TAC Minutes Serving Tacoma and Pierce County Since 1942 Dedicated to Sports and Civic Betterment February 2021 TAC Minutes Twenty-seven members of the TAC and their guest joined the Zoom Meeting on Thursday, February 11, 2021. After a brief introduction from President Jim Merritt, Gary Larson, Lakes Athletic Director and new member of the TAC led us in the pledge of allegiance. After a few short sports stories from Frank Colarusso and Joe Kaiser, Marc Blau introduced Bill Krueger to speak. Bill entertained members for 40 minutes with stories about his career, the state of Major League Baseball, the Mariners, and how Major League baseball has changed the baseball over the years. President Jim Merritt opened the meeting with a greeting on a snowy day in Tacoma. The School Connector banner hung on his wall as new Member Gary Larson, Athletic Director from Lakes High School, led the group in the pledge of allegiance. Gary spoke briefly about his background and the challenges to getting fall sports started in February. Several past T.A.C. presidents were in attendance at the meeting. Wayne Thronson 1979; Aaron Pointer, 1987; Willie Stewart 1989; Tony Anderson 2002, 2003, 2004, and Sandy Snider 2019, 20 introduced themselves. New member Frank Dacca introduced himself. He said, "He and Jim are almost brothers," Frank had a long career in Pierce County as an attorney and judge. Jim finished the committee reports by thanking Pat Garlock for stepping up to chair the Membership Committee. He will organize the committee to help us regrow the T.A.C. membership. The second committee is the School Connector committee chaired by Aaron Roetcisoender. Aaron's committee will connect T.A.C. members to individual schools. The goal is to get information to schools about the Athlete of the Year program and all programs run and sponsored by the T.A.C. Sandy Snider agreed to be the invited committee chair. She will work to fill the vice-president's position that are opened. The Executive Committee plans to establish an online directory through an organizational software program. The information will be password protected, and every member would have login capabilities. The newsletter and other information of the organization will be under the umbrella of the software program. The goal is to improve the flow of work for the Executive Secretary and to vastly improve the current communication model. Next TAC Regular Meeting is on Thursday, March 11, 2021 @ Noon Marc Blau secured Eric Nusbaum to Speak Marc Blau introduced Bill Krueger Marc Blau introduced Bill Krueger. Marc reported that the broadcast Frank described in Japanese is on the Clay Huntington website through the Sports Museum. Marc said this is Bill's third time speaking at the T.A.C. Bill's connection to Tacoma goes back to 1971 when his Colt League team played in a tournament Sprinker. Bill returned to Tacoma with the Tigers for a small part of the 1984, 1985, and 1986 seasons. In "84," he played with Jose Canseco, Mark McGuire in "85," and Walt Weiss in "86. In 1995 he played with the Rainiers briefly. Alex Rodriquez played for the Rainiers that year, and Ken Griffey Jr. did a one-game rehab appearance in Tacoma. Bill's impressive major league record was 68 wins and 66 losses. Most know Bill today for his outstanding analysis on Root sports for the Mariners. Bill said he was proud to pitch for both the Tigers and the Rainiers. He loved pitching at Cheney Stadium. It was a pitcher-friendly park, and the mound was always in excellent condition, unlike Albuquerque, where the small stadium was a hitter's dream. Bill said. "We are on the cusp of baseball starting." Last year, MLB played 60 games. It was a truncated season, but the shortened scheduled got the cream to rise to the top. Baseball is excellent entertainment, but without fans in the stands, it was not the same. Baseball is heading spring training, but no one knows when games will start. Owners want to play 154 games, and they will pay the players for 162 games. They want to hold the start of the season for a few weeks with the current infection cases in Florida and Arizona high. They hope by delaying it will give them a better chance of completing the season with fans in the stands. The owners offered an expanded playoff format and universal "D.H." The Player’s Association responded simply with an unqualified "No." We know there will be a 26-player roster and 17 doubleheaders if needed. Players Association doesn't want to give any chips away since they will be negotiating a new contract in a year. Bill believes that inner league play has not been good for baseball. When you have the magic of two independent leagues with no inner league play, the World Series was more exciting. Bill was a position player before he became a pitcher. He loved to hit. Today, if a kid has a great arm, they take the bat out of his hands at an early age. Today, pitchers can't hit, so the universal "D.H." will become permanent. It will expand the rosters to 26. The playoffs should be either 16 or 14 teams. Fourteen teams should eliminate a team playing less than .500, and they need to make it harder for the wild-card teams to advance. More Krueger Bill said he is a terrible traditionalist. Bill spoke about Major League baseball deadening the ball. Bill worked for a company that developed a pitching machine that could throw accurate pitches every time in the batting cage. The funny thing was that Major League baseballs were not accurate enough to use in the device. They had to go to Baden sports to make a ball with tighter tolerances. Major league baseball tells you they have a legal description for a baseball, but there is considerable leeway in baseball construction. There are various factors made in making a baseball – diameter, weight, height of seam – they have been tapping into this for a long time. They make the baseballs in the jungles of Haiti or Panama and not in a glass building in St. Louis. According to Bill, "They have been monkeying with the baseballs for years." Last few years, the baseballs had no seams. Now they will be adding and raising the seams. They want to "retard” the all-or-nothing baseball we have been watching for the past few years. Bill believes this will be good for baseball. In recent years, pitchers are taught to throw high in the strike zone. What you get is a strikeout, strikeout, home run, and walk. The purity of baseball of hitting to opposite fields, hitting line drives, and sacrificing a batter to move a runner to the next base is almost gone. Earlier in Bill's career, when he was with the Dodgers, Sandy Koufax took him aside and told me that to be a successful pitcher in Major Leagues, he had to learn how to pitch low and away. Bill said, "We are not getting enough balls into play. Batters learn to get stronger and to change their launch angles." The result means more home runs and more strikeouts. Currently, Clubs pay for home runs. With the deadening of the ball, they will need to pay for all fields hitting. Bill is hopeful that the changes will force baseball leadership to focus on what has made baseball great over the years. When asked who his favorite manager to play for and Bill responded, Tom Kelly. Kelly coached the Minnasota Twins to two World Series Championships. Bill spent 15 minutes talking about the upcoming Mariners season. The Mariners have some young and talented players who are a few years away from being outstanding players. He predicts the Astros to win the Western division and the Mariners to finish fourth. I am working on the audio portion of Bill’s talk, but I am running into some technical issues. Guest Pat Garlock,Membership Committee Chair introduced Tom Glasgow, Gaylen Masters and Herb Taylor as guest. Committee Reports and other News Willie Stewart gave a brief update on the Athlete of the Year Committee. Willie chairs the 14-person committee. The committee's mission is to choose the best Athlete of the year for each season in every W.I.A.A. sponsored sport. The first official contests take place this weekend. A unique thing happened this weekend with Gig Harbor and Peninsula High Schools. They are 3A schools, but because of travel and safety concerns with COVID, they will play a 4A schedule this year. Willie asked Gary Larson, Athletic Director, to discuss some of the required precautions for students to return to play. Gary reported the South Puget Sound League decided not to have any fans. Schools will follow a 200-person cap rule per football game, including officials, chain gang, clock operator, media, etc. Home teams get 120 attendees and visiting teams 80. Lakes played Mount Tahoma on Friday night, where both teams must provide a roster in advance. Everyone attending the game had to check-in and have their temperature taken. All screenings occur before Lakes departs from the bus. Athletes and coaches will be checked at the game. If your name is not on the list, you don't get to enter. Locker rooms will not be used, and the sanitization of the ball and other equipment will occur on almost every play. Athletes will wear masks that touch the Athlete's nose and mouth.