This Week in SABR: July 31, 2026
Live from SABR 54 in Cleveland, welcome to “This Week in SABR” on Friday, July 31, 2026.
Click here to view this newsletter on the web.
Early highlights from SABR 54 in Cleveland
Bob DiBiasio, Jim Folk win 2026 Roland Hemond Award
All-Time Eras: Voting now open for Integration Era Team
Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legends project concludes with final selections
Save the date! SABR 55 will be in Birmingham in 2027
Analytics Certification courses now available in Spanish
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View photo galleries from SABR 54 in Cleveland
Can’t make it to Cleveland for SABR 54? Check out more coverage of our 2026 convention from the Hilton Cleveland Downtown online:
For more coverage of SABR 54, visit SABR.org/convention.
Single-day registration available on-site in Cleveland
Single-day registration for SABR 54 can still be purchased on-site during convention registration hours. The single-day rate is:
- Saturday, August 1: $140 for SABR members, $170 non-members
The single-day registration includes admission to all convention panels, research presentations, and committee meetings at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown hotel on Saturday. It can be purchased on-site via cash, check, or credit card (sorry, no American Express accepted.) Please note: Admission to the Friends of SABR Donor Dinner is not included.
Bob DiBiasio, Jim Folk honored with 2026 Roland Hemond Award
Longtime Cleveland Guardians executives Bob DiBiasio and Jim Folk were honored at SABR 54 at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown hotel in Cleveland, Ohio, with the Roland Hemond Award, which recognizes a baseball executive who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to professional baseball scouts and scouting, and player development history.
DiBiasio is the Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for the Cleveland Guardians, where he has worked since 1979. Folk spent more than four decades working in baseball, including more than 30 years with the Cleveland Guardians organization, retiring as Vice President of Ballpark Operations in 2025.
Click here to read the full announcement at SABR.org.
Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legends project concludes with final selections
Eight baseball greats were selected as SABR Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legends for 2026 on Thursday, July 30 at the Nineteenth Century Committee’s annual business meeting at SABR 54 in Cleveland, Ohio.
This year’s selections include Tommy Bond, George Stovey, Grant “Home Run” Johnson, Paul Hines, Joe Start, Cal McVey, Ben Shibe, and John T. Brush.
These eight selections bring the total number of Overlooked Legends to 25, completing a project that began in 2008 with the goal of bringing attention to baseball greats who have been overlooked by the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Two Overlooked Legends were eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame: Deacon White in 2013 and Bud Fowler in 2022.
Click here to read the full announcement at SABR.org.
Save the date! SABR 55 will be in Birmingham in 2027
Save the date! SABR will be heading to Birmingham, Alabama for our 55th annual convention on August 4–8, 2027. Registration information for SABR 55 and our special room block at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel will be available at SABR.org/convention in early 2027.
Birmingham is home to Rickwood Field, the oldest professional baseball park in the United States, along with the Negro Southern League Museum and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Tour.
Click here to read the full announcement at SABR.org.
All-Time Eras: Voting now open for Integration Era Team
Throughout the 2026 season, SABR members will have a chance to vote on SABR’s All-Time Eras Teams as we celebrate the 150 years of baseball and American history since the founding of the National League in 1876. The All-Time Eras Teams project is an interactive opportunity for all SABR members to participate in, debate with one another, and learn more about the iconic players and figures from different eras.
- Cast your vote now for the Integration Era team (1947-1972). Or click here to view the full player list for the Integration Era ballot. All current SABR members are eligible to vote.
Each ballot period will culminate with a virtual Zoom webinar which includes a presentation covering that era of American history prior to the unveiling of the team chosen by our members. The Integration Era team will be unveiled on Tuesday, August 18, along with a special presentation by acclaimed author Howard Bryant. Click here to pre-register for this Zoom meeting.
Visit SABR.org/all-time-eras-teams to learn more about the project, including players selected to the 19th Century Era, Deadball Era, and Segregation Era teams.
2026 executives, college baseball staffs added to SABR MLB Team Employee Database
SABR’s historical database of Major League Baseball team employees has been recently updated to include entries from the 2026 season and to add new entries for thousands of coaches and staff members employed by college baseball teams dating to the late nineteenth century. The SABR MLB Team Employee Database, published through SABR’s Business of Baseball Committee, offers a unique lens into major league front and back offices, from team owners to ticket sales.
Exclusive to SABR members, the MLB Team Employee Database is available for viewing to all SABR members on the Research Resources page. Browse or search by person, team, or season to learn more about the scope of baseball and business operations. Major additions to the database include employees from all 2026 MLB team media guides, as well as a new feature that includes employees of major college baseball programs, going back to the earliest days of collegiate play in the late 1800s.
Click here to read the full announcement at SABR.org.
SABR Analytics Certification courses now available in Spanish
SABR is pleased to announce that the first three courses in the SABR Analytics Certification Program are now available in Spanish, expanding access to its online, on-demand curriculum for Spanish-speaking students, coaches, scouts, front-office professionals, and fans around the world.
SABR se complace en anunciar que los primeros tres cursos del Programa de Certificación en Analítica de SABR ya están disponibles en español, ampliando el acceso a su plan de estudios en línea y bajo demanda para estudiantes, entrenadores, cazatalentos, profesionales de oficinas centrales y aficionados de habla hispana en todo el mundo.
The newly translated courses include:
- Level One: Conversational Analytics and Critical Thinking in Baseball
- Level Two: Advanced Analytics in Baseball
- Level Three: Introduction to Baseball Programming
Since its launch, the SABR Analytics Certification Program has helped learners develop practical skills in baseball analytics through expert-led instruction, real-world applications, and portfolio building exercises. By offering these courses in Spanish, SABR is taking an important step toward making high-quality analytics education more accessible to the global baseball community. Translation services were provided by LingoPal AI and José Hernández Lagunes.
Click here to read the full announcement at SABR.org.
Get your SABR merch at our new online shop
SABR is excited to announce the launch of the new SABR Shop, an online store featuring SABR-branded apparel, home goods, prints, and more for baseball fans.
Among the featured items are exclusive prints showcasing cover art from the Baseball Research Journal, along with a growing collection of SABR merchandise celebrating the organization’s worldwide community. Baseball Research Journal posters feature every edition including the artwork of acclaimed artist and SABR member Gary Cieradkowski, with iconic depictions of Babe Ruth and Satchel Paige amongst other legends of the game. Apparel options include hats, shirts, sweatshirts, and pullovers in men’s, women’s, and unisex selections. New merchandise and designs will continue to be added in the coming months, offering fresh options for the SABR fan in your life.
Visit the SABR Shop today at sabr.shop.
Call for papers: 2027 SABR Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference
All SABR members are invited and encouraged to submit a Research Presentation Proposal Abstract on any topic of 19th-century baseball for the 2027 Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The 18th annual Ivor-Campbell Conference is scheduled for April 16-17, 2027.
The deadline for proposal Abstracts is October 31, 2026. Your abstract must be between 250-500 words for a 20- to 25-minute presentation focused primarily on events taking place prior to 1901. Please include name, title, and contact information and send your proposal as a Microsoft Word or PDF attachment to Peter Mancuso.
Click here to read the full announcement at SABR.org.
Register now for 2026 SABR Northern New Jersey 19th Century Baseball Interdisciplinary Symposium
SABR’s Nineteenth Century Research Committee will host the Northern New Jersey 19th Century Interdisciplinary Symposium as a special virtual event on Saturday, November 14, 2026. The focus of this symposium will be on the rich early baseball and related history of the region, which extends from the New York state border south through Monmouth and Mercer counties.
- Registration for all SABR members is now open; click here to sign up. The cost is $15 per person. The one-day Zoom event will run from approximately 12:00 PM to 5:30 PM Eastern Time on November 14.
The symposium will be highlighted by a keynote address from Jonathan Mercantini, Associate Provost for Special Projects and Professor of History at Kean University. He is an appointed member of the New Jersey Historical Commission and a Trustee of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. The welcome address will be given by John Thorn, the Official Historian of Major League Baseball and the co-founder of SABR’s Nineteenth Century Committee.
Click here to read the full announcement at SABR.org.
Call for papers: Turnstyle: The SABR Journal of Baseball Arts
With the recent release of Volume 5 of Turnstyle: The SABR Journal of the Baseball Arts, SABR’s Baseball and the Arts Committee now turns its sights to submissions for Volume 6.
All SABR members are encouraged to send along your submission, or your questions, to editors Joanne Hulbert or Jay Hurd before September 15, 2026. We are looking for poetry, memoir, artwork, humor, short fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, and parody.
Click here to read the full announcement at SABR.org.
Jake Bennett named 2026 Collegiate Baseball Player of Year by SABR Dallas-Fort Worth chapter
Dallas Baptist University’s Jake Bennett has been chosen as the recipient of the 33rd Howard Green SABR Metroplex Collegiate Player of the Year Award, while Brendan Vela of Texas Wesleyan University was selected as the 15th annual SABR Metroplex Carroll Beringer Award College Division Players of the Year by SABR’s Ernie Banks-Bobby Bragan DFW Chapter.
The prestigious college baseball awards honor the memory of Green, the local SABR chapter’s longtime president, and Beringer, a former major-league pitching coach who was a great supporter of college baseball in the area.
Click here to read the full announcement at SABR.org.
June 9 Board minutes posted
Minutes from the Board of Directors conference call on June 9, 2026, have now been posted on the SABR website.
Click here to view all past minutes of SABR Board meetings.
Find new updates to the SABR Research Collection below, including the Baseball Biography Project, Games Project, and Oral History Collection.
3 new stories published at SABR Biography Project
- A. Bartlett Giamatti, by Lawrence Baldassaro
- Carl Glass, by Stephen V. Rice
- Mellie Wolfgang, by Jason Olivier
Visit SABR.org/bioproject to learn more about the SABR BioProject or to get involved.
3 new stories published at SABR Games Project
- July 31, 1955: Ted Williams was ‘never better’ than when playing against the Tigers, by Bill Nowlin
- September 2, 1965: Ernie Banks hits 400th career home run in Cubs’ win over Cardinals, by Steve Dunn
- November 1, 2023: Texas Rangers win franchise’s first World Series title, by Alexander Harriman
Visit SABR.org/gamesproject to learn more about the SABR Games Project or to get involved.
From Setbacks to Success: The 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes
Edited by Vince Guerrieri, Thomas Kern, and Bill Nowlin
Visit SABR.org to download the free e-book edition or save 50% off the paperback edition of all Digital Library books.
Here are some SABR headlines from recent weeks that we don’t want you to miss:
- SABR Defensive Index rankings released through games of July 12
- Photos, highlights from Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference in Memphis
- Field of Dreams Iowa Chapter dedicates historical marker for Council Bluffs ballpark
- 2026 Henry Chadwick Award recipients announced
- Save the date: Join us for SABR Analytics Conference on March 12–14, 2027
- Read articles from the Spring 2026 Baseball Research Journal
- New Research Resources portal and member login launched
- Learn more about recipients of SABR Research Grants in 2026
- Fourth course in SABR Analytics Certification program is now available
- Learn more about new SABR Institutional Memberships
- Negro Leagues statistics added to SABR Lahman Baseball Database
- View a collection of nearly 100,000 player surveys in the Weiss Baseball Questionnaires collection
- Hundreds of ProQuest US newspapers added to SABR Research Resources
- Find complete collection of SABR-Rucker Archive baseball images online
Please give a warm welcome to all new SABR members who joined this week! View more Members-Only resources at members.sabr.org or click here to download the Membership Handbook. Find contact information for any SABR member in the online Membership Directory.
| NAME | HOMETOWN | NAME | HOMETOWN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Arostegui | Sacramento, CA | Sydney Leahy | Brookhaven, GA | ||
| Walker Ayres | Rising Sun, MD | Simeon Lipman | Cooperstown, NY | ||
| Zadie Becher-Wilkinson | Los Angeles, CA | Tom Mahoney | Mechanicville, NY | ||
| Sean Blest | Fort Mill, SC | Bernard Malnarick | Germantown, WI | ||
| Robert Cannon | Santa Monica, CA | Brian Mann | Suwanee, GA | ||
| Jack Croughwell | Methuen, MA | Michael Noble | Oshawa, ON | ||
| Kevin Cunningham | Foster City, CA | Maryann Parada | Bakersfield, CA | ||
| Terry Dickerson | La Vergne, TN | Kapil Patel | Evans, GA | ||
| Daniel Fallacaro | Fairfield, CT | Jeff Philbrick | Lexington, KY | ||
| Steve Frank | Des Peres, MO | Joseph Quig | Hockessin, DE | ||
| Chris Frost | Aurora, OH | Larry Rampulla | Staten Island, NY | ||
| Gregory Gilbert | Charleston, SC | Eugene Rubinchik | Atlanta, GA | ||
| Jeffrey Gregg | Columbus, OH | Jared Saylor | Olmsted Falls, OH | ||
| Jeff Huston | Seattle, WA | Ken Tallman | Mississauga, ON | ||
| Christopher Johnson | Vienna, VA | Chase Taylor | Odenton, MD | ||
| Michael Jorge | Charlotte, NC | Ed Yoder | Port Matilda, PA | ||
| Joonhyun Kang | Durham, NC | Brook Zelcer | Cresskill, NJ | ||
| Timothy Lauby | Southampton, NJ |
- Events Calendar: Find details of all upcoming SABR events.
- Video Replays: This week, we heard from Mark Langill, Los Angeles Dodgers team historian; and Jesse Asbury (“Indian Bob Johnson: Oklahoma’s Next Hall of Famer?”) Click here to view video replays of virtual SABR events.
Upcoming Virtual Meetings
- August 1: Women in Baseball Diamond Stories with Natola Hawthorne (10:00 AM EDT)
- August 3: Central Florida Chapter meeting with Rick Vaughn (7:30 PM EDT)
- August 8: Bob Davids (DC) Chapter: Talkin’ Baseball with Seth Tannenbaum (9:00 AM EDT)
Upcoming In-Person Meetings
- August 1-2: SABR 54 convention (Cleveland, OH)
- August 3: Rocky Mountain Chapter ballgame/meet-up (Denver, CO)
- August 4: Bob Davids Chapter Virginia Hot Stove Dinner (Arlington, VA)
- August 5: Buck O’Neil/North Florida Chapter meeting (Tallahassee, FL)
- August 5: Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter fellowship meeting (St. Louis, MO)
- August 9: Boston Chapter ballgame/ferry ride (Hull, MA)
To add your SABR event to our calendar listings, please contact Jacob Pomrenke.
- Collegiate Baseball: Spring 2026 newsletter
Sign up for SABR research committee announcements at SABR.org/research/committees.
- Emil Rothe Chicago Chapter: Spring 2026 newsletter (Chicago, IL)
- Rogers Hornsby Chapter: July 2026 newsletter (Austin, TX)
Sign up for SABR chapter announcements at SABR.org/chapters.
Click here to learn more about SABR chartered communities.
Here are some recent articles published by and about SABR members:
- Marc Bona: ‘Baseball Art as the Game’s Storyteller’ on display in downtown Cleveland (Cleveland.com)
- Jay Jaffe: Polarizing Honorees Brought Sparse Crowds for Hall of Fame Induction Weekend (FanGraphs)
- Dan Cichalski: Sun-splashed and spirited crowd watching, Beltrán, Andruw, Kent enshrined in Hall of Fame (MLB.com)
- Ben Lindbergh: Does the Hall of Fame Need a Steroid-Era Redo? (The Ringer)
- Jay Cohen: New league marks another major moment in a scattered history for women’s pro baseball (Associated Press)
- Hannah Keyser: What’s behind MLB’s aggressive sales pitch to fans ahead of this winter’s labor battle (CNN)
- Meghan Montemurro: Pete Crow-Armstrong gets praise from Kevin Kiermaier after passing outfielder for 5-star catches (Chicago Tribune)
- Michael Clair: Former manager John McLaren still spreading baseball after 50 years (MLB.com)
- Daniel R. Epstein: The FIPtastic Mason Miller (Baseball Prospectus)
- Davy Andrews: How the Fish Ended up at the Market (FanGraphs)
- Matt Monagan: A pitcher was traded for 60 cases of beer, and then quit (MLB.com)
- Rob Mains: Is Plate Discipline Still Inevitable? (Baseball Prospectus)
- Mark Simon: Potentially Impactful Defensive Trade Targets (Sports Info Solutions)
- Derrick Goold: As trade deadline nears, cascade of losses leaves Cardinals closer to rebuild than surprise (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
- David Laurila: Resurgent Caleb Durbin Has Helped Resurrect the Red Sox Offense (FanGraphs)
- Maddie Landis: Attempting to Forecast Pitcher Elbow Injuries (Baseball Prospectus)
- Ashok Selvam: Buy Me Some Peanuts and Amberjack (Ravenous)
- Amanda Lane Cumming: 1996 Seattle Mariners Interstitial: Baseball Cards Photographed by Randy Johnson (NW Baseball History)
- Manny Randhawa: Wrigley crowd goes Bananas for Kerry Wood’s incredible trick pitch (MLB.com)
- Sam Gazdziak: Obituary: Duane Ward (1964-2026) (RIP Baseball)
- Jimmy Parker: Hall of Fame Athletes & Hall of Fame Artists (Beauty of a Game)
- Christopher Chavis: May 7, 1946: Coal Strikes, Boston Anxieties, and a Record Within Reach (Baseball and Us)
- Al Doyle: The Super Arcia Bros. (RIP Baseball)
- Roberta J. Newman: Major League Baseball’s 2002 All-Star Tour of Japan (SABR Asian Baseball)
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. To find past editions of TWIS, click here.
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Originally published: July 31, 2026. Last Updated: July 31, 2026.