Pittsburgh SABR Chapter Meeting Summary

The Pittsburgh/Forbes Field Chapter held its Spring Meeting on Saturday, April 28 at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.  Thirty-five members and guests attended the meeting and heard the following presentations.

Our Guest Speaker was Beaver County Times sports columnist John Mehno.  John talked about his early days as a 19 year old sports writer covering the early 1970’s Pirates of Danny Murtaugh and Joe L. Brown up through the current days of the Pirates 19-going-on-20 year losing streak.  It was a most well thought out, informative, and entertaining presentation.

We also had presentations from five members:

Bob Sproule gave a presentation called “The October Firsts” that took a look at the most memorable World Series that involved a franchise’s first World Series Championship (Pirates in ’09, Dodgers in ’55, Cardinals in ’26, and so on).

In “From the Diamond to the Kitchen Table”, Fred Shugars discussed the history of baseball board games, and gave some thoughts as to where such games will take us in the future.

Author Ron Waldo gave us a presentation on the Pittsburgh Pirates 1925 World Series winning season.  Ron has written books on that 1925 team, Pirates manager and Hall of Famer Fred Clarke, and will soon be releasing another book about another Bucco Hall of Famer, KiKI Cuyler.

Eric Thompson of the Cleveland/Jack Graney Chapter gave his presentation on the 1962 National League expansion draft, “Did the Colt .45’s and the Mets Have a Fair Chance?”

Another Clevelander, architect and artist Tom Woodman gave a fascinating presentation on the earliest concrete and steel baseball parks of the early 20^th Century, and showed us how he “recreated” them, and showed us the results of his efforts.

Next on the Pittsburgh Chapter agenda will be a group night at the Pirates game of May 12.  Twenty-nine members and their guests will attend that night.  Our annual “Summer Hot Stove Night” will take place at some point in late July or early August, exact date still to be determined, and we also hope that several members will also take in a Pittsburgh Franklins Vintage Base Ball game later in the summer.

Until then, we will be seeing you all at the Ballpark!