SABR Diamond Report: September 2012

Editor’s note: The Diamond Report is a series of monthly messages, written by SABR President Vince Gennaro and Executive Director Marc Appleman, to keep SABR members better informed about the Society’s direction and progress. The Diamond Report archives are collected at SABR.org/diamondreport. To learn more about becoming a SABR member, visit SABR.org/join.

September 4, 2012

By Marc Appleman
SABR Executive Director

This was a very successful and busy summer for SABR! Here are some of the highlights:

New back-end membership profile system from YourMembership.com: Most recently, SABR launched a new membership profile system at members.sabr.org. The response to the new system has been very positive, and SABR now has a strong back-end system to go along with its popular and successful SABR.org website. The system includes new communication tools for chapter and committee leaders. The key changes are:

  • Membership profile: SABR members have the enhanced ability to edit their profile information, sign up for email announcements from chapters/committees, and more easily access the members-only sections of the website.
  • Group admin tools: Chapter/committee leaders can send out email announcements that are received by all group members instantly and reliably. Uploading newsletters and adding an event to the SABR Calendar is now a one-step process. Group leaders can easily download a current roster of their group members — sortable by join date, expiration date and contact info.   
  • Event registration: It’s now easier to register, add sessions and register guests for SABR conferences and conventions.
  • Search directory: The new SABR Membership Directory includes a full list of contact information and restores special functionalities such as searching by chapter, committee and research interests/expertise.
  • Single sign-on: The new back-end system is integrated with all areas of SABR.org, which means that you should no longer have to sign in multiple times to access different areas of the website. You will be able to sign in once at members.sabr.org and that log-in will enable you to view all members-only areas, including the YourMembership profile and the SABR Directory.

SABR 42: From a membership, programming and financial standpoint, our convention in Minneapolis was a major success. Coverage of the convention can be found at http://sabr.org/convention. The feedback from members was extremely positive. Rod Caborn wrote: “Congratulations to you and your colleagues for providing attendees at SABR 42 with a terrific experience. Your team made (the) experience social, educational, and emotionally rewarding (where else can you find people who have the same passion for something as you do?)”

Licensing deal with MLB Advanced Media: At SABR 42, we announced a major deal with MLB Advanced Media that provides an avenue for SABR and its members to share more than 40 years of valued research, as well as research currently being done, with the baseball community through MLB.com. Like any major deal with a big media company, it takes a while for the deal to be completely implemented. SABR is currently featured on the front screen and throughout the content areas on the “Baseball Memory Lab” and content from SABR will be integrated throughout MLB.com.

As part of this agreement, MLBAM will also help promote SABR throughout the MLB.com portal, including the promotion of SABR conventions and conferences, SABR Day and SABR.org. SABR.org will have a link in the footer of the MLB.com home page. MLBAM has already implemented its discounts for SABR members to MLB.TV and the MLB Store (which are available here).

SABR at All-Star FanFest: A week after our convention in Minneapolis, SABR produced six panels at the MLBAM booth during the All-Star FanFest held in Kansas City. These panels featured SABR members and highlighted SABR’s ability to put together both topical and historical panels in a way that truly showed off our special organization. There was a standing-room-only crowd on Saturday afternoon for one of the Negro Leagues panels, the Women’s Baseball Panel was a big hit on Saturday morning, and SABR Trivia — prepared by D. Bruce Brown — played to a packed house on Tuesday afternoon before the All-Star Game. There was a second panel devoted to the Negro Leagues, a panel on the history of baseball in Kansas City and a panel about SABR as an organization.

SABR 43: In mid-July, I met with the organizing team in Philadelphia to tour potential hotels and discuss programming ideas for next year’s convention. From talking to members, it sounds like SABR 43 might be one of the most well-attended conferences ever. As soon as MLB announces next season’s schedule in a couple of weeks, we will announce the dates for SABR 43.

SABR 44: At our annual convention, we announced that SABR 44 in 2014 will be held in Houston, Texas, and hosted by the Larry Dierker Chapter.

Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference: Back to this summer … There were more than 100 attendees at the Jerry Malloy Conference in Cleveland (July 19-21). The theme of the 2012 Malloy Conference was “Black Baseball in Ohio”. Black baseball has a strong history in Ohio and especially in the city of Cleveland. In the 19th century, one of the first African American players in the majors, Moses Fleetwood Walker, played in Toledo. The city of Cleveland had more Negro League entries (11) than any other city in the Negro Leagues from the 1920s through the 1940s. The crowning success came with the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes winning the Negro League World Series. Their roster included such key players as Quincy Trouppe, Sam Jethroe, Eugene Bremer and Archie Ware.

SABR BioProject: Shortly before the convention, SABR’s successful BioProject published its 2,000th bio! Special congratulations to project director Mark Armour and his team. You can read all of our published bios at SABR.org/BioProject.

SABR Publishing: Last month, SABR published Nineteenth Century Stars as part of the SABR Digital Library. Other SABR e-books we’ve published include: Opening Fenway Park with Style: The 1912 World Champion Red Sox, Great Hitting Pitchers, Can He Play? A Look at Baseball Scouts and Their Profession, and Run, Rabbit, Run: The Hilarious and Mostly True Tales of Rabbit Maranville.

The SABR Bookshelf listings of new baseball books for Summer 2012 can also be found at: http://sabr.org/latest/sabr-bookshelf-summer-2012.

The summer of 2012 was also a busy time for many of the local chapters who held meetings and attended ballgames.

Looking ahead, the fourth annual SABR Arizona Fall League Conference will be held from Nov. 1-3 in Phoenix. This conference will feature four games, including the nationally televised Rising Stars Game. The second SABR Analytics Conference will be March 7-9, 2013, in Phoenix. 

Marc Appleman has been SABR’s Executive Director since 2010. His broad-based media career began as a baseball writer at the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Edition, and he has also worked as a Senior Coordinating Editor at ESPN, Director of Programming at AOL Sports and Managing Editor at FoxSports.com. He can be reached at execdir@sabr.org.

    



Originally published: September 4, 2012. Last Updated: September 4, 2012.