This Week in SABR: August 25, 2017

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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 25, 2017:

SABR Oral History: Rich Hill, Harvey Haddix, and the loss of perfection

On Wednesday night, Rich Hill of the Los Angeles Dodgers suffered one of the unluckiest fates in baseball history.

The 37-year-old left-hander pitched eight innings without allowing a baserunner against the Pittsburgh Pirates only to see his perfect-game bid spoiled by an error in the ninth inning — the first time that’s ever happened in the major leagues, according to research by SABR members Stew Thornley and Joe Cox. Hill recovered from third baseman Logan Forsythe’s misplay to complete nine hitless innings, but the Dodgers still hadn’t scored a run yet and the game went into extras.

In the 10th, Hill went back out to the mound and Josh Harrison led off the inning with a walkoff home run to left field. The Pirates’ first hit of the game gave Hill a heartbreaking loss, one of very few for the powerhouse Dodgers in an otherwise magical season. It’s been 22 years since Pedro Martinez of the Montreal Expos was the last pitcher to take a no-hitter into extra innings and more than a quarter-century since Mark Gardner (also for the Expos) became the last pitcher to lose a game after pitching nine no-hit innings.

Hill’s performance also called up reminders of Harvey Haddix, the Pirates left-hander who pitched 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves on May 26, 1959 — only to lose it all in the 13th inning on an error by third baseman Don Hoak and then a Joe Adcock game-ending home run (later scored a double because of a baserunning blunder by Hank Aaron.)

Nearly three decades later, Haddix spoke with author Walter Langford about his most famous day in baseball and his long, successful career. This interview from July 3, 1987, is part of the SABR Oral History Collection. Haddix explained how he was feeling before the game in Milwaukee, when he became conscious of the no-hitter, and how he learned the Braves were stealing his signs.

A link to the full hour-long interview and a transcript can be found at SABR.org.

Related links:

SABR Digital Library: Bittersweet Goodbye: The Black Barons, the Grays, and the 1948 Negro League World Series

The newest publication from the SABR Digital Library focuses on the end of an era in black baseball:

Bittersweet Goodbye: The Black Barons, the Grays, and the 1948 Negro League World Series
Edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin
Associate Editors: Carl Riechers and Len Levin  
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-943816-55-2, $21.95
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-943816-54-5, $9.99
8.5 x 11″, 438 pages

This book was inspired by the last Negro League World Series ever played and presents biographies of the players on the two contending teams in 1948 — the Birmingham Black Barons and the Homestead Grays — as well as the managers, the owners, and articles on the ballparks the teams called home. Click here to read the full description at SABR.org.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

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.

SABR members get discounted rates for all Digital Library publications, including e-book downloads for free. Find all SABR Digital Library books at SABR.org/ebooks.

Two weeks left to submit nominations for new SABR Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award

SABR’s Women in Baseball Committee has  established the Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award — “The Dorothy” — named in honor of Dorothy Seymour Mills and her lifetime of contributions to promoting women’s baseball.

Nominations for the inaugural award will be accepted until September 5, 2017. Please click here for complete details or contact Leslie Heaphy for questions.

Eligible candidates include any person with a sustained involvement in women’s baseball or any woman with a longtime involvement in baseball in any fashion — player, umpire, writer, executive, team owner, scout, etc. Candidates do not have to be living; it can be awarded posthumously. Self-nominations are accepted.

To learn more about the legendary baseball historian Dorothy Seymour Mills, click here.

Save the date! Join us for 2017 SABR Arizona Fall League Experience

Save the date! Join us for the ninth annual SABR Arizona Fall League Experience on Thursday, November 2 to Saturday, November 4, 2017, in Phoenix, Arizona. Registration information will be available at SABR.org/AFL later this summer.

The annual conference, hosted by SABR’s Arizona Hemond-Delhi Chapter, is held in conjunction with the Arizona Fall League (mlbfallball.com), baseball’s premier player development league. In the first eight years of the conference, attendees have been treated to sneak peeks at MLB stars like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Buster Posey, Stephen Strasburg, Nolan Arenado, Gerrit Cole, Billy Hamilton, and Gary Sanchez before they hit the big leagues.

All baseball fans are welcome to attend the SABR Arizona Fall League Experience. Visit SABR.org/AFL for photos and highlights from past conferences.

Join us in September for SABR 19th Century Baseball Grave Marker Project dedication ceremonies

SABR’s 19th Century Baseball Grave Marker Project is pleased to announce dedication ceremonies for their two latest installations, honoring Andy Leonard of early Cincinnati and Boston baseball fame and Hall of Famer James Francis “Pud” Galvin.

On Saturday, September 9 at New Calvary Cemetery in Mattapan, Massachusetts, join a band of 19th-century history buffs, baseball fans, and family members of one of baseball’s “First Boys of Summer,” Andy Leonard. A star left fielder of the undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings, he subsequently joined Boston’s first league “dynasty” champions of the 1870s. Ireland’s National Baseball League crowns its seasonal best player with the Andy Leonard Most Valuable Player Award developed to honor this Irish-born athlete. Click here for complete details.

On Saturday, September 23, we celebrate the life of Hall of Famer Pud Galvin. Following the SABR Forbes Field Chapter meeting at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, interested guests will meet at Calvary Cemetery (718 Hazelwood Ave., Pittsburgh, PA) at 4:00 p.m. Galvin is the third grave marked by the SABR 19th Century Grave Baseball Marker Project. The dedication ceremony will feature a bio of Galvin, prepared by his biographer Chip Martin, as well as other baseball notables and members of the Galvin family.

With the help of donations from SABR members as well as a generous grant from Major League Baseball, the Project attempts to provide the honor these players were denied at the times of their deaths. Their first stone was laid in May 2016 at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn for James Whyte Davis, member and officer of the New York Knickerbockers.

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

For more information, contact Ralph Carhart at thehallballproject@gmail.com.

Talking baseball tomorrow at SABR St. Louis chapter research conference

The third annual Jim Rygelski Baseball Research Conference, organized by SABR’s Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter and hosted by the Webster University Sports Media and Analytics Club, will be held from 1:00-5:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 26, at Webster University in St. Louis.

All baseball fans are welcome to attend this free event. Attendees do not have to be SABR members — it is open to everyone.

There are six presentations planned, covering diverse baseball topics including rookie hazing, grand slams, the 1926 and 2011 Cardinals teams, major-league attendance in the dawn of baseball, Cardinals/Yankees comparisons, and the St. Louis Browns. The best presentation, as judged by our esteem panel of experts, will be awarded the Jim Rygelski Award ($200). They will receive free entry to the January Hot Stove/SABR Day meeting and will be recognized there.

For more information, click here.

Read all articles from The National Pastime: New York, New York at SABR.org

Since 2009, The National Pastime has served as SABR’s convention-focused publication. Published annually, this research journal provides in-depth articles focused on the respective geographic region where the national convention is taking place in a given year. All SABR members receive a free e-book copy of The National Pastime as part of their membership benefits, while attendees of the national convention also receive a souvenir print edition in their goody bags.

SABR members can now read all articles from the 2017 convention journal, The National Pastime: New York, New York: Baseball in the Big Apple, online at SABR.org by clicking on the link below:

http://sabr.org/research/2017-national-pastime

Click a link below to download the e-book edition of the 2017 convention journal.

To purchase a copy of the print edition from the SABR Bookstore, click here.

If you weren’t able to attend the convention in New York, please enjoy this issue of The National Pastime as your virtual trip to the Big Apple. Happy reading!

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

— Cecilia M. Tan, Publications Director

Save the date! SABR 48 will be held in Pittsburgh in 2018

Save the date! SABR will be returning to the Steel City for our 48th national convention on June 20-24, 2018, at the Wyndham Grand in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Registration information will be available at SABR.org/convention in early 2018. The convention location is contingent on a Pirates’ homestand that weekend.

The Wyndham Grand is conveniently located within walking distance from PNC Park and a light rail station, many downtown cultural amenities, and right across the street from the picturesque 36-acre Point State Park where the three rivers converge.

SABR 48 will be our second convention held in Pittsburgh and first since 1995. Our 25th annual convention that year featured a keynote speech from former Pirates manager Chuck Tanner and panel discussions commemorating the 1960 and 1971 World Series champions. Learn more about SABR’s convention history by clicking here.

SABR’s 2018 national convention will be our 48th annual gathering; the organization’s founding in Cooperstown in 1971 is counted as the first.

For more information on the SABR convention, visit SABR.org/convention.

Call for papers: 2018 SABR 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 2018 Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The 10th annual Ivor-Campbell Conference is scheduled for April 20-21, 2018.

The deadline for proposal Abstracts is October 31, 2017. Your abstract must be between 200-500 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.

Click here to learn more.

Educators, sign up your class for a discounted SABR Student Group Affiliate Membership

A Student Group Affiliate Membership will provide students with access to many of the electronic benefits that SABR members enjoy, including “This Week in SABR,” e-book editions of the Baseball Research Journal and The National Pastime, free SABR e-books, and access to the members-only section of SABR.org. This membership will not include any printed publications or voting rights.

In order to make the Student Group Affiliate Membership affordable for groups to join, here are the options we offer:

  • College/University groups/classes: For an annual fee of $250, a group of up to 25 students can receive a one-year electronic SABR affiliate membership.
  • High School/Middle School groups/classes: For an annual fee of $100, a group of up to 20 students can receive a one-year electronic SABR affiliate membership.

Any educational class or student group at the middle school, high school or college/university level is eligible for a SABR affiliate membership, as long as a faculty member, teacher, or advisor is an active SABR member (or registers to join.) The teacher/advisor will be listed as the group contact on the SABR website.

The teacher/advisor will be asked to collect the money, names and e-mail addresses for all students wishing to join, and submit those to the SABR office at one time. In addition, the advisor/instructor must be an active SABR member or sign up for a regular SABR membership; annual dues are $65, with discounts available for adults under the age of 30 or over 65.

To sign up for a Student Group Affiliate Membership, or if you have any questions about how it might work for your group or class, please contact Blane Ferguson at bferguson@sabr.org.

New research resource: Guide to the 1887 National Colored League

SABR member Ken Mars, with contributions from Mark Aubrey and John Thorn, has put together a new collection of articles about the first African American professional baseball league: the National Colored League in 1887. SABR members can now access the guide on the Research Resources page at SABR.org or by downloading the PDF at the link below:

Click here to download and view the resource guide (PDF)

The guide includes Mars’s presentation, “Early Black Baseball in Baltimore: 1865-1887,” from the 2017 SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, 1887 NCL standings and a day-by-day guide, plus notes on the NCL organization’s formation, the season, and its aftermath.

Visit SABR.org/research/resources to view a comprehensive list of Research Resources available to all SABR members.

Listi honored by SABR Dallas-Fort Worth chapter

Dallas Baptist University’s Austin Listi has been tabbed as the 25th annual Howard Green SABR Metroplex Collegiate Player of the Year Award in 2017, while Texas Wesleyan third baseman Luis Roman has been chosen as the winner of the sixth annual SABR Metroplex Carroll Beringer Award College Division Player of the Year Award. Both awards are presented by the Ernie Banks-Bobby Bragan DFW Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research.

Listi becomes the 13th Dallas Baptist player to capture the SABR university division honor outright or shared, and Roman is the fifth Texas Wesleyan standout lauded since 1993 with a Green or Beringer Award. The duo will be presented the awards at 2018 campus events by SABR Chapter President Paul Rogers and Vice President Bo Carter and were chosen by the 2017 SABR Banks-Bragan Chapter awards committee.

To read the full article at SABR.org, click here.

Seamheads.com updates Negro Leagues Database with 1937 NAL stats

We are pleased to pass along this update from SABR member Gary Ashwill at Seamheads.com on August 23:

Here’s a brief, belated introduction to the 1937 Negro American League, which we added to the site last month (July 10, to be precise). For a broader view of that eventful year in black baseball history, see my entry on the 1937 Negro National League, which we added to the DB back in 2015. Meanwhile, here are a few highlights from the first season of the NAL, a Midwest-based league that was the true successor of Rube Foster’s original NNL.

• The team with the best overall record in the league was the Cincinnati Tigers, managed by Double Duty Radcliffe, and starring ace Jess Houston (8-3, 2.19) and shortstop Howard Easterling (.355/.400/.595). Like the 1981 Cincinnati Reds, though, the Tigers failed to win either half of the NAL’s split season.

• Luck instead favored the two most dominant clubs from the old NNL, the Kansas City Monarchs and Chicago American Giants, who won the first and second halves, respectively. The Monarchs, featuring Hilton Smith (11-4, 1.65) and outfielder Willard Brown (.372/.423/.661), took the championship series in five games.

• The Indianapolis Athletics were a brand-new club, organized and managed by Ted Strong Sr., who was fortunate enough to have an extravagantly talented son, Ted Strong Jr., to play shortstop and bat cleanup for him. (The younger Strong, who later starred for the Kansas City Monarchs, was also a great basketball player for the Harlem Globetrotters.) The Athletics, however, folded after the 1937 season.

To view the award-winning Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, visit http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/index.php

5 new SABR biographies published

Five new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 4,184 published biographies. Here are the new bios published this week:

All new biographies can be found here: SABR.org/bioproj/recent

3 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

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

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

If you have any questions about the Games Project, please contact Greg Erion. If you want to know if a game is available to write about, please contact Bruce Slutsky. After the article has been completed in accordance with our Authors’ Guidelines, please submit it to Len Levin, who will initiate the editing process and get your story started toward publication.

  • 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.
  • Seeking volunteers to help enhance Games Project articles on website: Any volunteer who is willing to assist with linking player biographies in previously published Games Project stories on the SABR website, please contact Jacob Pomrenke. No experience necessary. Must be comfortable working in Drupal, WordPress or other standard content management systems.
  • Read all articles from Braves Field: Memorable Moments at Boston’s Lost Diamond online: All articles from Braves Field: Memorable Moments at Boston’s Lost Diamond, (SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Bob Brady, can now be found online at the SABR Games Project. To read more articles from this book, click here. To download your free e-book copy of the Braves Field book or to get 50% off the paperback edition, click here.

Listen to Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on Sunday night

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by SABR President Vince Gennaro will air at its regular time from 7:00-8:00 p.m. ET this Sunday on MLB Network Radio.

This week’s guests are SABR member Joe Cox, author of Almost Perfect, and Matthew Trueblood of Baseball Prospectus.

You can also listen to archives of recent episodes on-demand on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App, and you can watch video highlights of Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on MLB.com. Click here to watch more video highlights of Baseball SABR Style from MLB.com.

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.

In Memoriam

  • Dwayne Kling, 87, of Reno, Nevada, died on August 22, 2017. He was a SABR member since 1985, active in the Pacific Coast League Historical Society, and a contributor to SABR’s Can He Play? A Look at Baseball Scouts and Their Profession, writing a biography of New York Yankees super-scout Joe Devine, who had once signed him to a professional baseball contract. A native of Turlock, California, Kling was born September 4, 1929, and graduated from Hilmar High School and Saint Mary’s College, both of which elected him to their athletic Halls of Fame. He signed with the Yankees and played three seasons in their farm system, while also serving for nearly two years in the Panama Canal Zone with the U.S. Army. After his baseball career ended, he became general manager of four major casinos in Nevada. He was married to his wife, Rose, for 50 years. He was the author of five books, including The Rise of the Biggest Little City, on the history of gaming in Reno. Click here to read his full obituary. A celebration of life will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 26 at Baldini’s Casino in Reno. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to the Nevada Historical Society.

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: http://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives.

For more information, click here.

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
Derek Bauer Charlottesville, VA     Christopher Merritt Henderson, NV
Paul Boren Williamsburg, VA     Taylor Ness Brookline, MA
Richard Brown Potomac, MD     Thomas Noble Kingman, AZ
Peter Buffie Moorhead, MN     Tyler Noggle Acworth, GA
John Engrav Eagan, MN     Edward Pyne Barnstead, NH
Christopher Erikson Gordonville, PA     John Rhodes Tulsa, OK
Austin Froelich S. Pasadena, CA     William Savage Acworth, GA
Steven Iles DeRidder, LA     Brian Stanley Oklahoma City, OK
Carey Jeremiason Minneapolis, MN     Martin Tebay Cockermouth, ENG
Ben Lieberman Grinnell, IA     Jennifer Wierenga Indianapolis, IN

 

Research Committee news

Here are the new SABR research committee updates this week:

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

Regional Chapter news

Here are the new regional chapter updates this week:

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:

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:

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.

Have trouble reading this e-mail? Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web.

Are you receiving our e-mails? “This Week in SABR” goes out by e-mail to all members on Friday afternoons. If they’re not showing up, try adding “sabr.notes@sabr.org” to your contact list to ensure they show up in your inbox (and not the spam folder.)

 

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Originally published: August 25, 2017. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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