This Week in SABR: October 4, 2013

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Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Here’s what we’ve been up to as of October 4, 2013:

Save the date! SABR 44 in Houston is July 30-August 3, 2014

SABR is pleased to announce that the SABR 44 national convention will be held July 30-August 3, 2014 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Houston, Texas.

The Royal Sonesta is at 2222 W Loop S Fwy., Houston, TX 77027. Hotel rate and conference registration information for the 2014 convention will be available later this fall.

SABR 44 will be our first convention held in the Lone Star State in 20 years; our 24th annual convention was held in Arlington, Texas, in 1994. During SABR 44, the Houston Astros are scheduled to play host to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday, August 1 at Minute Maid Park. The Oakland Athletics will also be in town earlier in the week.

The SABR Convention, which is open to all baseball fans, includes top featured speakers from around the baseball world — front office executives, players, managers, scouts, writers and analysts — innovative panel discussions, groundbreaking research presentations, major and minor league games, tours of historic ballparks, the SABR Trivia Contest, the Awards Luncheon, and most of all, the opportunity to make and renew baseball friendships over the course of this memorable event.

Located in the heart of Uptown Houston, the Royal Sonesta Hotel is just a few blocks from The Galleria for shopping, dining and entertainment. This 23-story modern hotel is located near the Museum and Theater districts, and just minutes from Minute Maid Park in Downtown Houston.

SABR members, stay tuned to your “This Week in SABR” newsletter (delivered via email every Friday) for more information about SABR 44.

Related links:

Deadline extended for 2013 SABR Arizona Fall League Conference early registration

The fifth annual SABR Arizona Fall League Conference will be held October 31-November 2, 2013. The conference will feature four AFL games at three different ballparks. Guests will see all six AFL teams, showcasing every major league team’s top prospects. The final game on Saturday night is the Fall Stars Game at Surprise Stadium.

Please note: The deadline for early registration ($165) has been extended until 9 a.m. MST Monday, October 7. After that time, the registration fee will go up to $175.

All baseball fans are welcome to attend, so join us next month for the SABR Arizona Fall League Conference!

Hotel: The host hotel is the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Old Town Scottsdale (3131 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85251) and the SABR group rate is $104/night plus tax. Call (480) 675-7665 to book your room and be sure to mention the “SABR AFL Conference.” The hotel’s website is www.hiescottsdalehotel.com (sorry, no discount code is available online.) Reservations must be booked by October 4, 2013 (that’s tonight!) to get the SABR group rate.

There is a free airport shuttle which also is available from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. for rides anywhere within a three-mile radius of the hotel.

Schedule: After taking in a game on Thursday afternoon, guests will also be treated to dinner at Don and Charlie’s, home to one of the great sports memorabilia collections you will ever see. Friday’s schedule includes two AFL games and a pregame ballpark dinner at Talking Stick at Salt River, along with a special guest speaker to go along with your meal.

On Saturday morning, attendees will join members of SABR’s Flame Delhi (Arizona) Chapter for their regional fall meeting. Saturday night is always a highlight of the conference as the top prospects from every organization participate in the AFL Fall Stars game. All of this, including transportation, is included in one low registration price.

Registration: Your registration fee of $165 (before October 7; $175 afterward) includes all game tickets; an AFL Media Guide; dinner at Don and Charlie’s; ballpark dinner at Talking Stick at Salt River; and transportation to and from all events. Hotel registration includes breakfast and complementary happy hour each day. Register for the 2013 SABR AFL Conference by clicking here. Questions: Please Contact Rodney Johnson at sabrrodney@aol.com.

The Arizona Fall League (mlbfallball.com) is baseball’s premier player development league. In the first four years of the conference, attendees were treated to sneak peeks at Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Buster Posey, Stephen Strasburg, Nolan Arenado, Gerrit Cole and Billy Hamilton before they hit the big leagues.

A detailed schedule and more information can be found at SABR.org/AFL.

‘Spectacular’ SABR Baseball Research Center opens at new San Diego library

“Breathtaking” and “spectacular” were two of the words commonly used to describe the new Sullivan Family Baseball Research Center, home of the SABR Collection, on Saturday, September 28 at the San Diego Central Library’s grand opening celebration.

Even the librarians who work there were impressed.

“It’s the biggest baseball library west of Cooperstown!” said Rosemary Diciedue, a San Diego librarian since 1989.

San Diego’s long-awaited new library building — a $184.9 million, nine-story facility designed by Rob Wellington Quigley — opened for business on September 30. A sneak peek of the library was offered Saturday, with a day-long street festival on Park Boulevard near Petco Park.

The Baseball Research Center opened in 2001, with an initial collection of books and microfilm donated by SABR’s Ted Williams Chapter. In the years since, it has grown to more than 3,000 publications, books, and journals, and 300 microfilm reels, all available to the public at San Diego’s downtown library.

“The library folks have been heaven to work with,” said SABR member Andy Strasberg, the former San Diego Padres vice president who, along with Tom Larwin, spearheaded the creation of the research center.

In 1998, the Ted Williams Chapter partnered with the Central Library to open the research center and the initial acquisition was made in 2001. It included a complete set of The Sporting News, Sporting Life, University of Notre Dame baseball guides and SABR’s annual publications, The Baseball Research Journal and The National Pastime.

Today, baseball fans and researchers can also view thousands of books on baseball history from its early origins in the 1700s to the present day, biographies, instruction manuals, encyclopedias, Spanish-language titles and San Diego Padres scrapbooks. The SABR collection also includes microfilm reels that are only available in one other location, the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, including 19th-century baseball scrapbooks, American Association and Union Association records, Black Sox Scandal archives, player questionnaires and minor league contract cards.

For more details on the new Baseball Research Center and the SABR Collection, and to view photos of the new San Diego Central Library, click here.

SABR members, get your Fall 2013 Baseball Research Journal electronically

In a world where legendary magazines such as Newsweek and The Sporting News have gone totally digital, SABR is bridging both worlds.

As an organization that prides itself on maintaining the best of its past, but also constantly striving to move forward and take advantage of exciting new opportunities and technologies, SABR is offering its members the opportunity to opt out of receiving the printed version of the Baseball Research Journal.

Click here to learn how to receive your Fall 2013 Baseball Research Journal in e-book format.

For those who sign up before October 15, 2013, we’ll be offering the Fall 2013 Baseball Research Journal in e-book format for those who are enjoying reading on their Kindles, Nooks, iPads or other devices. (Did you know that the Spring 2013 BRJ is already available in e-book form? Try it out now by clicking here to download your copy in EPUB, MOBI/Kindle or PDF format.)

You can opt out at any time. If you opt out between now and October 15, you’ll receive the Fall 2013 edition and future Baseball Research Journals in e-book format.

Please note: If you do nothing, you will continue to receive two print editions of the Baseball Research Journal every year by mail.

Many SABR members are heavy readers, who have accumulated many books and periodicals over the years. Some members, whose bookshelves are near capacity, have asked us if they could still receive our stimulating content without the burden of a hard copy. By offering this totally voluntary option of receiving only an electronic version of the BRJ, we are keeping in step with the changing marketplace for printed publications, while accommodating any members who wish to have more “portability” of the written material our members produce. Furthermore, by not printing and mailing more than 6,000 copies each month, SABR would use the money it saves through printing and mailing costs and apply it to new research opportunities; this move also helps us to be more environmentally friendly.

Related links:

Retroactive All-Star Game Project: NL stars win 1916 series

Editor’s note: This game summary is from the Retroactive All-Star Game Project. Voting was conducted to select retroactive MLB All-Star teams from the 1916 season and the games were simulated using Out of the Park 14. 

In an epic battle of 1916 All-Stars at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, the National League’s best copped games two and three of a three-game set to overcome an early deficit and capture the first official All-Star series between the two leagues. The opening tilt was a cakewalk for the AL, thanks to the pitching of Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth and Guy Morton, who combined for a four-hit shutout in the 4-0 win. 

Game 2 was tight until the seventh when Johnson stumbled and allowed the NL to blow open a 1-1 game with five runs to seal a 6-3 win.  The rubber match was equally tight as each team plated two runs through seven before the senior circuit scored two in the eighth to capture the game and series.

Highlights and outstanding players include:

  • George Sisler and Shoeless Joe Jackson combining for four of the AL’s seven hits in Game 1, and the aforementioned pitching performance by the junior circuit’s Big Three.
  • Dave Robertson and Rogers Hornsby combining for five hits, four RBIs and eight total bases for the NL in Game 2, and Babe Ruth’s three hitless innings to start the contest.
  • Robertson and Hornsby starring again in Game 3, highlighted by Hornsby’s eighth inning triple off Ruth to decide the game.
  • Robertson going 7 for 12 (.583) and scoring four runs in the series.
  • Hornsby slugging .727 and driving in four runs in the series.
  • Grover Cleveland Alexander pitching to a 2.00 ERA in three appearances.
  • Shoeless Joe Jackson hitting .364 with three ribbies in the series.

You can find full accounts of all three games, box scores, game logs and stats here. 

Learn more about the Retroactive All-Star Game Project by clicking here.

— Mike Lynch

8 new biographies published by the SABR BioProject

Eight new biographies were posted as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 2,565 published biographies. Here are the new bios:

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

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

1950s Boston Red Sox biographies now posted online: The 1950s Red Sox were teeming with huge stories. You might know about Ted Williams, of course, but consider his teammates: Harry Agganis, a legendary local athlete whose tragic death is remembered by millions in the region; or Jimmy Piersall, whose illness and breakdown led to a book and two movies; or Jackie Jensen, a famous collegiate football star who forged a great career with the Red Sox. The Red Sox are famous for failing to integrate until 1959, the last team to do so. The people mostly blamed for this oversight (Tom Yawkey, Joe Cronin, and Mike Higgins), as well as the man who finally broke the color line (Pumpsie Green), were all profiled in our 2012 book Red Sox Baseball in the Days of Ike and Elvis: The Red Sox of the 1950s, edited by Mark Armour and Bill Nowlin, with Maurice Bouchard and Len Levin. The SABR BioProject biographies from that book can now be read online at: http://sabr.org/category/completed-book-projects/1950s-boston-red-sox. The e-book is available for free to all SABR members; SABR members also get 50% off the paperback version. Click here for details.

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.

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
Jake Boyd Texarkana, TX     Matt Gertz Armonk, NY
William Carver Grosse Ile, MI     Greg Hillebrand Hi Nella, NJ
Pat Casanta St. Louis, MO     Bruce Wall Glencoe, IL
Christopher Collias Oak Park, MI     Steven Walters Colorado Springs, CO
Elmer Cowley Berkeley, CA     Roger Williams Beaverton, OR
Alexander DeMauro Richmond Hill, NY     Matt Young Chandler, OK
Ed Edens Jackson, TN        

 

Research committee newsletters

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

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.

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.

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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: October 4, 2013. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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