This Week in SABR: January 22, 2016

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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 January 22, 2016:

SABR Analytics Conference early registration ends soon; sign up today!

The fifth annual SABR Analytics Conference is coming up soon, and if you’re on the fence about registering, the early-bird discount will expire at 11:59 p.m. MST on Friday, February 12, 2016. 

Once again, we’re bringing together the top minds of the baseball analytic community under one roof to discuss, debate and share insightful ways to analyze and examine the great game of baseball.

The schedule will consist 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.

  • Conference registration is available now at the SABR Store. Click here to register! The conference is open to all baseball fans. The early registration rate is $395 for SABR members and $495 for nonmembers, or $350 for currently enrolled high school or college students (includes one-year membership to SABR). The early-registration discount expires on Friday, February 12.
  • Book your hotel room: The 2016 SABR Analytics Conference will be held Thursday, March 10 through Saturday, March 12 at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix, 122 N. 2nd St., Phoenix, AZ 85004. Click here to book your hotel room at the special SABR group rate of $179/night (plus tax) for double occupancy. Or call (602) 252-1234 and mention that you’re with the SABR Analytics Conference. The cutoff date to book your room is Friday, February 12.

Our featured speakers and panelists are expected to include: Derrick Hall, President/CEO, Arizona Diamondbacks; Dick Williams, Senior Vice President/General Manager, Cincinnati Reds; Aaron Boone, ESPN analyst and former major-leaguer; Dallas Braden, ESPN analyst and former major-league pitcher; Brian Kenny of MLB Network; Ken Rosenthal, MLB Network and FoxSports.com; John Dewan; owner, Baseball Info Solutions; broadcaster Mike Ferrin of the Arizona Diamondbacks and MLB Network Radio; front-office executives Nick Ennis of the San Diego Padres, Sarah Gelles of the Baltimore Orioles, and Yeshayah Goldfarb of the San Francisco Giants; SABR President Vince Gennaro; Dan Migala of Property Consulting Group; Eno Sarris of FanGraphs; and Michael Bentley of Blast Motion as featured speakers at the 2016 SABR Analytics Conference.

Click here to read bios for all of our speakers and panelists. All speakers are subject to change based on availability.

Visit SABR.org/analytics for more information.

Join us for the 7th annual SABR Day on January 30, 2016

The seventh annual SABR Day will take place on Saturday, January 30, 2016. Details on all 2016 SABR Day meetings can be found 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.

SABR Day events are scheduled for Saturday, January 30, 2016, in the following cities:

  • Albuquerque, NM (Rio Grande Chapter) 
  • Boston, MA (Boston Chapter) 
  • Cincinnati, OH (Hoyt-Allen Chapter) 
  • Cleveland, OH (Jack Graney Chapter)
  • Columbus, OH (Hank Gowdy Chapter)
  • Cooperstown, NY (Cliff Kachline Chapter)
  • Denver, CO (Rocky Mountain Chapter)
  • Detroit, MI (Detroit Chapter)
  • Fort Lauderdale, FL (South Florida Chapter)
  • Fort Wayne, IN (Kekionga Chapter)
  • Indianapolis, IN (Oscar Charleston Chapter)
  • Kenosha, WI (Emil Rothe Chicago Chapter/Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter)
  • Knoxville, TN (East Tennessee Chapter) 
  • Las Vegas, NV (Maddux Brothers-Las Vegas Chapter)
  • Little Rock, AR (Robinson-Kell Chapter)
  • Louisville, KY (Pee Wee Reese Chapter)
  • Middletown, CT (Smoky Joe Wood Chapter)
  • Minneapolis, MN (Halsey Hall Chapter/Twins FanFest)
  • Montreal, QC (Quebec Chapter)
  • New Orleans, LA (Schott-Pelican Chapter)
  • New York, NY (Casey Stengel Chapter)
  • Philadelphia, PA (Connie Mack Chapter) 
  • Phoenix, AZ (Flame Delhi Chapter)
  • Pittsburgh, PA (Forbes Field Chapter)
  • Rochester, NY (Luke Easter Chapter)
  • St. Louis, MO (Bob Broeg Chapter)
  • San Diego, CA (Ted Williams Chapter)
  • San Francisco, CA (Lefty O’Doul Chapter)
  • Seattle, WA (Northwest Chapter)
  • Tallahassee, FL (Buck O’Neil/North Florida Chapter)
  • Toronto, ON (Hanlan’s Point Chapter)
  • Washington, DC (Bob Davids Chapter)

Click here for complete details on all events on our 2016 SABR Day map (or click here to view details on a spreadsheet). Please note: Some events require registration or RSVP in advance. Please check the SABR Day map or spreadsheet or details.

Chapter leaders, to add your SABR Day event to the calendar, please send details to jpomrenke@sabr.org. We’ll post more information soon on each of these meetings at SABR.org/sabrday.

In addition, some chapters are holding their SABR Day meetings on a different day, due to venue or schedule availability. Click on a link below or see the Events Calendar for details on each of these meetings, as well:

For a complete recap of 2015 SABR Day activities, visit SABR.org/sabrday/2015.

There’s still time to renew your SABR membership

For those of you whose SABR memberships expired recently — you can check your current membership status here — there’s still time for you to renew and be a part of the SABR community again in 2016.

Renew now to receive the Spring 2016 edition of the Baseball Research Journal, plus discounts on registration to the 2016 SABR Analytics Conference and SABR 46 in Miami, and a lot more! Please note: We MUST receive your dues by February 28, 2016, 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) 496-1460; or by mailing this downloadable PDF form and your payment to the office at: SABR, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004.

Dues are the same as they have been in recent years: for this, you get two editions of the Baseball Research Journal, the expanded e-book edition of The National Pastime; 8-10 free e-books published by the SABR Digital Library; “This Week in SABR” every Friday; access to research resources such as Paper of Record (with complete archives of The Sporting News); discounts to all SABR conferences such as the National Convention (Miami 2016), the SABR Analytics Conference, the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, and the Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Conference; discounts to MLB.TV; and much, much more.

We believe SABR has something for everyone, from the active researcher to someone passionate about baseball. We hope you’ll invite your friends, colleagues and family members to join at store.sabr.org.

SABR Digital Library: Nuclear Powered Baseball: Articles Inspired by The Simpsons Episode ‘Homer At the Bat’

D’oh! Add an excellent new book from the SABR Digital Library to your collection:

Nuclear Powered Baseball: Articles Inspired by The Simpsons Episode “Homer At the Bat”
Edited by Emily Hawks and Bill Nowlin
Associate editors: Russ Lake and Len Levin
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9438-1611-8, $19.95
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-9438-1610-1, $9.99
Cover art by Bob Krieger
8.5″ x 11″, 205 pages

The Simpsons and baseball. Since its debut in 1989 (that’s back in the last century!), The Simpsons has run for 27 seasons and (back in 2009) became the longest-running American scripted primetime television series. Though it would be considered sacrilege in some circles, some might even see it as a national pastime of its own.

The series has a long history with baseball and, in Season Three, the episode “Homer at the Bat” aired, on February 20, 1992. Co-editor Emily Hawks writes in her Introduction, “To see so many of the biggest MLB stars of the day in Simpsonian animated form — Ken Griffey Jr., Ozzie Smith, and Jose Canseco, just to name a few — seemed the most exciting thing in the world to this ’90s kid. And the fact that they all lent their own voices to the parts seemed even cooler. It may have also been one of my first glimpses into baseball’s early days. As a kid, I had no idea that Mr. Burns’ dream squad — comprised of colorful names like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Pie Traynor, and Napoleon Lajoie — actually referenced real players. Those seemed like decidedly fabricated names to me!”

They weren’t. They were real ballplayers. And, one way or another, Simpsons writers have worked the names of 68 major-league ballplayers into one episode or another. Football’s Joe Namath, Warren Sapp, and Johnny Unitas have appeared in shows. So have basketballers Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Yao Ming, and Dennis Rodman. Without doing exhaustive research, we believe there may be more baseball players than the other pro sports combined. 

Some 27 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) have collaborated in Nuclear Powered Baseball to tell the stories of each player — past and present — featured in the classic Simpsons episode. The biographies compiled here take the players well beyond their two-dimensional caricatures, and present a well-rounded view of their lives in baseball. We’ve also included a few very entertaining takes on the now-famous “Homer at the Bat” episode from prominent baseball writers Jonah Keri, Erik Malinowski, and Bradley Woodrum. As an added bonus, we’ve also included Joe Posnanski’s piece on the Season 22 sabermetric-themed episode, “MoneyBart.” 

Contributors include: Frederick C. Bush, Alan Cohen, Stephen Constantelos, Geoffrey Dunn, Charles F. Faber, Jan Finkel, David Fleitz, James Forr, Emily Hawks, David Jones, Jonah Keri, Susan Lantz, Erik Malinowski, Shawn Morris, Bill Nowlin, Joe Posnanski, James Lincoln Ray, E.A. Reed, Cindy Thomson, John Thorn, Joseph Wancho, Steve West, Gregory H. Wolf, Bradley Woodrum, and Paul Zingg.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

SABR members will get discounted rates for all Digital Library publications, including many for free. Visit SABR.org/ebooks to download all past titles.

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.

Last call: Primary election for SABR Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend of the year

Nineteenth Century Committee members, there’s still a few days left to vote in our primary election for the Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend of 2016.

Last year, Tony Mullane joined previous winners Pete Browning (2009), Hall of Famer Deacon White (2010), Harry Stovey (2011), Bill Dahlen (2012), and Ross Barnes (2013), and Daniel Lucius “Doc” Adams (2014) as SABR’s Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legends.

Just this past fall, the Hall of Fame’s Pre-Integration Era ballot featured three Overlooked Legends: Dahlen, Stovey, and Adams. They may not have been inducted, but they were the three top vote-getters. Our work is showing a return on investment.

The preliminary voting process, which we call the Overlooked Primary Election, will consist of each voter selecting 10 names from the list of 25 candidates. (If a voter doesn’t select 10 names, the entire ballot does not count.) The top 10 will be presented to the SABR membership in June 2016, when all members will be able to vote in the final election. The winner will be announced at the SABR 46 convention in Miami this summer.

Below is a PDF with the 25 candidates for 2015 and a brief explanation of their baseball accomplishments and/or contributions to our national pastime. You can download the PDF with biographies for the 25 candidates by clicking on the link below:

http://sabr.box.com/shared/static/dtj09i6hzvt6x90rk1c1n8cymszjpy82.pdf

The voting in the Overlooked Primary Election will end at 11:59 p.m. MST on Monday, January 25, 2016. To vote in the Primary Election, you must be a member of the Nineteenth Century Committee. E-mail Project Chairman Adam Darowski to request a ballot.

The Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legends Project Committee consists of Charles Faber, Ralph Peluso, Samuel Reich, Bob Gregory, Joe Williams, and myself. On behalf of the committee, thanks to all of the great researchers of the Nineteenth Century Committee and SABR. If not for our members, both past and present, the bios for this project could not have been compiled.

For more information on the Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legends Project, contact Project Chairman Adam Darowski.

— Adam Darowski

Sold out: SABR’s 2016 Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference

The eighth annual Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference will be held April 15-16, 2016, at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

The 2016 conference will be highlighted by a keynote address from baseball historian Bill Humber, along with a panel discussion, “Baseball‘s 19th Century Movers and Shakers” with Bob Bailey, Ralph Carhart, Jerry Casway, and John Thorn; a special presentation by Henry Chadwick Award winner David Nemec (“Evolution of ‘Hit by Pitch’ and other Research Findings”); a Member Spotlight interview of Eric Miklich by Tom Simon; plus book signings, more research presentations, a welcome dinner, and more.

For more information, visit SABR.org/ivor-campbell19c or contact Peter Mancuso at peterplus4@earthlink.net.

In Memoriam: David Quentin Voigt

David Quentin Voigt, 89, one of America’s most influential baseball historians and a past SABR President, died on January 16, 2016, at his residence in Cumru Township, Pennsylvania.

Voigt was the author of the acclaimed three-volume American Baseball series, a sweeping economic and social history published between 1966 and 1983 that covered the game’s evolution from the “gentlemen’s era” before the Civil War to the big-business professional game of modern times. He wrote a half-dozen other baseball books and hundreds of articles, contributing often to the Baseball Research Journal and The National Pastime. He also served as a consultant to filmmaker Ken Burns for the PBS documentary series Baseball, and was named by Major League Baseball to the Commissioner’s Committee for Historical Accuracy.

Voigt was one of SABR’s earliest members — he became a member just two months after the organization’s founding in 1971 — and “significantly enhanced the stature of the Society just by joining.” By then, he had received his Master’s degree from Columbia University and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University, where his dissertation was on “Cash and Glory: The Commercialization of Major League Baseball as a Sports Spectacular,” and he was teaching at his undergraduate alma mater, Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. He taught there for 34 years, retiring in 1998.

In 1974, Voigt was elected President of SABR and he served until the SABR convention in Boston in July 1975. During his time there was expanded publicity about SABR in the media. A front-page article in the Wall Street Journal drew considerable attention, and published results of the SABR survey of the best players born in each state (Ted Williams beat out Joe DiMaggio in California and Hank Aaron edged Willie Mays in Alabama) were carried by the wire services.

At the Boston SABR convention, Voigt displayed his vigorous speaking style when he dramatized baseball as a sociological and cultural institution in a sparkling presentation to open the convention. That was the year when research presentations were initiated at these gatherings, and the Albright professor was a star participant at later conventions, as well as at regional chapter meetings in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and his hometown of Reading.

His long list of scholarly journal/reference book articles included biographical profiles of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth, Cy Young, Ed Barrow, Connie Mack, Branch Rickey, and Eddie Cicotte in the Dictionary of American Biography; John M. Ward, Marvin Miller, and Walter O’Malley in Biographical Dictionary of American Sports; and Henry Aaron in Sports Encyclopedia North America. He also was called upon to write the chapter on the history of Major League Baseball for Total Baseball.

Read the full obituary here at SABR.org.

Related links:

4 new biographies posted at SABR BioProject

Four new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 3,582 published biographies. Here are the new bios:

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

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

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a new radio show hosted by SABR President Vince Gennaro, will return this weekend at its new time, 4:00-5:00 p.m. ET on Sundays, on MLB Network Radio.

You can listen to all recent episodes on-demand on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App.

Baseball SABR Style 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.

For more information, click here.

Deadlines approaching for SABR award nominations

  • SABR Baseball Research Award, due 1/31/2016: 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 2016 awards, please contact Bill Felber at bfelber@att.net.
  • McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, due 2/15/2016: 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 2016 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.

Seeking nominations for 2016 Greg Spira Baseball Research Award

The Greg Spira Baseball Research Award Committee (www.SpiraAward.org) has announced the start of nominations for the fourth annual Greg Spira Baseball Research Award.

Winning entries must display innovative analysis or reasoning by an author who was 30 years old or younger at the time of the entry’s publication. The winner of the 2016 Greg Spira Award will receive a cash prize of $1,000. The committee will also recognize two additional writers with awards of $200 for second place and $100 for third place.

Last year’s Spira Award went to SABR member Lewie Pollis for his Brown University senior honors thesis in economics about the underpaying of general managers for the value produced to their organizations. You can read his thesis at SABR.org by clicking here. Pollis was hired this January as a full-time analyst in baseball research development by the Philadelphia Phillies. Cee Angi and SABR member Rob Arthur took second and third place, respectively.

The 2014 Spira Award went to SABR member Ben Lindbergh, while the inaugural Spira Award in 2013 was presented to SABR member Trent McCotter.

The Nomination Period for the 2016 award opened at 12:01 a.m. EST on January 21, 2016, and remain open through 11:59 p.m. EST on March 6, 2016. Nominations received before or after the Nomination Period will not be considered.

Click here for full submission details and criteria.

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.

You can find contact information for any SABR member in the online membership directory (SABR.org/directory).

Name Hometown     Name Hometown
Frank Angus Grand Bend, ON     Philip Larson San Francisco, CA
Brian Bratt Findlay, OH     Alex Marcotte Montreal, QC
Ian Brooks Towson, MD     Thomas Nicholls South Amboy, NJ
Stephen Burnett Dallas, TX     Sean O’Brien Cincinnati, OH
Ben Cabanas Fremont, CA     Arthur Rankin Appleton, WI
Ryan Christensen Shoreline, WA     Charles Roussel Hammond, LA
Ross Cohen Syosset, NY     Sara Sica San Diego, CA
Miguel Deynes Fort Dix, NJ     Sarah Smith Houston, TX
Pat Eldridge New City, NY     Hudson Smith Houston, TX
Michael Fox Farmerville, LA     Kent Stephens Smyrna, GA
Patricia Garcia Tempe, AZ     Jarred Stewart Richardson, TX
Evan Halpine-Berger Windham, CT     Wallace Thiel Presque Isle, WI
Donald Hines Closter, NJ     Tom Walsh New York, NY
William Hoh S. Charleston, WV     Spencer Weisberg Renton, WA
Susumu Ishikawa Tokyo, JPN     Paul Welch Collinsville, IL
Ward Katz Prairie Village, KS     Daniel Wilson St. Paul, MN
Brendan Lambert Colchester, CT     Beth Wohlgelernter New York, NY

 

Research Committee news

Here are the new SABR research committee updates this week:

  • Games Project: After helping to oversee the launch of the successful SABR Games Project two years ago, Nelson “Chip” Greene is stepping down as the lead editor for the project. The Games Project is an initiative to research and write articles on major-league and Negro League regular, postseason, and All-Star Games. These game accounts will complement Retrosheet and Baseball-Reference box scores as well as BioProject essays on the players involved. If you would like to get involved with the Games Project editing team, please contact Chip or visit the Games Project FAQs page for more information.

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 SABR events:

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.

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Originally published: January 22, 2016. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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