This Week in SABR: January 17, 2014

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Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Here’s what we’ve been up to as of January 17, 2014:

2014 SABR Analytics: General Managers Panel, Biometrics/Injury Prevention Panel, Prospect Analysis Panel

We are pleased to announce three new panels to be held at the 2014 SABR Analytics Conference: the General Managers Panel, the Biometrics/Injury Prevention Panel, and the Prospect Analysis Panel.

The SABR Analytics Conference will be held March 13-15, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Register today at SABR.org/analytics.

The General Managers Panel will discuss how major league front offices are using analytics to develop a competitive edge and stay ahead of their competition. Scheduled panelists for the GM Panel are: Jack Zduriencik (right), Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Seattle Mariners; and Bill Geivett, Senior Vice President/Assistant General Manager of the Colorado Rockies. More panelists will be announced soon, so stay tuned!

The Biometrics/Injury Prevention Panel will discuss how Major League Baseball and its teams are working to better diagnose, track and prevent injuries in the future. Scheduled panelists for the Biometrics/Injury Prevention Panel are: Dr. Stan Conte, Vice President of Medical Services of the Los Angeles Dodgers; Dr. Glenn Fleisig, Research Director, American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama; Chris Marinak, Vice President of League Economics and Strategy for Major League Baseball; and moderator Buster Olney, Senior Writer, ESPN.com.

The Prospect Analysis Panel will discuss how analytics has impacted the scouting and evaluation of minor league prospects. Scheduled panelists for the Prospect Analysis Panel are: Jim Callis, Senior Writer for MLB.com; Jonathan Mayo, Senior Writer for MLB.com; Bernie Pleskoff, Columnist for MLB.com and Rotowire; and moderator Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com.

The full schedule will be available online soon. Please note: All speakers and panelists are subject to change due to availability.

To register for the 2014 SABR Analytics Conference, or for more information, visit SABR.org/analytics.

Early registration rate expires February 10 for 2014 SABR Analytics Conference

It’s less than two months away from the third annual SABR Analytics Conference, and you won’t want to miss what we have in store for 2014!

Please note: Early registration rates will expire at 12:00 a.m. MST on Monday, February 10, so reserve your spot today. Early registration rates are $395 for SABR members, $495 for non-members. Students who are currently enrolled in high school or college can register for $350. Click here to register for the 2014 SABR Analytics Conference.

The 2014 SABR Analytics Conference will be held March 13-15, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix, 122 N. 2nd St., Phoenix, AZ 85004. Click here to book your hotel room at the special SABR group rate of $169/night (plus tax.) Or call (602) 252-1234 and mention that you’re with the SABR Analytics Conference.

Complimentary wireless Internet is available in all rooms booked under the SABR block. The cutoff date to book your room is February 18, 2014. The SABR group rate is only available for the nights of March 10 to March 18, 2014, based on availability. Book your room today!

Once again, we’re bringing together the top minds of the baseball analytic community under one roof to discuss, debate and share insightful ways to analyze and examine the great game of baseball at the:

SABR Analytics Conference
March 13-15, 2014
Hyatt Regency Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona

The schedule will consist of a combination of Guest Speakers, Panels and Research Presentations — plus the unique Diamond Dollars Case Competition, in which undergraduate, graduate and law school students from across the country analyze and present a real baseball operations decision.

  • Early registration rates:
      — SABR members: $395 early rate; $595 full rate.
      — Non-SABR members: $495 early rate; $695 full rate. If you are not a SABR member, click here to join.
      — Students: $350; includes one-year membership to SABR. Must be a currently enrolled high school or college student. Please e-mail Deb Jayne with a photocopy of your student ID to receive the registration promo code.
     
    Please note: Lunch is included with your registration on Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15. The mixer/welcome reception is included with your registration on Thursday, March 13. Specify any special dietary needs when you register.
        
  • Hotel: The 2014 SABR Analytics Conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix, 122 N. 2nd St., Phoenix, AZ 85004. Click here to book your hotel room at the special SABR group rate of $169/night (plus tax.) Or call (602) 252-1234 and mention that you’re with the SABR Analytics Conference.

    Complimentary wireless Internet is available in all rooms booked under the SABR block. The cutoff date to book your room is February 18, 2014. The SABR group rate is only available for the nights of March 10 to March 18, 2014, based on availability. Book your room today! 

Check back soon at SABR.org/analytics as we announce more featured speakers, panels and presentations!

For complete coverage of the 2013 SABR Analytics Conference, visit SABR.org/analytics/2013.

Join us for SABR Day on Saturday, January 25

The fifth annual SABR Day is coming up soon: Saturday, January 25, 2014. SABR Day is an annual Hot Stove event that brings together SABR members and friends on the same day, regardless of where they live.

We’re compiling details now on 2014 SABR Day chapter meetings throughout the land. Full details can be found at SABR.org/sabrday.

Chapter leaders, please send your SABR Day plans to Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org.

Here are 2014 SABR Day meetings we have listed so far on Saturday, January 25:

  • Arlington, TX
  • Boston, MA
  • Burlington, VT
  • Charlotte, NC
  • Columbus, OH
  • Denver, CO
  • Des Moines, IA
  • Fort Wayne, IN
  • Houston, TX
  • Indianapolis, IN
  • Kansas City, MO
  • Kenosha, WI (joint meeting of Chicago/Milwaukee chapters)
  • Knoxville, TN
  • Little Rock, AR
  • Los Angeles, CA
  • Louisville, KY
  • Middletown, CT
  • Minneapolis, MN
  • Montreal, QC
  • Nashville, TN
  • New Orleans, LA
  • New York, NY
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Phoenix, AZ
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Rochester, NY
  • St. Louis, MO
  • St. Petersburg, FL
  • Washington, DC

In addition, some chapters are holding their SABR Day meetings on other days because of conflicts with team FanFests or preferred venues.

Click here to view all SABR Day 2014 events on our Google map.

Or visit http://bit.ly/SABR-Day-2014-spreadsheet to view all SABR Day 2014 events in spreadsheet format.

Regional SABR meetings are open to all baseball fans and are usually free to attend, so bring a friend! Guest speakers often include current and former baseball players, managers, umpires, executives, scouts, writers and authors.

Visit SABR.org/sabrday for more information on a SABR Day meeting close to you.

In Memoriam: Frank Ceresi

When Frank J. Ceresi received a surprise phone call from an associate of Washington, D.C., sports owner Abe Pollin in 1996, he remembered some advice he had received years earlier: “There are only a handful of times that opportunities knock in a life-altering and significant way.”

After spending nearly a quarter-century in the legal world, in private practice as an attorney and then as a Family Court Judge in Arlington, Virginia, the longtime sports history buff made the life-altering decision to, in his words, “meld his avocation into a vocation” by accepting a position as the Curator and Executive Director of Collections for the MCI National Sports Gallery, the country’s first all-sports museum.

Ceresi’s contagious enthusiasm and his passion for historical artifacts led him down a fulfilling new career path.

Over the next two decades, until his death of pancreatic cancer at age 64 on January 14, 2014, Frank Ceresi became a respected expert in sports memorabilia and appraisals, consulting and acquiring artifacts for museums and auction houses, and authoring many articles on baseball history. A SABR member since 1992, he also acquired for himself many “national treasures” — as he liked to call them — including a Shoeless Joe Jackson “Black Betsy” bat, Mickey Mantle’s first home run baseball, and a vast collection of scorecards dating back to the 19th century.

Ceresi’s latest venture was serving as curator of The National Pastime Museum, launched in 2013 as a one-of-its-kind 501(c)3 online museum that showcases historical baseball artifacts, photographs, and memorabilia, along with articles by leading baseball historians. His enthusiasm for baseball history was matched only by his extensive knowledge of his favorite subject, and he served as a mentor and friend to many in the research and memorabilia communities.

— Jacob Pomrenke

  • To read the full obituary for Frank Ceresi, click here.

A memorial service will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, January 20, 2014, at the American Horticultural Society, River Farm, 7931 E. Boulevard Drive, Alexandria, Virginia (located off the George Washington Parkway.)

1 new biography published by the SABR BioProject

One new biography was posted as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 2,621 published biographies. Here is the new bio:

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

You can find the SABR BioProject at SABR.org/BioProject.

1984 Tigers bios posted online: Biographies from Detroit Tigers 1984: What a Start! What a Finish!, edited by Mark Pattison and David Raglin — from Jack Morris to Alan Trammell, from Willie Hernandez to Lou Whitaker, from Aurelio Lopez to Barbaro Garbey — can now be read online by clicking here. To download your free copy of the SABR e-book, click here. (Available in PDF, Kindle/MOBI and EPUB formats.) To get a 50% discount on the paperback edition, click here.

Bios on more than just ballplayers: The ambitious goal of the SABR Baseball Biography Project is to publish a full-life biography of every major league player in history. But SABR members write about a lot more than just ballplayers. In addition, we have pages for Ballparks, Broadcasters, Executives, Managers, Scouts, Spouses, Umpires and a lot more on the BioProject website. You can browse all of these categories at http://sabr.org/bioproj/browse. So if you’ve ever thought, “Hey, that person (or ballpark) should get the full BioProject treatment” — write the story and we’ll publish it!

Get involved! If you’d like to help contribute to the SABR BioProject, visit our BioProject Resources page or read the FAQs section to get started. We’re also looking to expand the BioProject to include all “encyclopedic” articles on baseball-related subjects from past SABR publications or committee newsletters. If you come across an article you think should be included in the SABR “baseball repository” at the BioProject, send a copy or link to markarmour04@gmail.com or jpomrenke@sabr.org.

You can still renew your SABR membership for 2014!

For those of you whose memberships expired recently, there’s still a little time left to renew and be a part of the SABR community again in 2014. If you’ve already renewed, we thank you for your support and look forward to another exciting year ahead.

Renew now to receive the Spring 2014 edition of the Baseball Research Journal, plus discounts on registration to the 2014 SABR Analytics Conference and SABR 44 in Houston, and a lot more! We MUST receive your dues by February 28, 2014, in order for you to receive the upcoming BRJ.

  • Renew your membership for 1 year or 3 years online — or select our new 5-year, digital-only membership rate — at the SABR Store; by phone at (602) 343-6450; or by mailing this downloadable PDF form and your payment to the SABR office at 4455 E. Camelback Road, Ste. D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018.

We’re excited about the upcoming year ahead of us and we hope you’ll take advantage of all the membership benefits offered to SABR members in 2014 and beyond.

On the effort to save Bill Weiss’s baseball research collection

What we’re reading this week: SABR member Graham Womack wrote an article on the late Bill Weiss’s massive baseball research collection and the effort to preserve its contents intact, published Monday at Sports on Earth:

It started with a small office. When that office was full, six years after he moved in, Bill Weiss constructed a back office. Then he filled his basement, another office, his front porch, his garage and, eventually, an annex he built to his house. By the time of his death at 86 on August 16, 2011, nearly every corner of Weiss’s San Mateo, California home was filled with his life’s work: baseball history. A statistician and official scorekeeper for several minor leagues, Weiss spent close to 70 years accumulating historical material, rarely throwing anything away. His wish and the sizable task he left five friends he appointed to a board of trustees? Preserving his collection.

Read the full article here: http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/66450530/

Related links:

Cast your vote for the 1926 Retroactive All-Star teams

The 1926 All-Star Ballot is Here!
The Voice of the Fan Will Be Heard!

In this mad, dash-about modern world of ours, we sometimes forget the simple pleasures, such as enjoying a warm, sunny Tuesday afternoon, away from our troubles and cares, and losing ourselves in the joys in taking in a ballgame.

But when the game is the All-Star Game, featuring the greatest baseball players of this or any age, the joy becomes manifold, encompassing not only the exquisite pastoral setting of the event itself, but also the wonder and admiration we are bound to express at the skill and proficiency of those who are playing.

This is the tradition that has taken hold of the country, one that we as baseball supporters have come to expect on the second Tuesday of July of every year. And this year will be no different. On Tuesday, July 13, 1926, at Sportsman’s Park in Saint Louis, the Cardinals of the National League will host the best of both leagues in their home for the grandest game of the year.

And YOU—the knowing fan—will be responsible for determining who will start that game!

It is an awesome responsibility that the Fan has, but we are confident in his wisdom and perspicacity, and trust that he—that YOU—will make the right choices.

The games will be played using Out of the Park 14, and the game account and box score will be posted over at Seamheads.com. 

Vote for the 1926 All-Star starters and pitchers here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ASG1926

Voting will be open until 3:00 a.m. ET on January 31, 2014. At that time, we will count up the votes, put together the rosters, and sim the game.

To learn more about the Retroactive All-Star Project, visit SABR.org/retroactive-all-star-project/about.

— Chuck Hildebrandt

Seeking nominations for 2014 Greg Spira Baseball Research Award

The Greg Spira Baseball Research Award Committee (www.SpiraAward.org) has announced the rules and procedures for nominations for the second annual Greg Spira Baseball Research Award. The winner of the 2014 Greg Spira Award will receive a cash prize of $1,000. The committee will also recognize two additional writers with awards of $200 for second place and $100 for third place.

The inaugural Spira Award was presented to SABR member Trent McCotter of Washington, D.C., last year. Dan Farnsworth and SABR member Caleb Hardwick were honored as second- and third-place winners, respectively.

The Nomination Period will open at 12:01 a.m. EST on January 16, 2014, and remain open through 11:59 p.m. EST on February 15, 2014. Nominations received before or after the Nomination Period will not be considered.

The Nomination Form for the Greg Spira Award can be found at www.SpiraAward.org.

For more information, click here.

Call for SABR award nominations

  • SABR Baseball Research Award, due 1/31/2014: The SABR Baseball Research Award (formerly the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award) honors those whose outstanding research projects completed during the preceding calendar year have significantly expanded our knowledge or understanding of baseball. To submit a nomination for the 2013 awards, please contact Bill Felber at bfelber@att.net.
  • McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, due 2/15/2014: The McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award honors the authors of the best articles on baseball history or biography completed or published during the preceding calendar year. To submit a nomination for the 2013 awards, please contact Len Levin at lenlevin5@hotmail.com.

McAlpine named 2013 Collegiate Player of Year by SABR Dallas-Fort Worth chapter

Dallas Baptist’s Duncan McAlpine has been named recipient of the prestigious and 21st annual 2013 Howard Green Metroplex Collegiate Player of the Year Award presented by the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research.

Elvin Rodriguez, who was first team NAIA All-America and paced Northwood to its initial berth on the 2013 NAIA World Series, has merited the second annual 2013 Carroll Beringer SABR Metroplex Collegiate Division Player of the Year.

Both will be presented their awards at 2014 upcoming baseball events by SABR Chapter President Paul Rogers and awards’ committee members. McAlpine will receive his plaque at the 22nd annual DBU Baseball Banquet on the Dallas Baptist campus while Rodriquez will be presented the Beringer Award during the Northwood-McPherson baseball doubleheader on Saturday, February 8 in Cedar Hill, Texas.

For more information, click here.

January 8 Board minutes posted

Minutes from the Board of Directors conference call on January 8, 2014, have now been posted on the SABR website.

You can view all past minutes of SABR Board meetings by going to the page below:

http://sabr.org/content/sabr-board-minutes

Or you can go to the Members’ Info page and click on “Org. files”, then “Board Minutes” to view the minutes.

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.

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 New Member 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.

Name Hometown     Name Hometown
Lawrence Abramson Albuquerque, NM     Ryan Morrison Cambridge, MA
Rob Aikins Petaluma, CA     Shawn Noland Fair Oaks, TX
Gary Bowyer Glenview, IL     Jerome Nottingham Philadelphia, PA
Nathaniel Chase Hoboken, NJ     Wendy Parker Marietta, GA
Sergio Cimmino Napoli, ITA     Andrew Reid New Westminster, BC
Randy Cline Vacaville, CA     Jim Rook West Granby, CT
Shannon Farley River Vale, NJ     Ethan Root New York, NY
Jonathan Glass Cross River, NY     Shane Santy Great Bend, KS
Carsten Golden Longmeadow, MA     John Schumacher Sussex, WI
Wayne Greiner Edmonton, AB     Mary Shea Milwaukee, WI
Mike Hajduk Bedford, TX     Patty Shipacasse Westlake, OH
Ted Ingram Dallas, TX     Bianca Smith Cleveland Heights, OH
Micah Karg New York, NY     Zack Sorensen Morris, IL
Scott Levens Point Cook, AUS     Bill Stupansky Denver, CO
David Low Glendale, AZ     Robert Zarowny Vernon Hills, IL
Pierluigi Mandoi Galatone, ITA     Nathaniel Zronek Solon, OH
       

 

Research Committee news

There were no new SABR research committee newsletters published this week.

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

Regional Chapter news

Here were the new chapter meeting recaps published 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, and sent out to all SABR members on Fridays. All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here: http://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives. 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.

Find exclusive Members’ Only resources and information here: http://members.sabr.org

Did you know you can renew your membership at any time? 1- and 3-year SABR memberships are available by clicking “Renew” at http://members.sabr.org. Please also consider a donation to SABR to support baseball research at SABR.org/donate.

Are you following us on Twitter or Facebook? Get SABR updates every day at @SABR or by searching “SABR” on Facebook.

Replying to this e-mail goes to an undeliverable address. If you would like to contact the SABR office, please visit: http://sabr.org/about/contact-sabr


Originally published: January 17, 2014. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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