This Week in SABR: June 19, 2020

June 19, 2020/in This Week in SABR /by Jacob Pomrenke

Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web. Here’s what we’ve been up to as of June 19, 2020:

Take a tour of the new, redesigned SABR website

We’re excited to announce the re-launch of SABR.org this week! Our new design enhances the user experience and provides greater visual appeal, while a new search engine will better connect SABR’s rich content archive from our first 50 years.

Thousands of stories from SABR’s Research Collection are now available online, showcasing the breadth and depth of our members’ groundbreaking work on all aspects of baseball, from the sport’s early origins to the Negro Leagues to sabermetric analysis of the modern game.

Over time, even more articles from the Baseball Research Journal, The National Pastime, Biography Project, Games Project, Oral History Collection, Digital Library, and conference panels and presentations will be searchable and connected at SABR.org, highlighting SABR’s immense value to our members and the broader baseball community. The new website will also serve as home to an upcoming series of SABR 50 at 50 web features that shine a light on baseball’s evolution over the past half-century.

With a growing audience of nearly 2.5 million annual visitors, SABR.org highlights the organization’s passionate community of baseball fans, which includes everyone from academics to professional sportswriters to amateur historians and statisticians to students and casual fans who enjoy reading about baseball history and gathering with other members at local chapter events and national conferences to learn more about the game we all love.

We hope you’ll take a spin around SABR.org and check out the many great articles, resources, and benefits available to SABR members and all baseball fans online. If you haven’t visited in a while, SABR members can log in to the members-only area at profile.sabr.org using your e-mail address (username) and password.

Read all articles from the Spring 2020 Baseball Research Journal online

Good news! The Spring 2020 edition of the Baseball Research Journal is now available to read online:

Click here to read the Spring 2020 Baseball Research Journal at SABR.org

Those of you who receive the print edition should find your BRJ arriving in the next few weeks. For digital subscribers, the e-book edition will also be delivered to your inboxes soon.

To read more articles from the BRJ archives, our flagship publication for nearly the past half-century, click here.

To learn more about contributing to a future SABR publication, click here.

We hope you enjoy reading the Spring 2020 Baseball Research Journal!

Coming soon: Registration opens next week for SABR Virtual sessions

Baseball fans, join us throughout the month of July for SABR Virtual, a series of presentations, chats, and one-on-one interviews featuring authors, scholars, and figures from around the game.

SABR Virtual sessions are scheduled each weekend from Thursday, July 9 to Sunday, July 26, highlighted by:

40 research presentations on all aspects of baseball, past and present
6 special presentations, including one from Major League Baseball
Annual Business Meeting on Saturday, July 11, with Bob Davids Award announcement to follow (livestreamed on SABR’s Facebook page)
Online raffle in which all SABR members will have the opportunity to win baseball memorabilia

The full schedule of presentations will be announced next week, along with online registration at SABR.org/virtual-meetings beginning on Thursday, June 25.

Thursday and Friday sessions will be held from 7:00-9:00 p.m. EDT on July 9-10, 16-17, and 23-24. Saturday and Sunday sessions will be held from 3:00-5:00 p.m. EDT on July 11-12, 18-19, and 25-26.

SABR members will have first priority to reserve their spot for each daily two-hour session, which are limited to the first 100 participants. Sessions will be opened to all baseball fans based on availability. Recordings will be available for all baseball fans to view afterward on SABR’s YouTube channel.

SABR chapters and committees will also hold online meetings with guest speakers as part of our Stay Home With SABR initiative; check out our events calendar for upcoming events.

SABR Digital Library: Harvey’s Wallbangers: The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers

Add a pennant-winning baseball book to your collection from the SABR Digital Library:

Harvey’s Wallbangers: The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers
Edited by Gregory H. Wolf
Associate Editors: Len Levin, Bill Nowlin, and Carl Riechers
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-970159-27-1, $34.95
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-970159-26-4, $9.99
8.5” x 11”, 407 pages

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

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

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

SABR members can download all Digital Library e-books for free or get 50% off the paperback editions. Find past titles at SABR.org/ebooks.

Having trouble downloading our e-books? To view PDF files on your computer, click here to download the free Adobe Reader software. Having trouble downloading e-books to your Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or iPad? Click here for additional help.

Get a 25% discount on pre-orders of new SABR 50 at 50 book

Baseball has seen many changes in the last 50 years, and SABR’s 50th anniversary provides an opportunity to highlight the most memorable players, teams, and events from the game’s glorious past.

SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game, edited by Bill Nowlin and now available for pre-order from the University of Nebraska Press, celebrates and highlights SABR’s wide-ranging contributions to baseball history.

SABR members can get a 25% discount off the cover price by using the discount code 6SFF when ordering at nebraskapress.unl.edu or calling 800-848-6224. (To order outside of North America, please call +44 (0)1423 526350 and use the discount code CS40UNP.)

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.

This week, we heard from The Called Shot author Thomas Wolf and MLB Official Historian John Thorn.

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

June 20: Goose Goslin (N.J.) Chapter meeting with Justin DiBiase (10:00 a.m. EDT)
June 20: Rogers Hornsby (Texas) Chapter meeting (1:00 p.m. CDT)
June 20: Latino Baseball Committee meeting with author Kat Williams (1:00 p.m. PDT)
June 22: Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting with J.J. Cooper of Baseball America and author Ed Wheatley (6:30 p.m. CDT)
June 24: Luke Easter (N.Y.) Chapter meeting with author Scott Pitoniak (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 24: Jack Graney (Cleveland) Chapter meeting with Ike Brooks and former Cleveland Indian Vern Fuller (7:30 p.m. EDT)
June 25: Great Fenway Park Writers Series with John Shea and Gordon Edes (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 25: Larry Doby (S.C.) Chapter meeting with Regan Durham of the Minnesota Twins and Tina Whitlock of the St. Louis Cardinals (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 25: Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood Chapter meeting with authors Mitch Nathanson and Alan Cohen (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 25: Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter book club (7:30 p.m. CDT)
June 27: Allan Roth (L.A.) Chapter meeting with author Ron Rapoport and SABR CEO Scott Bush (10:00 a.m. PDT)
June 27: Sweet Lou Johnson Lexington Chapter meeting (1:00 p.m. EDT)
June 27: Hemond-Delhi Arizona Chapter meeting (1:00 p.m. MST)
June 28: Detroit Chapter book club meeting (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 29: Women in Baseball Committee meeting with umpires Perry Barber, Lisa Turbitt, and Theresa Fairlady (7:00 p.m. EDT)

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

Last call: Cast your vote for the 2020 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.

Committee members vote to narrow down the ballot to 12 finalists, then all SABR members are eligible to cast a vote for the winner. The winner will be announced in July during a Nineteenth Century Committee virtual meeting.

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

2020 finalists: Earlier this year, members of the Nineteenth Century Research Committee selected the finalists for the 2020 Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend. Click here to download a PDF with the finalists’ bios, compiled by project co-chairs Adam Darowski and Joe Williams. Voting in the final election will run until June 29, and will be open to all SABR members.
Vote now! Click here to access the 2020 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 29, 2020.

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

Call for papers: 2020 SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference

SABR and the International Women’s Baseball Center have announced a call for papers for the second annual SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference, scheduled for September 11-13, 2020, at Rockford University in Rockford, Illinois.

This year’s conference theme is celebrating African American women in baseball. All topics related to women’s baseball and the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues are welcome for individual oral and poster presentations.

Please submit abstracts of approximately 200 words, along with contact information and a short biography, by July 15, 2020, to Leslie Heaphy at Lheaphy@kent.edu.

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

SABR office continuing to work remotely

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

On Monday, March 16, ASU announced that all in-person classes would transition to online instruction for the rest of the spring semester. Please contact a member of the SABR staff by email or phone with any questions.

SABRcast with Rob Neyer: Listen to an interview with Negro Leagues Museum president Bob Kendrick

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 #64 on Monday, June 15 featured Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, which reopened this week after a three-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. He has been responsible for the creation of several signature museum educational programs and events, including Buck O’Neil’s Birthday Bash and the Hall of Game, which honors former MLB greats who played the game in the spirit and signature style of the Negro Leagues.

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

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

New team ownership history: Brooklyn Players’ League

The SABR Team Ownership Histories Project is a joint effort of SABR’s Business of Baseball Committee and the BioProject. The intention is to keep its essays up-to-date and to provide as much detail as possible about the organization and composition of ownership groups, franchise sales, relocations, stadiums, and other issues that provide the financial context for team success on the field.

One new article was published this week:

Brooklyn Players’ League team ownership history, by John G. Zinn

Click here to read all published team ownership histories at SABR.org.

John’s essay is part of the project’s expansion beyond the 30 current franchises of Major League Baseball. Charlie Bevis has written essays on defunct 19th-century teams and Bill Lamb has produced one on the Newark Peppers of the Federal League. Essays on Negro League and AAGPBL teams are in the works. Anyone interested in other American Association, Union Association, Players League, Federal League, Negro Leagues, AAGPBL, or defunct National League franchises should contact Andy McCue at amccue@sabr.org.

Twenty essays on the current MLB teams have already been posted and more are being written or edited. Anyone interested in researching the Nationals, Rockies, Angels, Orioles, Astros, Athletics, Rays, or the Milwaukee or Atlanta Braves should also contact amccue@sabr.org.

7 new SABR biographies published

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

Jack Brackey, by Chris Rainey
Cal Browning, by Eric Vickrey
Jack Feller, by Jerry Nechal
George Haddock, by Bill Lamb
Bob Poser, by Henry Berman
Bobby Sprowl, by Bill Nowlin
Don Sutton, by Gregory H. Wolf

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.

7 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

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

September 27, 1920: ‘The end of some inevitable chain’: Chicago’s final Black Sox game, by Adam Berenbak
April 25, 1937: Giants’ Cliff Melton fans record 13 in debut, but loses heartbreaker, by Gregory H. Wolf
July 12, 1953: Dodgers end Giants’ streak on bases-loaded walk in 10th inning, by Steven C. Weiner
September 4, 1969: Willie Davis’s hitting streak ends at 31 games, by David Krell
September 24, 1984: Cubs clinch first postseason berth since 1945 behind Sandberg, Matthews, Sutcliffe, by John Fredland
May 2, 2014: Ninth-inning home runs rally Pirates past Blue Jays, spark season turnaround, by John Fredland
October 9, 2019: Cardinals eliminate Braves after historic first inning in NLDS Game 5, by Dan Pappaspanos

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.

Special offer for SABR members from MLBPAA

The Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA) has put together an exclusive offer for SABR members. Become a Professional Member ($55 annually), and receive two FREE gifts: a signed photo from a team of your choice and an Alumni Nation dri-fit athletic shirt.

As a Professional member, you’ll receive the quarterly newsletter Baseball Alumni News and exclusive discounts with: MLB.TV (50% off), Oakley (40% off), Mizuno (40% off), Baseballism (20% off), Rawlings (20% off), and more.

Join the official Alumni Association of Major League Baseball to enjoy many of the same great benefits as your baseball heroes! Click here to sign up today.

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

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by former SABR Board President Vince Gennaro, is back at a new time. Listen to new episodes at 4:00-5:00 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. Click here to learn more.

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM focuses on examining and interpreting the statistical analysis that plays a critical role in baseball today. It airs weekly throughout the year on MLB Network Radio, available to subscribers nationwide on XM channel 89, Sirius channel 209, and on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App.

ICYMI: Highlights from last week’s This Week in SABR

We’ve heard your feedback: Some of you have said you look forward to “This Week in SABR” every Friday, but sometimes there are just too many compelling articles and announcements to read every week. We’re not complaining — hey, keep up the great work! — but we know the feeling. So in an effort to make the length of this newsletter more manageable to read, we’ll summarize some of the repeating/recurring announcements in a special “In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)” section of “This Week in SABR”.

Here are some major headlines from recent weeks that we don’t want you to miss:

All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here: https://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives.

Welcome, new members!

We’d like to welcome all of our new SABR members who have joined this week. You can find all Members-Only resources at members.sabr.org and the Membership Handbook can be downloaded here.

Please give these new members a warm welcome and help them make the most of their membership by giving them the opportunity to get involved in their local chapter or a research committee.

You can find contact information for any SABR member in the online Membership Directory.

Name	Hometown	Name	Hometown
Ernesto Arribas	Monterrey, MEX	Gary Johnson	Silver Spring, MD
David Asp	Plymouth, MN	John Katich	Knoxville, IA
John Clay	Fayetteville, AR	Karen Kubara	Tucson, AZ
Erin Corrales-Diaz	Worcester, MA	Dan Lovallo	Torrington, CT
Brad Cuprik	Gibsonia, PA	Dennis McAlister	Glasco, KS
Nick Del Calzo	Greenwood Village, CO	Christian Robertson	Rockville, MD
Nicholas DiGrispino	Lansing, IL	Clark Sandberg	Arlington, VA
Bryan Ellenburg	Burbank, CA	Joe Turner	Big Spring, TX
Andrew Fox	Phoenix, AZ	Stan Webb	Laveen, AZ
Yulan Holtz	Los Angeles, CA	Eli Wright	Louisville, KY
Steve Hudson	Chicago, IL

Research Committee news

Here are the new research committee updates this week:

Nineteenth Century: Last call to vote for the 2020 SABR Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legend

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

Regional Chapter news

Here are the new regional chapter updates this week:

Boston Chapter: Read a new “Dispatches From the Mudville Bureau,” by Joanne Hulbert (Boston, MA)
Hemond-Delhi Arizona Chapter: June 2020 newsletter (Phoenix, AZ)
Jack Graney Chapter: The Jack Graney Chapter (Cleveland, OH) announced the result of its first officers election. Joe Shaw was elected as President, Vince Guerrieri was elected as Secretary/Treasurer, and Dave Scott was elected as Director-At-Large.
Larry Dierker Chapter: June 15 meeting recap (Houston, TX)

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

SABR Virtual Events Calendar

Here are the upcoming virtual events on the SABR calendar:

June 20: Goose Goslin (N.J.) Chapter meeting with Justin DiBiase (10:00 a.m. EDT)
June 20: Rogers Hornsby (Texas) Chapter meeting (1:00 p.m. CDT)
June 20: Latino Baseball Committee meeting with author Kat Williams (1:00 p.m. PDT)
June 22: Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting with J.J. Cooper of Baseball America and author Ed Wheatley (6:30 p.m. CDT)
June 24: Luke Easter (N.Y.) Chapter meeting with author Scott Pitoniak (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 24: Jack Graney (Cleveland) Chapter meeting with Ike Brooks and former Cleveland Indian Vern Fuller (7:30 p.m. EDT)
June 25: Great Fenway Park Writers Series with John Shea and Gordon Edes (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 25: Larry Doby (S.C.) Chapter meeting with Regan Durham of the Minnesota Twins and Tina Whitlock of the St. Louis Cardinals (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 25: Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood Chapter meeting with authors Mitch Nathanson and Alan Cohen (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 25: Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter book club (7:30 p.m. CDT)
June 27: Allan Roth (L.A.) Chapter meeting with author Ron Rapoport and SABR CEO Scott Bush (10:00 a.m. PDT)
June 27: Sweet Lou Johnson Lexington Chapter meeting (1:00 p.m. EDT)
June 27: Hemond-Delhi Arizona Chapter meeting (1:00 p.m. MST)
June 28: Detroit Chapter book club meeting (7:00 p.m. EDT)
June 29: Women in Baseball Committee meeting with umpires Perry Barber, Lisa Turbitt, and Theresa Fairlady (7:00 p.m. EDT)

Find more virtual meetings on our SABR Virtual Events Calendar page.

Around the Web

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

Hannah Keyser: MLB, team employees fear for baseball’s future as ‘ownership is clearly prepared to throw it all away’ (Yahoo! Sports)
Ken Rosenthal: Manfred must strike a deal with the players or ruin his legacy (The Athletic)
Jayson Stark: If you think Major League Baseball is ugly now … (The Athletic)
Travis Sawchik: Do Baseball’s Labor Fights Drive Fans Away? (FiveThirtyEight)
Rob Arthur: A Lost Season Could Sink MLB’s Attendance, Or Have No Effect At All (Baseball Prospectus)
Eno Sarris: How much more legitimate is an 80-game season than a 50-game one? (The Athletic)
Claire McNear: If MLB Cancels the 2020 Season, What Happens to Baseball? (The Ringer)
Michael Baumann: MLB Is Staring Down the Point of No Return (The Ringer)
Eugene Freedman: The Threat of a Grievance Likely Spurred MLB’s Latest Offer to the Players (FanGraphs)
Henry Schulman/John Shea: Mike McCormick, Giants’ first Cy Young Award winner, dies at 81 (San Francisco Chronicle)
Marc Carig: Bonanza or bust: The Four Aces of Oakland’s 1990 draft (The Athletic)
Katie Blackley: Fifty Years After Pitching A No-Hitter, Dock Ellis’ Legacy Continues In Baseball (WESA Radio)
Patrick Dubuque: Games Reinforce the World They Simulate (Baseball Prospectus)
Jay Jaffe: The Universal Designated Hitter May Be Here to Stay (FanGraphs)
Jonathan Judge: An Approach to Survivor Bias in Baseball (Baseball Prospectus)
Gary Ashwill: White Racial Violence & the Negro Leagues: The Chicago Riot of 1919 (Agate Type)
Anne R. Keene: A Secret History Behind a Bat Boy’s Photograph with Ted Williams (National World War II Museum)
J.P. Hoornstra: Dodgers coach George Lombard tries to honor the work of his activist mother (Orange County Register)
Mark Saxon: What if the Browns, not the Cardinals, had become St. Louis’ team? (The Athletic)
Tim Hagerty: Finding Ray Fagan: A Minor League Mystery (FanGraphs)
Alex Vigderman: Checking in on the Quality of Defense in KBO (ACTA Sports)
David Laurila: A Conversation With Miami Marlins Southpaw Caleb Smith (FanGraphs)
Mitch Lutzke: Tigers Finished Their 1918 Season in the Shadow of a Pandemic and War (Tigers History)
Steven Goldman: Ten Men Out (Baseball Prospectus)
Ryan Whirty: Southern University’s 1959 national championship (Home Plate Don’t Move)
Renee Andrews/Davy Andrews/Roger Cormier: Too Far From Town: Hagerstown Suns (Baseball Prospectus)
Mark Tomasik: Interview with Mike Mitchell, author of “Mr. Rickey’s Redbirds” (RetroSimba)
Darin Watson: The Year Of The Card: Wally Joyner, 1993 (U.L.’s Toothpick)
David A. Scott: Babe woos Tribe fans in 1920 (Medium.com)
Shawn Hennessy: Serving Behind the Scenes, Rizzuto Shared His Heart for the Game (Chevrons and Diamonds)
Jason Schwartz: Cards for a Cause (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)
Jim Osborne: Topps 1968 Die Cut Dandies! (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)

Please note: Some articles may require a separate subscription to view online. SABR does not endorse, and is not responsible or liable for, any content that appears on a third-party website.

This Week in SABR is compiled by Jacob Pomrenke. If you would like us to include an upcoming event, article or any other information in “This Week in SABR,” e-mail jpomrenke@sabr.org.

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

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

Follow us: