This Week in SABR: May 24, 2013

May 24, 2013/in This Week in SABR /by jpomrenke

Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Here’s what we’ve been up to as of May 24, 2013:

Gennaro re-elected as SABR President; Heaphy, Worth as Directors

SABR members have re-elected President Vince Gennaro and Director Leslie Heaphy, and elected newcomer Fred Worth to the organization’s Board of Directors in the 2013 election.

In addition, three proposed revisions to the SABR By-Laws were all approved.

Gennaro was re-elected as SABR’s President in an unopposed race, receiving 818 of 831 first-preference votes. This will be Gennaro’s second term as President; he has served on the Board since 2009.

Heaphy was re-elected to her second term as a SABR Director, receiving 323 of 853 first-preference votes, and Worth was elected to his first term as a Director, receiving 520 of 853 first-preference votes. No other candidates ran for the positions.

Worth will join the Board, replacing outgoing Director and founding member Tom Hufford, at the conclusion of the Annual Business Meeting, which will be held during the SABR 43 national convention at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The meeting is scheduled from 8:30-9:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 1, 2013.

Worth has been a SABR member since 2001. He has written for the BioProject and Baseball Research Journal, presented more than 20 talks at SABR meetings, and is an active member of several research committees. He is a Professor of Mathematics at Henderson State University in Henderson, Arkansas, with a Master’s degree and Ph.D. from University of Missouri-Rolla. He earned his Bachelor’s from Evangel (Mo.) College. His main research interests are statistical, biographical and necrological — he has visited nearly 3,000 gravesites of baseball players, umpires and managers. He lives in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

Three SABR By-Laws revisions were approved by the membership. The By-Law change regarding Membership Policy (Sections 2.3/2.4) passed with 91.79 percent of the vote, the change regarding Suspension and Expulsion of Members (Section 2.5) passed with 87.51 percent of the vote, and the change regarding Vacancies on the Board of Directors (Section 4.3) passed with 93.70 percent of the vote.

The full By-Laws revisions and reason for the proposed changes can be found in the 2013 SABR Election Guide.

Special thanks go out to Tellers Committee members Bob Flynn, Tom Halleran and Michael Holden for certifying the results on May 22 at the SABR office.

The 2013 SABR elections featured online voting for the fourth consecutive year as well as traditional paper ballots. A total of 889 votes were received, constituting about 15.03 percent of the membership.

A complete history of SABR’s Board of Directors can be found here.

SABR members can find complete 2013 election results, including write-in candidates and voting totals, posted here.

SABR 43: Deadline to get all-inclusive rate is June 15, 2013

Have you registered for SABR 43 yet? Our 43rd annual convention will be held July 31-August 4, 2013, at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, 1201 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, just blocks from City Hall, Independence Hall and many other Philadelphia landmarks.

Please note that the special all-inclusive rate for SABR 43 will expire at 12:00 a.m. MST on Saturday, June 15. Our block of Phillies ballgame tickets will not be available after that date. You can still register for the convention, the Awards Banquet and all off-site events through the SABR Store, but the discounted all-inclusive rate and our block of Phillies ballgame tickets will no longer be available after June 15.

From now until June 15, SABR members can pay $219 at the all-inclusive rate — a savings of $30 off the regular rate for registration, the ballgame and the Awards Banquet. Non-members can pay $269; also a savings of nearly $30 off the regular rate.

For the all-inclusive rate, you will receive:

Full registration to SABR 43 in Philadelphia (regular rate: $169 for SABR members or $222 for nonmembers)
1 ticket to the Awards Banquet ($45)
1 Terrace Deck ticket to the Phillies vs. Braves game on Friday, August 2 ($35)

To register for SABR 43, click here.

SABR 43 hotel in Philadelphia almost sold out

As we noted last week, SABR’s group block at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown is going quickly — if you want a room at the Marriott for the SABR convention, you should book your room now. (Don’t forget to register for the convention, too!) If and when our room block sells out, we’ll set up an overflow hotel nearby and post more information at SABR.org/convention.

SABR has secured an exclusive group rate of $139/night (plus tax) at the Marriott for SABR 43. This is a very low rate for a major hotel in downtown Philadelphia during that time of year. The Philadelphia Marriott Downtown is at 1201 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, just blocks from City Hall , Independence Hall and many other Philadelphia landmarks.

Click here to book your room online or call (877) 212-5752. The hotel’s website is www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/phldt-philadelphia-marriott-downtown. Please note that our block of rooms is only available for the nights of July 30 to August 4, 2013.

For more information on SABR 43 or to register, visit SABR.org/convention.

SABR 43 transportation tips

Members of the host Connie Mack Chapter have compiled a list of transportation tips to help visitors and convention attendees enjoy their stay in Philadelphia during SABR 43.

If you have any questions during your stay, please don’t hesitate to ask a friendly SABR 43 volunteer for assistance (they’ll be in the bright red shirts throughout the convention!)

To view our SABR 43 transportation tips, visit SABR.org/convention/sabr43-transportation.

Come visit our digital SABR 43 Vendors Room

We want to offer a special thanks to all of our vendors at SABR 43 for their support. We invite you to visit our digital Vendors Room at SABR.org/convention/sabr43-vendors and check out these groups, both online and at the convention in Philadelphia this summer:

If you would like to reserve a table in the Vendors Room at SABR 43, please contact Jeff Schatzki. Space is limited.

SABR 43 will be held July 31-August 4, 2013, at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, 1201 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Register today at SABR.org/convention.

Q&A with Daniel R. Levitt, winner of 2013 Larry Ritter Book Award

Daniel R. Levitt was recently announced as the winner of the 2013 Larry Ritter Book Award, for “The Battle That Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy,” published by Ivan R. Dee. The award is given by SABR’s Deadball Era Research Committee for the best book related to the Deadball Era published in the previous year. In this Q&A originally published in the Deadball Committee’s May 2013 newsletter, Bill Lamb asks Dan Levitt to elaborate on matters covered in his superb chronicle of the Federal League.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

Bill: What prompted you to select the Federal League as a book subject?

Dan: My book really focuses the struggle between the Federal League and Organized Baseball, which I believe is both an interesting and significant story. As the last league to challenge major league baseball as a major league, the Federal League posed a real and substantial challenge to baseball’s prevailing structure. The existing American and National leagues, along with the minor leagues, fought back furiously in the press, in the courts, and on the field, making for many fascinating and fun-to-read stories. Moreover, this bitter struggle was consequential: it represented the last chance that baseball’s organizational structure would develop along a different path. After the final settlement with the Federal League, baseball’s monopoly and hierarchical structure never again faced more than a token challenge.

<snip>

Bill: In retrospect, is there anything that you think the FL could have done – in terms of player recruitment strategy, choice of venues, litigation tactics, etc. – that might have enhanced its chances to succeed? Or was the Federal League doomed to failure from the start?

Dan: Previous leagues that had succeeded — again, defined as being either partially or fully absorbed or recognized within Organized Baseball’s structure — did so relative quickly. I think that one of issues for the Federals was that they did not realize the full enmity or solidarity of Organized Baseball. The National League had been a much more fragile and fractured entity when the American Association and American League respectively achieved recognition. The Federals needed to prepare for a longer battle, though in fairness, with the undercapitalized ownership syndicates in the minor league cities, this may never really have been possible. The Feds also suffered a huge blow when Robert Ward died in October 1915. Had Ward survived the Feds might have held out for another year or two and put a team in New York.

The lack of antitrust protection also hurt the FL. They would have had a much better chance at success had Organized Baseball not been able to implement a blacklist, publicly denigrate their product and chance of survival and virtually ignore their contracts. The last was not only an antirust issue; the courts were often surprisingly generous to Organized Baseball in their interpretation of the contract disputes.

You can read the full Q&A here: http://sabr.org/latest/qa-daniel-r-levitt-winner-2013-larry-ritter-book-award

Seamheads Negro Leagues Database updated with 1928 stats

We’re pleased to pass along this note from SABR member Gary Ashwill at Seamheads.com:

Today we add the 1928 Negro leagues to the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database. This was the year the Eastern Colored League fell apart, putting an end to the first edition of the Black World Series. Meanwhile the Negro National League continued with a split-season format. The St. Louis Stars won the first half going away; in the second half, the American Giants just edged the Stars and the Kansas City Monarchs, setting up an NNL championship series with St. Louis that would take the place of the World Series that year.

The problems that doomed the ECL in 1928 had roots going back several years, involving arguments about schedules, players, parks, umpires, and money. The first real warning signs cropped up in 1927, when the New York Lincoln Giants were kicked out of the ECL for signing the outfielder Estéban Montalvo away from the western Cuban Stars, thus violating the peace deal that had been in effect between the two leagues since 1924. The Lincolns were readmitted in spring 1928, in exchange for giving Montalvo back to the Cuban Stars. But then Harrisburg Giants owner Colonel Strothers decided he could no longer afford to bankroll his club, a perennial contender, and folded the team (though the Giants would return midway through 1928 with a less-distinguished roster). Soon after that Nat Strong‘s Brooklyn Royal Giants resigned from the league, and the next day Ed Bolden pulled his Hilldale Club, perhaps the ECL’s flagship franchise, out of the circuit. Even with the Lincolns back in the fold, the ECL was still reduced to four clubs.

A Philadelphia gangster named Smittie Lucas had put together a team he called the Eastern League Stars, an all-star team originally intended only for spring play. Desperate for more teams, especially one based in Philadelphia, the league admitted Lucas’s club—though he had to return most of his stars to their original teams, and the name of his outfit was eventually changed to the Philadelphia Tigers. Another new club, the Brooklyn Stars, failed to materialize. So the Eastern Colored League started the 1928 season with five teams.

To view the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, visit http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/index.php

Related links:

Seamheads Negro Leagues Database updated with 1933 stats (April 9, 2013)
Seamheads Negro Leagues Database updated with 1899-1900 stats (February 4, 2013)
Seamheads Negro Leagues Database updated with 1915-16 Cuban League and Florida Hotel League (January 7, 2013)
Little-known players from the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database (February 2, 2012)
Read our Q&A with Gary Ashwill about the Negro Leagues Database (September 14, 2011)

4 new biographies published by the SABR BioProject

Four new biographies were posted as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 2,436 published biographies. Can we reach 2,500 before the SABR 43 convention in Philadelphia? Here are the new bios:

Raymond Haley, by Bill Nowlin
Tim Hendryx, by Bill Nowlin
Hob Hiller, by Bill Nowlin
George Orme, by Bill Nowlin

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

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

1947 Brooklyn Dodgers bios now online: The first book published in our “Memorable Teams in Baseball History” series with University of Nebraska Press was The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, edited by Lyle Spatz. The SABR BioProject biographies that appeared in that book — from Jackie Robinson to Walter O’Malley, from Dan Bankhead to Dick Whitman, from Al Gionfriddo to Cookie Lavagetto — can now be read online at: http://sabr.org/category/completed-book-projects/1947-brooklyn-dodgers. The book is also available for purchase at the SABR Bookstore.

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!

Check out the new Baseball Ballparks Project: The SABR Baseball Biography Project has been accepting/publishing “biographies” of Ballparks for a few years, and we have 39 of them on our website at http://sabr.org/bioproj/parks. However, this thing just got real. Ballparks are now its very own PROJECT — the Baseball Ballparks Project, our first official spin-off. The project leader is Scott Ferkovich, who is now in charge of recruiting ballparks articles and publicizing them. Learn more by clicking here.

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.

Wanted: SABR members to critique baseball game broadcasts

The Baseball and the Media Committee is seeking to publish a review of the radio and TV game broadcasts for each of the 30 major league baseball teams during the 2013 season.

The job will entail listening to a radio game broadcast, or watching a TV game broadcast; making notes on the performance of the broadcast team based on a set list of criteria; and writing up a brief overview of that broadcast team’s performance, while using the school-based letter system to grade them.

A list of criteria and guidelines for critiquing the broadcasts will be provided to you prior to the games you want to do. You can sign up to do any many broadcast teams as you like! One reviewer per team. Signing up for the Media committee is not required — any SABR member can participate in this. You may also choose to write your review anonymously if that works better for you.

If this seems like a fun and interesting thing to do, please contact Chuck Hildebrandt at chuck.sabr@gmail.com for more details.

April 27-28 Board minutes posted

Minutes from the Board of Directors spring meeting on April 27-28, 2013, 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.

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.

Name	Hometown
Steve Andras	Cleveland, OH
Jason Bolinski	Denver, CO
Jerry Byars	Memphis, TN
Brian Frank	Hamburg, NY
Muneesh Jain	New York, NY
Eddy Medina	Miami, FL
David Morgenthaler	Cedar Park, TX
Craig Raaf	St. Louis, MO
Robert Rectenwald	Wheaton, IL
David Roher	Chappaqua, NY
Joel Roy	San Francisco, CA

Research committee newsletters

There were no new SABR research committee newsletters published this week.

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

Chapter meeting news

Here are the new chapter meeting recaps published this week:

South Florida Chapter meeting recap (May 18; Tamarac, FL)
Field of Dreams (Iowa) Chapter meeting recap (May 19; Davenport, IA)
Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap (May 21; St. Louis, MO)

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

SABR Events Calendar

Here is a list of upcoming SABR events:

May 25: Northwest Chapter meeting (Seattle, WA)
May 25: Baseball Prospectus Ballpark Tour (Seattle, WA)
May 28: Bill Ryczek: 19th-century baseball in Connecticut (Portland, CT)
May 29-31: 25th Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture (Cooperstown, NY)
June 1: Ohio Village Muffins vintage baseball game (Columbus, OH)
June 1: Allan Roth Chapter meeting (Los Angeles, CA)
June 6: Bergino: “Jewish Major Leaguers in Their Own Words” with Peter Ephross (New York, NY)
June 7-8: A Celebration of Baseball (La Crosse, WI)
June 10: Larry Dierker Chapter meeting (Houston, TX)
June 12: Bob Davids Chapter Hot Stove Dinner (Arlington, VA)
June 13-15: 16th Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference (Newark, NJ)

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:

Paul Lukas: Inside the Metropolitan Art Museum’s surprising baseball card collection (Uni Watch)
Eric Nusbaum: Hector Espino, the unknown Mexican League superstar slugger (SB Nation)
Marty Appel: King Kelly, baseball’s first celebrity (The National Pastime Museum)
An interview with business of baseball writer Maury Brown (Sports Analytics Blog)
Max Mannis, 11, recaps the Clubhouse Confidential panel at the SABR Analytics Conference (SI For Kids)
Jay Jaffe: On Terry Francona’s place in Red Sox history as he returns to Boston (SI.com)
Dan Schlossberg: Door to exclusive 300-win club closing fast (USA Today)
Justice Sotomayor takes a swing at Curt Flood case in Supreme Court re-enactment (NPR)
Jerry Crasnick: Reds’ Joey Votto determined to be great (ESPN.com)
John Dewan: Who are the top baserunners in baseball? (ACTA Sports)
Lance Rinker: The art and skill of laying down a bunt (Beyond the Box Score)
Topps card company changes numbering system collectors counted on (New York Times)
Larry Granillo: How a color-spectrum theory explains our understanding of baseball statistics (Baseball Nation)
Richard Hershberger: “The New Marlboro.’ Match Base Ball Co.” of 1863 (Our Game)
John Thorn: A long-lost connection between baseball in 1791 Pittsfield, Mass., and 1838 Beachville, Ontario (Our Game)
Casey Awards have honored baseball’s best books for 30 years (Baseball America)
Ben Lindbergh: Brandon McCarthy on the value of catcher framing (Baseball Prospectus)
Rodney Johnson profiles Flame Delhi, Arizona’s first major leaguer (FSN Arizona)
Bob Wirz: Chris Colabello’s journey from Can-Am League to majors is unique (Seamheads)
The 2013 Bill James Handbook is on sale for 50% off at ACTA Sports

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.

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Originally published: May 24, 2013. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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