This Week in SABR: September 2, 2016

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Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web. Please note the SABR office will be closed for Labor Day on Monday, September 5. Here’s what we’ve been up to as of September 2, 2016:

Get the Fall 2016 Baseball Research Journal delivered straight to your inbox

Once again, SABR is offering members the opportunity to opt out of receiving the printed version of the Fall 2016 Baseball Research Journal. We’ll deliver the e-book version of the Fall 2016 BRJ in the format of your choice (EPUB, MOBI/Kindle or PDF) straight to your inbox in early November. Click here to learn more about receiving the e-book edition of the BRJ.

Opt out of receiving the printed edition by Saturday, October 1 in order to get early access to all the great content in the BRJ in e-book format and online at SABR.org.

  • To opt out of receiving the printed version of the Baseball Research Journal: Click here to edit your membership profile. Scroll to the bottom and select “Receive publications electronically.” Then save your changes.

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

If you’ve never read a Baseball Research Journal in e-book form, click here to try it out with the Spring 2015 edition. The Baseball Research Journal, and all SABR e-books, are available in EPUB, MOBI/Kindle or PDF formats.

To read articles from the BRJ archives, click here.

Educators, sign up your class for a discounted SABR Student Group Affiliate Membership

A Student Group Affiliate Membership will provide students with access to many of the electronic benefits that SABR members enjoy, including “This Week in SABR,” e-book editions of the Baseball Research Journal and The National Pastime, free SABR e-books, and access to the members-only section of SABR.org. This membership will not include any printed publications or voting rights.

In order to make the Student Group Affiliate Membership affordable for groups to join, here are the options we offer:

  • College/University groups/classes: For an annual fee of $250, a group of up to 25 students can receive a one-year electronic SABR affiliate membership.
  • High School/Middle School groups/classes: For an annual fee of $100, a group of up to 20 students can receive a one-year electronic SABR affiliate membership.

Any educational class or student group at the middle school, high school or college/university level is eligible for a SABR affiliate membership, as long as a faculty member, teacher, or advisor is an active SABR member (or registers to join.) The teacher/advisor will be listed as the group contact on the SABR website.

The teacher/advisor will be asked to collect the money, names and e-mail addresses for all students wishing to join, and submit those to the SABR office at one time. In addition, the advisor/instructor must be an active SABR member or sign up for a regular SABR membership; annual dues are $65, with discounts available for adults under the age of 30 or over 65.

To sign up for a Student Group Affiliate Membership, or if you have any questions about how it might work for your group or class, please contact SABR Vice President Dr. Leslie Heaphy at Lheaphy@kent.edu or (330) 244-3304.

The SABR Bookshelf: Summer 2016

Periodically throughout the year, SABR.org publishes The SABR Bookshelf, a listing of new books that are received at the SABR office. Here are The SABR Bookshelf listings for Summer 2016:

http://sabr.org/content/sabr-bookshelf-summer-2016

Click the link above for more information on the following books:

  • Tigers by the Tale: Great Games at Michigan & Trumbull, edited by Scott Ferkovich
  • From the Braves to the Brewers: Great Games and Exciting History at Milwaukee’s County Stadium, edited by Gregory H. Wolf
  • Cuban Baseball Legends: Baseball’s Alternative Universe / Leyendas del Béisbol Cubano: El Universo Alternativo del Béisbol, edited by Peter C. Bjarkman and Bill Nowlin, transcribed by Reynaldo Cruz
  • The Baseball Whisperer: A small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams, by Michael Tackett
  • The Kid from Diamond Street: The Extraordinary Story of Baseball Legend Edith Houghton, by Audrey Vernick
  • Herb Pennock: Baseball’s Faultless Pitcher, by Keith Craig
  • Baseball’s Dynasties and the Players Who Built Them, by Jonathan Weeks
  • The Games That Changed Baseball: Milestones in Major League History, by John G. Robertson and Andy Saunders
  • Chronology of Latin Americans in Baseball, 1871-2015, by Lou Hernandez
  • From Buck To Pudge: The Evolution of Baseball’s Catcher’s Mitt, 1888-2015, by Richard Macaluso
  • Mets By The Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin’ Mets by Uniform Number, by John Springer and Matthew Silverman
  • Washington Nationals A-Z, by Ann Lambert Good
  • Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns, by J. Thomas Hetrick
  • Disco Demolition: The Night Disco Died, by Steve Dahl and Dave Hoekstra
  • Bienvenido a Cuba, by Julio Rodriguez

Bolded names indicates that the author(s) is a SABR member. Click here for a list of publishers found in the SABR Bookshelf, along with their contact information.

To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004. An e-book file will also suffice; please send the e-book in PDF, EPUB or Kindle/MOBI format to jpomrenke@sabr.org.

To ensure a listing in The Baseball Index — SABR’s online catalog of baseball research materials — make sure a review copy is sent to The Baseball Index, 4025 Beechwood Pl., Riverside, CA 92506.

All new SABR Bookshelf listings can be purchased at the SABR Bookstore, powered by Amazon.com. In addition, check out new books published by SABR at SABR.org/ebooks (free for SABR members!)

To view previous listings in The SABR Bookshelf, click here.

Learn more about new SABR Diversity and Inclusion Committee

SABR is pleased to announce the formation of a Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which was established during the SABR 46 convention in Miami. 

Our new D&I committee will be dedicated to promoting outreach into traditionally underrepresented communities in SABR’s membership base, and ensuring that SABR events provide a welcoming environment to individuals of all backgrounds. The strategy and vision for the SABR D&I Committee will be led by a steering committee, comprised of SABR Director Emily Hawks, D&I committee chair; SABR Vice President Leslie Heaphy, chair of the Women in Baseball Research Committee; Anthony Salazar, chair of the Latino Baseball Research Committee; and Larry Lester, chair of the Negro Leagues Research Committee. 

The SABR D&I Committee will also have several affiliate members, who will be crucial in our community outreach and inclusion efforts. If you are interested in joining the committee as an affiliate member, please contact Emily Hawks at emilyhawks@gmail.com.

Download your free e-book copy of The National Pastime: Baseball in the Sunshine State

Since 2009, The National Pastime has served as SABR’s convention-focused publication. Published annually, this research journal provides in-depth articles focused on the respective geographic region where the national convention is taking place in a given year.

The SABR 46 convention is set to begin this week in Miami, and we have dedicated the theme of The National Pastime to baseball in the Sunshine State. All SABR members receive a free e-book copy of The National Pastime as part of their membership benefits, while attendees of the national convention will also receive a souvenir print edition in their goody bags.

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.

If you aren’t able to attend the convention in Miami, please enjoy this issue of The National Pastime as your virtual trip to South Florida. Happy reading!

To learn more about contributing to a future SABR publication, click here.

— Cecilia M. Tan, editor

SABR Digital Library: Cuban Baseball Legends: Baseball’s Alternative Universe

The newest (and first bilingual!) publication from the SABR Digital Library focuses on legendary ballplayers from Cuba’s rich baseball history:

Cuban Baseball Legends: Baseball’s Alternative Universe
Edited by Peter C. Bjarkman and Bill Nowlin
Spanish translations: Reynaldo Cruz
432 pages, 8.5″ x 11″
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-9438-1625-5, $9.99
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9438-1624-8, $21.95

Minnie Minoso. Martin Dihigo. Luis Tiant Sr. and Jr. Orlando “El Duque” and Livan Hernandez. These are only a few of the leading lights profiled in Cuban Baseball Legends: Baseball’s Alternative Universe. The 47 individuals profiled here represent only a small handful of the legions of memorable and sometimes even legendary figures produced over nearly a century and a half by an island nation where the bat-and-ball sport known as baseball is more than a national pastime, it is the national passion. The book presents 47 biographies in all, plus essays on Cuban baseball.

These biographies were researched and written by a team of members of the Society for American Baseball Research. SABR’s BioBroject has produced bios of over 3,800 players since 2002. A Spanish-language edition of the book is also available, a new first for SABR. Haga clic aquí para obtener más información sobre las “Leyendas del Béisbol Cubano.”

Contributors include: Mark Armour, Thomas Ayers, Ray Birch, Peter C. Bjarkman, Ron Briley, Phil Cola, Rory Costello, Reynaldo Cruz, Eric Enders, Joseph Gerard, Peter M. Gordon, Tom Hawthorn, Lou Hernandez, Douglas Hill, Joanne Hulbert, Len Levin, Brian McKenna, Zachary Moser, Bill Nowlin, Jose I. Ramirez, Rick Schabowski, Mark Stewart, John Struth, and Adam J. Ulrey.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

Más información acerca de leyendas del béisbol cubano mediante la descarga más reciente libro electrónico de SABR:

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 more SABR Digital Library books, visit SABR.org/ebooks.

Call for papers: 2017 SABR Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference

All SABR members are invited and encouraged to submit a Research Presentation Proposal Abstract on any topic of 19th-century baseball for the 2017 Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The ninth annual Ivor-Campbell Conference is scheduled for April 21-22, 2017.

The deadline for proposal Abstracts is October 31, 2016. Your abstract must be between 200-500 words for a 20- to 25-minute presentation. Please include name, title, and contact information and send your proposal as a Microsoft Word or PDF attachment to Peter Mancuso at peterplus4@earthlink.net.

This deadline enables us to publish the complete program and schedule in time for the release of our 2017 Winter Issue of our quarterly newsletter, “Nineteenth Century Notes,” in early January, when registration for “The Fred” begins.

For any questions, please contact Peter Mancuso at peterplus4@earthlink.net.

New research resource: Gene Carney Black Sox “Notes” index and archive

For more than 15 years, beginning in 1993, SABR member Gene Carney wrote a semi-regular column called “Notes From The Shadows of Cooperstown” from his home in Utica, New York. At first, Carney’s self-published “Notes” was an eclectic blend of essays, poetry, book reviews, and a little baseball history. Then, in September 2002 until his untimely death in 2009, it took on a singular focus: the Black Sox Scandal.

Carney’s growing interest and fascination with “baseball’s darkest hour” led him to author a groundbreaking book, Burying the Black Sox: How Baseball’s Cover-up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded (Potomac Books, 2006), and he later became the founder and chairman of SABR’s Black Sox Scandal Research Committee.

Even more than a decade after Carney’s book was published, his “Notes” columns are still chock-full of intriguing discoveries, nagging questions about the scandal, and other meanderings down the “Black Sox Trail.” Carney’s relentless energy and generous spirit were the driving force behind so much of the important research in recent years that has shed new light on the 1919 World Series and the scandal that followed, including the Black Sox Committee’s 2015 book, Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox.

It is in this same spirit that we now share the entire collection of Gene Carney’s “Notes” columns related to the Black Sox Scandal, along with a Chronological Index and a Subject-Matter Index for those who are interested in digging deeper. Only a handful of Carney’s original “Notes” columns can still be found online, so we have restored all of the 225 columns focusing on the Black Sox Scandal and made them available for download at SABR.org. As we approach the 100th anniversary of the 1919 World Series, we hope future researchers will find these files useful and help us continue to learn more about the Black Sox Scandal.

Click here to learn more.

— Jacob Pomrenke

2 new SABR biographies published

Two new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 3,840 published biographies. Here are the new bios published this week:

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

World War II replacement players’ biographies now posted online

In SABR’s Who’s on First: Replacement Players in World War II, edited by Marc Z. Aaron and Bill Nowlin and published in 2015, we examined baseball’s true “replacement players” — the players who made their major-league debuts during the four seasons the U.S. was at war in World War II (1942-45).

The war years featured firsts and lasts. The St. Louis Browns won their first (and last) pennant in 1944 — a feat made more amazing by the fact that they had not finished in the first division since 1929. The 1944 team featured 13 players classified as 4-F. The Chicago Cubs appeared in the 1945 World Series but have not made it back since.

The owners brought in not only first-timers but also many oldsters. Chuck Hostetler was called up to the Detroit Tigers at age 40 and then blundered into one of the most notorious bloopers in World Series history. Chet Covington was a talented left-handed pitcher who won more than 200 games in the minor leagues but spent part of just one season in the majors. One-armed outfielder Pete Gray played for the St. Louis Browns.

The SABR BioProject biographies that appeared in Who’s On First can now be read online at: http://sabr.org/category/completed-book-projects/world-war-ii-replacement-players.

You can also purchase the book or download the e-book 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:

All new Games Project stories can be found here: http://sabr.org/gamesproject/recent

  • Get involved: 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.
  • Seeking a new Chief Editor: Would you like to help contribute to the SABR Games Project? We’re seeking a new Chief Editor (or editors) to help coordinate the editing for all Games Project stories. This is a crucial role, but unglamorous and thankless — though we do try to thank editors as much as we can. If you have any experience editing and would like to help, please contact Greg Erion or Bruce Slutsky. Fact-checkers are also wanted; you could volunteer, for example, to read all game essays from the early 1950s for accuracy. Please contact the Games Project officers above for more details.
  • Still waiting for your story to appear? Due to changes in the editing team, it may be possible that Games Project stories submitted in the past few months for editing have been lost prior to their being vetted and published. If you have submitted an article and not heard back from an editor or seen your article published yet, please resubmit your article(s) to Len Levin at lenlevin5@hotmail.com. We are working hard to post all back stories that were submitted and we apologize for any inconvenience this development may have caused.

Listen to Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on Sunday nights

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by SABR President Vince Gennaro, will air this weekend at its regular time, 7:00-8:00 p.m. ET on Sundays, on MLB Network Radio.

This week’s guests are Russell Carleton of Baseball Prospectus and Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com.

Now, you can also watch video highlights of Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on MLB.com and you can also listen to all recent episodes on-demand on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App.

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.

SABR Tips: Subscribing to the SABR-L listserv

There are many benefits and tools available to you as a SABR member, and here’s another that you may or may not be aware of: SABR-L.

SABR-L is a free, daily e-mail listserv that all SABR members are encouraged to participate in. Moderated by a rotating group of volunteers, SABR-L’s purpose is to encourage and facilitate research and information exchange among SABR members. Since its founding in 1995, the list’s subscriber rolls have grown steadily in number, and today more than 1,400 members are subscribed. On a typical day, your SABR-L e-mail will include 10-20 posts on a wide variety of baseball topics. We’ve been told by some members that SABR-L is worth the price of membership by all itself. You can learn something new every day from your one SABR-L e-mail.

Some of the topics we’ve discussed recently on SABR-L include the new name for the Chicago White Sox’s home ballpark, the minor-league record for consecutive strikeouts by a pitcher, the San Diego Chicken and other mascots, and the founding of the Detroit Tigers.

It’s easy to sign up for SABR-L. Just send an e-mail to this address: LISTSERV@APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM. And in your e-mail, type this in the subject line: SUBSCRIBE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME. So if your name is Bob Smith, this is what your subject line would look like: Subscribe Bob Smith

That’s all it takes. You’ll start receiving your daily SABR-L e-mail the next day, and then you can jump into the conversation whenever you’d like. By default, the list comes in “digest” form — which means one e-mail a day — but you can choose to receive each post immediately if you’d like. (Click here for details on how to do that.)

To post a new message to the SABR-L listserv, just compose an e-mail with a regular subject line and your message, and send it to this address: SABR-L@APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM. It will be posted in the next digest. Please use a specific subject line that reflects the content of your message and remember to sign your name at the bottom. And please, for the sake of brevity, take a second to delete all the previous messages from the bottom of your message, along with any excessive or boilerplate signature lines in your e-mail.

Simple, right? SABR-L is a fantastic resource for asking research questions or discussing other baseball topics with SABR members. One of the great traits about SABR members is that somebody, somewhere, knows the answer to just about any baseball research question you can ask. SABR-L is often the best way to find those answers, or to share those answers with others. Our daily listserv has a reputation for high-quality discussion — and yes, we’ve established a couple basic ground rules for posting etiquette, which you can find in the SABR-L Moderator’s Note, to ensure the listserv remains that way — and we’re proud of how it’s evolved over the last 20-plus years.

The SABR-L Archives are also a useful resource if you’ve looked everywhere else for an answer to your question with no luck. Search the archives to see if your question has been brought up on the listserv before; chances are, it has.

For longtime members or those who have recently joined, we hope you’ll all subscribe to SABR-L and join the discussion!

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
John Cerny Secaucus, NJ     Bill Maisannes Charlottesville, VA
Donna Cohen Westwood, MA     William Matthews Langhorne, PA
Daniel D’Amore Somerville, MA     Rupert Patrick Travelers Rest, SC
Timothy Gutowski Evanston, IL     H. Malette Poole Raleigh, NC
Kyle Kennedy Springdale, AR     Von Roebuck Atlanta, GA
Carl Larsen Union, NJ     David Spenard Washington, DC
Andrea Long Charlotte, NC        

 

Research Committee news

Here are the new SABR research committee updates this week:

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

Regional Chapter news

Here are the new regional chapter updates this week:

  • Halsey Hall Chapter September 2016 newsletter (Minneapolis, MN)
  • Larry Dierker Chapter ballgame/meeting recap (August 27; Houston, TX)
  • Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter research conference recap (August 27; St. Louis, MO)
  • Rogers Hornsby Chapter new website: After months of hard work, I am happy to report that we have a new and improved website for the Rogers Hornsby Chapter at sabrhornsby.org. Ryan Pollack deserves the bulk of our gratitude for navigating us through a process in which we considered our options and created our own WordPress site. Thanks also to Monte Cely and Jan Larson for their able assistance helping get the new website in shape. This new website will ensure that we have a reliable online presence for years to come. — Gilbert Martinez
  • Best Practices handbook: Chapter leaders, download the new Chapter Leaders Best Practices Handbook on the Admin Tools page at admin.sabr.org. The handbook offers suggestions and guidelines for meetings, speakers, revitalizing a chapter, and getting publicity for SABR and chapter events.

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.)

 

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Originally published: September 2, 2016. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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