SABR Awards
These are the annual awards given out by SABR. Click here for a full list of awards, including chapter and committee honors.
Bob Davids Award
The Bob Davids Award was established by the Board of Directors in 1985. It is considered to be SABR’s highest honor, given annually at the National Convention to the member “whose contributions to SABR and baseball reflect the ingenuity, integrity, and self-sacrifice of the founder and past-president of SABR, L. Robert ‘Bob’ Davids.” Click here to view a list of Bob Davids Award winners.
Henry Chadwick Award
The Henry Chadwick Award was established in November 2009 to honor baseball’s great researchers—historians, statisticians, analysts, and archivists—for their invaluable contributions to making baseball the game that links America’s present with its past. Apart from honoring individuals for the length and breadth of their contribution to the study and enjoyment of baseball, the Chadwick Award will educate the baseball community about sometimes little known but vastly important contributions from the game’s past and thus encourage the next generation of researchers. The contributions of nominees must have had public impact. This may be demonstrated by publication of research in any of a variety of formats: books, magazine articles, websites, etc. The compilation of a significant database or archive that has facilitated the published research of others will also be considered in the realm of public impact. Click here to view a list of Henry Chadwick Award winners.
Seymour Medal
The Seymour Medal, named in honor of Dr. Harold Seymour and Mrs. Dorothy (Seymour) Mills, honors the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year. Not more than one Seymour Medal shall be given each year. If, in the judgment of the awards committee, a worthy candidate cannot be found, no medal shall be awarded. The first three Medals were awarded at the SABR National Convention. In 1999, SABR held the first Seymour Medal Conference at Cleveland State University in conjunction with the awarding of the medal. Click here to view a list of Seymour Medal winners.
Doug Pappas Research Award
The Doug Pappas Research Award recognizes the best oral research presentation at the Annual Convention. Before 2004 it was known as the Cox Award, named in honor of Society member John W. Cox, and then the USA Today Sports Weekly Award; the name was changed to honor the late Doug Pappas. USA Today Sports Weekly continues to sponsor both it and the companion award for the best poster presentation. Click here to view a list of Doug Pappas Research Award winners.
SABR Analytics Conference Research Award
The SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards, created in 2013, recognize baseball researchers who have completed the best work of original analysis or commentary during the preceding calendar year in the following categories: Contemporary Baseball Analysis, Contemporary Baseball Commentary, and Historical Baseball Analysis/Commentary. Results are announced and presented at the annual SABR Analytics Conference. Click here to view a list of SABR Analytics Conference Research Award winners.
SABR Baseball Research Award
The SABR Baseball Research Award is designed to honor projects that do not fit the criteria for The Seymour Medal or the McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award. The award recognizes outstanding baseball research in areas other than history and biography. From 1996-2011, the award was known as the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award. Click here to view a list of SABR Baseball Research Award winners.
McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award
The McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award honors the authors of the best articles on baseball history or biography completed during the preceding calendar year (published or unpublished). This award was previously named The Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award (1987-1999). It is presented each year at the SABR Convention to three individuals, groups or groups of individuals whose research projects have greatly expanded our knowledge of baseball. In 1995, the focus of the award was changed to articles about baseball history and biography. Click here to view a list of McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award winners.
Ron Gabriel Award
The Ron Gabriel Award — named in honor of SABR’s former Vice President and founder of the Brooklyn Dodger Fan Club — annually honors the author(s) of the best research, published or unpublished, on the subject of the Brooklyn Dodgers completed during the preceding calendar year. Eligible works include but are not limited to magazine and journal articles, previously unpublished chapters or articles in anthologies or other books with multiple authors, unpublished research papers, written versions of oral presentations, books, databases and websites. Click here to view a list of Ron Gabriel Award winners.
Lee Allen History of Baseball Special Prize
SABR presents two annual awards that were originally conceived by the SABR Education Committee. The Lee Allen History of Baseball Special Prize, named for the late Historian at the National Baseball Library in Cooperstown, was established in 1996. The Award is presented each year at National History Day, for the best baseball research project at the annual NHD competition. Click here to view a list of Lee Allen Award winners.
Jack Kavanagh Memorial Youth Baseball Research Award
In early 2000, the SABR board approved establishing the Jack Kavanagh Memorial Youth Baseball Research Award to recognize the best research paper prepared by a researcher under the age of 21. The award is presented for either a research presentation given at the SABR National Convention, or for a research paper that is submitted to the awards committee. Click here to view a list of Jack Kavanagh Award winners.
Other Awards
While not Society awards, it should be noted that longtime SABR member Jayson Stark was named recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in 2019. Previous members of the Society who had also won that honor included Fred Lieb in 1972, Bob Broeg in 1979, Joe Reichler and Milton Richman in 1980, Allen Lewis in 1981, Jack Lang in 1986, Jerome Holtzman in 1989, Leonard Koppett in 1992, Tracy Ringolsby in 2005, Bill Madden in 2010, and Bob Elliott in 2012. In 2008, the National Baseball Hall of Fame established the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award. The Award’s first three recipients were all current or former SABR members: Buck O’Neil in 2008, Roland Hemond in 2011, and Joe Garagiola in 2014.