This Week in SABR: December 13, 2019

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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 December 13, 2019:

The Sporting News Baseball Player Contract Cards Collection is now online

TSN contract cardsSABR and the LA84 Foundation are pleased to present The Sporting News Baseball Player Contract Cards Collection, an important primary source for information about the lives and careers of nearly 180,000 professional baseball players.

These index cards, maintained over a 105-year period beginning in 1886 by clerks at the weekly sports newspaper The Sporting News (TSN), contain a record of each ballplayer’s basic demographic data and their contract status. Sometime in the early 1990s, the current player records were computerized and the index cards were no longer maintained. In addition to players, another 10,000 cards document umpires and team executives.

This collection — which includes Hall of Famers Henry Aaron, Stan Musial, and Tony Gwynn to lesser-known players like Buzz Arlett and Moonlight Graham to Negro League legends like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige — is particularly valuable to anyone conducting player biographical research. The TSN cards are also a rich repository of long forgotten stories with information that may not be available elsewhere, especially on players who spent their entire careers in the Minor Leagues.

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

Marvin Miller, Ted Simmons elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Marvin Miller and Ted SimmonsPioneer labor leader Marvin Miller and eight-time All-Star catcher Ted Simmons have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Modern Baseball Era Committee.

Simmons was named on 13 of 16 ballots (81.3 percent) while Miller was named on 12 of 16 ballots (75 percent), with both reaching the 75-percent threshold necessary for election. The Modern Baseball Era Committee considered a ballot of nine former players and one former executive whose contributions to the game were most significant from 1970-87. The Modern Baseball Era Committee held meetings on Sunday in San Diego, site of Baseball’s Winter Meetings.

Miller and Simmons will be joined in the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 by any electees who emerge from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting, which will be announced on January 21.

Read the full announcement at SABR.org.

Related links:

It’s time to renew your membership for 2020

For those of you whose SABR memberships expire by December 31 — you can check your current membership status here — it’s time for you to renew!

From the Baseball Research Journal and the SABR Digital Library to “This Week in SABR” and our extensive list of research resources — and, of course, all the memorable conferences, chapter meetings, and events — we hope you enjoyed the many benefits of SABR membership this past year.

We hope you please continue your support by renewing your SABR membership today.

  • Pay online: Click here to renew your SABR membership for 2020!
  • Renew by mail: To pay by check or money order, mail this downloadable PDF form and your payment to the office at SABR, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004.
  • Pay by phone: To process your credit-card payment over the phone, please call the SABR office at (602) 496-1460 during regular business hours. (We accept Visa, Mastercard, or Discover Card.)

Thank you for your support of SABR as we continue to strive to make SABR membership a great experience and a great value!

Join the Friends of SABR and support baseball research

As we wrap up 2019, we want to thank you for your continuing support of SABR. Thanks to your dedication and generosity, SABR is stronger today than ever, with a vast array of capabilities.

We also want to invite you to join the Friends of SABR, a circle of members who are committed to using their financial support to improve our baseball community and our efforts to increase the understanding of the game we love. None of these accomplishments would have been possible without your generosity — which is why we hope you will continue and even increase your support today!

We have been busy in the last year at SABR HQ and will continue to pour our energy into notable projects in 2020. Members like you are helping us turn our shared vision into a reality.

You can join the Friends of SABR by making a gift of at least $100 at SABR.org/donate. We will use your best gift of $100, $250, $500, or $1,000 to bring more young people into the world of baseball; to publish groundbreaking books and articles; and to promote research, preservation, and scholarship. In addition, SABR HQ will also donate 10% of all member gifts back to the chapters each donor is affiliated with.

Baseball makes the world better! Thank you so much for believing that and for joining us in this endeavor.

— Scott Bush, SABR CEO

Give back to SABR through AmazonSmile

This holiday season, 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.

Read all articles from the Fall 2019 Baseball Research Journal online

Fall 2019 Baseball Research JournalGood news! The Fall 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 soon. For digital subscribers, the e-book edition was delivered on November 18.

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 Fall 2019 Baseball Research Journal!

Early registration now open for the 2020 SABR Analytics Conference in Phoenix

Early registration is now open for the ninth annual SABR Analytics Conference on March 13-15, 2020, at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown in Arizona, where we’ll bring together the top minds in the baseball analytics community to discuss, debate and share insightful ways to analyze and examine the great game of baseball. Register today to join us!

The Analytics Conference schedule consists of a combination of Guest Speakers, Panels, and Research Presentations — plus the unique Diamond Dollars Case Competition, in which undergraduate, graduate and law school students from across the country analyze and present a real baseball operations decision.

Programming will begin on the afternoon of Friday, March 13 and will run through Sunday afternoon on March 15. A large block of rooms for SABR Analytics Conference attendees is available on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Click here for highlights of the high-quality content from the 2019 conference.

SABR has a long and storied history with baseball statistical analysis, evidenced by the link between our name and sabermetrics. SABR’s long history in this area of baseball research, coupled with our mission of advancing the understanding and knowledge of baseball, makes us the perfect choice to coordinate and host this ground-breaking event.

For more information on the 2020 SABR Analytics Conference, or to register, visit SABR.org/analytics.

Save the date! Join us for SABR Day on January 25, 2020

SABR Day 2020The 11th annual SABR Day will be held Saturday, January 25, 2020. We’re starting to compile details now on 2020 SABR Day chapter meetings around the country. We’ll post them as soon as we get them at SABR.org/sabrday.

Regional SABR meetings are open to all baseball fans and are usually free to attend, so bring a friend! Guest speakers often include current and former baseball players, managers, umpires, executives, scouts, writers and authors.

Chapter leaders, please be sure to send any details on your SABR meeting to Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org so we can update our SABR Day map.

Visit SABR.org/sabrday to learn more.

Call for papers: 2020 SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference

Jerry Malloy Negro League ConferenceThe SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, June 11-13, 2020, in Birmingham, Alabama, welcomes proposals for oral and poster presentations from all research fields. Previous presenters have included college faculty, public school teachers, graduate students, and independent scholars.

Presentations may focus on any topic related to the Negro League centennial, black baseball in Birmingham, or other related topics, especially the Negro Southern League. Some possibilities include: Rube Foster; the 1920 season; the formation of the NSL, the formation of the NNL, the original eight teams, and so much more.

Please email your proposal as a Word attachment to Dr. Leslie Heaphy at Lheaphy@kent.edu before March 6, 2020.

Click here for more details at SABR.org.

Students: Apply for a Spring 2020 internship with SABR

SABR is seeking Spring 2020 interns to work in our office in Phoenix, Arizona. An internship with SABR will involve responsibilities across a variety of disciplines, possibly including:

  • Working on-site at a local SABR conference, such as the SABR Analytics Conference
  • Working with our Membership Director or Director of Development on organizational duties, membership renewal drives, customer service
  • Working with our Director of Editorial Content to help publish and/or produce content for our website at SABR.org

The internship is an educational opportunity that may count toward college credit, covering 15-20 hours per week (flexible schedule), at the SABR office in Phoenix, Arizona. Please send a resume and cover letter in PDF form to jpomrenke@sabr.org by 5:00 p.m. MST Friday, January 3, 2020.

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

SABRcast with Rob Neyer: Listen to an interview with Paul Lukas of Uni Watch

Paul LukasListen to a new episode of SABRcast with Rob Neyer, a new weekly podcast hosted by award-winning author and longtime SABR member Rob Neyer — which is now available on your favorite podcast streaming services!

Visit SABR.org/sabrcast to listen to Episode #37 — our guest this week is Paul Lukas, founder of the popular Uni-Watch.com website, which (in his words) is “the sports world’s foremost (okay, only) column devoted to uniform design.” He has written a regular Uni Watch column for more than 20 years, debuting as a columnist in 1999 at the Village Voice, then moving to Slate.com, and for the past 15 years at ESPN.com.

Subscribe to SABRcast on your favorite podcast networks, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play, and listen to each episode as soon as it’s released on Mondays. 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.

9 new SABR biographies published

Bill FosterNine new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 5,034 published biographies. Here are the new bios published this week:

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

17 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

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

Most of these articles were published in Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison (SABR, 2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more stories from this book online, click here.

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 Met-rospectives book online: In Met-rospectives: A Collection of the Greatest Games in New York Mets History, edited by Brian Wright and Bill Nowlin and published in 2018, we offered Mets fans a chance to soak in some Amazin’ memories with dozens of game stories on the most memorable moments in franchise history. From Tom Terrific and the Miracle Mets to the triumphant 1986 World Series champions and beyond, all of the game summaries from our Met-rospectives book can now be read online at the SABR Games Project. Click here to download your free e-book or get 50% off the paperback edition at SABR.org.

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 for the Hot Stove offseason at a new time! Listen to a new episode at 4:00-5:00 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. 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.

Retrosheet announces Fall 2019 updates

Retrosheet logoIt is with great pleasure that I announce the semiannual update to the Retrosheet.org website for Fall 2019. There are some new files and many others have been updated. Here is a summary:

  • The 2019 event files are available: regular season, All-Star game and postseason games.
  • We have added deduced games for 1932 to 1936 thanks to the continued great work by Tom Thress, Rob Wood, Dick Cramer, Jim Herdman, Cliff Blau, Javier Anderson, and John Gabcik.
  • We have also completed the proofing of play by play files from 1918. These new releases cover over 85% of the games back through 1918, meaning that we now provide play-by-play data for the last 102 seasons.
  • Tom Ruane continues to lead the way on constructing box score files with the addition of the 1905 and 1904 seasons with this release.

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

— David W. Smith

Seamheads.com updates Negro Leagues Database with 1926 stats

Bullet RoganWe are pleased to pass along this update from SABR member Gary Ashwill at Seamheads.com on December 10:

The newest update in the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database is the 1926 Negro National League, once again based on the work of Larry Lester, Wayne Stivers, and the Negro League Researchers and Authors Group, with additions and edits by us. Along with the NNL playoffs and the 1926 World Series, the 1926 NNL takes its place alongside our compilation of the 1926 Eastern Colored League to give a complete picture of black professional baseball that year.

The Kansas City Monarchs, vying for their fourth straight NNL pennant, lost the great shortstop Dobie Moore early in the season when his ankle was shattered by a bullet. Newly appointed player-manager Bullet Rogan (12-4, 3.15, as a pitcher while batting .285) did his share on the field. The Cuban outfielder Cristóbal Torriente (.351/.426/.496) helped make up for the loss of Moore’s bat, and the pitching trio of Rogan, William Bell (15-5, 2.45), and the 19-year-old Chet Brewer (12-1, 2.24) enabled the Monarchs to win the first half with relative ease.

The legendary Rube Foster, founder of both the Chicago American Giants and the Negro National League itself, fell victim to mental illness and had to retire, leaving his captain Dave Malarcher in charge of the team.

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

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

Related links:

Deadlines approaching for SABR award nominations

  • Seymour Medal, due 12/31/2019: The Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal honors the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year. The award is presented during the Seymour Medal Banquet at the NINE Spring Training Conference every March. If you have a book to nominate with a 2019 publication date, contact Andy Andres at andyandres@gmail.com by December 31, 2019.
  • Larry Ritter Award, due 12/31/2019: Each year, SABR’s Deadball Era Committee presents the Larry Ritter Book Award to recognize the best new book primarily set in the Deadball Era that was published during the previous calendar year. The award is presented during the committee’s meeting at the annual SABR convention. If you have a book to nominate with a 2019 publication date, contact Doug Skipper at theskippers1@hotmail.com by December 31, 2019.
  • Ron Gabriel Award, due 12/31/2019: The Ron Gabriel Award annually honors the author(s) of the best research, published or unpublished, on the subject of the Brooklyn Dodgers completed during the preceding calendar year. To submit a nomination for the 2020 awards, please send a copy of your work to Gary Sarnoff at runtowin89@hotmail.com by December 31, 2019.
  • SABR Baseball Research Award, due 1/31/2020: The SABR Baseball Research Award (formerly the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award) honors those whose outstanding research projects completed during the preceding calendar year have significantly expanded our knowledge or understanding of baseball. To submit a nomination for the 2020 awards, please contact Bill Felber at bfelber@att.net.
  • McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, due 2/15/2020: The McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award honors the authors of the best articles on baseball history or biography completed or published during the preceding calendar year. To submit a nomination for the 2020 awards, please contact Len Levin at lenlevin5@hotmail.com.

Please note: Only ONE entry per nomination will be considered (do not submit multiple nominations for the same award). For more information on SABR Awards, click here.

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 Berry-Cahn Sacramento, CA     Ted Hayduk New York, NY
Howard Bryant Northampton, MA     Darren Hellwege Columbia, MO
Scott Bubnick Parma, OH     Scott Jennings Madison, WI
RJ Burson Long Beach, CA     Michael Kenney Pasadena, CA
Mike Ford Tokushima, JPN     Dave Mona Edina, MN
Larry Gabe Salem, SC     Bill Nato Wake Forest, NC
Colin Gray Clearwater, FL     Peter Poulos Aiken, SC

 

Research Committee news

Here are the new 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: December 13, 2019. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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