Last night 13 members and friends attended our monthly get together at Molly's. Since the AC wasn't working in our regular room we gathered downstairs for a lively baseball discussion.

Our first order of business was to congratulate Harold Jones and Tom Kleinworth for their success in predicting the number of games the Astros would win(74)in 2009. We had 20 entries with guesses from 93 to 68 wins.

We then asked the group who would win the World Series; the Yankees got 10 votes with 1 each for the Angels, Dodgers and Phillies.

Bill McCurdy followed with an excellent presentation on the 1951 Texas League Playoffs with Larry Miggins, a star Houston Buffs player at the time, providing color commentary on the games including his dramatic home runs.

We then turned our attention to being the General Manager for the Astros for a day and Bob Dorrill gave a detailed analysis on the 10 candidates the team plans to interview in the coming week. After much discussion the group gave overwhelming support to Tim Bogar but also indicated that Dave Clark and Phil Garner would be good choices as well.

Umpiring came into focus as the group recollected a series of blown calls in critical games. At the top of the list was Don Denkinger's call at first base during the 1985 World Series, Phil Cuzzi's incorrect foul ball decision in this year's ALDS and Rich Garcia's treatment of a baseball touched by a fan in the 1996 ALDS. Our group STRONGLY supports expanding instant replay to include fair/foul ball decisions.

Our trivia contest was prepared by Mike McCroskey and won by Bill McCurdy.

The next Houston Babies Vintage Baseball game will be played on October 24th at the George Ranch starting at 10:30 am. All our welcome.

For our November 10th meeting we are pleased to advise that nationally known Sports Agent Alan Hendricks has agreed to speak to us. Please make your plans now to attend.

This past Tuesday we kicked off our Fall and Winter program with a session at Molly's Pub. 17 members, most of whom arrived early to see the first few innings of the televised games between the Houston Astros and the Cincinatti Reds, attended the meeting.

Bob Dorrill started the session be welcoming new member John Collier and guests John Civatello and his friend Mark. Bob then reviewed chapter activities for the past 12 months and compared our programs to those of other SABR chapters. He also touched on present and future chapter research projects, the Vintage Baseball games scheduled for October 24th, a video tribute to our own Larry Miggins by HOF broadcaster Vin Scully when Scully received his Honorary Doctorate at Peperdine University and brought everyone up to date on former guest and Negro League standout Ross "Satch" Davis.

Our guest for the evening was Houston Astros' Director of Media Relations Gene Dias. Gene joined the Astros during spring training this year after having spent the past 20 years with the Philadelphia Phillies. As proof Gene allowed us all to see and touch his two championship rings, including the 2008 World Series Ring with 103 diamonds.

Gene explained his duties as the Director of Media Relations and mentioned fondly his mentor on the Phillies, Richie Ashburn. He told us how important it is to have good relations with the players and the media and how he has interreacted with the 7 major league managers he has been privileged to work with; all very different individuals.

In response to questions Gene talked the difference in media coverage between the 2 cities (there is no comparison) and told some great stories about the Hall of Fame players he had been associated with; people like Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton Robin Roberts and, of course, Richie Ashburn.

Our "Hall of Fame" trivia contest was written by Scott Barzilla and won by Tom White. Since Tom had prepared a trivia contest recently, Mike McCroskey offered to write the next one.

Our next meeting will be back on the second Tuesday of the month, October 13th at Molly's. We hope to see you all then.

Tuesday evening 23 members and friends gathered at the newly decorated upstairs meeting room honoring baseball at Molly's Pub in downtown Houston to discuss theri favorite subject.

Leading off our session was SABR member and President of Sports Collectables of Houston Larry Dhuly who traced the history of baseball trading cards and the current surge in interest towards sports memorabilia, particularily autographs. He brought examples of various cards and Jo Russell showed members several autographed baseballs that she had gathered over the years.

Bob Dorrill brought a photograph of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig on a barnstorming tour that had been double signed by both players and the group tried to determione the authenticity of he autographs. Members had lots of questions for Larry as most recalled their card collecting days.

Batting second was Dr. Jimmy Disch of Rice University with the able assistance of Nathon Gaber, a student at Rice. Their presentation was entitled "A Qualitative Analysis of Selected Offensive Situations at the World Baseball Classic". Using a Run Expectancy Matrix they had developed, their study focused on whether there is a benefit to moving runners through sacrifice bunts as opposed to allowing the batter to swing away. While there are many factors to consider, it is an interesting subject and warrents more study.

Tonight's Trivia Contest was developed by Tom White and won by Scott Barzilla who kindly agreed to draft the next contest.

Bill McCurdy, as usual, took a number of photographs which will be uploaded to our chapter website shortly.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday September 15th, again at Molly's Pub.

Bob Dorrill  

Tuesday evening 28 SABR members and friends met to hear two presentations and participate in a challanging trivia contest.

Invited by SABR member Jim Kreuz, former Brooklyn Dodger and Pittsburgh Pirate Ed Stevens talked about his baseball career spanning some 51 years as a player, scout and coach, starting at age 16. "Big Ed" as he was known, was an outstanding minor league player with Montrael and Toronto but did enjoy 6 seasons as a major leaguer. When asked the best benefit of playing in the big leagues Ed replied "Saying you could play at that level".

Best remembered as the man Jackie Robinson replaced in 1947, Ed spoke in detail about this experience, his relationship with Jackie and Rachael Robinson and the impact the move had on his personal life, especially in his home town of Galveston, TX. Leaving the majors 42 days short of qualifying for a pension, Ed had to wait 29 years before the San Diego Padres added him to their coaching staff for the needed 42 days.

There were also stories about Leo Durocher, Satchel Paige, Ewell Blackwall, Burleigh Grimes and Warren Spahn too. So many, in fact, that Ed has written a soon to be published book entitled "Big Ed Stevens; The Other Side of the Jackie Robinson Story".

Chris Chestnut  then reviewed his research on 3-6-3 double plays. Chris has studied 74,084 double play opportunitues for first basemen in the major leagues as far back as 1911 and found 4,632 such plays turned. His analysis by player on who turned the most and the least  by opportunity was most interesting.

Tom White won the trivia contest furnished by Greg Lucas.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday June 16th at Molly's Pub starting at 7:00pm. Speakers will be Larry Dhuly, President of Sports Collectables of Houston and Rice University Professor Dr. Jimmy Disch speaking on statistical probabilities in baseball.