This Week in SABR: February 17, 2023

February 17, 2023/in This Week in SABR /by Jacob Pomrenke

Welcome to “This Week in SABR” on Friday, February 17, 2023. Please note: The SABR office will be closed on Monday, February 20 for the Presidents Day’ holiday. Click here to view this newsletter on the web.

Vote now in special election for proposed changes to SABR By-Laws
Gietschier, Rucker, Whiting selected as Henry Chadwick Award recipients
Check out full schedule for 2023 SABR Analytics Conference
Announcing recipients of 2023 SABR Local Grants
Registration now open for SABR 51 in Chicago

Gietschier, Rucker, Whiting selected as 2023 Henry Chadwick Award recipients

SABR is pleased to announce the 2023 recipients of the Henry Chadwick Award, established to honor the game’s great researchers — historians, statisticians, annalists, and archivists — for their invaluable contributions to making baseball the game that links America’s present with its past:

Steve Gietschier, editor, author, and developer of The Sporting News Research Center
Mark Rucker, photographic historian and founder of Transcendental Graphics and The Rucker Archive
Robert Whiting, writer and journalist with a focus on Japanese baseball and culture

By honoring individuals for the length and breadth of their contribution to the study and enjoyment of baseball, the Chadwick Award will educate the baseball community about sometimes little known but vastly important contributions from the game’s past and thus encourage the next generation of researchers.

Click here to learn more about the 2023 Chadwick Award recipients.

Check out the full schedule for the 2023 SABR Analytics Conference

SABR is excited to unveil the complete schedule for the 2023 SABR Analytics Conference. The conference, which is open to all baseball fans, is scheduled for March 10-12, 2023, at the Beus Center for Law and Society on Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix Campus in Phoenix, Arizona.

Our featured speakers will include a panel on “Players We Love For 2023” with Hannah Keyser of Yahoo! Sports, Ben Clemens of FanGraphs, and former SABR Board President Vince Gennaro. A special virtual session for student attendees on Thursday, March 9 will include Sean Lahman of SABR, Shanna Shi of Major League Baseball, Jonah Gardner of Sports Reference, Nick Wan of the Cincinnati Reds, and David Hyland of Xavier University.

Reminder: Early registration discounts end at 11:59 p.m. MST on Friday, February 17. Registration increases $150 after the early discount ends, so register today to join us!
Schedule: Click here to view the full schedule for the 2023 SABR Analytics Conference.

Please note: All speakers are subject to change depending on availability.

Visit SABR.org/analytics to learn more or to register.

Announcing the recipients of 2023 SABR Local Grants

SABR is pleased to announce the recipients of Local Grants in 2023:

SABR Baseball Memories:
Growth and operations of SABR’s local reminiscence programs
Connie Mack-Dick Allen Chapter (Philadelphia, PA)
The Negro Leagues in Philadelphia exhibit
Baltimore Babe Ruth Chapter (Baltimore, MD)
Union Park Historical Marker
Cliff Kachline Chapter (Cooperstown, NY)
Island Park Historical Marker
Schott-Pelican Chapter (New Orleans, LA)
Jesuit High School Scholarship Award

Click here to learn more about each of these projects.

The SABR Local Grants program provides an opportunity for chapters, research committees, and chartered communities to apply for funding for their projects under SABR’s Four Pillars: Research, Scholarship, Preservation, and Future of the Game. In total, more than $10,000 in SABR Local Grants will be awarded in 2023. Visit SABR.org/local-grants to learn more or to apply for a future grant.

Early registration now open for SABR 51 in Chicago

Join us in Chicago this summer for SABR’s 51st annual convention! Conference and hotel registration for SABR 51 — scheduled for July 5-9, 2023, at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago — is now available.

The annual SABR convention, which is open to all baseball fans, includes featured speakers from around the baseball world — front office executives, players, managers, scouts, journalists, historians, and analysts — innovative panel discussions, groundbreaking research presentations, ballgames, the SABR Trivia Contest, the Awards Banquet, and most of all, the opportunity to make and renew baseball friendships over the course of this exciting and memorable event.

Registration: Click here for complete details on the SABR 51 All-Inclusive Package, Early-Bird Registration, and optional sessions.
Research presentations: SABR invites all members to present their research findings to their colleagues attending SABR 51. The deadline to submit your abstract is February 26, 2023. Click here for complete details and application form.
Yoseloff Scholarship: Students, click here to learn more about a Yoseloff Scholarship to attend SABR 51 in Chicago. The deadline to apply is April 21, 2023.

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

Sign up for Ballpark Figures on March 2

Join us each month for SABR’s Ballpark Figures, a new interview series hosted by Shakeia Taylor. The virtual Zoom event is free and open to all active SABR members. On Thursday, March 2, our guests are Jordan Shusterman and Jake Mintz of Cespedes Family BBQ and Fox Sports.

Pre-register: Click here to sign up for Ballpark Figures on March 2

To learn more, or watch previous episodes of Ballpark Figures, visit SABR.org/ballpark-figures.

Vote now in special election on proposed changes to SABR By-Laws

The SABR Board of Directors recommends adoption of three proposed changes to the By-Laws in a special election that began on Wednesday, February 15.

The changes are intended to increase member participation in SABR governance, add new voices to Board discussion, allow for more turnover in Board membership, and provide safeguards to ensure that the four Officers have some prior Board experience.

An online voting ballot was sent out from tellers@sabr.org to all eligible SABR voters on Wednesday, February 15. The voting period will remain open until March 1, 2023. If you did not receive a ballot, please contact jpomrenke@sabr.org to have it re-sent to your email.

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

Register now for the 2023 SABR Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Conference

Registration is now open for the 14th annual SABR Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference, which will be held on April 28-29, 2023, at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. All baseball fans are welcome to register for this special event.

The 2023 conference will be highlighted by a keynote address from author Jonathan Popovich, along with a panel discussion on baseball’s 19th-century color line with Richard Hershberger, Peter Mancuso, Brian Sheehy, and moderator Bill Ryczek; a 19th-century artifact session with Robert Mayer, Gary Passamonte, and Popovich; a Member Spotlight interview of Robert Mayer by Bob Bailey; plus research presentations and a Sunday morning vintage baseball game at Doubleday Field.

Visit SABR.org/ivor-campbell19c to learn more or to register.

Baseball fans, tune in this season to SABRcast with Rob Neyer, a weekly podcast hosted by award-winning author and longtime SABR member Rob Neyer. Episode #201 on Monday, February 13 featured Clint Hurdle, former major-league manager who led the Colorado Rockies to their first World Series and won more than 1,200 career games. Visit SABR.org/sabrcast to listen to the full episode or subscribe to SABRcast on your favorite podcast networks.

Find new updates to the SABR Research Collection below, including the Baseball Biography Project, Games Project, and Oral History Collection.

In Memoriam: Tim McCarver

“For those who saw Tim McCarver break in with the St. Louis Cardinals, it was probably a surprise that he became better known for his broadcasting career than for his days as a catcher,” as Dave Williams wrote for the SABR BioProject. “Not that he wasn’t always articulate and glib, and that his finding a home in the broadcast booth was a shock; it’s just that he was a pretty good ballplayer who was a major contributor on championship teams.”

McCarver, who died at the age of 81 on February 16, played for 21 seasons in the major leagues, winning two World Series with the Cardinals in the 1960s and as a veteran anchor for an emerging Philadelphia Phillies team in the 1970s. He was also a strong supporter of the early MLB Players Association off the field. He moved to the broadcast booth beginning with the New York Mets in 1983 and called more than 20 World Series as a national analyst for Fox Sports in an acclaimed second career that earned him the 2012 Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Learn more about McCarver’s life and legacy by reading his SABR BioProject biography or by listening to his 1992 SABR Oral History interview with Gabriel Schechter.

Find essays from Not an Easy Tale to Tell on Jackie Robinson

In 2022, SABR published Not an Easy Tale to Tell: Jackie Robinson on the Page, Stage, and Screen, edited by Ralph Carhart, a look at the many creative representations of the baseball and civil rights pioneer in cinema, on television, in theater, and fictional books aimed at readers of all ages.

All of the essays from Not an Easy Tale to Tell can now be found online in the SABR Research Collection.

To download your free e-book edition, or save 50% off the paperback edition, click here.

14 new stories published at the SABR Games Project

May 1, 1883: Philadelphia Athletics shut out Alleghenys on Opening Day, by John G. Zinn
May 24, 1883: Athletics extend season-long winning streak to 10 games, by Eric Miklich
June 21, 1883: Athletics end season’s longest losing streak, retake first place, by Mike Huber
July 30, 1883: Lon Knight hits for first natural cycle in major-league history, by Mike Huber and Bill Nowlin
August 1, 1883: Athletics continue dominance of Alleghenys, by Joel Rippel
August 18, 1883: Another easy victory for Athletics over Columbus Buckeyes, by Paul E. Doutrich
September 18, 1883: Harry Stovey establishes new single-season home-run record, by Paul Hofmann
August 29, 1965: Willie Mays breaks Ralph Kiner’s home run record with Kiner on the call, by Jake Bell
June 25, 1976: Mets’ Mike Phillips breaks out of slump to hit for the cycle, by Mike Huber
July 31, 1980: Royals score baker’s dozen against Red Sox as George Brett raises average to .390, by Paul White
September 16, 1996: Paul Molitor becomes first player to triple for his 3,000th hit, by Douglas Jordan
May 30, 2013: Jacoby Ellsbury sets Red Sox franchise record with five steals in win over Phillies, by Bill Nowlin
June 21, 2013: Shane Victorino has a breakout day in first season with Red Sox, by Bill Nowlin
August 10, 2022: Chandler Redmond hits for pro baseball’s second-ever ‘Home Run Cycle’, by Thomas J. Brown Jr.

Visit SABR.org/gamesproject to learn more about the SABR Games Project or to get involved.

Turnstyle: The SABR Journal of Baseball Arts (Vol. 3)
Edited by Joanne Hulbert and Jay Hurd

Visit SABR.org to download any SABR Digital Library e-book for free or save 50% off the paperback edition.

Here are some SABR headlines from recent weeks that we don’t want you to miss:

Please give a warm welcome to all new SABR members who joined this week! View more Members-Only resources at members.sabr.org or click here to download the Membership Handbook. Find contact information for any SABR member in the online Membership Directory.

Name	Hometown	Name	Hometown
Forrest Allen	Madison, WI	Zack Johnson	Ely, IA
Geoffrey Beiermeister	Sugar Land, TX	Ron Miller	Stillwater, OK
Andrew Born	Monterey, CA	William Neusidl	Easton, PA
Dan Clemens	Castle Rock, CO	Ian Oliver	Houston, TX
Jess Cogan	Athens, GA	Alex Painter	Richmond, IN
James Cowan	Overland Park, KS	Emily-Anne Patt	Alexandria, VA
Dolores Maxwell	Dillsburg, PA	Beverly Ramsey	Greensboro, NC
Nancy Finley	Georgetown, TX	Kevin Roderick	Los Angeles, CA
Rick Graham	Chestnut Hill, MA	Marcellus Savoie	New Orleans, LA
Robert Grooms	St. Louis, MO	Peter Spiewak	Bayonne, NJ
Susan Husman	Sylvania, OH	Scott Staley	Winston-Salem, NC

Events Calendar: Find complete details of all SABR events
Video Replays: This week, we heard from Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster Josh Maurer; former Houston Astros broadcaster Bill Brown; authors Rick Huhn (The Chalmers Race) and Thomas Gilbert (“Baseball’s Man in Philadelphia, Col. Tom Fitzgerald”). Click here to view more video replays of virtual SABR events.

Upcoming Virtual Meetings

February 18: Bud Metheny (VA) Chapter meeting with Justin Mckinney and Paul Boren (11:00 a.m. EST)
February 18: Ken Keltner (WI) Chapter meeting with Noel Hynd (3:00 p.m. CST)
February 20: Northern New England Chapter meeting with Tim Hagerty (7:00 p.m. EST)
February 20: Halsey Hall (MN) Chapter research committee meeting (7:00 p.m. CST)
February 20: Larry Dierker (TX) Chapter meeting with Dan Good (7:00 p.m. CST)
February 21: Pacific Northwest Chapter meeting (6:30 p.m. PST)
February 22: Casey Stengel NYC Chapter SABR Day meeting with Lee Lowenfish and Barry Sparks (7:00 p.m. EST)
February 22: Quarterly Chapter Leaders Meeting (8:00 p.m. EST)
February 23: Boston (MA) Chapter meeting with Doug Gladstone (8:00 p.m. EST)
February 25: Josh Gibson Foundation webinar series: Ted Knorr (12:00 p.m. EST)

Upcoming In-Person Meetings

February 18: Babe ‘n’ Bob Chapter Breakfast (Edgewater, MD)
February 20: Baltimore Babe Ruth Chapter SABR Day meeting (Baltimore, MD)
February 21: Bob Davids Chapter Maryland Hot Stove Dinner (Silver Spring, MD)
February 25: Kekionga Chapter of Fort Wayne meeting (Fort Wayne, IN)

To add your SABR event to our calendar listings, please contact Jacob Pomrenke.

Games and Simulations: The Games and Simulations Committee is seeking new team owners to join its second annual fantasy baseball league in 2023. No entry fee required. The purpose of the league is enjoyment, competition and bragging rights — with potential to research or explore whether any particular team construction methods consistently out-perform others. Please contact Derek Bain for more details.

Sign up for SABR research committee announcements at SABR.org/research/committees.

Rogers Hornsby Chapter: February 11 meeting recap (Austin, TX)

Sign up for SABR chapter announcements at SABR.org/chapters.

Click here to learn more about SABR chartered communities.

Here are some recent articles published by and about SABR members:

Sarah Vasile: Before Jackie Robinson, This Forgotten Man Broke Baseball’s Color Barrier (Sports Illustrated)
David Appelman: Negro Leagues Data Is Now Available on FanGraphs (FanGraphs)
Stephanie Apstein: MLB Indicates Path for Potential End of Local Blackouts for Some Teams (Sports Illustrated)
Rob Mains: Who You Gonna Trust, PECOTA or Your Lyin’ Eyes? (Baseball Prospectus)
Steven Goldman: 2023 PECOTA Comparables and the Ghosts Within (Baseball Prospectus)
Tyler Kepner: The Yankees Start Their Season With a Plot Twist (New York Times)
Hannah Keyser: Everything you didn’t know you need to know about MLB’s new rules (Yahoo! Sports)
Anthony Castrovince: A behind-the-scenes look at how the pitch timer works (MLB.com)
Jay Jaffe: Rules Committee Acts To Regulate the Invasion of the Late-Inning Zombies (FanGraphs)
Russell A. Carleton: The Shift was Framed (Baseball Prospectus)
Lindsey Adler: Tom Brady Wasn’t the Last Link to the Montreal Expos After All (Wall Street Journal)
Evan Drellich: Why the New York Mets took out a local Super Bowl commercial Why the New York Mets took out a local Super Bowl commercial (The Athletic)
Sarah Langs: Brothers who have faced each other in postseason (MLB.com)
Shakeia Taylor: Inside MLB’s Dream Series, where 7 Illinois high school players spent 4 days at the annual showcase for diversity programs (Chicago Tribune)
Alex Eisert: An Age-Adjacent Arm Angle Addendum (FanGraphs)
Derrick Goold: Cardinals’ front office roles will expand, evolve during John Mozeliak’s contract extension (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Alex Speier: How Kiké Hernández got ‘in the middle of everything’ for the Red Sox (Boston Globe)
Mark Simon: Celebrating Pitchers and Catchers (ACTA Sports)
David Laurila: Approach Altered, Tigers Prospect Colt Keith is Looking To Loft (FanGraphs)
Jada Burtin: ‘Bigger than baseball’: Looking back on reign of the Fort Wayne Colored Giants (WANE.com)
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: LA Renames Pacoima Intersection For 1965 All-Black Youth Baseball Team (LAist.com)
Chad Osborne: Marion Mets pitcher tames Tigers twenty times (Substack)
Dan Schoenholz: Batter’s Choice: Coach Zamloch’s Reversible Baseball (California Magazine)
Charlie Bevis: Steeplechase Island, a Sunday-Only Ballpark in Connecticut (Bevis Baseball Research)
Andy Palomino: Pedro and the Splendid Splinter! (SABR Baseball Gaming)
Bryan Walko: Still Shining: Baseball Stars for the NES (SABR Baseball Gaming)

Please note: Some articles may require a separate subscription to view online. SABR does not endorse, and is not responsible or liable for, any content that appears on a third-party website.

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. To find past editions of TWIS, click here.

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Originally published: February 17, 2023. Last Updated: February 17, 2023.

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