Board of Directors
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Vince Gennaro
President
Vince is the author of Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball, a consultant to MLB teams, and he teaches in the graduate programs at Columbia University and Manhattanville College. His non-baseball work is highlighted by a 20-year career at PepsiCo — including roles as Division President and GM of a billion-dollar bottling business — and ownership of a pro sports franchise. Vince’s innovative analysis of baseball has been the subject of articles in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and CNN Money. He has also written for Yahoo! Sports and The Wall Street Journal and is a frequent guest commentator on sports business topics. Vince serves on the Advisory Board of ANC Sports and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago. He lives in Purchase, New York, with his wife and daughter.
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Bill Nowlin
Vice-President
Bill has specialized in Red Sox research since he turned to writing and research in the late 1990s and has published about 30 books and several hundred articles, almost all of which are Red Sox-related. He has been VP of SABR for the past seven years. He is one of three founders of Rounder Records, one of America’s most successful independent record labels. He’s traveled widely, visiting more than 125 countries to date, and has recently returned to academia (he taught college for 12 years), offering an online course on “Baseball and Politics” at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He was the 2011 winner of the Bob Davids Award, SABR's highest honor. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Todd Lebowitz
Secretary
Todd has been an attorney with Baker & Hostetler LLP in Cleveland, Ohio, since 1997. He has offered pro bono legal counsel to SABR since 2005, advising on numerous matters relating to intellectual property, contracts, personnel, business strategy and implementation. He has performed legal work for the Cleveland Indians, including drafting player contracts and negotiating terms with player agents, some work for Major League Baseball related to trademark enforcement, and conducted a study entitled "The Effect of Financial Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation: A Study of Long-Term Contracts in Major League Baseball". He has been a member of SABR since 2000, is part of the Baseball Records, Business of Baseball and Latino Baseball committees, and has assisted other members with legal and historical research, including understanding legal terminology and decisions. He holds a BA in psychology and a law degree, both from the University of Michigan. He lives in Solon, Ohio.
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F. X. Flinn
Treasurer
F.X. is the senior member of the SABR Board, elected as Treasurer in 2001, 2005 and 2008. In 1990, he started Expert Systems Development Corp, an IT consulting firm specializing in data warehousing, knowledge management and process development. After graduating from Cornell University in 1975, he worked in the trade book publishing industry for Doubleday and Bantam. In 1981 he became involved with the Rotisserie League founders and in 1984 published the first book on fantasy sports, Rotisserie League Baseball. F. X. (the initials are for Francis Xavier) comes from a large extended family, and while he and his wife have no children, they enjoy doting on more than a score of nieces and nephews. They live in Quechee, Vermont.
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Gary Gillette
Director
Gary is editor of SABR’s annual Emerald Guide, as well as co-editor of the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia and executive editor of the ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia. His most recent trade book is Big League Ballparks, a complete history of major league parks, co-authored with SABR members Stuart Shea and Matt Silverman. Gillette has been a member of SABR’s board of directors since 2009 and is co-chair of the Ballparks Committee and past co-chair of the Business of Baseball Committee. As a director of the Tiger Stadium Conservancy, he continues the fight to save the historic field at Michigan and Trumbull. As a member of the mayor’s committee to save Hamtramck Stadium, he is working to preserve one of the few remaining Negro League ballparks. Gillette lives in Detroit’s historic Indian Village with his wife, Vicki, and their children, Karolina and Kamil.
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Leslie Heaphy
Director
Leslie has been a member of SABR since 1989, chair of the Women in Baseball Committee since 1995 and was elected to the SABR board in 2010. Leslie is an associate professor of history at Kent State University at Stark and publishes in the area of the Negro Leagues and women’s baseball. In 2008, she became the founding editor of the journal Black Ball, published by McFarland Publishing. She lives in Kent, Ohio.
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Paul Hirsch
Director
Paul joined the SABR board in 2007. He has been a SABR member since 1983. Besides Board service, Paul was leader of the Lefty O'Doul Chapter, a member of the Umpires and Rules Committee, helped plan the 1998 San Mateo convention and chairs the fundraising committee. His particular areas of interest are franchise moves, the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, trivia and uniforms. He owns a marketing and PR firm, which he cleverly named Paul Hirsch Professional Communications. Paul, his wife and two children live in Danville, California.
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Tom Hufford
Director
Tom was one of SABR’s 16 founding members on August 10, 1971. He served SABR as Secretary in 1976 and has been a Director since 2004. His interests are biographical research, minor leagues, umpires, the Appalachian and Virginia Leagues, and the Atlanta Braves. While in college, Tom was ballpark organist for his hometown Pulaski (Virginia) Phillies. He was president of the Atlanta Braves 400 Club in 1991-92 and was a consultant to the Braves during the design of Turner Field. Hufford graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in architecture and urban planning. At least three of his distant cousins, Wayland Dean, Bert Hamric, and Ed “The Pitching Poet” Kenna, were major league players. Tom and his wife, Nan, live in Marietta, Georgia.
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