February 16, 2016

We had a very good turnout Monday night where we welcomed new members Sarah and Hudson Smith.

We began the meeting remembering the two Hall of Famers we lost in January; Monte Irvin and Red Mahoney. Both have been quite active in our chapter and they will be missed.

The Astros FanFest on January 23rd was quite successful with 17 SABR members participating. Thanks to Tom White, Jim Kreuz, Dick Bily, Ralph Hackenmack, Bob Stevens, Mike and Meghan McCroskey, Sarah and Hudson Smith, Ira Liebman, Marsha Franty, Greg Moore, Tony Cavender, Joe and Susan Thompson and Bill Brown for helping out.

Yesterday we sent out information on the Marker Dedication for the former site of Fair Grounds Baseball Park in Houston and hope many of you will be able to attend this coming Saturday at 11:00 AM. The location is at the corner of Milam and McGowen.

Our guest speakers once again were terrific. Mike Coffin,voice of the Corpus Christi Hooks led off and told us about his passion for baseball and the road he had taken from high school, to Sam Houston State, to the the Astros as an intern and on to achieve his goal of broadcasting.  A very bright young man.

Jay Miller, President of the Sugar Land Skeeters then took the stage and wowed us with stories about his 35 year plus career in professional baseball at both the major league and minor league levels. His efforts to get his first job are classic and something that should be heard by everyone entering the job market in their chosen field.

Ray was followed by Ira Liebman who recently returned from Australia and took us on a tour of the country in general and Australian baseball in particular. Ira's passion for the game came through loud and clear as well as his playing ability. Good glove anyway.

Mike McCroskey won the trivia contest written by Larry Wemberly with Tom White coming in a close second.

Our next meeting will be on Monday March 21st, same location and time with speaker Larry Dierker.

For April we plan to attend a Skeeters game on Monday, April 25th. Tickets for the All You Can Eat Buffet are $36 and Ira has agreed to be the collector of the ticket money. Please mail your check to Ira Liebman, Constellation Field, 1 Stadium Drive, Sugar Land, TX 77498. The deadline for signing up is April 20th with your tickets being available at "will call" the day of the game.

See you all next month.

Bob Dorrill
bdorrill@aol.com