This Week in SABR: July 10, 2015

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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 July 10, 2015:

Watch SABR panels at the 2015 All-Star FanFest in Cincinnati

SABR will be in Cincinnati for the 2015 MLB All-Star FanFest!

SABR members are scheduled to participate in a variety of panels throughout All-Star Weekend at the MLB.com stage. To learn more about the All-Star FanFest, July 10-14, 2015, at the Duke Energy Convention Center (525 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45202), click here.

Stop by the MLB.com stage at FanFest to watch these SABR panels:

Origins of the Professional Game Panel
12:00-12:30 p.m., Saturday, July 11

  • Greg Rhodes: Cincinnati Reds team historian, former Executive Director of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum, SABR member
  • John Erardi: Former sports columnist and reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer and co-author of four books on the Cincinnati Reds
  • Moderator: John Thorn: Official Historian for Major League Baseball, longtime SABR member, and noted author and editor

Kids Baseball Panel
2:00-2:30 p.m., Sunday, July 12

  • Panelists include: Max Mannis, Lawna Ferrell, Brody Huffman, and Stephen “Reece” Wahoff
  • Moderator: Leslie Heaphy: SABR Director, Women in Baseball Committee Co-Chair, Negro Leagues historian, and Associate Professor of History and Honors Program Coordinator at Kent State University

Reds Franchise Four Panel
2:00-2:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 14

  • Mike Ferrin: MLB Network Radio host on SiriusXM since 2007; formerly an anchor/producer at WGN Radio in Chicago
  • Hal McCoy: J.G. Taylor Spink Award recipient (2002); longtime Cincinnati Reds beat writer with the Dayton Daily News and Fox Sports Ohio
  • Moderator: Vince Gennaro: SABR President, director of Columbia University’s sports management graduate program, the author of Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball, and host of “By the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM” on Sunday nights

To learn more about the 2015 MLB All-Star FanFest, click here.

To watch past SABR panels from All-Star FanFests in recent years, click here.

SABR’s Marc Appleman adds title of Chief Executive Officer

In recognition of Marc Appleman’s efforts to lead SABR’s national office and the resulting growth of the organization since he came on board in 2010, the Board of Directors has added the title of Chief Executive Officer to his current title of Executive Director.

“Marc’s efforts over the last five years have taken SABR to a new level, enabling the organization and its 6,300 members to become an indispensable part of the baseball community,” said Vince Gennaro, President of the Board of Directors.

During Appleman’s tenure as Executive Director, SABR has averaged double-digit annual revenue growth and has established important strategic relationships throughout the baseball world, furthering the organization’s mission to foster the study, discussion, and understanding of all aspects of baseball, including its history, its data, its role as a social institution, as a business, and as a global sport.

“We look forward to building on our connection to the baseball community — those who have the most to gain from our members’ high-quality research,” Gennaro said. “The efforts of Marc and the staff ensure that the work of SABR’s dedicated researchers has even greater meaning and impact by reaching the leaders and custodians of our national pastime.”

SABR 45: Listen to Ernie Banks/Minnie Minoso Tribute, presented by Phil Rogers

The SABR 45 Awards Banquet on Friday, June 26 at the Palmer House Hilton included a special tribute to Chicago baseball icons Ernie Banks and Minnie Minoso, presented by MLB.com national columnist Phil Rogers.

Banks — the Hall of Fame shortstop known as “Mr. Cub” — and Minoso — who broke the color barrier for Chicago’s baseball teams when he debuted with the White Sox — both died this past offseason. They were revered in the Windy City and around baseball for their prodigious talent on the field and their honored service as ambassadors of the game off the field.

Rogers is a national columnist for MLB.com. He has covered baseball for more than three decades, including as a reporter and columnist for the Chicago Tribune from 1997 to 2013. He has written three books on baseball, Ernie Banks: Mr. Cub and the Summer of ’69 (2011), Say It’s So: The Chicago White Sox’s Magical Season (2006), and The Impossible Takes a Little Longer: The Texas Rangers From Pretenders to Contenders (1990).

For more coverage of SABR 45, visit SABR.org/convention.

SABR 45: Audio highlights from Masanori Murakami, Christina Kahrl, Charles Alexander

At SABR 45, we were thrilled to host special guest speakers at some of the research committee meetings in Chicago, highlighted by the appearance of baseball pioneer Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese-born player in the major leagues, at the Asian Baseball Committee meeting on Saturday, June 27.

Murakami is the subject of a new biography, Mashi, by author Rob Fitts, published this spring by University of Nebraska Press. The pair opened their nationwide book tour at SABR 45 and spoke about Murakami’s life and career as a pitcher with the San Francisco Giants in 1964-65. A preview of an upcoming documentary about Mashi’s life was also presented by Yuriko Gamo Romer. You can listen to audio higlights of Mashi’s session at SABR 45 with Rob Fitts by clicking the MP3 link below:

At the Baseball and the Media Committee meeting on Friday, June 26, committee chair Chuck Hildebrandt conducted a live “Working the Game” interview with Christina Kahrl of ESPN.com, talking about her career in the media as a baseball writer and editor.

At the Deadball Era Committee meeting on Friday, June 26, acclaimed author Charles Alexander — a 2011 recipient of the Henry Chadwick Award — spoke about some lingering questions on baseball in the early 20th century and some of the players he has written about, including Ty Cobb, John McGraw, and Tris Speaker.

Click here to learn more about the SABR 45 committee meetings.

Visit SABR.org/convention for more coverage from SABR 45.

Download your free e-book copy of The National Pastime: Baseball in Chicago

Since 2009, The National Pastime has served as SABR’s convention-focused publication. Published annually, this research journal provides in-depth articles focused on the respective geographic region where the national convention is taking place in a given year.

The SABR 45 convention took place recently in Chicago, and we have dedicated the theme of The National Pastime to baseball in Chicago. All SABR members receive a free expanded e-book copy of The National Pastime as part of their membership benefits, while attendees of the national convention also received a souvenir print edition in their goody bags. This year we had such a surplus of fantastic articles and contributions that the e-book edition contains 45 contributions (the print edition just 25).

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.

If you weren’t able to attend the convention in Chicago, please enjoy this issue of The National Pastime as your virtual trip to the Windy City. Happy reading!

To learn more about contributing to a future SABR publication, click here.

— Cecilia M. Tan, editor

Hotel block expires Monday for 2015 Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference in Pittsburgh

The 18th annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference will be held August 6-8, 2015, at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The conference is open to all baseball, history and sports fans of all ages.

The 2015 Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference will celebrate the rich history of black baseball in Pittsburgh. We welcome proposals for oral and poster presentations from all research fields. Previous presenters have included college faculty, public school teachers, graduate students, and independent scholars. Presentations may focus on any topic related to the theme, “Baseball’s Best: the Grays and the Crawfords,” or other Negro Leagues issues. Some possibilities include: Josh Gibson, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Gus Greenlee, Cum Posey, Vic Harris, Cool Papa Bell, the Crawford Grill, and many others.

Visit SABR.org/malloy for information on the 2015 Call for Papers, Essay Contest, Art Contest, and Library Grant Program.

SABR welcomes new Baltimore chapter and new committee on ballpark concessions

SABR’s Board of Directors has approved the formation of a new regional chapter and a new research committee.

The Baltimore Babe Ruth Chapter serves members in Charm City and around Maryland. The chapter leader is Bernard McKenna. SABR’s 70th chapter is an offshoot of its very first regional group, the Bob Davids Chapter in nearby Washington, D.C., established in 1974.

The Baltimore Babe Ruth Chapter will hold its inaugural meeting at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 25 at the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum, 216 Emory Street in Baltimore. All members and baseball fans are welcome to attend; click here for more details.

The new Concessions Research Committee, led by Bennett Jacobstein and Peter Dolgenos, is intended to document the history and evolution of food at ballparks, and its relation to baseball history and culture, as well as its relation to American popular culture in general.To sign up for e-mail announcements from this committee, click here and select the “Join Group” button at the top of the committee page.

According to Jacobstein, author of The Joy of Ballpark Food: From Hot Dogs to Haute Cuisine, the committee’s goals include monitoring the ever-increasing variety of food items at major and minor league ballparks; documenting the life of pioneer vendor Harry M. Stevens (including the myth of whether or not he invented the hot dog); and establishing a vendors “hall of fame” for legendary vendors such as Roger Owens (the L.A. Dodgers “peanut man”).

SABR’s 70 regional chapters cover 36 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.; plus international chapters in Canada (Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia), Japan, South Korea, Australia, Latin America (Venezuela, Dominican Republic), the United Kingdom, 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.
  • SABR’s 29 research committees comprise a diverse variety of interests and many members are devoted to the study of a specific area related to the game — from Baseball and the Arts to Statistical Analysis to the Deadball Era to Women in Baseball. Learn more about SABR’s research committees by clicking here. 

Working the Game: An interview with Cubs announcer Len Kasper

In this week’s installment of Chuck Hildebrandt’s “Working the Game” series of interviews for SABRMedia.org — revealing what it is like to work as a baseball media professional on a day-to-day basis — we feature Len Kasper of the Chicago Cubs.

Kasper is currently in the middle of his 11th season as the Cubs play-by-play announcer, after having done three seasons doing play-by-play for the (then) Florida Marlins. Prior to joining the Marlins, Kasper did play-by-play for select games for the Milwaukee Brewers from 1999 through 2001. His broadcast career in Milwaukee included a stint as the morning sports anchor at WTMJ-AM, as well as hosting pregame and halftime shows for the Green Bay Packers radio network. Kasper graduated summa cum laude from Marquette University with a degree in public relations in 1993.

Read the full article here: http://sabrmedia.org/2015/07/03/working-the-game-an-interview-with-len-kasper-chicago-cubs-tv/

SABR BioProject, Business of Baseball Committee launch new project on MLB team ownership histories

The SABR Baseball Biography Project and the SABR Business of Baseball Committee are teaming up to create a collection of the ownership histories of major league franchises.

As they are completed, the histories will appear in the Business of Baseball newsletter and be posted permanently in a separate section on the BioProject website. If you are interested in doing a team’s history, or part of a team’s history, such as the St. Louis Browns years of the current Baltimore franchise, please contact Andy McCue (agmccue44@earthlink.net), who will be coordinating the project. The Dodgers are done, and writers have claimed the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs and Indians. But that means 25 other teams are available.

The histories should be as comprehensive as possible, covering the changes in ownership, the price paid, the makeup of partnerships, the division of responsibilities among the partners, the reasoning of both the buyers and the sellers, and economically significant events within the era of each ownership group. There is no need to talk about events on the field unless they have a direct impact on the bottom line or a change in ownership.

It is likely that arguments with cities over stadiums and threatened (or actual) re-locations will play a role in the essays. The histories should be long enough to tell the story, but should be as tight as possible. There is no set word limit. The essays should include endnotes on sources. Heavy detail, such as the holdings of minor partners, might well be left to those endnotes.

Research guidance will be available if needed. Over the long run, it will be necessary to keep updating these essays and the original researchers will be given first opportunity to do those updates.

This will be a great project for SABR and a great contribution to the field.

— Andy McCue

2015 Jack Kavanagh Memorial Youth Baseball Research Award winners announced

The 2015 winners of the Jack Kavanagh Memorial Youth Baseball Research Award are:

Click the links above to download the winning essays.

No award was given in the middle school division. The winners will receive a plaque honoring their achievement, a $200 prize, and a one-year membership to SABR.

The Jack Kavanagh Memorial Youth Baseball Research Award was established in 1999 by the Society for American Baseball Research in recognition of Kavanagh’s writing and research achievements and his contributions to SABR.

Winning entries from previous years can be viewed by clicking here.

SABR Digital Library: Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox

Add a salacious baseball book to your collection with the newest book from the SABR Digital Library:

Scandal on the South Side:
The 1919 Chicago White Sox
Edited by Jacob Pomrenke
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-933599-95-3
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-933599-94-6
$19.95 paperback; $9.99 e-book
8.5″ x 11″, 324 pages

The Black Sox Scandal is a cold case, not a closed case.

When Eliot Asinof wrote his classic history about the fixing of the 1919 World Series, Eight Men Out, he told a dramatic story of undereducated and underpaid Chicago White Sox ballplayers, disgruntled by their low pay and poor treatment by team management, who fell prey to the wiles of double-crossing big-city gamblers offering them bribes to lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Eddie Cicotte, and the other Black Sox players were all banned from organized baseball for life. But the real story is a lot more complex.

We now have access to crucial information that changes what we thought we knew about “baseball’s darkest hour” — including rare film footage from that fateful fall classic, legal documents from the criminal and civil court proceedings, and accurate salary information for major-league players and teams. All of these new pieces to the Black Sox puzzle provide definitive answers to some old mysteries and raise other questions in their place.

However, the Black Sox Scandal isn’t the only story worth telling about the 1919 Chicago White Sox. The team roster included three future Hall of Famers, a 20-year-old spitballer who would go on to win 300 games in the minor leagues, and even a batboy who later became a celebrity with the “Murderers’ Row” New York Yankees in the 1920s.

All of their stories are included in Scandal on the South Side, which has full-life biographies on each of the 31 players who made an appearance for the White Sox in 1919, plus a comprehensive recap of Chicago’s pennant-winning season, the tainted World Series, and the sordid aftermath.

This book isn’t a rewriting of Eight Men Out, but it is the complete story of everyone associated with the 1919 Chicago White Sox. The Society for American Baseball Research invites you to learn more about the Black Sox Scandal and the infamous team at the center of it all.

Contributors include: Bruce Allardice, Russell Arent, Steve Cardullo, Brian Cooper, James E. Elfers, David Fleitz, David Fletcher, Daniel Ginsburg, Irv Goldfarb, John Heeg, Rick Huhn, Bill Lamb, Len Levin, Dan Lindner, Adrian Marcewicz, Brian McKenna, Steven G. McPherson, Paul Mittermeyer, Jack Morris, Peter Morris, Rod Nelson, James R. Nitz, Bill Nowlin, Jacob Pomrenke, Kelly Boyer Sagert, Jim Sandoval, Richard Smiley, Lyle Spatz, Steve Steinberg, Brian Stevens, Andy Sturgill, and Gregory H. Wolf.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

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.

Listen to Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM

We invite you to listen to Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a new radio show hosted by SABR President Vince Gennaro, on Sunday nights on MLB Network Radio.

Baseball SABR Style focuses on examining and interpreting the statistical analysis that plays a critical role in baseball today. It will air 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. (Recent shows are available afterward in the “on-demand” section of the SiriusXM app or website.)

For more information, click here.

7 new biographies posted at SABR BioProject

Seven new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 3,274 published biographies. Here are the new bios:

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, 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.

4 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

Four new game stories were posted this week as part of the SABR Games Project. Here are the new game stories:

The SABR Baseball Games Project was launched in 2014 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.

The articles are not intended to be mere play-by-play summaries, nor should they be first-person narratives. Rather the goal is to put each game in historical context — whether that history is of a particular player, team, season, or something even broader.

Visit the Games Project website at SABR.org/gamesproject.

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
Barry Adams Stockbridge, GA     Gregory Langlois San Leandro, CA
Alex Blenkush Foley, MN     Rich Levine Los Angeles, CA
Andrew Calandra Windham, NH     Corbin Lorick Jonesboro, AR
Joe Corso Oakton, VA     Cesar Love San Francisco, CA
Sean Crawford Chatham, IL     John Marsh State College, PA
Al Crisafulli Great Meadows, NJ     Bill McPoil Sacramento, CA
Bruce Enos Santa Rosa, CA     Randolph Neil Overland Park, KS
Bill Finnegan W. Des Moines, IA     Richard Nemec Los Angeles, CA
Jeff Goodwin San Francisco, CA     Victor Republicano III Tucson, AZ
James Howell Tucson, AZ     Peter Wallace Durham, NC
Ted Humphrey Los Angeles, CA        

 

Research Committee news

Here are the new SABR research committee updates for 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 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.

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Originally published: July 10, 2015. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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