February 16, 2015

26 hearty souls met on a cold and rainy night this past Monday, February 16, and we were pleased to welcome new members Chris Roblin, Janice Little and Greg Moore.

The first order of business was to sign a birthday card for our friend and fellow member Monte Irvin who turns 96 on February 25th. Since Monte couldn't attend the "2015 Hot Stove Banquet" in January, Greg Lucas reported on presenting Monte with our chapters "Long and Meritorious Service Award" to Monte last week.

Our special guest was nationally known Sports Agent Joe Brennan. Joe discussed his background and then went through process he and other agents go through to identify, analyze and cultivate potential prospects making sure they follow the guidelines and procedures required by MLB. There were lots of questions which Joe fielded nicely.

Tom White followed with a terrific presentation of his attendance at the 1953 All Star game in Cincinnati and his appearance in the official team photos taken of the players. Tom was able to roam the field prior to the game and collect 81 autographs (including 21 future Hall of Famers), copies of which he brought along to show us .What a great experience.

Stan Curtis spoke of his recent particpation at several baseball functions recently and then gave a talk he had written 51 years ago about the value of a minute.

Tony Cavender finished up with his trivia contest featuring baseball movies. Little did we realize that Bill McCurdy was a movie buff and he correctly answered 21 of the 22 questions. The next contest is yours Bill.

We meet again on Monday March 16th at the same location. Our guest speaker will be sports radio personality Charlie Pallilo of Clear Channel Radio. In addition Jim Kruez has a video presentation for us Ira Liebman is in the process of lining up a former major league player.

It's also time to start thinking about your answer for our annual contest to predict how many wins the Astros will have in 2015.