This Week in SABR: June 29, 2012
Live from SABR 42 in Minneapolis, here’s what we’ve been up to as of June 29, 2012:
SABR announces major licensing deal with MLB Advanced Media
We are excited to announce that SABR has completed a major licensing deal with MLB Advanced Media. The deal provides an avenue for SABR and its members to share their valued research with the baseball community through MLB.com. This deal was announced just a short while ago at the Annual Business Meeting at SABR 42.
Content from SABR will be integrated throughout MLB.com, will be featured on the Baseball Memory Lab front screen and within Baseball Memory Lab content areas, and will be included in the MLB.com historical area.
As part of this agreement, MLBAM will help to promote SABR throughout the MLB.com portal, including promotion of SABR conventions and conferences, SABR Day and SABR.org. MLBAM will include a link to SABR.org in the footer of the MLB.com home page.
SABR members will also be eligible to receive a 25% discount for MLB.TV monthly subscriptions throughout the remainder of the 2012 season. The 25% discount applies to MLB.TV Premium and MLB.TV subscriptions and to new MLB.TV subscribers only. SABR members will also receive a 10% discount on MLB.com/Shop purchases.
SABR is excited to be partnering with baseball’s premier online presence. This deal is an acknowledgement of the outstanding contributions that our members make to the baseball community. Thanks for your support.
SABR 42: Jan Finkel selected as 2012 Bob Davids Award winner
Jan Finkel, who serves as Chief Editor for SABR’s wildly successful Baseball Biography Project, was announced as the winner of the 2012 Bob Davids Award during the SABR 42 Awards Luncheon on Friday in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The award — which is the Society’s highest honor — honors SABR members whose contributions to SABR and baseball reflect the ingenuity, integrity, and self-sacrifice of the founder and past president of SABR, L. Robert “Bob” Davids.
“I come to the convention every year, hear the name of the winner and think, ‘Of course! Who else could it have been?’ But this year … I can think of so many people in this room who are deserving. I am stunned. Thank you so much,” Finkel said Friday.
An English professor in real life, Finkel spent most of his career at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky, right in the heart of Appalachia. He lives with his wife, Judy, on Deep Creek Lake in the mountains of western Maryland, where he outwits an occasional largemouth.
Mark Armour, director of the BioProject, introduced Finkel during the Awards Luncheon. You can read his introduction here: http://sabr.org/latest/sabr-42-jan-finkel-selected-2012-bob-davids-award-winner
Previous Bob Davids Award winners in attendance Friday at the SABR 42 Awards Luncheon were: Bob Tiemann (1992), Len Levin (1997), Lyle Spatz (2000), David W. Smith (2005), John Thorn (2006), Andy McCue (2007), Mark Armour (2008), Tom Ruane (2009) and Bill Nowlin (2011).
SABR 42: Houston chosen as 2014 convention site
The SABR Board of Directors has awarded the 2014 national convention to the Larry Dierker/Houston Chapter in Houston, Texas.
The 2014 convention will be SABR’s 44th annual gathering; the organization’s founding in Cooperstown in 1971 is counted as the first.
This will be SABR’s first national convention in Houston; the city was also a finalist to play host to the 2013 convention, which will be held in Philadelphia. The SABR convention returns to Texas for the first time since 1994, when SABR 24 was held in Arlington.
For more information on the Larry Dierker/Houston Chapter, visit the chapter website at SABRHouston.org.
SABR 42: Dave St. Peter opening remarks
Minnesota Twins president Dave St. Peter delivered the opening remarks at SABR 42 on Thursday. He spoke candidly on such topics as the Twins’ recent poor play and pitching woes, the building of Target Field, Minnesota’s long baseball tradition and the stability of the organization.
Listen to the entirety of Dave St. Peter’s speech, with an introduction by Halsey Hall Chapter president Brenda Himrich, at the link below (56 minutes):
https://sabr.box.com/shared/static/c0566a3d21e8a26893a4.mp3
SABR 42: Business of Baseball/Ballparks Committee joint panel
SABR’s Business of Baseball Committee and Ballparks Committee held a joint meeting during SABR 42 on Wednesday night, with a lively panel discussion that focused on the development and financing of Target Field. Moderated by Steve Weingarden, the panel included:
- Dan Kenney, Executive Director of the Minnesota Ballpark Authority
- Tom Goldstein, community activist and lawyer who opposes public subsidies for sports stadiums
- Gary Gillette, co-author of Big League Ballparks and Editor of the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia; and
- Stan Meradith, AIA, Principal of the DLR Group, a national integrated design firm with experience building ballparks
Watch some highlights of the panel on our YouTube page below:
SABR 42: A look back at the 1988 convention in Minneapolis
We enjoyed reminiscing this week with folks who attended the last SABR convention held in the Twin Cities.
A total of 340 members and guests attended our 18th annual convention, July 7-10, 1988, at the Holiday Inn Metrodome — and while the ballpark, city and convention agenda have changed in many ways over the years, some elements will be familiar to longtime SABR members.
Andy MacPhail, the then-33-year-old Executive Vice President, General Manager of the Minnesota Twins, delivered the keynote address. The third generation in a Hall of Fame baseball family, MacPhail hired Tom Kelly as manager in his first act as GM and transformed the Twins into a World Series champion in 1987 and again in 1991. He left the Twins in 1994 and has worked in the Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles front offices.
Another featured speaker at SABR 18 was minor league legend Joe Hauser, who hit a single-season professional record 69 home runs with the Minneapolis Millers in 1933 that stood for 65 years.
Actor Peter Thoemke performed “Casey at the Bat” at the convention opening, while the players panel consisted of former AL Rookie of the Year John Castino, original Twin Julio Becquer, two-sport star Howie Schultz and Negro Leaguer Collins Jones.
More than 30 research presentations were given, including “The Ebbets Field Diamond Jubilee” by Ron Gabriel, “The 30-30 Club” by Cappy Gagnon and “The Great Minneapolis-St. Paul Baseball Rivalry” by Stew Thornley — who now serves as an official scorer for the Twins and the SABR 42 convention committee chair. Other familiar faces were Herm Krabbenhoft (“Warren Spahn versus the Dodgers”), Mark Kanter (“The Sun Never Sets on Baseball”) and Gary Gillette (“Update on Project Scoresheet”, which you now know as the fabulous Retrosheet.org website), all of whom are scheduled to deliver research presentations in Minneapolis this week.
At the Metrodome, SABR members saw three Hall of Famers (Paul Molitor, Robin Yount and Kirby Puckett) in the convention ballgame on July 9, with Molitor delivering a key two-out double as the Milwaukee Brewers — still a decade away from moving to the NL — scored three runs in the ninth inning to beat the Twins, 5-4.
This year, we’re expecting more than 500 attendees for SABR 42 and the beautiful downtown ballpark Target Field is our destination on Friday night. But it should be just as memorable a convention. We hope you’ll follow along all week at SABR.org/convention or by using the hashtag #SABR42 on Twitter.
For more on the history of the SABR convention, http://sabr.org/content/sabr-convention-history.
SABR 42: Photo galleries
Check out some of our favorite photos from the first three days of SABR 42 at the link below:
SABR.org/convention/SABR42-photos
We’ll be adding more photos as the convention continues through Sunday in Minneapolis. Check out all of our live coverage of SABR 42 at SABR.org/convention.
SABR 42: Twitter recaps
During the Minneapolis convention, you can follow along live on Twitter by searching for the hashtag #SABR42 or by reading tweets from our account (@SABR) and from other conference attendees.
Check out a daily recap of our favorite tweets from each day at the convention at the link below:
Research committee newsletters
- No SABR research committee newsletters were published this week.
Find all SABR research committee newsletters at SABR.org/research.
Chapter meeting recaps
- Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap (June 16; St. Louis, MO)
Visit SABR.org/chapters for more information on SABR regional chapters.
SABR Events Calendar
Here is a list of upcoming SABR events:
- June 27-July 1: SABR 42 convention (Minneapolis, MN)
- June 30: Gardner-Waterman Vermont Chapter meeting (Burlington, VT)
- July 8: Lefty O’Doul/Bay Area Chapter meeting (Oakland, CA)
- July 10: Bob Davids Chapter Monthly Hot Stove Dinner (Arlington, VA)
- July 12: Talkin’ Baseball: Bill Gilbert (Columbia, MD)
- July 12: Rogers Hornsby Chapter meeting (Austin, TX)
- July 14: Halsey Hall Chapter Hot Stove Saturday Morning (Richfield, MN)
- July 14: Robinson-Kell Chapter meeting (Little Rock, AR)
- July 15: Baseball Reliquary: Shrine of the Eternals induction ceremony (Pasadena, CA)
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 on the Web about SABR 42:
- For numbers crunchers, Twins’ old-school methods don’t add up (St. Paul Pioneer Press)
- Panels, presentations highlight SABR 42’s first day (MLB.com)
- For women in baseball, progress steady but slow (MLB.com)
- Cecilia Tan live-blogs the Thursday morning presentations and the afternoon presentations (Why I Like Baseball)
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.
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Originally published: June 29, 2012. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.