Seeking nominations for 2016 Greg Spira Baseball Research Award
The Greg Spira Baseball Research Award Committee (www.SpiraAward.org) has announced the start of nominations for the fourth annual Greg Spira Baseball Research Award.
Winning entries must display innovative analysis or reasoning by an author who was 30 years old or younger at the time of the entry’s publication. The winner of the 2016 Greg Spira Award will receive a cash prize of $1,000. The committee will also recognize two additional writers with awards of $200 for second place and $100 for third place.
Last year’s Spira Award went to SABR member Lewie Pollis for his Brown University senior honors thesis in economics about the underpaying of general managers for the value produced to their organizations. You can read his thesis at SABR.org by clicking here. Pollis was hired this January as a full-time analyst in baseball research development by the Philadelphia Phillies. Cee Angi and SABR member Rob Arthur took second and third place, respectively.
The 2014 Spira Award went to SABR member Ben Lindbergh, while the inaugural Spira Award in 2013 was presented to SABR member Trent McCotter.
The Nomination Period for the 2016 award will open at 12:01 a.m. EST on January 21, 2016, and remain open through 11:59 p.m. EST on March 6, 2016. Nominations received before or after the Nomination Period will not be considered.
The Nomination Form for the Greg Spira Award can be found at www.SpiraAward.org. Anyone can nominate a qualifying piece for the Award, and self-nominations by authors are welcome. Note, however, that only one entry per author will be considered for the Greg Spira Award.
In order to be eligible for nomination, a piece or book must be about baseball and must contain original analysis or research. Nominated pieces or books must have been published between January 16, 2015, and January 15, 2016. Articles, papers, and books eligible for consideration include those published in print or in e-books, those published or posted on the World Wide Web, academic papers or dissertations, and papers presented at professional or public conferences.
In the event of multiple nominations, a self-nomination by the author takes priority over any piece nominated by a third party. If multiple pieces by one author are nominated by third parties, the judges will attempt to contact the author to ascertain which piece he/she wants to be considered. If the author fails to respond, the judges will evaluate the first piece submitted and ignore any other nominated pieces by that author.
The Publication Period dates have been chosen so that pieces published about the annual January Hall of Fame election are eligible for consideration without having to wait a full year. This also ensures that pieces about Spink Award, Frick Award, and Hall of Fame inductees who will be honored in Cooperstown on the same July weekend will not be split between two Greg Spira Awards.
The Greg Spira Baseball Research Award winners will be announced on April 27, 2016, the 49th anniversary of Greg’s birth.
A panel of judges—including Greg’s brother Jonathan, the creators of the Award, and several close friends of Greg—will determine the winners of this innovative competition. The selections of the judges will be final and not appealable.
About Greg Spira
A lifelong and passionate Mets fan, baseball researcher Greg Spira died on December 28, 2011, in his native New York City. Spira was an early adopter and a pioneer in using the Internet to advance baseball analysis, and he later contributed to many sports books as a researcher, writer, and editor.
Working with the Spira family, the creators of the Greg Spira Award include Sean Forman of Baseball-Reference.com, Dave Pease of Baseball Prospectus, Sean Lahman of Baseball1.com, and Gary Gillette of 24-7 Baseball, L.L.C.
Remembrances, tributes, and other information about Greg Spira can be found on these Web sites:
- www.GregSpira.com
- www.BaseballProspectus.com
- www.Baseball-Reference.com
- www.Baseball1.com
- www.247Baseball.com
For more information, please go to www.SpiraAward.org or send a message to Info@SpiraAward.org.
Related links:
- MLB.com: Influential researcher Spira dies at age 44
- Baseball Prospectus: Remembering Greg Spira
- Greg Spira baseball library finds a new home at SABR office
Originally published: January 21, 2016. Last Updated: January 21, 2016.