This Week in SABR: May 6, 2011

Here’s an update of what we’ve been up to as of May 6, 2011:

TSN-SABR Baseball Research Awards announced

The Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award, which recognizes outstanding baseball research in areas other than history and biography, has been awarded for the following books published in 2010:

  • Satch, Dizzy, and Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson, written by Timothy M. Gay and published by Simon & Schuster

  • Evaluating Baseball’s Managers: A History and Analysis of Performance in the Major Leagues, 1876–2008, written by Chris Jaffe and published by McFarland

  • New Mexico Baseball: Miners, Outlaws, Indians and Isotopes, 1880 to the Present, written by L.M. Sutter and published by McFarland

The authors will receive their awards at the SABR 41 national convention, July 6-10 at the Long Beach Hilton in Southern California. The Sporting News sponsors the $200 cash awards that accompany the honor.

Reminder: Check your e-mail to vote in SABR’s 2011 elections

Any SABR member who has not voted in SABR’s 2011 Board of Directors elections should have received an e-mail sent Thursday, May 5 from the SABR Tellers Committee with instructions on how to vote online.

This year, SABR members will elect the President, Treasurer, and one Director. You can read all of the candidates’ statements and their answers to a number of questions in this PDF: 

Voting will be open until 11:59 p.m. MST on Monday, June 6. You will receive one more email with voting links before that time.

Vote for Los Angeles Area All-Time All-Stars

In past years, SABR convention organizers have chosen their local or regional All-Time All-Stars and put them in the convention publication. This year, we’re throwing it open to everyone after a ballot carefully prepared by Southern California chapter members.

Cast your vote for the Los Angeles Area All-Time All-Stars here.

We’ll be posting periodic results at SABR.org, with the final tallies presented at SABR 41, scheduled for July 6-10 at the Long Beach Hilton in Southern California.

BRJ: Hitting Streaks Don’t Obey Your Rules

On Tuesday night, Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier singled for a base hit in his 29th consecutive game — the longest hitting streak of the early 2011 Major League season but still just about halfway to Joe DiMaggio’s vaunted record of 56, set in 1941. Ethier is a few games away from the Dodgers franchise record of 31 games, set by Willie Davis in 1969.

In 2008, SABR member Trent McCotter studied all games over a forty-year period (1957-2006) to determine whether a player’s performance in one game has any predictive power for how he will do in the next game.

As you watch Ethier attempt to extend his streak to 30 and beyond, read “Hitting Streaks Don’t Obey Your Rules: Evidence That Hitting Streaks Aren’t Just By-Products of Random Variation” (BRJ 37, 2008).

SABR office postal address

In order to ensure that we receive your mail at the new SABR office, please address it to:

Society for American Baseball Research
4455 E. Camelback Rd., Ste. D-140
Phoenix, AZ 85018

If you have any questions, you can call the staff at (602) 343-6455.

In other recent SABR news:



Originally published: May 6, 2011. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.