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This Week in SABR: September 11, 2020

This Week in SABR: September 11, 2020

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 September 11, 2020:


Join us this weekend for 2020 SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference

2020 SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball ConferenceThe second annual SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference began on Friday and will continue through Sunday, September 13. All baseball fans are welcome to register and attend this online virtual event!

This year’s conference — co-sponsored by SABR and the International Women’s Baseball Center, and hosted by Rockford University — is a virtual event centered around the theme “Celebrating African American Women in Baseball.” Presentations and panels will take place on Zoom.

In addition to learning about topics such as the Dolly Vardens, Maud Nelson, Tillie Ford, the Hagerstown Mollys, and much more, there will also be a celebration of the Negro Leagues Centennial on Saturday night, with a special design unveiling for an outdoor pylon. The celebration will be followed by an announcement of the 2020 Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award winner.

All SABR members are invited to watch our free livestream of the Negro Leagues Centennial celebration and award presentation beginning at 5:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, September 12 on SABR’s Facebook page.

Our featured speaker on Friday night is Lauren Meyer, Emmy Award-nominated director of The Other Boys of Summer.

We’ll also have a Player Panel on Saturday morning with MLB’s Elizabeth Benn, Rachel Folden of the Chicago Cubs, Team Canada’s Marika Lyszczyk, Bianca Smith from Carroll University, and Madison Femia.

  • Register now: Click here to register for this event at SABR.org. The All-Inclusive Package is $50, and includes access to all presentations and panels, Negro Leagues Centennial Celebration on Saturday night, 2 raffle tickets, and a commemorative program booklet. Regular registration is $25 for all baseball fans.
  • Schedule: Click here to view the complete schedule, along with presenter bios and abstracts.
  • Raffle: Purchase a raffle ticket ($5 each) when you register for a chance to win baseball memorabilia prizes, including autographed baseballs, caps, and books from IWBC authors, SPoRT Makeup kits, Rockford Peaches apparel, and the grand prize — a personal phone call from AAGPBL legend and IWBC founder Maybelle Blair!

If you have any questions, please contact Leslie Heaphy at lheaphy@kent.edu.

Visit SABR.org/women-in-baseball-conference to learn more.


2020 Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award winner to be announced Saturday

2020 Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award finalistsWe are pleased to announce the finalists for the 2020 Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by SABR’s Women in Baseball Committee. Each of these finalists has made important contributions promoting the participation of women in baseball, on the field and off.

The winner of the 2020 award will be announced during the SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference on Saturday, September 12, 2020, following the Negro Leagues Centennial Celebration at 5:00 p.m. EDT. All baseball fans are welcome to register for the three-day virtual Zoom conference.

Here are the finalists for the 2020 award:

  • Amanda Clement, first professional female baseball umpire
  • Effa Manley, Newark Eagles owner and executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006
  • Justine Siegal, Baseball For All founder and first female coach for a major-league team
  • Claire Smith, pioneering sports writer and J.G. Taylor Spink Award recipient
  • Janet Marie Smith, innovative ballpark designer who has helped build or renovate Camden Yards, Fenway Park, and Dodger Stadium
  • Toni Stone, one of only three women to play in the Negro Leagues

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


SABR 50 at 50: Most Impactful Players of the Past 50 Years

SABR 50 at 50Leading up to the 50th anniversary of SABR’s original meeting at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, we invite all baseball fans to celebrate the game we all love with the SABR 50 at 50 Project, a monthly series recognizing figures that have had a significant impact on the sport since 1971.

Our first feature, which launched this week at SABR.org, is on the 50 baseball players who have had the most impact on the game in the past 50 years.

This list was compiled by Gregory H. Wolf, Rory Costello, Carl Riechers, James Forr, and Len Levin of the SABR BioProject.

Over the coming months, SABR 50 at 50 will take a look at significant off-field figures, ballgames, record-breaking feats, books, films, stories, milestones, and trading cards whose stories make up the fabric of the sport.

This project is in conjunction with our new anthology book, SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game, edited by Bill Nowlin and published by the University of Nebraska Press, which celebrates SABR’s wide-ranging contributions through the pages of our publications.


SABR members: Join the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America for access to more online events

IBWAA logoSABR is pleased to partner with the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America to connect more baseball enthusiasts together and help organize more online events throughout the year.

With more than 600 writers and content creators, the IBWAA serves the online baseball writing community, striving to increase visibility, networking, and opportunities for its members. An annual IBWAA membership is open to everyone and provides you with the opportunity to attend monthly virtual meetings with guest speakers from around the game, participate in IBWAA award voting at the end of the season, and network with fellow members.

Upcoming IBWAA meetings include Up Next with Jim Callis of MLB.com on Tuesday, September 15 and The Press Box: The Craft of Creating Baseball Content, hosted by John Supowitz, on Wednesday, September 16. Click here to register for these free Zoom meetings or check the SABR Events Calendar for complete details.

To learn more, visit IBWAA.com/join.


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.

This week, we heard from D.B. Firstman, author of Hall of Name.

Here are some more upcoming virtual events you can attend online; check the Events Calendar for complete details:

  • September 11-13: SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference
  • September 13: Detroit (MI) Chapter open baseball forum (7:00 p.m. EDT)
  • September 13: Robinson-Kell (AR) Chapter meeting with Marty Sullivan (7:00 p.m. CDT)
  • September 14: Bud Metheny (VA) Chapter book club meeting with Jeremy Beer (7:30 p.m. EDT)
  • September 14: Halsey Hall (MN) Chapter Research Committee meeting (7:00 p.m. CDT)
  • September 14: Elysian Fields (NJ) Chapter meeting with Jacob Pomrenke (9:00 p.m. EDT)
  • September 15: IBWAA: Up Next with Jim Callis (9:00 p.m. EDT)
  • September 16: Baltimore Babe Ruth (MD) Chapter meeting with Jerry Amernic (12:00 p.m. EDT)
  • September 16: Roush-Lopez Gulf Coast (FL) Chapter meeting with Laura Albanese (7:00 p.m. EDT)
  • September 16: IBWAA: The Press Box: The Craft of Creating Baseball Content (9:00 p.m. EDT)
  • September 17: Rocky Mountain (CO) Chapter meeting with Todd Zolecki (12:00 p.m. MDT)
  • September 17: Magnolia (GA) Chapter meeting with Jason Schwartz (7:30 p.m. EDT)
  • September 17: Kansas University: Negro Leagues 100th anniversary panel with Adrian Burgos Jr., Ray Doswell, Leslie Heaphy, and James Brunson (7:00 p.m. CDT)
  • September 19: Mathewson-Plank (PA) Chapter meeting (1:00 p.m. EDT)
  • September 19: Rogers Hornsby (TX) Chapter meeting (1:00 p.m. CDT)
  • September 20: Detroit (MI) Chapter book club meeting (7:00 p.m. EDT)

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


In Memoriam: Lou Brock

Lou Brock (THE TOPPS COMPANY)After Lou Brock was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964, the speedy outfielder bought an 8-millimeter video camera to record National League pitchers and study their pickoff moves. Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale asked Brock what he was doing and he replied that he was taking home movies. “I don’t want to be in your goddamn movies, Brock,” said Drysdale, who true to his nature threw at Brock the next time up.

Brock was years ahead of his time in training with video, which paid off as he went on to lead the NL in stolen bases eight times and set Major League Baseball’s single-season (118 in 1974) and career (938) records by the time he retired in 1979. The celebrated trade — Brock was sent to St. Louis by the Chicago Cubs for pitcher Ernie Broglio in one of the game’s most lopsided deals — paid off for the Cardinals, who won three pennants and two World Series championships with Brock as their star left fielder and leadoff hitter for the next 15 years.

It was in the World Series spotlight where Brock, an intense competitor and fan favorite who died at the age of 81 on Sunday, September 6 in St. Louis, shined the brightest.

In 21 career games in the fall classic, he hit .391 with four home runs and 14 stolen bases, serving as the Cardinals’ offensive catalyst. In 1964 against the New York Yankees, he homered in Game Seven, and in 1967 against the Boston Red Sox, he had three stolen bases and a double in the winner-take-all finale. While teammate Bob Gibson was named as series MVP, a St. Louis radio station gave Brock a Cadillac in recognition of his outstanding performance.

Although the Cardinals did not reach those postseason heights again in the 1970s, Brock never slowed down and remained a productive player during the second half of his career. In 1974, at the age of 35, he shattered Maury Wills’s single-season record of 104 stolen bases on September 10 against the Phillies, finishing the year with 118 and runner-up to Steve Garvey in the National League’s MVP voting.

Brock stole 56 more bases in 1975 and 1976 to move closer to Ty Cobb’s career mark, which was thought to be 892 at the time. On August 29, 1977, in San Diego, he stole two bases to tie and break Cobb’s all-time record. Brock reached another milestone in his final season in 1979, when he recorded his 3,000th career hit on August 13 against the Cubs. His jersey number 20 was retired by the Cardinals that same year and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1985.

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

Related links:


Nineteenth Century Committee to launch virtual Speaker Series in October

Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)SABR’s Ninteenth Century Committee is excited to announce a monthly series of virtual research presentations via Zoom. All SABR members are invited to attend.

The 19cBB Speakers Series will initially consist of research presentations previously presented at the Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference (“The Fred”) and will be re-presented each second Tuesday of the month from October 2020 through May 2021. The starting time for each session will be 8:00 p.m. ET and they will run for one hour.

Here is the upcoming schedule of speakers:

  • October 13: Jon Popovich, “Boots, Saddles & Baseballs: Major Benteen at the Little Big Horn”
  • November 10: Joanne Hulbert, “I Never Thought I’d Miss ‘Tricky Nick’: 19th-Century Nicknames”
  • December 8: Bill Humber, “A Thoroughly Modern Ballplayer: The Imaginative, Illicit and Improbable Life of Bob Addy”
  • January 12, 2021: Tom Shieber: “Around the World with A.G. Spalding: The Mystery of an 1888-89 Tourist’s Diary”
  • February 9: Don Jensen, “Baseball Fans Must Eat: The Life & Times of Harry Stevens, Hot Dog King”
  • March 9: Jerry Casway, “Before Greenberg there was (Lipman) Pike”
  • April 13: TBA
  • May 11: TBA

Click here to sign up for Nineteenth Century Committee email announcements to receive the Zoom meeting details. Virtual space is limited to approximately 100 attendees.


Read articles from The National Pastime: A Bird’s Eye View of Baltimore

2020 The National Pastime: A Bird's Eye View of BaltimoreThank you to all the donors and sustainability benefactors who made the publication of The National Pastime: A Bird’s-Eye View of Baltimore possible.

You can read all of the articles from this journal online now at SABR.org or download the e-book edition for free!

The National Pastime serves as SABR’s convention-focused publication. Published annually, this research journal provides in-depth articles focused on the respective geographic region where the national convention is taking place in a given year.


SABR Digital Library: Pride of Smoketown: The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords

Pride of Smoketown: The 1935 Pittsburgh CrawfordsAdd a new baseball book to your collection from the SABR Digital Library:

Pride of Smoketown: The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords
Edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin
Associate editors Len Levin and Carl Riechers
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-970159-25-7, $34.95
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-970159-24-0, $9.99
8.5” x 11”, 349 pages

Click here to read the full description of this book at SABR.org.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

SABR members can download all Digital Library e-books for free or save 50% off the paperback editions. To find all titles, visit 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.

Please contact a member of the SABR staff by email or phone with any questions.


SABRcast with Rob Neyer: Listen to an interview with author Howard Bryant

SABRcast #76: Howard BryantBaseball 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 #76 on Monday, September 7 featured Howard Bryant, Senior Writer for ESPN.com and award-winning author of Full Dissidence: Notes from an Uneven Playing Field; The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism; and other books on sports. His first book, Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, won the 2002 CASEY Award and was a SABR Seymour Medal finalist. He has also written The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron. He joined ESPN in 2007 after 15 years as a writer and columnist at the Washington Post, Boston Herald, and other newspapers. He is a regular contributor to NPR’s “Weekend Edition” and was the guest editor of The Best American Sports Writing in 2017.

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

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

Lance Berkman (COURTESY OF THE HOUSTON ASTROS)Four new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project. Here are the new bios published this week:

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.
  • Sign up to view Trello submission pipeline: Chief Editor Rory Costello has made the BioProject submission pipeline visible to project contributors using the signboard app Trello. If you would like to see the pipeline — to know where your story stands in the review process or how many articles we have in the system — e-mail Rory for an invitation to become an observer.

9 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

Minnie Minoso (TRADING CARD DB)Nine new game stories were posted this week as part of the SABR Games Project— including a few more from our First Games Back project. Here are the new game stories:

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 recent episodes of Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on Saturdays

Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM with Vince GennaroBehind 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 5:00-6:00 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

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
John Burris Lawrence, KS     Elizabeth Muratore Arlington, VA
Dan Freedman Studio City, CA     Kevin Quinn Bronx, NY
Brian Harl Charlottesville, VA     Chris Roberts Providence, RI
Larry Harris Northville, MI     Peter St. Clair South Hero, VT
Richard Heaton Queens Village, NY     Adrian Straker Brooklyn, NY
Erica Johnson Frederick, CO     James Thornton Chesterfield, VA
Alex Kielar Honesdale, PA     Ryan Vautherot Wimberley, TX
Alex Kukura Westfield, IN     Sabrina Warren Hanover, PA
Matt Lopez S. San Francisco, CA     Monica Williams Falls Church, VA
Brenda Marshall Seattle, WA        

Research Committee news

Here are the 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 updates this week:

Visit SABR.org/chapters for more information on SABR regional chapters.


SABR Events Calendar

Scroll up to the top of this newsletter to learn more about the upcoming virtual events on the SABR calendar. In addition, the following in-person meetings are scheduled on our Events Calendar:

  • September 12: Halsey Hall Chapter Hot Stove Saturday Morning (St. Paul, MN)
  • September 15: Bob Davids Chapter Maryland Hot Stove Dinner (Silver Spring, MD)

We strongly recommend that all SABR chapters follow CDC public health guidelines and your local/state government regulations when scheduling any in-person meetings and events.

Find details on all upcoming meetings on our SABR Events Calendar page.


Around the Web

Here are some recent articles published by and about SABR members:

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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Originally published: September 11, 2020. Last Updated: September 11, 2020.