This Week in SABR: August 26, 2011
Here’s what we’ve been up to as of August 26, 2011:
From the archives: SABR Salutes
There was previously in our organization’s history an award called the SABR Salute that was published in the annual membership directory. The initial SABR Salute was given to Fred Lieb in the 1976 Membership Directory and was designed as a manner of recognizing the contributions of some of the older members of the Society, many of whom had made great contributions to baseball historical research before the Society came into being.
With the help of Tom Hufford, Gary Gillette and Rod Nelson, we’ve compiled the original texts for the SABR Salutes in “A History of SABR”, which we published on SABR.org in conjunction with our 40th anniversary. You can find all the SABR Salutes here:
http://sabr.org/about/history/4
The list of winners includes: Lieb in 1976, Leonard Gettelson in 1977; Bill Schroeder in 1978; John Tattersall in 1979; Alex Haas in 1980; Bob Davids in 1981; Al Kermisch in 1982; Emil Rothe in 1983; Ellery Clark in 1984; James Bready, Joe Overfield, Tweed Webb, Ralph LinWeber and Art Schott in 1986; Bob Lindsay and Vern Luse in 1987; Ray Gonzalez, Ray Nemec, Pat McDonough and Keith Sutton in 1988; Harry Simmons and Tom Shea in 1990; Eugene Murdock in 1991; Stan Grosshandler and David Voigt in 1993; Eddie Gold, Jack Kavanagh and Joe Wayman in 1995; Ralph Horton, John Pardon and Bill Weiss in 1997; Fred Ivor-Campbell, Norman Macht and Frank Williams in 1999; and Bill Deane, Mark Rucker and David W. Smith in 2001.
Although the original SABR Salute ended in 2001, you can still nominate fellow members for the Spirit of SABR Salute, which recognizes SABR members who, on their own initiative or on request, have assisted other members in their research projects. The only source of names is you, the membership. There are no judges, no committees, no competition. All names submitted are printed; their nominators will not be identified.
Click here to view recent nominees for the Spirit of SABR Salute (log-in required).
The SABR Bookshelf: Spring/Summer 2011 additions
Last week, we brought you the Spring/Summer 2011 listings of new books that are received at the SABR office: The SABR Bookshelf, continuing a popular section in the old SABR Bulletin.
Here are some more books that we’ve received for Spring/Summer 2011:
http://sabr.org/content/sabr-bookshelf-2011-summer-additions
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.
Introducing the SABR Podcast Roll
We know many of you like to get your daily baseball fix by listening — and calling in! — to sports talk radio shows to discuss what’s going on with your favorite teams or players. So we’ve compiled a list of podcasts and online/satellite radio shows that are hosted by SABR members or friends of SABR. You can view the SABR Podcast Roll here:
http://sabr.org/content/sabr-podcast-roll
All times are Eastern, and the information listed is only what we’ve been provided. To have your podcast listed on this page, send an e-mail with show title, time, host and URL to Jacob Pomrenke.
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.
Five new biographies posted at SABR BioProject
Five new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, bringing us to a total of 1,656 published biographies:
- Les Howe, by Bill Nowlin
- Charley Jamerson, by Bill Nowlin
- Rankin Johnson, by Bill Nowlin
- Oscar Judd, by Bill Nowlin
- Luis Olmo, by Rory Costello
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.
Baseball Prospectus adds player/team compensation resource page
Jeff Euston of Baseball Prospectus writes:
When Cot’s Baseball Contracts first went on-line in October of 2005, Tim Lincecum was a sophomore pitching for the University of Washington, and Albert Pujols was still a month away from collecting his first National League Most Valuable Player award.
A lot has changed in just six years.
Much of the information you’ve found at Cot’s is now available here in BP’s Compensation section. Many financial details from Cot’s already have been incorporated into our player cards—a process that began with BP staffers painstakingly removing thousands of semicolons from the old database at Cot’s. The result is what we hope is a big upgrade over Cot’s and a useful tool in measuring one of the constant challenges facing front offices in every market: spending money efficiently.
Check out BP’s Compensation page here: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation.
RIP Mike Flanagan, 1979 AL Cy Young Award winner
Among the most memorable characters on the Baltimore Orioles powerhouse teams of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s was left-handed pitcher Mike Flanagan, who was found dead at his Maryland home on Wednesday at age 59. Some SABR members have offered remembrances of “Flanny”, who won the 1979 AL Cy Young Award and was the last Oriole to throw a pitch at Memorial Stadium in 1991:
- Tim Kurkjian at ESPN.com says Flanagan was “the wittiest, sharpest, most clever baseball player I’ve ever seen, a guy who — no matter the subject — always provided perspective and context, usually wrapped in a laugh.”
- Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times offers a comprehensive look back at the highlights and lowlights of Flanagan’s playing career.
- Rob Neyer at SB Nation has compiled a list of tributes from around the Web, including by prominent writers Peter Gammons, Buster Olney, Richard Justice.
Register now for Rocky Mountain Chapter banquet
SABR’s Rocky Mountain Chapter will hold its 14th annual chapter banquet on November 4 at the Denver Athletic Club. Cocktails begin at 6 p.m., dinner and program at 7.
The banquet will take place in the Grand Ballroom of the DAC, 1325 Glenarm Place, Denver, CO 80204.
John Thorn, Official Historian of Major League Baseball, will be the keynote speaker.
Admission is $50. Checks payable to Rocky Mountain SABR for $50 per registration may be mailed to RMSABR BANQUET, 5803 Orchard Creek Lane, Boulder, CO 80301. Please include attendee’s name and contact information. Members, guests and nonmembers are all welcome to attend at the same price.
For more information, contact Paul Parker or visit RMSABR.org.
Upcoming SABR events:
- 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:
- A Q&A With sabermetrics wizard Tom Tango (Beyond the Box Score)
- Kevin Orris warns that Braves starter Jair Jurrjens has a date with regression (ESPN.com)
- Rob Neyer gives a history of the “Waxahachie Swap” pulled off by Astros manager Brad Mills (SB Nation)
- Carson Cistulli: Five-tool players by the nerdiest possible numbers (FanGraphs)
- Jeff Samoray hopes to build a new ‘Field of Dreams’ for Detroit (DBusiness.com)
- Tom Ruane looks at the most consecutive games played versus over-.500 and under-.500 teams (Cybermetrics)
- David Laurila interviews Mets knuckleballer Charlie Haeger (FanGraphs)
- Christina Kahrl analyzes MLB team baserunning (ESPN.com)
- Paul Lukas breaks down 10 myths about uniforms (Uni Watch)
- Dick Leyden has discovered an old Northern League field in Plattsburgh, New York (Plattsburgh Press Republican)
- Sean Forman: Looking past mere wins and losses (New York Times)
- Alan Schwarz, Bill James, Pete Palmer and Rob Neyer are mentioned in this article about which baseball statistics are the most telling (Los Angeles 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 26, 2011. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.