a recap of the fall 2004 forbes field chapter meeting
On November 20, about thirty members and guests gathered for the Fall meeting of SABR's Forbes Field Chapter. The meeting was held at the new Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, which is attached to the Pittsburgh Regional History Center.
John Carney presented his research on John McGraw and Hugh Jennings, emphasizing (but not limiting himself to) their days at St. Bonaventure.
Joe Elinich followed that with a two-pronged presentation; while speaking on the topic of "teams with multiple players who had 50-hit months", Joe also demonstrated just how such research can be done using on-line resources available to all SABR members.
As part of a general talk concerning SABR conventions past, present and potential, Bob Sproule gave a recap of his experiences at last summer's National at Cincinnati.
Following a brief discussion regarding the future of the chapter, the group adjourned to the Sports Museum, where we saw a cornucopia of Pittsburgh sports history. All sports at all levels are included, and a few of the artifacts on hand were provided by SABR members.
After lunch, the group reconvened to pepper Pirate General Manager Dave Littlefield (making a return appearance) with questions regarding the Bucs and the baseball business in general. .
Phil Lowry followed that with an energetic talk on marathon games. Many thanks to Phil for coming all the way from Minnesota to join us.
Finally, Rick Bradley (also an out-of-town visitor) tormented the group with a challenging trivia quiz. Harry Funk was the big winner (prizes courtesy John Barna and the Pirates).
The next meeting is in the distant future, but will probably happen sometime in the spring of 2005.
a recap of the fall 2003 forbes field chapter meeting
by bob sproule
The Forbes Field Chapter of SABR convened for their Fall Meeting on October 18. There were a number of interesting presentations made, but the highlight of the meeting was the guest speaker, Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Dave Littlefield.
Littlefield’s appearance lasted two hours, mostly Q&A from the audience. He told us some things we already knew – the dearth of talent in the Pirates organization when he arrived, the problems of living with long term contracts from unproductive players, and the efforts of his staff to acquire more talent and try to build a championship team. He spoke frankly about the team and didn’t sugarcoat things. He constantly talked about how the return on investment, i.e., the value of the players’ contracts, and what a key element that plays in every decision that he must make. Thus, unloading a “$6 million man” in Aramis Ramirez for seemingly nothing, may help the team in the long run. For the same reason, don’t expect to see Jason Kendall in a Pirate uniform in 2004, although Littlefield didn’t say that in so many words.
Other highlights of the meeting:
Denis
Repp announced that that Historical Marker commemorating the 1903
World Series, lost when Three Rivers Stadium was demolished, has
been replaced. The new marker was re-installed along the
Riverwalk between
Dan Bonk let us know that he is serving as a technical advisor on a TV movie called “The Winning Season.” It’s based on “Honus and Me”, the juvenile biography of the great Pirate shortstop. Watch for it in the Spring of 2004.
Paul Adomites talked about an article he recently had published about the “Best, Worst, and Most Unusual World Series Moments.” He listed about a two dozen of them. The Best? Mickey Mantle’s heads-up play of diving back to first base in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, preventing a double play that would have ended the series for the Yankees. The Worst? The inauguration of Sunday NIGHT games in the World Series. (Interestingly enough, Pete Rose liked the Sunday night game because it enabled him the “see all the football games.” Wonder why that was so important to Pete?)
Mark Schraf gave a most interesting talk on how to find and collect rare unusual baseball books in general and books about the Pirates in particular. It was a most interesting insight to the hobby.
Finally, Denis Repp conducted a “Last Man Standing” trivia contest with the theme of Pirates Home Runs. Four finalists were determined and Brian O’Neil beat out Larry Pansino, Mark Schraf, and Dennis Pittman for the Championship.