This Week in SABR: January 25, 2013

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Welcome to “This Week in SABR”! Here’s what we’ve been up to as of January 25, 2013:

Join us on SABR Day: Saturday, January 26

We hope you’re excited for the fourth annual SABR Day tomorrow! There are 30 Hot Stove meetings scheduled around the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico on Saturday, January 26, and we hope you’ll attend one near you. Details, time and location on every SABR Day meeting can be found at SABR.org/sabrday.

SABR Day events are scheduled tomorrow in these cities:

  • Albuquerque, NM (Rio Grande Chapter)
  • Austin, TX (Rogers Hornsby Chapter)
  • Boston, MA (Boston Chapter) 
  • Columbus, OH (Hank Gowdy Chapter)
  • Cooperstown, NY (Cliff Kachline Chapter)
  • Denver, CO (Rocky Mountain Chapter)
  • Des Moines, IA (Field of Dreams Chapter)
  • Fort Lauderdale, FL (South Florida Chapter)
  • Houston, TX (Larry Dierker Chapter)
  • Indianapolis, IN (Oscar Charleston Chapter)
  • Kansas City, MO (Monarchs Chapter)
  • Kenosha, WI (co-organized by Emil Rothe and Ken Keltner Badger State chapters)
  • Little Rock, AR (Robinson-Kell Chapter) 
  • Los Angeles, CA (Allan Roth Chapter)
  • Louisville, KY (Pee Wee Reese Chapter)
  • Middletown, CT (Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood Chapter)
  • Montreal, QC (Quebec Chapter)
  • Montpelier, VT (Gardner-Waterman Vermont Chapter)
  • New Orleans, LA (Schott-Pelican Chapter)
  • New York, NY (Casey Stengel Chapter)
  • Oakland, CA (co-organized by Lefty O’Doul/Bay Area and Sacramento chapters)
  • Philadelphia, PA (Connie Mack Chapter)
  • Phoenix, AZ (Flame Delhi Chapter)
  • Pittsburgh, PA (Forbes Field Chapter)
  • Ponce, PR (Orlando Cepeda Chapter)
  • Seattle, WA (Northwest Chapter)
  • St. Louis, MO (Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter)
  • Tallahassee, FL (Buck O’Neil/North Florida Chapter)
  • Toledo, OH (co-organized by Bresnahan-Mudhens Chapter, Detroit Chapter, Don Lund Chapter, Wally Pipp Chapter)
  • Toronto, ON (Hanlan’s Point Chapter)

In addition, these chapters will be holding their SABR Day meetings on Saturday, February 2 due to scheduling conflicts with the popular team FanFests on January 26:

  • Minneapolis, MN (Halsey Hall Chapter)
  • San Diego, CA (Ted Williams Chapter)
  • Washington, DC (Bob Davids Chapter)

(Having trouble viewing our map at SABR.org/sabrday? Visit http://bit.ly/SABRday-2013-list to view all SABR Day 2013 details in a spreadsheet on the web.)

Regional SABR meetings are open to all baseball fans and are usually free to attend, so bring a friend! Guest speakers often include current and former baseball players, managers, umpires, executives, scouts, writers and authors.

To view event details for a SABR Day meeting near you, check out our SABR Day map at SABR.org/sabrday for more information.

Bill James added to lineup of speakers at 2013 SABR Analytics Conference

We’re happy to announce that Bill James will be a featured speaker at the second annual SABR Analytics Conference, March 7-9, 2013, at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown in Phoenix, Arizona.

James is Senior Advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox. He is the best known baseball analyst in the world and a prolific author of many books, including the Bill James Baseball Abstracts, the Historical Baseball Abstract, Win Shares, Politics of Glory, The Bill James Gold Mine and the annual Bill James Handbook. He is considered by many to be the father of sabermetrics — he even coined the phrase in 1980 — and has created many new innovative measures such as Runs Created and Win Shares to evaluate player performance. He is a founding member of the SABR Statistical Analysis Research Committee and was a recipient of the Henry Chadwick Award in 2010.

Other featured speakers expected for the 2013 Analytics Conference are: Stan Kasten, President/CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers; Jed Hoyer, Executive VP/General Manager of the Chicago Cubs; Rick Hahn, Senior VP/General Manager of the Chicago White Sox; Jon Daniels, General Manager of the Texas Rangers; Joe Posnanski, Senior Writer for Sports on Earth; and Brian Kenny, MLB Network host. More speakers will be announced soon!

Once again, SABR is bringing together the top minds of the baseball analytic community under one roof to discuss, debate and share insightful ways to analyze and examine the great game of baseball for the second annual:

SABR Analytics Conference
presented by Major League Baseball and Bloomberg Sports
March 7-9, 2013
Sheraton Phoenix Downtown
Phoenix, Arizona

The schedule will consist 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.

To learn more about the 2013 SABR Analytics Conference, visit SABR.org/analytics.

Announcing finalists for 2013 SABR Analytics Research Awards

Earlier this month, we announced the creation of the SABR Analytics Research Awards, which will recognize baseball researchers who have completed the best work of original analysis or commentary during the preceding calendar year.

Nominations were solicited by representatives from SABR, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs and The Hardball Times. Here are the finalists for the 2013 SABR Analytics Research Awards:

Historical Analysis/Commentary

Contemporary Baseball Commentary

Contemporary Baseball Analysis

Details and criteria for each category can be found here. Only one work per author was considered as a finalist.

Voting for the winners will be conducted online beginning next week at SABR.org, BaseballProspectus.com, FanGraphs.com and HardballTimes.com, with results weighted equally at 25%.

Results will be announced and presented at the second annual SABR Analytics Conference, March 7-9, 2013, at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn more or register for the conference at SABR.org/analytics.

SABR Digital Library: Batting by F.C. Lane

Add a classic baseball book to your collection with the newest title in the SABR Digital Library:

Batting
By F.C. Lane
Paperback (still in print): $14.95
Paperback ISBN 978-0-91013786-7
Ebook: $7.99
Ebook ISBN 978-1-933599-46-5
240 book pages, 8.5″ x 11″

In 2012, SABR named F.C. Lane as an honoree of the Henry Chadwick Award, given to baseball’s greatest researchers.

Lane (1896-1984) was the editor and a prolific writer for Baseball Magazine from 1912 through 1937, and then served as editor of the Little Red Book of Major League Baseball through 1948. The author of hundreds of editorials, interviews and articles about how the game was or should be played, Lane wrote forward-thinking pieces about, for example, how batting average could be misleading, opining that different batting outcomes should have different weights. It would be a few more generations before his wisdom began to win the day.

Lane authored several books in his day, but Batting was the only one on baseball. First printed in 1925 and republished by SABR as a paperback in 2001, Batting collects the wisdom and insights of over 250 hitters and baseball figures. Lane interviewed extensively and compiled tips and advice on everything from batting stances to beanballs. Legendary baseball figures such as Ty Cobb, Casey Stengel, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Rogers Hornsby, and Babe Ruth reveal the secrets of such integral and interesting parts of the game as how to choose a bat, the ways to beat a slump, common baseball player superstitions, how to outguess the pitcher, even the best way to deal with unhappy fans and the press.

The e-book edition includes all the text of the original classic (along with accompanying advertisements), and the biographical introduction written by Frederick Ivor-Campbell for the 2001 paperback edition. The index of names by Leverett T. Smith Jr. is also included in the e-book edition, sans page numbers of course (e-books do not have fixed page lengths.)

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

In Memoriam: Stan Musial and Earl Weaver

Last weekend was a sad one for baseball fans, as two Hall of Famers — St. Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial and Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver — passed away on Friday, January 19 and Saturday, January 20.

“How good was Stan Musial? He was good enough to take your breath away.” Jan Finkel chose this quote from famed broadcaster Vin Scully to open his SABR biography of Musial, which documents in rich detail Musial’s extraordinary accomplishments on the field and the life of grace he led off the field.

Musial was recognized by SABR in its 1999 survey for the Top Major League Players of the 20th Century, when Stan the Man received the fifth-highest percentage of gross votes (99.08%), behind only Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Hank Aaron. For several years after speaking at the 1992 national SABR convention (SABR 22) in St. Louis, Musial was also an active member — his name could be found in the SABR Directory with his expertise listed as “Hitting a Baseball”! As Finkel wrote, “That may seem arrogant to some, but anyone who’s ever seen Stan’s ever-present smile and laughing eyes knows it’s his private little joke. Besides, it happens to be true.”

Weaver, who managed the Baltimore Orioles to five pennants and one World Series championship from 1968-82 and 1985-86, was known best for his memorable meltdowns and umpire feuds. But he was also a true innovator in baseball strategy. As Jeff Burd wrote in his profile of Weaver from the Summer 2010 Baseball Research Journal:

Weaver was one of the first managers to make extensive use of statistics; he pored over them endlessly as he tried to find anything that would give him an advantage over an opponent. Sometimes those advantages came at the cost of a player’s ego, but Weaver made no apologies.

Weaver’s managerial philosophy can be summed up with one of his favorite phrases: “Pitching, Defense and Three-Run Homers,” which last year became the title of SABR’s BioProject book on the 1970 World Series champion Orioles, edited by Mark Armour and Malcolm Allen. He was an early advocate for statistical analysis and once said, “If you play for one run, that’s all you’ll get.” In the Fall 2011 Baseball Research Journal, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte studied how Weaver “changed our prevailing understanding of baseball” more than any manager since John McGraw. SABR member Diane Firstman also paid tribute to Weaver with a comprehensive breakdown of the Orioles’ three-run homers under Weaver. 

The SABR Oral History Collection also includes Dan Austin’s wide-ranging interview of Weaver on July 3, 1990 (42 minutes; 38.8 MB.) We hope you enjoy listening to Weaver’s memories of his career in his own words:

http://sabr.org/latest/memoriam-stan-musial-and-earl-weaver

Related links:

Follow Monte Cely live from 2013 Caribbean World Series in Hermosillo, Mexico

Monte Cely, a leader in SABR’s Rogers Hornsby Chapter in Austin, Texas, is traveling down to Hermosillo, Mexico, this week for the 2013 Caribbean World Series. You can follow along as he’ll be updating the chapter website with live posts from south of the border for the Caribbean World Series games:  

Mexico hosts the 2013 Serie del Caribe and this year’s host city is Hermosillo, the capital of the state of Sonora. The games will be played in Nuevo Estadio Sonora, and this stadium is nuevo — it’s brand new. After its inauguration hosting the Series, the stadium will become the home field for los Naranjeros, Hermosillo’s club in the Mexican Pacific League.

The 2013 Caribbean Series will feature a slight change in format. In past years, the four winter league champions (from Mexico, the Dominican, Puerto Rico and Venezuela) played a double-round-robin format. This resulted in a six-day, twelve game tournament, with the team having the most wins at the end of the sixth day being declared the winner. However, that format could lead to ties that would result in a seventh day playoff — or, a team could clinch early making the last two or three games meaningless. In an effort to extend the suspense, a seventh day is being added in 2013. The four country champs will still play the six-day double-round-robin, and then the first- and second-place teams will play for the championship on the seventh day. The new seven-day format will also more easily accomodate any additional leagues or teams that may participate in the future. The 2013 Series game schedule is here.

I’m especially excited about going to Hermosillo, as it’s the home of some Mexican friends; in particular mi buen amigo Juan Antonio Jasso Rodriguez. Juan and I met in Puerto Rico when Mayaguez hosted the 2011 Serie del Caribe. We have remained in close contact since then. I look forward to seeing him again, this year in his hometown.

Look for more updates from Monte between now and February 8 at http://chapters.sabr.org/hornsby.

SABR 43 registration now online!

In case you missed it, registration for SABR 43 — July 31-August 4, 2013, at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — is now available online at SABR.org/convention.

The hotel is in the Center City area, a quick light rail ride from Philadelphia Airport and Amtrak. Center City is the hub of Philly’s cultural, business and social life. It is a veritable trove of attractions served by an excellent mass transit system.

In addition to the usual fun of ballgames, research presentations and great panels with baseball executives, former players and media personnel at SABR 43, we intend to have special events that will include:

  • a Historical Philadelphia Walking Tour
  • a bus tour of historical ballpark and other baseball sites
  • a vintage 1860s-style base ball game near the home of the old Philadelphia Pythians and 19th-century Athletics (also near Pat’s and Geno’s!) 
  • a panel of Phillies greats from different eras, along with many other great speakers

Here are some details on SABR 43 registration:

When SABR last visited Philadelphia in 1974, the Phils played at the no-specific-purpose Veterans Stadium. In 2013, we will take you to cozy Citizens Bank Park, one of the more attractive baseball stadiums in the country. Despite the Philllies’ longest consecutive-game-sellout streak in baseball history, we are confident that given our good relationship with the Phils, we will obtain game tickets in several sections of the park.

The SABR 43 Planning Committee eagerly awaits the crowds of SABR’s baseball experts, historians, statisticians, general fans and their families who will visit our “olde countrie towne”. And we fully expect to declare Philadelphia as the “Baseball Capital of the World” when SABR 43 convenes here in 2013.

We’ll be announcing many more details soon. Visit SABR.org/convention to register for SABR 43 today!

7 new biographies published by the SABR BioProject

Seven new biographies were posted as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 2,219 published biographies.

Here are the new bios:

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

You can find the SABR BioProject at SABR.org/BioProject.

Bios on more than just ballplayers: The ambitious goal of the SABR Baseball Biography Project is to publish a full-life biography of every major league player in history. But SABR members write about a lot more than just ballplayers. In addition, we have pages for Ballparks, Broadcasters, Executives, Managers, Scouts, Spouses, Umpires and a lot more on the BioProject website. You can browse all of these categories at http://sabr.org/bioproj/browse. So if you’ve ever thought, “Hey, that person (or ballpark) should get the full BioProject treatment” — write the story and we’ll publish it!

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. We’re also looking to expand the BioProject to include all “encyclopedic” articles on baseball-related subjects from past SABR publications or committee newsletters. If you come across an article 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.

Coming soon: The National Pastime, an online baseball museum

We’re pleased to pass along this note from SABR member Frank Ceresi:

The National Pastime is a new online baseball museum dedicated to sharing the artifacts, history, and stories that make up America’s greatest game — baseball. It will regularly feature columns by some of the game’s finest writers, including many SABR members.

The site will also showcase rare artifacts that will help tell the story of baseball from its earliest times. Highlights include one-of-a-kind items such as Shoeless Joe Jackson’s game-used Black Betsy baseball bat, a rare copy of Sol White’s History of Colored Baseball, extraordinary photos and illustrations from the nineteenth century, unique and historical Negro League artifacts, and much, much more. This wonderful new baseball resource will officially launch on Opening Day 2013!

The museum’s website can be found at www.thenationalpastime.com.

Last call for other SABR award nominations

  • SABR Baseball Research Award, due 1/31/2013: 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 2012 awards, please contact Steve Gietschier at sgietsch@gmail.com.
  • Ron Gabriel Award, due 1/31/2013: 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. Eligible works include but are not limited to magazine and journal articles, previously unpublished chapters or articles in anthologies or other books with multiple authors, unpublished research papers, written versions of oral presentations, books, databases and websites. To submit a nomination for the 2012 awards, please contact Stephanie Liscio at stephanieliscio@yahoo.com.
  • McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, due 2/15/2013: 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 2012 awards, please contact Len Levin at lenlevin5@hotmail.com.

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:

Of course, all previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here: http://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 New Member 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.

Here is a list of new members:

Name Hometown     Name Hometown
Todd Albright Seattle, WA     Jeff Kindig Cary, NC
Richard Armstrong Princeton, NJ     Dennis Laudal Grand Forks, ND
Bryan Arseneau Milwaukee, WI     Tony McCarron Weetangera, AUS
Todd Axelrod Las Vegas, NV     William McMahon Catonsville, MD
Evie Carpenter Aroda, VA     James Meakim Stony Point, NY
Trissa Cox May, TX     Adam Morissette Orleans, ON
Bill Curtis St. Augustine, FL     Adam Nelson Salem, VA
Bradford Doolittle Chicago, IL     Ronald Oberman Skokie, IL
Darrin Dykes Denton, TX     Michael O’Brien Mooresville, NC
Eric Eager La Crosse, WI     Charles Pepper Mt. Pleasant, MI
Nestor Gomez San Juan, PR     Nicolas Picerno Union City, CA
Becki Hartke Fullerton, CA     Mick Reinhard Camp Hill, PA
Kelly Hester Kearneysville, WV     Lance Rinker Plano, TX
Bruce Hongola Saratoga, CA     Steinar Saethre Oslo, NOR
Robert Jaffee Amawalk, NY     Mark Slattery Brooklyn, NY
Scott Johnson Greenwood, IN     Kevin Walsh Park City, UT
Jeremy Kaufman Marlbolo, NJ     Michael Welsh Chicago, IL

 

Research committee newsletters

Here are the new SABR research committee newsletters published this week:

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

Chapter meeting recaps

Here are the chapter meeting recaps published 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.

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://members.sabr.org

Did you know you can renew your membership at any time? 1- and 3-year SABR memberships are available by clicking “Renew” at http://members.sabr.org. Please also consider a donation to SABR to support baseball research at SABR.org/donate.

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: January 25, 2013. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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