SABR 54: Research Presentations
Learn more about our SABR 54 research presentations on this page. Click here to learn more about the poster presentations on display at SABR 54. Abstracts and presenter bios are available below.
Thursday, July 30
10:30 AM-10:55 AM (Superior D)
RP1: The 1904 Cleveland Blues-Pittsburg Pirates Post-Season Series
Richard J. Puerzer
The first modern World Series was played in 1903 between the Pittsburg [sic] Pirates and the Boston Pilgrims, with the Boston team prevailing in the nine-game series five games to three. Puerzer discusses the unusual and largely forgotten 1904 postseason series between the Pirates and Blues. With no official World Series that year due to the New York Giants’ refusal to play, Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss arranged this matchup to maintain cordial relations between the two leagues. The five-game series featured a thrilling showdown between two of the game’s greatest stars: Honus Wagner and Napoleon Lajoie. Puerzer documents the backstory of this unique inter-league clash, detailing the Deadball-Era action, the statistics, and the unlikely heroes of this fascinating chapter in baseball history.
Richard J. Puerzer (richard.j.puerzer@hofstra.edu) is the chair of the Department of Engineering at Hofstra University. He received a 2025 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award and his writing on baseball has appeared in numerous SABR books, as well as in Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture; Black Ball; The National Pastime; The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture proceedings; Zisk; and Spitball.
10:30 AM-10:55 AM (Superior C)
RP2: Comparing Players Across Eras via Full House Modeling
Daniel J. Eck
Comparing baseball players across eras is inherently difficult because the competitive environment has changed dramatically over time. Eck introduces a statistical framework, Full House Modeling (FHM), to tackle the age-old challenge of comparing baseball players across different eras. Instead of traditional era adjustments, this new approach evaluates a player’s performance relative to the size of the eligible talent pool at the time. By jointly accounting for in-season performance and cross-era talent depth impacted by integration, globalization, and expansion, Eck provides a more accurate and common competitive reference environment for all careers. Sensitivity and multiverse analyses illustrate how results vary under alternative modeling inputs, including different historical talent pool specifications. He reveals a revised ranking of baseball’s all-time greats, showing how several modern stars rise significantly when the massive talent pools of their respective eras are properly factored into the equation.
Daniel J. Eck (dje13@illinois.edu) is a tenure-track Professor of Statistics at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign and founder of the Eck Sports Lab. His research focuses on methodological development motivated by problems in sports, evolutionary biology, economics, and the social sciences, with particular emphasis on cross-era evaluation in baseball. He has mentored numerous students, including five who currently work in analytics departments for Major League Baseball teams.
11:00 AM-11:25 AM (Superior D)
RP3: Who Was That Guy? Identification of Unknown Minor Leaguers in Baseball-Reference
Terry Bohn
Since inclusion of records from the Negro Leagues a few years ago, more than 23,000 men have appeared in a major league game. However, in the Baseball-Reference Minor League database, there are several thousand players who are known only by their last name. Bohn walks us through the methods and sources used to track down these more mysterious players. Having collaborated with other researchers and the Chadwick Baseball Bureau, Bohn discusses the hurdles of identifying these players and how new biographical data gets added to the database. He will also touch on a related effort, Bioclustering, in which biographical information is attached to newly identified players. It’s a fascinating look at the importance of completing the records for all professional ballplayers.
Terry Bohn (bohn_terry@yahoo.com) helped organize the Halsey Hall Minneapolis SABR Chapter, is a current Board member, and has made presentations at regional meetings. He has been published in the SABR Baseball Research Journal and contributed nearly 90 biographies to the BioProject. He is a member of SABR’s Minor Leagues and Nineteenth Century Committees. His interests are early baseball in the Dakotas, and he has written and self-published three books on baseball history in North Dakota. He is retired and lives in Mandan, North Dakota, with his wife Mary Jo. They have two children and three grandchildren.
11:00 AM-11:25 AM (Superior C)
RP4: Isolating True Pitcher Talent: A Skill-based Framework for Measuring Eliteness
Hannah Dean, Esther Lee, and Anthony Corso
Dean and her co-authors, Lee and Corso, propose a cutting-edge, skill-based framework for evaluating pitcher eliteness that strips away the noise of defense and game context. Instead of relying on outcome-based metrics like ERA or FIP, this talk focuses on what a pitcher can actually control. Using pitch-level tracking data, Dean breaks performance down into four key domains: Stuff, Miss Ability, Contact Suppression, and Command. They standardize these into a Composite Eliteness Index, then employ a weighted least squares regression model to assess how it predicts run expectancy despite not using traditional results-driven statistics. Dean and her co-authors provide a fascinating look at how isolating pure, controllable skills can provide a more stable and accurate assessment of true pitching talent.
Hannah Dean (hannahfaith.dean@calbaptist.edu) is a sports analytics and data science student at California Baptist University focused on quantitative modeling of baseball player development, with an emphasis on pitching performance. Over four seasons as Director of Analytics for a Pioneer League organization, her work has included developing TrackMan-based evaluation systems, pitch-level data pipelines, and models supporting player development and game strategy. Her research centers on skill-based frameworks for pitcher assessment, integrating pitch-quality metrics, command modeling, and performance outcomes. Her current work isolates pitcher-controllable components from context-driven results using regression and cross-validation to build composite indices of pitcher effectiveness. Her co-authors are Dr. Esther Lee and Dr. Anthony Corso.
11:30 AM-11:55 AM (Superior D)
RP5: From Pennant to Picture Show: John McGraw, the New York Giants, and the Play Ball Serial
Daniel R. Levitt
As American mass media culture came into its own in the 1920s, films starring and celebrating prominent athletes became an increasingly popular, if still relatively infrequent, occurrence. Levitt takes us back to the 1920s to explore the fascinating intersection of baseball, mass media, and early celebrity culture through the lens of a forgotten movie serial. After winning four straight pennants, New York Giants manager John McGraw capitalized on his fame by authoring and starring in Play Ball, a 1925 film serial produced by Pathe. Featuring game footage shot during spring training and action sequences like a shark attack and a carnival calamity rescue scene, highlighting the picture’s melodramatic nature, the film was a massive promotional undertaking. Levitt describes Pathe’s multi-pronged marketing strategy, including massive promotional campaigns by some theaters. He highlights how this unique project reflects the maturing relationship between America’s pastime and the booming entertainment industry.
Daniel R. Levitt (dan@daniel-levitt.com) is the author of several award-winning baseball books and numerous essays. He is the president of SABR’s Board of Directors and a recipient of SABR’s Bob Davids and Henry Chadwick awards. He is currently working on a biography of John McGraw.
11:30 AM-11:55 AM (Superior C)
RP6: Best and Worst Benches
Chris Jaffe
The quality of a baseball team’s reserves clearly matters, as all teams need their backup players, and the more value a franchise gets from them, the more that can help the team win. Jaffe dives into the historical quality of major league bench players, aiming to answer questions about the best and worst benches ever. While the value of reserve players is often discussed, it’s rarely quantified across all of baseball history. Using WAR data from Baseball-Reference, Jaffe separates starters from bench players to evaluate their offensive and defensive contributions. He explores fascinating questions such as which managers or front offices consistently built the strongest benches, how bench quality has shifted over time, and the surprising impact these reserve players have had on pennant races.
Chris Jaffe (jaffechris1@gmail.com) is a community college history professor. He used to write for the late, great baseball website The Hardball Times. In 2010, he wrote the book Evaluating Baseball’s Managers, which won the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award.
Friday, July 31
8:00 AM-8:25 AM (Superior D)
RP7: Boston’s Royal Rooters and the Birth of Modern Fandom
Paul Ringel
From 1897 through 1918, Boston’s Royal Rooters were the most famous sports fans in the United States. They supported Boston’s two major league baseball teams as the clubs won eight pennants and six World Series. Ringel reexamines their legacy. While popular history often centers the group around Michael “Nuf Ced” McGreevy and paints them as working-class Irish Americans venting societal frustrations, Ringel argues for a broader perspective. By looking at other prominent figures like politician John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald and lesser-known Bostonians like Charley Lavis, Mike Regan, and John Keenan, Ringel reveals that the strongest connection among McGreevy and his fellow Rooters was neither ethnicity nor class; it was entrepreneurship. He shows how becoming a Rooter was actually a strategic part of building a public identity and advancing in society, rather than just an escape from daily life.
Paul Ringel (pbringel@gmail.com) is a professor of history at High Point University in North Carolina. His research focuses on the intersections of sports, childhood, and race in the nineteenth and twentieth-century United States. He is a third-generation Red Sox fan whose yearly treks to Fenway Park from North Carolina have transferred his addiction to his daughter. This project is his first endeavor into baseball history, and he is excited to present his work at SABR.
8:00 AM-8:25 AM (Superior C)
RP8: The Mediocrity of the “Man Who Made Mediocrity Famous:” An Examination of Bob Uecker’s Playing Career
Matthew Prigge
No figure in baseball history made more from a mediocre playing career than the legendary Bob Uecker. His six-year Major League career was forever the punchline of his own jokes, earning him national recognition as “Mr. Baseball” and helping to make him one of the game’s most beloved figures of the past half-century. Prigge takes a closer look at Uecker’s playing career, moving beyond the self-deprecating jokes to examine Uecker’s actual on-field statistical legacy over his six-year major league career. By placing his achievements in context, from his early days as the “Milwaukee Strong Boy” to his solid 1966 season as a top backup catcher, Prigge offers a respectful counterpoint to decades of humor while also looking at some quirks of his career that once led him to claim that he led the league in “go get ‘em next time.”
Matthew Prigge (mjprigge@gmail.com) is an author and historian from Milwaukee. His sixth book, Dog’s Day: The True Story of a Bank Robbery, Toxic Love, and Gay Liberation that Inspired a Hollywood Classic comes out in September. He is a faculty librarian at Marquette University.
8:30 AM-8:55 AM (Superior D)
RP9: Larry MacPhail and the Brooklyn Dodgers
John Philips
Larry MacPhail took charge of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938 when the club was inept, bankrupt, and playing in a decaying ballpark. Philips revisits the tumultuous and transformative legacy of MacPhail, who completely revitalized the franchise. While MacPhail’s innovations like night baseball and radio broadcasts are well known, Philips digs into his lesser-known strategies for building a successful team, such as flying players to road games, upgrading Ebbets Field with women’s lounges, adding an elaborate ice cream concession, and introducing partial season tickets. The way MacPhail accomplished this turnaround annoyed the other owners in baseball, as he ingeniously doubled Ebbets Field attendance in ways that allowed Brooklyn to avoid sharing revenue with other National League clubs. This earned him demeaning nicknames and outright scorn. Using first-hand accounts and newspaper archives, Philips paints a complex picture of an impulsive, brilliant executive who reimagined the business of baseball, while also examining the darker side of his legacy regarding integration.
John Philips (jphilips41@yahoo.com) was a middle school history teacher and coach for 35 years in Bedminster, New Jersey. He has a BA in history from Dickinson College and master’s degrees from Rutgers University and Princeton Theological Seminary. His areas of study were European history and the evolution of Protestantism in America. He has been married to Sarah for 32 years and has two adult sons. He is currently in his 58th season of suffering with the New York Mets. He is the result of a mixed marriage: his father was a New York Giants fan and his mother a Brooklyn Dodgers fan.
8:30 AM-8:55 AM (Superior C)
RP10: The Legendary Life of Luscious “Luke” Easter
Ryan Brecker
Brecker explores the larger-than-life legacy of Luscious “Luke” Easter, who transitioned from Negro Leagues stardom to become the eleventh African American player in the integrated major leagues. Debuting with Cleveland as a 34-year-old rookie, Easter captivated fans with his massive “Easter Egg” and “Bazooka Blast” home runs. Brecker reviews Easter’s remarkable journey, from his mysterious true age and legendary blasts to the deep mutual affection he shared with the communities he played for, including his time in Buffalo and Rochester and his untimely death during a robbery in 1979. Brecker also places Easter’s career in historical context, imagining what his numbers might have looked like in a traditional career arc.
Ryan Brecker (rbrecker@gmail.com) lives in Penfield, New York, with his wife Stephanie and daughters Cadence and Quinn. He is an Emergency Medicine physician by night, as well as founder and Chair of the Luke Easter SABR Chapter, and Treasurer for the Rochester Baseball Historical Society.
9:00 AM-9:25 AM (Superior D)
RP11: Are Injury-based Contract Penalties Warranted?
Joshua Morison
Every season, fans watch their favorite pitchers and hitters go down to significant injuries. It’s common knowledge that these injuries lead to smaller contracts, but are those decreases in pay warranted? Are teams accurately pricing injuries into contracts, or are they missing the mark when it comes to paying players what they’re truly worth? Morison investigates whether MLB teams systematically penalize players for injury severity in subsequent contracts and if these penalties are justified by changes in performance (based on WAR). Using injury and salary data from 2000–2025, the project examines how days on the injured list impact future salary outcomes, highlighting differences by position and injury type. Morison reveals that severe injuries now carry substantially larger salary penalties than in earlier eras, offering insights into how teams evaluate and price the financial implications of player injuries.
Joshua Morison (jmorison06@gmail.com), from Gainesville, Florida, is a junior Sport Management student at the University of North Florida. He is part of the data analytics team for the baseball program at UNF that collects and uses on-field data to create models, projections, and reports for the coaching staff. He has also done work for SABR in the past, helping to collect some of the data used in a survey for MLB scouts. He ultimately wants to attend law school and become a sports agent in the future, which is why his research has focused heavily on player salary and contracts.
9:00 AM-9:25 AM (Superior C)
RP12: MLB Playoff Projection Systems: How good are they (and can they be better)?
Vinay Kumar
Playoff odds reports from outlets like FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus have become central to modern baseball discourse. While these models utilize Monte Carlo simulations and sophisticated projections, they face frequent criticism for failing to account for the real-world variance teams exhibit throughout a season. Kumar takes a critical look at these popular playoff odds models, reverse-engineering them and analyzing a decade of data. He reveals that while they accurately predict average win totals, they consistently underestimate the likelihood of extreme outcomes because they use a static mean projection for every iteration, failing to account for inevitable deviation from those projections (due to injury, aging, etc). To fix this, Kumar introduces a modified, open-source Monte Carlo simulator that factors in “projection error.” This updated approach dramatically improves predictive accuracy, offering a much more realistic assessment of both heavy favorites and longshot underdog teams.
Vinay Kumar (sdvinay@gmail.com) is a lifelong baseball fan, a software engineer, and a self-proclaimed “stat nerd.” He has written for The Hardball Times, and now spends his time applying his skills in software and data analysis to illuminate the inner workings of baseball.
9:30 AM-9:55 AM (Superior D)
RP13: I Know of No Rule of Law: Stan Musial, Walter O’Malley, and the Korean War’s Wage and Price Controls
Steve Gietschier
The Korean War’s outbreak in June 1950 frightened the American people in several ways, including reviving the fear of inflation. Gietschier explores how Organized Baseball navigated the wage and price controls imposed by the Truman administration during the war, promising to do its part for the war effort but also asserting that salary controls should not apply to ballplayers. The Salary Stabilization Board disagreed and announced that baseball salaries in 1951 would be subject to the same regulations as other industries. Caught in this vice was Stan Musial, who had just persuaded Cardinals’ owner Fred Saigh to raise his salary for 1951. Gietschier also unpacks Walter O’Malley’s objections and how these controls eventually came to an end under President Eisenhower.
Steve Gietschier (sgietsch@gmail.com) is a retired archivist and history professor. From 1986 to 2008, he managed the archives of The Sporting News. From 2009 to 2020, he taught history, including sport history and baseball history, at a Midwestern university, after which he returned to TSN as a consultant. His book, Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years (University of Nebraska Press), won the Seymour Medal in 2024. Bloomsbury has just published his new book, Warm Summers and Cold Winters: How Baseball Survived the Korean War.
9:30 AM-9:55 AM (Superior C)
RP14: Scouting the Scouts: Do 20-80 Grades Predict Major League Success?
Mike Reed
More than two decades after Moneyball challenged traditional evaluation methods, Major League Baseball still relies heavily on one of its oldest forecasting frameworks: the 20–80 scouting scale. Reed investigates the predictive power of this framework, asking whether these tool grades actually translate to long-term success. By analyzing a 2014 dataset of Top 100 MLB Prospects, he compares original scouting grades against career metrics like Wins Above Average and isolated power. Reed reveals that while certain grades, like power, strongly predict future production, others, like the hit tool, show a much weaker correlation. Reed offers a nuanced take on the “scouts vs. stats” debate, suggesting that traditional scouting is highly effective in specific areas while analytics might be better suited for others.
Mike Reed (n01528864@unf.edu) from Tampa, Florida, recently graduated from the University of North Florida. He has been a fan of baseball since age 4, starting by playing T-ball all the way up to an internship with the UNF baseball team in the Statistics and Analytics Department. He has completed numerous projects in advanced baseball statistics. Scouting and player development are his passions. This is his first time presenting at a conference and attending SABR.
10:00 AM-10:25 AM (Superior D)
RP15: An Economic History of Ballparks
J.C. Bradbury
Bradbury discusses the economic history of professional baseball stadiums, focusing mainly on the history of modern steel-and-concrete major-league venues that opened in the early-20th century (Shibe Park) to the present (The Athletics Ballpark in Las Vegas). He traces the evolution from privately owned classic ballparks (Forbes Field) to public multipurpose stadiums (Veterans Stadium), and then back to heavily subsidized baseball-only facilities that emphasized luxury amenities (Camden Yards). Bradbury explores how ballpark funding shifted from private ownership to massive public subsidies, arguing that standard lease terms, the short-lived novelty effect of new stadiums, and heavy public funding have actually shortened the lifespan of these venues. He also highlights how this cycle of subsidized construction and renovation has increasingly trickled down to minor league ballparks. A resurgence in stadium building and renovations followed MLB’s reorganization of its farm system, which raised ballpark standards for hosting minor league affiliates.
J.C. Bradbury (jcbradbury@gmail.com) is a professor of economics at Kennesaw State University in metropolitan Atlanta. He is the author of This One Will Be Different: False Promises and Fiscal Realities of Publicly Funded Stadiums, published this year by Oxford University Press. He lives in Marietta, Georgia, and is a lifelong Atlanta Braves fan.
10:00 AM-10:25 AM (Superior C)
RP16: Born for the Big Leagues
Jacob Garbett and Richard Cuicchi
Garbett and Cuicchi investigate the fascinating phenomenon of ‘legacy players’ in Major League Baseball — those who follow a family member into the professional ranks. Using econometric analysis on position players drafted since 1980, they uncover some surprising disparities in how teams treat legacies versus non-legacies. While legacy players are drafted significantly earlier and enjoy careers that last nearly a full season longer, their actual performance at the plate is virtually identical to their non-legacy peers. Garbett and Cuicchi explore how the perceived advantages of baseball genetics and upbringing often lead to preferential treatment, suggesting that nepotism plays a real role in front-office decision-making.
Jacob Garbett (jacobgarbett616@gmail.com) is a graduate student at the University of North Florida studying sports analytics. His background is in mathematics, statistics, and computing with a heavy interest in sports. He grew up going to minor league baseball games with his family, traveling around the Southeast visiting different ballparks. He has an interest in analytics and enjoys collecting baseball cards.
Richard Cuicchi (richard@thetenthinning.com) has been a member of SABR since 1983. His special interests include baseball’s relatives and New Orleans baseball history. He maintains a comprehensive database of baseball’s relatives going back to the early 1900s, including major-league and minor-league players, scouts, managers, coaches, and front office personnel. He is a frequent contributor to SABR’s BioProject and Games Project. He writes about New Orleans baseball history for CrescentCitySports.com, where his work has been a finalist for Best Sports Column by the Press Club of New Orleans.
2:30 PM-2:55 PM (Superior D)
RP17: Cleveland Indians’ Only ‘Dynasty’
Dave Bohmer
Bohmer dives into the Cleveland Indians’ dynasty from 1947 to 1956, looking at what it takes to build a team that finishes above .500 and in the top half of the division for ten straight seasons. During that period, Cleveland remained the most integrated team in the American League, usually with four Black players on the squad from 1950-56. They also included Latinos such as Bobby Avila and Mike Garcia, as well as manager Al Lopez. He highlights the key roles of owner Bill Veeck, general manager Hank Greenberg, and manager Lopez in driving the team’s success. He also explores how integrating the team helped cement their dominance and the internal clashes that ultimately brought the era to a close.
A native Clevelander, Dave Bohmer (dbohmer@depauw.edu) taught baseball history for 15 years at DePauw University. He has written for both SABR and NINE, and has finished a biography of Ford Frick, published this April by University of Nebraska Press.
2:30 PM-2:55 PM (Superior C)
RP18: Words Above Replacement: A Computational Evaluation of Player Portrayals in Baseball Writing
Lindsay Dial
From the dawn of professional baseball, the way a player appears in the papers has mattered to the public as much as their performance on the field. Dial explores the hidden linguistic biases and predictive potential within modern baseball sportswriting. Using natural language processing (NLP) to build statistical representations of players (“embeddings”) to analyze ten years of public articles from sources like MLB, ESPN, and independent blogs, she uncovers subtle patterns in how players are described. Dial examines whether these portrayals differ based on race, nationality, or position, and whether the language used can actually forecast a player’s future on-field performance. By evaluating baseball media at an unprecedented scale, this research offers a fascinating, data-driven look at how the words we read every day shape our perception of the game and its players.
Lindsay Dial (reddial02@gmail.com) is a baseball writer and researcher with a background in linguistics and natural language processing. Her research interests range from recalculating the contemporary run environment to investigating the provenance of Ken Griffey Jr. valentines from the 1990s. Although she was raised in a SABR household, this is her first time (voluntarily) attending the annual convention. In her spare time, she runs the blog From Seaver to Seattle, collects baseball cards, and agonizes over the New York Mets and Seattle Mariners.
3:00 PM-3:25 PM (Superior D)
RP19: Satchel Paige in Cleveland
Mark Armour
Satchel Paige pitched for the Cleveland Indians for a season-and-a-half, joining the club at age 42 in July 1948, helping them win a world championship, and remaining with the team through the following season. But Paige’s experiences in Cleveland go far beyond his time with the Indians. He pitched 60 times in the city, and 133 times in Ohio from 1928 to 1966. He first pitched for a Cleveland major league team in 1931. He pitched against Dizzy Dean in League Park less than two weeks after Dean had pitched in the AL-NL World Series, and a dozen years later pitched at Cleveland Stadium against Bob Feller. Just shy of his 60th birthday, he appeared in an Old-Timers game with his old 1948 teammates. Armour will walk through some of the highlights, focusing on historically interesting or important contests, and discuss Paige’s relationship with Cleveland fans.
Mark Armour (markarmour04@gmail.com) is a veteran researcher on such varied subjects as the players’ union, integration, artificial turf, cheating, team building, and platooning. He was the founder and longtime director of the SABR BioProject and the co-founder of the SABR Baseball Cards Committee.
3:00 PM-3:25 PM (Superior C)
RP20: Beer and Silver Bullets: The Role of Women’s Baseball in Branding Coors Light
Roberta J. Newman
Newman explores the fascinating relationship between the Colorado Silver Bullets, the first fully professional women’s baseball team in four decades, and their primary sponsor, Coors Light. Named when they took the field in 1994 for Coors Brewing Company’s entry into the light beer category, the result of a roughly two million dollar sponsorship deal, the team was inextricably linked to the product. However, this partnership was surprisingly off-message for the era. The light beer industry had spent decades aggressively cultivating a masculine image, largely through macho sports sponsorships like NASCAR. So why did Coors decide to invest millions in women’s baseball? By looking closely at both the company history and the ways in which Coors promoted women’s baseball at the same time it sold beer, Newman unpacks the rationale for the connection between the product and team.
A cultural historian, Roberta J. Newman (rn5@nyu.edu) focuses on the intersections of baseball, the media, business, and popular culture. Her most recent book, Here’s the Pitch: the Amazing, True, New, and Improved Story of Baseball and Advertising (2019), was the recipient of the 2020 SABR Baseball Research Award, among other honors. She is also co-author of Black Baseball, Black Business: Race Enterprise and the Fate of the Segregated Dollar (2014). Her work appears in NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Cooperstown Symposium volumes, The National Pastime, Baseball Research Journal, and other publications. She is a Clinical Professor of Liberal Studies at New York University.
3:30 PM-3:55 PM (Superior D)
RP21: Ain’t No Man Got to Be Common: Satchel Paige in Popular Culture
David Krell
Satchel Paige’s baseball exploits are well documented, celebrated, and analyzed. Krell shines a light on the cultural depictions of Paige, exploring how he is portrayed in film, television, and theater. He discussed popular culture offerings like the TV-movies Don’t Look Back and Soul of the Game as well as the one-man play A Pitch from Satchel Paige, which had a February 2026 production at Carnegie Hall. Krell discusses how these artistic representations influence the way we remember and talk about the Negro Leagues icon who famously pitched for Cleveland and won Rookie of the Year at an age when most ballplayers have retired. It’s a fascinating look at the storytelling and legacy of one of baseball’s most captivating figures.
David Krell (david@davidkrell.com) is the author of several books including 1962: Baseball and America in the Time of JFK, 1978: Baseball and America in the Disco Era, The Fenway Effect: A Cultural History of the Boston Red Sox, and Our Bums: The Brooklyn Dodgers in History, Memory and Popular Culture.
3:30 PM-3:55 PM (Superior C)
RP22: Ethics on the Diamond: Understanding MLB’s Steroid Era Through Organizational Culture and Moral Reasoning
Victoria Lovinggood
The Steroid Era remains one of the most consequential periods in recent Major League Baseball history, reshaping competitive norms, altering statistical landscapes, and challenging the sport’s cultural identity. Lovinggood reframes the Steroid Era not just as a collection of individual moral failures, but as a massive systemic breakdown within Major League Baseball. By applying organizational ethics frameworks to the period, Lovinggood explores how MLB’s lack of testing, misaligned incentives, and a culture that rewarded performance allowed performance-enhancing drug use to flourish. Using a mixed historical-analytical methodology, she highlights how leadership benefited from the resulting revenue boom, creating an environment where PED use was normalized and rationalized. More broadly, the study provides a framework for understanding how sports organizations can better align values, incentives, and leadership practices to prevent future ethical failures. It’s a thought-provoking look at how organizational conditions shaped one of baseball’s most controversial eras and what it means for the sport’s future.
Victoria Lovinggood (Victoria.Lovinggood@outlook.com) is a professional in the insurance industry with extensive experience delivering presentations, teaching technical subjects, and competing in public speaking events. She is currently completing a bachelor’s degree in Integrated Studies and an MBA with an emphasis in insurance. A SABR member since 2022, she has a lifelong passion for baseball; her favorite team is the Los Angeles Dodgers, and her favorite ballpark is PNC Park. This is her first baseball research presentation, reflecting her interest in examining how ethics, leadership, and organizational culture have influenced significant moments in the game’s history.
4:00 PM-4:25 PM (Superior D)
RP23: Frank Robinson: The Historical and Tumultuous Cleveland Experience
John Burbridge Jr.
With three weeks remaining in the 1974 season, the California Angels sold Frank Robinson to the Cleveland Indians. Rumors quickly circulated that Frank would be the next Cleveland manager succeeding Ken Aspromonte. Those rumors became a reality when Aspromonte’s contract was not renewed and Frank Robinson became manager. Robinson was the first Black manager in the history of the American League. Burbridge analyzes Frank Robinson’s historic and often tumultuous tenure as Cleveland’s manager. Robinson immediately faced difficult decisions, including the controversial choice to part ways with popular coach and Cleveland icon Larry Doby. Burbridge explores the friction Robinson experienced in the clubhouse, from clashes with veteran players like Gaylord Perry and Rico Carty to his eventual loss of front-office support. Using Robinson’s own writings and newspaper archives, Burbridge paints a complex picture of a trailblazing manager who broke one of baseball’s biggest barriers but struggled to overcome internal team dynamics before, in 1977, he became the first Black major league manager to be fired.
John J. Burbridge Jr. (burbridg@elon.edu) is Professor Emeritus at Elon University, where he was both a dean and professor. While at Elon, he introduced and taught Baseball and Statistics. He has authored several SABR publications and presented at SABR Conventions, NINE, and the Seymour Medal meetings. He is a lifelong New York Giants baseball fan. The greatest Giants-Dodgers game he attended was a 1-0 Giants’ victory in Jersey City in 1956. Yes, the Dodgers did play in Jersey City in 1956 and 1957.
4:00 PM-4:25 PM (Superior C)
RP24: How We Played the Game: Baseball at Manzanar (1942-1945)
Russ Speiller
Fueled by paranoia over Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt authorized the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to “relocation centers” further inland. Over 10,000 of these individuals were detained behind barbed wire at Manzanar, located in the dusty desert of California. Speiller takes a close look at the baseball and softball leagues formed by Japanese Americans incarcerated there. Using the camp newspaper, oral histories, and interviews, Speiller reconstructs the seasons of various ballclubs and shares the life histories of key players. He also shines a light on the ongoing efforts to rebuild the Manzanar baseball stadium.
Russ Speiller (rspeiller@gmail.com) has been a SABR member since 2023. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Chemical Engineering, and lives with his family in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thanks to his father’s tales of the M&M boys, he is a fan of the New York Yankees, although he would like to see the city of Cincinnati celebrate another Reds’ championship someday. He has contributed to numerous SABR books, the BioProject, and Turnstyle: The SABR Journal of Baseball Arts. He is excited to be leading the construction of the SABR book scheduled for Fall 2026 titled, How We Played the Game: Baseball at Manzanar (1942-1945).
Saturday, August 1
1:00 PM-1:25 PM (Superior D)
RP25: Stress Ultrasound of the Ulnar Collateral Ligament of the Elbow: Can We Predict Who Will Need Tommy John Surgery?
Levon Nazarian
Nazarian explores the growing epidemic of Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) elbow injuries among pitchers and how stress ultrasound offers a game-changing alternative to traditional MRI. While MRIs can miss crucial stability issues because they can’t image the elbow in motion, ultrasound allows physicians to observe the UCL during a simulated throwing motion. Drawing on 18 years of screening minor league pitchers during spring training, Nazarian explains how this real-time imaging can detect injuries before they become symptomatic. By implementing specific rehab measures based on these early findings, teams can help pitchers avoid Tommy John surgery and stay on the field.
Levon Nazarian, MD (levnaz@me.com) is Professor of Radiology, Professor of Radiology in Orthopaedic Surgery, and Chief of Musculoskeletal Imaging at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine and serves on the editorial boards of multiple other medical journals. He received his AB degree magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1982 and MD in 1986 from the Cornell University Medical College, where he was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He is proud to be a long-suffering Mets fan.
1:00 PM-1:25 PM (Superior C)
RP26: Charleston and Rogan in the Philippines before the Manila League
Geri Driscoll
Oscar Charleston and Wilber “Bullet” Rogan served together in the Philippines with the segregated 24th Infantry, their service dates overlapping from early 1912 to late 1914. Driscoll uncovers their forgotten early military baseball careers, tracing their development through pick-up games while on maneuvers, arranged matches against various white Army units, competitions at Camp McGrath, and pre-season exhibition games against the professional All-Army Manila League team, before joining the professional Manila League. Using English-language newspapers and personal soldier diaries, Driscoll pieces together the most complete record of this era, including the earliest known print record and photo of Charleston playing baseball at age 15. She answers the question of why, once the 24th Infantry team became established in the professional Manila League, 17-year-old Charleston was pitching with 20-year-old Rogan catching. Comparing this time in Charleston and Rogan’s careers to players today, this is like their college years—records of player development that have been totally missing from both Hall of Famers’ biographies.
Geri Driscoll (gstrecker@bsu.edu) lives in Indianapolis and is retired as Teaching Professor Emeritus from Ball State University. A three-time recipient of the McFarland-SABR Research Award, she has been researching the nooks and crannies of Oscar Charleston’s career for two decades but is still finding exciting new information. Like many scholars, her research has led her down many rabbit holes, which is okay because that is where the best information is still hiding.
1:30 PM-1:55 PM (Superior D)
RP27: Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes: How the BBWAA Votes for the Hall of Fame
Neal D. Traven
Most SABR members have a fairly good idea of how the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) vote for the Hall of Fame currently works. Traven takes us on a deep dive into the many changes the BBWAA Hall of Fame voting process has seen over its 90-year history. By digging into the annual National Baseball Hall of Fame (NBHOF) Yearbooks, Traven breaks down how rules for candidate qualifications, ballot selection, and voting thresholds have shifted from the first vote in 1936 to today. The presentation highlights major turning points, like the creation of the Screening Committee in 1968, and uncovers the often stormy history behind Hall of Fame elections. The introduction of these significant revisions was not always smooth – in fact, unwise actions by the Screening Committee resulted in the NBHOF removing its authority for a few years. In addition, initiatives by both NBHOF and BBWAA disrupted affairs over the years.
Neal D. Traven, PhD (beisbol0925@gmail.com) has been SABR Board Secretary, Statistical Analysis Committee co-chair, creator of the peer-review system for review and judging of convention presentations, and a SABR member since 1984. In 2023, he won SABR’s highest honor, the Bob Davids Award. A retired epidemiologist, the graduate of Dartmouth and Pitt has written or co-written numerous peer-reviewed research papers. His lifelist includes all 50 US states (#50 was Midnight Baseball in Fairbanks) and 53 MLB ballparks. He and wife Elizabeth Gray reside in West Seattle, enjoying their spectacular view of Elliott Bay and Olympic National Park.
1:30 PM-1:55 PM (Superior C)
RP28: Behind the Scenes at a Japanese Ballpark
Robert Fitts
American fans go to the ballpark to watch baseball and socialize; Japanese fans go to the ballpark to participate in the game. Nippon Professional Baseball games are a spectacle and for fans an immersive experience, but what makes the fan experience so unique? Based on exclusive interviews with the people who work in Japanese ballparks, Fitts provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Japanese game, emphasizing the cultural differences between American and Japanese baseball. Hen will focus on Japanese fan behavior and introduce four people who provide insights on aspects of the game that are uniquely Japanese. Yasuro Karibe, head of the National Hiroshima Carp Private Cheering Federation, will discuss the oendan — the organized cheering groups. Saori Ogure, director of the Nippon Ham Fighters Girls, will explore the role of cheerleaders in NPB. Additionally, Keiko Suzuki and Noi Sato will discuss their experiences working as beer girls.
Robert Fitts (robfitts@mindspring.com) has published 11 books and numerous articles on the history of baseball in Japan and Japanese baseball cards. He received his Ph.D. in historical archaeology from Brown University and ran excavations in New York City before turning to baseball history. He is the founder and chair of SABR’s Asian Baseball Committee and has received the society’s Henry Chadwick Award for lifetime contributions to baseball research. He recently served as a curatorial consultant for the Yakyu-Baseball exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
2:00 PM-2:25 PM (Superior D)
RP29: Drafting the Game: The Creation of the 1857 Rules of Baseball
Tom Shieber
In the spring of 2016, three remarkable handwritten drafts of baseball rules, each created by members of the venerated Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, were brought to light. These documents, originally composed before the landmark convention of baseball clubs in New York City in early 1857, show the Knickerbockers’ effort to “propose for the consideration of the convention … rules and regulations as a manual to govern the play in all match games of Base Ball.” Shieber takes a fresh look at these documents— how they were written, revised, and refined — and what those changes reveal about the Knickerbockers’ intentions as they looked to shape the future of the game. By carefully comparing these drafts to the final published rules, Shieber traces the evolution of key ideas to reveal what the convention’s rules committee chose to embrace, adjust, or discard. While the 1857 convention is famous for establishing 90-foot base paths and the nine-inning game, Shieber highlights what else these early drafts can teach us about both the rules we know and the ones we’ve forgotten from baseball’s formative years.
First joining the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1998, Tom Shieber (tshieber@baseballhall.org) currently serves the internationally-acclaimed institution as Senior Curator, managing the curatorial process from concept through development to implementation. He has been the lead curator for many permanent, temporary, traveling, interactive, and web-based exhibits. The author of numerous articles on baseball history, he regularly speaks in Cooperstown and around the country, and has been honored by SABR with the 1994 USA Today Sports Weekly Award, the 2016 George Michael Pictorial History Award, and the 2018 Henry Chadwick Award.
2:00 PM-2:25 PM (Superior C)
RP30: A High Fence to Climb: The Impact of Extended Netting on Fan Safety Perspectives
Matthew E. Martin
For decades, the onus of risk at a major league ballpark was placed squarely on the shoulders of the fans themselves. Martin examines how the recent extension of protective netting at Major League ballparks has impacted fan perceptions of safety and ticket-purchasing behavior. Using a nationwide survey of over 500 fans, he evaluates how spectators balance comfort and tradition against the realities of foul ball dangers. Ironically, extended protective netting likely reduces fans’ self-efficacy and may require renewed communication to improve safety. Netting can only stretch so far. Martin offers communication strategies for MLB to better promote these safety improvements to the public. He addresses possibilities that emphasize safety in a way that might work two-fold by furthering the organization’s goal to protect its fans while giving fans an informed choice that spurs their protective instinct.
Matthew E. Martin, APR (m.e.martin@usm.edu) is a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he specializes in visual and sport communication. His recent baseball-themed research examines fan engagement and risk perception, crisis management, public relations, and advertising, though his most notable mark on the game currently resides within the Green Monster. Selected as the 2025 Graduate Student Teacher of the Year by the National Communication Association, Matt holds leadership positions with NCA’s Communication & Sport Division, the Commission on Graduate Education for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Applied Communication Division of the Southern States Communication Association.
2:30 PM-2:55 PM (Superior D)
RP31: Past Speed-Up Attempts in Major League Baseball
Stew Thornley
The pace of games in Major League Baseball began slowing in the mid-1980s. Thornley breaks down this issue, making the case that game inefficiency, rather than more commercial time, was the real culprit. He looks back at past speed-up attempts, including the ones in 1995, and explains why fans and the press pushed back so hard. Thornley also traces how pace-of-play rules have evolved, going back to 19th century rules. He touches on the introduction of field-timing coordinators in 2014, leading up to the successful rollout of the pitch clock in 2023 and its more positive reception than in 1995.
Stew Thornley (stew@stewthornley.net) has been a SABR member since 1979 and written many books, most with a focus on Minnesota baseball history.
2:30 PM-2:55 PM (Superior C)
RP32: Redefining the American Dream: Emerging Routes for Young Asian Players
KK Lee
In recent years, alongside the continued growth of college baseball in the United States, elite amateur players from Korea and Japan have increasingly pursued alternative developmental pathways to MLB beyond traditional routes such as free agency, the posting system, or international amateur signing. Lee examines the emerging use of junior colleges, direct NCAA enrollment, and university transfers to boost their draft stock. Comparing the structural motivations behind these choices, Lee notes that Japanese players often seek more contractual autonomy, while Korean players use the NCAA platform to rebuild leverage after going undrafted at home. This presentation highlights how these collegiate pathways offer early exposure to MLB evaluators while also introducing unique cultural and developmental risks.
KK Lee (kumkang.lee.89@gmail.com) is an independent writer specializing in baseball rules, culture, and history. In recent years, he has focused on exploring baseball through a comparative perspective, highlighting differences and connections across leagues, countries, and player development systems. He publishes his work on YAGONGSO, a baseball-focused online community in Korea. Since July 2025, he has been living in South Bend, Indiana, and supporting the Fighting Irish.
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