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Next Regional Meeting: 9:30 a.m., Saturday,
July 5th, Qualcomm Stadium Press Box
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Special Event: Baseball Reliquary Here
August 3-29, 2003
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A Review of “The Kid” from San Diego: A
Celebration of Ted Williams”
·
Lane Field Plaque Dedicated on March 30th
·
Check Out This Web Site
·
Roger Kahn at Hall of Champions, 12 noon,
Friday, June 20th
·
BRC New Acquisitions
MARK IT DOWN…SUMMER REGIONAL
MEETING
QUALCOMM STADIUM
9:30 a.m., SATURDAY, JULY 5,
2003
On Saturday morning,
July 5th we will have our traditional summer meeting in the Qualcomm
Stadium Press Box. The San Francisco
Giants are in town that evening against the Padres. We hope to have our Boynton Research Award winner on hand to
present their winning paper, along with:
· Kerry Yo Nakagawa who is author of a book entitled Through a Diamond, 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball. He writes on the importance that baseball had to the Japanese-American internees in the camps during WWII. If you are interested in his book, or just want a fascinating look into this aspect of baseball history…plus links to Japanese baseball subjects, then check out his website at http://www.niseibaseball.com.
· Josh Suchon, who covers the San Francisco Giants for the Oakland Tribune . He authored a book titled, This Gracious Season: Barry Bonds & The Greatest Year In Baseball. You can find out more information about the book at www.winterpublications.com.
SPECIAL EVENT…BASEBALL RELIQUARY
HERE AUGUST 3-29, 2003
Jay Walker has been
working with Terry Cannon, head of the Baseball Reliquary (www.baseballreliquary.org), to set up an
exhibit of baseball artifacts and memorabilia from the Reliquary's permanent
collection.
·
The dates are August 3-29, 2003.
·
The location is the Central San Diego Public Library (where
incidentally our San Diego SABR Baseball Research Center is housed).
All of the
Library's display cases will be used to display the many items from the
Reliquary, along with a few items from our local SABR members. The Reliquary is the home of the “Shrine of
the Eternals,” honoring great names from the past who have made a significant
cultural contribution to baseball.
As a
special feature, on Sunday, August 17, 2003, at 2:30 p.m. the Reliquary will
put on a 1-hour special program at the Library that will include:
·
A slide show and video tape of unique baseball items and past
Reliquary events, and
·
Anne Oncken performing old-time baseball songs on the piano.
REVIEW
OF “’THE KID’ FROM SAN DIEGO:
A
CELEBRATION OF TED WILLIAMS”
The day-long March 29th Ted Williams Chapter meeting broke attendance records as over 120 members and guests attended this special regional meeting. Held at the San Diego Hall of Champions the event was titled “’The Kid’ from San Diego: A Celebration of Ted Williams.”
The focus of the meeting was, of course, Ted Williams, but also his San Diego connection. Boyhood friends, relatives, former teammates and players at all levels were part of the program, along with a number of research presentations. Chapter President Emeritus Bob Boynton led things off with remembrances of the “57 years that separated his two meetings with Ted.”
Bob Breitbard, President Emeritus of the Hall of Champions and a personal friend of Ted’s since early high school, participated on the day’s first panel along with Hoover High friends Joe Villarino and Les Cassie, Jr. Jay Walker covered the neighborhood roots of where Ted grew up and traced various landmarks where Ted played ball and went to school, plus a current view of the home where he grew up. Dennis Donley, Hoover’s current librarian, completed the panel and discussed the collection of historical materials that exist at the school. He brought several of the materials from 1935-36 which were displayed at the meeting.
Another panel included relatives who joined in from various parts of California. One panelist was Ted Williams, a nephew of Ted’s, and a graphic designer who also lent his skills to preparing the special cover art for the day’s program. Bill Nowlin, author of a recent book on Williams, moderated this panel and also contributed tidbits from his extensive research into Ted’s baseball experiences while at Hoover High.
Former ballplayers who played with or against Ted also were active participants and included Ray Boone, Jerry Coleman, Jack Harshman, and Max West.
A fascinating review of the special 1941 season through the articles of The Sporting News was presented by Fred Rodgers. Among other things we learned that Ted used the scoreboard for rifle practice! Noted baseball author John Holway presented on “The Unknown Ted” which were excerpts taken from his personal interviews and research on Williams.
The military phases of Ted’s career were also treated in informative and entertaining style by Todd Anton, who is researching for a book on the subject of “For Love of Country: Duty, Honor, Baseball.” John Bolthouse, archivist for the San Diego Aerospace Museum, contributed background on the equipment that Williams flew.
Next was a joint presentation by Andy Strasberg and Roger Engle covering Ted’s Baseball Camp. Roger’s father, Roy, was an instructor there and his brother, Dave, eventually became a major league ballplayer. Clips from home movies taken by the Engles from one of the camps were shown.
We had a presentation by Carlos Bauer that focused on statistics and showed what Ted’s PCL career might have looked like if he had “stayed at home.”
The day’s final panel covered the three minor league seasons of Williams. Frank Myers led off describing the events that led to Ted becoming a Padre in 1936, followed by Dan Boyle who covered Williams’ 1936 maiden professional season in San Diego. Bill Swank then followed with a review of the 1937 season and the beginning of his association with San Diego sportswriter Earl Keller. Finally, Jim Smith concluded the session with his presentation “’The Kid’ Leaves Home: Ted Williams and the 1938 Minneapolis Millers.”
Joe Naiman came up with his typical array of trivia questions which had many in the audience wondering who would be able to answer any of the questions…sure enough, there was someone who could…the quiz was won by Jay Walker.
Denny Fallon provided a treasure of Ted Williams’ artifacts and memorabilia ranging from various Sear equipment to the Jimmy Fund, plus numerous magazines and photographs. The exhibit remains set up at the Hall so if you have not seen it yet, drop on by. Also, Autumn Durst Keltner, daughter of former Yankee and PCL Padre Cedric Durst, provided an exhibit of some of her special collection, plus donated a set of October 1941 color photographs of Ted at Lane Field for the Chapter’s raffle. A special exhibit was set up by Bill Swank…a Ted Williams signature tent!
With Bill Nowlin performing editing duties, we are planning to compile the papers and presentations into a publication. We will keep you posted.
Our thanks to Bob Breitbard, Mary Woodall, and the staff of the Hall of Champions for their tremendous support in partnering with our Chapter to pull off this event. Bob even shared many mementos of Ted’s rarely seen.
LANE FIELD HISTORICAL PLAQUE DEDICATED
On Sunday, March 30th, the Chapter held a dedication event for a plaque commemorating the location of Lane Field from where the PCL Padres played from 1936-1957. Tom Larwin, Bill Swank, and Max West offered remarks at the ceremony in addition to the Port of San Diego Chairman Jess Van deventer and Padres official Tim Katzman.
Chapter member Ron Andreassi took the lead and managed
the project to completion. If you are
in San Diego and want to view the plaque, the spot is easy to find and is
located at the northwest corner of Pacific Highway and Broadway in downtown. Our thanks again to all contributors; the
plaque turned out great and the Port’s construction forces did a terrific job
of setting it on a foundation resembling a baseball diamond.
Check Out This Web Site
Cyril
Morong has produced a site called "Clutch Hitting Leaders, 1987-2001"
and can be viewed at http://hometown.aol.com/cyrilmorong/myhomepage/clutch.htm.
He writes that: “This list gives the leaders in various
situations for the years 1987-2001. The
situations are listed in the following order:
Close and Late, with Runners in Scoring Position, with Runners in Scoring
Position and 2 outs, with Runners on Base, and finally for All Plate
Appearances or At-Bats. Players are
ranked in four statistics: batting average (AVG), on-base percentage (OBP), slugging
percentage (SLG), and OPS, which is OBP plus SLG. Close and Late means
situations when the game is in the 7th inning or later and the
batting team is leading by one run, tied, or has the potential tying run on
base, at bat or on deck.
“The qualification: 6000
or more plate appearances, 1987-2001. There were 71 players. For the following
players, OBP was calculated using only walks, hits and at-bats: Albert Belle,
Brett Butler, Joe Carter, Chili Davis, Gary Gaetti, Ozzie Guillen, Paul
Molitor, Eddie Murray, Terry Pendleton and Tony Phillips. I also only had data on them for RISP and
CL. This is because
their situational stats were not listed at the CNN/SI site and I
took their data from STATS Player Profiles books. I did not have data for those ten players for Runners in Scoring
Position and 2 outs and with Runners on Base.
“The last list shows each player's OPS in close and late
situations relative to his OPS in non-close and late situations. 67 OF 71 players had an OPS in close and
late situations that was within 10% of their ops in non-close and late
situations. 52 were within 5%. This suggests that players generally hit
about the same in clutch situations as they do in non-clutch situations. It
also appears from the last list that switch hitters seem to be better at
maintaining their normal OPS in close and late situations than non-switch
hitters. This may be because they don't
have to face a same-handed pitcher.
“But that is the basic reason why I compiled this list: To show that hitting in the clutch is not
that much different than other situations.
As you look at these leaders, you will notice that the best hitters
overall tend to be the best hitters in the various situations.”
Roger Kahn at Hall of Champions
12 noon, Friday, June 20, 2003
This special “Sports At Lunch” will feature Roger Kahn, the
man who some say wrote the best book ever written about baseball, or any sport:
The Boys of Summer.
Mr. Kahn will be speaking about his
latest book, October Men: From Chaos to
Triumph with the 1978 New York Yankees.
Brooklyn-born, Mr. Kahn, at age 25, began covering the Dodgers for the New York Herald Tribune. He later wrote for Sports Illustrated, which recently selected The Boys of Summer as the second best book ever written about sports. Kahn’s other books include: Season in the Sun; The Seventh Game; Good Enough to Dream, (based on his experiences as owner of the Utica Club in the New York-Penn League); and The Head Game.
The program is part of the continuing “Great American Writers Series” co-sponsored
by the City of San Diego Public Library, City Club of San Diego and UCSD-TV. This event is also sponsored by the San
Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum and the Committee of 2004.
WHEN: Friday, June 20, 2003
Check-in 11:30 a.m.
Program starts at 12:00 noon
WHERE: Walter J. Zable room at The San Diego Hall of Champions
2131 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park
PRICE: $25.00 for Hall members; $35.00 for non-members
RESERVATIONS: Space is Limited; R.S.V.P. to The Hall of Champions
(619)234-4542 x321
SAN DIEGO PUBLIC LIBRARY
SAN DIEGO SABR BASEBALL RESEARCH CENTER, BRC -- NEW
ACQUISITIONS
Our chapter’s library liaison, Vic Cardell, has announced new acquisitions in the Central Library and Branches during the three-month period, January-March 2003. All holdings are at Central Library and branches unless noted otherwise.
BOOKS
Cook, William A. The Summer of '64: A Pennant Lost. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002. Call Number: 796.35764/COOK (Central only) Porter, David and Joe Naiman. The Padres Encyclopedia. [Champaign, IL]: Sports Publishing L.L.C., 2002. Call Number: 796.357/PORTER Rains, Rob and Alvin A. Reid. Whitey's Boys: A Celebration of the '82 Cards World Championship. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2002. Call Number: 796.35764/RAINS (Central only) Seymour, Harold. Baseball. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960-<1990>. Vol. 2: The Golden Age. Call Number: 796.357/SEYMOUR vol. 2 Shiner, David. Baseball's Greatest Players: The Saga Continues. [Bridgewater, N.J.]: SuperiorBooks.com, Inc., 2001. Call Number: 796.357/SHINER Simon, Scott. Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002. Call Number: B/ROBINSON White, Sol. Sol. White's Official Base Ball Guide. Ed. H. Walter Schlichter. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1984. Call Number: 796.357/WHITE (Central only)
VIDEO
Bull Durham. Los Angeles: Orion Home Video, 1989. Call Number: VC 791.4372/BULL
CALIFORNIA ROOM
Swank, Bill.
The Kid from San Diego: A
Celebration of Ted Williams. Ted Williams, Earl Keller and the 1937 San Diego
Padres. San Diego, Calif.: B. Swank, 2003. Call
Number: RCC 796.357/SWANK