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Sarah

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Blog Entries posted by Sarah

  1. Sarah
    When did baseball take hold in counties across Minnesota? What ballpark was located near the present day site of Target Field in 1800’s Minneapolis? If you’re a fan of baseball history, the Halsey Hall Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research invites you to join us for the 19th Century Baseball Interdisciplinary Symposium, held this year on Saturday, November 16 from 9 am to 4:30 pm at the Minneapolis Central Library.
     
    The symposium, hosted in partnership with Hennepin County Library, will feature numerous experts on Minnesota baseball history and sports architecture. Major League Baseball official historian John Thorn will give the opening address and Minnesota Twins official scorer and award-winning author Stew Thornley will deliver the keynote address. Other featured speakers will include longtime Pioneer Press architecture critic Larry Millett, award-winning baseball authors Dan Levitt and Mike Haupert, Brian Madigan of the Minneapolis Central Library, award-winning art and architecture professor Kristin Anderson and Frank White, author of “They Played for the Love of the Game: Untold Stories of Black Baseball in Minnesota.”
     
     
    Attendees will also be able to view exhibits on local baseball history and participate in book signings between sessions. A continental breakfast and lunch will be available at the symposium. The registration fee is $40 – for more information and to sign up, please visit https://sabr.org/latest/save-date-2019-sabr-minneapolis-19th-century-baseball-interdisciplinary-symposium
  2. Sarah
    Will this be the year the Gophers make it to the College World Series? Currently ranked #11 in the country, they will start regionals next week. Last summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Omaha for the first time to attend the College World Series. I know I’m getting close to college baseball’s epicenter when I tune in AM 1620 The Zone and hear the broadcasters talking about how the strike zone is a little tighter during the tournament than it is in the regular season. I am here at the beginning of this nearly two week June event and get to see three games featuring Louisiana State, Florida (the eventual national champion), Texas Christian, Texas A&M, Oregon State and Louisville.
     
    There is a 26 page preview section in the Omaha World Herald including a full page advertisement for TCU that declares “Horned Frogs know how to swing for the fences.” (I will learn TCU’s signature move after they score is fans and players alike who raise both hands and cup their fingers into a curved motion, a gesture somewhat similar to the University of Texas’s “Hook ‘Em Horns.” Must be a Texas thing.)
     
    The College World Series is currently played at TD Ameritrade Park and, with a capacity of approximately 24,000, it is a sizable stadium located in downtown Omaha across the street from their convention center. The convention center housed a Baseball Hall of Fame traveling exhibit which I didn’t visit because, having been to Cooperstown, I wanted to put a higher priority on watching games. This new ballpark opened in 2011 and I heard from locals who waxed nostalgic about beloved Rosenblatt Stadium as opposed to the new facility’s larger, corporate feel.
     
    As it is a very humid summer day in Nebraska, I appreciate that the new ballpark features drink rails, allowing me to eat my turkey burger out of the sun. (Not surprisingly during the afternoon game, the seats in the sun are only sparsely populated but the seats in the shade are nearly full.) After seeing me diligently filling out my scorecard, a man in a LSU t-shirt asks me what team I’m here for. Just a baseball fan from Minnesota enjoying the atmosphere, I answer. “Oh, you’re from Minnesota,” he replies in a lush, southern drawl. “So let me ask you this – whatever happened to Joe Mauer? Seemed like he was on a path to become a Hall of Fame catcher for awhile, right?” Wherever I have traveled to watch baseball, I am always amazed at how easy it is to talk about the game with perfect strangers.
     
    You can either pay more and get a reserved seat (which guarantees you admission) or buy a $15 general admission ticket (which can be used for any game but does not guarantee admission). The game I bought a general admission ticket for I didn’t have any trouble getting in but was told that for the more popular games the line stretches down 10th Street and some wait for hours in the hot sun.
     
    Fans wander leisurely through the ballpark if their team isn’t playing, which can be a problem for those concentrating on the game. When someone got up as the ball was being put into play I heard a guy behind me grumble, “Well, that was a hell of a play – I could almost see it.” A lot of school spirit resonates through the innings, from chants of “Let’s Go Aggies” to playing the school fight song after each team scores. But mostly it’s just an enjoyable place to be for those who love the game – the crowd groans as a baserunner is thrown out at third after trying to tag up from second on a short fly ball to right field. (I remember that play because the out was recorded 9-6-5. Yes, the runner got such a bad jump that the shortstop had time to cut the ball off and spin and throw to the third baseman to get the runner easily. There was an interesting conversation in the dugout after that miscue.)
     
    I stopped at the visitor center by the Old Market and they told me where I could park for free – I had to get there early but that left time for a leisurely stroll along the riverfront. When I’m walking to the ballpark, I see Blue Jays everywhere and have to remind myself that it means Creighton, not Toronto. Boys Town, which is located west of downtown, featured an exhibit on the history of baseball at the orphanage, including visits by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
     
    Across the street from TD Ameritrade Park is the Omaha Baseball Village, essentially a large parking lot scattered with big tents for private parties and a plethora of vendors selling more t-shirts than I have ever seen in my life. (Well, there are eight teams, I reasoned…and as teams got eliminated their merchandise was marked down 50%.) I stop to take a picture of the sign with all of the cities listed and their distances from Omaha and am momentarily startled when I turn around to see a giant beaver sticking off the next table. (Clearly an Oregon State supporter.) The banner hanging near the main entrance sports the current tagline of the College World Series (“The greatest show on dirt”) and I remember the one from when I was younger (“Where the stars of tomorrow play today”).
     
    The results of the games I attended are lost in my memory but I do remember seeing some top draft picks including Brendan McKay and Dalton Guthrie (son of former Twin Mark Guthrie). To take a break from TD Ameritrade Park, I made the one-hour drive to Lincoln to see a Saltdogs game, although unfortunately they were not playing the St. Paul Saints that night. On my way out of town, I stopped at Hy Vee to get a salad for lunch and noticed a middle aged woman shopping in a LSU cheerleading outfit, complete with LSU hairbows and an LSU ankle bracelet. What a fun atmosphere for baseball.
  3. Sarah
    In what may be the only time I’m ever in the men’s restroom at CHS Field, I took in the world premiere of “Safe at Home” last night, Mixed Blood Theatre’s new show about baseball, race and immigration. The story takes place prior to game seven of the World Series and centers on whether a Dominican pitcher scheduled to start the biggest game of his career will instead use the platform to protest the game and take a political stand. The show is divided up into nine “scenes” (or shall we call them “innings”) scattered throughout the ballpark, each with their own story to tell: in one, an Irish and Latino vendor argue about the profitability of selling beer versus churros; in another, the owner of the team (and newspaper publisher) discusses the merits of “responsible journalism” with the reporter ready to break the story prior to the game. As a baseball fan, I thought the scene between the umpire and the MLB executive was particularly well acted and fascinating as they discussed exactly how this would play out if it actually happened in a game.
     
    The story is definitely topical and the issues resonate, especially with the choice of using a baseball game as the backdrop to the simmering issues presented as opposed to, say, a football game – after all, baseball is the national pastime with a deep history inextricably linked with our struggles as a nation. The show itself is a technical achievement – groups of 25 are guided to different areas in the ballpark by an usher to watch separate seven minute scenes that run like clockwork throughout the evening. (At the performance I attended, our usher shared that he has learned a lot about baseball in working on this play, saying, “I’ve learned that the ball is round.” I think he was kidding.) It also takes theatre fans outside their comfort zone as you’re standing up in sometimes cramped quarters while the drama takes place right in front of you. Attendees seemed unsure as to whether they were supposed to clap at the end of each scene so we did what Minnesotans do – we just stood there awkwardly until the usher directed us to the next scene.
     
    I have enjoyed many Saints games at CHS Field (and if you haven’t been there yet you really should check them out this season) so I knew I would appreciate my surroundings. As the show serves as a veritable tour of the ballpark, I caught myself a couple of times paying more attention to that than watching the show – during the scene in the clubhouse, my eyes drifted to the “Hall of Saints” pictures located above the lockers. “Oh yeah, I remember Rey Ordonez played for the Saints,” I caught myself thinking, and then, “wait a minute, there’s a show going on here. Focus!” I give credit to the writers and director that they kept the drama flowing even as you’re being shepherded periodically throughout the ballpark onto the next scene.
     
    The acting is strong throughout and that may be the one regret I had about the show – at the end of the 90 minute performance you’re ushered into the Saints dugout and back through the stands to leave the ballpark without the chance for the actors to take a bow and show your appreciation for their work. But this is a minor quibble, if you’re a baseball fan this is a fantastic opportunity to see an entertaining new show in a beautiful setting. The pre-show gathering spot is in the Securian Club (the enclosed and heated space along right field) and while you’re outside briefly to travel from scene to scene, they all take place indoors. The show only runs through Sunday, so for more information about performance times and tickets, visit Mixed Blood’s website.
  4. Sarah
    “I know that guy had an extra RBI in 1954.” Minnesotan Hans van Slooten gets these inquiries daily as the primary developer for Baseball-Reference.com. The Halsey Hall chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research invites you to join us at the Roseville Library on Monday, May 16 as we welcome Hans to give a presentation on this popular site that has become an indispensible resource for statheads, casual fans, current and ex-players, baseball researchers and everyone in between.
     
    Van Slooten will provide a brief history of the website, reveal some of the lesser known corners of the site and provide a tutorial on the site’s play indexes. He will also answer questions and run any play index queries requested by the audience.
    While some may consider spending their day working with baseball stats a dream job, van Slooten told me recently with a laugh, “It’s not nearly as glamorous as it sounds.” The main office is in Philadelphia so he works normal business hours (“on east coast time”) from his home in St. Paul. A typical day may include fixing bugs on the site or developing new features. “I spent a lot of time earlier getting ready for the new season,” said van Slooten, who has a degree in computer science.
     
    Another big responsibility is responding to daily inquiries – “A lot of the historical questions get forwarded onto Retrosheet but I also get emails from former minor leaguers saying, ‘Hey, you spelled my name wrong.’ And I can’t just take their word for it, I have to verify that they are who they say they are before I can correct it.”
     
    With the sheer amount of information on the site, it’s easy to get lost in a mountain of data. “Sometimes I forget everything we have on the site,” van Slooten says. “It’s fun to search for random stuff like a Hall of Famer’s worst game or guys who played one major league game.” The site is 15 years old so it has its bugs and the work is ongoing – continuing projects include speeding up the site’s loading time and improving the mobile capabilities.
     
    So if you’ve ever wondered how many complete games Old Hoss Radbourn had in 1884 (73 – take that, Bert Blyleven), join us for an evening of stats, baseball history and random information that every baseball fan needs filling their brain on a daily basis.
    An Evening with Hans van Slooten
    Monday, May 16, 2016
    7 pm
    Roseville Library
    2180 Hamline Avenue, Roseville, 55113
    Hamline Avenue and County Road B
     
    This event is free and no RSVP is required.
  5. Sarah
    I visited Arizona last weekend and since most of you will be posting about Florida I thought I’d add my thoughts about the “other” spring training. Arizona is nice because all of the teams are within about 20 minutes of Phoenix and if you fly out of MSP you have a few options on airlines. The main thing I didn’t like about the Phoenix area is that you will need to rent a car to get around and their rental car tax is about 18% total. Everything is close yet just far enough that you have to drive but considering it was -6 when I left Minnesota it was awesome to drive around with the windows open.
     
    Games generally start at 1 p.m. local time and I went to one game each at Sloan Park (Cubs home), Tempe Diablo Stadium (Angels home) and Salt River Fields (Rockies and Diamondbacks home, I was at the Rockies game). Sloan Park is VERY nice, probably my favorite out of the three. (Okay so I am a little biased since I’m a Cubs fan.) It’s only about two years old and is like a miniature Wrigley Field complete with the red sign and brick wall behind home plate (no manual scoreboard or ivy on the outfield walls though).
     
    They all had impressive team shops for merchandise and Salt River Fields had the designated driver program where you could sign up for a free soda (Tempe Diablo didn’t have designated driver and I forgot to ask at Sloan Park so they may have it too). They had great concessions at Sloan Park and Salt River Fields but the concessions at Tempe Diablo Stadium weren’t all that great. There is a Whataburger really close to the Angels stadium so I stopped there because we don’t have that in Minnesota and thought it was pretty good. Tempe Diablo is the oldest of the three (recently renovated though so it’s pretty nice) so that one was probably my least favorite but they do have free on street parking if you get there early enough.
     
    Parking at Sloan Park was $5 and there is a huge shopping complex by Salt River Fields called the Pavilions with Target, movie theatre, restaurants, etc. so I parked there for free and walked over to the stadium. If you are infirm there are a lot of bike cabs parked right outside the gate to take you to your car. (Sorry, don’t know how much they are.) There was also a huge classic car show in the parking lot near Salt River Fields after the Rockies game on Saturday afternoon so that was neat too.
     
    I also took a tour of Chase Field which is right downtown Phoenix (you really can’t miss it) and it’s only $7. You may want to get reservations in advance as the tour guide said they tend to get full during spring training. I took the first one at 9:30 and it was sold out. Luckily a guy who was a Rockies fan saw me standing there and gave me his extra ticket. Baseball fans are so nice.
     
    Since all of the teams are so close, the city is literally crawling with baseball fans. There seemed to be a lot of Giants fans which makes sense since they have won the World Series twice in the past few years. I would recommend getting tickets to the games ahead of time as well because the Saturday Rockies game we went to was sold out. If you go to the Cubs park you can get a free copy of Vineline right when you walk in the main gates where they sell the programs. (The current issue is a good one because it has Ernie Banks on the cover.) This may go without saying but do not forget your sunglasses or sunscreen and drink a lot of water. They even have free sunscreen dispensers at the Rockies/Diamondbacks stadium. The Cubs game I went to ended in a tie after nine innings. They just announce on the loud speaker in the top of the 9th “Ladies and Gentlemen if the game is tied after nine innings the game will end in a tie.” When I was at the Yankees spring training game in Florida the game ended after ten innings so maybe it’s up to the manager’s discretion or something.
     
    As I’m sure a lot people do during spring training games, I somewhat paid attention to the actual game. Pujols, Trout and Jered Weaver started in the Angels game I went to, Kris Bryant hit a long home run in the Cubs game I went to and Justin Morneau started in the Rockies game I went to (LaTroy Hawkins also pitched in that game). Since I was there for the first few games it was fun to see everyone so excited to be watching baseball again. For lack of a better term, I’ve found spring training to be super chill – mostly just a great excuse to sit outside in nice weather and watch baseball. I did some sightseeing in Phoenix too- if you have extra time I would recommend either the Wrigley Mansion (yes, that Wrigley), Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West or the Desert Botanical Garden. They are all pretty easy to find and interesting. I thought Phoenix in general was not terribly hard to navigate (I am directionally challenged so if I can get around, so can you) and the traffic didn’t seem to be any worse than it is in the Twin Cities. I hung out mostly on the east side of Phoenix in the Scottsdale/Tempe/Mesa area so I’ll just to go back someday to watch the teams on the west side. If you’ve never been to spring training I highly recommend it!
  6. Sarah

    42: A Review

    By Sarah,

    I had the pleasure of watching the movie “42” last night so thought I would post my review. The beginning credits alert us that it was “based on a true story.” Really? Who knew! (Maybe there was a specific reason they had to include that, I don’t know.) The opening scenes paint the picture of the country at the time- when black men returned from fighting for their country in World War II, Jim Crow laws segregating them from the white man’s world were still in effect. The movie also touches on what I think is one of the interesting contradictions in baseball history- how was baseball, a sport so steeped in tradition and history, at the forefront of integration? Because of the work of two men: Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson.
     
    I thought the movie was magnificently cast- it was one of those movies where the main players (no pun intended) are so well known that the choice to go with relative unknowns really allows you to identify with them as their character, not as “famous actor x” playing a character. Chadwick Boseman, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Jackie Robinson, does an admirable job in the baseball scenes capturing Robinson’s athletic mannerisms such as dancing off the bases to distract the pitcher or sliding into second base. He also takes us into the mind of a man thrust into this world and gives us a glimpse of the rage, frustration and despair Robinson must have felt leading up to and during that first season in Brooklyn.
     
    The other cast members portraying Robinson’s teammates shed some light onto an underappreciated aspect of the story: what must it have been like to be a teammate of his? The actors portraying PeeWee Reese and Ralph Branca both have memorable scenes. Of course, Harrison Ford is a well-known actor and it’s a different type of role for him- instead of the swashbuckling Indiana Jones or playing a romantic lead, he plays an older man with what I’m guessing are fake eyebrows and some face prosthetics? He does well trying to give audiences a glimpse of the man who would make such a momentous decision. There is even a local connection- Minneapolis native T.R. Knight plays Dodgers employee Harold Parrott.
     
    I am a fan of some of Brian Helgeland’s movies (“L.A. Confidential” and “Mystic River”) and thought the movie was well-paced. There was only one scene, when Rachel Robinson leaves her son with the babysitter to go to the game, that I thought disrupted the flow of the movie. (I still don’t understand what the point of that scene was.) Some of the language is pure Hollywood drama (“What do you do when a hero comes to dinner?”). And, as always, the filmmakers took liberties with the facts to make it flow better as a movie (the legendary scene of PeeWee Reese putting his arm around Jackie Robinson may not have taken place in Cincinnati). But fans of the game will be able to appreciate the research and authenticity of the baseball scenes and non-baseball fans will enjoy the great human story.
     
    To Helgeland’s credit, the movie doesn’t sugar coat what Robinson experienced (in fact, as it is in most cases, you know the movie barely scratches the surface). The PG-13 rating is mostly due to the racial epithets liberally used in the film. With such heavy subject matter, I was also impressed by the film’s ability to intersperse humor throughout. (In one memorable scene, the new Dodgers manager Burt Shotton comes into the clubhouse to introduce himself to the players, turns to Jackie Robinson and says, “You Robinson?”) This is a great addition to the cadre of baseball movies out and reminds us to take a minute to remember the sacrifices of two great men who changed our country more than 60 years ago.
     
    Have you seen it and what did you think?
  7. Sarah
    “Value Strategies for Building a Roster.” “Integration or Preservation? The Great Dilemma for the Black Press Presented by Negro League Baseball in the 1940s and 1950s.” “From the Diamond to the Helix: Major League Baseball and Genetic Testing in Latin America.” These were some of the presentations given to a group of hard core baseball fans in Minneapolis last week. Established in 1971, the Society for American Baseball Research is a non-profit organization that works to generate interest in the history of the game and invent new ways to judge player performance (think “Moneyball.”) As a lifelong baseball fan, I had always been vaguely aware of SABR. When perusing their booth at TwinsFest last year, the SABR representative mentioned that the convention was going to be held in Minneapolis in 2012. I love baseball and I love history, so it seemed a perfect time to join. Allow me to share my adventures as a new convert to this mystical baseball world! As I stepped up to the registration table, I was handed a bag filled with enough reading material to last me for the rest of the summer: a current issue of Baseball America, a new SABR publication titled “Short but Wondrous Summers: Baseball in the North Star State” (lots of stories about the history of baseball in Minnesota), a copy of “The Minneapolis Review of Baseball” (yet more local baseball stories), a recent Minnesota Twins program and a St. Paul Saints magnet schedule now on my fridge next to the Twins one I received at this year’s home opener (you can never have too many magnet schedules). I passed over the obligatory Minneapolis-St. Paul visitor’s guide, welcome letter from Meet Minneapolis and Mall of America coupon book. Stew Thornley, the convention committee chair and local Halsey Hall chapter newsletter editor, greeted me warmly and mentioned that, although I would be outnumbered by males, “it’s more about quantity than quality.”
     
    By the time I arrived at my first event, the SABR Authors Panel featuring Mark Armour (“Pitching, Defense and Three-Run Homers: The 1970 Baltimore Orioles”), Rob Fitts (“Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage and Assassinations During the 1934 Tour of Japan”), Daniel Levitt (“The Battle That Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy”), John Thorn (“Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game”) and Steve Treder (“The Hardball Times”) had packed the entire entrance area to Barnes and Noble. I could tell I was in a knowledgeable crowd when one man mistakenly asked about the four 20-game winners on the 1970 Baltimore Orioles (tsk, tsk, everyone knows it was the 1971 Orioles…at least everyone in that group it seemed). John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s official historian, talked about how larger-than-life personalities such as Abner Doubleday and Alexander Cartwright have been elevated to mythic levels in the annals of the game, while the real men behind the beginning of the organized game including Daniel Lucius Adams, William Rufus Wheaton and Louis Fenn Wadsworth, are largely ignored. As I would come to find out in many SABR events and presentations, the Q&A period had to be cut off after a certain point or we would all still be standing there asking questions and debating the game. Yes, these people love baseball.
     
    With my status as a new member, I was invited to attend the First-Timers Welcome Reception in the Minnesota Room of the Marriott Hotel. There was also an “Under 30” mixer and reception on Thursday night but I found these titles to be meaningless. These were “receptions” masquerading as excuses to talk baseball to anyone and everyone. (And what’s wrong with that?) The standard ball park fare (burgers and brats) was served and then the trivia questions started. “Who was the first player selected by the Mets in the expansion draft?” (Some guy named Hobie Landrith apparently…) When the speaker admonished everyone to “keep the answers to themselves” I turned to the person sitting next to me and said, “That won’t be a problem, since I don’t know any of these answers.” It was the beginning of my weekend meeting baseball fans from around the country and discussing the illogical nature of the game. I talked to a Rockies fan that night who reminisced about their great run in 2007 and how, going into the last weekend of the season, no less than five things all had to go right for them to even force a one game playoff with the Padres. Of course everything fell the Rockies way and they made it to the World Series for the first time…perfectly logical! I could have stayed to discuss the game all night…alas, I had to get up for work the next day. I envied everyone staying at the Marriott- after all, where else can you roll out of bed and instantly start debating the merits of interleague play with complete strangers?
     
    With nearly 40 research presentations running at concurrent times, it’s impossible to hear everything but a couple that I enjoyed were “Trying to Get a Major League Baseball Team in Portland, Oregon, from 2000 to 2005: Political and Economic Realities and the Soft Underbelly of Baseball Exposed” and “The Inauguration of This Noble and Manly Game Among Us- The Spread of Baseball in the South Prior to 1870.” I learned that the lack of a viable ownership group and the political will of the Washington, D.C. area doomed Portland’s chances for an MLB team and how the stories that the northern soldiers brought baseball to the South during the Civil War are not true as baseball was alive and well in the antebellum South.
     
    Time in between research presentations could be spent in the vendor’s room, where I was surrounded by authors and reminded of the extensive baseball library that exists and grows larger every year with a seemingly endless variety of topics just waiting to be discovered. There was also a poster room for people who had created reports on subjects ranging from major leaguers who had hit a home run as a major leaguer and minor leaguer in the same park (not as rare as you might think since many major league teams will play an exhibition game at a minor league stadium toward the end of spring training) to trying to determine how much home field advantage matters (it matters somewhat but not as much as it’s made out to according to that author’s research). I appreciated one of the reports which pointed out that baseball is the only sport where you’re guaranteed to be on offense at the end of the game if the situation warrants. Fun facts like that remind me why I like this game so much and- dare I say- why it’s the greatest game in the world. (And at the SABR convention, who is going to argue with me on that?) Or you’re free to spend your time striking up a conversation in the lobby about anything relating to baseball…are you noticing a theme here?
     
    Some of the most heavily attended events were the speaker panels featuring a debate about official scoring, women in baseball and a Q&A with Terry Ryan (who they announced would be receiving SABR’s prestigious Roland Hemond Award next year). When discussing Target Field, Ryan emphasized that just about the most depressing thing in the world was having to go into the sterile Metrodome on a beautiful Minnesota summer day. (Amen to that!) Also, with many visitors experiencing Target Field for the first time it was a major topic of conversation. As could be expected, everyone I talked with absolutely raved about it. One person that had been to the Metrodome even said they were so happy for Twins fans because now we have a “real” ballpark. Another attendee couldn’t get enough of it- he went to the game on Wednesday afternoon, went on a tour Thursday morning and was planning to attend the game on Friday night…but then, what better place to talk baseball than at a ballpark?
    As you can probably tell, I gravitated much more toward the history related events but there was plenty to entertain the sabrmetrics minded as well. I went to the SABR Case Competition, where students from the University of Chicago gave an encore of their first place presentation from the inaugural SABR Analytics Conference in March. As I understood it, students from around the country (seemed to be mostly MBA level or economics majors) were selected to participate and given a case study to analyze data to determine whether the Washington Nationals should have been buyers or sellers at the trade deadline last year. Oh, and they had 72 hours to do it and that included travel time to the conference. The moderator mentioned that team representatives were in attendance at the presentations and several students involved are doing internships for various teams or MLB this summer.
     
    I wish I could have spent a lot more time there but I very much enjoyed my first experience at the SABR convention nonetheless. It reminded me of being in Cooperstown for Hall of Fame induction weekend- a mecca for baseball fans. Simply put, it was a baseball “bucket list” item I didn’t even know I should have on my bucket list! I’ll admit I joined SABR with a bit of trepidation (I remember asking the guy at TwinsFest, “Honestly- is this just a group of old guys sitting around and complaining about how much better the old days were?”) but beyond their image as statistics crazed Moneyball junkies, I found almost everyone to be very friendly and welcoming. (Okay, in truth there were a few grumps…but aren’t there a few of these to be found anywhere?) As a freelance writer, I can certainly appreciate the time spent researching and writing each presentation and can only imagine the organizational skill it takes to pull off a convention like this. My deepest appreciation and thanks to everyone who helped bring this great event to Minneapolis for all baseball fans to enjoy!
  8. Sarah
    The state of hockey has met the city of baseball. This spring at CHS Field, home of the St. Paul Saints, heralded the opening of a new museum devoted to the history of the great American game in the capital city. In a 2,000 square foot space tucked down the left field line and free to ticket holders during Saints games, fans can learn about the memorable teams and players on the east side of the Twin Cities stretching back more than a century.
     
    The museum uses a variety of artifacts and displays to tell the story of St. Paul’s baseball history, from early contests in the late 1800’s to its crosstown rivalry with the Minneapolis Millers to the “new” Saints franchise that started in 1993. It also includes information on the St. Paul Colored Gophers (an early 1900’s black baseball powerhouse) and Toni Stone, a St. Paul native who became one of the only women to play professionally in the Negro Leagues. In one of the displays titled “Brushes With Greatness,” the museum highlights the famous names that appeared at Lexington Park in the 1920’s. When Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig visited in 1927, the duo “spilled nearly a quart of ink autographing baseballs and scorecards for small boys,” according to the Pioneer Press.
     
     
    On Monday, July 1, the Halsey Hall chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research will be staffing a booth at CHS Field for the 7:05 pm game against the Lincoln Saltdogs. This game will also feature a historical giveaway as the first 2,000 fans will receive a 1937 Saints replica jersey. Attendees will be able to view the local chapter’s banner, “Beyond the Twins: Hall of Famers in Minnesota,” which highlights famous athletes who played in the North Star State prior to 1960 such as former Saint Roy Campanella, the legendary Dodgers catcher who became the first black player in the American Association. Chapter members will also be on hand to discuss other opportunities to get involved in local baseball history. To buy tickets, please visit the Saints website.
  9. Sarah
    “Sure, we knew about racism – met it every day. But we loved playing ball and that field wasn’t black or white, just beautiful green grass. It treated everybody the same.” Negro Leaguer Joe Scott
     
    As one of the official reviewers for the Twin Cities Film Fest, I am provided with advance screeners for many of the movies selected to be shown at the annual October event. One of the best parts about it is discovering films that I may not otherwise see. Such is the case for “Legends of the Road,” a new documentary making its Minnesota premiere on October 23 and highlighting the story of students from Chief Sealth High School in Seattle and their classroom project: to uncover forgotten stories of baseball barnstorming from the early 20th century and then plan and execute a summer long re-creation of this era with a 5,100 mile, 71 day trip done on bicycle while playing 33 games along the way.
     
    If this sounds like an extraordinary film that any baseball fan would enjoy, it is. For two years, these public high school students made more than 15,000 phone calls and conducted nearly 500 phone interviews with black barnstormers, their opponents, Ex-Negro League players, baseball historians and others to shed light on a part of, not just baseball history, but American history. According to the film, the students compiled more information on black baseball player movements in the western United States and Canada than both the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum had at the time…combined.
     
    Minnesota is mentioned twice in the film – when Buck O’Neil comes to visit one of the female students asks him if there were any women playing. Without hesitating, O’Neil mentions St. Paul’s Toni Stone, adding “Toni Stone could play.” Also, during the biking trip it lists game #25 as being played in Mankato. The logistics and documenting of the second part of the project, in which participants covered twelve states and provinces, was also the work of these ambitious high schoolers. Opponents faced included semi-professional clubs and American Legion teams and the trip was funded with business sponsorships. After losing their first game 14-0 and making six errors, they finished the trip with a winning record.
     
     
    “People wanted to see a different brand of baseball – we invented the double steal and the drag bunt,” Negro Leaguer Hank “Pistol” Mason says in the film. In addition to the interesting anecdotes gleaned from the interviews during the movie, baseball fans are sure to enjoy the closing shot of the credits in which the ballplayers emerge from the corn at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa.
     
    “Legends of the Road” will be making its Minnesota premiere at the Twin Cities Film Fest on Monday, October 23 at 3:30 pm at the Showplace Icon Theatre in St. Louis Park. Filmmaker Gary Thomsen and Negro Leagues Museum President Bob Kendrick are scheduled to be in attendance. There will also be a book signing and pre-show Q&A prior to the show beginning at 2 pm including Minnesota authors Frank White (“They Played for the Love of the Game”) and Conrad Kerber and Terry Kerber (“Mayor Taylor: The Inspiring Story of a Black Cyclist and the Men Who Helped Him Achieve Worldwide Fame. To purchase tickets, visit their website.
  10. Sarah
    “Babies for everyone!” was one of St. Paul Saints broadcaster Sean Aronson’s more memorable calls during the 2016 season. (It referred to a hitting tear Saints third baseman Nate Hanson went on after returning to the lineup following the birth of his child.) Throughout the year, sports fans let a few dulcet toned folks into their lives on a daily basis to bring them the sights and sounds of their favorite pastime. Did you ever wonder who these people are when the headsets are off? Aronson did, and he brings their stories to life with his podcast “The Voice Behind the Voice.”
     
    With nearly 40 episodes since beginning earlier this year, the hour long chats feature broadcasters from all four professional sports and some NCAA Division I programs. Past guests have included Buck Martinez of the Toronto Blue Jays and Bob Davis of the Kansas Jayhawks, as well as local guys such as Cory Provus and Mike Grimm.
     
    Aronson says he got the idea from his friend Jamie Flam, a booker at the Hollywood Improv, after he created a podcast titled “The Gatekeeper,” in which Flam takes listeners behind the scenes of his industry. J.W. Cox, the Saints broadcast assistant, helps him with the technical side, and another co-worker designed the logo. He pays a small monthly fee to a podcast service, which distributes each episode to iTunes and other platforms.
     
    He only does interviews in person so guests depend on who comes to town or where he may be visiting. “So far I’ve had about an 85% success rate for the interviews I’ve requested,” says the Southern California native who called his 1,000th game for the Saints in September and was recently named Minor League Broadcaster of the Year by Ballpark Digest. “Most of the declines are due to time constraints or travel schedules. Yes, I have tried to get Joe Buck – haven’t heard back from Fox on that one. I would also love to get female announcers but there aren’t that many out there. I’m really focusing on play-by-play, not color commentators or sideline reporters.”
     
    More than other sports, baseball’s leisurely pace dictates that announcers must have plenty of content to fill sometimes lengthy games. This seems to fit in with Aronson’s approach to his podcast – he estimates spending at least a couple of hours to research each guest and doesn’t shy away from controversial topics, such as his talk with Dave Sims about being one of the few African American broadcasters in Major League Baseball.
     
    “These podcasts are unedited and I’ve never had anyone place any kind of parameters on what I can ask them,” he says. “But I’m not TMZ and don’t have any ‘gotcha’ questions. Everyone has a story and I simply appreciate my guests letting me share theirs.” One of his more memorable moments came when he asked Vikings broadcaster Paul Allen if he ever thought about what he would say when announcing a Minnesota Super Bowl victory. “To my surprise, he said ‘Yes I have, and here it is.’” (You’ll have to listen to the podcast to hear Allen’s response – it’s episode #6.)
     
     
    So who is Sean Aronson, the voice behind the quirky, beloved independent team across the river? “I’m a minor league guy who grew up listening to Vin Scully and have known this is what I’ve wanted to do since I was seven years old. Would I like to get to the major leagues? Of course I would. But I can honestly say I am living my dream.”
     
    Be sure to listen to all of Sean's episodes of "The Voice Behind The Voice."
  11. Sarah
    More than 100 years ago Minnesota was home to one of the best baseball teams in the country. The St. Paul Colored Gophers, who in 1909 beat the Chicago-based Leland Giants for the title of “Blackball World Champions,” are just one of the teams highlighted in the new book “They Played for the Love of the Game: Untold Stories of Black Baseball in Minnesota” by Frank White.
     
    A thoroughly researched addition to our state’s history, this title is also visually appealing with the inclusion of approximately 100 photos, including one of Prince Honeycutt, Minnesota’s presumed first black baseball player who helped form the Fergus Falls North Stars baseball club in 1873, and scorecards from the Uptown Sanitary Shop, a baseball club formed by a dry cleaning business in St. Paul in 1922.
     
    The Negro National League, which ultimately included some of the most famous names in baseball history including Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, was started by Chicagoan Rube Foster in 1920. When reading White’s book, one question comes to mind: with Minnesota’s prominence in the world of black baseball why weren’t they awarded a team when the league started? Perhaps it was because of an issue that still confronts us today – travel. “It was probably just too financially difficult to have a team in Minnesota,” Frank White told me recently.
    “Minnesota was considered far away from the other teams.”
     
    In today’s over stimulated world of endless varieties of entertainment, another theme of the book is the rise of baseball as America’s game – one picture from 1925 shows a girls team from the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House in north Minneapolis. What was it about baseball that captivated a nation no matter who you were? “It allowed you to walk away from everyday challenges,” said White. “For those who played the game, there was nothing quite as satisfying as the feeling of hitting the ball flush with a wooden bat.”
     
    White also includes a personal connection to this slice of state history – his father, Louis White, played with the Twin City Colored Giants in the 1950’s and Buck O'Neil (who gained fame after eloquently sharing his remembrances of the Negro Leagues for the PBS miniseries "Baseball") once tried to recruit him to join the Kansas City Monarchs. The annals of baseball lore run deep and the stories are seemingly endless for those who played for the love of the game.
    Frank White will be doing a talk at the Hosmer Library in Minneapolis on Monday, June 27 from 6:30 - 8 pm. For more information or for future events, you can visit his website at http://www.minnesotablackbaseball.com
  12. Sarah
    “How is that a hit?” Most baseball fans have said this after the scoreboard flashes the result on a sharp grounder or botched fly ball. The person in charge of making these hit/error determinations is the official scorer, often an anonymous recorder of stats until their judgment puts them in the spotlight. Recently I had a chance to shadow Stew Thornley, one of the Twins official scorers, to get firsthand insight into this sometimes misunderstood part of the game.
     
    At Target Field, the official scorer sits in the first seat in the front row of the press box on the left as you’re looking at the field. When I picked up my media pass I noticed the person who signed in before me was from MBC Korea, one of the country’s three major broadcasting systems. Most of the time the press box was quiet, punctuated mainly by the sound of typing. For the official scorer, the tools of the trade include a laptop, binoculars, a scoresheet plus extra notepads to keep pertinent information close at hand and a TV monitor showing the FSN feed. I realized quickly how useful it was to have the monitor on a ten second delay, not just for the official scorer but also for the datacaster who sits next to the official scorer and is responsible for recording every game action for those following online.
     
    There is no specific time the official scorer needs to get there before the game, Thornley said, but it’s his preference to arrive early and get into a routine (they’re not just for the men on the field). When I arrived at 5 p.m. for a 7:10 start he was already there, double checking information for that night’s game.
     
    As many do, he began his lifelong relationship with the statistical side of the game by keeping score when attending games at Metropolitan Stadium as a kid. When he said that he had a knack for it, he paused and chuckled as he said, “Yeah, I know - why couldn’t I have gotten a knack for something useful, right?” He has previously worked as an official scorer for the Minneapolis Loons and St. Paul Saints and started with the Twins in 2007. He splits the duties with Gregg Wong, a former Pioneer Press sports reporter, and they also have a backup official scorer. (He also has a “day job” as Health Educator with the Minnesota Department of Health.)
     
    Official scorers are paid $170 per game and are employees of Major League Baseball, not any specific team. Last year, Marie-Claude Marcotte-Pelland joined the few female official scorers in Major League Baseball history when she worked a Blue Jays-Marlins game in Toronto. In mentioning this, Thornley, a member of the local chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), also shared the story of Eliza Green Williams, who secretly served as the official scorer in the 1880’s for the Chicago White Stockings or Colts, the team that would be renamed the Cubs in the next century. She would submit her reports as “E.G. Green” so as to not identify herself as a woman.
     
    There is a distinct element of “hurry up and wait” in the job as an official scorer, as we casually chatted about the baseball topic of the day until a sharp grounder caused all eyes to turn to the video monitor while the official scorer grabbed the microphone to announce his ruling on that specific play. As the game went along, there were also periodic announcements from Dustin Morse, the Twins Senior Director of Communications, for such things as pitching changes and home run distance announcements.
     
    “I was nervous when I first started with the Twins,” Thornley admitted, while he explained the juxtaposition between wanting to get the call right and wanting to sound confident and announce the call right away. If players or teams strongly disagree with a call, they can submit it to Major League Baseball for review by the league office. He said he has gotten more complaints from the batting team if they don’t get a hit.
     
    Being an umpire would be good practice for becoming an official scorer, he said, because you get really good at being decisive and “taking a lot of crap.” (I’ve also seen the job of an official scorer described as getting paid $5 for scoring the game and $165 for taking the grief that goes with it, but I guess you could say that about any job.) If you don’t like being questioned and having to defend yourself, he said, being an official scorer is not for you. But in comparison to the umpires, he noted that “They are the ones who make the calls that can determine who wins or loses…we do stats.”
     
    The evolution of official scoring is an interesting aspect of the history of the game itself, and Thornley chairs a SABR committee that studies and interprets the changes throughout the years. As we looked upon a beautifully manicured grass infield, he reminisced about how everyone was told that the advent of artificial turf meant that you would never have to worry about a bad hop.
     
    When the third baseman switched places with the shortstop, I asked him if the sometimes dramatic shifts employed by teams in recent years can get confusing for those recording stats. He professed his love for the teams who put player numbers on both the front and back of the jerseys and said you can often look for other distinguishing features – for example, in the game I attended, two of the Tigers infielders were sporting high socks.
     
    “I know it’s easy to sit at home and think you could do it better,” he said. “I have friends who constantly pepper me with questions on why I called what I did who have never been an official scorer…and there’s also people who just don’t understand the rules of the game. It does give you respect for everyone in this game who gets second guessed.” In an effort to standardize scoring, Thornley has attended meetings in New York with other official scorers around the league, where they will review plays and discuss controversies. “It’s always a judgment call with a human element and the line will continue to be fuzzy not fine. It’s our hope to continue to reduce the level of fuzziness.”
  13. Sarah
    While the dark, cold days of winter can be an ideal time to dive into research on baseball history, as a lifelong baseball fan I have to ask...is there ever a bad time to talk about baseball history? I serve as co-chair of the research committee for the local chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research and invite other Twins Daily readers to get involved with our group.
     
    One of our projects is called the Origins of Baseball in Minnesota Project, where you can select a city to research. Because my parents have a cabin on Lake Vermilion I am up in the Iron Range area frequently so I chose Chisholm. (Yes, insert obligatory Moonlight Graham reference here...) I visited the Minnesota Historical Society, Iron Range Research Center, St. Louis County Historical Society and contacted many other organizations I haven't had a chance to visit in person. I turned my findings into an article for Lake Superior Magazine and a presentation for the fall regional chapter meeting held recently in Minneapolis.
     
    http://www.lakesuperior.com/lifestyle/recreation/361-chisholms-love-for-the-all-american-game/
     
    Is there a game or player you remember and want to highlight to contribute to the ongoing annals of baseball lore? For some reason, this random regular season game two decades ago has always stayed in my mind so it was fun to revisit it through writing an article for the SABR Games Project:
     
    http://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-8-1994-tewksbury-goes-distance
     
    You can also contribute individual articles through the Bio Project and other areas of interest depending on your time- a plethora of opportunities to get involved exist without a huge commitment.
     
    The 2015 SABR Convention is going to be held next summer in Chicago, another American League Central city. I was lucky enough to attend this annual event a couple of years ago when it was in Minneapolis- read my Twins Daily blog recap for an idea of what to expect:
     
    http://twinsdaily.com/articles.html/_/minnesota-twins-news/confessions-of-a-sabr-newbie-r591
     
    As I am neither a math or economics major spending my days crunching stats (I tend more toward the liberal arts of writing and research), I still remember being pleasantly surprised by this other wing of SABR more in line with my background.
     
    The Minnesota chapter, appropriately named the Halsey Hall Chapter, has many activities locally and throughout the Upper Midwest including a book club and trips to minor league parks around the area. Visit our website to learn more about how you can join us soon or check out the SABR website for endless possibilities on getting involved with baseball history!
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