Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood SABR Chapter’s 2010 Winter Meeting

On Saturday, February 20, the Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood SABR Chapter held its annual winter meeting.  Over thirty Society for American Baseball Research members attended and listened to several great presentations over a five hour period.

Norm Hausmann, a new SABR member and a Hartford baseball historian, briefly discussed old Bulkeley Stadium and his mission to collect enough anecdotes and memorabilia of the teams that played there, as well as any surviving remnants of the stadium, for a permanent display at the Connecticut Historical Society.  If you have any stories of the old stadium or memorabilia you would like to share, loan or donate, please contact Norm at nhausmann@cox.net .

Christine Jewell, Director of Education and Community Programs at the Fairfield Museum and History Center in Fairfield, Connecticut, spoke of an upcoming exhibit at the Fairfield Museum entitled It’s a Hit! A Hometown View of Our National Pastime .  The exhibit will include community programs, a series of discussions and lectures, a fall festival and possibly a SABR meeting.  If you would like to participate in any of the events, donate or loan memorabilia for the exhibit or simply learn more about the museum, contact Christine at cjewell@fairfieldhs.org .

Larry Levine, the Chapter’s vice president, spoke about growing up as a New York Giants fan from 1946-51. The Giants were the third fiddle among the three New York baseball teams up until October 3, 1951, when there was a “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”  In his talk, Larry discussed his legendary high school catching career (I’m laughing as I write this) and he blessed the audience by singing (again laughing) the Giants’ promotional radio theme song from his youth.

Jerry Mileur, a former Double A Eastern League professional baseball club owner and an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, discussed his book, High-Flying Birds: The 1942 St. Louis Cardinals .  The 1942 Cards were the first team he remembers following which ultimately ended with his team beating the Yankees in the World Series in five games.

To round out the meeting, Jon Daly led the group in a moment of silence for two Connecticut SABR members who recently passed on, Borden Brown of West Hartford and Vincent Fandetti of Vernon.  Joe Runde presented a detailed history of baseball board games.  Ty Waterman spoke of the legendary Noodles Hahn, whose career was over by 27 after pitching almost 2,000 innings in a six year period (1899-1904).  Chapter President Steve Krevisky discussed Lefty Gomez’s pitching triple crown in 1934 (26 Wins, 2.33 ERA and 158 Strikeouts).  Steve also announced his candidacy for the SABR Board of Directors.  Good luck Steve!!  Gabriel Schechter, author and research associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Library, discussed his ongoing research of save situations and the aggregate data of the results for the eighth and ninth innings.  Ken Paulson held his traditional trivia contest.  The focus of the trivia was centered on the Hall of Fame and appropriately the winner was the Hall’s Mr. Schechter.  The winner’s prize was the new bio on Willie Mays entitled Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend .

Fellow chapter member Jim Wyman and I were supposed to moderate a discussion on candidates for the Hall of Fame.  As we were running out of time, Jim and I decided to save our discussion for another time since many of us had to get back to the real world or eat something other than the cookies my wife made — a shout out to my wife Carol from the group.  In preparation for the meeting, I came up with a top 50 list of players under 30 who one day may be candidates for baseball’s highest honor.  So with opening day just about forty days away and not wanting to completely waste the time I spent compiling the list, I present my list of the top 50 players under 30:

Player (Age on Opening Day 2010)

Catcher

Russell Martin (27)

Joe Mauer (26)

Brian McCann (26)

Yadier Molina (27)

First Base

Prince Fielder (25)

Adrian Gonzalez (27)

Justin Morneau (28)

Mark Teixeira (29)

Joey Votto (26)

Second Base

Robinson Cano (27)

Aaron Hill (28)

Ian Kinsler (27)

Dustin Pedroia (26)

Brandon Phillips (28)

Shortstop

Hanley Ramirez (26)

Jhonny Peralta (27)

Jose Reyes (26)

Troy Tulowitzki (25)

Third Base

Miquel Cabrera (26)

Evan Longoria (24)

Pablo Sandoval (23)

David Wright (27)

Ryan Zimmerman (25)

Outfield

Ryan Braun (26)

Carl Crawford (28)

Jacoby Ellsbury (26)

Andre Ethier (27)

Curtis Granderson (29)

Matt Kemp (25)

Adam Lind (26)

Nick Markakis (26)

Grady Sizemore (27)

Justin Upton (22)

Starting Pitcher

Josh Beckett (29)

Chad Billingsley (25)

Zack Greinke (26)

Cole Hamels (26)

Danny Haren (29)

Felix Hernandez (23)

Jon Lester (26)

Tim Lincecum (25)

Jake Peavy (28)

C.C. Sabathia (29)

Justin Verlander (27)

Adam Wainwright (28)

Jered Weaver (27)

Carlos Zambrano (28)

Relief Pitcher

Jonathan Broxton (25)

Jonathan Papelbon (29)

Francisco Rodriguez (28)

Note: Players listed by position where they have played the most games to date.

The CT Smoky Joe Wood SABR Chapter meets on a regular basis, including monthly breakfast gatherings, a fall and winter meeting and outings to ballparks, historical landmarks, local pubs and anywhere else baseball can be played or discussed.  If you would like to learn more about the chapter, contact Steve Krevisky ( sakrevisky@sbcglobal.net ), Larry Levine ( lhlevine23@comcast.net ) or Joe Williams ( jwilliams22@snet.net ).