August 22, 2015

Last Saturday, we had a standing-room-only crowd at Union Station for our annual visit to Minute Maid Park. We had 70 members and friends on hand and we welcomed new SABR member Janine Schneider to our chapter.

Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow and Manager of Baseball Operations Brandon Taubman spoke for an hour about the major-league club, their very successful minor-league affiliates where 5 of the 6 teams should qualify for playoffs, key prospects for the future, and then provided us with a few hints on some very special analytic programs they have developed to forecast player success. Good stuff.

Next we were able to enter the ballpark and celebrate the induction of Craig Biggio into the Hall of Fame last month. The pregame program lasting over 40 minutes was emceed by our very own Bill Brown. Very inspirational.

The game following was equally exciting as a full house watched the Astros defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 with only three hits. This followed the no-hit victory the previous evening pitched by Mike Fiers. Amazing week for the Astros.

Our next meeting will be on Monday, September 28th at the Spaghetti Western. Please note this is the fourth Monday as the Astros are home on our usual third Monday. Our speakers will be Greg Moore and Marsha Franty, who will re-live their HOF weekend for us, followed by Jim Kreuz who has a 64-minute video that has never been broadcast showing interviews of eight former players. 

The trivia contest is being developed by Tom White.

As mentioned at the meeting, Red Mahoney has recently been hospitalized with a mini-stroke and we thank everyone who signed the cards for her. She will be moving into an assisted care facility when she leaves the hospital.

AND our ever-young former Houston Buff, Jersey City Giant, and St. Louis Cardinal Larry Miggins celebrated his 90th birthday last week.