What baseball researchers talk about

Reporter Peter Holehan of the Forum Publishing Group in Florida attended the Oct. 23 meeting of the Society of American Baseball Research South Florida Chapter in Tamarac, Florida. He wrote an interesting story that neatly captures the appeal of the hobby. His story appears on the South Florida Sun-Sentinel web site. Here are a few excerpts:

"Local author Paul Proia, tells the real-life experiences of Rube Waddell, the player who had a learning disability and matured only one year for every three of the average person's life.
And then Proia speaks of how Waddell rose to become one of the game's best pitchers and held the single-season and single-game strikeout records from the early 1900s until 1973 when Nolan Ryan set the bar a few pegs higher.

"Guys in the group such as Raymond Gonzalez have followed the history of baseball so closely and so precisely that record books have been re-written. In one instance, old-time Chicago Cubs slugger Hack Wilson was found to have an extra RBI that was left off the records. Instead of 190 runs batted in, it was revealed that Wilson actually had 191.

"People come in to bring baseball memorabilia such as old-dated cards, autographs and photos. People can even pick up and swing a bat that is over 80 years old. It's all a part of the meeting among a room filled with baseball aficionados. There are stories that are so rarely told and others that remain timeless.

"Founded in 1971, the Society of American Baseball Research has nearly 7,000 members worldwide. SABR representatives include anybody who loves and is interested in the history of the baseball."