This Week in SABR: June 15, 2012

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We’ve almost got as much non-convention news this week as we do SABR 42 updates, so keep reading to find out what we’ve been up to as of June 15, 2012:

Update: SABR 42 schedule changes

We’ve made some late adjustments to the schedule for SABR 42 — June 27-July 1, 2012, at the Marriott City Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota — that you won’t find in the printed program when you get your registration packet. Here are the details, which can all be found at SABR.org/convention:

  • Wednesday: The SABR Board of Directors meeting at 8:00 a.m. will now be held in the Lake Calhoun Room on the 8th floor.
  • Wednesday: The Business of Baseball Committee will have a joint meeting with the Ballparks Committee from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in the Deer Room. This will be a panel discussion focused on the development and financing of Target Field. The panel is scheduled to include: Dan Kenney, Minnesota Ballpark Authority Executive Director; Tom Goldstein, community activist and lawyer who opposes public subsidies for sports stadiums; Gary Gillette, co-author of Big League Ballparks and Editor of the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia; and Stan Meradith, AIA, Principal of the DLR Group, a national integrated design firm with experience building ballparks. This promises to a very exciting discussion. All SABR members are invited to attend.
  • Wednesday: Rob Taylor, Sports Editor and Interim Editor-in-Chief of University of Nebraska Press, will moderate the Author’s Panel at 6:30 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble (801 Nicollet Mall).
  • Thursday: The tour of the Minnesota African-American Museum at 7:00 p.m. is canceled because the museum’s baseball exhibit has closed. The Trivia Contest preliminaries and special screening of the “Knuckleball!” film will still be held at 7:30 p.m. at the hotel. If you want to go out to eat or see things that night, meet at the hospitality table on the 4th floor at 6:30. Volunteers from the Halsey Hall Chapter will have suggestions.
  • Friday: Author Daniel R. Levitt will moderate the General Managers Panel with Terry Ryan, Excecutive Vice President/General Manager of the Minnesota Twins, at 9:15 a.m. 
  • Friday: Due to a family health situation, John Burbridge will not be able to deliver his research presentation (RP20) at 11:30 a.m.
  • Saturday: A new meeting has been scheduled at 12:00 p.m. in the Deer Room. “Baseball and Academic Courses” will be an initial meeting of people who have taught, or like the idea of teaching, academic courses connected in one way or another to baseball to discuss common interests and possible collaborations. For more information, contact Bill Nowlin at bnowlin@rounder.com.
  • Saturday: The Games and Simulations Committee meeting has been scheduled for 5:00 p.m. in the Elk Room. For more information, contact chair Steve Krevisky at sakrevisky@sbcglobal.net.
  • Sunday: The SABR Board of Directors meeting at 8:30 a.m. will now be held in the Lake Calhoun Room on the 8th floor.

Please consult the “pocket schedule” that will be available in your registration packet for the most up-to-date schedule at SABR 42.

Stay tuned next week for a list of SABR 42 attendees, which will be available on the members-only page at members.sabr.org.

Visit SABR.org/convention or scroll down below for more information on SABR 42, including registration information, hotel directions, featured speakers and panels, committee meetings, research presentations, Twins ballgame, off-site tours, transportation tips, and frequently asked questions.

SABR BioProject celebrates 2,000th published biography

It’s fitting that our 2,000th published SABR biography is of a Boston Red Sox call-up who played just five games in the major leagues.

After all, some of our favorite articles produced by the SABR Baseball Biography Project since it was formed in 2002 are of the “cup of coffee” players whose stories had never been told, such as Flame Delhi, the first major leaguer from Arizona, or Israel “Jay” Pike, the brother of baseball’s first great Jewish star.

That’s part of the fun of the SABR BioProject: You can read about anyone in baseball from A (Hank Aaron) to Z (Bob Zuk). You can also browse all of our biographies by category, to find bios of Hall of Famers or players from a specific team. Or look for the non-players we’ve written about, with “biographies” of ballparks, whole leagues and other significant baseball topics.

What is the BioProject? It’s arguably SABR’s most ambitious research project yet. Led by Mark Armour, the BioProject is an ongoing effort to produce comprehensive, peer-reviewed biographical articles on every person who ever played or managed in the major leagues, as well as other subjects significant to baseball history. It’s a project that, we hope, will never end.

On Tuesday, we published biography No. 2,000: Doc Moskiman.

The Oakland native made 11 plate appearances for the Red Sox in a controversial stint in 1910 and later became a physician and sporting goods salesman. His bio is written by our most prolific BioProject author, Bill Nowlin, and edited by Len Levin.

We’ve got hundreds of SABR biographies like it in progress, and adding more every week. We’ve even compiled some of them into books focusing on special team or theme. Fourteen BioProject books have been published so far, including our newest title released last month: Opening Fenway Park With Style: The 1912 World Champion Boston Red Sox, edited by Bill Nowlin.

You can also look for our new BioProject books published this spring as part of the University of Nebraska Press’ “Memorable Teams in Baseball History” series: Pitching, Defense, and Three-Run Homers: The 1970 Baltimore Orioles, edited by Mark Armour and Malcolm Allen; and The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, edited by Lyle Spatz.

All newly published biographies are posted at SABR.org/bioproj/recent.

The SABR BioProject home page is at SABR.org/BioProject.

Get involved! Any SABR member can contribute to the BioProject. Don’t see your favorite player listed? Visit our BioProject Resources page or read the BioProject FAQs section here. Then e-mail bioassign@sabr.org to get started.

Lyle Spatz’s Dixie Walker: A Life in Baseball wins 2012 Ron Gabriel Award

We are pleased to announce that Lyle Spatz’s book Dixie Walker: A Life in Baseball has been selected as the inaugural winner of the Ron Gabriel Award in 2012.

Spatz’s latest book, published by McFarland & Co., was chosen by the Ron Gabriel Award Committee, chaired by William Dahlberg, from nearly a dozen submissions which spanned a wide breadth of topics throughout the storied history of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The book details the unique life, legacy, and career of one of baseballs most colorful characters from some of the most important years in its history. Spatz will be formally recognized at the SABR 42 convention in Minnesota.

The Ron Gabriel Award, established in 2012, annually honors the author(s) of the best research, published or unpublished, on the subject of the Brooklyn Dodgers completed during the preceding calendar year. Eligible works include but are not limited to magazine and journal articles, previously unpublished chapters or articles in anthologies or other books with multiple authors, unpublished research papers, written versions of oral presentations, books, databases and websites.

Ron Gabriel (1941-2009), a native of Brooklyn, New York, and longtime resident of Bethesda, Maryland, was a former Vice President of SABR and instrumental in establishing the Bob Davids Chapter, which serves the Washington-Baltimore region. He was founder and president of the Brooklyn Dodger Fan Club, and a charter elected member of the Brooklyn Dodger Hall of Fame. Gabriel, who earned his Ph.D. in Human Resource Management from American University, was a retired U.S. Government executive, having served with the Postal Service Management Institute, the Department of Defense and the General Services Administration.

For more information on the Ron Gabriel Award, visit http://sabr.org/about/ron-gabriel-award.

2012 Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference Art Contest winners

The third annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference Art Contest attracted artwork from all over the nation in three categories: professional, amateur and youth. Art from the winners and runners-up will be on display in a special area at the conference, scheduled for July 19-21, 2012, at the Renaissance Cleveland hotel in Cleveland, Ohio.

The winning entry in the professional and amateur categories will receive a $400 prize and a certificate. The winning entry in the youth category will receive $200 and a certificate.

The winners and runners-up art will also be displayed this summer at Baseball Heritage Museum in Cleveland, along with two college campuses. Photos of the art will also be included in an upcoming issue of Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal, published by McFarland & Co.

Here are the winners:

  • Professional category: Darryl Shelton, “Memories Locked Away in a Drawer”
  • Amateur category: Milbert O. Brown Jr., “The Dream: Scoring by Inches”
  • Youth category: Manning Feldner, “Baltimore Elite”

A special thanks to our panel who served as judges for this year’s art contest, including committee chair and renowned artist Benjamin Blackburn. Our judges are respected artists and experts in their fields and we thank each of them for their time:

  • John Wolfe
  • Audrey Vernick
  • Michael Massenburg
  • Byron Motley
  • Todd Peterson
  • David Baldwin
  • Jennifer Ettinger

The annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference is hosted by SABR’s Negro Leagues Research Committee, which encourages the study and research of African-American baseball and its influence on society and sport history. The conference promotes activities to enhance scholarly, educational, and literary objectives.

For the past 14 years, the conference has been the only symposium dedicated exclusively to the examination and promotion of black baseball history. The conference is open to baseball and history fans of all ages, not just SABR members.

To register for the 2012 Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, visit SABR.org/Malloy.

2012 SABR Annual Report has been posted online

Our 2012 Annual Report was posted on the website today and can be downloaded here:

http://sabr.org/content/annual-reports

All previous SABR Annual Reports can be found on the Annual Reports page. If you have a copy of any Annual Report from before 2002 (the oldest currently available), please e-mail a copy of it to jpomrenke@sabr.org or mail one to the SABR office at 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Ste. D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018.

The Age of the Pitcher: More on Matt Cain and perfection

SABR member Jayson Stark writes:

Every once in a while, we get the feeling the great sport of baseball is trying to tell us something. This would be one of those times.

Three no-hitters light up the baseball sky in a span of 13 days. Five no-hitters — two of them perfect games — rock our world before we’ve even made it through the second week of June.

So … anybody get the feeling that it’s a beautiful time to be a pitcher?

Then again, on second thought, did we really need a no-hitter epidemic to make that point? The evidence has been all around us. And not just in the last two weeks. How about in the last five years?

After San Francisco’s Matt Cain capped off this historic stretch with a thrilling perfect game against the Houston Astros on Wednesday, Jayson and plenty of other SABR members have been busy putting the great exploits of pitchers into perspective. Read Jayson’s article on “The Age of the Pitcher” at ESPN.com: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8048897/the-age-pitcher-how-got-here-mlb 

Here are some related articles we also thought you’d enjoy:

Speaking of pitchers, have you purchased your copy of our new Digital Library book, Great Hitting Pitchers, originally edited by Bob Davids and updated for 2012 by Mike Cook? Check out SABR.org/ebooks for more details. 

SABR 42: Still time to register for Minneapolis convention

We’re less than two weeks away from SABR 42! The 42nd annual SABR convention will be held June 27-July 1, 2012, at the Marriott City Center, 30 South 7th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402.

We’ll have five full days of baseball fun at SABR 42 in Minnesota this summer, so we hope you’ll join us for an experience you won’t forget. All baseball fans are welcome to register for any of our events.

In addition to our lineup of great speakers (highlighted by Minnesota Twins president Dave St. Peter and general manager Terry Ryan, with keynote speaker John Thorn), panels and research presentations, we’re also planning an exclusive tour of Target Field, with special access to areas of the ballpark not available to the public; a tour of the Minneapolis Public Library; a special screening of the new “Knuckleball!” film documentary; a Twin Cities historic ballparks site tour; a one-man play on Hall of Fame executive Branch Rickey; our renowned SABR Convention Trivia Contest; and much more.

Here’s everything you need to know about SABR 42. Please check our website at SABR.org/convention for updates:

We look forward to seeing you in Minnesota! For complete details, visit SABR.org/convention.

SABR 42 keynote speaker: John Thorn, MLB Official Historian

Here’s our keynote speaker for SABR 42 in Minneapolis:

John Thorn is the Official Historian of Major League Baseball. He was named to the post by Commissioner Bud Selig in March 2011, succeeding the late Jerome Holtzman. A longtime SABR member who was the recipient of the Society’s highest honor, the Bob Davids Award, in 2006, Thorn is the author and editor of numerous books. His works include Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, published in 2011 by Simon & Schuster; Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame; the Total Baseball encyclopedia series; The Glory Days: New York Baseball 1947-1957; The Armchair Book of Baseball; and The Hidden Game of Baseball. He is the founding editor of McFarland’s Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game and creator of SABR’s The National Pastime. He has served as the senior creative consultant for Ken Burns’ Baseball series and appears regularly as a television commentator on MLB Network, ESPN, PBS and The History Channel. He is a renowned expert on the early origins of baseball; in 2004, he revealed the existence of a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, statute prohibiting the play of baseball in 1791. He has written essays and articles for many publications, including The Sporting News, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, American Heritage and VOICES, the publication of the New York Folklore Society.

Awards presented or announced at the luncheon include the Lee Allen Award, the Roland Hemond Award, the SABR Baseball Research Awards, the McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Awards, and the Henry Chadwick Awards. The awards portion of the luncheon concludes with the awarding of the Bob Davids Award, SABR’s highest honor.

The Master of Ceremonies is Stew Thornley, SABR 42 convention committee chair.

The SABR 42 Awards Luncheon is scheduled for 12:30-2:30 p.m. on Friday, June 29 at the Marriott City Center in Minneapolis. Regster for the SABR convention online at the SABR Store. All baseball fans are welcome to register for the luncheon or any other event during our annual convention.

A full schedule and details for SABR 42 can be found at SABR.org/convention.

SABR 42: Featured panels

We’ve got some exciting panels lined up on the schedule for SABR 42 in Minneapolis this summer.

As listed above, we’ve got two changes to report in the schedule: Rob Taylor, Sports Editor and Interim Editor-in-Chief of University of Nebraska Press, will moderate the Author’s Panel at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 27; and author Daniel R. Levitt will moderate the General Managers Panel with Terry Ryan, Excecutive Vice President/General Manager of the Minnesota Twins, at 9:15 a.m. Friday, June 29.

Here are the details on all of our featured panels at SABR 42:

SABR Authors Panel
6:30-8:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 27
Barnes & Noble, 801 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

Join us at the Barnes & Noble on 8th Street for a SABR authors panel and book signing featuring: Mark Armour, Pitching, Defense, and Three-Run Homers: The 1970 Baltimore Orioles; Rob Fitts, Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan; Daniel R. Levitt, The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy; John Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game; Steve Treder, The Hardball Times. Moderator: Rob Taylor, Sports Editor and Interim Editor-in-Chief, University of Nebraska Press. 

Opening Remarks: Dave St. Peter
9:30-10:30 a.m., Thursday, June 28
Ballroom 1-2

Dave St. Peter has worked in the Minnesota Twins organization since 1990 and has been the team president since November 2002. He leads the team’s strategic planning process and business departments. He was involved in the approval, design, and construction of Target Field, which opened in 2010 and was named the 2011 Sports Facility of the Year by Sports Business Journal/Sports Business Daily. A native of North Dakota, Dave serves on the board of the Minnesota Twins Community Fund, the Ronald McDonald House of the Twin Cities, and Meet Minneapolis.

Introduction by Brenda Himrich, president of the Halsey Hall Chapter. Brenda jumped on the baseball fan wagon when the Twins won the World Series in 1987 and hasn’t fallen off yet. Though a recent fan, she has memories of seeing Harmon Killebrew hit a grand slam and Kirby Puckett hit for the cycle. The significance of these events was lost on her until she joined SABR in the 1990s. The years of being a member has enhanced her appreciation of baseball by adding historical depth and knowledge. As president of Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR, Brenda is proud to welcome all to Minnesota and SABR 42.

Official Scorers Panel
1:00-2:15 p.m., Thursday, June 28
Ballroom 1-2 

Our panel of official scorers for major league teams will discuss rules and scoring issues that come up during the course of a game, including appeals, reversed calls and other disputes. Speakers include:

Stew Thornley, who joined SABR in 1979 and got his first shot at official scoring as an add-on job while doing public-address announcing in the early 1980s. He became a Major League Baseball official scorer for Minnesota Twins home games in 2007 and has been doing datacasting for Twins home games for Total Sports/MLB.com since 1998. He has written many books about Minnesota sports history, and his first book, On to Nicollet: The Glory and Fame of the Minneapolis Millers, received the Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award in 1988. He is related by marriage to the SABR Halsey Hall Chapter president, Brenda Himrich.

David Vincent, a long-time member of SABR who received the organization’s highest honor, the Bob Davids Award, in 1999. David is the founding secretary of Retrosheet, which collects play-by-play accounts of every game in major league history. He has served as an official scorer in four minor leagues (including 21 seasons in the Carolina League) and has been the official scorer for Major League Baseball since it returned to Washington, DC, in 2005. He is known around baseball as “The Sultan of Swat Stats” for his expertise in the history of the home run. He is the author of many books and articles on home runs and umpires.

Gregg Wong, a sportswriter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press from 1969 to 2002. Gregg was the official scorer for several Minnesota Twins game in 1988, and he and Stew Thornley took over as official scorers for the Twins when longtime scorer Tom Mee retired in 2007. A 1969 graduate of the University of Minnesota, Wong was the official scorer and public-address announcer for the Minnesota Gophers in 1968 and 1969, wrote for the school newspaper, and worked in the sports information office. Gregg’s last year in newspapers was in 2002, and he concluded it by covering the playoff series between the Twins and Angels. That year he also covered the NCAA hockey championship, won by the Gophers, and all four majors in men’s golf.

Moderator: Kevin Hennessy. Kevin is a lifelong baseball fan and a member of SABR’s Halsey Hall Chapter since 1997. Kevin has served on the chapter’s Board of Directors for seven of his 15 years, and has contributed presentations and articles to chapter meetings and publications on a regular basis. Kevin has served as an official scorer for the St. Paul Saints beginning in 2008 and for Twins games beginning in 2009. He continues to score baseball games for STATS, Inc., as he has since 1990. He has also had stints with Gary Gillette’s Baseball Workshop, Total Sports, and Minnesota Public Radio.

Women in Baseball Panel
4:45-6:15 p.m., Thursday, June 28
Ballroom 1-2 

Our panel of authors and experts will discuss the evolution of women in baseball throughout the game’s history and their future in the sport. Speakers include:

Laura Day, who has served as Executive Vice President of Business Development for the Minnesota Twins since 2006. She oversees the team’s revenue generation, including ticket sales and corporate partnerships, and played a key role in the Twins’ transition from the Metrodome to Target Field in 2010. Prior to joining the Twins, she worked at the Minneapolis Convention and Visitor’s Association and served as vice president of sales for Victory Sports One. She was one of the first employees of the Minnesota Wild hockey team, helping to launch the Xcel Energy Center as vice president of corporate partnerships from 1999 to 2002. Laura got her start in sports working for the Twins from 1991 to 1999, where he held a variety of posts, including vice president of sales and marketing; director of corporate marketing; and promotions manager.

Leslie Heaphy, a member of SABR since 1989 and chair of SABR’s Women in Baseball Committee since 1995. She was elected to the SABR Board of Directors in 2010. Leslie is an associate professor of history at Kent State University at Stark and publishes in the area of the Negro Leagues and women’s baseball. In 2008, she became the founding editor of the journal Black Ball, published by McFarland Publishing. She lives in Kent, Ohio.

Dorothy Seymour Mills, a pioneer among baseball historians. With her late husband, Dr. Harold Seymour, she co-authored the classic three-book series called Baseball, published by Oxford University Press. In 2010, the couple were selected as part of the inaugural class of recipients for SABR’s Henry Chadwick Award, which honors the game’s greatest researchers, historians, statisticians, analysts and archivists. She also authored A Woman’s Work: Writing Baseball History with Harold Seymour (McFarland & Co., 2004), which revealed her contributions to the Baseball series — after not receiving credit for her work for many decades, Dorothy was finally listed as the co-author when OUP re-released the books in 2010. Her most recent books are Chasing Baseball: Our Obsession With Its History, Numbers, People and Places and Drawing Card: A Baseball Novel.

Cecilia Tan, SABR’s Publications Editor since 2011. Cecilia has been involved in baseball in one way or another since she fell in love with the 1976 New York Yankees. She writes the oldest baseball blog on the Internet, “Why I Like Baseball”, and played second base/right field for the Pawtucket Slaterettes, the oldest continuously operating all-female baseball league in the country. Early in her baseball writing career, she was a web writer for the New York Yankees. She currently serves as Publications Editor for SABR and this past winter was a co-editor of the Baseball Prospectus Annual.

Moderator: Ann Carroll, three-time Emmy Award-winning host/reporter for Fox Sports North. Since 2006, she has been the host/producer and reporter for the “Vikings Weekly” magazine TV show. She has also worked as a sports anchor and sideline reporter at TV stations in Duluth, Minnesota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Kansas City, Missouri; and St. Louis, Missouri, covering Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, college football and basketball, and other sports. She is a graduate of St. Cloud State University and a native of Edina, Minnesota.

General Managers Panel
9:15-10:45 a.m., Friday, June 29
Ballroom 3-4

Our featured speaker is Terry Ryan, who became general manager of the Minnesota Twins in 1994, stepping down from the position in 2007, and returning in 2011 as Executive Vice President, General Manager. He was named Executive of the Year by The Sporting News in 2002 and 2006, and Major League Executive of the Year by Baseball America in 2004. Under his leadership, the Twins were named Organization of the Year in 2002 and 2004 by Baseball America and in 2002 by USA Today and Sportsticker. Terry joined the Twins organization in 1974 and pitched in their system for four years.

Moderator: Daniel R. Levitt, author of The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy and Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees First Dynasty. He co-authored (with Mark Armour) the book Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way, which won the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award. He is also the editor of this year’s The National Pastime: Baseball in the North Star State.

SABR Awards Luncheon
12:30-2:30 p.m., Friday, June 29
Ballroom 1-2

Keynote speaker: John Thorn

Master of Ceremonies: Stew Thornley 

John Thorn is the Official Historian of Major League Baseball. He was named to the post by Commissioner Bud Selig in March 2011, succeeding the late Jerome Holtzman. A longtime SABR member who was the recipient of the Society’s highest honor, the Bob Davids Award, in 2006, Thorn is the author and editor of numerous books. His works include Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, published in 2011 by Simon & Schuster; Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame; the Total Baseball encyclopedia series; The Glory Days: New York Baseball 1947-1957; The Armchair Book of Baseball; and The Hidden Game of Baseball. He is the founding editor of McFarland’s Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game and creator of SABR’s The National Pastime. He has served as the senior creative consultant for Ken Burns’ Baseball series and appears regularly as a television commentator on MLB Network, ESPN, PBS and The History Channel. He is a renowned expert on the early origins of baseball; in 2004, he revealed the existence of a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, statute prohibiting the play of baseball in 1791. He has written essays and articles for many publications, including The Sporting News, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, American Heritage and VOICES, the publication of the New York Folklore Society.

Awards presented or announced at the luncheon include the Lee Allen Award, the Roland Hemond Award, the SABR Baseball Research Awards, the McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Awards, and the Henry Chadwick Awards. The Awards portion of the luncheon concludes with the awarding of the Bob Davids Award, SABR’s highest honor.

Players Panel
9:30-11:00 a.m., Saturday, June 30
Ballroom 1-2

Our traditional Players Panel will include the following speakers who will discuss their careers and lives in baseball:

Ron Coomer, who spent six of his nine seasons with the Minnesota Twins from 1995-2003. Ron grew up on the south side of Chicago, though he was a Cubs fan and often imitated the home-run call of Jack Brickhouse as he fungoed rocks across Central Avenue into Midway Airport. Cooms reached the majors in 1995 with the Twins and also played for the Cubs, Yankees, and Dodgers. He was on the American League All-Star team in 1999. Ron now works on Twins telecasts for Fox Sports North.

Bob “Rocky” Johnson, 11-year veteran infielder with seven MLB teams, 1960-70. Rocky grew up in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina. Rocky once had six straight pinch hits, led his league in pinch hits three times, and finished his career with a pinch-hitting batting average of .272 and an overall batting average of .272. He wonders how rare that is, and he thinks someone from our group will probably be able to tell him.

Roy Smalley III, All-Star shortstop and 13-year veteran from 1975-87. Roy III was the son of Roy Jr., the keynote speaker at SABR 10 in Los Angeles in 1980, and nephew of Gene Mauch. Roy III played on two championship teams at the University of Southern California and signed with the Texas Rangers, having been picked first in the 1974 amateur draft. He came to the Minnesota Twins in 1976 along with Mike Cubbage, Bill Singer, and Jim Gideon in a trade for Bert Blyleven and Danny Thompson. Roy hit 24 home runs in 1979 and was on the All-Star team. He was traded to New York in 1982 and, a little over a month later, came back to the Metrodome and struck out into a triple play against the Twins. Roy came back to the Twins in 1985 and finished his major league career in the World Series in 1987, which the Twins won.

Moderator: Frank Quilici. Frank was a popular member of the Twins for many years and a versatile infielder from 1965 to 1970. In the World Series against the Dodgers in his rookie season, he had two hits in one inning in the opening game. Frank coached the Twins in 1971 and 1972 although he played one game in 1971, an exhibition game against the Giants at Met Stadium in which Giants coach Ozzie Virgil also played. In July 1972 he became the Twins manager, and, in his first game as skipper, Harmon Killebrew hit a two-run homer to beat a team from New York. After managing the Twins through 1975, Frank became a broadcaster, working on the radio with Herb Carneal calling Twins games.

One on One: Roland Hemond
1:30-2:30 p.m., Saturday, June 30
Ballroom 1-2

Longtime SABR member Roland Hemond sits down for an exclusive one-on-one session in which he’ll talk about his life in baseball and answer questions from the audience. Hemond received the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award during 2011 Induction Weekend at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. A three-time winner of MLB’s Executive of the Year award, Hemond has been a tireless advocate for SABR over the years and is a familiar face at our national convention. He has also lent his name to an award given annually by SABR’s Scouts Research Committee, which recognizes the baseball executive who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to professional baseball scouts and scouting, and player development history.

Spring 2012 Baseball Research Journal articles are now online

If you joined SABR or renewed your membership before March 1, you should have received your copy of the Spring 2012 Baseball Research Journal in the mail. If you haven’t received yours yet, give Deb Jayne a call at (602) 343-6450 so we can notify the publisher. You can get started reading the Spring 2012 BRJ (online articles for members only!) at:

http://sabr.org/research/spring-2012-baseball-research-journal

That link also offers you a way to download the PDF version of the magazine to read on your computer or e-reader device, as well as a chance to purchase additional copies of the BRJ for any baseball-loving family members or friends at the SABR Bookstore.

In addition to all of the BRJ articles you will find in the print edition, we’re also proud to once again present special supplemental material, available exclusively at SABR.org, related to Herm Krabbenhoft’s ongoing research of Hank Greenberg’s RBI totals.

Click here to read more articles from the Spring 2012 “Baseball Research Journal”

In Memoriam

  • Longtime sportscaster Warner Fusselle, 68, a SABR member from 1982 to 2008, passed away of an apparent heart attack on June 10, 2012, in Hackensack, New Jersey. He was the voice of the television program “This Week in Baseball” for many years and served as the announcer of the Brooklyn Cyclones since the team’s inception in 2001. Fusselle broadcast Cyclones games from the “Catbird Seat” in homage to Red Barber, a fellow Georgian who inspired Fusselle’s move to Brooklyn when the team was formed. Born April 7, 1944, in Louisville, Kentucky, he grew up in Gainesville, Georgia, and played baseball at Gainesville High School. He was a graduate of Wake Forest University and served in Korea during the Vietnam War. He was the Voice of the ABA’s Virginia Squires, coached by Al Bianchi, calling the action of such legendary Hall of Famers “Dr. J,” Julius Erving, and George Gervin. He also broadcast the Baltimore Orioles games for a period of time. A minor league baseball advocate, he called the Richmond Braves, where he worked with Bobby Cox, and the Spartanburg Phillies. He recently called St. John’s baseball games on CBS Sports Network. The “Fuse,” as he was nicknamed, was an avid collector of baseball and rock and roll memorabilia. He was preceded in death by his parents, Dr. Warner Earle Fusselle, a college president and minister; and Ruth Trotter Boone Fusselle, an author, speaker, professor and inimitable mother. He is survived by one sister, Alicia Ruth Fusselle, and two nephews he considered his own, Max Thomas Hyde, Jr. (Eliza Howell) and Warner Fusselle Hyde (Raiford Hudson). He joyfully referred to their off-spring as “the chickadees.” He embraced each one and each one’s interests as his own. Funeral services have yet to be announced.

We send our condolences to his family and friends. 

All “In Memoriam” notices are posted in the SABR Bulletin group here: http://sabrnation.sabr.org/groups2/discussion/list/groupid/1960. Please send notices to Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org.

Research committee newsletters

Here are the SABR research committee newsletters published this week:

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

Chapter meeting recaps

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.

All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here: http://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives. If you would like us to include an upcoming event, article or any other information in “This Week in SABR”, e-mail Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org.

Find exclusive Members’ Only resources and information here: http://sabr.org/about/members-info

Did you know you can renew your membership at any time? 1- and 3-year SABR memberships are available at http://store.sabr.org

Are you following us on Twitter or Facebook? Get SABR updates every day at @SABR or by searching “SABR” on Facebook.

Replying to this e-mail goes to an undeliverable address. If you would like to contact the SABR office, please visit: http://sabr.org/about/contact-sabr


Originally published: June 14, 2012. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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