Chapter Bylaws Up for Review

The Board of the Bob Davids Chapter has developed and approved a set of bylaws for the chapter. Notice is given that a vote will be held from Wednesday May 24 through Sunday May 28 for the membership to vote on whether or not to ratify the bylaws. A separate message will be sent in the coming weeks about how to participate in the vote.

The bylaws can be viewed on the chapter website at this link
For questions about this, please contact Peter Cottrell (pbcottrell@gmail.com)

 

Chapter to Get Crabby in Waldorf

This year’s Bob Davids Chapter minor league outing will be over the Labor Day weekend – and it will be a labor of love.

We’re headed to wonderful Waldorf, Maryland, home of the independent Atlantic League’s Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, for a 6:35 p.m. first-pitch game against the ain’t-got-a-home Road Warriors.

The date is Saturday, Sept. 1. And we’re getting the best of both worlds: A field box seat during the game so we can see the manually operated scoreboard in left field, and a two-hour all-you-can-eat picnic buffet beforehand featuring BBQ ribs and chicken, burgers (veggie burgers optional), hot dogs, mac ’n’ cheese, chips, ice cream sandwiches, and beverages from the Pepsi line of products.

This being a SABR event, we’ll have a pair of speakers. One is Courtney Knichel, general manager of the Blue Crabs and the only woman to hold a GM position in all of professional baseball. She’s also been with the team each of its 11 years of existence, so she’ll be able to tell you just about anything about the franchise, indie ball, and the stresses of being a GM without a guaranteed talent stream from a major-league organization.

Courtney has also promised us a player from the Blue Crabs (to be determined) to talk about his experiences in the pro game as part of an involved Q-and-A session. More details, of course, to come.

And all of this for just $35. Set your GPS for 11765 St. Linus Drive., home of Regency Furniture Stadium. Before then, set your checkbook for “SABR -– Bob Davids Chapter” to the tune of $35 per person. SABR members, nonmembers, potential members, family and guests welcome. Send your checks to chapter treasurer Dave Paulson, 5400 Vantage Point Rd., #801, Columbia, MD 21044. But act promptly. Even though it’s nearly two months away, you don’t want to forget – and all ticket requests should be received by Tuesday, August 21, so you can be seated with other chapter members.

Any questions? Get in touch with Bob Davids Chapter board member Mark Pattison at mpattison@catholicnews.com.

Summer ’18 Squibber Arrives

The Squibber is the Bob Davids chapter’s quarterly newsletter. It is emailed to chapter members roughly every three months. If you’re a Bob Davids chapter member and are not getting the Squibber, please check that your email address and chapter affiliations listed on the SABR site are correct. Please send submissions for future editions to Squibber editor Walt Cherniak at wcherniakjr@aol.com.

IN THIS ISSUE:

BOB DAVIDS CHAPTER VISITS THE NATS:  Annual MLB Gathering Scheduled for Aug. 4

‘INSIDE BASEBALL’:  Library of Congress Steps Up to Bat, By Courtney A. Johnson

POLITICS AND PROSE HOSTS TOP BASEBALL AUTHORS:  Law, Jaffe Headline July 14 Event

ALL-STAR WEEK IN D.C.:  Panel Examines Baseball’s Past and Future

TALKIN’ BASEBALL:  Upcoming Speakers Announced

HARPER’S SWAN SONG IN D.C.?: Walter Johnson Said He Would Retire in 1924, By Gary Sarnoff

Rock the red (not the Reds) at SABR Nats Park outing

SABR Day at the Nationals 

What: The annual summer major league game meeting of the Bob Davids Chapter. The Nats take on Joey Votto and the Reds in Cincinnati’s only series in Washington in 2018.

WhenSaturday, August 4, 2018, 1:30 event, 7:05pm game time. We’ll enter the stadium at 5:30pm. More details will follow.

Guests:  To Be Announced, but stay tuned for updates!

How much: Our SABR Day package costs $62 this year.  Our seats are in the 400s and the costs include the program, tickets to the game and the buffet lunch. The menu includes Burger bar (veggie burgers on request), hot dogs with condiments and sauerkraut, BBQ baked beans, field greens salad, grilled vegetable pasta salad, watermelon wedges, kettle-style potato chips, assorted soft drinks and water.

Who: SABR members and visitors … but only if you are among the first 40 attendees to register for this exciting event. The room we will be meeting in is limited to 40 dedicated fans.

Why: Because we love baseball!

Questions: Contact Peter Cottrell at Peter.Cottrell@gaithersburgmd.gov or 240-372-8426

HowComplete the registration form below and send it and a check for $62 per person before July 2nd to Dave Paulson, Chapter treasurer, and send send an e-mail to both Dave Paulson and Peter Cottrell, who will confirm your spot. Dave’s email is d2244p@yahoo.com.

Event is open to all SABR members and guests. We do ask that you list the names of any guests so we know who to expect. Please click “More” below for the registration form. (more…)

Chapter Event at Prince William a Royal Good Time

Twenty-three Bob Davids Chapter members and guests attended the annual minor league baseball game and meeting on Saturday, August 20th at Pfitzner Stadium in Woodbridge Virgina. The day’s activities were started off with a Baseball Trivia session developed and presented by Babe Ruth Chapter President and Quiz Master Extraordinaire Bruce Brown, followed by a Question-and-Answer session with Potomac Nationals manager Tripp Keister and outfielder Alec Keller.

After the picnic dinner at the right-field picnic pavillion, the attendees were treated to a come-from-behind win by the Frederick Keys over the Nationals in a contest featuring several long home runs, with the Keys holding off a late comeback by the Nationals to win the game 7-6.

The Bob Davids Chapter Board would like to thank Bruce for affording us his time and efforts, and would also like to thank the Potomac Nationals team and staff for providing us with great speakers and the venue for a fine late afternoon and evening of baseball entertainment.

Summer time for Squibbin’

Members, look in your inboxes for links to our chapter newsletter, The Squibber. The latest issue includes the following articles:

  • MINOR LEAGUE OUTING IN POTOMAC: Still Time to Sign Up
  • HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN:  Annual Major League Outing a Success, by Mark Pattison
  • TALKIN’ BASEBALL: Upcoming Talks Scheduled, by Dave Paulson
  • DICK BOSMAN COULD PITCH:  Recalling the Ace of the Senators, by Jeff Stuart
  • SOUP TO NUTS ABOUT THE NATS:  New Book Covers if All, from A to Z, by Mark Pattison

Fall Squibber is Back

Members, check your email for the September 2015 edition of the chapter’s quarterly newsletter.  Articles include:

BOB DAVIDS WELCOMES BABE RUTH: New Baltimore Chapter Formed, by D. Bruce Brown
TALKIN’ BASEBALL: Upcoming Talks Scheduled, by Dave Paulson
MINOR LEAGUE MEETING PLANNED: Heading to Lancaster, by Dave Newman
BASEBALL INFO SOLUTIONS SEEKS SCOREKEEPERS:  Carolina League Assistance Needed, by Don Masi
LIVAN HERNANDEZ HAD FUN WITH THE FINE ART OF BUNTING, by Jeff Stuart

Submissions for future editions can be sent to Squibber editor Walt Cherniak at wcherniakjr@aol.com. Keep sending us those squibs, and those ideas for squibs!

SABR Day at Nats Park

by David Hughes

On Saturday, June 6, the Bob Davids Chapter met for its annual outing at a major league game, this year at Nationals Park.  The Nationals hosted the Chicago Cubs for an unusual 12:05 P.M. start.  The 70+ in attendance assembled at 9:30 a.m. fSamuel Mondry-Cohenor entry to the park then moved to the Roosevelt conference room for some discussion and to hear from our two guest speakers: Samuel Mondry-Cohen, Director, Baseball Research & Development for the Washington Nationals, and syndicated columnist, author, and life-long suffering Cubs fan, George F. Will.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the son of a math teacher, and still well south of 30 years old, Samuel recounted his varied career experiences in organized baseball.  He has been, in order: the visiting team’s batboy in his home town, San Francisco; one of the visiting team’s clubhouse attendants there; an unpaid intern with the Nationals’ front office; a paid intern with the Nationals; a one-person analytics resource within the Nationals’ front office, and, finally the supervisor of a three-person analytics department, also charged with certain other data gathering activities for the Nats.  He reports to Adam Cromie, Nationals Assistant General Manager (also one of our recent speakers).

Samuel answered questions about his experience as a clubhouse guy (the tips could be good), the mechanics of data gathering, some of the analytical challenges that his group faces on a daily basis, and the various internal uses to which the organization puts his group’s work product.  His group had been preoccupied recently in anticipation of the amateur draft (which began June 8), and will then turn its focus toward analysis in anticipation of the July 31 trade deadline.

George’s childhood home was in central Illinois, and he said that like all of his friends at the time he had a choice of becoming a Cubs fan or a CardinalsGeorge Will fan.  Most of his friends chose to be Cardinals fans and they grew up to become “happy adults who are liberals.”  He chose the Cubs and grew up to be “a dyspeptic conservative.”  His Cubs allegiance seems to have led him down some dark baseball alleys.  His Little League team’s sponsor was part of the Mittendorf Funeral Home group.  The team’s primary “color” was black.  George’s playing days ended, as they had for many of us in the room, when the dimensions of the diamond went from 60’x60’ to 90’ x 90’.

As George noted, Cubs history is littered with disappointment and strange historical threads.  Among other things, he referenced the “Bartman game,” and it’s clear that he’s seen too many Cubs disasters for too many seasons.  George recalled that the recently deceased Lennie Merullo (heretofore the last living Cub to have played in the World Series) had once committed four errors in one inning.  Lennie thereafter called his son, born that very day, “Boots.”  George also told of the Wrigley family’s concern about stories of a vendor in the bleachers who was infamous for short-changing fans.  The vendor, one Jack Rubenstein, subsequently left Chicago for Dallas, Texas.  There, under the name “Jack Ruby,” he ran a night club and became notorious for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.  One of the Cubs’ spring training forays to Catalina Island was the reason that Ronald Reagan, then a radio voice of the team, ventured to California where he took the screen test that changed history. (more…)

Spring 2015 Squibber Sprouts

The April 2015 edition of the chapter newsletter, “The Squibber,” is now available. Members, check your email for a plain text copy of the newsletter and instructions on how to get a .pdf version.

Submissions for future editions can be sent to Squibber editor Walt Cherniak at wcherniakjr@aol.com. Keep sending us those squibs, and those ideas for squibs!

Articles include:

– Details on “SABR Day at the Nats,” the biennial chapter gathering for a game at Nationals Park, on Saturday, June 6, 2015, with guest speaker George F. Will
– Back-to-back Rookies of the Year, by Jeff Stuart
– What It’s Like to Play Single-A Baseball, by Greg Larson
– Museum discounts of interest, by Patrick Dickerson
– Talkin’ Baseball upcoming schedule, by David Paulson
– D.C. Grays fundraiser, by Thom Loverro
– Other chapter news and notes

TRIVIA QUESTION:  In the 10 seasons the Nationals have played in Washington, who posted the highest single-season on-base percentage? (more…)