This Week in SABR: June 18, 2021

June 18, 2021/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 18, 2021:

Join us next weekend for Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series

As part of SABR’s 50th anniversary in 2021, all baseball fans are invited to join us online for the Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series, presented by Major League Baseball and Baseball-Reference.com. The opening session begins on June 25-27, 2021.

Here is the schedule for next weekend’s Zoom session (all times Eastern):

Friday, June 25
Hosted by Emily Hawks

7:00-8:00 p.m.: Future of Women in Baseball panel, with Katie Krall, Cincinnati Reds; Bianca Smith, Boston Red Sox; Janet Marie Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers.
8:00-8:30 p.m.: Future 50 Survey Analysis, with Marty Resnick.
8:30-9:30 p.m.: Baseball Rules Changes panel, with J.J. Cooper, Baseball America; Rick White, Atlantic League; and Cecilia Tan, SABR.

Saturday, June 26
Hosted by Scott Bush

3:00-4:00 p.m.: Negro Leagues as Major Leagues panel, with Sean Forman, Sports Reference; Gary Ashwill, Seamheads.com; and Larry Lester, SABR Negro Leagues Committee.
4:00-5:00 p.m.: Annual Business Meeting, with presentation of Bob Davids Award.
5:00-6:00 p.m.: Social Hour + SABR Chapter Leaders breakout

Sunday, June 27
Hosted by Chanel Zapata

2:00-3:00 p.m.: Caribbean Winter Leagues and Post-Pandemic Latin American Baseball, with Leonte Landino and Enrique Rojas, ESPN Deportes.
3:00-4:00 p.m.: Baseball at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, with Eric Campbell, GM, Team USA; Peter Kurz, GM, Team Israel; and moderator Matt Casey, KJZZ.

Click here to register for the Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series. Registration is $35 for SABR members and $50 for non-members. The single registration fee will provide access to the entirety of the Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series, including every session in June, July and August. That’s NINE incredible virtual sessions, including the full Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, for just one registration price.

Visit SABR.org/summer to register today or for more information.

Submit questions for Annual Business Meeting on Saturday, June 26

As part of the Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series virtual event, SABR will hold its Annual Business Meeting from 4:00-5:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, June 26, 2021.

In addition to updates from SABR CEO Scott Bush, Board President Mark Armour, and Treasurer F.X. Flinn, the Annual Business Meeting will also include the announcement of the 2021 Bob Davids Award, SABR’s highest honor.

SABR’s Board of Directors welcomes any questions from members during the Annual Business Meeting; please fill out our online form to submit a question in advance.

Click here to register for the Summer of SABR virtual series on June 25-27

Registration for Summer of SABR is $35 for SABR members and $50 for non-members. For more information, visit SABR.org/summer.

Baseball Reference dramatically expands stat coverage of the Negro Leagues

Baseball-Reference.com, a Sports Reference website that serves as a complete source for baseball history, including major league player, team, and league stats, awards, records, leaders, rookies and scores, has dramatically expanded its coverage of the Negro Leagues and historical Black major league players. Beginning today, Major Negro Leagues (from 1920-1948) are now listed with the National League and American League as major leagues at Baseball-Reference.com.

“Baseball Reference is not bestowing a new status on these players or their accomplishments. The Negro Leagues have always been major leagues, and we are changing our site’s presentation to properly recognize this fact,” said Sean Forman, Sports Reference President and longtime SABR member. “The Negro Leagues are not less than the American and National Leagues; they are different, and our work recognizes this as we implement these changes.”

Click here to learn more about the Negro Leagues Are Major Leagues initiative at Baseball-Reference.com

Forman, along with Gary Ashwill of Seamheads.com, and Larry Lester, chair of SABR’s Negro Leagues Committee, will participate in a special online panel discussion on the Negro Leagues as part of the Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series at 3:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, June 26. All baseball fans are invited to attend. Visit sabr.org/summer to register for this virtual event, which is open to all baseball fans.

Related links:

Find all published Negro Leagues biographies at the SABR BioProject
Negro Leagues By The Numbers by Bob Kendrick with Joe Posnanski
Negro Leagues = Major Leagues by Todd Peterson
The Black Boys of Summer: A statistical observation by Larry Lester
Women in the Negro Leagues by Leslie Heaphy
A Black Baseball Legacy by Michael E. Lomax
Building the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database by Gary Ashwill
Historiography of Black Baseball & Negro Baseball Leagues by Gary Gillette
The Major Negro Leagues by Adam Darowski

Students, apply now for a Yoseloff Scholarship to attend the 2021 SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference

With generous funding from The Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation, Inc., SABR will award up to four scholarships to high school and college students who wish to attend the SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference on September 10-12, 2021, in Rockford, Illinois. This scholarship will pay for registration, transportation, and lodging (double occupancy) up to a total value of $1,250.

Click here to learn more or to download the application form.

Students must be currently enrolled in a high school, college undergraduate or graduate program, and be between 18 and 29 years of age at the time of the conference. Some form of age verification (photocopy of driver’s license, passport, etc.) must be attached to your application.

All applications must be postmarked or e-mailed to Leslie Heaphy at lheaphy@kent.edu no later than August 2, 2021, or be sent by mail to: SABR, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004.

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

Related link: Call for papers: 2021 SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference

SABR 50 at 50: Off-Field Moments

As part of SABR’s 50th anniversary year, we present the final feature in our 50 at 50 series: the most important off-field moments of the past half-century since SABR was founded in 1971.

In narrowing hundreds of options down to 50, we tried to remain cognizant of all of the other lists we have presented over the past year as part of this golden anniversary series. We have published an entire list on the evolution of baseball analytics and another for off-field figures; accordingly, we wanted to minimize overlap so we could spread the attention around.

We are aware there are many, many other important moments or days that could, and perhaps should, be included here. It was a very eventful past 50 years. We expect the next half-century to be just as eventful.

Visit SABR.org/50at50/moments to read the list and the short description for each of the moments included.

— Mark Armour and Dan Levitt

Free access to Newspapers.com World Collection online archives

All SABR members now have FREE online access to the Newspapers.com World Collection, with more than 10,000 newspaper titles from the United States, Canada, and other countries, allowing you to explore full and partial runs of well-known regional, state, and small local newspapers dating back to the 1700s.

As we look to build on the value of your membership, we are always searching for resources to augment your existing benefits. Whether you are a researcher or an avid consumer of baseball history, this new tool puts an incredible depth of knowledge at your fingertips. An annual subscription to Newspapers.com runs $89, but is now included free with your SABR membership.

SABR members, log in to view the Research Resources page and start browsing the Newspapers.com World Collection.

Major titles included in this collection include: Boston Globe (1872-1922), Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1841-1963), Chicago Daily Herald (1901-2006), Houston Post (1893-1952), Kansas City Times (1908-1976), New York Tribune (1841-1922), Philadelphia Inquirer (1794-1922), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-1977), St. Louis Globe-Democrat (1853-1963), San Francisco Examiner (1865-1922), Washington Evening Star (1852-1939), and others.

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

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: On Monday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. EDT, SABR’s Luke Easter Chapter in Western New York will hold a virtual Zoom meeting featuring two talks on visualizing baseball data. We look forward to welcoming Ethan Singer of the Twitter account @umpscorecards, which provides game-by-game accounts of the accuracy, consistency, and net effect of home plate umpires in MLB. Benjamin and Stephen Dertinger will discuss the use of ToxPi to synthesize and visualize player performance statistics. Click here to register in advance for this meeting to get the Zoom details.
Video Replays: This week, we heard from authors Mitchell Nathanson (Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original); Dan Epstein (The Captain and Me); Luke Epplin (Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball); and John Burbridge (“Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers in Jersey City”). 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 19: Pee Wee Reese (KY) Chapter meeting with David Krell (10:00 a.m. EDT)
June 21: Luke Easter (NY) Chapter meeting with Ethan Singer, Benjamin Dertinger, and Stephen Dertinger (7:30 p.m. EDT)
June 22: IBWAA: The Press Box: The Craft of Baseball Writing with John Supowitz (8:00 p.m. EDT)
June 23: Lajoie-Start (RI) Chapter meeting with Erik Sherman (8:00 p.m. EDT)
June 24: Sean Gibson: Negro Leagues Matter: The Case for the Josh Gibson Memorial MVP Award (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 24: Ken Keltner (WI) Chapter meeting with Jason Schwartz (7:00 p.m. CDT)
June 25: Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 26: Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series (3:00 p.m. EDT)
June 27: Summer of SABR: Golden Celebration Series (2:00 p.m. EDT)
June 27: Baltimore Babe Ruth Chapter meeting (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 29: Nineteenth Century Committee annual meeting (8:00 p.m. EDT)

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

June 19: Babe ‘n’ Bob Chapter Breakfast (Edgewater, MD)
June 19: Southern Michigan Chapter meeting/ballgame with Gary Gillette and Mitch Lutzke (Lansing, MI)
June 19: Cool Papa Bell (MS) Chapter meeting/ballgame (Pearl, MS)
June 26: Emil Rothe Chicago Chapter meeting (Chicago, IL)

Find more upcoming SABR meetings on our Events Calendar page.

SABRcast with Rob Neyer: Listen to an interview with author Gary Bedingfield

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 #115 on Monday, June 14 featured Gary Bedingfield, author of the new book Baseball in Hawaii During World War II and proprietor of the Baseball in Wartime website documenting baseball players and their military service. He has been researching and writing about wartime baseball for the last 25 years. Born and raised in Great Britain, he was a catcher in his playing days and played for the Enfield Spartans and the Great Britain national team. He also runs the Baseball’s Greatest Sacrifice website, produces a regular Baseball in Wartime newsletter, and has authored two other books, Baseball’s Dead of World War II (2010) and Baseball in World War II Europe (1999). A lifelong Dodgers fan, he runs a staff development business near Glasgow, Scotland.

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

Subscribe to SABRcast on your favorite podcast networks, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher, 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:

Steve Braun, by Eric Vickrey
Jim Brewer, by Warren Corbett
Larry Cox, by Brian Bratt
Kevin Gryboski, by George Pawlush
Homer Hillebrand, by Terry Bohn
Monte Pearson, by Dan Schoenholz

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.
Read all SABR bios from 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords book: In Pride of Smoketown: The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords, edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin and published in 2020, we told the story of one of the Negro Leagues’ most dominant teams, which boasted four Hall of Fame players. All of the biographies from Pride of Smoketown are now available to read online at the SABR BioProject. Visit SABR.org/ebooks to download the free e-book edition or save 50% off the paperback.

16 new stories published at the SABR Games Project

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

June 21, 1921: Rogers Hornsby continues to impress as Cardinals score 17 runs in rout of Cubs, by Kyle Sharamitaro (first-time author)
June 21, 1921: A’s win epic 15-inning battle against Senators, by Russ Walsh
June 27, 1921: Phillies’ Bill Hubbell and Giants’ Phil Douglas both go the distance in 7-homer slugfest, by Steve Ginader
July 4, 1921: Fireworks for the wrong team as Cleveland rallies to beat White Sox, 11-10, by Stephen D. Boren
July 9, 1921: White Sox rally from 8-run deficit, beat Yankees 10-9 in 16 innings, by Stephen D. Boren
July 21, 1921: Joe Sewell smashes three doubles as Cleveland trounces Yankees, by Vince Guerrieri
July 23, 1921: As hot as summer in St. Louis, Browns take eighth straight game, by Doug Feldmann
July 31, 1921: Atlantic City Bacharach Giants Pound the Indianapolis ABCs at Ebbets Field, by Jim Overmyer
September 30, 1939: Red Sox rookie Ted Williams completes quest to homer in every ballpark, by Bill Nowlin
May 22, 1957: Bradford, Pennsylvania, bids farewell to professional baseball, by Kurt Blumenau
September 19, 1962: Don Drysdale blanks Braves, notches 25th win of season, by David Krell
June 9, 1969: Williams’s inspiration, Epstein’s power help Senators win exhibition in Buffalo, by Kurt Blumenau
April 9, 1990: Orioles’ Sam Horn homers twice, drives in six in Opening Day win, by Madison McEntire
April 6, 1993: Jose Guzmán is one out shy of history in Cubs’ debut, by Les Morris (first-time author)
July 30, 1998: Eric Davis hits two home runs to complete Baltimore’s sweep in Detroit, by Madison McEntire
July 24, 2004: Red Sox fired up after walk-off win over Yankees at Fenway, by Bill Nowlin
August 13, 2020: Boston’s Kevin Plawecki becomes only pitcher with a hit in 2020, by Laura H. Peebles

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 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.

Download 2021 SABR Annual Report

SABR’s 2021 Annual Report has been posted on the website and can be downloaded below:

Click here to download the 2021 SABR Annual Report (PDF)

On the Annual Reports page, you can download a copy of 2021 Chapter Reports, Committee Reports, and Chartered Communities Reports in the Appendix files on that page.

All previous SABR Annual Reports can also be found on the Annual Reports page.

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
William Angelico	Chicago, IL	Christopher Juelsgaard	Minneapolis, MN
Peter Armenti	Alexandria, VA	Paul Julion	Broadview, IL
Richard Cleary	Middleton, WI	Victor Karsner	Clovis, CA
Skip Collinge	Palos Verdes Estates, CA	Gary Knappick	Philadelphia, PA
John Copertino	Cedar Knolls, NJ	Scott Landis	Lincoln, DE
Mark Davis	Kanata, ON	Antoine Malfroy-camine	Cambridge, MA
Helen Edwards	Victoria, BC	Susan McCormac	New York, NY
Alan Gaff	Fort Wayne, IN	Hal Neisler	Herculaneum, MO
Larry Hettinger	Lenexa, KS	Lee Phillips	Manhattan Beach, CA
Charlie Hyman	Cambridge, MA	John Silvia	Captiva, FL
Matt Jacob	Washington, DC	Bill Slankard	Arlington Heights, IL

Research Committee news

Here are the new research committee updates this week:

Century Committee: Check out the Century Committee’s new website, with articles on memorable players, teams, and events from the 1921 National League, American League, and Negro National League seasons.

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

Regional Chapter news

Here are the new regional chapter and chartered community updates this week:

Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter: June 10 meeting recap (St. Louis, MO)
Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood Chapter: Summer 2021 newsletter (Hartford, CT)
Connie Mack-Dick Allen Chapter: Check out the chapter’s fundraising initiative to place a historical marker for the 1871 Philadelphia Athletics
Larry Dierker Chapter: June 14 meeting recap (Sugar Land, TX)

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

Around the Web

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

Save 50% on University of Nebraska Press baseball books through July 15 by using the discount code 6SUMM21
Tyler Kepner: Once Again, MLB Faces a Crisis of Its Own Making (New York Times)
Ben Lindbergh: Eight Lingering Questions About MLB’s Crackdown on Sticky Stuff (The Ringer)
Rob Arthur: Changes In Spin Rate Aren’t Always Because Of Sticky Stuff (Baseball Prospectus)
Eno Sarris/Brittany Ghiroli: Are we already seeing effects from MLB’s looming sticky stuff crackdown? (The Athletic)
Alex Speier: Are the Red Sox’ pitching struggles a sticky mess? The data say … (Boston Globe)
Jay Jaffe: With Double Duty, Ohtani Is Playing His Way Into MVP Consideration (FanGraphs)
Sarah Langs: MVP ‘an impossible choice’: Ohtani vs. Vlad (MLB.com)
Jayson Stark: Baseball’s next challenge will be the battle against velocity (The Athletic)
Rob Mains: Whose Fault Is All These Strikeouts? (Baseball Prospectus)
RJ McDaniel: Hey, Can Anyone On This Baseball Field Tell Me What the Count Is? (FanGraphs)
Stephanie Apstein: Mets Finding Ways to Win Amid the Chaos (Sports Illustrated)
Russell A. Carleton: Why The DH Might Save Baseball (But Not How You Think) (Baseball Prospectus)
Stephen J. Nesbitt: Is White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal having the best ‘bad’ hitting season in MLB history? (The Athletic)
Grant Brisbee: What if … a team had actually signed Barry Bonds in 2008? (The Athletic)
David Laurila: Atlanta Braves Pitching Prospect Spencer Strider Nerds Out on His Arsenal (FanGraphs)
Kirk Kenney: My 1961′ views Roger Maris-Mickey Mantle home run chase through eyes of adolescent (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Steven Goldman: Mudcat Grant and Critical Race Baseball (Baseball Prospectus)
Matt Monagan: 18 years later, the fallen Sausage speaks (MLB.com)
Tom Ruane: Retro-review of the 1909 season (Retrosheet.org)
Mark Simon: Good & Bad Baserunning Plays (ACTA Sports)
Zack Moser: Abner Doubleday, Cooperstown, and MLB’s Colonizing Impulse (Baseball Prospectus)
John Vargo: From Shuba to Stevens, Vince Guerrieri Talks Mahoning Valley Baseball (Business Journal Daily)
Graham Womack: A Find at the Antique Faire (Baseball: Past and Present)
Joe Genovese: From the Negro League to MLB (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.

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