By Nick Pantages
@nick_pantages22
The Society For American Baseball Research (SABR) hosted a meeting on the second floor of the Springfield College Learning Commons on Sept. 30.
The event featured a pair of accomplished guest speakers. The first speaker of the morning was Walpole, Mass., native and former MLB player and manager Joe Morgan. He spent parts of four seasons in the bigs, and overall played professionally for 13 seasons and in five different organizations.
Following his playing career, Morgan transitioned into coaching.
Morgan was in the Pirates minor league system for a number of years, before getting the highly coveted job of managing the Pawtucket Red Sox, the Triple A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox – Morgan’s childhood team.
“I got a hold of Dick O’Connell’s telephone number and called him one night and said ‘I’d like to manage the Pawtucket Red Sox,’” Morgan said. “The first thing he responded with was ‘How the hell did you get my number?’”
After nine years at the helm in Pawtucket, and after being passed over for Boston’s managerial job in 1980, Morgan finally got a job with the big league team, serving a handful of roles over a five year span.
Finally, in 1988, Morgan got named as interim manager after the All-Star break. In a period known as Morgan Magic, the Sox won their first 12 games with Morgan as the manager, prompting him to be named as the full time manager.
“I knew there were a ton of people that wanted that job, and I figured I was lucky that we had an 11 game homestand,” Morgan said. “If I was to keep this job, we had to win 8 or 9 games; but we won ’em all.”
He held the position until 1991, making two ALCS appearances, both losses to the Oakland A’s.
The second speaker was Erik Sherman, who has written nine books about baseball, including one titled “Two Sides of Glory” on the 1986 World Series losing Red Sox. Sherman’s newest book is about legendary Dodgers lefty Fernando Valenzuela, and he is working on a book on Dwight Evans to be released in May.
“[Writing about baseball] is so special because we get to hear from the players every day, what they are going through and what they are enduring every single day,” Sherman said. “There are so many great stories in baseball.”
The Western Massachusetts chapter of SABR hosted the event. SABR was founded in 1971 in Cooperstown, N.Y., to help the study of the past and present of America’s pastime. The event was organized by Jim Winston, president of the Western Massachusetts chapter.
“Baseball fans are really passionate,” Winston said. “I grew up loving baseball, and still do love it, so that’s why we want to keep this chapter going.”
Currently, SABR is looking to expand into more of the younger generations.
Most attendees at Saturday’s meeting were older, so SABR’s main goal is to try to keep younger fans engaged in the sport. Baseball has received a lot of attention as a ‘dying’ sport, but over the last two years, baseball has seen growth in viewership from teens and young adults due to better marketing of players on social media.
“We want to welcome the younger generations,” Winston said. “Baseball is a slower sport, and the younger generation has a shorter attention span, so it leads to less interest.”
Winston, however, argues that baseball is more than just a sport.
“If you look at the movie Field of Dreams, it’s really just about a son forming a bond with his dad, and that is the beauty of what baseball can do.,” he said.
With baseball viewership and attention back on the rise, SABR hopes to keep spreading their knowledge of the game they love.
Photo via Bleacher Report.