This Week in SABR: January 13, 2012

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Here’s what we’ve been up to as of January 13, 2012:

SABR Day coming up on January 28

We’ve just added seven new locations for SABR Day meetings on January 28: Albuquerque, NM; Atlanta, GA; Burlington, VT; Indianapolis, IN; Knoxville, TN; New Orleans, LA; and Philadelphia, PA. More details have been posted about other meetings around the country, too. You can find them all at SABR.org/sabrday.

Join us for a local meeting on the third annual SABR Day, which brings together SABR members and friends on the same day regardless of where they live. Regional SABR meetings are open to all baseball fans, so feel free to bring a baseball-loving friend. Guest speakers often include current and former baseball players, managers, umpires, executives, scouts, writers and authors.

Here are confirmed locations for SABR Day meetings:

  • Albuquerque, NM
  • Arlington, VA
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Boston, MA
  • Burlington, VT
  • Columbus, OH
  • Cooperstown, NY
  • Denver, CO
  • Detroit, MI (combined meeting of Detroit, Don Lund, Wally Pipp and Toledo chapters)
  • Fort Lauderdale, FL
  • Indianapolis, IN
  • Kansas City, MO
  • Kenosha, WI (combined meeting of Emil Rothe and Ken Keltner Badger State chapters)
  • Knoxville, TN
  • Little Rock, AR
  • Los Angeles, CA (La Habra)
  • Louisville, KY
  • Minneapolis, MN
  • Montreal, QC
  • New Orleans, LA
  • New York, NY
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Phoenix, AZ
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • San Francisco, CA
  • Seattle, WA
  • St. Louis, MO
  • Toronto, ON
  • West Haven, CT

Find out all the details of a meeting near you at http://sabr.org/sabrday. Or go straight to our Google Map here: http://g.co/maps/484pv

Attention, chapter leaders: If your SABR Day meeting isn’t on this list, please send details to Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org. We’ll post your event at SABR.org/sabrday as soon as we hear from you.

Find out about all upcoming events at SABR.org/events

In addition to SABR Day, you can visit our new Events page at SABR.org/events for an updated calendar of all SABR meeetings, gatherings and conferences. This page includes registration and details on each of our annual events: the SABR 42 national convention, SABR Analytics Conference, Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference, Arizona Fall League Conference and SABR Day. We also include all regional chapter meetings, speaking engagements, book signings and any other event that may be of interest to SABR members. To add an event to our calendar, contact Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org.

Have you renewed your SABR membership?

Thanks to all of you who have already renewed your SABR membership for 2012. We wouldn’t be here without you, and we appreciate your support.

For those of you who haven’t renewed, please send in your dues before you stop receiving the many benefits of SABR membership. We’ve got a lot of exciting benefits in store for 2012 — including a groundbreaking Analytics Conference and Case Competition during spring training; new titles in our Digital Library book collection; SABR 42 in Minneapolis; many additions to the BioProject; and, of course, three high-quality research publications  — and we’re glad you’re along for the ride. 

You can renew your membership for 1 year or 3 years online 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.

Note: If you have already renewed for 2012 or just recently sent in your dues, please disregard this notice … and thank you again! If you don’t know when your membership expires, go to the Members’ Info page and click the link that says “See when your membership expires”.

Dues are the same as they have been in recent years: all members in good standing receive two issues of the Baseball Research Journal and one issue of The National Pastime; access to research resources such as Paper of Record (with complete archives of The Sporting News); discounts to SABR conferences such as the national convention (June 27-July 1 in Minneapolis), the spring Analytics Conference and Case Competition (March 15-17 in Phoenix), the summer Jerry Malloy Negro Leagues Conference (July 19-21 in Cleveland) and the Arizona Fall League Conference; access to our SABR-L research listserv and lending library; all 27 research committees, 60+ regional chapters; and more.

We believe SABR has something for everyone, from the active researcher to the passionate baseball fan. When you renew, we hope you’ll invite your friends, colleagues and family members to join, too, at http://store.sabr.org.

Donate to SABR: If you support SABR and all the groundbreaking research our members have and will produce, please also consider donating online at SABR.org/donate or via mail. No amount is too big or too small, and as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, your donation to SABR is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. If you have given in the past, we remain grateful and hope you will consider giving again. If you are a first-time donor, welcome aboard!

Register for the SABR Analytics Conference

We don’t think you’ll want to miss our lineup of speakers for the inaugural SABR Analytics Conference. Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts, Arizona Diamondbacks president/CEO Derrick Hall, Cleveland Indians president Mark Shapiro, Milwaukee Brewers GM Doug Melvin, Cleveland Indians GM Chris Antonetti and Los Angeles Angels GM Jerry Dipoto are already scheduled to appear. More speakers will be announced soon.

Sign up now to get the early registration rate for the:

SABR Analytics Conference, presented by Bloomberg Sports
When: March 15-17, 2012
Where: Hilton Phoenix East/Mesa, 1011 West Holmes Avenue, Mesa, AZ 85210

Never before have as many of the top minds of the baseball analytic community come under one roof to discuss, debate and share learnings of insightful ways to analyze and examine the great game of baseball. Some of the topics we are planning to cover include: how technology is changing baseball; Managers Panel on how analytics has changed the game; GM Panel on how analytics shape decisions; measuring player performance; technology and in-game strategy, and much more.

The SABR Analytics Conference will begin on Thursday, March 15 and conclude on Saturday, March 17 at the Hilton Phoenix East/Mesa in Arizona. The schedule will consist of a combination of Guest Speakers, Panels and Research Presentations — plus the inaugural SABR Case Competition, in which undergraduate and graduate students will analyze and present a real baseball operations decision, and be judged by MLB front office executives.

The early registration rate ($250 for SABR members and students; $350 for non-members) will expire soon. SABR has secured a special hotel rate of $139/night at the Hilton, which includes complimentary wireless high-speed Internet, parking and breakfast buffet for two.

To register for the SABR Analytics Conference, visit SABR.org/analytics.

To sign up for the Case Competition, visit SABR.org/analytics/case or contact SABR President Vince Gennaro.

Call for SABR 42 research presentations

We invite all members to present their research findings to their colleagues attending SABR 42, June 27-July 1 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 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. Abstracts covering all aspects of baseball research are welcomed.

Through on-site judging, the most highly regarded presentations will receive the Doug Pappas Award for best oral presentation and the USA Today Sports Weekly Award for best poster presentation.

The submission deadline for SABR 42 abstracts is midnight PST, Sunday, FEBRUARY 19, 2012.

Submit abstracts to sabr2012-presentations@comcast.net, the research presentations address for SABR42. (You may also use the alternate address sabr42-presentations@comcast.net.) Questions regarding the submission, review, and evaluation procedures should also be sent to sabr2012-presentations@comcast.net.

8 SABR members to appear on new “Baseball IQ” trivia game show

Eight SABR members will be among the 32 contestants on MLB Network’s new “Baseball IQ” game show, which premieres Tuesday, January 24 at 9 p.m. EST. The contestants will be representing their baseball organizations with a chance to win up to $45,000 for a charity of their choice.

They are (with their charity in parentheses):

MLB Network surveyed all 30 clubs, MLB.com and the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum for the best and brightest trivia minds in their organizations to represent them in “Baseball IQ”, hosted by Matt Vasgersian. Thirty-two participants will be matched up in a bracket-style tournament across 31 episodes. Two new episodes will air every Tuesday through Thursday at 9 p.m. ET from January 24 through February 23, leading up to the start of spring training.

The full list of contestants, along with rules and details, is available here: http://mlb.mlb.com/network/promotions/BBIQ.jsp

Cumulative Home Run Ratio and today’s home-run hitters

Connor Love, a cadet and varsity baseball player at the United States Military Academy in West Point, has followed up on research that first appeared in “Cumulative Home Run Frequency and the Recent Home Run Explosion”, by SABR members Gabriel Costa (his professor at West Point), Michael Huber and John Saccoman, from the 2005 Baseball Research Journal.

In Connor’s new article published at SABR.org, he looks at the five players who have passed the 500-home-run mark since 2004 — Frank Thomas, Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and Alex Rodriguez — and compares their rate of home runs to plate appearances as they grow older, to see how they stack up with the other sluggers in the 500 Club.

You can read his article here: http://sabr.org/latest/cumulative-home-run-ratio-and-todays-home-run-hitters

At long last, 1990 Reds have a Hall of Famer: Barry Larkin

As Tyler Kepner reports in The New York Times: “The 1990 Cincinnati Reds have another victory, their first since Todd Benzinger caught Carney Lansford’s foul pop to win the World Series. With Barry Larkin’s election to the Hall of Fame on Monday, the Reds became the last championship team from the pre-wild-card era to be represented in Cooperstown. The first postseason with wild cards was 1995; few stars from the champions since then have appeared on the ballot. Of the 90 teams to win the title before 1995, however, all now have at least one player or manager in the Hall of Fame — from the Boston Red Sox of Cy Young to the Toronto Blue Jays of Roberto Alomar and Paul Molitor. With Larkin, the picture is complete.”

You can read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/sports/baseball/the-1990-reds-finally-make-the-hall-of-fame.html

Many other SABR members wrote on Larkin’s election this week around the blogosphere. A sampling of a few of our favorites:

Two new biographies posted at the SABR BioProject

Two new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, bringing us to a total of 1,768 published biographies:

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.

In Memoriam

  • Harry Grimes Lee, 74, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, died Friday, January 6, 2012, from complications resulting from pulmonary fibrosis. A longtime SABR member, Harry and his wife Barbara were regulars at Pee Wee Reese Chapter events and national conventions. Harry was proud that he had visited every MLB ballpark, and he kept his record up even as new ones were built. Harry hosted the successful Pee Wee Reese Chapter Regional meeting that we had in Elizabethtown, and he took the lead in putting together a SABR group at the opening of the new ballpark in Bowling Green a few years ago. A lifelong resident of Elizabethtown, he received a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown College in 1961 and his master’s degree from the University of Kentucky in 1969. Early in his career, he worked for the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Elizabethtown and developed an interest in Coke memorabilia. He was a member of the Coca-Cola Collectors Club and volunteered his time at the Coca-Cola Museum in Elizabethtown until his illness. After teaching briefly in the Hardin County Schools system, he went to work at Elizabethtown Community College in 1966 and retired in 1995 as professor of business and accounting. He was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel in 1991. He was an avid sports fan, particularly of baseball and his beloved Pittsburgh Pirates. He coached Little League Baseball in Elizabethtown for many years and was inducted into the Elizabethtown Area Baseball Commission Hall of Fame in 2002. During his college days, he developed a rating system for college football and made winning predictions for Division I games played each week. He shared his picks with the community by writing for the Hardin County Independent as “the Prognosticating Professor.”

We send our condolences to his family and friends. 

All “In Memoriam” notices are posted in the SABR Bulletin group here: http://sabrnation.sabr.org/groups2/discussion/list/groupid/1960. Please send notices to Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org.

Calls for award, election nominations

  • Ron Gabriel Award, due 1/31/2012: This 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. Eligible works include but are not limited to magazine and journal articles, previously unpublished chapters or articles in anthologies or other books with multiple authors, unpublished research papers, written versions of oral presentations, books, databases and websites. Nominations should be sent to William Dahlberg at dahlbergwn@gmail.com no later than January 31, 2012. All nominations must include one (1) copy of the research material, a link to the material or some other reference enabling the award committee to review the work.
  • Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award, due 1/31/2012: 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. Each award shall consist of a cash prize of $200, to be provided by The Sporting News. To submit a nomination for the 2011 awards, please send back this downloadable nominating form plus FIVE (5) copies of the work by January 31, 2012, to: (e-mail) jcassandro@sabr.org; (fax) 602-595-5690; or (mail) Jim Cassandro c/o SABR, 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Ste. D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018.
  • SABR election candidates, due 2/1/2012: The SABR Nominating Committee seeks nominations for candidates for the 2012 SABR Board of Directors elections. Deadline for nominations is February 1, 2012. Nominees must prepare a Candidate Statement Form following guidelines that will be available from any Nominating Committee member: chair Barry Mednick, Rich Schabowski, and Barry Deutsch. Self-nominations are welcome. The offices to be filled are Vice President (2-year term: currently Bill Nowlin); Secretary (3-year term; currently Todd Lebowitz); and Director (3-year term; currently Gary Gillette.)
  • McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, due 2/15/2012: 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. A $200 cash award accompanies the honor. To submit a nomination for the 2011 awards, please send back this downloadable nominating form plus FIVE (5) copies of the work by February 15, 2012, to: (e-mail) lenlevin5@hotmail.com; or (mail) Len Levin, 282 Doyle Ave., Providence, RI 02906-3355.

Chapter meeting recaps

Upcoming SABR events:

Visit SABR.org/events for details on all upcoming SABR events.

In other recent SABR news:

All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here: http://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives.

Find more information about SABR at the Members’ Info page here: http://sabr.org/about/members-info.

If you would like us to include an upcoming event, article or any other information in “This Week in SABR”, e-mail Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org.

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: January 13, 2012. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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