The Oklahoma Chapter of SABR was formed in May 2011. The chapter meets 3 to 4 times per year to share baseball-related experiences, memories, and knowledge. SABR members, guests and interested non-members are welcome. Meanwhile, please feel free to explore our site. Meaningful comments are always appreciated.
Howard L. Johnson, Chapter President
Next Meeting of the Oklahoma Chapter is scheduled for May 11 in Tulsa.
The Stillwater News-Press has reported that a movie based on Oklahoma SABR member Mike Sowell’s book The Pitch That Killed is in pre-production and is scheduled for a 2014 release.
Mike has authored two other baseball books, The Mysterious Death of Hall-Of-Famer Big Ed Delahanty and One Pitch Away: The Players’ Stories of the 1986 League Championships and World Series. He discussed his books at our December 10, 2011 meeting in Stroud.
SABR member Pete Pierce, our June 9, 2012 featured speaker, has written four books on minor league baseball: in the Cross Timbers: The Story of the Sooner State League;
Indians, Cardinals and Rosebuds: Professional Baseball in Ardmore 1947-1961;
Territorians to Boomers: Professional Baseball in Ardmore 1904-1926; and
Red Dirt Baseball-The First Decades: Small Town Professional Baseball in Oklahoma 1904-1919.
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The Central Oklahoma Chapter met in Tulsa at Drillers Park on February 9, continuing through lunch at the nearby Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant. We extend our thanks to the Drillers for allowing us to use their facilities and to Kevin Johnson for organizing the event. A majority of the attendees traveled from the Oklahoma City area to attend. Informal discussion was the rule including such topics as: the recent Hall of Fame vote and expectations for future elections, the apparent impact of PEDs, historical home/road splits for prominent Major League players past and present, and of course, the outlook for the coming season.
The attending members,constituting a majority of regular attendees, agreed that the word “Central” should be dropped from the chapter name, thus the chapter’s identity becomes the “Oklahoma Chapter.” The possibility of honoring one or more prominent baseball figures with Oklahoma ties somewhere along the line remains.
Plans for a spring meeting, again in Tulsa, to include a Drillers game are underway.
Howard
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