This Week in SABR: July 15, 2011
Here’s what we’ve been up to as of July 15, 2011:
Live coverage from SABR 41
Couldn’t make it to Long Beach for SABR 41? Check out SABR.org/convention for complete coverage of our national convention in Southern California. Here are some of the highlights:
- Bill Nowlin selected as Bob Davids Award winner
Bill Nowlin, who has authored more than 20 books on the Boston Red Sox and hundreds of articles for SABR’s Baseball Biography Project, was announced as the winner of the 2011 Bob Davids Award during the SABR 41 Awards Luncheon on Friday at the national convention. The award — which is the Society’s highest honor — honors SABR members whose contributions to SABR and baseball reflect the ingenuity, integrity, and self-sacrifice of the founder and past president of SABR, L. Robert “Bob” Davids. - Listen to all five SABR 41 panel discussions
At SABR 41, we had five exciting and informative panel discussions, one for each day of the convention, which you can now listen to in their entirety on your computer:
– MEDICAL PANEL (Wednesday, featuring: Bergert, Carroll, ElAttrache, Wilk)
– MEDIA PANEL (Thursday, featuring: Cameron, Forman, McCue, Squadron, Stanton)
– SABR ERA PANEL (Friday, featuring: Dewan, Gilbert, Hemond, Hufford, Parker, Thorn)
– GENERAL MANAGERS PANEL (Saturday, featuring: Claire, Evans, Hoyer, Neyer)
– PLAYER PANEL (Sunday, featuring: Davis, Ferrara, Mednick)
In addition, Scott Boras’ keynote speech from Thursday morning is available here, along with video of our exclusive interview with him afterward: http://sabr.org/latest/sabr-41-boras-keynote-speech-focuses-data-psychology - Philadelphia chosen as 2013 convention site
The SABR Board of Directors has awarded the 2013 national convention to the city of Philadelphia. The other finalists for the 43rd annual SABR convention were Houston and New York; the Board supported Houston as a strong candidate for the 2014 convention. SABR last held its convention in Philadelphia in June 1974. - Krabbenhoft: Greenberg should share AL RBI record
Herm Krabbenhoft can prove one of major-league baseball’s longest standing records is wrong. He has spent five years accumulating evidence, logging hour after tedious hour combing through library archives, newspaper stories, box scores and official stats. Like a prosecutor, he can walk a jury of his baseball-loving peers through physical and circumstantial proof and lead them to his conclusion: The American League’s single-season RBI record should not belong solely to Lou Gehrig, but rather should be shared with Hank Greenberg. - Davies, Kilgo team win presentation awards
Ross Davies, a professor of law at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia, has won his second Doug Pappas Award for the best oral research presentation and a team led by Patrick Kilgo from Emory University in Atlanta won the USA Today Sports Weekly Award for the best poster presentation at the annual SABR convention. Davies, who is also editor-in-chief of Green Bag, An Entertaining Journal of Law, won for a presentation called “Toolson’s Secrets: A Close Call for the Baseball Antitrust Exemption.” The team of Kilgo, Jeff Switchenko, Hillary Superak, Paul Weiss, Lisa Elon, Brian Schmotzer, and Lance Waller won the award for their poster presentation, “Pitch F/X as a Scouting Tool: Using Advanced Graphical Methods to Scout Hitters.” - Los Angeles area All-Time All-Stars revealed
Traditionally, local SABR convention organizers have chosen an all-time all-star team of players from their region and revealed the list at the annual convention. This year, organizers opened the ballot to everyone after a ballot was carefully prepared by members of the Allan Roth Chapter. A total of 268 votes were received, and the results were revealed by outgoing SABR President Andy McCue — chair of the SABR 41 convention committee — during the Awards Luncheon on Saturday at the Long Beach Hilton. The criteria for this year’s team was that the player had to attend high school in the Los Angeles area.
- Recap and photos of the Southern California Historical Ballparks Tour
One of the side trips at SABR 41 was a bus tour of Southern California’s historical ballpark sites, including Wrigley Field, the Coliseum, Gilmore Field, Vernon Park and Washington Park. Check out photo galleries, courtesy of Maxwell Kates and ACA Photos, and a recap of the tour by Allan Roth Chapter member Al Parnis. - Bill Carle repeats as Trivia Contest individual champion
Bill Carle of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, repeated as individual champion of the highly competitive Trivia Contest late Saturday night during the 41st annual SABR convention at the Long Beach Hilton. The team champion was Ross’ Raiders, consisting of: Steve Krevisky (Middletown, Connecticut); Ty Waterman (Attleboro, Massachusetts); Mike Caragliano (Flushing, New York); and Joe Stanton (Ardmore, Pennsylvania). The three-hour semifinal/final round began at 10 p.m., after SABR 41 convention attendees arrived back at the hotel from the Angels-Mariners game in Anaheim. A robust crowd of about 40 hooted and hollered late into the night as questions varying in difficulty were posted on the video board in the Catalina Room.
More convention coverage can be found here:
- Read a compilation of articles about SABR 41 from the Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, The Hardball Times, FanGraphs, Aaron Gleeman, Ducksnorts and other media outlets
- View a photo gallery of our favorite hats and jerseys on display at SABR 41
- Our Twitter widget on the SABR.org home page was a big hit; read some of the top tweets live from SABR 41 here
- Bob Wright interviewed SABR members for his Baseball History Podcast all week, live from the Vendor Room
- Following the SABR Era panel Friday, ex-Dodgers 1B Wes Parker talked baseball with SABR members for nearly an hour afterward
- Author Aaron Pribble talked about his book, Pitching in the Promise Land, about the fledgling Israel Baseball League
In non-convention news:
Watch the SABR panel discussion at MLB All-Star FanFest
Immediately after SABR 41 ended in Long Beach, SABR members Roland Hemond, Rodney Johnson and John Thorn, along with SABR President Vince Gennaro and Executive Director Marc Appleman, participated in panel discussions with MLB.com’s Cory Schwartz on Monday and Tuesday at the MLB All-Star FanFest in Phoenix, Arizona.
They discussed a variety of topics, including the history of the All-Star Game and baseball in Arizona, and answered many questions from the FanFest audience. Watch Monday’s SABR panel at All-Star FanFest here.
Four new biographies posted at SABR BioProject
Four new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project:
- Fred Haney, by Jim Gordon
- Alice Hoover, by Brian Engelhardt
- Willie Stargell, by James Forr
- Jack Mills, by Rory Costello
All new biographies can be found here: http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=n&m=61
Survey for Asian Baseball Committee
If you have an interest in Asian baseball, please take a few minutes to complete this survey for the 2011 SABR Asian Baseball Committee.
This will help us shape the future of the committee. If you know someone with a passion for Asian baseball, please forward this note. Non-SABR members are welcome to take the survey.
Upcoming events:
- July 16: Sacramento Chapter meeting (Sacramento, CA)
- July 16: “Celebration of Baseball” (La Crosse, WI)
- July 16: Halsey Hall Chapter’s “Hot Stove Morning” (Richfield, MN)
- July 16: “Talkin’ Baseball: Neil Lanctot” (Columbia, MD)
- July 16: Detroit Tigers/Negro Leagues roundtable (Detroit, MI)
- July 17: Baseball Reliquary’s “Shrine of the Eternals” induction (Pasadena, CA)
- July 19: Rogers Hornsby Chapter meeting (Austin, TX)
- July 21: Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference begins (Indianapolis, IN)
- July 24: Cliff Kachline Chapter meeting/Induction Day (Cooperstown, NY)
In other recent SABR news:
- Bob Sproule, chairman of the Forbes Field Chapter, was interviewed by the Pittsburgh Sports Daily Bulletin
- Beth Hise examines how 1744 cricket laws influenced the development of American baseball (MLBlogs.com)
- Bill Petti compares the best “short” pitchers of all-time (Beyond the Box Score)
- Brian McKenna looks at early variations of out-of-town scoreboards (Glimpses Into Baseball History)
All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here.
Find more information about SABR and SABR.org at the Members’ Info page here: http://sabr.org/about/members-info
Originally published: July 15, 2011. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.