This Week in SABR: March 24, 2017

/in /by

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 March 24, 2017:

SABR 47: Hotel block almost sold out for 2017 national convention in New York City

We hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a spectacular SABR 47 convention, June 28-July 2, 2017, at the Grand Hyatt New York. Conference and hotel registration is now available. 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 almost sold out, so be sure to register for SABR 47 soon! If you have already registered for SABR 47 and have trouble booking your room, please contact Deb Jayne at djayne@sabr.org.

This year’s SABR National Convention will combine some familiar SABR traditions along with a number of new events. 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. 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 at an affordable price. 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.

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 only available to registered convention attendees. After you register for the SABR 47 convention, you will receive an e-mail confirmation with details on how to book your hotel room at the SABR group rate. There are a limited number of rooms in our group block and it will be virtually impossible to find a comparable rate at a top NYC hotel in the Midtown area, so be sure to register for SABR 47 early!
  • 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: SABR invites all members to present their research findings to their colleagues attending SABR 47. The deadline to submit your abstract is Sunday, February 26, 2017. Click here for complete details and application form.
  • Yoseloff Scholarship: Students, click here to learn more about a Yoseloff Scholarship to attend SABR 47 in New York City.

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.

Students: One week left to apply for a Yoseloff Scholarship for SABR 47 in New York City

With generous funding from The Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation, Inc., SABR will award up to four scholarships to high school or college students to attend SABR 47 on June 28-July 2, 2017, in New York City. This scholarship will pay for registration, transportation and lodging (double occupancy) up to a total value of $1,250.

The objective of this scholarship fund is to encourage high school and college-level student engagement with baseball research and to engender an active interest in baseball and SABR. The Yoseloff scholarship is to assist young researchers who want to attend SABR’s annual convention and to introduce them to fellow SABR members. Through this fund, SABR hopes to inspire future baseball research, expose students to high-quality research and build the research capability of interested students.

All applications must be postmarked or e-mailed to Jeff Schatzki at jschatzki@sabr.org no later than Saturday, April 1, 2017.

Click here for complete details and criteria.

Check out more highlights from the 2017 SABR Analytics Conference

Couldn’t make it to Arizona for the SABR Analytics Conference? Visit SABR.org/analytics for full coverage of this exciting event that brings together the top minds in the baseball analytics community in 2017. You’ll feel like you’re wandering through the Hyatt Regency Phoenix with stories and multimedia clips from the great panel discussions and research presentations on our schedule, photo galleries, and much more.

  • During the conference, you could follow along on Twitter by searching for the hashtag #SABRanalytics or by reading tweets from our account (@SABR) and from other conference attendees.
  • View our photo galleries from each day of the conference at SABR.org/analytics/photos.

Click a link below for more multimedia highlights from the 2017 SABR Analytics Conference:

Thursday, March 9

Friday, March 10

Saturday, March 11

Last call for presentation abstracts for 2017 Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference

The SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference welcomes proposals for oral and poster presentations from all research fields. Previous presenters have included college faculty, public school teachers, graduate students, and independent scholars. Presentations may focus on any topic related to the theme, “Black Baseball in Harrisburg,” or other Negro Leagues issues. Some possibilities include: the 1920s Harrisburg Giants, Spottswood Poles, Rap Dixon, the 1954 Harrisburg Giants, Monrovian Club of 1867, 1903 Colored World Series, and so much more.

Please email your proposal as a Word attachment to Dr. Leslie Heaphy at Lheaphy@kent.edu before March 27, 2017. Click here for complete details and criteria.

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.

Visit SABR.org/malloy for complete details and registration information. Click here for the 2017 Malloy Conference information packet (PDF).

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.

SABR welcomes new international chapter in Nepal

SABR’s Board of Directors has approved the formation of a new international chapter.

The Nepal Chapter, based in Kathmandu, serves members in Nepal; the chapter leaders are Dinesh Bajagain and Keshav Thapa.

SABR’s 71 regional chapters cover 37 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.; plus international chapters in Canada (Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia), Japan, South Korea, Australia, Latin America (Venezuela, Dominican Republic), the United Kingdom, and Italy. For a list of all SABR chapters, visit SABR.org/chapters. A calendar of upcoming SABR meetings can be found at SABR.org/events.

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 “Join Group” at the top of the chapter page. All SABR members are eligible to sign up for announcements from any chapter or committee.

Filling out a Researcher’s Notebook: A tribute to Al Kermisch

SABR researcher extraordinaire Al Kermisch died quietly on November 21, 2002 in Alexandria, Virginia, though he lived for nearly forty years in nearby Arlington. In the April 2003 edition of the SABR Bulletin, he received a 38-word obituary, not saying much other than that he had died and he was the author of the popular and respected “Notes from a Researcher” [sic], his regular contribution to the Baseball Research Journal. It was far from a fitting goodbye or thank you.

There is no normal obituary written for him anywhere. About a dozen longtime SABR members were contacted recently to elicit a portrait of the man, but not one could remember meeting him other than by mail or phone, and those were a rarity. The only way to learn about Al was to piece together the descriptions of him from various SABR articles and other outlets. Finding them took some work, the kind of puzzle-piece search he would have relished. Here, finally, is a long-overdue attempt by Dixie Tourangeau to put those pieces together and tell Kermisch’s story.

Glimpses of Al Kermisch’s life can be found in the 1973 SABR Bulletins #7 and #8 (Bob Davids, editor), the 1982 SABR Salute (Davids again), editor Jim Kaplan’s intro to Baseball Research Journal #19 in 1990, and a Baltimore Sun piece on April 3, 1992 by Al’s Baltimore baseball history cohort, James H. Bready. Finally in BRJ #31 (2002) appeared editor Jim Charlton’s sad news that Al had died. These came decades after The Sporting News’s brief graphs about Al’s whereabouts during World War II. From these combined sources we get the following script about a bona fide baseball addict.

Click here to read Dixie Tourangeau’s new article on SABR.org.

SABR Digital Library: Dome Sweet Dome: History and Highlights from 35 Years of the Houston Astrodome

Add an innovative book to your collection with the newest publication from SABR Digital Library:

Dome Sweet Dome: History and Highlights from 35 Years of the Houston Astrodome
Edited by Gregory H. Wolf
Associate Editors: Frederick C. Bush, James Forr, Len Levin, Bill Nowlin
Introductions by Tal Smith and Larry Dierker 
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-9438-1632-3
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9438-1633-0
8.5″ x 11″, 299 pages

This book — a collaborative effort by members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) — evokes memories of the Astrodome. Heralded as the “Eighth Wonder of the World” when it opened in 1965, the Astrodome was the world’s first domed stadium.

Readers are introduced to the stadium’s history through detailed summaries of 70 games played there and nine insightful feature essays about the ballpark. Some of the games might be considered great, like Nolan Ryan’s record-breaking fifth no-hitter, or historic, like the first regular-season game in the ’Dome. Other contests are remembered for outstanding or milestone accomplishments, such as Jim Wynn becoming the first player to hit three home runs in the Astrodome, or fantastic finishes like the Astros’ 22-inning victory in 1989. Stories from 35 years of Astrodome history feature Hall of Famers like Ryan, Bagwell, Craig Biggio, and Randy Johnson, as well as stars from Larry Dierker and Mike Cuellar to José Cruz and Mike Scott, and lesser remembered or forgotten players, such as George Bjorkman. No volume would be complete without the Astros’ heartbreaking losses in postseason games in the 1980s and 1990s.

Feature essays contextualize the stadium’s history, with pieces on the Astrodome’s engineering, the major movers and shakers in the early stages of the stadium’s creation (including Roy Hofheinz, George Kirksey, and Craig Cullinan), the Astrodome as a home to non-baseball events, and of course, an in-depth historical review of the Astrodome itself. Astrodome icons, pitcher Larry Dierker and longtime team executive Tal Smith, wrote introductions for the volume.

Contributors include: Mark Armour, John Bauer, Frederick C. “Rick” Bush, Alan Cohen, Rory Costello, Richard Cuicchi, Larry Dierker, Greg Erion, Dan Fields, T.S. Flynn, James Forr, Gordon J. Gattie, Paul Geisler, Chip Greene, Matt Henshon, Brent Heutmaker, Michael Huber, Chuck Johnson, Norm King, Justin Krueger, Bob LeMoine, Len Levin, Bill McCurdy, Bill Nowlin, Chad Osborne, Thomas Rathkamp, Alan Reifman, Richard Riis, Rick Schabowski, Mark S. Sternman, Jim Sweetman, Joseph Thompson, Robert C. Trumpbour, Steve West, Tal Smith, Mike Whiteman, Gregory H. Wolf, and Kenneth Womack.

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, visit SABR.org/ebooks.

SABR members, get a special discount on We Are Baseball tour during spring training in Arizona

For two weeks in March 2017, fans in Scottsdale, Arizona during Spring Training will have the unique opportunity to expand their baseball experiences with a special visit to We Are Baseball — a cutting-edge collaboration of baseball and technology at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. In delivering the game’s past, present and future, We Are Baseball features virtual reality (VR), an original IMAX movie, and specially curated artifacts from The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

SABR members can take advantage of a special discount to the tour through our partnership with MLB Advanced Media. Use the code SABR17 for a $7 discount off a full-price adult ticket when you purchase online through HallofFameTour.com.

The We Are Baseball and the Hall of Fame Tour will be open daily at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick between March 11 and March 26, 2017.

Visit HallofFameTour.com to learn more about the exhibition.

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 4,027 published biographies. Here are the new bios published this week:

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

1986 Boston Red Sox biographies now posted online

In SABR’s The 1986 Boston Red Sox: There Was More Than Game Six, edited by Bill Nowlin and Leslie Heaphy and published in 2016, we paid tribute to a dominant Beantown team whose World Series championship remained just out of reach.

The 1986 Boston Red Sox includes biographies of every player, coach, broadcaster, and other important figures for the American League champions that year — from stars like Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, and Dave Henderson, to role players like Tom Seaver and Don Baylor, manager John McNamara, hitting guru Walt Hriniak, and of course — Bill Buckner, Bob Stanley, Calvin Schiraldi, and everyone who played an unforgettable role in the postseason.

This book on the 1986 season re-tells the story of that year’s classic World Series between the Red Sox and the New York Mets. After four games, each team had won two away games and neither had won at home. Then the Red Sox won Game Five at Fenway, and were one game away from winning their first world championship in 86 years. It came to the point they were one pitch away from baseball Nirvana. And then …

Just about everyone knows what happened, but there are takes on it here you might not have read elsewhere. Mostly, this is the story of each of the players, coaches, managers, and broadcasters, their lives in baseball, and the way the 1986 season fit into their lives.

The SABR BioProject biographies that appeared in The 1986 Boston Red Sox can now be read online at: http://sabr.org/category/completed-book-projects/1986-boston-red-sox

You can also purchase the book or download the e-book — along with its companion volume on the 1986 New York Mets — by clicking here. SABR members can download all SABR Digital Library e-books for free at SABR.org/ebooks.

5 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

Five 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.

Listen to a new episode of Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by SABR President Vince Gennaro is back for the Hot Stove League offseason, at a new time: 4:00-5:00 p.m. ET on Sundays, on MLB Network Radio.

This week’s show will include highlights from the recent SABR Analytics Conference with clips from the Chicago Cubs’ Five-Year Journey to the World Series panel with Cubs GM Jed Hoyer and Director of Baseball Operations Scott Harris.

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.

Listen to the SABR Media Committee’s new “Baseball Buffet” podcast

The “Baseball Buffet,” a new monthly podcast from the SABR Baseball and the Media Committee, features a get-together and conversation about the latest news and hot-button issues around baseball. This week’s podcast includes discussion on offseason transactions; 2016’s dramatic rise in home runs; differences in calling a game on TV vs. radio; Spring training memories; and a “few more surprises.” Your hosts are:

Each podcast runs about 20-25 minutes, a length which fits quite nicely as a quick listen into your own lunch schedule.

Click here to listen to this month’s episode at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-579295566/baseball-buffet-3-8-17

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
Chris Andrade San Jose, CA     Brian Hassett Clifton Park, NY
Robert Andrews Channelview, TX     Andrew Irvine Bethesda, MD
Susan Carter Moline, IL     Andrew Johnson Colorado Springs, CO
William Dollen Omaha, NE     James Linnear Gulf Shores, AL
Arthur Andrew Draut Louisville, KY     Jason Manola Addison, IL
Kay Eaton Naperville, IL     Isaac Michaels Niskayuna, NY
Mike Gesker Reisterstown, MD     Richard Pioreck Freeport, NY
Michael Ginnitti Orchard Park, NY     Teresa Rodriguez Westchester, IL
Christopher Hahn Lebanon, OH     Robert Wilson Millville, NJ

 

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.
  • Minor Leagues: Spring 2017 newsletter
  • Nineteenth Century: Spring 2017 newsletter

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: March 24, 2017. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

Support SABR today!

Donate Join

Cronkite School at ASU
555 N. Central Ave. #406-C
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Phone: 602-496-1460

About

History

Meet the Staff

Board of Directors

Annual Reports

Diversity Statement

Contact SABR

DONATE

© SABR. All Rights Reserved