October 21, 2010

Last night's meeting at Molly's Pub was a busy one for the 24 SABR members in attendance. First we welcomed our newest member Tim Gregg, then we congratulated Phil Boudreaux, Marsha Franty and Harold Jones for correctly predicting the number of games the Astros would win in 2010. We also recognized SABR member Mickey Herskowitz for being elected to the Astros Media Wall of Honor.

Of special interest to the group was the publishing this week of the book "Toy Cannon" written by Jimmy Wynn with the able assistance of long time SABR member Bill McCurdy. More about this later.

Our guest for the evening was 17 year MLB pitching veteran Mike Jackson who answered questions from the group for more than 90 minutes covering such subjects as the mental preparation for closers prior to and during games, pitching mechanics including arm slot, changing batter eye levels, on the field learning experiences - some the hard way and what it was like to pitch in post season games.

Mike also talked about the many of the Hall of Fame candidates he had played with (Bonds, AROD, Randy Johnson, Manny R., The Kid, Omar, E. Martinez, Thome, Wags. etc.) and what each brought to the team.

Scott Barzilla followed Mike to discuss his experiences in book publishing and the many details (and expenses) involved. Self publishing can be as trying as actually penning the book.

Tom While once again won the trivia contest based on a Casey at the Bat theme developed by Mike McCroskey. Due to time constraints we had to postpone Tom Kleirworth's unique trivia program until the next meeting.

Our November meeting is one everyone will want to attend because our special guest will be Houston Astros icon Jimmy Wynn and he and Bill McCurdy have agreed to sign copies of their new book which they will be available for sale. Exact date and time are still to be finalized.

As many of you will recall Bill McCurdy passed out 10 baseball cards at our March meeting and those of you who have done your research on these prospects can make your report at that time. Please confirm your availability.

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