2014 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award winners announced
The 2014 winners of the McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, which honors the best articles on baseball history or biography completed during the preceding calendar year, are:
- Rory Costello, for “Olympic Stadium,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, August 15, 2013.
- Christopher W. Schmidt, for “Explaining the Baseball Revolution,” Arizona State Law Journal, Vol. 45, 2013.
- Tom Shieber, “The Pride of the Seeknay,” Baseball Researcher, February 3, 2013.
All three are SABR members and all three are winning the McFarland-SABR award for the first time.
The selection committee passed along the following comments about the winners:
- On Costello’s “Olympic Stadium”: “Thoroughly researched, logically structured, engagingly written. … A thoughtful, encyclopedic type article that covers a recent piece of history that might be overlooked otherwise.”
- On Schmidt’s “Explaining the Baseball Revolution”: “Meticulously researched and argued. Takes a legal topic and makes it relatively interesting. … Well researched, well written, while disparaging the legal events surrounding Flood, he shows how they ‘set the table’ for change.”
- On Shieber’s “The Pride of the Seeknay”: “Interesting and fun. … Baseball research is supposed to be FUN — it is a game after all — and this article is a pleasure to read.”
The McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award honors the author(s) of the best articles or papers, published or unpublished, on baseball history or biography completed during the preceding calendar year. Eligible works include magazine and journal articles, previously unpublished chapters or articles in anthologies or other books with multiple authors, and unpublished research papers and written versions of oral presentations. Each winner will receive a plaque and a cash prize of $200.
The awards will be presented at the 44th annual SABR convention, July 30-August 3, 2014, at the Royal Sonesta Houston in Houston, Texas.
The selection committee consists of: Len Levin (chair), Phil Bergen, Jan Finkel, Chuck Hilty and Bill Humber. To submit a nomination for the 2015 awards, please send the work’s title, author and publisher information (if applicable) to Len Levin.
For a complete list of winners of the McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, click here.
Originally published: June 6, 2014. Last Updated: June 6, 2014.