SABR 52: Featured Speakers
Learn more about our featured speakers and panelists at SABR 52 below.
Kris Atteberry is the lead radio play-by-play voice for the Minnesota Twins. He joined the Twins Radio Network in 2007 and spent 17 seasons hosting pregame and postgame shows, as well as providing play-by-play and analysis for select games. He has also called men’s and women’s college basketball on CBS Sports Network and he is a graduate of Stanford University.
Bert Blyleven became the first Dutch-born player elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011. Armed with one of the greatest curveballs in baseball history, he won 287 games and ranks fifth all-time with 3,701 career strikeouts. He was part of two World Series championship teams with the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1987 Minnesota Twins, and he spent 22 seasons in the Twins broadcast booth from 1996 to 2020. He has also served as a pitching coach for the Netherlands baseball team in the World Baseball Classic since 2009.
Rod Carew was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. He recorded 3,053 hits in his 19-year major-league career, and he was a seven-time batting champion with one of the sweetest left-handed swings in baseball. In 1977, he flirted with a .400 average all season, finishing at .388, and earned American League MVP honors. He was also recognized as the AL Rookie of the Year in 1967.
Derek Falvey is the President of Baseball Operations for the Minnesota Twins. Since joining the team in October 2016, the Twins have won three American League Central Division titles and qualified for four postseason appearances. The team also set a single-season major league record with 307 home runs in 2019 when they won 101 games. He began his front office career in 2007 and spent nine seasons in the Cleveland Guardians front office, including as an Assistant General Manager in 2016 when they won the American League pennant. He played baseball and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Trinity College in Connecticut.
Pete Gorton is the founder of The Donaldson Network, a group of hundreds of researchers, authors, and historians dedicated to the rediscovery of Negro Leagues great John Donaldson. He was honored by SABR’s Negro Leagues Committee with the Tweed Webb Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
LaTroy Hawkins is a Special Assistant to Baseball Operations and television analyst with the Minnesota Twins. He played for 21 seasons in the major leagues with 11 different teams, including the Twins from 1995 to 2003. He ranks 10th all-time in major-league history with 1,042 appearances and is one of a handful of relievers to record a save against all 30 MLB teams.
Jim Kaat was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022 following a decorated 25-year major-league career spent mostly with the Minnesota Twins. He won 283 games, 16 Gold Glove Awards, and a World Series championship with the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals. He has worked as an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster on MLB Network since 2009 and has also called games for the Twins, New York Yankees, and ESPN since the early 1980s. He is the author of Good As Gold: My Eight Decades in Baseball.
Josh Kalk is Vice President, Baseball Operations Strategy & Innovation, with the Minnesota Twins. This is his seventh season with the Twins, where he leads the advance scouting team and assists the major league staff and player development personnel with unique information and ball-tracking data. Prior to joining the Twins in 2017, he spent nine seasons in the Tampa Bay Rays front office. He holds a Master of Science degree in Physics from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
Thad Levine is the Senior Vice President, General Manager of the Minnesota Twins. Since his hiring in November 2016, the Twins have won three American League Central Division titles and qualified for four postseason appearances. The team also set a single-season major league record with 307 home runs in 2019 when they won 101 games. Previously, he spent 11 seasons as an Assistant General Manager for the Texas Rangers, a period that included two World Series runs. He has also worked with the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Tony Oliva was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022. The Cuban star excelled in all aspects of the game, winning three batting titles and 1964 American League Rookie of the Year honors. He helped lead the team to the 1965 World Series and batted .304 over his 15-year career, all spent with the Twins. Since 1976, he has served as a coach, scout, and Spanish-language radio analyst in the Twins organization. In 2010, he was named one of the “50 Greatest Twins.”
Glen Perkins is a radio and television analyst for the Minnesota Twins. He spent his entire 12-year major-league career as a pitcher with the Twins after he was selected in the first round of the 2004 amateur draft out of the University of Minnesota. He was a three-time All-Star and earned the save for the American League in the 2014 All-Star Game at Target Field. He ranks in the Twins’ top five all-time in saves and games finished.
Todd Peterson is a visual artist, historian, and teacher who lives in Overland Park, Kansas. He is the co-chair of SABR’s Negro Leagues Committee and a two-time winner of the Tweed Webb Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding research. His books include The Negro Leagues Were Major Leagues in 2019 and Early Black Baseball in Minnesota in 2010.
Carl Rogan is the grandson of Wilber “Bullet Joe” Rogan, a two-way star with the Kansas City Monarchs who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. Carl was a three-sport star at Minneapolis Central High School who has spent a lifetime playing and coaching sports. He spent 30 years working for 3M in the laboratory and in sales and marketing before his retirement.
Josh Ruffin is the Assistant Director of Player Development Research for the Minnesota Twins, where he works closely with the affiliate coaching staffs to develop minor league prospects. He joined the organization in 2019 as an Advance Scouting Analyst in the major league clubhouse. A former pitcher for Duke University, he graduated with a degree in Statistical Science in 2014, and earned his Master’s degree in Data Analytics Engineering from George Mason University. He has also served as a Data Analyst in numerous efforts supporting the United States Government, including the US Army, Navy, and Department of Agriculture.
Hans Van Slooten is a Senior Data Engineer for the Minnesota Twins. Prior to joining the Twins, he was the Principal Developer of Baseball-Reference.com at Sports Reference. He has been a SABR member since 2006 and served on the board of the Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR for four years.
Frank M. White is an author, historian, exhibit curator, and SABR member. He is the author of They Played for the Love of the Game and several articles on Black baseball in Minnesota. He is also a retired athlete, coach, official, and sports administrator. He has coordinated the RBI program for the Minnesota Twins and served as a board member for the Minnesota State High School League.
For more information on SABR 52, visit SABR.org/convention.