This Week in SABR: May 11, 2012

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Here’s what we’ve been up to as of May 11, 2012:

SABR 42 daily schedule

Last week, we posted a list for research presentations and committee meetings at SABR 42, June 27-July 1, 2012, at the Minneapolis Marriott City Center, 30 South 7th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402. This week, we’ve got an early version of the SABR 42 Daily Schedule:

http://sabr.org/convention/sabr42-schedule

Check out what’s going on with five full days of baseball fun in Minnesota this summer! In addition to the great speakers, panels and presentations, we’re also planning an exclusive tour of Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins, with special access to areas of the ballpark not available to the public; a tour of the Minneapolis Public Library; a trip to the baseball exhibit at the new Minnesota African American Museum; 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.

A downloadable PDF version of the SABR 42 schedule is also available at the link above. Please be aware that all events are subject to change, and more speakers will be added as they confirm. Check back at SABR.org/convention for complete details. Scroll down for more information on registering and booking your hotel room, too.

Register for SABR 42 online at the SABR Store

Special for 2012, we’re offering an all-inclusive rate of $219 (SABR members) or $269 (non-members) for SABR 42. The all-inclusive rate includes full registration to all convention panels and presentations, one ticket to the Awards Banquet on Friday, June 29 and one Home Plate View ticket to the Twins vs. Royals game on Friday, June 29.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR SABR 42: http://sabr.org/convention/sabr42-registration

A note on off-site events: If you registered for SABR 42 before May 4, 2012, and wish to purchase any of the off-site events/tours — the Metrodome/Downtown Walking Tour, exclusive Target Field tour or Historic Ballpark Sites Bus Tour — to your convention itinerary, please contact Deb Jayne at (602) 343-6450.

We’re offering two options for registration this year:

1) All-inclusive rate
Special for 2012: We’re offering an all-inclusive rate for SABR 42. SABR members can pay $219 and nonmembers can pay $269 to receive:

  • Full registration to SABR 42 in Minneapolis (regular price: $129 for SABR members or $179 for nonmembers)
  • 1 ticket to the Awards Banquet (regular price: $45)
  • 1 Home Plate ticket to the Twins vs. Royals game on Friday, June 29 (regular price: $44)

Please note: Skyline Deck tickets are now sold out; they were available to the first 250 people who selected the all-inclusive rate. Those who select the all-inclusive rate after April 27, 2012, will receive a Home Plate View ticket instead.

2) Regular rate
SABR members and non-members who wish to purchase registration, banquet tickets, game tickets and off-site events separately can do so at the following rates:

Registration
includes access to all panel discussions, research presentations, committee meetings and other on-site events.

  • SABR members: $129
  • Non-members: $179

Metrodome/Downtown Walking Tour on Wednesday, June 27

  • Fee: $5

Led by Halsey Hall Chapter president Brenda Himrich, a tour of downtown and a tour of the Metrodome, former home of the Twins. Brenda will take you through the skyways of downtown Minneapolis and come back through the milling district along the river. You can head straight back from the Metrodome if you want or walk along the river. They can cross the river along the Stone Arch Bridge (where folks have been known to get married) and eat or drink someplace along the east bank on historic Main Street.

Exclusive tour of Target Field on Thursday, June 28

  • Fee: $15

Join us for an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins, led by Twins curator Clyde Doepner. You will be able to visit areas not accessible on most public tours of the ballpark.

Awards Banquet on Friday, June 29

  • Awards Banquet: $45

Meal includes salad, chicken entree and dessert. (If you have special dietary considerations, please contact Deb Jayne at djayne@sabr.org.)

Twins vs. Royals game on Friday, June 29
SABR has reserved a block of tickets in the Skyline Deck and Home Plate View sections. (Please note: Our Skyline Deck block has already sold out as of April 27, 2012; only tickets in the Home Plate View section are available.) Click here for a seating chart at TwinsBaseball.com.

  • Home Plate View: $38

You will be able to redeem your game ticket at the registration desk using the chit system. If you do not care with whom you sit, you should turn your chit into your game ticket right away at the hotel. But if you want to sit with a friend, wait to turn in your chits at the registration desk at the same time, thereby getting tickets next to one another.

Historic Ballpark Sites Bus Tour on Saturday, June 30

  • Fee: $15

Take a bus tour to historic Twin Cities ballpark sites, including Nicollet Park in Minneapolis, Lexington Park and The Pillbox in St. Paul, and Metropolitan Stadium in suburban Bloomington. Tour is limited to first 45 registrants. (Note: A second bus could be chartered if enough people sign up.)

We hope you’ll join us in Minneapolis this summer!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR SABR 42: http://sabr.org/convention/sabr42-registration

Negro Leagues Committee awards $2,500 scholarships in 2012 essay contest

SABR’s Negro Leagues Research Committee is pleased to award $2,500 scholarships to two 2012 high school seniors in its fourth annual national essay contest.

Katarina Nguyen of Edmonds-Woodway High School in Edmonds, Washington, and Michael Zoorob of Brentwood High School in Brentwood, Tennessee, were selected as the winners.

The contest was open to high school seniors planning to pursue a degree at an accredited U.S. post-secondary institution and carrying a minimum 2.5 GPA at the end of their junior year. Students had to write a 1,000-word essay answering one of the following questions: “What influence or impact did the Negro Leagues have on African American communities?” or “What is the legacy of Rube Foster?”

Nguyen’s essay was “The Negro Leagues: The Battle Beyond the Fields”. She plans to major in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Zoorob’s essay was “The Negro Leagues: Hitting a Home Run For Civil Rights.” He intends to study political science and economics at Vanderbilt University with the intention of going to law school.

The selection committee was comprised of Tom Garrett, Stephanie Liscio and Mel May.

The students will be recognized at the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, July 19-21, 2012, at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. Registration information and details can be found at SABR.org/malloy.

The Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference is the only symposium dedicated exclusively to the examination of black baseball history.

Four home runs in one game: a comprehensive list

When Rangers center fielder Josh Hamilton smashed four home runs on Tuesday night at Camden Yards in Baltimore, he joined an illustrious list as the 16th major league player to accomplish the feat. It’s even rarer than a perfect game (Philip Humber’s perfecto last month was the 21st.) This was the first season in MLB history in which both a four-home run game and a perfect game have occurred.

In the minor leagues, a four-home run game may be slightly less rare — it’s happened nearly 100 times since Omaha’s Jack Crooks became the first player to do it in a professional game in 1889 — but no less special to the players who pull it off.

Below is a list of all known players to have hit four or more home runs in a single professional game, first compiled by SABR founding member Bob McConnell in “The Minor League Research Journal, Vol. 2” in 1997 and updated by him in 2009. Please send corrections to Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org or Kevin Saldana at sabrkev@gmail.com.

http://sabr.org/research/four-homers-one-game

By the way, the record for most home runs in a single pro game is eight, set by Jay “Nig” Clarke in a Texas League game on June 15, 1902, when the Corsicana Oil Cities beat the Texarkana Casketmakers, 51-3 (not a typo). Five home runs in a game has been achieved four times: Pete Schneider in 1923; Lou Frierson in 1934; Cecil Dunn in 1936; and Dick Lane in 1948.

Here are some other interesting tidbits we picked up about four home-run games in the minor leagues:

  • Buzz Arlett is the only player known to have hit four home runs in a game TWICE — both in 1932. He may not have had a substantial major league career, but he’s arguably the greatest minor leaguer ever, starring for many years in the Pacific Coast League.
  • Buck Freeman, one of the great power hitters in the 19th century, hit four home runs for Haverhill in the New England League in 1894 before embarking on an 11-year career.
  • George “High Pockets” Kelly hit four home runs for Rochester of the International League in 1919 before going on to a Hall of Fame career at first base for the New York Giants. He’s the only Hall of Famer to hit four home runs in a minor-league game, though Hall of Famers Ed Delahanty, Lou Gehrig, Chuck Klein, Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt turned the trick in the big leagues.
  • In his record-setting 72-home run season of 1954, Roswell’s Joe Bauman hit four home runs against Sweetwater on August 31.
  • Danny Ozark is much more well-known as the Phillies’ manager of the 1970s, but he hit four home runs for Wichita Falls in the Big State League in 1956.
  • Other fairly well-known players to hit four home runs in a minor league game: Randy Bass, Tom Brunansky, Franklin Stubbs, Matt Williams, Bubba Trammell, Lew Ford, Garrett Jones, Micah Hoffpauir.

Related link: SABR member Alan Reifman, who studies “hot hands” in sports, also took a look at the continuity of four-home run games in the major leagues: http://thehothand.blogspot.com/2012/05/with-josh-hamilton-of-texas-rangers-on.html.

The SABR Bookshelf: Spring 2012

Periodically throughout the year, SABR.org publishes listings of new books that are received at the SABR office. This feature is called The SABR Bookshelf, continuing a popular section from the old SABR Bulletin.

Here are The SABR Bookshelf listings for Spring 2012:

http://sabr.org/content/sabr-bookshelf-spring-2012

To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Society for American Baseball Research, 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Ste. D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018.

To ensure a listing in The Baseball Index — SABR’s online catalog of baseball research materials at www.baseballindex.org — make sure a review copy is sent to The Baseball Index, 4025 Beechwood Pl., Riverside, CA 92506.

Here are the list of books included in the Spring 2012 SABR Bookshelf. Bolded names indicates that the author(s) is a SABR member. A list of publishers can be found here, along with their contact information.

  • A People’s History of Baseball, by Mitchell Nathanson  
  • Imperfect: An Improbable Life, by Jim Abbott and Tim Brown
  • Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball’s Greatest Gift, by Harvey Araton
  • Behind the Plate: A Catcher’s View of the Braves Dynasty, by Javier Lopez with Gary Caruso
  • Fenway Park: Images of America, by David Hickey, Raymond Sinibaldi and Kerry Keene
  • The Baseballl Hall of Shame:The Best of Blooperstown, by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo
  • Hit by Pitch: Ray Chapman, Carl Mays and the Fatal Fastball, by Molly Lawless  
  • Life Behind the Mask: Memoir of a Youth Baseball Umpire, by Michael Schafer  
  • Hardball Legends and Journeymen and Short-Timers: 333 Illustrated Baseball Biographies, by Ronnie Joyner
  • The Rank and File of 19th Century Major League Baseball: Biographies of 1,084 Players, Owners, Managers and Umpires, by David Nemec
  • Drawing Card: A Baseball Novel, by Dorothy Seymour Mills
  • Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick, by Paul Dickson
  • Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball, by Christopher J. Lamb
  • Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915-1931, by Norman L. Macht
  • Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, & Assassination During the 1934 Tour of Japan, by Robert K. Fitts
  • Major League Baseball Profiles 1870-1900 Vol. 1: The Ballplayers who Built the Game, by David Nemec
  • Major League Baseball Profiles 1870-1900 Vol. 2: The Hall of Famers and Memorable Personalities Who Shaped the Game, by David Nemec
  • Sometimes They Even Shook Your Hand: Portraits of Champions Who Walked Among Us, by John Schulian
  • The Team that Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, edited by Lyle Spatz
  • Pitching, Defense, and Three-Run Homers: The 1970 Baltimore Orioles, edited by Mark Armour and Malcolm Allen
  • Double No-Hit: Johnny Vander Meer’s Historic Night Under the Lights, by James W. Johnson
  • Strikeout: Baseball, Broadway and the Brotherhood in the 19th Century, by James Hawking
  • Joyce Westerman: Baseball Hero, by Bob Kann
  • The Last Rebel Yell: True tales from baseball’s last bastion of racial segregation: the Alabama-Florida League, by Ken Brooks
  • Deadball: A Metaphysical Baseball Novel, by David B. Stinson
  • Baseball Fantography: A Celebration in Snapshots and Stories from the Fans, by Andy Strasberg
  • The Greatest Show on Dirt: A Novel, by James Bailey
  • Baseball’s Lost Tradition: Two Eight-Team Leagues, by Eric Thompson
  • The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy, by Daniel R. Levitt
  • 100 Things Rangers fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, by Rusty Burson  
  • 100 Things Yankees Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, by David Fischer  
  • Safe At Home: Willie Mays Aikens, by Gregory Jordan
  • Marietta College Baseball: The Story of the ‘Etta Express, by Gary Caruso
  • Tales from the Philadelphia Phillies Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Phillies Stories Ever Told, by Rich Westcott
  • Red Sox Review: 110 Years of Boston Red Sox Photos, by Mark Stang
  • Basic Ball: New Approaches for Determining the Greatest Baseball, Football and Basketball Players of All-Time, by Dave Heeren and Pete Palmer
  • Painting the Corners: A Collection of Off-Center Baseball Stories, by Bob Weintraub
  • Shipwrecked: A People’s History of the Seattle Mariners, by Jon Wells
  • Third Base For Life: A Memoir of Fathers, Sons, and Baseball, by Joshua L. Berkowitz

All new SABR Bookshelf listings can be purchased at the SABR Bookstore, powered by Amazon.com.

To see all past listings from the SABR Bookshelf, click here.

Save The Date: SABR Analytics Conference, March 7-9, 2013

In case you missed it, the next SABR Analytics Conference will be held March 7-9, 2013 in the Phoenix area.

This conference will once again feature industry insiders from the baseball community, data innovators, thought leaders, members of the media and college students who will participate in the popular Case Competition.

We are very pleased to say that we received a tremendous response from last year’s conference. Here are some remarks:

  • Doug Melvin, Executive VP/General Manager, Milwaukee Brewers: “It was a good group of passionate baseball people. The analytics and SABR people stimulated great conversation, and that’s what makes our game so much fun.”
  • A.J. Hinch, VP/Assistant GM, San Diego Padres: “It was a great event of good people with great perspectives from every angle of the game. SABR provided a great forum for all involved to learn from each other and continue to grow the game.”
  • Dick Cramer, sabermetrics pioneer: “What impressed me most of all is that there wasn’t any single high event; it was high quality uniformly throughout the event. I can’t remember a meeting of this high quality. I just have to congratulate SABR for how outstanding this particular event was.”
  • John Dewan, Baseball Info Solutions: “You had the one-on-one with the owner, you had GMs, you had scouts, you had professionals in the industry, you had research, you had the Case Competition. I can’t imagine what you could do to make it better. It’s going to be an annual event for the rest of my life.”
  • Jay Jaffe, Baseball Prospectus: “It was so much better than I even imagined. It really imbued in me a sense of what it means to have the opportunity to be on a show like ‘Clubhouse Confidential’, where sabermetrics has come from, where it’s going, and to get a chance to hear from titans like John Dewan and John Thorn and Richard Cramer. This was a great idea and it is something that will turn out to be really even more popular in the years to come.”

For complete coverage of the 2012 SABR Analytics Conference, visit SABR.org/analytics.

Seven new biographies posted at the SABR BioProject

Seven new biographies have been posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, bringing us to a total of 1,920 published biographies. Can we reach 2,000 bios before the SABR 42 convention in June? Keep ’em coming! Here are the new bios:

All new biographies can be found here: http://sabr.org/bioproj/recent

We recently relaunched the BioProject at its new home page: SABR.org/BioProject. The new BioProject fully integrates its design with SABR.org and upgrades the back-end platform, making it easier for us to post and edit new bios and eliminating some formatting problems with the original software. All of your old URLs should still work (and if you find one that doesn’t, please contact jpomrenke@sabr.org.)

Get involved! If you’d like to help contribute to the SABR BioProject, visit our BioProject Resources page or read the FAQs section to get started. And as we mentioned in last week’s note: If you come across an “encyclopedic” article in a past SABR publication that you think should be included in the SABR “baseball repository” at the BioProject, send a copy or link to markarmour04@gmail.com or jpomrenke@sabr.org and we will take a look at it.

Jobe, Grant, Tiant elected to Baseball Reliquary’s Shrine of the Eternals

From SABR member Terry Cannon at the Baseball Reliquary:

The Board of Directors of the Baseball Reliquary, Inc., a Southern California-based nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history, is pleased to announce the 2012 class of electees to the Shrine of the Eternals. The Shrine of the Eternals is the national organization’s equivalent to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Dr. Frank Jobe, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, and Luis Tiant were elected upon receiving the highest number of votes in balloting conducted during the month of April 2012 by the membership of the Baseball Reliquary. The three electees will be formally inducted into the Shrine of the Eternals in a public ceremony on Sunday, July 15, 2012 at the Donald R. Wright Auditorium in the Pasadena Central Library, Pasadena, California.

Of the fifty eligible candidates on the 2012 ballot, Dr. Frank Jobe received the highest voting percentage, being named on 34% of the ballots returned. Following Jobe were Jim “Mudcat” Grant with 33% and Luis Tiant with 33%. Runners-up in this year’s election included Lefty O’Doul (32%), Dizzy Dean (30%), Manny Mota (29%), Don Zimmer (29%), Steve Bilko (27%), Charlie Finley (25%), and Glenn Burke (24%).

In the coming weeks, leading up to the Shrine of the Eternals Induction Day on Sunday, July 15, 2012, further details will be announced, including the Keynote Speaker and the recipients of the 2012 Hilda Award (named in memory of Hilda Chester and honoring a baseball fan’s exceptional devotion to the game) and the 2012 Tony Salin Memorial Award (presented annually to an individual dedicated to the preservation of baseball history).

For more information on the Baseball Reliquary, visit www.baseballreliquary.org.

Paperback version of Emerald Guide to Baseball 2012 now available 

The Emerald Guide to Baseball 2012, edited by Gary Gillette and Pete Palmer with Rod Nelson and Ted Turocy, is the most comprehensive record of the 2011 baseball season. And now it’s updated with Opening Day rosters and a paperback version at Lulu.com!

Historically, the primary purpose of annual baseball guides has been the publication of the official league standings plus the official team and individual statistics for both Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball. Our new Emerald Guide follows faithfully in that tradition, containing the official batting, pitching, and fielding statistics for every team and every player in the Major Leagues plus extensive lists of league leaders.

The Emerald Guide to Baseball is our attempt to fill the gap in the historical record created by the recent demise of The Sporting News Baseball Guide. First published in 1942, The Sporting News Guide was truly the annual book of record for our National Pastime. It is our great privilege to document for posterity a slice of recent baseball history in our new book.

The 2012 edition of the Emerald Guide runs nearly 600 pages and covers the 2011 season; it also includes a 2012 directory of Major League Baseball. The Emerald Guide is available in both a printed version and in a downloadable PDF format.

Spring 2012 Baseball Research Journal articles are now online

By now, most of you should have received your copy of the Spring 2012 Baseball Research Journal in the mail. If you haven’t received yours, 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”

2 more weeks to vote in the 2012 SABR Board of Directors election

SABR members, pay attention to the e-mail address that you have on file with SABR; you should have received a message earlier today, on Friday, May 4, with a link to vote online in the 2012 SABR Board of Directors election. The poll will close at 12:00 a.m. Mountain Standard Time on Sunday, May 20.

The only way to vote online is through the link you will receive by e-mail. All e-mails will come from the address tellers@sabr.org; if you wish to add it to a whitelist in your e-mail client, that may help ensure that you will receive the e-mails. You will receive one more voting e-mail next week with an active voting link. If you did not receive a voting e-mail on Friday, May 4, you can contact Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org to send you a custom voting e-mail.

Members who do not have an e-mail address on file with SABR as of April 5, 2012, will receive a paper ballot in the mail. Please do not vote online and send in the paper ballot; if you do, the paper ballot will be discarded, and only the online vote will count.

If you would like to register your e-mail address on file with SABR so you can vote online (and also receive our “This Week in SABR” newsletter on Fridays), please contact Membership Director Deb Jayne at djayne@sabr.org.  

When you vote, you will find three items on the 2012 Board of Directors ballot: the election of the SABR Vice President, Secretary, and one Director. The candidates are:

For Vice President

  • Bill Nowlin (incumbent)
  • Chris Dial

For Secretary

  • Todd Lebowitz (incumbent)

For Director (open)

  • Bill Staples Jr.
  • Ty Waterman

You can read candidate biographies, along with full descriptions of the positions and responses the candidates made to a series of questions, in the 2012 SABR Election Guide below.

Download the 2012 SABR Election Guide here: http://sabr.org/about/2012-sabr-board-directors-election

Research committee newsletters

Here are the SABR research committee newsletters published this week:

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

Chapter newsletters

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: May 11, 2012. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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