A visit to the Art of Baseball exhibit at the George Krevsky Gallery has become an annual event for the O'Doul chapter. This year we visited on the open galleries "First Thursday" and were joined by other art lovers stopping by. I even spotted Lawrence Ferhlingetti! The exhibit this year is called "Rookies and Pros" and features both veteran and rookie artists. George invited local author Jeff Gillenkirk to read from his new book "Home and Away", a touching story about a big-league ballplayer who leaves baseball to raise his son. The book is available at www.chinmusicpress.com with free shipping for the month
of June.  It won't be available at Amazon or in bookstores until July.

Monica Nucciarone, author of the recently published and Seymour Award nominated, "Alexander Cartwright", visited the Bay Area recently and graciously met with about 20 Lefty O'Doul chapter members at a breakfast meeting.

She told the story of the research behind her book, including visits to Hawaii, to investigate Cartwright's time spent there. An interesting side story commented on William Wheaton's contributions to early baseball. Wheaton was a cofounder of the San Francisco California Society of Pioneers.

More than 20 SABR members gathered at the Society of California Pioneers in San Francisco to hear a presentation on Seals Stadium and early San Francisco baseball history by historian Angus MacFarlane. MacFarlane presented a fascinating glimpse of local history as he told the story of old Seals Stadium and the ballparks that came before it—Recreation Field and Ewing Field. He highlighted his research with old photographs and maps. MacFarlane discovered mention of a baseball game in the area as early as 1858, and even shared a line-up and box score from the game! SABR Director Paul Hirsch also shared details from the recent SABR board of directors meeting. He discussed the current membership drive (be sure to renew), the upcoming elections (be sure to vote), as well as the Donor Program and the conference in Atlanta.

Twenty members and guests from the Lefty O'Doul and Sacramento chapters convened at Armadillo Willy's Restaurant in Dublin, Calif. to enjoy half-priced burgers and to celebrate SABR Day in America.

We discussed some recent research that members had completed, including biographies of Joe Pignatano, Ralph Branca and Ed Roebuck and further research on the Dodgers' move to Los Angeles. Doug McWilliams of Berkeley shared his collection of Lee Sussman baseball cartoons, including game day scorecard covers for the Oakland Oaks and Oakland Athletics. McWilliams, a professional photographer who shot baseball cards for Topps among other clients during his career, also announced that his personal collection had been accepted for the archives of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Board member Paul Hirsch of Danville moderated a spirited trivia contest won by Mike Tormey of Alameda, with 24 out of 33 correct answers. Mike won the book Mathematician at the Ballpark and a box of Cracker Jack. Hirsch also shared recent board developments and answered member questions. Topics covered SABR's financial state and 2010-2011 convention planning. For the last hour, we settled in to watch Game One of the 1979 NLCS on The MLB Network.