This Week in SABR: November 23, 2016

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Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web. Please note: The SABR office will be closed for Thanksgiving on November 24-25. Here’s what we’ve been up to as of November 23, 2016:

Help us reach our donation-drive goal in 2016

This has been a banner year for SABR, and your year-end charitable gift can help us bring 2016 to an even more successful close.

SABR continues to offer unparalleled opportunities for involvement and benefits for members around the world. We depend upon the volunteer work of members to mount our exciting events like the SABR Convention (in New York City next summer), the SABR Analytics Conference in Phoenix, and the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference; to produce groundbreaking research through the SABR Digital Library e-book program (with 8-10 free e-books provided to members each year), the Baseball Research Journal, and The National Pastime; and to expand the online resources of the research committees, regional chapters, the BioProject, the Games Project, and much more. SABR continues to offer unparalleled opportunities for involvement and benefits for members around the world.

As a 501(c)3 organization, tax-deductible donations allow SABR to expand member opportunities and to become an even larger voice in the baseball community. Many members have already become donors, and you can join them right now by making your gift online at SABR.org/donate. Please help us reach our donation drive goal!

You can also send your donation by check to: SABR, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004.

All of us at SABR appreciate your support of our great organization and the game we love.

To learn more, visit SABR.org/donate.

It’s time to renew your SABR membership

For those of you whose SABR memberships expire by December 31 — you can check your current membership status here — it’s almost time for you to renew! We’re excited about the upcoming year ahead of us and we hope you’ll take advantage of all the great membership benefits offered to SABR members in 2017.

You can renew your membership for 1 year or 3 years online at the SABR Store; by phone at (602) 496-1460; or by mailing this downloadable PDF form and your payment to the office at: SABR, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004.

Dues are the same as they have been in recent years: $65 for one year or $175 for three years, with discounts available to anyone under 30 or over the age of 65. 

For one low price, you get two editions of the Baseball Research Journal, the expanded e-book edition of The National Pastime; 8-10 free e-books published by the SABR Digital Library; “This Week in SABR” every Friday; access to research resources such as Paper of Record (with complete archives of The Sporting News); discounts to all SABR conferences such as the National Convention (New York City in 2017), the SABR Analytics Conference, the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, and the Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Conference; and much, much 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 at store.sabr.org.

  • Add a family member for $15: Any SABR member can add a family member in the same household for $15 per year; they will receive all electronic member benefits and access to the website, but no printed publications. To add a new family member, please contact Membership Director Deb Jayne. Note: In order to renew your existing family membership, you must log in to the SABR website under the family member’s username/e-mail address, not your own.

Read articles from the Fall 2016 Baseball Research Journal online

Good news! The Fall 2016 edition of the Baseball Research Journal has been mailed out to all SABR members.

Those of you who receive the print edition should find your BRJ arriving in the next two to four weeks, although we hear many have already arrived. For digital subscribers, the e-book edition was delivered to your inboxes last week.

As editor Cecilia M. Tan writes, this issue includes articles on “obscure” topics that are often the most fascinating, and the most painstakingly researched. She calls them rabbit holes, and the researcher who dives down them pulls us, Alice-like, right into Wonderland with them. In this BRJ, we get a deep dive on the life of Violet Popovich, the show girl who famously shot Billy Jurges of the Chicago Cubs, the offseason trap shooting career of Chief Bender, and a light shined on a baseball league that has nearly been forgotten by history, the International Girls Baseball League. Sometimes a researcher goes down a rabbit hole and after their article is published, they keep going: Bryan Soderholm-Difatte published a paper previously demonstrating that George Stallings employed platooning with the 1914 “Miracle” Braves. He’s back this time with a look at 1913, and while he was working on the paper, play by play information for 1912 and 1911 became available. The result is the meaty, delicious conclusion that pinpoints 1913 as the beginning of platooning as we know it. Another researcher who has been going down a rabbit hole is Tom Thress in his pursuit of the ultimate baseball statistic, Player Won-Lost records. He presents here a follow-up to his previous paper on the topic.

And that’s just a fraction of what’s in this issue. Click here to read all articles online at SABR.org.

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

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.

We hope you enjoy reading the Fall 2016 Baseball Research Journal!

Early registration now open for 2017 SABR Analytics Conference

Early registration is now open for the sixth annual SABR Analytics Conference on March 9-11, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix. We hope you’ll join us next spring in Arizona, where we’ll bring together the top minds in the baseball analytics community to discuss, debate and share insightful ways to analyze and examine the great game of baseball. All baseball fans are welcome to attend.

SABR has a long and storied history with baseball statistical analysis, evidenced by the link between our name and sabermetrics. SABR’s long history in this area of baseball research, coupled with our mission of advancing the understanding and knowledge of baseball, makes us the perfect choice to coordinate and host this ground-breaking event.

The Analytics Conference schedule consists of a combination of Guest Speakers, Panels, and Research Presentations — plus the unique Diamond Dollars Case Competition, in which undergraduate, graduate and law school students from across the country analyze and present a real baseball operations decision.

For more information on the 2017 SABR Analytics Conference, visit SABR.org/analytics.

Last call! Submit your research presentation abstract for 2017 SABR Analytics Conference

SABR and Baseball Info Solutions are excited to announce the call for presentations for the sixth annual SABR Analytics Conference. Abstracts of proposed research presentations should be no more than 500 words in length, and must include the abstract’s title, review of previous work on the subject, a summary of the research methodology and anticipated results, and the expected contribution to the field of baseball analytics offered by this work. Submissions are open to the general public, with student presenters considered in a separate track.

Please send all abstracts to this e-mail address: 2017-analytics-presentations@sabr.org. The submission deadline for 2017 SABR Analytics Conference presentation abstracts has been extended to 11:59 p.m. MST TONIGHT, Wednesday, November 23, 2016. Note: If your presentation abstract is selected as a semi-finalist, you will be required to register for the conference in order to be eligible for a presentation slot.

Click here for complete details and criteria.

Students: Apply for a Yoseloff Scholarship to attend 2017 SABR Analytics Conference

With generous funding from The Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation, Inc., SABR will award up to four scholarships to high school and college students who wish to attend the 2017 SABR Analytics Conference. This scholarship will pay for registration, air transportation and lodging up to a total value of $1,250. All applications must be postmarked or e-mailed to Jeff Schatzki at jschatzki@sabr.org no later than December 31, 2016.

The objective of this scholarship fund is to encourage student engagement with baseball analytics, and to engender an active interest in baseball research and SABR. The Yoseloff scholarship is to assist young researchers who want to attend SABR’s Analytics Conference and to introduce them to fellow SABR members and professionals within the baseball community. Through this fund, SABR hopes to inspire future baseball research, expose students to high-quality research and build the research capability of interested students.

Click here to learn more or to download the 2017 Yoseloff Scholarship application.

Register now for the 2017 Diamond Dollars Case Competition at SABR Analytics

The SABR Analytics Conference is pleased to host the unique Diamond Dollars Case Competition on Thursday, March 9, 2017. Click here for more details.

In the Diamond Dollars Case Competition, undergraduate, graduate and professional school students from colleges and universities across the country compete against each other by preparing an analysis and presentation of a baseball operations decision — the type of decision a team’s GM and his staff is faced with over the course of a season. The cases are developed by SABR President Vince Gennaro, author of Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball, and consultant to MLB teams. The Diamond Dollars Case Competition is the first national competition to be based solely on baseball operations issues.

Four- to five-person student teams are asked to evaluate a baseball operations case problem. The student team presents their analysis and recommendations to a panel of judges that includes MLB front office executives. More than a dozen alumni from the first five Diamond Dollars Case Competitions have secured internships or permanent positions within Major League Baseball.

For more information on the 2017 Diamond Dollars Case Competition, please contact SABR President Vince Gennaro or click here for rules and entry requirements.

Save the date! 2017 Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference returning to Harrisburg

The 20th annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, hosted by SABR’s Negro Leagues Research Committee, will be returning to its roots on July 27-30, 2017, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, site of the first Negro League conference in 1998. A registration packet and more information will be available in early 2017 at SABR.org/malloy.

The Malloy Conference promotes activities to enhance scholarly, educational, and literary objectives. For the past 19 years, the event has been the only symposium dedicated exclusively to the examination and promotion of black baseball history. The conference is open to baseball and history fans of all ages. 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 a nationwide art contest.

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. The committee published the landmark The Negro Leagues Book in 1994, which featured a complete register of more than 3,000 players, team rosters and in-depth histories from leagues of the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth.

The committee has also spawned the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project, which was started in 2003 by SABR member Jeremy Krock and has provided proper grave markers to the unmarked graves of more than 20 former Negro Leagues players around the country.

Check back soon at SABR.org/malloy for registration and hotel information on the 20th annual Malloy Conference in 2017. Hope to see you in Harrisburg!

Call for Papers: 2017 The National Pastime

The 2017 SABR national convention will take place in New York City from June 28 through July 2. To coincide with the convention, the summer 2017 issue of The National Pastime will focus on New York City and tri-state regional baseball.

Given just how much of baseball’s history is tied up with New York and environs, what we’ll be looking for in this issue are topics that are a little bit off the beaten path. Millions of words have already been written about the four major-league teams that have graced the city, as well as the Knickerbockers, Alexander Cartwright, and other popular topics. As such, we’re particularly looking for new or less traveled angles on the well-known subjects, and for subjects relating to baseball and New York City that aren’t perhaps as well known. The Negro Leagues, minor leagues, New York area scouts, collegiate baseball? 

There’s plenty to explore and, ideally, we’ll have a wide variety of topics and articles. Research articles may be historical, biographical, or analytical, but please avoid personal narrative, oral histories, or interviews. 

This issue of The National Pastime will be edited by SABR Publications Director Cecilia Tan. She will be taking queries and abstracts until December 15, 2016, and will make assignments no later than January 1, 2017. First drafts of articles will be due no later than March 1 and rewrites (if needed) will be due by April 1.

Click here for complete details and criteria.

To be published in a SABR journal, your SABR membership must be current. (Click here to check your current membership status.) For full writers’ guidelines and details on how to prep your manuscript for submission, click here. 

Interested in baseball cards? Join SABR’s Baseball Cards Research Committee

Want to learn more about the history and evolution of baseball cards? SABR’s newly revived Baseball Cards Research Committee is seeking new members.

Earlier this week, Mark Armour and Chris Dial were approved as the committee co-chairs by the SABR Board of Directors. 

The committee’s purpose is to encourage more interactive knowledge sharing about the history and importance of baseball cards as a representation of the game itself and to research the history of the relationship between statistics and baseball cards. The committee also provides a forum for discussion on other important aspects of the baseball card industry, such as memorable, important and famous series designs; the influx of new card sets and limited-edition inserts in the 1980s and ’90s; documentation on all of the major card companies and important figures in the evolution of the baseball card industry; and research into the evolution of the game as viewed through the lens of baseball cards (batting gloves, player/managers, the DH, record-setting achievements, the steroids era, etc.)

Any SABR member can sign up for announcements or contribute to future committe newsletters. Click here to learn more.

For more information on all 30 SABR research committees, click here.

SABR Digital Library: When Pops Led the Family: The 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates

Add a Family-friendly baseball book to your collection with the newest title from the SABR Digital Library:

When Pops Led the Family: The 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates
Edited by Bill Nowlin and Gregory H. Wolf
Associate Editors: Russ Lake and Len Levin
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9438-1635-4, $19.95
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-9438-1634-7, $9.99
372 pages, 8.5″ x 11″

The 1979 World Series champion Pirates are one of the most memorable teams in baseball history and helped define an era. One look at their pillbox caps—adorned with stars distributed by team captain Willie Stargell—or their typically garish uniforms, complete with striking yellow jerseys often worn with same-colored pants, and the viewer is transported back to the Steel City at the close of the 1970s. 

When Pops Led the Family celebrates this team and its cast of characters, including Willie Stargell, Manny Sanguillen, John Candelaria, and Kent Tekulve. Featuring contributions from 39 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), this book includes biographies of all of the players, members of the coaching staff, and some of the the front office, an in-depth season summary, and detailed game accounts from some of the most pivotal games of the season and all of the postseason games. Essays on Three Rivers Stadium, manager Chuck Tanner’s use of his bullpen, and the “We Are Family” Song help round out the volume. 

Contributors include: Phillip Bolda, Frederick C. (Rick) Bush, Alan Cohen, Warren Corbett, Rory Costello, Tom Crist, Dan Fields, James Forr, Gordon J. Gattie, Paul Geisler, Paul Hofmann, Rock Hoffman, Mike Huber, Bob Hurte, Michael Jaffe, Maxwell Kates, Norm King, Russ Lake, Len Levin, Mark Miller, Rod Nelson, Bill Nowlin, Carole Olshavsky, J.G. Preston, Richard J. Puerzer, Richard Riis, Eric Robinson, Thomas E. Schott, Richard L. Shook, Matthew Silverman, David E. Skelton, George Skornickel, Jon Springer, Wayne Strumpfer, Clayton Trutor, Nick Waddell, Joseph Wancho, Steve West, and Gregory H. Wolf.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

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 will get discounted rates for all Digital Library publications, including many for free. To find more SABR Digital Library books, visit SABR.org/ebooks.

Read SABR biographies of 2017 Hall of Fame ballot candidates

The full 2017 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot was released this week, and you can find all published SABR biographies of 2017 HOF candidates (including Today’s Game Era finalists) at the SABR BioProject. Visit the link below to read bios on Hall of Fame candidates Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, Tim Raines, and more:

http://sabr.org/category/demographic/2017-hall-fame-ballot

As part of our BioProject Hall of Fame Ballot initiative, we are still seeking authors for the following players: Mike Cameron, Jeff Kent, Derrek Lee, Mike Mussina, Magglio Ordoñez, Edgar Renteria, Gary Sheffield, Jason Varitek, and Tim Wakefield. Ideally, we would like to have the bios written, edited, and fact-checked by the end of 2016 so we can post them on the BioProject website and on social media before the election announcements. Please contact Emily Hawks at emilyhawks@gmail.com if you are interested in writing about one of these players.

Find more SABR biographies at SABR.org/BioProject.

5 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

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

New Games Project stories can be found here: http://sabr.org/gamesproject/recent. Find all published Games Project articles at SABR.org/GamesProject.

  • Get involved: 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.
  • Still seeking a Chief Editor: For those of you who have reached out offering to edit or fact-check games over the past few weeks: Thank you! Thanks to numerous responses, we are now sufficiently staffed in this area to more quickly process game articles toward publication. However, we are still seeking a Chief Editor to help coordinate the editing for all Games Project stories. This is a crucial role that is necessary to keep the project running smoothly. If you are interested, please contact Greg Erion or Bruce Slutsky for more information.

Listen to Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on Sunday nights

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by SABR President Vince Gennaro is back for the Hot Stove League offseason, at a new time: 4:00-5:00 p.m. ET on Sundays, on MLB Network Radio.

You can also watch video highlights of Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on MLB.com. Click here to watch more video highlights of Baseball SABR Style from MLB.com. 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.

Save the date: SABR 47 will be in New York City in 2017

SABR will be returning to the Big Apple for our 47th national convention on June 28-July 2, 2017, at the Grand Hyatt New York. Registration information will be available at SABR.org/convention in early 2017. The New York Mets are scheduled to play the Philadelphia Phillies in a three-game series at Citi Field during SABR 47.

The Grand Hyatt New York, one of the city’s most historic and luxurious hotels, is conveniently located in Midtown Manhattan just steps from Grand Central Terminal and within walking distance of many major attractions, including Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the New York Public Library. The Grand Hyatt is also easily accessible to all forms of transportation: planes, trains, automobiles (including car services), and more.

SABR 47, which is open to all baseball fans, will include top featured speakers from around the baseball world — front office executives, players, managers, scouts, writers and analysts. More details will be announced in early 2017 at SABR.org/convention.

SABR’s 2017 national convention will be our 47th annual gathering; the organization’s founding in Cooperstown in 1971 is counted as the first. Learn more about SABR’s convention history by clicking here.

For more information on the SABR convention, visit SABR.org/convention.

Call for SABR award nominations

  • Seymour Medal, due 12/31/2016: The Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal honors the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year. The award is presented during the Seymour Medal Banquet at the NINE Spring Training Conference every March. If you have a book to nominate with a 2016 publication date, contact Trey Strecker at ninebaseballeditor@gmail.com by December 31, 2016.
  • Larry Ritter Award, due 12/31/2016: Each year, SABR’s Deadball Era Committee presents the Larry Ritter Book Award to recognize the best new book primarily set in the Deadball Era that was published during the previous calendar year. The award is presented during the committee’s meeting at the annual SABR convention. If you have a book to nominate with a 2016 publication date, contact Doug Skipper at theskippers1@hotmail.com by December 31, 2016.
  • Ron Gabriel Award, due 12/31/2016: The Ron Gabriel Award annually honors the author(s) of the best research, published or unpublished, on the subject of the Brooklyn Dodgers completed during the preceding calendar year. To submit a nomination for the 2017 awards, please send a copy of your work to Gary Sarnoff at runtowin89@hotmail.com by December 31, 2016.
  • SABR Baseball Research Award, due 1/31/2017: The SABR Baseball Research Award (formerly the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award) honors those whose outstanding research projects completed during the preceding calendar year have significantly expanded our knowledge or understanding of baseball. To submit a nomination for the 2017 awards, please contact Bill Felber at bfelber@att.net.
  • McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, due 2/15/2017: The McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award honors the authors of the best articles on baseball history or biography completed or published during the preceding calendar year. To submit a nomination for the 2017 awards, please contact Len Levin at lenlevin5@hotmail.com.

Please note: Only ONE entry per nomination will be considered (do not submit multiple nominations for the same award). For more information on SABR Awards, click here.

September 18 Board minutes posted

Minutes from the Board of Directors conference call on September 18, 2016, have now been posted on the SABR website.

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

http://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: http://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives.

For more information, click here.

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 (SABR.org/directory).

Name Hometown     Name Hometown
Seelochan Beharry Vancouver, BC     Zachary Mann Los Angeles, CA
Steve Devereux Cardiff, WLS     Cory Rusinek East Lansing, MI
Kevin Donahoe Metairie, LA     Eric Savage Short Hills, NJ
Brandon Epps Westminster, MD     Scott Watson Redondo Beach, CA
Lewis Kurlantzick West Hartford, CT        

 

Research Committee news

Here are the new SABR research committee updates this week:

  • Baseball Cards: We’d like to extend a warm welcome to Mark Armour and Chris Dial, who were approved as co-chairs for the newly revived Baseball Cards Research Committee this week by the SABR Board of Directors. The committee was formed in 2010 but has been dormant in recent years. If you’d like to sign up for announcements or help contribute to the committee, click here to learn more. 

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

Regional Chapter news

Here are the new regional chapter updates this week:

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.

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.)

 

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Originally published: November 23, 2016. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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