This Week in SABR: April 5, 2019

April 5, 2019/in This Week in SABR /by Jason Best

Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web. Here’s what we’ve been up to as of April 5, 2019:

Early registration is open for SABR 49 in San Diego

We hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a spectacular SABR 49 convention this summer in San Diego. Conference and hotel registration is now available at SABR.org/convention.

Click here for more information on the SABR 49 All-Inclusive Package, Early-Bird Registration, and optional sessions. Click here to register for SABR 49.

Registration: Click here for complete information on the SABR 49 All-Inclusive Package, Early-Bird Registration, and optional sessions. Or click here to register for SABR 49! We’re again offering a special All-Inclusive Package for the annual SABR convention. For the $369 all-inclusive rate, SABR members can get:
— Full registration to SABR 49 in San Diego (early-bird: $289; regular rate: $319)
— 1 ticket in the Upper Infield Reserved (1B) section to the Padres vs. Cardinals game on Friday, June 28 at Petco Park ($24 value)
— 1 ticket to the Awards Luncheon on Friday, June 28 ($70 value)
— 1 exclusive SABR 49 convention logo lapel pin
— 2 complimentary Continental breakfasts on Thursday and Friday mornings*
*The Continental breakfast benefit is only available when you register for the All-Inclusive Package.
Non-members can pay $399 for the All-Inclusive Package; the deadline to register is Monday, May 6, 2019.
Hotel: The special SABR group rate at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego of $224/night (single rate) or $254/night (double rate) is only available to registered convention attendees. After you register for the SABR 49 convention, you will receive an e-mail confirmation with details on how to book your hotel room at the SABR group rate. If you do not receive your confirmation email after registering, please contact Deb Jayne at djayne@sabr.org. There are a limited number of rooms in our group block, so be sure to register for SABR 49 early!
Awards Luncheon: SABR will host a special Awards Luncheon on Friday, June 28 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego. The Awards Luncheon, which includes a meal, will feature the announcement of SABR’s annual awards — including the Bob Davids Award, our highest honor. One ticket to the Awards Luncheon is included in the all-inclusive package or guest tickets are available for $70 when you register for SABR 49.
Research presentations: SABR invites all members to present their research findings to their colleagues attending SABR 49. The deadline to submit your abstract was Sunday, February 24, 2019. Click here for complete details and application form.
Yoseloff Scholarship: Students, click here to learn more about a Yoseloff Scholarship to attend SABR 49 in San Diego. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 5, 2019.

Visit SABR.org/convention to learn more or to register for the SABR 49 convention.

Listen to Episode #1 of SABRcast with Rob Neyer

Baseball fans, this week marked the launch of SABRcast with Rob Neyer, a new weekly podcast hosted by award-winning author and longtime SABR member Rob Neyer.

Visit SABR.org/sabrcast to listen to Episode #1, which features an exclusive interview with SABR member Brian Kenny, MLB Network host and author of Ahead of the Curve: Inside the Baseball Revolution, and SABR CEO Scott Bush.

Every week, SABRcast will feature insights and analysis of what’s happening in modern baseball on and off the field, plus compelling interviews with figures from around the game — and music from The Baseball Project.

To learn more, visit SABR.org/sabrcast.

**Spring 2019 Baseball Research Journal is on its way**

Good news! The Spring 2019 edition of the Baseball Research Journal has been mailed out to all SABR members.

Those of you who receive the print edition should find your BRJ arriving in the next two to four weeks. For digital subscribers, the e-book edition will be delivered very soon.

To read more articles from the BRJ archives, click here.

To learn more about contributing to a future SABR publication, click here.

We hope you enjoy reading the Spring 2019 Baseball Research Journal!

2019 SABR Board of Directors election begins next week

SABR members, pay attention to the e-mail address that you have on file with SABR; you will receive a message on Tuesday, April 9 with a link to vote online in the 2019 SABR Board of Directors election. The poll will close at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on Tuesday, April 23.

You can read the candidate biographies, along with full descriptions of the positions and responses the candidates made to a series of questions, in the 2019 SABR Election Guide which is available for download below:

Download the 2019 SABR Election Guide here (PDF)

When you vote, you will find two items on the 2019 Board of Directors ballot: the election of the SABR President and two (2) Director’s positions — please rank the Director candidates in order of preference. The candidates are:

For President

Mark Armour

For Director (2)

Chris Dial
Allison Levin
Bill Nowlin

The only way to vote online is through the link you will receive by e-mail. All e-mails will come from the address tellers@sabr.org; if you wish to add it to a whitelist in your e-mail client, that may help ensure that you will receive the e-mails. You will receive at least one more voting email between April 9 and April 23 with active voting links.

Members who do not have an e-mail address on file with SABR as of April 1, 2019, will receive a paper ballot in the mail. Please do not vote online and send in the paper ballot; if you do, the paper ballot will be discarded, and only the online vote will count.

If you would like to register your e-mail address on file with SABR so you can vote online (and also receive our “This Week in SABR” newsletter on Fridays), please contact Membership Director Deb Jayne at djayne@sabr.org.

Deadline extended! Students, final chance to apply for a Yoseloff Scholarship to attend SABR 49 in San Diego

With generous funding from The Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation, Inc., SABR will award up to four scholarships to high school or college students to attend SABR 49 on June 26-30, 2019, in San Diego. This scholarship will pay for registration, transportation and lodging (double occupancy) up to a total value of $1,250.

The objective of this scholarship fund is to encourage high school and college-level student engagement with baseball research and to engender an active interest in baseball and SABR.

Download an application form: Click here to download a Yoseloff Scholarship form to attend SABR 49 in San Diego

All applications must be postmarked or e-mailed to Jeff Schatzki at jschatzki@sabr.org no later than Friday, April 5, 2019.

Click here for complete details and submission criteria.

SABR 49: Special film screening of Moe Berg documentary

We are pleased to host a special screening of the new documentary film, Moe Berg: The Spy Behind Home Plate, at SABR 49 in San Diego with filmmaker Aviva Kempner.

The film will be screened on the evening of Thursday, June 27 during SABR 49 in San Diego. The event will be open to all SABR convention attendees.

In this first ever feature-length documentary about the enigmatic Berg, Kempner focuses her camera on a little-known Jewish hero. From the streets of Newark to five major-league teams during baseball’s Golden Age to his secret life spying for the OSS during World War II, Berg’s improbable story is told with rare historical footage and revealing interviews with family and an All-Star roster from the worlds of history, sports and spy craft. To learn more about the film, visit spybehindhomeplate.org.

For more information on SABR 49, or to register, visit SABR.org/convention.

Give back to SABR through AmazonSmile

AmazonSmile is an easy way to give back to SABR through online purchases made on Amazon.com. AmazonSmile will donate a portion of the purchase price of your eligible Amazon purchases to SABR.

Click here to learn more about supporting SABR through AmazonSmile.

Millions of Amazon products are eligible for donations and are marked “Eligible for AmazonSmile” on their product detail page. Remember, you must visit the AmazonSmile site (smile.amazon.com) first in order for your purchases to be eligible for donations.

SABR Digital Library: Jeff Bagwell in Connecticut

The Nutmeg State celebrates a Hall of Fame hometown hero in our newest book from the SABR Digital Library:

Jeff Bagwell in Connecticut:
A Consistent Lad in the Land of Steady Habits
Edited by Karl Cicitto, Bill Nowlin, and Len Levin
ISBN (paperback: 978-1-9438-1697-2, $19.95
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-9438-1696-5, $6.99
250 pages, 8.5″ x 11″

Click here to read the full description at SABR.org.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of Jeff Bagwell in Connecticut for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, Kindle/MOBI and EPUB formats.
Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the Jeff Bagwell in Connecticut paperback edition from the SABR Store ($15.99 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Kindle Direct Publishing can take up to 4-6 weeks.)

To see all titles in the SABR Digital Library, visit SABR.org/ebooks.

Having trouble downloading our e-books? To view PDF files on your computer, click here to download the free Adobe Reader software. Having trouble downloading e-books to your Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or iPad? Click here for additional help.

New team ownership history: Toronto Blue Jays

The SABR Team Ownership Histories Project is a joint effort of SABR’s Business of Baseball Committee and the BioProject. The intention is to keep its essays up-to-date and to provide as much detail as possible about the organization and composition of ownership groups, franchise sales, relocations, stadiums, and other issues that provide the financial context for team success on the field.

One new article was published this week:

Toronto Blue Jays team ownership history, by Allen Tait

Click here to read all published team ownership histories at SABR.org.

The project also includes a new section on the defunct franchises in major-league history, beginning with Charlie Bevis’s articles on the Boston Unions (1884) and the Worcester Nationals (1880-82). We will be publishing more articles on defunct major-league franchises from the National Association, National League, American Association, Union Association, Players League, and Federal League

Some team articles have been assigned, but anyone who wishes to contribute is encouraged to contact Andy McCue at amccue@sabr.org. To learn more or to read the author guidelines, click here.

Read all bios from our new Colorado Rockies book at the SABR BioProject

In Major League Baseball A Mile High: The First Quarter Century of the Colorado Rockies, published by SABR in 2018 and edited by Bill Nowlin and Paul T. Parker, we told the story of the first 25 years of the major-league baseball team in Denver.

Included are essays on the birth of the Rockies and biographies of 24 of the most important players, managers, and club executives as selected by SABR’s Rocky Mountain Chapter — including Dante Bichette, Andrés Galarraga, Larry Walker, Don Baylor, Todd Helton, and Keli McGregor — plus bios of the two fields the Rockies have called home: Mile High Stadium and Coors Field.

All of the biographies in Major League Baseball A Mile High are now available to be read online at the SABR BioProject.

Click here to download a free e-book edition or get 50% off the paperback edition of Major League Baseball A Mile High.

To view more books at the SABR Digital Library, visit SABR.org/ebooks.

8 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

Eight new game stories were posted this week as part of the SABR Games Project. Here are the new game stories:

September 26, 1964: Phillies’ sixth straight loss erupts with ninth-inning fireworks, by Steve Ginader
April 26, 1995: The opening of Coors Field and the birth of the Blake Street Bombers, by Eriel Barcenas
October 1, 1995: Rockies clinch postseason berth faster than any MLB expansion team, by John Bauer
July 7, 1998: AL hitters erupt for 13 runs in highest-scoring All-Star Game in Denver, by Alan Cohen
June 19, 1999: Rockies’ Todd Helton hits for the cycle with four leadoff at-bats, by Mike Huber
April 10, 2000: Ken Griffey Jr. becomes youngest player to hit 400 home runs, by Richard Cuicchi
August 22, 2000: In Rockies’ exciting rally, the winning pitcher was the catcher, by Paul Hofmann
August 23, 2001: Rockies’ Jason Jennings homers, shuts out Mets in major-league debut, by Joseph Wancho

New Games Project stories can be found at SABR.org/gamesproject/recent. Find all published Games Project articles at SABR.org/GamesProject.

Get involved: Have memories of a game you attended? Or a game you watched that caught your interest? Write about it! Writing for the Games Project is an easy way to get involved as a SABR member. Find out how by reading the Games Project FAQs section or checking out the Authors’ Guidelines. We have editors and fact checkers who are willing to help you write your first article.
Read all stories from the Pittsburgh Pirates greatest games book at the SABR Games Project: In Moments of Joy and Heartbreak: 66 Significant Episodes in the History of the Pittsburgh Pirates, published by SABR in 2018 and edited by Jorge Iber and Bill Nowlin, we explored some of the most memorable games in Bucs history. All of the stories from Moments of Joy and Heartbreak can now be found online at the SABR Games Project. Click here to read all of the game stories from this book. To download your free e-book copy or order the paperback edition with a 50% discount, click here.

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM moves to Saturdays this month

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by SABR President Vince Gennaro, will air in April at a new time. Listen in from 7:00-8:00 p.m. ET on SATURDAY, April 6 on MLB Network Radio.

This week’s guests are SABR member Mark Simon of Baseball Info Solutions and Ben Clemens of FanGraphs.

For the rest of April, the show will air from 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET on Saturday evenings, beginning on April 13.

You can also listen to archives of recent episodes on-demand on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App. Click here to learn more.

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM focuses on examining and interpreting the statistical analysis that plays a critical role in baseball today. It airs weekly throughout the year on MLB Network Radio, available to subscribers nationwide on XM channel 89, Sirius channel 209, and on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App.

Seamheads.com updates Negro Leagues Database with 1929 stats

From SABR member Gary Ashwill at Seamheads.com:

We’re happy to announce the addition of the 1929 American Negro League season to the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database. This was an east coast league, a successor to the Eastern Colored League (which folded early in the 1928 season), and should not be confused with the later Negro American League (founded in 1937 and based in the Midwest).

In its single season of existence the ANL was dominated by the Baltimore Black Sox as they enjoyed the greatest year in their two-decade history.

Next up for the DB: 1931 Negro National League, 1932 Negro Southern League, expanded 1922 eastern independent teams, 1940 Mexican League, and more.

Click here to read the full article at SABR.org.

To view the SABR award-winning Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, visit Seamheads.com/NegroLgs/index.php

In Memoriam: Richard Chilton

SABR member Richard L. Chilton Sr., 90, died on March 26, 2019, at home in New Canaan, Connecticut. A SABR member since 1981, he was the author of three books on baseball, The Great American Lineup Quiz Book; Never Before, Never Since; and The Groundbreakers. He was a lifelong fan of the New York and San Francisco Giants, and a season-ticket holder with the NFL’s New York Giants since 1934, authoring a history and personal memoir of the football team. He was born January 20, 1929, in Englewood, New Jersey. After graduating from Hobart College in Geneva, New York, he served as a staff sergeant in the US Army with the 259th Gun Battalion during the Korean War. He enjoyed a career in advertising and marketing in New York City, with The Kudner Agency, D’Arcy MacManus & Masius, and Ted Bates Co., where he managed such accounts as Budweiser, Litton Industries, and General Motors. After retiring from the advertising industry, he co-founded and published the Middlesex-Somerset County (New Jersey) News. He is survived by a daughter, Cindy (Bob) Leonard; sons Richard L. Chilton Jr. (Maureen), Christopher “Chip” Chilton (Susan), and Randall Chilton, as well as nine grandchildren. He was predeceased by his former wife Elizabeth Chilton, and his longtime companion Joan Mahon of Naples, Florida. Services will be private, with a celebration of life to follow.

ICYMI: Highlights from last week’s This Week in SABR

We’ve heard your feedback: Some of you have said you look forward to “This Week in SABR” every Friday, but sometimes there are just too many compelling articles and announcements to read every week. We’re not complaining — hey, keep up the great work! — but we know the feeling. So in an effort to make the length of this newsletter more manageable to read, we’ll summarize some of the repeating/recurring announcements in a special “In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)” section of “This Week in SABR”.

Here are some major headlines from recent weeks that we don’t want you to miss:

All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here: https://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives.

Welcome, new members!

We’d like to welcome all of our new SABR members who have joined this week. You can find all Members-Only resources at members.sabr.org and the Membership Handbook can be downloaded here.

Please give these new members a warm welcome and help them make the most of their membership by giving them the opportunity to get involved in their local chapter or a research committee.

You can find contact information for any SABR member in the online membership directory (SABR.org/directory).

Name	Hometown	Name	Hometown
Jeremy Anders	Libertyville, IL	Kevin Frank	McMurray, PA
Patrick Avery	Louisville, KY	James Graham	Greenwood, IN
Stephan Bonfield	Calgary, AB	Bill Hellstein	Suwanee, GA
Mickey Broussard	DeKalb, IL	Brett Holland	Point Pleasant, NJ
Mike Buffum	Bell Canyon, CA	John Lynch	McMinnville, OR
Russ Camara	Kaneohe, HI	Jennifer Madison	Anthem, AZ
Jeremiah Coughlan	Portland, OR	Austin Marchesani	Cedar Falls, IA
Colton Cronin	Nashville, TN	John Milner	Bandera, TX
Daniel de Malas Andreu	Bristol, CT	Beth Shore	Marietta, GA
Robert Drzewiczewski	Monmouth, OR	Louis Vingi	Charleston, SC

Research Committee news

Here are the new research committee updates this week:

Baseball and the Media: Please give a warm welcome to Chad Osborne as the new chair of the Baseball and the Media Committee. He will take over for Chuck Hildebrandt, who founded the committee in 2013 and led the launch of the sabrmedia.org website and The Baseball Buffet monthly podcast. To learn more about the Baseball and the Media Committee, click here.
Baseball Records: April 2019 newsletter
Black Sox Scandal: View the new Eight Myths Out project on common misconceptions about the 1919 World Series
Nineteenth Century: Spring 2019 newsletter

Find all SABR research committee newsletters at SABR.org/research.

Regional Chapter news

Here are the new regional chapter updates this week:

Bud Metheny/Virginia Eastern Shore Chapter: SABR welcomes new chapter in Virginia’s Eastern Shore
Emil Rothe Chicago Chapter: April 2019 newsletter (Chicago, IL)
Gardner-Waterman Vermont Chapter: March 31 meeting recap (Burlington, VT)

Visit SABR.org/chapters for more information on SABR regional chapters.

SABR Events Calendar

Here is a list of upcoming events on the SABR calendar:

April 6: Halsey Hall Chapter book club meeting (Roseville, MN)
April 6: Hank Gowdy Chapter spring meeting (Columbus, OH)
April 6: Luke Easter Chapter Hot Stove Talks (Rochester, NY)
April 6: Ted Williams Chapter meeting (San Diego, CA)
April 6: Hemond-Delhi Arizona Chapter monthly luncheon (Phoenix, AZ)
April 6: Talkin’ Baseball: Jane Leavy (Columbia, MD)
April 10: Bob Davids Chapter Monthly Hot Stove Dinner (Arlington, VA)
April 13: Dayton Chapter ballgame/meet-up (Dayton, OH)
April 15: Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter monthly meeting (St. Louis, MO)
April 15: Larry Dierker Chapter monthly meeting (Houston, TX)
April 16: Bob Davids Chapter Maryland Hot Stove Dinner (Silver Spring, MD)
April 17: Rocky Mountain Chapter monthly luncheon (Denver, CO)
April 17: Baltimore Babe Ruth Chapter “Called Shot” monthly luncheon (Baltimore, MD)
April 18: Magnolia Chapter “Third Thursday” meeting (Sandy Springs, GA)
April 20: Babe ‘n Bob SABR chapter breakfast (Edgewater, MD)
April 20: Rocky Mountain Chapter: “State of the Rockies” luncheon (Denver, CO)

All SABR meetings and events are open to the public. Feel free to bring a baseball-loving friend … and make many new ones! Check out the SABR Events Calendar at SABR.org/events.

Around the Web

Here are some recent articles published by and about SABR members:

Dave Feschuk: Seymour Siwoff, Elias has had our numbers all these years (Toronto Star)
Ken Rosenthal: In the screwy world of baseball economics, even as the players win, they’re losing (The Athletic)
Rob Arthur: The baseball is juiced, again (Baseball Prospectus)
Eno Sarris: A meaningful early-season hitting stat you should care about (The Athletic)
Gary Ashwill: Ty Cobb and Dick Redding, 1916 (Agate Type)
Anna Clark: Preserving the legacy of black baseball history in Detroit (CityLab)
John Thorn: Sayonara, Ichiro (Our Game)
Zack Meisel: 25 years later, how Jacobs Field saved baseball in Cleveland (The Athletic)
Alfonso Tusa: Not even baseball escapes the maze of Venezuelan political crisis (The Hardball Times)
David Jerome: Lining up for a baseball-themed bucket list (Orange County Register)
Jay Jaffe: Framing the Hall of Fame cases for Russell Martin, Brian McCann (FanGraphs)
Louis Menand: What baseball teaches us about measuring talent (The New Yorker)
Kiley McDaniel: Analyzing the value of international signing bonus money (FanGraphs)
Matthew Trueblood: Jose Bérrios finds his depth without sinking (Baseball Prospectus)
Alex Vigderman: The Marlins are shifting like crazy (ACTA Sports)
Phil Rosenthal: 100 years after the Black Sox Scandal, MLB’s gambling ties mean Buck Weaver, Joe Jackson owed another look (Chicago Tribune)
Lucas Apostoleris: The least experienced pitching rotations of the past 50 years (Baseball Prospectus)
Bill Reader: Ray Oyler played only one season as a Seattle Pilot; why was he so popular? (Seattle Times)
Joe Posnanski: What’s in a name: Dick Allen? (JoePosnanski.com)
Sheryl Ring: The Yankees have turned into a walking MASH unit (FanGraphs)
Rob Mains: Roster construction, service time, and the next CBA (Baseball Prospectus)
Matt Monagan: Here’s the real story of Babe Ruth’s 587-foot home run in Tampa (MLB Cut4)
Griffin Adams: Howard Nakagama, a baseball lifer, left his mark in Salt Lake City (The Athletic)
Thomas Chapman: The major-league pitcher from Lowestoft who fell on hard times (Lowestoft Journal)
Genevieve Rajewski: Julia Prusaczyk has a major, as in MLB, head for numbers (Tufts University)
Elon University students immerse themselves in baseball analytics (Elon University)
Peter Gallivan: Buffalo Optical founder Will White first made a ‘spectacle’ of himself in baseball (WGRZ)
Brian Frank: How the Buffalo Bisons played a game on Grand Island in 1893 (MiLB.com)
David Kagan: The physics of debunking the amazing batting trick (The Hardball Times)
Thomas Van Hyning: MLB pitchers in Puerto Rico winter ball (Béisbol 101)
Andy Ouriel: Sandusky’s Elmer Smith helped Cleveland Indians win their first World Series (Sandusky Register)
Get a 40% discount on select baseball books from University of Nebraska Press with the discount code 6BAB9
Jason Schwartz: Cardboard Crosswalk: 1954 Topps and 1954 Bowman (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)
Jeff Katz: My Grading Experience – PSA 1 (Poor) (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)

Read these articles and more at SABR.org/latest.

This Week in SABR is compiled by Jacob Pomrenke. If you would like us to include an upcoming event, article or any other information in “This Week in SABR,” e-mail jpomrenke@sabr.org.

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