This Week in SABR: August 20, 2021

August 20, 2021/in This Week in SABR /by Jacob Pomrenke

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 August 20, 2021:

Register now for 2021 SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference

SABR and the International Women’s Baseball Center have opened registration for the third annual SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference, which will be held virtually on September 10-12, 2021.

The conference will be highlighted by keynote speaker Dana Bookman, founder and CEO of Canadian Girls Baseball and the founding Vice President of American Girls Baseball; a presentation about an upcoming documentary film, Her Game is Hardball, with director/producer Mark Durand and writer/producer Selena Roberts; a virtual awards ceremony and pylon unveiling; panel discussions on international umpires, with Lisa Turbitt Baker, Sophiyah Liu, Eva Moo, and Perry Barber; researching women’s baseball with Cecilia Tan and Kate Haines; and personal stories, with Laura Hirai and Suzie Hunter; and more insightful research presentations.

Attendees can also participate in the SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Raffle. Prizes include a Rockford Peaches jigsaw puzzle; Phil Niekro signed baseball; Bob Feller signed baseball; Colorado Silver Bullets baseball cards; AAGPBL bobblehead; and more.

This year’s conference theme is “Breaking Barriers: Women in Baseball Around the World.”

Register: Click here to register online. The conference is open to all baseball fans.
Cost: Virtual attendance is $50 per person, and includes access to all panels and presentations, pylon unveiling, a digital program, and 1 raffle ticket. Additional raffle tickets are $5 apiece.
Schedule: Click here for complete details on panels and presentations.
Contact: For questions, please contact Leslie Heaphy or Kat Williams.

For more details, visit SABR.org/women-in-baseball-conference.

Watch video highlights from the Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series

As part of SABR’s 50th anniversary in 2021, all baseball fans were invited to join us online for the Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series, presented by Major League Baseball and Baseball-Reference.com, for a series of presentations, chats, and panel discussions featuring authors, scholars, and figures from around the game.

Watch: Visit SABR.org/summer to watch video replays of each session, with nearly 24 hours of original programming and content to enjoy!

The Summer of SABR series included panels and presentations on the future of baseball, a preview of Team USA’s run to a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, and international baseball in June; the virtual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference in July; and a celebration of SABR’s 50th anniversary, baseball labor relations, and the 1921 Century Project in August.

Our lineup of top speakers included award-winning author Howard Bryant; Los Angeles Dodgers Senior Vice President Janet Marie Smith; Cincinnati Reds analyst Katie Krall; Boston Red Sox coach Bianca Smith; USA Baseball GM Eric Campbell and Team Israel GM Peter Kurz; Leonte Landino and Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes; Atlantic League president Rick White; Baseball America executive editor J.J. Cooper; Negro Leagues historians James Brunson III, Todd Peterson, Larry Lester, Scott Simkus, Ted Knorr, and Phil S. Dixon; Dr. Raymond Doswell of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum; MLB Official Historian John Thorn; Sports Reference president Sean Forman, and many more.

For more coverage of the Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series, visit SABR.org/summer.

Students, apply for a Fall 2021 internship with SABR

The Society for American Baseball Research is seeking remote interns to work during the Fall 2021 semester.

An internship with SABR will involve responsibilities across a variety of disciplines, possibly including:

Working with the Director of Editorial Content or Publications Director to help publish and/or produce content for our website at SABR.org
Working during an online SABR event
Working with other SABR staff members on organizational duties, membership renewal drives, customer service

Interested candidates should be able to demonstrate basic office-related computer skills and have a reliable Internet connection for remote working. Experience with WordPress (or other content management systems) and Zoom (or other virtual-conference platforms) is a plus. A working knowledge of baseball — and an awareness of the game’s general history and basic statistics — is required.

The internship is an educational opportunity that may count toward college credit, covering 15-20 hours per week with a flexible schedule. The internship will be for a fixed period of time and is designed to provide the intern with skills and training that may be applicable to working in a nonprofit research environment or in other research-based organizations.

Please send a resume and cover letter in PDF form to jpomrenke@sabr.org by 5:00 p.m. MST Monday, August 30, 2021.

Check out SABR Century Committee’s new 1921 Year in Review project

The 1921 season was a pivotal one in baseball history. SABR’s Century Committee invites you to join us on a journey back in time to learn more about baseball during the Jazz Age one hundred years ago with our 1921 Century Project, featuring stories, games, and highlights with contributions from more than 70 SABR members.

Click here to view SABR’s new 1921 Century Project

Led by Babe Ruth’s record-setting 59 home runs, the New York Yankees began establishing a dynasty that would span most of the twentieth century by winning their first American League pennant, setting up an epic all-New York City matchup in the World Series with the rival Giants of John McGraw. The Negro National League celebrated its second season of play in 1921, led by stars like Triple Crown winner Oscar Charleston and two-way phenom Bullet Rogan. And baseball at all levels saw a growing trend toward home run-happy offenses as the game entered the Lively Ball Era.

The sport also became more widely accessible in the early 1920s to fans who were able to follow along from their homes by tuning in to games on the radio. Finally, American culture still reverberates with the ruling made by baseball’s newly hired commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banning eight disgraced Black Sox players for life after they were caught fixing the 1919 World Series.

1921 World Series Simulation: New York Giants vs. Chicago American Giants

After the 1921 Negro National League season, Andrew “Rube” Foster’s Chicago American Giants, league champions for the second time in two campaigns, spent October on a barnstorming tour of the east, playing 18 games against Hilldale of Philadelphia and the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, both Eastern Black baseball powers and NNL associate members.

At the same time, John McGraw’s National League champion New York Giants were winning a hard-fought eight-game World Series over the New York Yankees, fresh off their first American League pennant in franchise history, in a series played entirely at New York’s Polo Grounds. Foster’s champions and McGraw’s champions passed within miles of each other that month, but in reality were separated by a much larger distance: baseball’s color line, which remained for 26 more years, until Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

In 1921 the paths of the American Giants and Giants never crossed. But imagine if they had.

Click here to read John Fredland’s summary of the simulated 1921 World Series at SABR.org.
Click here to watch our SABR Century panel discussion on the simulated 1921 World Series matchup with Sharon Hamilton, Negro Leagues historians Phil S. Dixon and Ted Knorr, and John Odell of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Call for papers: 2022 SABR Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference

All SABR members are invited and encouraged to submit a Research Presentation Proposal Abstract on any topic of 19th-century baseball for the 2021 Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The 13th annual Ivor-Campbell Conference is scheduled for April 29-30, 2022.

The deadline for proposal Abstracts is October 31, 2021. Your abstract must be between 200-400 words for a 20- to 25-minute presentation. Please include name, title, and contact information and send your proposal as a Microsoft Word or PDF attachment to Peter Mancuso at peterplus4@earthlink.net.

Anyone submitting an abstract will be informed individually by November 30 if their proposed presentation received enough of a collective ranking to be one of the presentations in 2022, and they will have until December 10 to confirm that they will register for the two-day 2022 Ivor-Campbell Conference and present their research topic.

For any questions, please contact Peter Mancuso at peterplus4@earthlink.net.

SABR Digital Library: When the Monarchs Reigned: Kansas City’s 1942 Negro League Champions

Add a new baseball book to your collection from the SABR Digital Library:

When the Monarchs Reigned: Kansas City’s 1942 Negro League Champions
Edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin
Associate editors: Carl Riechers and Len Levin
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-9701-5952-3, $9.99
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9701-5953-0, $29.95
8.5″ x 11″, 268 pages

Click here to read the full description of this book at SABR.org.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of When the Monarchs Reigned for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, Kindle/MOBI and EPUB formats.
Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the When the Monarchs Reigned paperback edition from the SABR Store ($17.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Kindle Direct Publishing can take up to 4-6 weeks.)

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.

Join us for more Stay Home With SABR virtual events

SABR chapters and committees are encouraged to set up virtual meetings to stay engaged with our members throughout the world at SABR.org, as part of our Stay Home With SABR initiative to assist in limiting the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Can’t-Miss Event: SABR’s Pacific Northwest Chapter will hold a virtual Zoom meeting from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 25, 2021. All baseball fans are invited to attend. Our guest speaker is Ruppert Jones, former All-Star outfielder for the Seattle Mariners and author of a new memoir, #NeverGiveUp: A Memoir of Baseball and Traumatic Brain Injury. Click here to register in advance for this free Zoom meeting.
Video Replays: This week, we heard from Cleveland Indians executives Sam Giller and Clint Longenecker; Scouting and Scoring author Christopher Phillips; Clubbie author Greg Larson; Jack Bales (“The 1932 World Series and a Crime of Passion”); and the monthly New Member Experience with Scott Carter. Click here to view more video replays of virtual SABR events.

Here are some more upcoming virtual events you can attend online; check the Events Calendar for complete details:

August 21: Sweet Lou Johnson Lexington (KY) Chapter meeting (1:00 p.m. EDT)
August 21: Emil Rothe Chicago (IL) Chapter meeting with Sharon Hamilton, Bill Lamb, Dan Levitt, Jacob Pomrenke, and Willie Steele (2:00 p.m. CDT)
August 22: Connie Mack-Dick Allen (PA) Chapter meeting with Clayton Trutor (2:00 p.m. EDT)
August 25: Pacific Northwest (WA) Chapter meeting with Ruppert Jones (6:30 p.m. PDT)
August 28: Mathewson-Plank (PA) Chapter meeting (3:00 p.m. EDT)
August 29: Baltimore Babe Ruth (MD) Chapter meeting (7:00 p.m. EDT)

In addition, the following events will be held in person:

August 21: Babe ‘n’ Bob Chapter Breakfast (Edgewater, MD)
August 21: Hank Gowdy Chapter book club (Hilliard, OH)
August 21: Jimmy Sebring-George Stovey Williamsport Chapter meeting (Williamsport, PA)
August 21: Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter meeting (Milwaukee, WI)
August 28: Hot Springs Baseball Weekend (Hot Springs, AR)

Find more upcoming SABR meetings on our Events Calendar page.

SABRcast with Rob Neyer: Listen to an interview with pitcher-podcaster Jerry Blevins

Baseball fans, tune in this season to SABRcast with Rob Neyer, a weekly podcast hosted by award-winning author and longtime SABR member Rob Neyer.

Episode #124 on Monday, August 16 featured Jerry Blevins, who spent 13 seasons pitching in the major leagues with the Oakland A’s, New York Mets, Washington Nationals, and Atlanta Braves from 2007 to 2019. He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2004 out of the University of Dayton and won a gold medal with Team USA in the 2007 Baseball World Cup. He currently co-hosts the Shea Station podcast with Jolly Olive of Jomboy Media.

Visit SABR.org/sabrcast to listen to the full episode.

Subscribe to SABRcast on your favorite podcast networks, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher, and listen to each episode as soon as it’s released on Mondays. To learn more, visit SABR.org/sabrcast.

New Team Ownership History: Chicago Cubs, 1876-1919

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:

Chicago Cubs team ownership history, part 1, by Michael Haupert

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

Further chapters on the Cubs’ ownership history will be added in the coming months. Twenty of the current 30 major-league franchises now have at least some part of their ownership history published at the SABR BioProject. Opportunities are still available for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Angels, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays, and all editions of the Athletics.

The project has also begun researching franchises of defunct National League franchises, the American Association, Union Association, Players League, Federal League, Negro Leagues, and the AAGPBL. If you are interested in contributing, please contact Andy McCue at amccue@sabr.org.

13 new stories published at the SABR Games Project

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

August 29, 1906: Athletics settle for no-hitter and win in rain-shortened game, by Gregory H. Wolf
April 24, 1917: Lefty George Mogridge hurls the Yankees’ first no-hitter, by Russ Walsh
September 9, 1918: Babe Ruth finally gets his first base hit in a World Series game, by Bill Nowlin
August 20, 1921: Cleveland’s Stan Coveleski wins 20th game for fourth consecutive season, by Philip A. Cola
August 30, 1921: Pirates’ Dave Robertson ‘runs gamut of hits’ as first player to hit for the cycle at Ebbets Field, by Mike Huber
September 24, 1921: White Sox break 11-game losing streak with 18-1 drubbing of Athletics, by Russ Walsh
September 13-20, 1935: Pittsburgh Crawfords rally from 3-1 deficit to beat New York Cubans in Negro League World Series, by Rich Puerzer
September 22, 1935: Satchel Paige takes the money but not the mound at Yankee Stadium, by Mark S. Sternman
August 2, 1936: Spectacle-filled afternoon on lakefront ends in 16-inning tie between Yankees, Indians, by Vince Guerrieri
September 14, 1951: Browns’ Bob Nieman homers in first two at-bats; Ted Williams vents anger after strikeout by Satchel Paige, by Bill Nowlin
August 26, 1966: Scipio Spinks, Gary Nolan combine for 37 whiffs in minor-league duel, by Kurt Blumenau
July 17, 1989: David Wells earns his second win of the day for Blue Jays, by Laura H. Peebles
August 15, 2005: Tigers rally in bottom of ninth, beat closer Curt Schilling and Red Sox, by Madison McEntire

New Games Project stories can be found 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.
Social media: Follow the SABR Games Project on Twitter or Facebook to keep up with new stories and updates.

Listen to a new episode of Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on Saturdays

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by former SABR Board President Vince Gennaro, is back at a new time for the regular season. Listen to new episodes at 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET on Saturdays on MLB Network Radio.

You can also listen to archives of recent episodes on-demand on the SiriusXM Internet Radio app.

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.

ICYMI: Highlights from last week’s 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: SABR.org/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.

Name	Hometown	Name	Hometown
Reece Calvin	Phoenix, AZ	Tanner Kirst	Clarkston, GA
Jake Carstensen	Atlanta, GA	Jason Longwith	Richmond, KY
Donald DeVore	Blacklick, OH	Joel Medvidovich	Harrisburg, PA
James Evarts	Clovis, NM	Joseph Pluta	Bakersfield, CA
Peter Fadde	West Lafayette, IN	Juan Romero	Naples, FL
Clinton Fenwick	Oakland City, IN	Dan Scoppetta	Old Saybrook, CT
Michelle Frost	La Mesa, CA	Jim Slade	Loveland, CO
David Gourlay	Ottawa, ON	Al Strauss	Bloomington, MN
Susie Hatcher	Denver, CO	Phil Stringer	Phoenix, AZ
Lawrence Jones	Toms River, NJ	Ted Thompson	Waynesville, OH
Christopher Kessinger	Centreville, VA

Research Committee news

Here are the new research committee updates this week:

Baseball Records: Summer 2021 newsletter

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

Regional Chapter news

Here are the new regional chapter and chartered community updates this week:

Larry Dierker Chapter: August 14 meeting recap (Sugar Land, TX)

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

Around the Web

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

Washington Post: The Nine: Baseball’s Decline in African American Players
Rob Arthur: A New Study Shows Umpire Discrimination Against Non-White Players (Baseball Prospectus)
Shayna Rubin: ‘She astonishes me’: How astrophysicist Samantha Schultz is helping the Oakland A’s fine-tune their pitches (San Jose Mercury News)
Sharon Hamilton: A Truth So Genuine: W.P. Kinsella and Field of Dreams (Literary Review of Canada)
Russell A. Carleton: The Anxiety Factory (Baseball Prospectus)
Ben Lindbergh: Tyler Gilbert’s Historic No-hitter Was Improbable in More Than One Way (The Ringer)
Tyler Kepner: Beginner’s Luck? A Stunning No-Hitter in a Year Full of Them (New York Times)
Jay Jaffe: Chris Bassitt Escaped a Potential Nightmare Scenario (FanGraphs)
Emma Baccellieri: Can the Padres Hold Their Playoff Spot? (Sports Illustrated)
Stephanie Apstein: Scorching Yankees About to Get Hotter With Return of Bruised Bombers (Sports Illustrated)
Gordon Edes: Cubs don’t miss a beat with Jon Sciambi at the mic (Bally Sports)
Jayson Stark: Weird and Wild, the Babe Phillips/Brett Gehrig edition (The Athletic)
David Hall: Norfolk Tides’ unique coaching staff monitors metrics to ‘make everybody better’ (The Virginian-Pilot)
Rob Mains: It’s harder than ever to win without home runs (Baseball Prospectus)
Shakeia Taylor: Marcus Stroman Wears A Durag Every Game He Starts. Which One Does He Pitch Best In? (FiveThirtyEight)
Zack Meisel: Triston McKenzie’s brush with perfection another step in his 2021 revival with Cleveland Indians (The Athletic)
Olivia Witherite: Young women are setting their sights on playing college baseball, and making inroads (The Athletic)
Paul Lukas: An Inside Look at How MLB Authenticates Game-Used Gear (Uni Watch)
Mark Simon: A Giant(s) Step Forward (ACTA Sports)
Howard Megdal: Former No. 1 Pick Mark Appel Is Trying To Forge An MLB Career … At Age 30 (FiveThirtyEight)
Bill Shea: An inside look at why the T206 Honus Wagner card sold for a record $6.6 million (The Athletic)
Gary Cieradkowski: Mickey Mantle: Got Those Kansas City Blues (Studio Gary C)
David Laurila: Cedric Mullins Talks Hitting (FanGraphs)
Christina Long: Twin Cities historian keeps little-known baseball star John Donaldson’s legacy alive (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
Sam Gazdziak: John Reilly survives a shipwreck but breaks his heart (RIP Baseball)
Felix Carroll: In West Stockbridge, new light shines on a little-known piece of baseball history (Berkshire Eagle)
Steven Goldman: Who Didn’t Shoot J.R. (Baseball Prospectus)
Jason Schwartz: A closer look at the “1937” Diamond Stars release (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)
Nick Vossbrink: Anatomy of a Reprint (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)

Please note: Some articles may require a separate subscription to view online. SABR does not endorse, and is not responsible or liable for, any content that appears on a third-party website.

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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