This Week in SABR: February 16, 2018

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Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web. Please note: The SABR office will be closed on Monday, February 19 for Presidents Day. Here’s what we’ve been up to as of February 16, 2018:

Check out the full schedule for the 2018 SABR Analytics Conference

We hope you’ll join us for the seventh annual SABR Analytics Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. The SABR Analytics Conference will be held Friday, March 9 to Sunday, March 11, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix. The conference is open to all baseball fans — click here to register!

Click here to view the full schedule for the 2018 SABR Analytics Conference.

Our featured speakers are expected to include Brian Kenny of MLB Network, ESPN’s Jon “Boog” Sciambi and Eduardo Perez, Arizona Diamondbacks Sr. Vice President/Assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye, Seattle Mariners Director of High Performance Dr. Lorena Martin, MLB Advanced Media’s Tom Tango, Mike Petriello, and Daren Willman, former National League Cy Young Award winner and Texas Rangers coach Eric Gagné, Los Angeles Dodgers executives Ehsan Bokhari, Philip Cho, and Emilee Fragapane, Chicago White Sox executive Chris Getz, Seattle Mariners executive Andy McKay, Monsterful VR CEO/founder Jarett Sims, baseball writer Eno Sarris, SABR President Vince Gennaro, New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series CEO Jeremy Booth, Genius Sports Special Counsel Bill Squadron, Power Alley Analytics operator Matt Reiland, and more as featured speakers and panelists at the 2018 SABR Analytics Conference. Stay tuned as we announce more!

Click here to learn more about our speakers and panelists. All speakers are subject to change based on availability.

Pete Palmer to be honored with 2018 SABR Analytics Conference Lifetime Achievement Award

Sabermetric pioneer Pete Palmer will be honored with the second SABR Analytics Conference Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday, March 10, 2018, in Phoenix, Arizona.

John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s Official Historian and a collaborator with Palmer on many sports books, will present him with his award during the seventh annual SABR Analytics Conference.

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

Palmer was the recipient of SABR’s Bob Davids Award in 2004 and part of the inaugural class for the Henry Chadwick Award in 2010.

For more information on the 2018 SABR Analytics Conference, visit SABR.org/analytics.

Still time to register for 2018 SABR Analytics Conference

Registration is still open for the seventh annual SABR Analytics Conference on Friday, March 9 to Sunday, March 11, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix, but the early-bird registration discount and our special SABR hotel room rate are no longer available.

We hope you’ll join us this spring 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. All baseball fans are welcome to attend. Click a link below for more information:

This year’s conference will feature the high-quality content you’ve always enjoyed at the SABR Analytics Conference and the same number of featured panels and research presentations, but there will be a few changes to the usual schedule: We will begin programming early Friday afternoon on March 9 and will run through Sunday afternoon on March 11. The change in schedule is due to the availability at our host hotel this year.

In addition, the Diamond Dollars Case Competition will start at 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening and the networking reception will be held on Saturday evening, March 10 at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix. Lunch, which is included in your conference registration, will be served at noon on Friday — before the regular programming begins — and also on Saturday between the morning and afternoon sessions.

Visit SABR.org/analytics to learn more or to sign up today.

SABR welcomes new Sweet Lou Johnson Chapter in Lexington, Kentucky

SABR’s Board of Directors has approved the formation of a new chapter.

The Sweet Lou Johnson Lexington Chapter serves members in Lexington, Kentucky; the chapter leader is Lucinda Baker. The chapter is named after the popular Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder who was born in Lexington and helped lead the Dodgers to two National League pennants in the 1960s.

SABR’s 74 regional chapters cover 37 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.; plus international chapters in Canada (Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia), Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Latin America (Venezuela, Dominican Republic), the United Kingdom, Europe (Netherlands), and Italy. For a list of all SABR chapters, visit SABR.org/chapters. A calendar of upcoming SABR meetings can be found at SABR.org/events.

To sign up for chapter email announcements and receive instant notification of upcoming SABR events in your area, click here to select from the list of chapters, then click “Join Group” () at the top of the chapter page. All SABR members are eligible to sign up for announcements from any chapter or committee.

2018 Larry Ritter Book Award nominees announced

Each year, SABR’s Deadball Era Committee presents the Larry Ritter Book Award to recognize the best new baseball book primarily set in the Deadball Era that was published during the previous calendar year. The Ritter Award is presented during the Deadball Committee’s meeting at the annual SABR convention.

Here is the list of Ritter Award nominees for 2018:

  • The Half-Game Pennant of 1908: Four Teams Chase Victory in the American League, by Charles Alexander (McFarland & Co.)
  • Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character, by Marty Appel (Doubleday)
  • National Pastime: US History Through Baseball, by Martin C. Babicz and Thomas W. Zeiler (Rowman & Littlefield)
  • Red Sox vs. Braves in Boston: The Battle for Fans’ Hearts, 1901-1952, by Charles Bevis (McFarland & Co.)
  • Showdown at Rickwood: Ray Caldwell, Dizzy Dean, and the Early Years of America’s Oldest Ballpark, 1910-1931, by Art Black (Blue Rooster Press)
  • Borchert Field: Stories from Milwaukee’s Legendary Ballpark, by Bob Bluege (Wisconsin Historical Press)
  • St. Louis Browns: The Story of a Beloved Team, by Bill Borst, Bill Rogers, Ed Wheatley (Reedy Press)
  • Connie Mack’s First Dynasty: The Philadelphia Athletics, 1910-1914, by Lew Freedman (McFarland & Co.)
  • Hitting Secrets from Baseball’s Graveyard: A Diehard Student of History Reconstructs Batsmanship of the Late Deadball Era, by John R. Harris (independently published)
  • Ken Williams: A Slugger in Ruth’s Shadow, by Dave Heller (McFarland & Co.)
  • From the Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War, by Jim Leeke (University of Nebraska Press)
  • Black Baseball in New York City: An Illustrated History: 1885-1959, by Larry Lester (McFarland & Co.)
  • Legendary Lumber: The Top 100 Player Bats in Baseball History, by Joe Orlando, Tom Zappala and Ellen Zappala (Peter E. Randall)
  • 1917-2017: One Hundred Years of White Sox Baseball: Highlighting the Great 1917 World Series Championship Team, by Mark Pienkos (The Peppertree Press)
  • When Baseball Met Big Bill Haywood: The Battle for Manchester, New Hampshire, 1912-1916, by Scott Roper and Stephanie Abbot Roper (McFarland & Co.)
  • Ed Bolden and Black Baseball in Philadelphia, by Courtney Michelle Smith (McFarland & Co.)
  • Urban Shocker: Silent Hero of Baseball’s Golden Age, by Steve Steinberg (University of Nebraska Press)
  • Baseball’s Business: The Winter Meetings: 1901-1957 (Volume One), edited by Steven Weingarden and Bill Nowlin (SABR)
  • Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis: Home of the Browns and Cardinals at Grand and Dodier, edited by Gregory H. Wolf (SABR)

The nominees’ list will be pared down to four finalists in early March, with the 2018 Larry Ritter Award to be publicly announced the following month.

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

SABR Digital Library: The Whiz Kids Take the Pennant: The 1950 Philadelphia Phillies

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

The Whiz Kids Take the Pennant: The 1950 Philadelphia Phillies
Edited by C. Paul Rogers III and Bill Nowlin
Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers 
Foreword by Curt Simmons
Special Contribution by Dr. Bobby Brown 
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-943816-31-6, $19.95 
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-943816-30-9, $9.99
366 pages, 8.5″ x 11″

Click here for a full description of the book at SABR.org.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

SABR members will get discounted rates for all Digital Library publications, including all e-books for free. To find past SABR Digital Library publications, visit SABR.org/ebooks.

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.

Renew your membership by February 28 to receive the SABR Baseball Research Journal

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 2018. 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 2018 edition of the Baseball Research Journal, plus discounts on registration to the 2018 SABR Analytics Conference and SABR 48 in Pittsburgh, and a lot more! Please note: We MUST receive your dues by February 28, 2018, in order for you to receive the upcoming BRJ.

  • Here’s how to renew: You can renew your membership for 1 year or 3 years online at the SABR Store; by phone at (602) 496-1463; or by mailing this downloadable PDF form and your payment to the SABR office at Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004.

Dues are the same as they have been in recent years: $65 for an annual membership or $45 for anyone under 30 or over 65. Click here for a full list of SABR membership benefits.

SABR 48: Early registration now open for 2018 national convention in Pittsburgh

We hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a spectacular SABR 48 convention on June 20-24, 2018, at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Early registration is now available at SABR.org/convention; all baseball fans are welcome to attend. Click here for more information on SABR 48 registration rates, all-inclusive packages, and optional sessions. Or click here to register for SABR 48.

The Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh 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.

Click on a link below for more information about SABR 48.

  • Registration: We’re again offering a special all-inclusive rate for the annual SABR convention. For $319, a savings of $30 off the regular rate, SABR members can get:
    — Full registration to SABR 48 in Pittsburgh (early-bird: $249; regular rate: $279)
    — 1 ticket in the Corner Box (LF) section to the Pirates vs. Diamondbacks game on Friday, June 22 — includes special “A Day at the Ballpark” pregame session at PNC Park ($40 value)
    — 1 ticket to the Awards Luncheon on Friday, June 22 ($60 value)
    Non-members can pay $394 for the all-inclusive rate. The deadline to register with the all-inclusive rate is Friday, May 18, 2018. Click here for complete information on SABR 48 registration rates, all-inclusive packages, and optional sessions. Or click here to register for SABR 48!
  • Hotel: The special SABR group rate at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh of $149/night (plus tax) is only available to registered convention attendees for the nights of Wednesday, June 20 through Saturday, June 23. After you register for the SABR 48 convention, you will receive an e-mail confirmation with details on how to book your hotel room at the SABR group rate. There are a limited number of rooms in our group block, so be sure to register for SABR 48 early! The Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh is located at 600 Commonwealth Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.
  • Awards Luncheon: SABR will host a special Awards Luncheon on Friday, June 22 at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh. The Awards Luncheon, which includes a full meal, will feature the announcement of SABR’s annual awards — including the Bob Davids Award, our highest honor. One ticket to the Awards Luncheon is included in the all-inclusive package or guest tickets are available for $60 when you register for SABR 48.
  • A Day at the Ballpark: For the third year in a row and fourth time in five years, SABR will present “A Day at the Ballpark” before the Pittsburgh Pirates game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday, June 22 at PNC Park. Special thanks to the Pirates for this great opportunity and for offering us a large block of tickets in the Corner Box (LF) section at an affordable price of $40 for SABR members ($45 for non-members). Purchase of SABR 48 conference registration AND a game ticket will be required to attend this special session. Guests and spouses can get in the ballpark early with purchase of a special SABR 48 Ballpark Session pass ($25) and a Pirates game ticket. Click here for more details.
  • Roberto Clemente Museum tours: The Roberto Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh has a special offer for SABR 48 attendees: The museum will host four tours (maximum of 20 people per tour) at $20 per person on Wednesday, June 20. Space is extremely limited, and reservations will only be made on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please call the museum at (412) 621-1268, Ext. 2, to reserve your space. No reservations can be made online; payment is due on-site when you arrive for the tour. Tours last about 1.5 hours and the start times on Wednesday, June 20 are as follows (subject to availability): 10:00 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. Click here for more details.
  • Research presentations: SABR invites all members to present their research findings to their colleagues attending SABR 48. The deadline to submit your abstract is Sunday, February 25, 2018. Click here for complete details and application form.
  • Yoseloff Scholarship: Students, click here to learn more about a Yoseloff Scholarship to attend SABR 48 in Pittsburgh. The deadline to apply is Friday, March 30, 2018.

All SABR 48 attendees will also receive a souvenir print edition of The National Pastime, our annual convention journal, focusing on baseball teams, players and events in the Pittsburgh area. All SABR members, whether you attend the convention or not, will receive the e-book edition of The National Pastime in their inboxes later this summer.

Stay tuned for more featured speakers and the complete schedule to be announced in the coming months. Visit SABR.org/convention to learn more.

We hope to see you this summer in Pittsburgh!

SABR 48: Call for presentations

SABR invites all members to present their research findings to their colleagues attending SABR 48, which will be held June 20-24, 2018, at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh. Early registration is now available at SABR.org/convention.

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 60 minutes and they will remain on display throughout the convention. Through on-site judging, the most highly-regarded presentations will receive the Doug Pappas Award for best oral presentation and the SABR Convention Poster Presentation Award for best poster presentation.

The submission deadline for SABR 48 abstracts is midnight PST, Sunday, FEBRUARY 25, 2018. Click here for complete details and application form.

Please note: If your abstract is accepted and you intend to make a research presentation, you must register to attend the SABR 48 convention. Early registration details are now available at SABR.org/convention.

Students, apply for a Yoseloff Scholarship to attend SABR 48 in Pittsburgh

With generous funding from The Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation, Inc., SABR will award up to four scholarships to high school or college students to attend SABR 48 on June 20-24, 2018, in Pittsburgh. This scholarship will pay for registration, transportation and lodging (double occupancy) up to a total value of $1,250.

The objective of this scholarship fund is to encourage high school and college-level student engagement with baseball research and to engender an active interest in baseball and SABR. The Yoseloff scholarship is to assist young researchers who want to attend SABR’s annual convention and to introduce them to fellow SABR members. Through this fund, SABR hopes to inspire future baseball research, expose students to high-quality research and build the research capability of interested students.

All applications must be postmarked or e-mailed to Jeff Schatzki at jschatzki@sabr.org no later than FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2018.

Click here for complete details and criteria.

Call for nominations: 2018 SABR Board of Directors election

The SABR Nominating Committee seeks nominations for candidates for the Spring 2018 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, 2018. 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 16, 2018.

The offices to be filled:

  • Vice President (2-year term; currently Leslie Heaphy)
  • Secretary (3-year term; currently Todd Lebowitz)
  • Director (3-year term; currently Ty Waterman)

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 Nominating Committee chair Neal Traven at beisbol@alumni.pitt.edu.

7 new SABR biographies published

Seven new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 4,410 published biographies. Here are the new bios published this week:

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

Bios from The SABR Book of Umpires and Umpiring now posted online

In The SABR Book of Umpires and Umpiring, edited by Larry Gerlach and Bill Nowlin and published in 2017, we told the stories of all the umpires in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and other notable arbiters, plus essays about professional female umpires, umpiring in the Negro Leagues, explorations of the baseball rules, umpire equipment, and much more.

All biographies of umpires — from Hall of Famers such as Bill Klem and Doug Harvey to pioneers such as Amanda Clement and Emmett Ashford — that appeared in The SABR Book of Umpires and Umpiring can now be read online at the SABR BioProject.

You can also download the e-book for free or purchase the paperback edition at 50% off by clicking here.

SABR members can download all SABR Digital Library e-books for free at SABR.org/ebooks.

5 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

Five 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 Mike Huber. To request an assignment, please contact Steven C. Weiner. 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.

All stories from Tigers by the Tale posted online at SABR Games Project

In SABR’s Tigers by the Tale: Great Games at Michigan and Trumbull, edited by Scott Ferkovich and published in 2016, we told the stories of memorable moments at one of baseball’s most famous corners: Detroit’s Tiger Stadium. All of the stories that appeared in this book are now available to be read online at the SABR Games Project. Here is a sampling of articles:

To read more articles from Tigers By The Tale at the SABR Games Project, click here.

You can also download the e-book for free or purchase the paperback edition at 50% off by clicking here. SABR members can download all SABR Digital Library e-books for free at SABR.org/ebooks.

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

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by SABR President Vince Gennaro, is back for the Hot Stove League offseason at a new time: 4:00-5:00 p.m. ET on Sundays, on MLB Network Radio.

This week’s guests are SABR members Mark Simon of Baseball Info Solutions and Harry Pavlidis of Baseball Prospectus.

You can 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.

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
Patrick Brown Annapolis, MD     Ronald Mayer East Hanover, NJ
Peter Carlton Mt. Laurel, NJ     Joel Mayer Richardton, ND
Michael Edler Chicago, IL     Chris Mello San Francisco, CA
John Erardi Crescent Springs, KY     Ron Oberman Highland Park, IL
Carl Foust Johnstown, PA     Eric Pripstein Seattle, WA
Robert Frey Miamisburg, OH     Frank Prusik Gaithersburg, MD
Max Greenberg Leesburg, VA     Matt Reiland Mooresville, NC
Chris Hamilton Fort Worth, TX     Charles Ro Denver, CO
Matt Hilton Chandler, AZ     Anthony Sala Eagleville, PA
Andy Hyman Cartersville, GA     Sam Schneider St. Paul, MN
Noel Hynd Culver City, CA     Gary Shattuck Tonawanda, NY
Alan Keiper Wilkes-Barre, PA     Mark Stallard Overland Park, KS
Pohsuan Keng Taichung, TWN     Joseph Warner Mobile, AL
Al Martignetti Wilmington, MA     Alan Zimmer Bonita, CA

 

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: February 16, 2018. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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