This Week in SABR: May 8, 2020

May 8, 2020/in This Week in SABR /by admin

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 May 8, 2020:

SABR 50 at 50 book highlights a half-century of groundbreaking baseball research

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.

The diversity of SABR members’ interests is reflected in this fiftieth-anniversary volume — from baseball and the arts to statistical analysis to the Deadball Era to women in baseball. SABR 50 at 50 includes the most important and influential research published by members across a multitude of topics, including the sabermetric work of Dick Cramer, Pete Palmer, and Bill James, along with Jerry Malloy on the Negro Leagues, Keith Olbermann on why the shortstop position is number 6, John Thorn and Jules Tygiel on the untold story behind Jackie Robinson’s signing with the Dodgers, and Gai Berlage on the Colorado Silver Bullets women’s team in the 1990s.

Leading up to SABR’s 50th anniversary in 2021, the organization will also produce a series of online exhibits at SABR.org to highlight baseball’s most impactful players and off-field figures, ballgames, record-breaking feats, books, films, stories, milestones, and baseball cards.

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

Heaphy, Flinn re-elected; Levitt elected as SABR Director

SABR members have re-elected Vice President Leslie Heaphy and Treasurer F.X. Flinn, and elected newcomer Daniel Levitt to the organization’s Board of Directors in the 2020 election.

Leslie Heaphy was re-elected as SABR’s Vice President in an unopposed race, receiving 934 of 938 first-preference votes.
F.X. Flinn was re-elected as SABR’s Treasurer in an unopposed race, receiving 926 of 933 first-preference votes.
Daniel Levitt was elected as a SABR Director, receiving 355 of 953 first-preference votes. Tara Krieger finished runner-up with 249 first-preference votes. Gregory H. Wolf received 153 first-preference votes, John McMurray 120, and Karl Cicitto 71.

Special thanks go out to Tellers Committee members Stephen Barnes, Richard Kirschner, and Kevin Schlinder for certifying the results on May 5 in a virtual meeting.

The 2020 SABR elections featured online voting for the 11th consecutive year as well as traditional paper ballots. A total of 953 votes were received, constituting about 17.25 percent of the membership.

SABR members can find complete 2020 election results, including write-in candidates and voting totals, posted here.

Join us for more Stay Home With SABR virtual events

Last month, we launched our Stay Home With SABR initiative, an eight-week effort from April 1 to May 31 to assist in limiting the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. During this time, all new membership dues SABR receives will be split with Heart to Heart International, a nonprofit organization that distributes urgently needed equipment and medication to partners around the world during this global crisis.

SABR chapters and committees are encouraged to set up virtual meetings to stay engaged with our members throughout the world at SABR.org. This week, we heard from Andrew Aronstein of Photo File Inc., Iowa Cubs reporter Jeff Johnson of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and former Los Angeles Dodgers GM Fred Claire.

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

May 9: Hank Gowdy (Columbus) Chapter book club (9:30 a.m. EDT)
May 9: Oscar Charleston (Indianapolis) Chapter meeting with Wabash College professor Todd McDorman (2:00 p.m. EDT)
May 9: Sweet Lou Johnson (Lexington) Chapter meeting with actor/musician Danny Rockett (2:00 p.m. EDT)
May 9: Emil Rothe Chicago Chapter Facebook Live with author Ron Rapoport (2:00 p.m. CDT)
May 9: Pacific Northwest Chapter meeting with University of Washington professor Steve Calandrillo (1:00 p.m. PDT)
May 11: SABRcast Live with Rob Neyer and Boston Red Sox broadcaster Josh Lewin (5:00 p.m. PDT)

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

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.

Donate today to the SABR Sustainability Campaign fund

SABR is an organization focused on baseball history, research, and benchmarks, and this is unquestionably a first. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is changing around us daily. We are all searching for silver linings, distractions, and ways to minimize the distance we are all feeling and the challenges we are facing.

One constant you can rely on — now more than ever — is that SABR will continue to uphold our mission to foster the study, discussion, and understanding of all aspects of baseball. But we need your help!

Click here to donate to the SABR Sustainability Campaign fund

We’re facing major challenges in the coming year. The postponement of the SABR 50 convention to July 14-18, 2021, will cause SABR to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. These resources are essential in pursuing our mission and delivering the membership experience our community has come to expect.

Please contribute to the SABR Sustainability Campaign fund. The SABR Board of Directors is leading the way, as all Directors are donating their SABR 50 registration fee to this fund. The Board is joined by hundreds of members who are doing the same.

We are asking all members to make a donation above and beyond their normal giving, equivalent to SABR 50 registration. This is an extraordinary request made due to extraordinary circumstances. We thank all of our members who have donated their registration fees and thank all members in advance for their charitable contributions to the fund.

If you donate $330 (the cost of annual convention registration), you will receive:

$50 off your 2021 Annual Convention registration
Hard copy of the 2020 edition of The National Pastime delivered to your door
Exclusive VIP online streaming video content with baseball personalities

If you donate $500, you will receive:

All the benefits listed above
Hard copy of the SABR 50 at 50 anthology book, featuring the 50 most influential articles SABR has published

All gifts are tax deductible except for the value of the benefits received. Visit SABR.org/donate/sustain to learn more.

SABR Digital Library: Braves Win! The 1995 World Champion Atlanta Braves

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

Braves Win! Braves Win! Braves Win! The 1995 World Champion Atlanta Braves
Edited by Tom Hufford and Bill Nowlin
Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers
Foreword by John Schuerholz
ISBN (e-book) 978-1-9701-5922-6, $9.99
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9701-5923-3, $34.95
8.5″ x 11″, 484 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 Braves Win! for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, Kindle/MOBI and EPUB formats.
Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the Braves Win! 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 edition. Find more 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.

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. A reassessment of the situation will take place at that time. Please contact a member of the SABR staff by email or phone with any questions.

SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference rescheduled for 2021

Due to the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, SABR’s Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference has been rescheduled for June 10-13, 2021, at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama.

Since 1998, the Malloy Conference has been the only symposium dedicated exclusively to the examination and promotion of Black baseball history. The conference, which is open to baseball and history fans of all ages, promotes activities to enhance scholarly, educational, and literary objectives. Each year, monies are targeted to donate books to schools or libraries; raise funds for the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project; and award scholarships to high school seniors in a nationwide essay contest and an annual art contest.

Anyone who has already registered for the Malloy Conference is encouraged to contact Deb Jayne at the SABR office to discuss options regarding their conference registration fees, including converting it into a donation toward SABR’s Sustainability Campaign fund.

The Negro Leagues Committee is one of SABR’s original committees, formed in 1971. It has continued to preserve and highlight the contributions of African-American players in baseball history. Visit SABR.org/malloy to learn more.

SABRcast Live with Rob Neyer: Listen to an interview with former Dodgers GM Fred Claire

As part of our Stay Home With SABR intiative, SABRcast with Rob Neyer will be recorded via online livestream each Monday night at 5:00 p.m. PDT. Each episode will feature nationally known guests plus an interactive Q&A in which all baseball fans can participate.

Episode #58 on Monday, May 4 featured Fred Claire, former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager and best-selling author. Claire served 30 years as an executive with the Dodgers from 1969 to 1998 and was the Executive Vice President and GM during the team’s most recent World Series championship in 1988.

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

Join us: Listen to SABRcast Live on Monday, May 11 with Boston Red Sox broadcaster Josh Lewin

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.

4 new SABR biographies published

Four new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 5,193 published biographies. Here are the new bios published this week:

Bob Allen, by Chris Rainey
Jack Horner, by Stephen V. Rice
Doc Newton, by Chris Rainey
Gil Whitehouse, by Bill Lamb

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

Search for any SABR biography: You can now visit sabr.org/bioproj_search to search for any player — or manager, executive, scout, spouse, broadcaster, or umpire — who appears in the SABR BioProject. You can also browse all of these BioProject categories and a lot more, including 300-game winners, Hall of Famers, 1960s All-Stars, or Negro Leaguers, at our Browse page: sabr.org/bioproj/browse.

12 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

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

May 22, 1913: Browns’ Dwight Stone strands 15 runners to shut out the Yankees, by Thomas E. Merrick
April 27, 1947: A ‘good look’ at Eddie Waitkus on Babe Ruth Day at Wrigley, by Cory Ritterbusch
October 2, 1964: Mets’ Al Jackson outduels Bob Gibson to keep Cardinals from clinching pennant, by Thomas J. Brown Jr.
May 9, 1978: Gary Carter’s 9th-inning homer lifts Expos to exciting win, by Gary Belleville
August 6, 1979: Yankees bury Thurman Munson, win emotional game against Orioles, by David Krell
August 22, 1982: Glenn Brummer steals win for Cardinals, by Bryan Erwin (first-time author)
June 8, 1985: With a hint of Sidd Finch, Mets’ Lynch falls to Cardinals in 1-0 pitchers’ duel, by Jack Zerby
September 14, 1986: Giants’ Bob Brenly goes from outhouse to the penthouse with 4 errors, 2 home runs, by Laura H. Peebles
September 14, 1988: Bobby Bonilla ends homer drought with extra-inning clout for Pirates victory, by Gordon Gattie
May 5, 2000: Darrin Fletcher scores walk-off run for Blue Jays, by Gordon Gattie
September 29, 2007: Maine, Mets beat Marlins 13-0 to stay tied for division lead, by Thomas J. Brown Jr.
September 26, 2019: Mike Minor reaches 200 strikeouts as dropped foul popup leads to controversy, by Sarah Johnson

New Games Project stories can be found at SABR.org/gamesproject/recent. Find all published Games Project articles 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.

**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.

April 23 Board minutes posted

Minutes from the Board of Directors conference call on April 23, 2020, have now been posted on the SABR website.

You can view all past minutes of SABR Board meetings by going to the page below:

https://sabr.org/content/sabr-board-minutes

Or you can go to the Members’ Info page and click on “Org. files”, then “Board Minutes” to view the minutes.

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
Ben Allred	Chapel Hill, NC	Emalee Nelson	Dallas, TX
Martin Bennett	Long Island City, NY	Michael O’Reilly	Western Springs, IL
Jim Bettencourt	Willows, CA	Elaina Pakutka	Branford, CT
Nathan Cross	Tulsa, OK	Jim Reed	Scotts Valley, CA
Mary Feeney	Jacksonville, FL	Randy Robbins	Lake Worth, FL
Andrew Grant	Chesterfield, MO	Julianna Rubin	Port St Lucie, FL
Cathy Headley	Poplar Grove, IL	Sandra Schatz	Killeen, TX
Andrew Heckroth	Indianapolis, IN	Tammy Silveira	New Bedford, MA
Aaron Hill	Atlanta, GA	Tim Smith	Bridgman, MI
Fred Houston	Forrest City, AR	Paul Sparks	Frontenac, KS
Erik Johnson	Jefferson, GA	Vadim Sprikut	London, ENG
Jeffery LaBouef	Oswego, NY	Kenny Sweezey	St. Louis, MO
Peter Laskowich	West Paterson, NJ	Sawn Swenson	Salt Lake City, UT
Duff Lewis	Asheville, NC	Martin Talbot	Montréal, QC
Nick Lukowsky	Sarasota, FL	Michael Tow	Seattle, WA
David Mahler	San Jose, CRI	Eddie Wilbanks	Dyersburg, TN
Sam Marchiano	New York, NY	Steve Wright	Chicago, IL

Research Committee news

Here are the new research committee updates this week:

Biographical Research: April 2020 newsletter

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

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)
Detroit Chapter: May 3 book club meeting recap (Detroit, MI)
Emil Rothe Chicago Chapter: May 2020 newsletter (Chicago, IL)
Juan Marichal Chapter: May 4 meeting recap (Santo Domingo, DOM)
Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter: May 2020 newsletter (Milwaukee, WI)
Larry Dierker Chapter: May 4 meeting recap (Houston, TX)
Mathewson-Plank Central Pennsylvania Chapter: The Central Pennsylvania chapter, established earlier this spring and based in Harrisburg, has voted to change its name to the Christy Mathewson-Eddie Plank Chapter, honoring the two great Hall of Fame pitchers from the Deadball Era who were from the area. Click here to learn more.

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:

May 9: Hank Gowdy (Columbus) Chapter book club (9:30 a.m. EDT)
May 9: Oscar Charleston (Indianapolis) Chapter meeting with Wabash College professor Todd McDorman (2:00 p.m. EDT)
May 9: Sweet Lou Johnson (Lexington) Chapter meeting with actor/musician Danny Rockett (2:00 p.m. EDT)
May 9: Emil Rothe Chicago Chapter Facebook Live with author Ron Rapoport (2:00 p.m. CDT)
May 9: Pacific Northwest Chapter meeting with University of Washington professor Steve Calandrillo (1:00 p.m. PDT)
May 11: SABRcast Live with Rob Neyer and Boston Red Sox broadcaster Josh Lewin (5:00 p.m. PDT)

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:

Joe Posnanski: The creation of Baseball-Reference, which changed everything (The Athletic)
Kathy Willens: Baseball writers, artists shut out by coronavirus pandemic (Associated Press)
Mark Simon: Welcome to the KBO season (ACTA Sports)
Jay Jaffe: A thumbnail guide to the 2020 KBO season (FanGraphs)
Michael Baumann: The joy and anxiety of watching KBO’s return (The Ringer)
Craig Edwards: Mike Trout and the greatest offensive decades in history (FanGraphs)
David Laurila: Orioles’ Asher Wojciechowski doesn’t take anything for granted (FanGraphs)
Rachael McDaniel: The Bridegroom who never came (FanGraphs)
Steven Goldman: Small-sample heroes in baseball (Baseball Prospectus)
Rob Mains: Baseball amid a virus in 1950 (Baseball Prospectus)
Corey Brock: Sacramento’s sluggin’ Solons: ‘Pure amateur’ and 233 feet down the line (The Athletic)
Grant Brisbee: The All-‘Wait-they-were-on-that-team?’ players for every MLB franchise (The Athletic)
Mike Petriello: George Brunet had a Hall of Fame pitching career … it began at age 39 (MLB.com)
David Mikkelson/Dan Evon: Was a baseball game won by a score of 2½-2? (Snopes.com)
Phil Thompson: In 1938, the Chicago Cubs exploded for 12 runs in 1 inning against 1 hapless pitcher (Chicago Tribune)
Creg Stephenson: The story of Al Worthington, who once quit baseball over sign-stealing (AL.com)
Sarah R. Ingber/Davy Andrews/Roger Cormier: Too far from town: Bristol Pirates (Baseball Prospectus)
David Briggs: Meet the Toledo high school teacher who threw MLB’s first perfect game (Toledo Blade)
Robert Reising: Michigan State baseball and College World Series memories (Shanahan Report)
David A. Scott: 1920 Indians: Tris Speaker goes to the wall (Medium.com)
Bill Lucey: Without libraries open, baseball podcasts might be just what the doctor ordered (Daily News Gems)
Nick Vossbrink: On cropping and layers (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)
Mark Armour: Baseball card #213 (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)
Jason Schwartz: The most boring cards in the set? (SABR Baseball Cards Blog)

Read these articles and more at SABR.org/latest.

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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