Thursday, March 4, 2010

Deadball baseball in Arkansas

I'm off this afternoon for Boiling Out, SABR's Deadball Committee's irregularly scheduled but enjoyable gathering in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Hot Springs was a favorite place for spring training back in the Deadball Era (1901-1919).

This gathering is a lot of fun. Likeminded fellows (and an occasional lady or two) discussing the baseball of a different era, touring some former baseball sites, research presentations (I'm doing one on the 1907 Harrisburg Senators), all in the terrific setting (especially in March) of Hot Springs. At the last one (which was three years ago) we did morning hikes, went to Oaklawn racetrack (got to see Smarty Jones win the Rebel Stakes), played a homemade Strat-O-Matic style baseball game, complete with draft, and saw the excellent one-man show Matty which I would absolutely LOVE to see again. Great fun. It's stuff like this that is one of the really nice things about SABR.

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