Happenings

You might have noticed the lack of posts around these parts.  It isn't for lack of desire.  Let's call it time management.

Recently I've been doing some research.  Baseball research.  I was part of SABR Day.  This last Saturday Knoxville hosted a SABR meeting to help celebrate SABR Day.  There were only four of us in attendance.  I led the group.  Had a nice agenda scrawled out.  We didn't follow the agenda so much.  But we had fun and enjoyed a few rounds of the "Nickname Quiz" where I give a decade, the player's nickname and the contestants have to guess which player had that moniker.  Everyone's a winner when we play the "Nickname Quiz".  I was able to unload 10 baseball books from the home bookshelf.  It made my wife very happy.  We talked about baseball movies and baseball books.  I learned of a new movie from our newest SABR member, Robert.  Well, new to me.  One of Robert's favorite movies is One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story.  Another one of our members, Marshall, shared with us his involvement in the upcoming book about Baseball's Winter Meetings.  I was going to talk about Frank Moffett, Knoxville's baseball pioneer.  I spent much of the prior week gathering notes, typing them into some coherent pastiche.  It didn't go so well.  The assembling, that is.  Time constraints kept me from talking about Mr. Moffett for more than a minute.  The notes can be reassembled into a more precise biography.  We also discussed the formation of a new SABR chapter in east Tennessee.  Time flew by and we were done.  Three of us walked towards vehicles, one continued to the parking garage, leaving two of us to visit the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection for a quick tour.  I picked up a nice news article that I found a few weeks ago.  It is from 1917 and describes the University of Tennessee's game with Johnson Bible College.

After that, it was a race home to assist my wife in the hosting of her parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  A long day of family, friends, and food.

Nancy & Jim Knowles

This week I was introduced to a new blogger in our midst. Kevin, over at Books and Baseball Cards, apparently found inspiration from me. I don't get it either.  In the Baseball Cards department, Kevin focuses on the St. Louis Cardinals and has assembled some rather tidy wantlists.  His blog is a good read.  Refreshing (in the sense that he doesn't talk about squirrels in his post about 2012 Topps).  Hop on over, follow his blog, trade some cards.

I discovered that I've been cranking out this blog for three years now.  That anniversary was last month.  Flew right by me.  And I also discovered that I've topped 100 followers.  I try not to focus on numbers like that.  How many posts I put up, how many views I've gotten this week.  It really doesn't matter.

In my spare time I've been doing some editing on the SABRpedia.  I've been trying to tighten up the colleges and universities that are located in east Tennessee.  Clean up some formatting, add in some info, that sort of stuff.

Somewhere along the way I chased a rabbit down an hole and found this at Ancestry.com.

Year: 1930; Census Place: Monroe, Ouachita, Louisiana; Roll: 4584714;
Page: 3B;  Image: 1031.0; Family History Library Film: 2340549.

It is an image from the 1930 US Census of Monroe, Louisiana. What what happening in Monroe, Louisiana in 1930? Baseball, that's what. The Monroe Drillers, part of the Class D Cotton States League played there.

Some of the names match up with the team list of players from the SABRpedia. Dan Irby, Clifford Shaw, Loy Bobo, and James Bagby are the names that I can match. Ah, to be boarding with roughnecks. 

I've highlighted the ball players in yellow. You can click on the image to enlarge it.  If you'd like a bigger, more clear copy of it, please let me know and I'll make it available.  I had to balance quality and size. 

Yeah, I've got cards to show.  But not today.  Hey, you're lucky I even posted this much.