Davies and Caillault win presentation awards at SABR 40
Ross Davies of Arlington, VA, won the Doug Pappas Award for the best oral research presentation and J-P Caillault of Winterville, GA,won the Sports Weekly Prize for best poster presentation at the Society for American Baseball Research’s (SABR) 40th annual convention, held August 5-8 in Atlanta, GA.
Ross Davies of Arlington, VA, won the Doug Pappas Award for the best oral research presentation and J-P Caillault of Winterville, GA,won the Sports Weekly Prize for best poster presentation at the Society for American Baseball Research’s (SABR) 40th annual convention, held August 5-8 in Atlanta, GA.
Davies’ presentation, “Chinese-US Baseball Diplomacy before the Great War,” looks at an unexpected connection between baseball and other aspects of life. A Chinese boy came to the United States in the 19th century and learned to play baseball. Years later, that boy returned to the US as a representative of the Chinese empire and used his knowledge of baseball as a tool of diplomacy. Davies sees similarities between story and American “ping pong diplomacy” in 1970, where a favorite domestic sport is used to open international avenues and build trust between nations wary of one another. Davies is a professor of law at George Mason University and editor in chief of Green Bag, An Entertaining Journal of Law (greenbag.org).
J-P Caillault’s presentation was titled “The Best vs. the Best: W-L Records of Hall of Fame Pitchers against Each Other.” In the poster presentation, Caillault presents career won-loss totals for every pitcher in the Hall of Fame in head-to-head match-ups against other pitchers in the HoF. His results date back to the beginning of the National League in 1876 and extend up to and including 1987. Caillault is a professor of astronomy at the University of Georgia, where he also teaches classes on the physics of baseball, the history of the major leagues, and sabermetrics.
The judges also listed four presentations as honorable mentions. They are:
Rob Fitts–“Babe Ruth, Eiji Sawamura, and War”
Michael Haupert: “Earning Like a Woman: The Gender Gap in Professional Baseball 1944-1954” (research funded in part by a Yoseloff grant)
Alan Nathan–“Revisiting Mantle’s Griffith Stadium Home Run”
Mark Stang–“The Barnum of the Bushes: The Life and Times of Chattanooga’s Joe Engel”
The Doug Pappas Research Award recognizes the best oral research presentation at the Annual Convention. Before 2004 it was known as The USA Today Sports Weekly Award; the name was changed to honor the late Doug Pappas.
The Doug Pappas Award includes a $250 cash prize. USA Today Sports Weekly includes a $125 cash award with with a matching amount donated to SABR.
Originally published: August 9, 2010. Last Updated: August 9, 2010.