From Morris Frank ….
(1961)
Two years surfaced over the weekend of research as mysteries in the chain of Houston Baseball Dinners. What we know for certain and have documented here in this Pecan Park Eagle series with variable needs for further detailed data that is most likely available at local brick and mortar Houston newspaper collections are these findings to date:
(1) The first 13 major league-focused Houston Baseball Dinners were held consecutively from 1961 through 1973;
(2) A hiatus of 12 to 13 years then strung out in which there were no annual dinners at all:
(3) The dinners renewed under new leadership in either 1986 or 1987, depending upon what else we may still learn about an “Astros Orbiters dinner that former SABR Chapter chairman and baseball historian Bill Gilbert found for us on his old planning calendar for that year as “Feb. 12, 1986 – ‘Orbiters Dinner’.” – We still could not find any out-of-town digital news reports on that event, but it simply may have been too small to merit wide area attention, but still large enough for the planners to treat it as a resumption of the old dinner plan. This one definitely requires further local study and discussion with other baseball community people who were involved in Orbiters at that time;
…. to Milo Hamilton
(2012)
(4) 1990 is now showing up as another year in which the same approaches we have used to find much information on other previous banquets is coming up empty on that year;
(5) The Pecan Park Eagle is most grateful that Bill Gilbert is now joining with us in this plan to document the entire history of MLB-based Houston Baseball Dinners, but there is room on the team for anyone else who has the time and interest in building a body of knowledge about an event that has been, until recently, an annual gathering of allegiance to baseball in our area. Bill Gilbert has already notified me of the of the vast printed data (programs, etc.) that he possesses on the banquets from 1991 through 2012, but we could always use more assistance, especially from anyone who has time and the skill to research local newspaper files for the answers to specific questions;
(6) There’s no deadline here. We simply need commitment to a constant effort. Barring days we publish our routine Bill Gilbert reports on the Astros season, or some other time-precious topic that comes up and won’t wait, we plan to keep pushing our way through the end of these annual dinner reports on a daily publication basis until we finish with 2012. Then we shall see how much need remains for additional local research;
(7) Perhaps, our local SABR chapter will choose to join with us in putting the final product into a useful readable form. If not, it will remain here in the files of The Pecan Park Eagle for anyone who cares to learn more about this even finer slivered niche in Houston baseball history.
Have a nice Monday, everybody!
Houston, Baseball, & Other Musings.
The Pecan Park Eagle 