Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Awards Announced

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Society for American Baseball Research(SABR) and The Sporting News are happy to announce that Larry Lester and Joseph Reaves will receive the The TSN-SABR Baseball Research award at this year’s national convention in Denver.

Lester will be recognized for the research he did to produce his book, Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1953 (University of Nebraska Press, $39.95).  This work brings together for the first time the painstakingly assembled history of East-West All-Star Game, including reconstructed play-by-plays and accurate statistical records. Lester recaptures the vigor of black communities’ united attention to the event, describes the players whose talent brought them to this pinnacle of achievement, and discusses the maneuvers of promoters, gamblers, and petty tyrants who cast an occasional shadow on the baseball fields of Chicago.

Reaves will be acknowledged for the research he did to produce his book, Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia (University of Nebraska Press, $29.99). In his book, Reaves examines the development of the sport in Korea, the Philippines, mainland China, and Taiwan, as well as the more widely known story of baseball in Japan. In this entertaining and informed account, Reaves covers everything from baseball in Qing Dynasty China in the nineteenth century to the 2000 Sydney Olympics bronze-medal match between Japan and Korea.

The Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award honors those individuals whose outstanding research projects completed during the preceding calendar year have significantly expanded our knowledge or understanding of baseball. It has been awarded annually since 1995 and each winner receives a plaque and a cash award, sponsored by The Sporting News. Nominations for the award are sought beginning in October.

Both Lester and Reaves will be honored at the Awards Luncheon of the 33rd Annual SABR National Convention held this year in Denver.  To attend the awards luncheon register online  (click on “Annual Convention”) or contact the SABR National office by phone:  (800) 969-7227.  More information on the SABR convention can be found at www.sabr.org.  Click on



Originally published: June 9, 2003. Last Updated: June 9, 2003.