This Week in SABR: February 14, 2014

February 14, 2014/in This Week in SABR /by jpomrenke

Happy Pitchers & Catchers Report Day, and welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Please note: The SABR office will be closed on Monday, February 17. Here’s what we’ve been up to as of February 14, 2014:

SABR partners with MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference for 2014 baseball analytics panel

The Next Frontier of Baseball Analytics, presented by SABR, will be the 2014 baseball analytics panel at the eighth annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

The panel will take place at 9 a.m. EST on Saturday, March 1, 2014, at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, visit sloansportsconference.com.

“With our experience in bringing together the top minds of the baseball analytics community, we’re excited to be presenting The Next Frontier of Baseball Analytics at the MIT Sloan Conference this year,” SABR Executive Director Marc Appleman said. “It’s a great opportunity for baseball fans to experience a taste of the insightful panel discussions that we present every year at the SABR Analytics Conference.”

The 2014 SABR Analytics Conference will take place March 13-15 at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona. Find a complete schedule and registration information at SABR.org/analytics.

Here are the scheduled speakers for The Next Frontier of Baseball Analytics, presented by SABR, on March 1: Vince Gennaro, President, SABR; Brian Kenny, Host, MLB Network; Jeff Luhnow, General Manager, Houston Astros; Rob Neyer, Senior Baseball Editor, FoxSports.com; Nate Silver, Founder, FiveThirtyEight; and Bill Squadron, Head of Bloomberg Sports.

For more information on the Next Frontier of Baseball Analytics panel, click here.

To learn more about the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, visit sloansportsconference.com.

Bill Weiss collection of baseball research donated to San Diego’s SABR chapter and public library

A legendary collection of baseball material, including invaluable research, printed materials and historic literature dating back to the 1870s, has found a new home in the San Diego Central Library’s Sullivan Family Baseball Research Center.

The donation enhances San Diego’s position as holding the most comprehensive assemblage of baseball research materials outside of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The public is invited to a free presentation of select collection material on Saturday, Feb. 15.

The William J. Weiss Collection of baseball history was donated jointly to the San Diego Public Library and San Diego Ted Williams Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). The collection, cultivated by Weiss, a well-respected baseball historian who worked with many minor league baseball teams, provides comprehensive player information equal to that available at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“We are proud and honored to be the recipient of this remarkable collection,” said Dan Boyle, president of SABR’s San Diego Ted Williams Chapter. “We’re certain that baseball fans of all ages from San Diego and beyond will treasure this priceless collection for generations to come.”

The public is invited to learn from baseball historians about select collection artifacts during the next SABR chapter meeting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 15 in the San Diego Public Library auditorium. Padres/Fox San Diego broadcaster Mark Grant will headline the free public event.

To read the full announcement, and learn more about the Bill Weiss Collection, click here.

Related link: New baseball collection to be unveiled at San Diego’s Central Library (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Last call: Vote for the 2014 SABR Analytics Conference Research Award winners

Here’s your final chance to vote for the 2014 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards winners:

http://sabr.org/latest/vote-2014-sabr-analytics-conference-research-award-winners

The SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards will recognize baseball researchers who have completed the best work of original analysis or commentary during the preceding calendar year. Nominations were solicited by representatives from SABR, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, The Hardball Times, and Beyond the Box Score.

To read any of the 2014 finalists in the Historical Analysis/Commentary, Contemporary Commentary, or Contemporary Analysis categories, click here. Then cast your vote for the winners!

Voting will remain open until 12:00 a.m. MST on Monday, February 17, 2014. Details and criteria for each category can be found here. Only one work per author was considered as a finalist.

Results will be announced and presented at the third annual SABR Analytics Conference, March 13-15, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn more or register for the conference at SABR.org/analytics.

2014 SABR Analytics Conference: Welcome/Networking Reception

SABR is once again teaming up with the Baseball Industry Network for the 2014 SABR Analytics Conference Welcome/Networking Reception, which will feature food, drinks and great opportunities to network with baseball professionals and other attendees from the conference.

The reception will be held from 7:30-10:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 13, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix, 122 N. 2nd St., Phoenix, AZ 85004. Admission to the welcome reception is included in your 2014 SABR Analytics Conference registration.

Members of the Baseball Industry Network can attend the reception separately for $30. To sign up, click here.

The Baseball Industry Network now features more than 21,000 members and you can join us on LinkedIn or at www.baseballindustrynetwork.com. You can also follow the Baseball Industry Network on Twitter at @tybbnet.

SABR Analytics Conference registration is available now at the SABR Store. Click here to register. The conference is open to all baseball fans.

For more details on the 2014 SABR Analytics Conference, including a complete schedule and list of speakers, visit SABR.org/analytics.

SABR 44: Deadline extended to submit research presentation abstracts

The due date to submit your research presentation abstracts for SABR 44 in Houston has been revised. The new deadline is 12 a.m. PST on SUNDAY, MARCH 2.

In addition, we are issuing a Call for Reviewers. These volunteers will read and evaluate approximately 10 de-identified abstracts during March. Members who submit abstracts may also act as reviewers (you won’t review your own submissions). To volunteer as a reviewer, send a note to either of the email addresses below.

SABR invites all members to present their research findings to their colleagues attending SABR 44, the 2014 annual convention in Houston, Texas. Oral presentations are expected to last 20 minutes, followed by a five minute question-and-answer period. Posters will be presented, with the author on-hand to discuss the work, during a poster session of 90 or so minutes, and will probably remain on display throughout the convention.

For more details on submission criteria and guidelines, click here.

Submit abstracts to sabr2014-presentations@comcast.net, the research presentations address for SABR 44. You may also use the alternate address sabr44-presentations@comcast.net.

Questions regarding the submission, review, and evaluation procedures should also be sent to the sabr2014-presentations@comcast.net address.

SABR 44 will be held at the Royal Sonesta in Houston, Texas, from July 30-August 3, 2014. (Registration and hotel information will be available soon at SABR.org/convention.)

6 new biographies published by the SABR BioProject

Six new biographies were posted as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 2,641 published biographies. Here are the new bios:

Charles A. Prince, by Charlie Bevis
Games Project: September 28, 1938, Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs, by James Forr
Games Project: September 28, 1941 (Game 1), Boston at Philadelphia A’s, by Bill Nowlin
Games Project: September 28, 1941 (Game 2), Boston at Philadelphia A’s, by Jack Zerby
Games Project: September 9, 1977, Detroit at Boston, by Scott Ferkovich
Games Project: June 23, 1984, St. Louis at Chicago Cubs, by Scott Ferkovich

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

You can find the SABR BioProject at SABR.org/BioProject.

Bios on more than just ballplayers: The ambitious goal of the SABR Baseball Biography Project is to publish a full-life biography of every major league player in history. But SABR members write about a lot more than just ballplayers. In addition, we have pages for Ballparks, Broadcasters, Executives, Games, Managers, Scouts, Spouses, Umpires and a lot more on the BioProject website. You can browse all of these categories at http://sabr.org/bioproj/browse. So if you’ve ever thought, “Hey, that person (or ballpark) should get the full BioProject treatment” — write the story and we’ll publish it!

Get involved! If you’d like to help contribute to the SABR BioProject, visit our BioProject Resources page or read the FAQs section to get started. We’re also looking to expand the BioProject to include all “encyclopedic” articles on baseball-related subjects from past SABR publications or committee newsletters. If you come across an article you think should be included in the SABR “baseball repository” at the BioProject, send a copy or link to markarmour04@gmail.com or jpomrenke@sabr.org.

SABR member Herschel Cobb wins 2013 CASEY Award

We’re pleased to congratulate SABR member Herschel Cobb, author of Heart of a Tiger: Growing up with My Grandfather, Ty Cobb (ECW Press), as the winner of the 2013 CASEY Award, awarded for the Best Baseball Book of the Year by Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine. An excerpt from the press release at SpitballMag.com:

The searing, sometimes horrifying, story about how Ty Cobb rescued his grandson from Herschel’s abusive father becomes in the hands of the author an inspiring and beautifully-told memoir. The book received first, second, and third place votes to win the 31st CASEY Award by two points over the closest rival.

Judge C. Paul Rogers III said, “No one who reads Heart of a Tiger will ever view Ty Cobb quite the same again. In a beautifully conceived and written memoir, fashioned without apology and set in the backdrop of a dysfunctional family for which Ty Cobb was undoubtedly to blame, his grandson shows the loving, caring, and giving side of a Cobb who is trying to make amends for his earlier failings as a parent. It is a compelling book which is hard to set aside and which stuck with me long after I closed the covers.”

Cobb is scheduled to receive his award at the 31st annual CASEY Awards Banquet, 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, March 9, 2014, at Crosley’s Sports Bar & Eatery, 4910 Vine Street, St. in Bernard, Ohio.

Other finalists for the CASEY Award included SABR members Tom Dunkel for Color Blind: The Forgotten Team that Broke Baseball’s Color Line; Mike Lackey for Spitballing: The Baseball Days of Long Bob Ewing; Edward Achorn for The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Race Made Baseball America’s Game; and Robert Weintraub for The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age.

For more information, visit SpitballMag.com.

Call for Nominations: 2014 SABR Board of Directors election

The SABR Nominating Committee seeks nominations for candidates for the Spring 2014 elections. All candidates for the Board of Directors must have been members of the Society for at least the preceding four years to be eligible for election. Deadline for nominations is February 28, 2014. Nominees must prepare a Candidate Statement Form following guidelines that will be available from any Nominating Committee member.

The Candidate Statement Form must be received by the Nominating Committee chair no later than March 15, 2014.

The offices to be filled:

Vice-President (2-year term; currently Bill Nowlin)
Treasurer (3-year term; currently F.X. Flinn)
Director (3-year term; currently Emily Hawks)

The Nominating Committee also seeks your input. Members are asked to submit office-specific questions for each of the offices open in this election. We also seek input on general questions for every nominee. Candidates will answer selected questions on the Candidate Statement Form. Regional Chapter leaders and Research Committee Chairs are especially encouraged to pass on this request to their respective members to better address member needs.

Self-nominations are welcome. If you would like to nominate yourself or another candidate or suggest a question for the candidates, contact a member of the Nominating Committee: chair R.J. Lesch (rjlofiowa@gmail.com), Rick Schabowski (rickiu76@aol.com), or Barry Deutsch (barryid@pobox.com).

You can still renew your SABR membership for 2014!

For those of you whose memberships expired recently, there’s still a little time left to renew and be a part of the SABR community again in 2014. If you’ve already renewed, we thank you for your support and look forward to another exciting year ahead.

Renew now to receive the Spring 2014 edition of the Baseball Research Journal, plus discounts on registration to the 2014 SABR Analytics Conference and SABR 44 in Houston, and a lot more!

We MUST receive your dues by February 28, 2014, in order for you to receive the upcoming Spring 2014 BRJ.

Renew your membership for 1 year or 3 years online — or select our new 5-year, digital-only membership rate — at the SABR Store; by phone at (602) 343-6450; or by mailing this downloadable PDF form and your payment to the SABR office at 4455 E. Camelback Road, Ste. D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018.

We’re excited about the upcoming year ahead of us and we hope you’ll take advantage of all the membership benefits offered to SABR members in 2014 and beyond.

Retroactive All-Star Game Project: Voting now open for 1928 MLB All-Stars

The 1928 All-Star Ballot is Here!
The Voice of the Fan Will Be Heard!

All real baseball men know that Cincinnati is the home of the first truly great professional baseball team. In 1869, the “Red Stockings” won sixty-five games while losing NONE, still the greatest feat any team has ever accomplished.

Almost six decades on, Cincinnati will earn yet another distinction: that of host of the 1928 All Star Game taking place on Tuesday, July 10 at Redland Field, aka “The Old Boomerang”, at the corner of Findlay & Western. It is a marvelous palace, a fit setting for the most marvelous game of the summer!

And you, the Knowing Fan, will alone be responsible for which of the Greatest Stars of today will be on the field for the first pitch of that game! Will that coterie include The Babe? Rajah? Ol’ Stubblebeard? Big Poison or Little Poison? Only YOU can say!

The games will be played using Out of the Park 14, and the game account and box score will be posted over at Seamheads.com.

Vote for the 1928 All-Star starters and pitchers here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ASG1928

Voting will be open until 3:00 a.m. ET on February 28, 2014. At that time, we will count up the votes, put together the rosters, and sim the game.

To learn more about the Retroactive All-Star Project, visit SABR.org/retroactive-all-star-project/about.

Call for SABR award nominations

McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, due 2/15/2014: 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 2013 awards, please contact Len Levin at lenlevin5@hotmail.com.
Ron Gabriel Award, due 3/1/2014: The Ron Gabriel Award honors the author(s) of the best research, published or unpublished, on the subject of the Brooklyn Dodgers completed during the preceding calendar year. Nominations should be sent to a member of the nominating candidate no later than March 1, 2014: Paul Hirsch (chair), Craig Murden, or Gary Sarnoff.

Special offer for SABR members from Baseball America

We’re glad to pass along this special offer for SABR members from our friends at Baseball America:

The Baseball America Prospect Handbook is the definitive source on prospects. Order it directly from Baseball America and you will also get an exclusive supplement with 30 more scouting reports — one for every team — absolutely FREE!

Click here to order or call (800) 845-2726, Mon-Fri from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET.

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.

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 New Member 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.

Name	Hometown	Name	Hometown
Shadi Abudayyeh	San Diego, CA	Eduardo Ortega	Chula Vista, CA
Lee Allen	Greenville, NC	Andrew Padyk	Massapequa Park, NY
Edward Armstrong	Tallahassee, FL	Gary Sawruk	Rochelle Park, NJ
Jay Arntson	Avondale, AZ	Roger Selin	Houston, TX
James Baker	Danville, CA	Todd Slavinsky	Arlington, TX
Emily Booth	Boulder, CO	Mark Soczek	St. Louis, MO
Christian Caflisch	Milwaukee, WI	Barry Stein	West Hartford, CT
Joey Chang	Encino, CA	Fred Van Lente	Brooklyn, NY
Bill Dabroski	Fort Myers, FL	Gary West	Kent, WA
Shoichiro Dainoson	Nanao City, JP	Mack Wilson	Houston, TX
Andrew Gillen	Brooklawn, NJ	Jonathan Wolff	Ridley Park, PA
Jake Hirshman	Scottsdale, AZ

Research Committee news

Here are the new SABR research committee newsletters published this week:

Deadball Era: February 2014
Statistical Analysis: February 2014

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

Regional Chapter news

Here are the new chapter meeting recaps published this week:

Houston/Larry Dierker Chapter meeting recap (Houston, TX; February 10)
Quebec Chapter meeting recap (Montreal, QC; January 25)
Bob Davids Chapter February 2014 newsletter (Washington, DC)
Click here to find all SABR Day 2014 recaps and photos

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

SABR Events Calendar

Here is a list of upcoming SABR events:

February 15: Ted Williams Chapter meeting (San Diego, CA)
February 15: Smoky Joe Wood Chapter meeting (Hamden, CT)
February 15: Kekionga Chapter meeting (Fort Wayne, IN)
February 16: Northwest Chapter meeting (Portland, OR)
February 18: Bob Davids Chapter Maryland Hot Stove dinner (Silver Spring, MD)
February 19: Rocky Mountain Chapter monthly luncheon (Denver, CO)
February 20: Rodney Johnson: Cactus League history (Tempe, AZ)
February 20: Magnolia Chapter “Third Thursday” meeting (Atlanta, GA)
February 22: Scottsdale Spring Training Festival (Scottsdale, AZ)
February 22: Rogers Hornsby Chapter meeting (Lakeway, TX)
February 22: Ted Williams Chapter memorabilia ‘garage sale’ (San Diego, CA)
February 23: SABR Board of Directors conference call
February 24: Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting (St. Louis, MO)
February 24: Play Ball film series: “Damn Yankees” (Silver Spring, MD)

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:

Steven Goldman: Remembering Jim Fregosi’s lifetime in baseball (SB Nation)
Paul Dickson: Celebrating Bill Veeck, on the 100th anniversary of his birth (The National Pastime Museum)
Ryan P. Morrison: The best team in baseball? The team after the Red Sox (Beyond the Box Score)
Blake Murphy: Infield defense changes with three true outcomes (The Hardball Times)
Ashley Marshall: Studying ballpark effects in Triple-A (MiLB.com)
Aaron Fischman: Former Tiger Jake Wood has never hung up his cleats (ATLXTV.com)
Derek Jeter and the mostly barren history of Yankees shortstops (SB Nation)
Dan Farnsworth: Ground balls: A hitter’s best friend? (The Hardball Times)
Russell Carleton: When sabermetrics gets personal (Baseball Prospectus)
Gary Cieradkowski: Dobie Moore: Not all cats land on their feet (The Infinite Baseball Card Set)
Monte Cely: Final report from the 2014 Serie del Caribe in Isla Margarita, Venezuela (Rogers Hornsby Chapter)
Lewie Pollis: Barry Bonds, race, and public perception (Baseball Prospectus)
David G. Temple: The unfortunate power of labels (The Hardball Times)
Scott Lindholm: Major league attendance trends, 1950-2013 (Beyond the Box Score)
George Case III: My favorite player, George Case Jr. (The National Pastime Museum)

Read these articles and more at SABR.org/latest.

This Week in SABR is compiled by Jacob Pomrenke, and sent out to all SABR members on Fridays. All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here: http://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives. 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.

Find exclusive Members’ Only resources and information here: http://members.sabr.org

Did you know you can renew your membership at any time? 1- and 3-year SABR memberships are available by clicking “Renew” at http://members.sabr.org. Please also consider a donation to SABR to support baseball research at SABR.org/donate.

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Replying to this e-mail goes to an undeliverable address. If you would like to contact the SABR office, please visit: http://sabr.org/about/contact-sabr

Originally published: February 14, 2014. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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