might actually beat good pitching." Tom's at

hanrahantj@navair.navy.mil.

Senator Slugger Frank "Hondo" Howard is the subject of a John Holway [Springfield VA] article in the 2001 National Pastime. Drawing on a rich variety of personal recollections by Howard's fellow ballplayers, and others, John paints a picture of a larger-than-life hero. Didn't Hondo hit one out of Yankee Stadium -- a blast traveling 580 feet or so -- that the 3rd base ump said was four inches foul and the home plate ump simply lost sight of? Didn't the slugger eat twelve poached eggs for breakfast? Didn't Brooks Robinson say that the only time he was scared was when the RHH Howard was at the plate with a bat in his hands? Didn't a World Series liner off Whitey Ford reach the upper deck and bounce back to the field before outfielders could turn their heads? If Frank Howard is just a name to you, you'll enjoy putting a legend to the name by reading this piece.

If you're Chairman of SABR's Baseball Records Committee, it seems, a good way to spend an afternoon is to peruse the 1934 Sporting News Record Book. As Lyle Spatz [Edgewater MD] did so, he stumbled across a feat that puts Curt Schilling's recent 2001 World Series "iron-wing" effort into perspective. In the mad October 1907 AL pennant chase, A's manager Connie Mack called 17-9 spitballer Jimmy Dygert to the mound three times from October 1 to October 4, and Dygert handed Philadelphia a shutout every single time. This was a year before Walter Johnson, in his sophomore season in Washington, turned the same trick for the 7th-place Senators. Lyle's account, "Jimmy Dygert's Forgotten Feat" appears in the 2001 issue of The National Pastime. Now in case you're wondering why Mack bypassed Dygert on October 2nd, it's because the pitcher was sick in bed that day. Despite Dygert's heroics, the A's couldn't catch the Tigers that October. And Jimmy Dygert age 22, was to win 13 just more games in the Majors.

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Bruce Adams of Bethesda has made a habit of finding new ways to do constructive things in a community, and he has increasingly used baseball in his community development activities.

Bruce is perhaps best known within SABR as the President of the Bethesda Community Base Ball Club, the moving force behind the Bethesda Big Train of the summer Griffith League, and as co-author with his wife Peggy Engel of Ballpark Vacations [1997], a family guide to baseball-oriented trips. But these depict only one facet of his varied life.

He is also the founder and president of A Greater Washington, an alliance of community leaders devoted to the betterment of life in the region through regional cooperation. His past experience includes stints as a member and as President of the Montgomery County Council, teaching at College Park and Harvard, as director of research for Common Cause, and as author of two books on community-building. He was named a Washingtonian of the Year in 1998 by Washingtonian magazine.

In founding, with John Ourisman, the non-profit Bethesda Community Base Ball Club, Bruce created a vehicle for bringing better baseball to the youth of the area. The creation of Shirley Povich Field in Bethesda provides a home for the wooden-bat college-level Big Train summer ballclub and the Georgetown University team. Next door, major improvements are being made to Cabin John Ballfield #2 to make it a premium site for youth baseball. The organization's annual Base Ball and Auction last year raised $50,000 for the upgrading of other ballfields in the area, and of that, $10,000 has been reserved for fields in DC's less affluent areas. Most recently, Bruce has set about creating an after-school baseball-and-study program that will bring skills and values to [initially] four elementary schools in DC's disadvantaged areas.

And still, Bruce and Peggy found time to update their 1997 travel guide, and a revision of Ballpark Vacations is now slated for publication next month. For each baseball town in the US, the guide lays out where to stay, where to eat, entertainments, and sites to see. It's listed online at about $10. It's a Fodor's product.

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A few random notes from a full day of remembrances:

[] The stadium was home to two Senator clubs, to the Negro League Homestead Grays, and to the football team of Howard U and the Washington Redskins [the news of the Pearl Harbor attack came during a '41 Redskins game]. In addition, the facility saw extensive use by the white and the African-American community for cadet corps drills, high school championships, and religious programs.

[] Center field was built around a tree and five homes owned by hardy souls who were reluctant to sell out and move away. Like -- to someplace quieter, perhaps?

[]Clark Griffith II, who gleefully described the fastest techniques for vendors to prepare and sell ballpark hot dogs, figures that we live under a sort of Calvin Curse -- Washington will never get another MLB club until Griffith Stadium is properly memorialized.

[]Clark Griffith I is reported to have asked Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard if they wanted to play for the Senators as early as 1938. Ahh, what might have been.

[]Jackie Robinson's daughter Sharon, a Howard alum who had, as a student, concealed her connection to Jackie, was the initial speaker on one panel. She was encouraged to move to a podium to speak. The mike there was dead, however. "See what happens," she quipped, "when you go first?

SABR boss Case notes that SABR is likely to continue to be involved with the project and the permanent exhibit as it proceeds. He also notes that SABR member Ken Small has produced a Griffith Stadium replica that is available as a souvenir from Bonita Bolden of Howard University Hospital; contact her at bbolden@huhosp.org.

On the field, the Hagerstown Suns finished 26 games over .500 and made the league playoff this year. On the balance sheet, however, things weren't at all sunny, as the club outdrew only one other SAL league team and attracted only 1500 fans a game.

With local plans for a new stadium in a stall, the former owner sold the team in May. The new owner, Andrew Rayburn, signed a lease for the existing stadium, but only through next season. Rayburn also owns the Daytona [FL] Cubs, and his organization was successful in sparking attendance to record levels there. The Daytona club has sent 28-year-old Kurt Landes to Hagerstown to work a similar brand of magic as the Suns' new GM. Daytona promotions have included cut-rate beer prices when the visitors are retired 1-2-3 in the first, free cheeseburgers if a particular visiting player strikes out, and fans' judging of the antics of guest mascots. The Hagerstown mayor has said that a turnaround in attendance could affect the city's stadium plans. Hagerstown has a long baseball tradition, and the new owners say that want it to continue.

The Eastern Shore Baseball Foundation held its annual banquet at the Salisbury Civic Center on November 3. Part of the Foundation's program is to induct local players from the major, minor, and semi-pro leagues into the Eastern Shore Hall of Fame, which is located at the museum at Frank Perdue Stadium in Salisbury. Among those selected this year was Homer Smoot, who played in the major leagues from 1902 to 1906.

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We welcome your ideas for future squibs . And we accept your complaints.

"The Backstop's Here?" President Harry S Truman kept a famous sign on his Oval Office desk, one that reflected the unique responsibilities of a President: -- other officials might be able to pass the buck, but, the Truman sign said, "The Buck Stops Here." Learning that George W. Bush was a catcher in his Little League days, we wonder if a "The Backstop's Here" sign wouldn't fit handsomely on his desk.

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