August, 14, 2019

President Cheri was delayed a bit so Past President Mike Horwitz got us started.  He led us in the Pledge of Allegiance then ask Father Michael Mahoney to deliver an Invocation.  He then asked for visiting Rotarians and guests.  In the former category we had two Rotarians from San Mateo, Mike Peterson and Tom Mohr.  Also, Won Yi, formerly from the Rotary Club of Beverly Hills, joined us for a second visit.  Pierre Bouquet introduced his friend John Manning and Pennie Lundberg brought Lyla Paniaguc.

 

President Cheri then took over and brought up one of the district’s Rotary Scholarship Exchange students.  Courtney Sullivan Wu will spend an academic year in Alcamo, a town in Sicily, Italy.  It is about 50 kilometers from the city of Palermo.  She told us a bit about herself.  She is a student at Design Tech High School.  We wish her the best and look forward to hearing about her time in Italy when she returns.

 

Mike Horwitz then gave us an update on the golf tournament scheduled for Monday, October 21.  Cheri then made a plea for help manning our booth at Burlingame on the Avenue.  All tips collected will come back to the club.

 

Our speaker was generous enough to contribute four tickets to a Giants baseball game.  President Cheri did a spectacular job as auctioneer.  Mike Horwitz was the winning bidder and his $400 was credited to our upcoming golf fundraiser.

 

President Cheri announced that the first Board of Directors meeting will be held August 21 at 5PM at 800 Airport Blvd., 5^th floor conference room.  Future meeting will be the third Wednesday of each month at the same location.

 

Pennie Lundberg introduced our speaker Gary Hughes.  Gary is a local guy having attended St. Matthews then Serra High School.  He completed his education at San Jose State.  In his career as a scout for major league baseball he has acquired five World Series rings.  Gary began by contrasting youth sports back in the 1950s.  At that time in this area there was no Little League.  The Parks & Rec. Department offered informal baseball teams.  Colored T-shirts were the extent of team uniforms.  Now youth sports has become cottage industry where parents must pay to allow their children to participate.  It often costs $1000 a week to be able play in a tournament.  This means many kids are left out of the opportunity to play due to finances.

 

Gary then recounted his years with professional baseball.  He began his full-time scouting profession with the New York Yankees in 1977 under George Steinbrenner.  He then went on to become the scouting director for the Montreal Expos, and the assistant general manager and scouting director for the Florida Marlins starting at the organization's inception in 1991.  He worked for the Chicago Cubs for many years before moving to the Boston Red Sox where he acquired two of his five World Series rings.  He entertained us with many stories of players and personalities during his MLB career.

 

As a graduate of Serra High School, Gary commented on the great athletes that have gone to that school.  Of three well know names, Jim Fregosi, Lynn Swann and Tom Brady, he felt Lynn Swann was the best athlete.  He gave a shout out to Rotarian Basil Emery who is Lynn’s godfather.  Gary took some questions from the audience before turning the podium back to President Cheri who presented him with a Polio Plus certificate of appreciation noting that five children would be inoculated against this disease.

 

President Cheri then gave us a few “this day in history” fun facts related to baseball in honor of our speaker.  She then rang the bell to conclude the meeting.