This Week in SABR: August 19, 2011
Here’s what we’ve been up to as of August 19, 2011:
“Endless Seasons: Baseball in Southern California” now online
Read articles about Pacific Coast League ballparks, Vin Scully, Fernando Valenzuela, the “Home Run Derby” TV show and more in The National Pastime‘s online edition, Endless Seasons: Baseball in Southern California:
http://sabr.org/research/2011-national-pastime
SABR members receive full online access to every article in TNP, published annually in conjunction with our national convention. If you’re not a SABR member, check out this special preview of TNP, “When the Angels and Stars Ruled Los Angeles”, by former SABR President and Pacific Coast League Historical Society founder Dick Beverage, then click here to join.
The SABR Bookshelf: Spring/Summer 2011
Periodically throughout the year, SABR.org publishes listings of new books that are received at the SABR office. This feature is called The SABR Bookshelf, continuing a popular section in the old SABR Bulletin.
Here is The SABR Bookshelf for Spring/Summer 2011:
http://sabr.org/content/sabr-bookshelf-2011-summer
To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Society for American Baseball Research, 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Ste. D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018.
In Memoriam: Bill Weiss
William J. “Bill” Weiss, 86, one of SABR’s earliest members and a longtime statistician/historian for professional baseball leagues, died of a heart attack on Tuesday, August 16, 2011, in San Mateo, California.
Weiss joined SABR on September 3, 1971, as member No. 34 less than one month after the organization’s founding. By then, he had already spent two decades preparing sketch books for minor and major leagues — with the help of his beloved wife of 56 years, Faye — which contained biographical information and career records for all players in the league.
“At one time, he must have been doing stats for nine different leagues,” said his friend Dick Beverage, former SABR President and founder of the Pacific Coast League Historical Society. “He was a remarkable man. A baseball man; that’s the only way to describe him.”
Read more about Weiss’ life and legacy in baseball here: http://sabr.org/latest/memoriam-william-j-weiss
SABR 41 convention feedback survey
We hope you enjoyed our 41st annual national convention last month in Long Beach, California, along with all of our online coverage of the event at http://sabr.org/convention.
If you attended SABR 41, we would appreciate if you took a moment to fill out this survey and shared your feedback with us on the registration, communication, programming and your overall experience of the convention:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J8ZKWBH
Click the link above to start the survey. Thank you for your feedback.
Three new biographies posted at SABR BioProject
Three new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, bringing us to a total of 1,651 published biographies:
- Henry Aaron, by Bill Johnson
- Thurman Munson, by Jimmy Keenan and Frank Russo
- Enos Slaughter, by Joe Wancho
All new biographies can be found here: http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=n&m=61
Writing a biography for the BioProject is an easy way to get involved as a SABR member. Find out how by visiting our BioProject Resources page or reading the FAQs section.
July 10 Board minutes posted
Minutes from the July 10, 2011, meeting of the SABR Board of Directors have now been posted on the SABR website.
You can view all past minutes of SABR Board meetings by going to the Members’ Info page below:
http://sabr.org/about/members-info
Click on “Organizational Files”, then “Board Minutes” to view the minutes.
Chapter meeting recaps
- Lou Criger Chapter meeting recap, August 6
- Ted Williams Chapter meeting recap, August 13
- Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap, August 15
(If you would like to include your chapter meeting recap in “This Week in SABR”, please e-mail a notice to Jacob Pomrenke.)
Upcoming SABR events:
- August 20: Baseball Prospectus/SABR Day at Citi Field (Flushing, NY)
- August 27: Northwest Chapter meeting (Vancouver, BC)
- August 27: Rice-Russell Nashville Chapter meeting (Green Hills, TN)
- August 27: Pacific Coast League player/family reunion (San Leandro, CA)
- August 27: Francisco Balderrama book signing (Pasadena, CA)
- August 27: Baseball Heritage Museum/Bob Feller event (Cleveland, OH)
In other recent SABR news:
- Peter C. Bjarkman writes that Conrado Marrero remains an icon of Cuban baseball culture (New York Times)
- Alan Reifman judges the likelihood of Dan Uggla’s hitting streak (The Hot Hand in Sports)
- Joe Dittmar explains a discrepancy in Bill Bergen’s hitless-streak record (New York Times)
- George A. Thompson investigates an enigmatic 1805 ‘Game of Bace’ in New York (MLBlogs.com)
- A Q&A with Baseball Reliquary executive director Terry Cannon (Orange County Register)
- Paul Edwards describes the history of ballparks in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (Pointstreak)
- Graham Womack offers tips on how to cold-call old ballplayers (Baseball Past and Present)
- Sean Forman on the Phillies’ Ryan Howard: An RBI leader, but not an elite hitter (New York Times)
- SABR members are helping officials in Grafton, Massachusetts, locate a historic ballpark site (Patch.com)
- Dana Sprague tells of the legacy of longtime Braves announcer Ernie Johnson Sr. (Battleboro Reformer)
- For our 40th anniversary, Chris Jaffe predicts the location of future SABR conventions (The Hardball Times)
All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here.
Find more information about SABR and SABR.org at the Members’ Info page here: http://sabr.org/about/members-info
Originally published: August 19, 2011. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.