This Week in SABR: June 10, 2022

June 10, 2022/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 June 10, 2022:

SABR 50: Orioles legend Boog Powell to speak at 2022 Baltimore convention

We’re excited to announce Orioles legend Boog Powell as a featured speaker at this summer’s SABR 50 convention, August 17-21, 2022, at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor Hotel in Baltimore.

Powell is one of the most beloved Baltimore Orioles players in the team’s storied history. He played first base and outfield for 17 major-league seasons from 1961 to 1977, winning two World Series championships with the O’s in 1966 and ’70. He earned American League MVP honors in 1970 and finished his career with 339 home runs. Since 1992, when the Orioles began playing at Camden Yards, he has operated Boog’s BBQ on Eutaw Street, a must-visit attraction for any baseball fan.

Conference and hotel registration for SABR 50 is now available below. Click here for complete details on the SABR 50 All-Inclusive Package, Regular Registration, and optional sessions. Or click here to register for SABR 50.

We have an All-Star lineup of featured speakers and exciting events planned for SABR 50, including:

Keynote address by Tim Kurkjian, winner of the BBWAA’s 2022 Career Excellence Award
Opening Remarks by Sig Mejdal, Vice President and Assistant General Manager, Analytics, Baltimore Orioles
Oriole Park at Camden Yards panel with Bill Stetka (Orioles Team Historian), Greg Bader (Orioles Senior Vice President, Administration & Experience), and Joe Spear (founder of Populous)
Women in Leadership panel with Orioles executives Eve Rosenbaum (Assistant General Manager, Baseball Operations), Nicole Sherry (Director, Field Operations), Jennifer Grondahl (Senior Vice President, Community Development & Communications), and Lisa Tolson (Senior Vice President, Human Resources)
Babe Ruth panel with authors Jane Leavy (The Big Fella), Bill Jenkinson (The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs), and Mike Gibbons, Director Emeritus and Historian for the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum
Historic Ballparks Bus Tour on Thursday, August 18
Baltimore Orioles vs. Boston Red Sox game on Friday, August 19

Please note: All speakers are subject to change due to availability.

Visit SABR.org/convention to learn more about SABR 50 or to register.

SABR 50: Poster Presentations

Here is the list of poster presentations that will be on display throughout the SABR 50 convention, August 17-21, 2022, in Baltimore:

Tad Berkery, “Grouping for Predictability: Clustering Batted Balls to Project Next-Year wOBA”
Jaspar Carmichael, “Baiting and Ambushing in Baseball: A Game Theoretic Approach”
Alan D. Cohen, “The Slow Rate of Integration as Shown by Lists”
Kevin Michael Doyle, “Boats & Baseball – The 1943 Saint Augustine Coast Guard All-Stars Baseball Team”
David Jeremy Gordon, “Quantitative Assessment of Career Value in the Negro Leagues”
Tom Hanrahan, “The Dodgers’ Unique and Incredible Accomplishment, 2018-2021”
Chuck Hildebrandt, “The Peters Principle: Multiple Rookie Seasons”
Anthony W. Hughes, “Dave Duncan’s Revenge”
Adam Korengold, “Re-Visualizing Baseball Cards and Data: New Ways of Seeing”
Herm Krabbenhoft, “Sac-Fly Rules: Roadblock or Gateway to a Career .300 Average?””
Vinay Kumar, “Talent Differential: The Balance of Talent across the NL and AL”
Allison R. Levin and Mitchell Daniels, “Not Your Typical Team: What MLB Can Learn from The Savannah Bananas”
Dale Mahoney, “Was Ohtani Shohei’s 2021 Season the Best Two-Way Season Ever?”
Bill Marston, “I’ll Do It Myself – The Stories Behind UTPs”
Roberta J. Newman, “Koshien Dreams: Yuuji Terajima’s Ace of the Diamond and the Reinforcement of Cultural Values in Baseball Manga”
Ashwin Pasupathy, “A Markov Model Using Batted Ball Profiles for Lineup Optimization”
Marty Payne, “Jim Crow Plays Hard Ball”
Tom Thress, “The First No-Hitter in World Series History”
Gregory H. Wolf, “A Fighting Spirit: The 1901 AL Charter Member Baltimore Orioles”
Peiyuan Xu, “Introducing a Reinforcement Learning Framework for Dynamic Baseball Scheduling”

For more information, or to register for the SABR 50 convention in Baltimore, visit SABR.org/convention.

Check out highlights, photos from 2022 SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference

SABR’s annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference was held on June 2-4, 2022, at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama.

The conference was highlighted by the appearance of former Negro Leagues players, including the Rev. Bill Greason, and panel discussions on “The Negro Leagues Are Major Leagues: Statistically Speaking” and “Black Ball and the Hall: Justice in Cooperstown?” Attendees enjoyed visits to historic Rickwood Field and Regions Field, the Negro Southern League Museum, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Tour.

Presentations were given by Gary Gillette, Kimberly White-Glenn, Todd Peterson, Keith Crook, James Overmyer, Ken Bartelt, Clem Hamilton, Tom Thress, Duke Goldman, and Ben Alter. Click here to view the full schedule for the 2022 Malloy Conference.

Click here to view a photo gallery at Flickr.com, courtesy of Sherman Jenkins and John Wakelin.

Visit SABR.org/malloy to learn more.

Heaphy, Nowlin, Levin re-elected to SABR Board of Directors in 2022

SABR members have re-elected Vice President Leslie Heaphy and Directors Bill Nowlin and Allison Levin to the organization’s Board of Directors in the 2022 election.

Leslie Heaphy was elected as SABR’s Vice President, receiving 629 of 909 first-preference votes. Bruce McClure finished runner-up with 280 first-preference votes.

Bill Nowlin and Allison Levin were elected as SABR Directors. Nowlin received 521 first-preference votes and Levin received 295 first-preference votes out of 935 ballots cast. Bill Pearch received 118 first-preference votes.

Special thanks go out to Tellers Committee members Mike Emeigh, Alex Marks, and Eric Simonsen for certifying the results on June 6 in a virtual meeting and to the Nominations Committee of Anthony Salazar, Melissa Booker, and Clayton Trutor for their help in preparing the candidate statements.

The 2022 SABR elections featured online voting for the 13th consecutive year as well as traditional paper ballots. A total of 935 votes were received, constituting about 13.22 percent of the membership.

SABR members can find complete 2022 election results, including write-in candidates and voting totals, posted here.

A historical list of SABR’s Board of Directors can be found by clicking here. Past voting totals can be found here.

SABR BioProject reaches milestone with 6,000th baseball biography

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the SABR Baseball Biography Project has reached another milestone with its 6,000th published biography. SABR’s most ambitious research initiative, which began in 2002 and is now directed by Gregory H. Wolf and Rory Costello, aims to produce comprehensive, peer-reviewed profiles of every person who ever played or managed in the major leagues, as well as other subjects significant to baseball history.

More than 800 SABR members have contributed to the BioProject as writers, editors, or peer reviewers over the past two decades.

The newest batch of SABR bios includes notable — and unheralded — figures from all eras of baseball history. Our recent bios include stories about:

Jason Giambi, the All-Star first baseman for the Oakland A’s and New York Yankees, by Ralph Caola
Fritz Maisel, a 1910s stolen base king and longtime Baltimore Orioles scout and executive, by Malcolm Allen
Ray Rippelmeyer, Washington Senators pitcher who became a successful pitching coach, by Thomas Van Hyning
Dave Skaugstad, who at age 17 became the first person born in the 1940s to appear in a game, by Larry DeFillipo
George Barclay, a 19th-century college football champion and major-league outfielder, by Bill Lamb
Butch Henline, the first catcher to homer three times in a game and the first umpire to eject Jackie Robinson, by Russ Walsh
Bobby Marshall, a multisport star at the University of Minnesota and early Black baseball teams, by Bill Johnson

At SABR.org/BioProject, you can read about anyone in baseball from A (Henry Aaron) to Z (Bob Zuk). Some of our favorite articles produced by the BioProject are of the “cup of coffee” players whose stories are rarely told, such as Moonlight Graham, a one-time Giants outfielder whose name was immortalized in the film Field of Dreams. You can also read about Negro Leagues greats like Oscar Charleston or Josh Gibson, and stars from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League such as Marge and Helen Callaghan.

It’s easy to get involved. Any SABR member is eligible to write for the BioProject, the Ballparks Project, or the Games Project. If you’d like to contribute, visit our BioProject Resources page or read the FAQs section to get started. If you’re not a SABR member, visit SABR.org/join to learn more or to sign up for an annual or monthly membership.

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

Watch: Ballpark Figures with Shakeia Taylor and sports logo designer Todd Radom

Join us each month for SABR’s Ballpark Figures, a new interview series hosted by award-winning writer Shakeia Taylor. The virtual Zoom event is free and open to all active SABR members.

On Thursday, June 2, we heard from Todd Radom is an independent graphic designer who has created logos for professional sports franchises and events for the past two decades. His work includes the official logos for Super Bowl XXXVIII and the 2009 NBA All Star Game, the graphic identities for the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Angels, and the SABR 49 and SABR 50 convention logos, among many others. He is the author of Winning Ugly: A Visual History of the Most Bizarre Baseball Uniforms Ever Worn and, most recently, Fabric of the Game, on the NHL’s team names, logos, and uniforms.

Watch: Click here to watch a replay of Ballpark Figures with Shakeia Taylor and Todd Radom

Visit SABR.org/ballpark-figures to learn more or to watch replays of past episodes.

Coming soon: Click here to pre-register for Ballpark Figures with filmmaker Randy Wilkins on July 7

Read all articles from the Spring 2022 Baseball Research Journal online

Good news! The Spring 2022 edition of the Baseball Research Journal has been mailed out to all SABR members. This issue — which celebrates women in baseball and the 50th anniversary of Title IX — includes a special illustrated cover from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League by SABR member Gary Cieradkowski.

Those of you who receive the print edition should find your BRJ arriving in the next two to four weeks. For digital subscribers, the e-book edition was delivered to your inbox on Wednesday, May 18.

Buy the magazine: Purchase the print edition of the Spring 2022 Baseball Research Journal from Amazon.com
Download the PDF: Click here to download the PDF file of the Spring 2022 Baseball Research Journal
Read online: Find articles from the Spring 2022 Baseball Research Journal online at SABR.org

We hope you enjoy reading the Spring 2022 Baseball Research Journal!

SABR Digital Library: The First Negro League Champion: The 1920 Chicago American Giants

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

The First Negro League Champion: The 1920 Chicago American Giants
Edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin
Associate Editors: Carl Riechers and Len Levin
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-970159-79-0, $9.99
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-970159-80-6, $29.95
8.5″ x 11″, 250 pages

Click here for a 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 The 1920 Chicago American Giants for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, Kindle/MOBI and EPUB formats.
Paperback: Get a 50% discount on The 1920 Chicago American Giants paperback edition from the SABR Store ($17.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Kindle Direct Publishing can take up to 4-6 weeks.)

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.

Visit SABR.org/ebooks for more titles from the SABR Digital Library.

Vote now for the 2022 SABR Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legend

Each year, SABR’s Nineteenth Century Research Committee selects its 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.

All SABR members are eligible to cast a vote for the winner. The winner will be announced this summer during the Nineteenth Century Committee’s business meeting at SABR 50 in Baltimore.

Bud Fowler, SABR’s 2020 Overlooked Legend, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and will be honored on Induction Day in 2022.

2022 finalists: Earlier this year, project leaders selected the 12 finalists for the 2022 Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend. Click here to view the finalists’ bios, compiled by project co-chairs Adam Darowski and Joe Williams. Voting in the final election will run until June 27, and will be open to all SABR members.
Vote now! Click here to access the 2022 ballot. All SABR members are eligible to vote in the election for this year’s Overlooked 19th Century Legend. You *MUST* select five candidates — ranking them from first choice to fifth choice — from among the candidates presented. You are only allowed to vote once. ALL BALLOTS MUST BE CAST PRIOR TO 11:59 p.m. PDT on Monday, June 27, 2022.

Click here for a list of past winners or to learn more about the project.

Sign up now for SABR Analytics Certification online course

It’s time to get SABR Certified! The first course in the new SABR Analytics Certification program — Conversational Analytics and Critical Thinking in Baseball — is available online now.

The SABR Analytics Certification program is an online, on-demand curriculum offering professional development and learning opportunities for those interested in elevating their skills and knowledge relating to baseball analytics. The curriculum was developed by current baseball professionals, including employees of Major League Baseball and its clubs.

SABR members get a significant discount on this Analytics Certification course registration, saving $55 off the regular price.

Visit SABR.org/analytics/certification to sign up today or learn more.

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.

Can’t-Miss Event: SABR’s Central Illinois Chapter will hold a virtual Zoom meeting at 7:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, June 14. All baseball fans are invited to attend. Our guest speaker, Jason Cannon, will be discussing his new book Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman behind the Chicago Cubs. Click here to register in advance for this Zoom meeting.
Video Replays: This week, we heard from Craig Calcaterra, author of Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game. Click here to view more video replays of virtual SABR events.

Here are some more upcoming virtual events you can attend online; check the Events Calendar for complete details:

June 14: Gardner-Waterman Vermont Chapter meeting with Glenn Stout (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 14: Central Illinois Chapter meeting with Jason Cannon (7:00 p.m. CDT)
June 15: New SABR Member Experience Meeting (8:00 p.m. EDT)

In addition, the following events will be held in person:

June 11: Halsey Hall Chapter book club meeting (Minneapolis, MN)
June 11: Lajoie-Start Southern New England Chapter meeting (N. Attleborough, MA)
June 12: Rogers Hornsby Chapter meeting (Round Rock, TX)
June 12: Dusty Baker-Sacramento Chapter meeting (Sacramento, CA)
June 15: Rocky Mountain Chapter monthly luncheon (Denver, CO)
June 16: Magnolia Chapter “Third Thursday” meeting (Sandy Springs, GA)
June 18: Rob Elias: “Major League Rebels” book event (San Francisco, CA)
June 18: Bob Davids Chapter ballgame/meeting (Rockville, MD)

Find more upcoming SABR meetings on our Events Calendar page.

8 new stories published at the SABR Games Project

Eight new game stories were posted this week as part of the SABR Games Project:

August 6, 1933: Athletics rookie Mike Higgins hits for the cycle as Foxx pads Triple Crown numbers against Senators, by Mike Huber
June 16, 1940: Ted Lyons pitches 12 innings; Ted Williams hits a game-winning homer, by Bill Nowlin
June 21, 1957: Johnny Temple’s big hit occurred after the game, by Bruce Harris
July 18, 1970: Willie Mays joins the 3,000-hit club, by Douglas Jordan
April 18, 1987: Seat cushions fly as Tommy Herr, Cardinals slam Mets in extras, by Andrew Heckroth
June 10, 1996: Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield takes one for the team in lopsided loss, by Kurt Blumenau
June 24, 2000: Announcers accidentally expose plot, but Maddux and Braves still lose to Brewers, by Chris Betsch
August 23, 2017: Rich Hill’s almost perfect game and no-hitter crumbles in Pittsburgh, by Thomas J. Brown Jr.

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.

SABRcast with Rob Neyer: Listen to an interview with authors Jean Fruth and Jeff Idelson

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 #165 on Monday, June 6 featured Jean Fruth and Jeff Idelson, co-founders of Grassroots Baseball, an organization that celebrates the amateur game around the world and encourages kids to play ball. Fruth is the author of the new Grassroots Baseball: Route 66, along with Grassroots Baseball: Where Legends Begin in 2020. She is also the traveling photographer for La Vida Baseball. She has been a baseball photographer for nearly two decades with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Idelson served as the Baseball Hall of Fame President from 2008 to 2019, and he has spent more than three decades working in baseball. Fruth and Idelson were guests on SABRcast #84 in November 2020.

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

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

Listen to a new episode 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 for the regular season. Listen to new episodes at 8:00-9:00 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

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: SABR.org/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
Fernando Battaglini	Katy, TX	Max Greenes	New York, NY
Edward Campis	Malverne, NY	Aaron Henkelman	Bloomington, IL
Robert Castellini	Cincinnati, OH	Jack Kalsched	Maplewood, NJ
Evan Cerne-Iannone	Cleveland, OH	David Kang	Brooklyn, NY
Henry Chignell	Auckland, NZL	Aimee Keane	Brooklyn, NY
Tony Chou	Shanghai, CHN	Tim Langschultz	Berlin, CT
Philippe Coulombe	Alpharetta, GA	Steven Luffey	Carlisle, PA
Douglas Dietel	Thornton, CO	Pat McCrary	Greensboro, NC
Andy Flaherty	Redding, CA	Jay Morgan	West Shokan, NY
Nick Fosman	Salem, NH	Emil Ovemar	Stockholm, SWE
Peter Gerken	Tuckahoe, NY	Vincent Pacelli	Princeton, NJ
Lorraine Gordon	Woodside, NY	Katherine Tichy	Schaumburg, IL
Gary Grear	Memphis, TN

Research Committee news

There are no new research committee updates this week.

Committee leaders, please send in your Annual Report to Jacob Pomrenke.

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

Regional Chapter news

There are no new regional chapter and chartered community updates this week.

Chapter and community leaders, please send in your Annual Report to Peter Cottrell.

Click here for more information on SABR regional chapters. Click here to learn more about SABR chartered communities.

Around the Web

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

Tyler Kepner: Rays’ Attempt at Inclusion Proves There Is More Work to Do (New York Times)
Ginny Searle: So Do Not Become Proud, But Fear (Baseball Prospectus)
Fay Vincent: Roger Angell’s Writing on Baseball Was in a League of Its Own (Wall Street Journal)
Jay Jaffe: Elite Rotation Helps Yankees to Majors’ Best Start in 21 Years (FanGraphs)
Eno Sarris: Factoring recent trends into the starting pitcher ranks (The Athletic)
Derrick Goold: As one hitting streak comes to an end, another continues for Cardinals ‘remarkable’ Goldschmidt (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
David Laurila: Orioles Hitting Coach Ryan Fuller Loves Books (and Follows Soccer) (FanGraphs)
Howard Megdal: What They’re Saying: The Phillies After Girardi (Baseball Prospectus)
Alex Speier: The Red Sox are making top prospects out of pitchers who weren’t top draft picks (Boston Globe)
Emma Baccellieri: ‘It’s Come So Far’: Arizona State and the Rich History of the Women’s College World Series Before Title IX (Sports Illustrated)
Will DiGravio: The Real Story Behind A League of Their Own (Film School Rejects)
Ben Clemens: The Giants Love to Bunt. Or Do They? (FanGraphs)
Ryan Fagan: Even with ‘slow’ start, double-impact Shohei Ohtani still an AL MVP favorite (The Sporting News)
Michael Clair: MLB.TV’s Carded new season highlights Negro Leagues cards (MLB.com)
Russell A. Carleton: My Wife And I Watched An Old Game (Baseball Prospectus)
Jayson Stark: The Mayor (Sean Casey) restores order after Tommy Pham-Joc Pederson fantasy football flap (The Athletic)
Edward McClelland: The Chicago Whales: A Short-Lived Team with a Long Legacy (Chicago Magazine)
Sam Gazdziak: Grave Story: Hilton Smith (1907-1983) (RIP Baseball)
Jeff Cohen: Baseball and BBQ interview with authors John Coulson and John Sherdel (Baseball and BBQ)

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.

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