The SABR(UK) Number 7A
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1 The SABR(UK) Number 7a Examiner October 1996 THE JOURNAL OF THE BOBBY THOMSON CHAPTER OF THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN BASEBALL RESEARCH (UK) 1996 SABR AGM Issue SABR(UK)’s 1996 Annual tendee will probably hold for out the meeting report. Martin General Meeting, held on May years. Dodd took the photo and Mike 18, was attended by baseball Ross made me put it on the fans and friends from all over The meeting started. cover. the known baseball world. It Chairman Mike Ross bade all was another unqualified suc- welcome. He noted another Afterward Barry Winetrobe cess. successful year of existence, talked about the need for indi- and thanked the SABR mem- vidual members to keep in What a different a year bers for their recent contribu- touch, and to that makes! Last year’s end, announced AGM was held dur- the launch of a pub- ing the 50th anni- lication that he versary of V-E day, wants to make a and the weather success. He calls it was oppressively “Number 23”, and hot. This year the he envisions it as sun was not to be an instrument for seen, and a gray communication be- drizzle hung over tween members. London. But not at The idea is, in in- the Kings of ternational terms, Clerkenwell pub, for Number 23 to where the subject act like the “SABR of baseball kept the Newsletter” (while clouds away. the Examiner would be more like A goodly “The National Pas- crowd was there. time” or “Baseball The North was, as Research Journal”) usual, well-represented. Jan tions to the Chapter. Then and hopefully coming out as Bagin was in from Prague as Andy Parkes gave his treasury often. He stressed that the the ambassador for Czech base- report, with the good news that SABR family and friends will ball. Laurens De Jong, late of all your contributions have kept be the ones to make this news- the Netherlands, flew in from us from penury. letter suceed. To give Number his current job in upstate New Then the SABR(UK) Ex- 23 a start, the first issue is York. Clive Russell represented aminer editor, Martin enclosed with this Examiner, Major League Baseball, the first Hoerchner, talked about the and it goes out with best luck time we have been so hon- journal, and then released is- wishes from the Chapter. oured. He also brought his sue No. 7 to the meeting. This continued on Page 6 wife and newborn daughter, was essentially this issue with- whose record asYoungest At- 2 VIEW FROM THE CHAIR by Mike Ross In reverse order as to oured as such for their 25th Anni- difficult, being spread out over an the way events often tran- versary celebrations. Now that’s estimated 250,000 square miles spire, let me recount the for- as close to blue blood as I get: I (and that’s not counting the wa- shook the hand of the man who ter.) It is always good to hear from tuitous events of recent his- shook the hand of the creator. you when I do hear from you. tory. In 1982, I became the And since then the blessings of first-ever member of SABR baseball have since been heaped in England. Ten years later, upon me. Over the years I’ve Don’t forget our search for like going home, I was elected stayed in touch with Kachline. He the Spalding Trophy (our elusive has assisted in some of my re- Holy Grail). The John Moore Tro- as the ‘founding’ chairman search needs and we’ve met at phy is also missing. We are still of the first European SABR subsequent World Series’. Cliff is on a sticky wicket with our reti- Chapter of ‘Big’ SABR, based blue blood in the truest sense of cent friend in Middlesborough, in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. As the SABR ethos. I probably would who has what he claims is a re- a baseball-starved alien not be writing this item for gional Spalding Trophy but will SABR(UK) were it not for the pio- not let anyone of us see it. American, an ocean away neering spirit of a founding father. from the source, it is fair to assume that - in Lou Gehrig’s Finally, to reiterate what I words - I was “the luckiest So I would like to add his spoke of at our AGM in May: This man alive”. Or maybe like a name to the list of foreign angels is a British Chapter, and its who have made their presence felt ‘Britishness’ is what matters most. Moses being fished out of in the formation and growth of The way the game of baseball is the Nile, now that I think SABR(UK); this list includes Nor- perceived amongst them deter- about how it all transpired... man Macht, Bobby Thomson, his mines whether the game can flour- What a strange trip it has teammate on the great Giants team ish here. So how can we help? been. of 1951, Monte Irvin; and Cliff One wonders why Britain lags be- Kachline in recognition of his car- hind the rests of Europe in its ing efforts for baseball. baseball interest. The current game of baseball started in Brit- While taking a pre-game ain as a childrens’ game. But it drink in a bar opposite Busch As for SABR(UK)’s progress, I stayed that way. Innovation was Stadium in St. Louis, prior to fell we’ve made it. We’re over the stifled - that is, the innovation crossing the street for Game One hump. We now have a nucleus of that could transform baseball into of the 1982 World Series. I got to 50-60 associates in Britain, as an organized sport for adults. Now talking to some fans at the adjoin- well as a handful of faithfuls in we can finally conceive of roots ing table. Soon, one of them ap- Europe. We came together with returning to roots. The full circle proached me and asked me if I ease. Several of us have had re- would be returning this children’s wished to join SABR. He told me search items published in SABR game back to its homeland as a about it, and, in a word, forked annuals. It is, after all this, still fully-fledged professional sport. over three ‘ones’ in change, and very important to keep in touch, for $22 I became SABR Member one with another. Guys should Number 1250, that is as Cliff try to get together as often as We had another super AGM Kachline opined the day he in- whims suggest, by telephoning, meeting about which you’ll read ducted me - and we shook on it, exchanges, letters, e-mail. There here-in. We are aiming for a gath- too. Cliff, a former staff member of is nothing to stop four of you get- ering in Manchester, hopefully af- Sporting News the and Hall of ting together which would offi- ter the World Series. Hope to see Fame officer, was a founder of cially construe an official regional you there, and remember, think SABR, one of 12 recently hon- meeting. I realize this is often baseball! OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN Chairman: Mike Ross, 2(B) Maida Avenue, Little Venice, London W2 1TF (Tel: 0171 723 9848; Fax: 0171 266 3166) Treasurer: Andy Parkes, 84 Hillingdon Road, Stretford, Manchester M32 8PJ (Tel and Fax: 0161 865 2952) Procedural Advisor: Hugh Robinson, 567 Kings Road, Stretford, Manchester M32 8JQ (Tel: 0161 286 7012) Chairman of British Baseball Historical Committee: Patrick Carroll, 10 Court Barton, Crewkerne, Somerset TA18 7HP (Tel: 01460 74183) Publications Editor: Martin Hoerchner, 3 Sheridan Crescent, Chislehurst, Kent BR7 5RZ (Tel: 0181 467 2828; E-Mail: [email protected]) Membership Co-ordinator: Barry Winetrobe, 53 Woodside Road, New Malden, Surrey KT3 3AW (Tel: 0181 949 1035) European Co-ordinator: Laurens De Jong, Carnisseweg 61, 2993 Ad Barendrecht, Netherlands 3 THIS SABR'D ISLE by Martin Hoerchner I write this on the last Sesquicentennial” - it’s 150th Anni- This is weird - it’s like no one knew it weekend for Major League versary. More specifically, it was the was there before, and someone just anniversary of the first contest played stumbled upon it. I remember view- Baseball in 1996, and it’s look- between two teams under the first ing it with awe, its bathtub-shaped ing positively autumnal out- codified rules of Baseball. It was hull, its green interior. Then a few doors. As we put another played at Elysian Fields, Hoboken, days later I was at a ball game there - baseball season into the his- New Jersey, and the event was com- I was in a corner of the ballpark, tory books, the trees are rap- memorated with a parade including watching the crowd as much as the our baseball patron, Bobby Thomson. game. Only Freud could explain this idly shedding their greenery, The 1846 game was between the - and he’s dead. But so is Polo and the world is carpeted with Knickerbockers - baseball’s first real Grounds. dead leaves. Baseball is over, team, and the New York Nine, on and so is summer. Baseball is June 19, 1846. The rules were very I may be nuts. But I’m not close to what we follow today, except clinically insane. It’s easy to wax again the perfect sport, because it for the pitching distance, and the fact lyrical about the ballpark experience. begins during the height of spring, that the first team to score 21 runs There’s something wonderful about a when Nature begins its symphony of would win, with equal innings.