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.
|