This Week in SABR: July 31, 2020

July 31, 2020/in This Week in SABR /by Jacob Pomrenke

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 31, 2020:

Watch SABR Virtual panels and presentations online

Thanks to everyone who joined us throughout the month of July 2020 for SABR Virtual, a series of online presentations, chats, and panel discussions featuring authors, scholars, and figures from around the game.

SABR Virtual sessions were held each weekend from July 9 to July 26. Recordings are now available for all baseball fans to view online at SABR.org/virtual-meetings and on our SABR Virtual playlist on YouTube.

Click on a link below to watch highlights of these featured panels on YouTube:

Half a Century in Half an Hour: SABR’s 50 at 50 Project, with Leslie Heaphy, John Thorn, and Jason Schwartz
Evaluating Baseball Art: Storytelling in a Digital Age, with Graig Kreindler, Anika Orrock, Dick Perez, and Anthony Salazar
Civil Rights and Baseball: Perception and Reality, with Dr. Louis Moore and Emily Hawks
Baseball Then and Now: Arnold Hano’s 94 Years in the Bleachers, with Jon Leonoudakis, Mark Armour, and Jean Ardell. (Click here to watch the film on Amazon Prime.)
MLB Diversity Initiatives and Social Justice Resources, with Tyrone Brooks and Corey Smith
One on One: MLB’s Cory Schwartz, interviewed by Dan Evans

Visit SABR.org/virtual-meetings to view nearly 40 more baseball presentations that were delivered during SABR Virtual.

SABR Editorial Board seeks new baseball research project proposals

For the past 50 years, SABR’s mission has always been to publish and promote member research. That research has taken many forms, from the early days of committee newsletters and pamphlets to today’s collaborative model of printed and electronic books, themed research journals, and multimedia web projects.

Since the SABR Digital Library program was established in 2011, SABR has published more than 70 original books, averaging nearly one book per month in recent years. It has become clear that members will always have more ideas and more research than we can keep up with publishing in our current model. Committees, chapters, and members are working on more projects now than at any other time in SABR’s history. The newly redesigned SABR.org website, with a growing audience of nearly 2.5 million annual visitors, affords members even more opportunities to publish their work online and take advantage of digital publishing technologies.

SABR’s new Editorial Board — which includes Scott Bush, Christina Kahrl, Bill Nowlin, Jacob Pomrenke, Anthony Salazar, Cecilia Tan, and Sarah Wexler — was established to evaluate proposals for publication. The Board welcomes new project proposals from members to be considered for publication through the Digital Library, SABR.org, or any other multimedia formats. We strongly encourage new proposals that have no intention of being published as a book.

Visit https://bit.ly/sabr-editorial-board-proposals to submit a SABR project proposal online

Proposals will be graded using the following criteria: Significance, Interest, Marketability, Intersectionality, Originality, and Likelihood of Completion. SABR seeks to publish about four web-based multimedia projects and 6-8 books per year. Book projects should be of a scope that can fit in a single volume, typically between 100,000 and 200,000 total words. Two sample project proposals can be downloaded by clicking here.

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

Bud Fowler Selected as SABR’s Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legend of 2020

John “Bud” Fowler has been selected as SABR’s Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend for 2020. The announcement was made on July 29 at the Nineteenth Century Committee’s annual business meeting held during SABR Virtual.

This spring, a record 341 SABR members submitted their votes for the 2020 Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legend — a 19th-century player, manager, executive or other baseball personality not yet inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

This December, the Hall of Fame’s Early Baseball Committee will meet and vote on eligible candidates for induction whose greatest contributions to the game were realized prior to 1950. This committee is not scheduled to vote again for 10 more years, until 2030.

Previous Overlooked Legends were Pete Browning in 2009, Deacon White (2010), Harry Stovey (2011), Bill Dahlen (2012), Ross Barnes (2013), Doc Adams (2014), Tony Mullane (2015), Jack Glasscock (2016), Bob Caruthers (2017), William “Dummy” Hoy (2018), and Jim Creighton last year. White became the first Overlooked Legend to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013.

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

Take a 40% discount on University of Nebraska Press baseball books

During SABR Virtual, the University of Nebraska Press is offering its usual convention discount of 40% off and free shipping through August 15, 2020, including SABR’s upcoming 50th anniversary anthology.

Click here to browse baseball books from the University of Nebraska Press

To save 40%, enter the code 6ASAB2 in the promotion code field of your shopping cart and click “Add Promotion Code.” Offer is good for US and Canadian shipments only.

Baseball has seen many changes in the last 50 years, and SABR’s upcoming 50th anniversary provides an opportunity to highlight the most memorable players, teams, and events from the game’s glorious past. SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game, edited by Bill Nowlin and now available for pre-order from the University of Nebraska Press, celebrates and highlights SABR’s wide-ranging contributions to baseball history. Click here to learn more about this book.

Join us for more Stay Home With SABR virtual events

SABR chapters and committees are encouraged to set up virtual meetings to stay engaged with our members throughout the world at SABR.org, as part of our Stay Home With SABR initiative to assist in limiting the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

This week, we heard from former MLB pitcher Brad Lidge, Hall of Name author D.B. Firstman and broadcaster Brett Dolan, and a panel on our new 1995 Atlanta Braves book with Peter Gordon, Tom Hufford, Jacob Pomrenke, and Sam Gazdziak.

Here are some more upcoming virtual events you can attend online:

August 1: Talkin’ Baseball: Rick Huhn (9:00 a.m. EDT)
August 1: Hemond-Delhi Arizona Chapter meeting with Ed Lynch (1:00 p.m. MST)
August 3: Juan Marichal (D.R.) Chapter meeting with J. Feliz Luzón (8:00 p.m. EDT)
August 5: Baltimore Babe Ruth Chapter meeting with Bernard McKenna (6:00 p.m. EDT)
August 5: Buck O’Neil/North Florida Chapter meeting with Chuck Rosciam (7:00 p.m. EDT)
August 5: Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter book club meeting (8:00 p.m. EDT)
August 10: Casey Stengel (NYC) Chapter meeting with Tom Stone (7:00 p.m. EDT)

Find more upcoming virtual meetings and watch replays of past events on our SABR Virtual Calendar page.

SABR Negro Leagues Committee awards $1,000 scholarships in 2020 essay contest

SABR’s Negro Leagues Research Committee was pleased to award $1,000 scholarships to four high school seniors in its 12th annual Thomas R. Garrett Scholarship essay contest in 2020:

Sierra Kinsler, of Owings Mills, Maryland, was awarded the Rube Foster Scholarship.
Marlo Towle, of Reno, Nevada, was awarded the Jimmie Crutchfield Scholarship.
Irena Petryk, of Morton Grove, Illinois, was awarded the Robert Peterson Scholarship.
Sarah Harper, of Palm Coast, Florida, was awarded the Tweed Webb Scholarship.

Click here to learn more about the winners at SABR.org.

The contest was open to high school seniors and carrying a minimum GPA of 2.5 at the end of their junior year. Students had to write a 1,200-word essay answering a question related to one of the Negro League figures who are the namesakes of the scholarships.

SABR 50, Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference to swap dates in 2021

SABR is pleased to announce a trade — between the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference and the 50th annual National Convention.

Two of SABR’s signature events will switch dates in the summer of 2021 to enhance the experience for everyone involved. The SABR 50 convention will now take place on June 16-20, 2021, at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. The Malloy Conference will be held on July 29-31, 2021, at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama.

“The Jerry Malloy Negro League Committee has decided to trade conference dates with SABR’s 50th National Convention in Baltimore next season,” said Larry Lester, chair of SABR’s Negro League Committee. “The trade will provide us with more time to develop incoming rookies as the Malloy Conference reboots after a three-year hiatus. We promise to put a solid team of presenters at the podium en route to another championship season.”

The switch also ensures SABR 50 attendees will be able to attend a Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards. The Orioles are scheduled to play the Toronto Blue Jays in a weekend series at home on June 18-20, 2021.

“I didn’t expect SABR to make a trade before Jerry Dipoto this summer, but we’re receiving tremendous value from the Malloy Conference in the month of June,” SABR CEO Scott Bush said. “We are excited for the return of our National Convention in 2021!”

Stay tuned for more information on registration and hotel availability for SABR 50 and the Malloy Conference in early 2021 at SABR.org/events.

SABR unveils First Games Back project for Opening Day 2020

As we welcome Opening Day in 2020, SABR invites all baseball fans to check out our First Games Back project, edited by Bill Nowlin and Alan Cohen, a look at how baseball has returned to play following all the unusual delays that have kept leagues, teams, and players off the field: wars, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, injuries, illnesses, franchise relocations, and more.

This collection of 32 articles highlights the breadth and depth of SABR research, showcasing a variety of stories from the earliest days of baseball history into the 21st century.

Click here to view the First Games Back collection at the SABR Games Project

As Cohen writes in his introduction to the project:

After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, baseball games were canceled as America collectively mourned the loss of life. Games began on September 17 and the first games back in New York City produced a blend of exhilaration and remembrance. Another act of terror in Boston in 2013 showed the resilience of that city’s fanbase.

There were pauses in play for natural disasters, including a World Series earthquake in the Bay Area and a devastating hurricane in Houston. There were returns after work stoppages in 1981 and 1994-95. Civil disturbances in the 1960s also impacted the baseball schedule. In 1919, the start of the season was delayed while an influenza pandemic ravaged the entire world.

Cities that had been without major-league baseball for decades saw the game return and fans turned out to welcome new teams.

Baseball is a game for a resilient and perpetually optimistic fanbase, and it is to those fans that these stories are dedicated.

More stories will be added to the First Games Back project soon. Play ball!

SABR Digital Library: Pride of Smoketown: The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords

Add a new baseball book to your collection from the SABR Digital Library:

Pride of Smoketown: The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords
Edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin
Associate editors Len Levin and Carl Riechers
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-970159-25-7, $34.95
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-970159-24-0, $9.99
8.5” x 11”, 349 pages

Click here to read the full description of this book at SABR.org.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of Pride of Smoketown for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, Kindle/MOBI and EPUB formats.
Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the Pride of Smoketown paperback edition from the SABR Store ($17.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Kindle Direct Publishing can take up to 4-6 weeks.)

SABR members can download all Digital Library e-books for free or save 50% off the paperback editions. To find all titles, visit SABR.org/ebooks.

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.

SABR office continuing to work remotely

The SABR office, housed at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona, has been closed indefinitely due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. Staff members will work remotely until it is advisable to resume normal operations on-site.

Please contact a member of the SABR staff by email or phone with any questions.

SABRcast with Rob Neyer: Listen to an interview with Brian Kenny of MLB Network

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 #70 on Monday, July 27 featured Brian Kenny, an Emmy Award-winning MLB Network host and author of Ahead of the Curve: Inside the Baseball Revolution. At MLB Network, he is one of the sport’s leading voices on sabermetrics and he appears across the network’s studio programming, including “MLB Now” and “MLB Tonight.” A 25-year national TV and radio veteran, Brian joined MLB Network from ESPN, where he was a “SportsCenter” anchor, host of the “Brian Kenny Show” on ESPN Radio and an Emmy Award-winning anchor for “Baseball Tonight.” He also has been a longtime boxing play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports.

Visit SABR.org/sabrcast to listen to the full episode.

Subscribe to SABRcast on your favorite podcast networks, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play, and listen to each episode as soon as it’s released on Mondays. To learn more, visit SABR.org/sabrcast.

6 new SABR biographies published

Six new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project. Here are the new bios published this week:

Sam Bowen, by Bill Nowlin
Alex Ferson, by Bill Lamb
Verdell Mathis, by Frederick “Rick” Bush
Mike Paxton, by Bill Nowlin
Toots Shor, by Vince Guerrieri
Julio Valdéz, by Bob LeMoine

All new biographies can be found here: SABR.org/bioproject

Find any SABR biography: You can visit sabr.org/bioproject to search for any player — or manager, executive, scout, spouse, broadcaster, or umpire — who appears in the SABR BioProject. In addition, we have pages for Ballparks, Broadcasters, Executives, Games, Managers, Scouts, Spouses, Umpires, Writers, people who were Famous Outside Baseball, and a lot more.

14 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

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

May 1, 1883: Philadelphia returns to National League for first game in Phillies history, by Mark Kanter and Matt Veasey
April 26, 1907: Boston’s Johnny Bates ‘toyed with the sphere’ for the cycle, by Mike Huber
June 28, 1911: Mathewson shuts out Boston in Giants’ first game at new Polo Grounds, by Stew Thornley
April 21, 1921: A cloud over Chicago as White Sox return for home opener after World Series scandal, by Kevin Larkin
October 1, 1921: Babe Ruth yields six runs as relief pitcher, then earns win in 11th, by Mike Huber
September 17, 1955: Millers’ Bob Lennon breaks up no-hitter — twice in same game, by Stew Thornley
September 8, 1963: Stan Musial bids farewell to Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, by Jack Zerby
May 29, 1971: Tom Seaver strikes out 10 Padres to win opener for Mets, by David Krell
August 8, 1973: Orioles ‘resign’ 5-run lead, lose exhibition in Rochester, by Kurt Blumenau
August 9, 1976: John Candelaria pitches Pirates’ first no-hitter in Pittsburgh in seven decades, by John Fredland
May 24, 1983: Cardinals’ Dave LaPoint finally finishes what he starts, by Tom Schott (first-time author)
October 3, 1985: Keith Hernandez goes 5-for-5, but Mets fall to Cardinals, by John Salvador (first-time author)
October 15, 1989: Mike Moore, A’s power past Giants to take 2-0 lead in World Series, by Thomas J. Brown Jr.
June 19, 2016: Cubs overpower Pirates on Fathers’ Day at Wrigley Field, by Adam Young

New Games Project stories can be found at SABR.org/gamesproject.

Get involved: Have memories of a game you attended? Or a game you watched that caught your interest? Write about it! Writing for the Games Project is an easy way to get involved as a SABR member. Find out how by reading the Games Project FAQs section or checking out the Authors’ Guidelines. We have editors and fact checkers who are willing to help you write your first article.
Social media: Follow the SABR Games Project on Twitter or Facebook to keep up with new stories and updates.

Listen to recent episodes of Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on Saturdays

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by former SABR Board President Vince Gennaro, is back at a new time. Listen to new episodes at 5:00-6:00 p.m. ET on Saturdays on MLB Network Radio.

You can also listen to archives of recent episodes on-demand on the SiriusXM Internet Radio app.

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM 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.

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: https://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 Membership 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.

Name	Hometown	Name	Hometown
Michael Brennan	Staten Island, NY	Connor Jones	Hoover, AL
Cody Cahill	Council, ID	Jack Liebl	Chicago, IL
Patrick Campbell	Santa Rosa, CA	Andrew Middleman	Cockeysville, MD
Thomas Carney	Ellicott City, MD	Jay Noceto	Oakland, CA
Mark Carr	Athens, AL	Jacob Norman	Grand Blanc, MI
Jeffrey Dahl	St. Louis, MO	Christopher Paluso	Spring Valley, CA
Jon Duncan	Glenview, IL	Al Plamann	La Cañada, CA
Phill Giggey Sr.	Cincinnati, OH	Robert Schaefer	Crystal River, FL
Daniel Golden	Plano, TX	Stephen Shiller	West Orange, NJ
Martha Gregg	Sioux Falls, SD	Richard Vitaris	Avondale Estates, GA
David Holden	Toronto, ON	Steve Wiegand	Sun City West, AZ

Research Committee news

Here are the new research committee updates this week:

Games Project: Check out the new First Games Back project

Find all SABR research committee newsletters at SABR.org/research/committees.

Regional Chapter news

Here are the new regional chapter updates this week:

Boston Chapter: Read a new “Dispatches From the Mudville Bureau,” by Joanne Hulbert (Boston, MA)

Visit SABR.org/chapters for more information on SABR regional chapters.

SABR Events Calendar

Scroll up to the top of this newsletter to learn more about the upcoming virtual events on the SABR calendar. In addition, the following in-person meetings are scheduled on our Events Calendar:

August 1: Halsey Hall Chapter Book Club meeting (St. Paul, MN)
August 10: Halsey Hall Chapter Research Committee meeting (St. Paul, MN)

We strongly recommend that all SABR chapters follow CDC public health guidelines and your local/state government regulations when scheduling any in-person meetings and events.

Find details on all upcoming meetings on our SABR Events Calendar page.

Around the Web

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

John Breunig: UConn professor wanted baseball therapy for dementia to become a national pastime (CTInsider.com)
Mary Pilon/Travon Free: John Donaldson, a Black Baseball Great, Still Not in the Hall of Fame (New York Times)
Rob Arthur: What Can Trevor Bauer’s Pine Tar Experiment Tell Us About Drag? (Baseball Prospectus)
Marc Carig: Without fans, baseball’s new summer soundtrack gets salty (The Athletic)
Shakeia Taylor: Activism is Art Over Action for MLB (Baseball Prospectus)
Steven Goldman: The Miami Marlins and the Senseless Pursuit of Sport (Baseball Prospectus)
Stephanie Apstein: Daniel Bard battles yips to return with Rockies (Sports Illustrated)
Jayson Stark: The extra-inning rule is ‘half-court baseball — and it’s awesome’ (The Athletic)
Emma Baccellieri: What does ‘home’ mean in MLB? The Blue Jays are finding out (Sports Illustrated)
Rob Mains: Three Dumb Predictions About the 2020 Season (Baseball Prospectus)
Russell Carleton: This Isn’t Even Baseball Anymore (Baseball Prospectus)
Hannah Keyser: Destined to fail? MLB’s plan to play during the pandemic is simply not working (Yahoo! Sports)
Alex Vigderman: Shifts are rising again in baseball (ACTA Sports)
David Laurila: A Conversation with Andy McKay, Mariners Director of Player Development (FanGraphs)
Clayton Trutor: Cincinnati Bearcats Well-Represented in SABR’s Baseball Biography Project (Down The Drive)
Jay Jaffe: Mike Trout Is Now Fully Qualified for the Hall of Fame (FanGraphs)
Marc Bona: Bieber’s Ks in opener recall 1960 game: Bell fans 12 as Rocky Colavito is traded (Cleveland.com)
Gordon Edes: Elaine Steward: 30 years later, first female assistant GM reflects on making history with Red Sox (RedSox.com)
Thomas Gilbert: Feminism and baseball’s founding fathers (How Baseball Happened)
Matt Monagan: The long, rich history of baseball in Buffalo (MLB.com)
Brian Frank: The Last Major League Game in Buffalo (MiLB.com)
J.J. Cooper: Brandon Bellamy Set To Become Only Black Majority Owner In Professional Baseball (Baseball America)
Rachael McDaniel: The Summer Nate Pearson Came to Town (FanGraphs)
Bruce Adams: Safe at Home Tuesdays with Bob Kendrick, Doug Foster, and Dwayne Sims (Big Train TV)
Kevin Baxter: Dodgers return brings memories of East L.A. barrio baseball (Los Angeles Times)
Sarah R. Ingber/Davy Andrews/Roger Cormier: Too Far From Town: Quad Cities River Bandits (Baseball Prospectus)
Anne R. Keene: Marine Corps veteran brings Walk4Valor to Citi Field (LongIsland.com)
David A. Scott: 1920 Indians: Home Fires Burning (Medium.com)
Tim Jenkins: Hawaii Six-1 (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)

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.

Have trouble reading this e-mail? Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web.

Are you receiving our e-mails? “This Week in SABR” goes out by e-mail to all members on Friday afternoons. If they’re not showing up, try adding “sabr.notes@sabr.org” to your contact list to ensure they show up in your inbox (and not the spam folder.)

Follow us: