SABR Analytics Conference: Retrospective Look at Baseball Analysis
The SABR Analytics Conference, presented by Bloomberg Sports and Major League Baseball, announces its Retrospective Look at Baseball Analysis panel. When SABR was founded in 1971, the analysis of baseball statistics was in its infancy. Mainframe computers were expensive and the Internet didn’t exist yet. Since then, technology in the Information Age has allowed millions of fans to access and understand sabermetrics, analyzing data at home and connecting with others across the globe. Leaders of the early days of baseball analysis will discuss the evolution of sabermetrics and where it’s headed in the future.
The Retrospective Look at Baseball Analysis — scheduled for Friday, March 16* — will include:
- Dick Cramer, SABR: Dick is an early pioneer in baseball statistical analysis. With Pete Palmer, he founded SABR’s groundbreaking Statistical Analysis Committee in the 1970s and helped form STATS, Inc., in 1981. He has written many articles in the Baseball Research Journal.
- Sean Forman, Baseball-Reference.com (moderator): Sean is the founder of Baseball-Reference.com. A recipient of the 2011 Henry Chadwick Award, honoring baseball’s greatest researchers, he is also a co-founder of BaseballThinkFactory.org and has authored numerous sabermetric articles.
- Gary Gillette, SABR: Gary has been on SABR’s Board of Directors since 2009. He is the editor of SABR’s annual Emerald Guide and is co-chair of the Ballparks Research Committee. He is also a co-editor of the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia and executive editor of the ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia.
- John Thorn, MLB: John was appointed the Official Historian of Major League Baseball in 2011. A longtime SABR member and a past Bob Davids Award winner, his books include Baseball in the Garden of Eden, Total Baseball, The Hidden Game of Baseball and Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The SABR Analytics Conference will begin on Thursday, March 15 and conclude on Saturday, March 17 at the Hilton Phoenix East/Mesa in Arizona. The schedule will consist of a combination of Guest Speakers, Panels and Research Presentations — plus the inaugural SABR Case Competition, in which graduate students will analyze and present a real baseball operations decision.
For complete information and to register for the conference, visit SABR.org/analytics.
* subject to change
Originally published: February 24, 2012. Last Updated: February 24, 2012.