The Northwest chapter had another busy and successful year. We improved the quality of our service and our meetings by using last year’s membership survey as a guide.

Chapter officers John Henshell (president), Rick Solomon (vice-president), and Tim Herlich (treasurer) continue in their roles throughout 2012. Mark Brunke succeeded Mary Groebner as chapter secretary in February.

The presidency and vice-presidency alternate between Washington and Oregon residents with the chapter leader responsible for planning meetings and events in his state. Mark documents meetings and is Webmaster. Tim manages finances. Our chapter currently has about $100, including funds raised through a book exchange in November.

We published a newsletter in July. You can download it from the SABR Website. The newsletter promoted our August meetings, included our survey results and action plan, and included maps showing the geographic breakdown of our vast chapter.

We conducted four member polls. “Past and present changes in baseball” drew 99 responses. A statistics poll received 48 responses. We added a list of FAQs and answers to our Website. We purchased a used projector with funds for meetings from the national office. It will save us time, money, and risk; and increase flexibility in getting meeting spaces.

Meetings

August 6 at PK Park in Eugene.

Attendance: 15

Guest speakers: Matt Dompe and Onalee Carson of the Eugene Emeralds

Presentations:

Jim Watson “Civic Stadium and ballpark history”

Dan Schlewitz “player movement and roster churn”

Activity: Emeralds game

August 27 at Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver, B.C.

Attendance: 39

Guest speakers: former AAA players Simon Pond (who played briefly for Toronto) and Brent Crowther

Activities: party hosted by Max Weder and Jennifer Ettinger, Canadians game

November 5 in Seattle

Attendance: 35

Guest speaker: Jon Wells, publisher of Grand Salami

Presentations:

Bill Woodward “review of John Thorn’s ‘Baseball in the Garden of Eden’”

Steve Steinberg “Phillies owner Horace Fogel”

Rob Garrett “Giants move to San Francisco/Horace Stoneham”

Stan Opdyke “audio recordings made by Pat Rispole”

January 28 at Safeco Field in Seattle

Attendance: 35

Guest speakers: Jack Zduriencik, Eric Wedge, Tony Blengino, Tom McNamara, and Jeff Kingston of the Mariners

We staffed an informational booth at the Mariners FanFest that entire weekend.

February 18 in Portland

Attendance: 36

Guest speaker: Ben Petrick, former Colorado Rockies catcher

Presentations:

Dan Schlewitz “defensive innings by position”

Greg Rybarczyk “ESPN Home Run Tracker”

David Alvarez "Let's Truly Realign MLB”

Mike Rice “Mariners roundtable”