This Week in SABR: March 19, 2021

March 19, 2021/in This Week in SABR /by sabr

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 March 19, 2021:

Watch highlights from Analyze This panel at the SABR Virtual Analytics Conference

At the SABR Virtual Analytics Conference on Saturday, March 13, we heard from the Analyze This: The Varying Roles and Skillsets of Baseball Analysts panel.

The Analyze This panel included Ehsan Bokhari, Senior Director of Player Evaluation, Houston Astros; Maggie O’Hara, Senior Analyst in Baseball Operations, Detroit Tigers; Josh Ruffin, Advanced Scouting Analyst, Minnesota Twins; and moderator Eduardo Perez, ESPN analyst and former major-league infielder for 13 seasons.

Thanks to MLB’s Diversity and Inclusion Department, all baseball fans can watch a free livestream of this session on Facebook Live. Click here to watch a replay of the Analyze This panel from SABR Analytics.

Stay tuned for more multimedia clips and highlights from the 2021 SABR Virtual Analytics Conference!

To learn more, visit SABR.org/analytics.

Adams, Davis, Taylor win 2021 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards

Tony Adams, Bradford William Davis, and Shakeia Taylor were honored on Saturday, March 13 as winners of the 2021 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards at the SABR Virtual Analytics Conference.

Adams was voted as the winner of the Contemporary Baseball Analysis Award for his research and analysis at SignStealingScandal.com, published on January 29, 2020.

Davis was voted as the winner of the Contemporary Baseball Commentary Award for his article “Baseball Let Unity Stand in the Way of Protest,” published by the New York Daily News on July 28, 2020.

Taylor was voted as the winner of the Historical Baseball Analysis/Commentary Award for her article, “Effa Manley’s Hidden Life,” published at SB Nation on April 30, 2020.

The SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards recognize baseball researchers who have completed the best work of original analysis or commentary during the preceding calendar year.

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

Eric Nusbaum to receive SABR Seymour Medal on Saturday at NINE Conference

2021 SABR Seymour Medal winner Eric Nusbaum will receive his award during the 28th annual NINE Spring Training Conference at 8:00 p.m. EDT / 5:00 p.m. PDT on Saturday, March 20. The NINE Conference is being held virtually over three weekends in March. To register for the NINE conference, visit nineconference.com.

Nusbaum won the Seymour Medal — which honors the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year — for Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, published by PublicAffairs.

The Seymour Medal, named in honor of Dr. Harold Seymour and Mrs. Dorothy (Seymour) Mills, was first awarded by SABR in 1996. To be considered for the medal, a work must be the product of original research or analysis. The winning book shall significantly advance our knowledge of baseball and shall be characterized by understanding, factual accuracy, profound insight and distinguished writing.

To see a list of previous Seymour Medal winners, click here.

SABR 50 at 50: Baseball Books

As part of the SABR 50 at 50 project to commemorate the organization’s fiftieth anniversary, we offer 50 baseball books worth reading from the past 50 years.

There have been thousands of books on baseball published since SABR was founded in August 1971. That’s far more than any other sport. Many have come from the pens, then typewriters, then word processors of SABR members. To celebrate the Society’s 50th anniversary, a panel of our members set out to identify those works published since the founding which have best stood the test of time.

The list features reference works, histories and biographies as well as examinations of particular incidents and broad trends. It includes statistical works, novels, collections from eminent journalists and books of art and photography. In one way or another, these books have all added to our understanding and appreciation of the game. Visit SABR.org/50at50/books to view the full list.

We anticipate that the next 50 years of SABR research will produce works so we can appreciate and understand an even broader range of topics.

— Andy McCue

SABR Digital Library: A Palace in the Nation’s Capital: Griffith Stadium, Home of the Washington Senators

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

A Palace in the Nation’s Capital: Griffith Stadium, Home of the Washington Senators
Edited by Gregory H. Wolf
Associate Editors: Len Levin, Bill Nowlin, and Carl Riechers
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9701-5949-3, $24.95
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-9701-5948-6, $9.99
8.5″ x 11″, 317 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 A Palace in the Nation’s Capital for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, Kindle/MOBI and EPUB formats.
Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the A Palace in the Nation’s Capital 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.

SABR members can download all Digital Library publications for free and save 50% off the paperback edition. Visit SABR.org/ebooks to find more Digital Library titles.

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 Emil Rothe Chicago Chapter will hold a virtual Zoom meeting at 2:00 p.m. CDT on Saturday, March 20. Our guest speaker is Bob Dernier, former outfielder for the Chicago Cubs, who will speak about his experiences on the 1984 NL East Division championship team. To register for this meeting, please contact Jason Schwartz.
Video Replays: This week, we heard from former Colorado Rockies executive and author Bill Geivett; Mike Gimbel with 2021 MLB season predictions; and Jerry Manheim on “This Never Happened: The Mysterious Death of Christy Mathewson.” 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:

March 19: NINE Spring Training Conference (8:00 p.m. EDT)
March 20: Hanlan’s Point (Toronto) Chapter meeting with Chip Martin (10:00 a.m. EDT)
March 20: Byron Motley: Forgotten No More: Remembering the Silent Men of the Diamond (12:00 p.m. EDT)
March 20: Emil Rothe Chicago Chapter meeting with Bob Dernier (2:00 p.m. CDT)
March 20: Ken Keltner (WI) Chapter meeting with John Graf and Duke Goldman (3:00 p.m. CDT)
March 19-20: NINE Spring Training Conference / SABR Seymour Medal Ceremony with Eric Nusbaum (8:00 p.m. EDT)
March 21: Field of Dreams (IA) Chapter meeting with Lindsay Bell, Clayton Grandquist, and Paul Spyhalski (1:30 p.m. CDT)
March 22: Luke Easter (NY) Chapter meeting with Phil S. Dixon and Scott Simkus (7:30 p.m. EDT)
March 23: Hoyt-Allen (OH) Chapter meeting with David Hyland, Paul Debono, and Michael McGiness (7:00 p.m. EDT)
March 23: Boston Chapter meeting with Rico Petrocelli (8:00 p.m. EDT)
March 24: Jack Graney/Hank Gowdy (OH) Chapter meeting with Jerry Manheim (8:00 p.m. EDT)
March 25: South Florida Chapter meeting with Gary Cieradkowski and Jim Halloran (7:00 p.m. EDT)
March 28: Baltimore Babe Ruth Chapter meeting (7:00 p.m. EDT)

Find more upcoming SABR meetings on our Events Calendar page.

Register now for the virtual SABR Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Conference in April

Registration is still open for the 11th annual SABR Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference, which will be held virtually on April 22-24, 2021. All baseball fans are welcome to register for this special online event.

The 2021 virtual conference will be highlighted by a keynote address from Major League Baseball’s Official Historian John Thorn, along with a panel discussion on National League president William Hulbert with Jack Bales, Richard Hershberger, Bill Lamb, and moderator Bill Ryczek; a special presentation by Jim Gates on the “Penny Marshall Sheet Music Collection” at the Baseball Hall of Fame; a Member Spotlight interview of Tom Gilbert by Bob Bailey; plus research presentations.

Registration: Click here to register online. The cost is $35 per person. Each attendee must register separately in order to receive the Zoom meeting information.
Schedule: Click here to view the full schedule for the 2021 Ivor-Campbell Conference. Online sessions will be held from 8:00-10:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 22; 12:00-5:30 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 23; and 12:00-5:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, April 24. Registration provides access to all panels and presentations for each day.

For questions, please contact Peter Mancuso at peterplus4@earthlink.net.

To learn more about the conference, visit SABR.org/ivor-campbell19c.

SABR 50, Jerry Malloy conferences rescheduled for 2022

With travel restrictions and public health measures still in place due to the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the SABR 50 convention in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, have been rescheduled for the summer of 2022.

The SABR 50 convention is now scheduled for August 10-14, 2022, at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor in Baltimore. The next in-person Malloy Conference will be held on June 2-4, 2022, at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel in Birmingham.

Any members who requested a roll-over from their 2020 registrations will have their fees automatically refunded to their credit card on file. Please contact the SABR office with any questions.

Become a SABR Membership Ambassador!

Would you like to volunteer as a SABR Membership Ambassador? We’re looking for anyone who has a passion for SABR, who loves meeting new people, and who enjoys establishing authentic connections to help welcome new members into our baseball community.

Our Membership Ambassadors will be asked to send a personalized email to new members each week, help promote SABR via word of mouth and/or social media, represent the member ambassador team in at least one New Member Experience online session during the calendar year, and attend a quarterly virtual Zoom meeting with our Community Engagement Manager and other Ambassadors to discuss and review their efforts.

If you are interested in becoming a SABR Membership Ambassador, please email Chanel Zapata at czapata@sabr.org.

SABRcast with Rob Neyer: Listen to an interview with author Amanda Smith

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 #102 on Monday, March 15 featured Amanda Smith, a third-generation Dodgers fan and Angeleno. She is the author of Le Renard Argenté: The Silver Fox At War, an illustrated micro-fiction account of Chase Utley’s exploits during World War II. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing program, she has put her BFA to good use by tweeting extensively with a half-finished screenplay open in another window. You can follow her on Twitter at @AmandaRTubbs or listen to her discuss disaster movies in detail on her podcast, Disaster Girls.

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.

8 new SABR biographies published

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

Phil Cooney, by Mike Cooney
Don Erickson, by Malcolm Allen
J. Edward Krause, by Bill Lamb
Bobby Messenger, by Bob Muldoon (first-time author)
Jack Meyer, by Russ Walsh
Dick Redding, by Tim Hagerty
Joe Start, by Irwin Chusid
Barry Zito, by Joe Leisek

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.

6 new stories published at the SABR Games Project

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

April 19, 1914: Art Wilson homers twice, but Packers win ‘toughest baseball combat of the year’, by Steven Schmitt
July 14, 1914: Chi-Feds crush Terriers 11-0 in under two hours, by Bill Johnson
September 9, 1914: Chicago battles Buffalo to 12-inning tie, by Brian Frank
June 28, 1915: Visiting Whales rally to best Tip-Tops as 18,000 attend Fans’ Day in Brooklyn, by Mark S. Sternman
July 5, 1915: Holiday fireworks as Terriers manager Fielder Jones ejected, ‘resigns’, suspended, by Joel Rippel
September 29, 1915: Gene Packard does it all for Packers, wins 20th game in pennant race, by Jerrod Cotosman

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. 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.

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
Thomas Alberts	Ackworth, IA	Mike Krebs	Los Angeles, CA
David Alvarado	Sarasota, FL	Michael Maher	Jackson Heights, NY
John Dobry	New Orleans, LA	Sophie Morrison	Columbia, SC
John Elliott	Sewickley, PA	Phil Parkinson	London, ON
Peter Faber	New York, NY	Jeffrey Pietrzak	Baldwin, NY
Donald Fisher	Honolulu, HI	Jose Quevedo	Cranston, RI
Kevin Hutson	Prescott Valley, AZ	Yukihiro Takeda	Maebashi, JPN
Christopher Juelsgaard	Minneapolis, MN	Edward Veal	Spanaway, WA
David Korpiel	Canandaigua, NY	Coleman Walsh	Naples, FL

Research Committee news

There are no new research committee updates this week.

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:

Boston Chapter: Read a new “Dispatches From the Mudville Bureau,” by Joanne Hulbert (Boston, MA)
Larry Dierker Chapter: March 15 meeting recap (Houston, 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:

Gaye LeBaron: Santa Rosa family finds ideal home for baseball fan Joe Murphy’s autograph collection (Santa Rosa Press-Democrat)
Ben Lindbergh: The Mound Is Too Damn Close (The Ringer)
Tom Verducci: MLB’s pace of play crisis threatens the sport’s future (Sports Illustrated)
Rob Arthur: The New Baseball Might Push MLB Further Into The Three True Outcomes (Baseball Prospectus)
Stephanie Apstein: Kim Ng Made History. Now Comes the Hard Part. (Sports Illustrated)
Hannah Keyser: Plunge into the unknown: Baseball reflects on the day COVID-19 shut down spring training (Yahoo! Sports)
Eno Sarris: 6 spring training stats (and players) that might actually matter this season (The Athletic)
Rob Mains: The Third Time Through The Order Penalty Has Always Been There (Baseball Prospectus)
Ben Lindbergh: The Quest for the Perfect Pitching Machine (The Ringer)
Jayson Stark: ‘I’m gonna miss that stuff’: MLB pitchers are preparing for their last season at the plate (The Athletic)
Jay Jaffe: Jacob deGrom Might Be Blazing His Way To Cooperstown (FanGraphs)
Mark Simon: The Pirates’ Rebuild Starts With Defense (ACTA Sports)
Michael Clair: The origins of Dave Parker’s ‘Boys Boppin’ shirt (MLB.com)
Howard Megdal: The Good Closer, Bad Team Strategy (Baseball Prospectus)
Melissa Falen: Who says baseball’s not for girls? They’ve been playing it for nearly two centuries (Baltimore Sun)
Corey Brock: Eggs, bacon and a blockbuster: How the Mariners unloaded Robinson Canó (The Athletic)
Joon Lee: Where did Fernando Tatis Jr. get that awesome bat? Inside the company that could be MLB’s next big thing (ESPN.com)
RJ McDaniel: This Plate Appearance Has 22 Pitches (FanGraphs)
Zack Meisel: Searching for Shorty Gallagher: A lost face in the Cleveland crowd (The Athletic)
Daniel Brown: Mike Krukow on Pistol Pete Reiser, Leo the Lip, Honker and other links to baseball’s glorious past (The Athletic)
Andrew Forbes: In Memoriam: NY-Penn League (1939-2020) (Baseball Prospectus)
Davy Andrews/Daniel R. Epstein/Roger Cormier: Too Far From Town: Charlotte Stone Crabs (Baseball Prospectus)
David Laurila: Marlins prospect JJ Bleday talks hitting (FanGraphs)
Donald Orr: Recovering a forgotten piece of Portland’s baseball history, the Rosebuds (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
AJ Cassavell: Norm Sherry mourned as longtime pitching coach, Sandy Koufax’s mentor (MLB.com)
Sam Gazdziak: Obituary: Rheal Cormier (1967-2021) (RIP Baseball)
Jeff Cohen: Baseball and BBQ interview with Marjorie Adams (Baseball and BBQ)
Jason Schwartz: What about Blob? (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)
Anthony Salazar: More from Uncle Dan’s Mystery Box of Baseball: A Real Jambalaya (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)
Nick Vossbrink: Baseball Card Club (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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