This Week in SABR: April 21, 2017

Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web. Here’s what we’ve been up to as of April 21, 2017:


SABR 47: Mets GM Sandy Alderson, Yankees Sr. VP Jean Afterman to speak at NYC convention

We’re excited to announce more featured speakers for the SABR 47 convention this summer in New York City.

SABR 47 will be held June 28-July 2, 2017, at the Grand Hyatt New York. Discounted early registration rates are available until May 1 at SABR.org/convention. All baseball fans are welcome to attend.

Our guest speakers will include:

  • Sandy Alderson, New York Mets General Manager
  • Jean Afterman, New York Yankees Senior Vice President/Assistant General Manager

Alderson will be interviewed by Barry Bloom, MLB.com national columnist, as part of our “A Day at the Ballpark” pregame session on June 30 at Citi Field.

They will join an All-Star lineup of featured speakers at SABR 47 that is expected to include: former major-league pitcher and Ball Four author Jim Bouton, MLB Official Historian John Thorn, MLB.com correspondent Lindsay Berra, Driving Mr. Yogi author Harvey Araton, longtime New York Times columnist George Vecsey, sports and political commentator Keith Olbermann, Henry Chadwick Award recipients David S. Neft and Peter C. Bjarkman, former Yogi Berra Museum director Dave Kaplan, SABR BioProject founding director Mark Armour, A People’s History of Baseball author Mitchell Nathanson, Larry Ritter Book Award winner Glenn Stout, Canadian baseball broadcaster Alain Usereau, and more.

Please note: All speakers and events may be subject to change based on availability.

Click here to learn more about our featured speakers and panelists.

Register now to join us at SABR.org/convention.


SABR 47: Mets tickets going fast; join us for “A Day at the Ballpark” on June 30 at Citi Field

For the second year in a row and third time in four years, SABR will present “A Day at the Ballpark” before the New York Mets game on Friday, June 30 at Citi Field. Our special block of Mets tickets — which includes round-trip subway transportation to Citi Field from the Grand Hyatt New York — is going fast, so click here to register for SABR 47 and join us!

SABR 47 will be held from June 28-July 2, 2017, at the Grand Hyatt New York. All baseball fans are welcome to attend. Visit SABR.org/convention for more information.

Special thanks to the Mets staff for this great opportunity and for offering us a large block of tickets in the Big Apple Reserved section. Tickets are an affordable price of $50. A special ballpark session will be held at Citi Field on Friday afternoon, followed by the game that night between the Mets and the Phillies. More details on the guest speakers will be announced soon, but you can be sure we will have an All-Star lineup.

If you haven’t signed up for SABR 47, please note that the early registration discount and all-inclusive package are still available until May 1, but our hotel room block at the Grand Hyatt New York is now sold out.

Click here for more information on SABR 47 registration rates, all-inclusive packages, and optional sessions. Or click here to register for SABR 47.


SABR 47: Early registration still open until May 1; hotel room block sold out at Grand Hyatt New York

If you haven’t signed up for SABR 47, please note that the early registration discount and all-inclusive package are still available for a few more weeks until May 1, but our hotel room block at the Grand Hyatt New York is now sold out. Our block of New York Mets game tickets is also going fast, so be sure to register now to guarantee your spot at SABR 47.

Click here for more information on SABR 47 registration rates, all-inclusive packages, and optional sessions. Or click here to register for SABR 47.

Please note: Our hotel room block at the Grand Hyatt is now sold out! If you would like to be added to a first-come, first-serve waiting list in case more hotel rooms become available in the future, please contact Deb Jayne immediately at djayne@sabr.org.

The Grand Hyatt New York, one of the city’s most historic and luxurious hotels, is conveniently located in Midtown Manhattan just steps from Grand Central Terminal and within walking distance of many major attractions, including Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the New York Public Library.

Click on a link below for more information about SABR 47.

  • Registration: Click here for complete information on SABR 47 registration rates, all-inclusive packages, and optional sessions. Or click here to register for SABR 47! We’re again offering a special all-inclusive rate for the annual SABR convention. For $319, a savings of $39 off the regular rate, SABR members can get:
    — Full registration to SABR 47 in New York (regular rate: $269)
    — 1 ticket in the Big Apple Reserved section to the Mets vs. Phillies game on Friday, June 30 — includes special “A Day at the Ballpark” pregame session at Citi Field and round-trip subway transportation ($50 value)
    — 1 ticket to the Awards Reception on Thursday, June 29 ($69 value)
    Non-members can pay $394 for the all-inclusive rate. The deadline to register with the all-inclusive rate is Monday, May 1, 2017.
  • Hotel: The special SABR group rate at the Grand Hyatt New York of $199/night (plus tax) is now sold out! If you would like to be added to a first-come, first-serve waiting list in case more hotel rooms become available in the future, please contact Deb Jayne immediately at djayne@sabr.org.
  • Awards Reception: SABR will host a special Awards Reception in the early evening on Thursday, June 29 at the Grand Hyatt New York. The Awards Reception will feature the announcement of SABR’s annual awards — including the Bob Davids Award, our highest honor — plus an array of hot and cold hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. The reception will be held this year in place of the Awards Luncheon. One ticket to the Awards Reception is included in the all-inclusive package or guest tickets are available for $69 when you register for SABR 47.  
  • Research presentations: The list of SABR 47 research presentations will be announced soon.
  • Vendors Room: Click here to learn more about our vendors at SABR 47. If you would like to reserve a table in the Vendors Room, please contact Jeff Schatzki. Space is limited.

We hope you’ll join us this summer in New York City! Visit SABR.org/convention to learn more.

For a multimedia look at every SABR convention since 1971, click here.


Read all articles from Spring 2017 Baseball Research Journal at SABR.org

Good news! The Spring 2017 edition of the Baseball Research Journal has been mailed out to all SABR members.

Those of you who receive the print edition should find your BRJ arriving in the next two to four weeks, although we’ve heard reports that some have already arrived. For digital subscribers, the e-book edition was delivered to your inboxes on April 6.

To learn more about contributing to a future SABR publication, click here.

Having trouble downloading our e-books? To view PDF files on your computer, click here to download the free Adobe Reader software. Having trouble downloading e-books to your Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or iPad? Click here for additional help.

We hope you enjoy reading the Spring 2017 Baseball Research Journal!


Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Conference begins today in Cooperstown

The ninth annual Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference gets under way today at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

The 2017 conference is highlighted by a keynote address from baseball historian Bill Lamb, along with a panel discussion on SABR’s Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legends Project with Adam Darowski, Michael Haupert, Joe Williams, and moderator John Thorn; a special presentation of the documentary film “Town Teams: Bigger Than Baseball” by Dorothy Seymour Mills and Mark Honer; a Member Spotlight interview of Joanne Hulbert by Tom Simon; plus book signings, research presentations, and a welcome dinner.

Click here to view a complete schedule for the 2017 Ivor-Campbell Conference.

For more information, visit SABR.org/ivor-campbell19c


SABR Digital Library: The SABR Book of Umpires and Umpiring

Make the right call and add this new baseball book from the SABR Digital Library to your collection:

The SABR Book on Umpires and Umpiring
Edited by Larry R. Gerlach and Bill Nowlin
Associate editors: Dennis Bingham and Len Levin
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-943816-45-3, $21.95
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-943816-44-6, $9.99
8.5 x 11″, 484 pages

This nearly 500-page book on umpires and umpiring is the collaborative work of 34 members of the Society for American Baseball Research. It is, in effect, a companion book to another SABR title, Can He Play? A Look at Baseball Scouts and their Profession, edited by Jim Sandoval and Bill Nowlin.

The SABR Book on Umpires and Umpiring includes biographies of all the umpires in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, other notable arbiters, essays about professional female umpires, umpiring in the Negro Leagues, explorations of the baseball rules, umpire equipment, and much more.  

During the course of working on The SABR Book of Umpires and Umpiring, interviews were conducted with 56 major league umpires currently serving, former umpires, supervisors and those involved in umpire administration, and others whose jobs cause them to interact with umpires. It is our hope that we have helped shed light on the umpiring profession past and present, the work involved on the field, and the arduous challenges and sacrifices it takes over a large number of years to become an umpire at the top of the profession. We have tried to look at the occupation of umpiring from many different angles. No one book can cover all facets of the job, but we hope this book had touched on enough to help give readers a fuller appreciation of the game of baseball and those charged with the integrity of the game.

Contributors include: David W. Anderson, Mark Armour, Perry Barber, John Behrend, Dennis Bingham, Alan Cohen, Reynaldo Cruz, Kevin Cuddihy, Reid Duffy, Rob Edelman, Eric Frost, Larry Gerlach, Dennis Goodman, Leslie Heaphy, Harold V. Higham, Joanne Hulbert, Bob Hurte, Gil Imber, Chuck Johnson, Rodney Johnson, Stephen Johnson III, Bob LeMoine, Len Levin, Hank Levy, Bob Luke, Shaun McCready, Clark G. “Red” Merchant, Brian Mills, Bill Nowlin, Albert Piacente, Bill Pruden, David Vincent, Bob Webster, Chris Williams, and Herb Wilson.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

Having trouble downloading our e-books? To view PDF files on your computer, click here to download the free Adobe Reader software. Having trouble downloading e-books to your Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or iPad? Click here for additional help.

SABR members will get discounted rates for all Digital Library publications, including many for free. To find all past titles from the SABR Digital Library, visit SABR.org/ebooks.


Last chance to vote in the 2017 SABR Board of Directors election

SABR members, you should have received an e-mail on Tuesday, April 11 and a reminder message on Tuesday, April 18 with a link to vote online in the 2017 SABR Board of Directors election. The poll will close next week, at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on Tuesday, April 25.

The only way to vote online is through the link you will receive by e-mail. All e-mails will come from the address tellers@sabr.org; if you wish to add it to a whitelist in your e-mail client, that may help ensure that you will receive the e-mails.

You can read the candidate biographies, along with full descriptions of the positions and responses the candidates made to a series of questions, in the 2017 SABR Election Guide which is available for download below:

Download the 2017 SABR Election Guide here (PDF)

When you vote, you will find three items on the 2017 Board of Directors ballot: the election of the SABR President, Treasurer, and one (1) Director position — please rank the Director candidates in order of preference. The candidates are:

For President

  • Vince Gennaro (incumbent)

For Treasurer

  • F.X Flinn (incumbent)

For Director (1)

  • Emily Hawks (incumbent)
  • Paul Parker

Members who did not have an e-mail address on file with SABR as of April 1, 2017, will receive a paper ballot in the mail. Please do not vote online and send in the paper ballot; if you do, the paper ballot will be discarded, and only the online vote will count.

If you would like to register your e-mail address on file with SABR so you can vote online (and also receive our “This Week in SABR” newsletter on Fridays), please contact Membership Director Deb Jayne at djayne@sabr.org.


Early registration now open for 2017 Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference

The 20th annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, hosted by SABR’s Negro Leagues Research Committee, will be returning to its roots on July 27-30, 2017, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, site of the first Negro League conference in 1998.

  • Registration: All baseball fans are welcome to attend. Click here to register online. Early registration for SABR members is $170, which includes all presentations and sessions. Non-SABR members: $200. Students: $120 for SABR members, $150 for non-members. Single-day rate for Friday or Saturday: $75 for SABR members, $100 for non-members. The Education Forum on Thursday is $15. Guest tickets for friends and family can also be ordered. Click here for an information packet (PDF) with complete details on registration rates. The early registration deadline is May 29, 2017.
  • Hotel: The 2017 Malloy Conference will be held at the Hilton Harrisburg, 1 N. 2nd Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101. Click here to book your room online at the special SABR rate of $129/night (plus tax). Or call (717) 233-6000 and mention you’re with the “SABR Malloy Conference.” The cut-off date to book your room is July 5, 2017.
  • Schedule and information: Click here for the 2017 Malloy Conference information packet (PDF).
  • Contact: E-mail Ted Knorr with any questions about the conference.

The Malloy Conference promotes activities to enhance scholarly, educational, and literary objectives. For the past 19 years, the event has been the only symposium dedicated exclusively to the examination and promotion of black baseball history. The conference is open to baseball and history fans of all ages. Each year, monies are targeted to donate books to schools or libraries; raise funds for the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project; and award scholarships to high school seniors in a nationwide essay contest and a nationwide art contest.

Visit SABR.org/malloy to learn more about the 2017 Malloy Conference call for papers, essay contest and scholarships, art competition, and school library grants.


Students, apply now for the 2017 SABR Women in Baseball Scholarship

SABR’s Women in Baseball Committee will award one $500 scholarship to a high school senior in its inaugural Women in Baseball Essay Contest in 2017.

Students must write an essay of 1,500 words or less addressing the following question: “Choose one person or event in women’s baseball history that you believe has made a significant impact on the game and explain the importance.”

Click here to download the 2017 SABR Women in Baseball Scholarship application and style guidelines (PDF)

All applications must be e-mailed or postmarked by June 5, 2017, and sent to Dr. Leslie Heaphy at Lheaphy@kent.edu or Kent State University at Stark, 6000 Frank Rd., North Canton, OH 44720. The winner will be notified by July 1.

Click here for more details and eligibility requirements.


SABR member Roland Hemond to be honored before Arizona Diamondbacks game

Longtime SABR member and major-league executive Roland Hemond will be honored before the Arizona Diamondbacks game against the San Diego Padres on Thursday, April 27 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

Hemond, who serves as a special assistant to Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall, was unanimously elected in January as the namesake of SABR’s local chapter, now known as the Hemond-Delhi Arizona Chapter. Hemond will be presented with a plaque for his unwavering support of SABR over the years. Outgoing chapter president Rodney Johnson, a Diamondbacks official scorer who helped organize the 1999 SABR Convention in Phoenix, will also be recognized prior to the game during an on-field ceremony beginning at 6:20 p.m.

Any SABR members in Arizona who wish to attend the game should RSVP to chapter president Barry Bloom for details on a group ticket block.

To learn more, click here.


Check out the new SABR Little League Home Runs Database

The SABR Little League Home Runs Database is an effort to compile a definitive list of one of baseball’s most entertaining and memorable plays. Visit SABR.org/little-league-home-runs to view the database online.

Chuck Hildebrandt, chair of SABR’s Baseball and the Media Committee, began unearthing and reporting on these plays for his award-winning presentation at the SABR 45 convention in 2015. By the end of the 2016 season, he confirmed a total of 329 Little League Home Runs throughout MLB history. All plays listed within this database have been confirmed by newspaper accounts or video evidence, and each play includes two links: one to the Retrosheet box score of the game, the other to either the newspaper or video accounts confirming them.

This database is intended to be maintained as a living document, which will be updated annually as each new season is played, as well as when Retrosheet brings newly discovered play-by-play for additional historical seasons online.

Click here to learn more.


SABR’s The Baseball Index relaunched at baseballindex.org

The Baseball Index (TBI) is an ongoing project of the Society for American Baseball Research to catalog the entirety of baseball literature, from the earliest references to the present day. The index is designed to help baseball researchers find materials that advance their work.

Due to a server failure in the fall of 2015, the old TBI website crashed permanently and the search functionality had to be rebuilt. The new site is now available for all baseball researchers to use at baseballindex.org.

You can use TBI to find bibliographic data (citations) for more than 250,000 books, articles, song sheets, yearbooks, advertisements, films, cartoons, poems, media guides, cartoons, and more. See the Frequently Asked Questions for tips on how to use the new baseballindex.org site, viewing and exporting your search results, and getting the most out of the TBI database.

Find more SABR Research Resources at SABR.org/research/resources.


6 new SABR biographies published

Six new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 4,045 published biographies. Here are the new bios published this week:

All new biographies can be found here: http://sabr.org/bioproj/recent


7 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

Seven new game stories were posted this week as part of the SABR Games Project. Here are the new game stories:

New Games Project stories can be found at http://sabr.org/gamesproject/recent. Find all published Games Project articles at SABR.org/GamesProject.

If you have any questions about the Games Project, please contact Greg Erion. If you want to know if a game is available to write about, please contact Bruce Slutsky. After the article has been completed in accordance with our Authors’ Guidelines, please submit it to Len Levin, who will initiate the editing process and get your story ready for toward publication.

  • Get involved: Have memories of a game you attended? Or a game you watched that caught your interest? Write about it! Writing for the Games Project is an easy way to get involved as a SABR member. Find out how by reading the Games Project FAQs section or checking out the Authors’ Guidelines. We have editors and fact checkers who are willing to help you write your first article.
  • Contributor Release Form: As of January 1, 2017, all writers publishing articles (biographies, essays, game pieces, etc.) are being asked to sign a Contributor Release Form which can be sent via email to jpomrenke@sabr.org or hard copy to SABR, 555 N. Central Ave., Suite #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004. The form only needs to be filed once for all future SABR publications. Click here to download the form.
  • Seeking volunteers to help enhance Games Project articles on website: Any volunteer who is willing to assist with linking player biographies in previously published Games Project stories on the SABR website, please contact Jacob Pomrenke. No experience necessary. Must be comfortable working in Drupal, WordPress or other standard content management systems.

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM will air at its regular time on Sunday nights

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by SABR President Vince Gennaro will air at its regular time: 7:00-8:00 p.m. ET on Sundays, on MLB Network Radio.

This week’s guests are SABR member Ben Jedlovec from Baseball Info Solutions and Michael Bentley and Patrick Cherveny from Blast Motion.

You can also listen to archives of recent episodes on-demand on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App, and you can watch video highlights of Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on MLB.com. Click here to watch more video highlights of Baseball SABR Style from MLB.com.

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM focuses on examining and interpreting the statistical analysis that plays a critical role in baseball today. It airs weekly throughout the year on MLB Network Radio, available to subscribers nationwide on XM channel 89, Sirius channel 209, and on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App.


ICYMI: Highlights from last week’s This Week in SABR

We’ve heard your feedback: Some of you have said you look forward to “This Week in SABR” every Friday, but sometimes there are just too many compelling articles and announcements to read every week. We’re not complaining — hey, keep up the great work! — but we know the feeling. So in an effort to make the length of this newsletter more manageable to read, we’ll summarize some of the repeating/recurring announcements in a special “In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)” section of “This Week in SABR”.

Here are some major headlines from recent weeks that we don’t want you to miss:

All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here: http://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives.

For more information, click here.


Welcome, new members!

We’d like to welcome all of our new SABR members who have joined this week. You can find all Members-Only resources at members.sabr.org and the Membership Handbook can be downloaded here.

Please give these new members a warm welcome and help them make the most of their membership by giving them the opportunity to get involved in their local chapter or a research committee.

You can find contact information for any SABR member in the online membership directory (SABR.org/directory).

Name Hometown     Name Hometown
Rod Andress Jensen Beach, FL     Naftali Greenwood Kiryat Arba, ISR
Ron Bolton Sayreville, NJ     Jeremy Harmon Norwalk, CA
Timothy Carr Birmingham, MI     Charles Kaufman Austin, TX
William (Bill) Castellanos Pinole, CA     Vlae Kershner Menlo Park, CA
Kevin Charlton Bronxville, NY     Lucas Morris Charleston, SC
Jeff Chernow Chicago, IL     Robert Pohle St. Augustine, FL
Kevin Davidson Maitland, FL     Martin Schnabel Springfield, NJ
Zachary Goodman Salem, MA     Michael Schopieray Mansfield, OH

 


Research Committee news

Here are the new SABR research committee updates this week:

  • Baseball and the Arts: The new SABR Journal of Baseball Arts is now accepting submissions. We will include contemporary works mixed with masterpieces from the past. We encourage submissions of art, poetry, fiction, memoir, and all musings about baseball. So if you are thinking about a short story, or have one in the works and are looking for a place to publish it, here’s the place for you. The length of a story should be less than 5,000 words, and artwork should be original and baseball-related. Email your proposals, finished work, or any questions to artsjournal@sabr.org. Click here to learn more.

Find all SABR research committee newsletters at SABR.org/research.


Regional Chapter news

Here are the new regional chapter updates this week:

Visit SABR.org/chapters for more information on SABR regional chapters.


SABR Events Calendar

Here is a list of upcoming SABR events:

All SABR meetings and events are open to the public. Feel free to bring a baseball-loving friend … and make many new ones! Check out the SABR Events Calendar at SABR.org/events.


Around the Web

Here are some recent articles published by and about SABR members:

Read these articles and more at SABR.org/latest.


This Week in SABR is compiled by Jacob Pomrenke. If you would like us to include an upcoming event, article or any other information in “This Week in SABR,” e-mail jpomrenke@sabr.org.

Have trouble reading this e-mail? Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web.

Are you receiving our e-mails? “This Week in SABR” goes out by e-mail to all members on Friday afternoons. If they’re not showing up, try adding “sabr.notes@sabr.org” to your contact list to ensure they show up in your inbox (and not the spam folder.)

 

Follow us:
Contact us:
More info:

 



Originally published: April 21, 2017. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.