January 16th, 2017

Larry Dierker SABR Chapter Members:

52 members and guests packed the Spaghetti Western Restaurant on Monday, January 16, 2017, to hear Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch speak to us for over and hour and a half on the subject he loves most; baseball. Members themselves starting arriving over an hour early to assure seats and even after adding additional tables every single seat was taken well before the session started.

A.J. talked about a variety of subjects from the evolution of baseball over the years, especially the past 20 years, to the game played today, team chemistry, evaluation of players and the importance of establishing achievable objectives. He gave many examples of how he manages and stressed the importance of still having fun in pressure situations. A.J. answered each and every question asked. In doing so Hinch not only showed us his baseball smarts but his academic smarts as well. You had to be there.

Following AJ, Bill McCurdy honored our guest with an original poem using the theme "You Gotta Have Hinch." To read more, please see Bill's blog of January 17.

Mike McCroskey reported on the outstanding SABR meeting last Saturday by the Rogers Hornsby Chapter and told a few Dr. Bobby Brown stories including one about Bobby's "first patient." Mike also gave his 8-year-old Carlos Delgado report.

Our trivia contested authored by Greg Lucas featured the year 1962 and was won by Tom White.

This coming Saturday, we will host a table at the Astros FanFest and we thank the 13 members who have volunteered to help. It is also our SABR Day event.

We will meet again on Monday, February 20 with Maxwell Kates of Toronto, Canada, being our speaker. As many will recall, MK was very active at SABR 44 here in Houston. Joe Thompson is on the agenda and we have a DVD showing "The First Boys of Spring" featuring ball clubs conducting spring training in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Come join us.

Click HERE for meeting photo gallery!