Neal Traven selected as 2023 Bob Davids Award winner
Neal Traven was announced as the winner of the Bob Davids Award during the SABR 51 Awards Luncheon on Saturday, July 8, 2023, in Chicago.
The award — which is the Society’s highest honor — honors SABR members 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.
Traven served on SABR’s Board of Directors as the organization’s Secretary from 2002 to 2009 and has served on the research presentation selection committee at the Annual Convention since 2002. He joined SABR in 1984 and served as a co-chair for the Statistical Analysis Committee from 1996 to 2013.
He has published a number of articles in the Baseball Research Journal and The National Pastime. He has also played a key role in Retrosheet’s growth and development and has been involved in the organization since its founding at the 1994 SABR convention.
Traven’s contributions to SABR have come as a researcher, a Board member, a chapter leader, a convention organizer, a committee chair, and perhaps most of all, as the person most responsible over the last two decades for bringing a higher level of academic rigor to the selection of research presentations at SABR’s annual convention.
The Bob Davids Award was established by the Board of Directors in 1985, and is awarded each year at the annual convention. Click here to view previous winners.
Originally published: July 8, 2023. Last Updated: July 11, 2023.