The Rogers Hornsby Chapter, serving Central and South Texas, continued its strong streak of monthly meetings, hosted a successful winter meeting and watched minor league baseball and Major League playoff games in 2010, the fifth year since the chapter was founded.

During the year, the chapter met monthly, extending its consecutive monthly meeting streak to 49 consecutive months with a meeting. The chapter also recognized SABR Day in January with a dinner gathering in which baseball memorabilia and stories were shared.

Earlier that month, the chapter hosted the Fourth Annual Winter Meeting at historic Old Main on the Texas State University campus in San Marcos, Texas. Thirty-four members and guests enjoyed a visit from Houston Astros Broadcaster Bill Brown, who shared an essay titled “The Greatest Game in Astros History,” which was about the thrilling 18-inning Astros playoff win against the Atlanta Braves in the 2005 National League Division Series.

Norman Macht, Hornsby chapter member, a former SABR board member and author of “Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball,” shared audio clips from his interview with Ted Lyons, a 21-year veteran with the Chicago White Sox who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.

There was also a lively panel discussion with Gene Watson, coordinator of professional scouting for the Kansas City Royals; Mike Capps, the voice of the Round Rock Express and recipient of the 2009 Broadcaster of the Year from BallparkDigest.com; and Jim Baker, Hornsby chapter member and former columnist for ESPN.com and Baseball Prospectus.

Other presentations included one by Dr. Fred Worth, a mathematics professor from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. He shared stories and photos of baseball player gravesites, including several notable ones in Central Texas. He also brought a binder with photos of graves he has visited. His endeavor is to visit, photograph and mark by GPS gravesites of players, managers and umpires associated with Major League Baseball.

Scott Barzilla, an active member of the SABR Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston, talked about his research, which combines statistical measures of baseball players such as win shares (WS), wins above replacement player (WARP), wins above replacement (WAR), plus those values at the player’s peak. The result is a list of players by position that attempts to quantify a player’s value as compared to other players. This research served as the basis for his book, “The Hall of Fame Index,” published in November 2010.

In addition to the Winter Meeting, the chapter took in a Round Rock Express game against the Iowa Cubs in July and watched Carlos Zambrano pitch in a rehabilitation assignment.

Later in the year, members gather for an MLB Playoffs Watch Party and Cookout. A few members also traveled to Arlington in October to watch Game 1 of the American League Championship Series between the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees, and Game 4 of the World Series between the Rangers and the San Francisco Giants.

In the second of a three-year term, Hornsby Chapter Member Monte Cely served on the committee to select winners of the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award, which recognizes outstanding baseball research in areas other than history and biography. The 2010 recipients are: Timothy M. Gay (Vienna, VA) for Satch, Dizzy, and Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson (Simon & Schuster); Chris Jaffe (Schaumburg, IL) for Evaluating Baseball’s Managers: A History and Analysis of Performance in the Major Leagues, 1876–2008 (McFarland); and L.M. Sutter (Norton, VA) for New Mexico Baseball: Miners, Outlaws, Indians and Isotopes, 1880 to the Present (McFarland).

Nine members of the Rogers Hornsby SABR chapter met Tuesday evening, May 17 at Iron Works BBQ in downtown Austin.

Those present raised a toast in memory of Hall-of-Fame slugger Harmon Killebrew, who had just passed away earlier in the day.  Members recollected their impressions of Killebrew, as well as some of his teammates over the years.

Other topics of discussion included Michael Bass's recent online poll about the top Dominican pitchers.  Members were able to come up with the "Top Three" in MLB wins -- Juan Marichal, Pedro Martinez, and Bartolo Colon.  We struggled with naming the other five Dominicans that had won more than 100 MLB games (that answer is left as an exercise for the reader).  The just-announced purchase of the Astros franchise by Houston businessman Jim Crane generated a lot of discussion.  It was generally viewed that this would be a positive going forward.  The hot start for the Cleveland Indians has Tom Wancho wondering how long the good times will last.

It was decided that the June chapter meeting will be held at Dell Diamond for a Round Rock Express game.  Saturday June 25 is the most likely date, with more information to follow.

A dozen SABR members and guests were treated like baseball royalty last weekend at Whataburger Field, the gorgeous home of the Houston Astros AA affiliate Corpus Christi Hooks.

During the “Owner’s Experience,” the Hooks gave us a tour behind the scenes, including visits with the front office, the ticket office, operations, the clubhouse, radio booth, press box and scoreboard control room.

Perhaps the only thing that members of the Rogers Hornsby and Larry Dierker chapters did not see was a win by the hometown nine, but the tour and treatment was first class. The Hooks dropped the Saturday night game to the Frisco Rough Riders, 5-3.

Organized by Jan Larson and suggested by Craig Lukshin, who did the Owner’s Experience last year with his dad, 10 members and guests of the Hornsby Chapter were joined by Bob and Peggy Dorrill of the Dierker Chapter.

We all agreed that the cost ($75 per person) was well worth it. In addition to the behind-the-scenes tour and pre-game dinner, we had opportunities to visit with Michael Wood, the Hooks general manager. He shared a story about how the Hooks, which have been playing in Corpus since 2005, honored the surviving members of the Corpus Christi Giants, the Texas League Champs in 1958.

We also met the voice of the Hooks, Matt Hicks, who shared stories about his broadcast career, including a time when an attentive SABR member wrote him a long letter correcting something Hicks said during a radio broadcast. He said he’s always aware that his audience may include everyone from a newcomer listening to baseball for the first time to the most die-hard SABR member.

Partway through the game, we left our first- and second-row seats next to the visitors’ dugout to meet Brad Starr, the Hooks clubhouse manager. A 12-year veteran, including a year with the Astros a few years ago, he was helping an assistant fill water balloons to be used by the team mascots during on-field entertainment between innings. That’s just one of a long list of duties for this clubhouse “mom.” He washes uniforms, scrubs out grass and dirt stains, prepares pre- and post-game meals, and stocks a dining room with snacks and beverages for all other times of the day.

One visit that may be of particular interest to our members occurred in the press box. David Krebs, who is also the mayor of nearby Portland, was the official scorer for the Saturday night game. Krebs is one of a few official scorers for the Hooks games. We briefly chatted with him and the beat reporters, discussing plays from earlier in the game.

We also got to meet a tight-knit group that controls the large scoreboard, sound effects, speed gun readings and video entertainment. During live game play, we watched them work closely to announce the next batter, update the scoreboard with videos and photos, add sound effects for foul balls and play videos between batters.

Most of the group stuck around for the Sunday afternoon game, in which the Hooks lost to the Rough Riders, 9-2.

Much thanks to Bryan Mayhood, Hooks director of season ticket services, who led our tour and made sure we had a great experience. In fact, everyone we met – ushers, attendants and employees at the ballpark – made us feel welcomed and comfortable. We had such a good time that we left Corpus Christi with two thoughts in mind: Let’s do this again, and let’s see which other ballclubs do this.

Below are photos from the visit.

Twelve chapter members gathered at Iron Works BBQ for traditional Texas barbeque and baseball talk.  Chapter "godfather," Bill Gilbert made a triumphant return after an extended stint on the disabled list.

Michael Bass presented a challenging trivia quiz that had been written by Washington Post columnist George Will.  Bill showed no signs of rust in taking the first place prize.

Topics of discussion included the Orioles' hot start to the 2011 season but recent woes, Norman Macht's forthcoming second edition of his Connie Mack trilogy, Gilbert Martinez' research project on pitcher no-decisions that he will present at the SABR41 convention and Jim Baker's "predictatron" contest.

Norman Macht also posed a question for discussion, that being whether pitcher wins, losses, saves and ERA are obsolete measures of pitcher effectiveness.

The May meeting will be held at Iron Works on Tuesday, May 17 starting at 6:00 p.m.