This Week in SABR: June 28, 2013

Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Here’s what we’ve been up to as of June 28, 2013:

SABR 43: Have you registered for Philly yet?

It was one year ago Thursday that our 42nd annual convention kicked off in Minneapolis. Relive the fun with online coverage and clips at SABR.org/convention/2012. Then make your plans to join us in Philadelphia for this year’s SABR convention.

SABR 43 is scheduled for July 31-August 4, 2013, at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, 1201 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, just blocks from City Hall, Independence Hall and many other Philadelphia landmarks. All baseball fans are welcome to attend.

You can register online at the SABR Store or on-site at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown during the convention. Registration includes access to all panel discussions, research presentations, committee meetings and other on-site events.

Please note that our block of Phillies ballgame tickets and the discounted all-inclusive rates are no longer available.

SABR welcomes new chapters in Western New York, Fort Wayne

SABR’s Board of Directors approved the formation of two new regional chapters on its June 23 conference call.

The Luke Easter Chapter, based in Rochester, New York, will serve the Western New York area. The chapter chair is Ryan Brecker.

The Kekionga Chapter of Fort Wayne will serve the Fort Wayne, Indiana area. The chapter chair is Robert Gregory.

SABR’s 61 regional chapters cover 34 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.; plus international chapters in Canada (Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia), Japan and the United Kingdom. For a list of all SABR chapters, visit SABR.org/chapters. A calendar of upcoming SABR meetings can be found at SABR.org/events.

  • Announcements: To sign up for chapter email announcements and receive instant notification of upcoming SABR events in your area, click here to select from the list of chapters, then click the “Join Group” button at the top of the chapter page. All SABR members are eligible to sign up for announcements from any chapter.
  • Find your regional chapter: Does your area have a regional chapter of its own? If not, it’s easy to organize a new chapter — all you need is an interested group of SABR members. Click here for details.

Planning for a 19th-century baseball annotation research project

Our fifth annual Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference was named for Fred by the second year it was held. Why wouldn’t it be? Fred helped plan the first conference we held at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and accepted my invitation to him to serve as moderator for that first year’s panel discussion, “From Baseball Research To Writing To Publication” with panelists Peter Morris, Bill Ryczek and John Thorn. Wow, talk about an All-Star lineup being managed by an All-Star manager! Then tragedy struck a few months later and Fred was killed in an automobile accident.

In a large way, with Fred’s guidance, both the quality and demeanor of all future conferences were set that first year and have held up throughout. The 2013 conference was no exception, with great information imparted by all the presenters, panelists and interviewees in a warm and friendly atmosphere made all the more pleasurable by the combined company of conference veterans and first-time attendees, indistinguishable.

This year’s Luncheon Keynote Address was given by Tom Shieber, who upheld the fine tradition of all of his keynote predecessors. He presented a thoughtful and provocative talk on the theme that I have asked all of our keynote speakers to address, encouraging baseball research. Tom, like all those before him, who each in their own way accomplished their mission, had a little bit more in mind: He had a specific proposal to make.

I am planning on furthering a discussion of this new potential committee group project at our annual business meeting during SABR 43 in Philadelphia. Before that meeting on August 1, I hope you will read Tom’s Keynote Address and visit Tom’s blog at http://baseballresearcher.blogspot.com.

— Peter Mancuso

Wisconsin student wins 2013 SABR Lee Allen History of Baseball Award

SABR is pleased to announce the winner of the Lee Allen History of Baseball Award for 2013.

Grace Olson of Lincoln Middle School in La Crosse, Wisconsin, won the Lee Allen History of Baseball Award for her junior individual exhibit, “The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.”

Since 1996, SABR has honored the best baseball research project at the National History Day competition, an annual event in which students compete on a regional basis, followed by state competition, and then national finals at the University of Maryland.

The award is named in honor of Lee Allen, the historian at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum from 1950 to 1969. To view a list of past winners, click here.

For more information on National History Day, visit http://www.nhd.org/SpecialPrizeinfo.htm.

1912 Boston Red Sox bios now online

Last year, we commemorated the 100th anniversary of one of the greatest teams in baseball history with Opening Fenway Park With Style: The 1912 World Champion Red Sox, edited by Bill Nowlin, with Dan Desrochers, Len Levin and Maurice Bouchard.

The SABR BioProject biographies that appeared in the book — from Tris Speaker to Smoky Joe Wood, from Bill Carrigan to Harry Hooper, from Neal Ball to Charley “Sea Lion” Hall — can now be read online at:

http://sabr.org/category/completed-book-projects/1912-boston-red-sox

SABR members can download the e-book in PDF, EPUB or MOBI/Kindle formats for FREE by clicking here. Or click here to get the paperback edition  for the special members-only price of $10.00 at Createspace.com.

The book is also available for purchase at the SABR Bookstore.

You can find other team pages from our completed book projects (18 and counting!) by going to SABR.org/BioProject and clicking the Browse button:

http://sabr.org/bioproj/browse

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 2,460 published biographies. Can we reach 2,500 before the SABR 43 convention in Philadelphia? 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.

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!

Check out the new Baseball Ballparks Project: The SABR Baseball Biography Project has been accepting/publishing “biographies” of Ballparks for a few years, and we have 39 of them on our website at http://sabr.org/bioproj/parks. However, this thing just got real. Ballparks are now its very own PROJECT — the Baseball Ballparks Project, our first official spin-off. The project leader is Scott Ferkovich, who is now in charge of recruiting ballparks articles and publicizing them. Learn more by clicking here.

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.

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
John Britt Calabasas, CA     Lamonte Kolste Columbia, MD
Chris Bumgardner Menomonee Falls, WI     Matt Kruse Sarasota, FL
John A. Craig Hudson, NY     Dan Manson Yorba Linda, CA
Davie Dana Sea Girt, NJ     Michael Matuszewski Birmingham, MI
Robert Dow Austin, TX     Ravi Misra New York, NY
Samuel Gale Madison, WI     John Okrak Woodbridge, VA
Seth Gold Glenview, IL     Mark Sellers FPO, Armed Forces
Richard Griffith Taunton, MA     Peter Slingerland Kingston, NY
Luke Groeschen Villa Hills, KY     John Streeter Williamsburg, VA

 

Research committee newsletters

Here are the new SABR research committee newsletters published this week:

  • Nineteenth Century: Summer 2013
  • We’d also like to extend a welcome to Bill Johnson as the new chair of the Origins Committee. Bill represents the Iowa Baseball Museum of Norway and is a retired Navy Captain and a military analyst at the Navy Warfare Development Command in Norfolk, Virginia. He has presented at the 23rd Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, and has contributed biographies to Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox, The Team That Forever Changed Baseball, America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, and The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin’ Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World. He also authored an article in the SABR 38 convention journal, and contributed to the 2012 edition of the Emerald Guide to Baseball.

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

Chapter meeting news

Here are 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.


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 Jacob Pomrenke at 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.

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Originally published: June 28, 2013. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.