This Week in SABR: November 18, 2011
Note: The SABR office will be closed from Thursday, November 24 through Sunday, November 27. Check your e-mail next Wednesday for an abbreviated “This Week in SABR”.
Here’s what we’ve been up to as of November 18, 2011:
Fall 2011 Baseball Research Journal articles now online
SABR members can now read every article from the special 40th anniversary edition of the Baseball Research Journal online at: http://sabr.org/research/fall-2011-baseball-research-journal
We don’t often do “themed” issues of the Baseball Research Journal, but to celebrate our 40th anniversary, we asked for papers looking at 1971 (the year of SABR’s founding) to the present. We hoped to encourage new contributors to try publication and also to remind folks that the present is history in the making. If we do not record our current era, we make the task of future historians harder. What we received ranges from pieces that reference SABR directly, like Rick Schell’s look at how SABR and computers grew up together, to others that overlap or loosely coincide with the “SABR era,“ like Tim Ponisciak’s history of tabletop baseball games and Zachary Jendro’s article on baseball museums since 1971.
In addition to these great articles, Herm Krabbenhoft continues his extraordinary research into Lou Gehrig’s career RBI record. We’ve posted exclusive supplemental material from his research notes at SABR.org and you can fact-check his work yourself. We also have supplemental material online from Christopher D. Green’s article, “Baseball’s First Power Surge: Home Runs in the Late 19th-Century Major Leagues”, and from Philippe Cousineau’s article, “Pitchers in the Field: The Use of Pitchers at Other Positions in the Major Leagues, 1969–2009″.
Also, check out an interactive collage of the cover images from the Fall 2011 BRJ. Who’s on the cover and why are these players significant in the SABR Era?
We hope you enjoy the special 40th anniversary edition of the BRJ, both online and in print.
Students: Apply for a Yoseloff Scholarship to attend SABR 42
With generous funding from The Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation, Inc., SABR will award up to 10 scholarships to high school and college students who wish to attend the SABR 42 Annual Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 27-July 1, 2012. This scholarship will pay for registration, transportation and lodging up to a total value of $1,000.
The objective of this scholarship fund is to encourage high school and college-level student engagement with baseball research and to engender an active interest in baseball and SABR. The Yoseloff scholarship is to assist young researchers who want to attend SABR’s annual convention and to introduce them to fellow SABR members. Through this fund, SABR hopes to inspire future baseball research, expose students to high-quality research and build the research capability of interested students.
Students must be currently enrolled in high school, college, or graduate program, and be under 30 years of age. To learn more, click here: http://sabr.org/latest/students-apply-yoseloff-scholarship-attend-sabr-42-minneapolis
Minor Leagues Committee passes milestone: 1,000 league statistics compiled
The SABR Minor Leagues Research Committee’s project to produce online historical minor league statistics passed a milestone recently with the compilation of statistics for its 1,000th league. As of Thursday, the count stands at 1,010.
These league statistics — dating from the 1877 International Association to the 2010 affiliated and independent minor leagues — comprise the SABR Minor Leagues Database, a comprehensive source of all available minor league player and team statistics published by the SABR Minor Leagues Research Committee. Many of these statistics are available online now at Baseball-Reference.com/minors.
If you’d like to help with the volunteer effort or to seek further information on the project, contact Frank Hamilton at fehamilton@aol.com.
SABR BioProject publishes 1,700th biography
The SABR Baseball Biography Project just reached another milestone, too — 1,700 biographies have now been published at http://bioproj.sabr.org. Seven new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, bringing us to a total of 1,705 published biographies:
- Jim Bibby, by Rory Costello
- Byron Humphrey, by Bill Nowlin
- Joe Kiefer, by Bill Nowlin
- Bob Klinger, by Bill Nowlin
- Lyn Lary, by Bill Nowlin
- Tom Miller, by Richard Hershberger
- Rudy Minarcin, by Bill Nowlin
All new biographies can be found here: http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=n&m=61
Writing a biography for the BioProject is an easy way to get involved as a SABR member. Find out how by visiting our BioProject Resources page or reading the FAQs section.
SABR Research Exchange update for November 2011
A list of articles that have been recently added to the SABR Research Exchange can be viewed here:
https://sabr.box.net/shared/static/zfsotiakdo9s8gi70zgx.pdf
Articles are available on request from Len Levin, 282 Doyle Ave., Providence, R.I. 02906-3355. The cost for copying and mailing is 12 cents a page for up to 99 pages, 11 cents a page for 100 or more pages.
You can contact Len at the postal address above, by phone at (401) 351-3278, or by e-mail at: lenlevin5@hotmail.com.
Len voluntarily administers the SABR Research Exchange where members can send short bits of research like lists or charts, articles or stories that do not fit the Baseball Research Journal or The National Pastime. A complete list — including a fully text-searchable index — of the more than 4,500 articles in the Research Exchange is available here: http://sabr.org/research/resources
Enter to win a 2012 McFarland-SABR Research Award
Entries are being accepted for the McFarland-SABR Research Award, which honors the authors of the best articles on baseball history or biography written or published this year (2011). You’ll find details of the award and how to enter the competition at http://sabr.org/about/mcfarland-sabr-baseball-research-award.
Essentially, you have to submit five copies of the article; the winners will be chosen in the spring; and the awards (including a $200 prize) will be presented at the SABR convention. (If you’re a winner you’ll get the award even if you can’t be at the convention.) If you wish, you can designate someone to accept the award for you. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2012.
If you have any questions, contact Len Levin at lenlevin5@hotmail.com or (401) 351-3278.
It’s time to renew your SABR membership!
Many of you should have received an e-mail this week with information on how to renew your SABR membership, which expires on December 31*.
You can renew your membership for 1 year or 3 years online at the SABR Store; by phone at (602) 343-6450; or by mailing this downloadable PDF form and your payment to the SABR office at 4455 E. Camelback Road, Ste. D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018.
Dues are the same as they have been in recent years: for this, you get three publications (two issues of the Baseball Research Journal and one issue of The National Pastime); access to research resources such as Paper of Record (with complete archives of The Sporting News); discounts to SABR conferences such as the national convention (Minneapolis 2012), the Arizona Fall League Conference, the spring Analytics Conference and Case Competition, and the summer Jerry Malloy Negro Leagues Conference; access to our SABR-L e-listserv; research committees, regional chapter meetings; and more.
We believe SABR has something for everyone, from the active researcher to someone passionate about baseball. We hope you’ll invite your friends, colleagues and family members to join, too, at http://store.sabr.org.
* All members are on the “rolling” calendar system as of August 1, 2011. If you signed up before that date and continue to renew, your annual membership will expire on December 31 as it always has.
Chapter meeting recaps
- Wally Pipp Chapter meeting recap (November 6)
- Sacramento Chapter fall luncheon recap (November 12)
- Rogers Hornsby Chapter meeting recap (November 17)
Attention, chapter leaders: Just a reminder that the third annual SABR Day is scheduled for January 28, 2012. Please send the details of your SABR Day meeting to Jacob Pomrenke at jpomrenke@sabr.org. We’ll post them as soon as we get them at SABR.org/sabrday.
Upcoming SABR events:
- November 19: Magnolia Chapter fall banquet (Atlanta, GA)
- November 19: Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter meeting (Milwaukee, WI)
- November 19: Smoky Joe Wood Chapter breakfast (Hamden, CT)
- November 19: Tokyo Chapter meeting (Tokyo, JP)
- November 21: Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting (St. Louis, MO)
- November 26: Lajoie-Start Chapter meeting (Greenville, RI)
- December 3: 1st Project COBB Research Day (London, UK)
Visit SABR.org/latest for details on all upcoming SABR events.
In other recent SABR news:
- Sam Menzin rediscovers a century-old F.C. Lane article from “Baseball Magazine” foreshadowing a key sabermetric principle (FanGraphs)
- John Dewan’s Stat of the Week: Has the 300-Game Winner Become Extinct? (ACTA Sports)
- Adrian Burgos Jr., Vince Gennaro, Ben Jedlovec, Rich Lindberg and Don Zminda were on hand for the Chicago White Sox’s “Minnie Minoso Hall of Fame Forum” (WhiteSox.com)
- Graham Womack details the players who received just one vote for the Hall of Fame (Hardball Times)
- Larry Granillo does the same for players with Cy Young Award “courtesy votes” (Baseball Prospectus)
- John Thorn recalls author Zane Grey and the story of ‘Old Well-Well’ (Our Game)
- Bill Petti investigates foul balls as a matter of hitting skill (Beyond the Box Score)
- Chris Jaffe offers his list of the 10 greatest career-ending performances of all-time (Hardball Times)
- Rob Fitts takes a look at vintage pre-war Japanese baseball cards (Seamheads)
- As Dennis Pajot writes: Long before Bernie Brewer, Milwaukee was home to a famous goat mascot (Seamheads)
- David Laurila has an insightful Q&A with ex-Royals pitching coach Bob McClure (FanGraphs)
- Nick Diunte reports on the death of World War II-era pitcher Nick Strincevich, 96 (Examiner.com)
All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here: http://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives.
Find more information about SABR at the Members’ Info page here: http://sabr.org/about/members-info.
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.
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: November 18, 2011. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.