This Week in SABR: October 18, 2019

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 October 18, 2019:


Check out photos and highlights from the 2019 SABR/IWBC Arizona Fall League Experience

Arizona Fall League

The SABR/IWBC Arizona Fall League Experience was held on Thursday, October 10 to Saturday, October 12, 2019, in Phoenix, Arizona. This conference was focused on women in baseball, co-hosted by the International Women’s Baseball Center, and held in conjunction with the Arizona Fall League (MLB.com/AFL), baseball’s premier player development league.

On Friday, October 11, we heard talks from Stephanie Jarvis, Interim Director of Arizona State University’s Sports Law & Business Program; and Elizabeth Benn, Coordinator of Labor, Diversity, and Baseball Development at MLB’s Office of the Commissioner. Michael Haupert of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse gave a presentation on attendance and fan demand in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, while Callie Maddox of Miami University gave a presentation on the global growth of contemporary women’s baseball. Our Working in Baseball Panel featured Debbie Castaldo, Vice President, Corporate & Community Impact with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Executive Director of the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation; and Jennifer Blatt, founder of the Women’s Sports School and WISE Arizona who spent nearly 20 years in the Arizona Diamondbacks front office.

Saturday, October 12 was highlighted by a panel previewing the AFL Fall Stars Game with Meg Rowley, Managing Editor of FanGraphs; Eric Longenhagen, Lead Prospect Analyst at FanGraphs; and William Boor of MLB.com and MLBPipeline.com. We also heard from Bridget Binsbacher, Executive Director of the Cactus League. Rebecca Herman of Purdue University Global gave a presentation on the top women’s baseball national teams in the world, and author/umpire Perry Barber spoke about baseball pioneer and visionary Maud Nelson.

Click here to check out more photos from the 2019 SABR/IWBC Arizona Fall League Experience at Flickr.com.

Visit SABR.org/AFL for more highlights from the conference.


It’s time to renew your membership for 2020

For those of you whose SABR memberships expire by December 31 — you can check your current membership status here — it’s time for you to renew!

From the Baseball Research Journal and the SABR Digital Library to “This Week in SABR” and our extensive list of research resources — and, of course, all the memorable conferences, chapter meetings, and events — we hope you enjoyed the many benefits of SABR membership this past year.

We hope you please continue your support by renewing your SABR membership today.

  • Pay online: Click here to renew your SABR membership for 2020!
  • Renew by mail: To pay by check or money order, mail this downloadable PDF form and your payment to the office at SABR, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004.
  • Pay by phone: To process your credit-card payment over the phone, please call the SABR office at (602) 496-1460 during regular business hours. (We accept Visa, Mastercard, or Discover Card.)

Thank you for your support of SABR as we continue to strive to make SABR membership a great experience and a great value!


Join the Friends of SABR and support baseball research

As we wrap up 2019, we want to thank you for your continuing support of SABR. Thanks to your dedication and generosity, SABR is stronger today than ever, with a vast array of capabilities.

We also want to invite you to join the Friends of SABR, a circle of members who are committed to using their financial support to improve our baseball community and our efforts to increase the understanding of the game we love. None of these accomplishments would have been possible without your generosity — which is why we hope you will continue and even increase your support today!

We have been busy in the last year at SABR HQ and will continue to pour our energy into notable projects in 2020. Members like you are helping us turn our shared vision into a reality.

You can join the Friends of SABR by making a gift of at least $100 at SABR.org/donate. We will use your best gift of $100, $250, $500, or $1,000 to bring more young people into the world of baseball; to publish groundbreaking books and articles; and to promote research, preservation, and scholarship. In addition, SABR HQ will also donate 10% of all member gifts back to the chapters each donor is affiliated with.

Baseball makes the world better! Thank you so much for believing that and for joining us in this endeavor.

— Scott Bush, SABR CEO


SABR Digital Library: The Base Ball Palace of the World: Comiskey Park

Comiskey Park book coverFire up the pinwheels and add a baseball book to your collection with our newest title from the SABR Digital Library:

The Base Ball Palace of the World: Comiskey Park
Edited by Gregory H. Wolf
Associate editors: Bill Nowlin, Kevin Larkin, and Len Levin  

ISBN (e-book): 978-1-9701-5915-8, $9.99 
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9701-5914-1, $29.95
8.5″ x 11″, 320 pages

Comiskey Park, affectionately known as the “Base Ball Palace of the World,” was the home of the Chicago White Sox for parts of nine decades, from 1910 to 1990. Despite being built on the site of a former dump, the ballpark’s address was one of baseball’s most iconic. At the intersection of 35th Street and Shields Avenue, it sat in the Armour Square neighborhood on the near-southwest side of the city.

The Base Ball Palace of the World: Comiskey Park is our humble volume which aims to evoke memories of the storied ballpark and introduce others to its exciting history through detailed summaries of more than 80 games played there and several feature essays. The volume is a collaborative and tireless effort of 50 SABR members. Among the gems presented in this book we have Big Ed Walsh’s no-hitter in 1911, several Negro League contests including the 1933 East-West All-Star Game, the 1919 and 1959 World Series, Disco Demolition Night, the 1933 and 1983 MLB All-Star Games, and many more.

Contributors include: Frank Amoroso, John Bauer, Nathan Bierma, Stephen D. Boren, Thomas J. Brown Jr., Ken Carrano, Matthew M. Clifford, Alan Cohen, Richard Cuicchi, Katie Dickson, Greg Erion, Doug Feldmann, Scott Ferkovich, Dan Fields, Brian Frank, John Gabcik, Gordon J. Gattie, Paul Hofmann, Mike Huber, Robert Kimball, Norm King, Adam Klinker, Russ Lake, Kevin Larkin, Bob LeMoine, Brandon Lee, Len Levin, Michael T. Lynch, Michael Marsh, Mark Mullane, Bill Nowlin, Will Osgood, Bill Pearch, Tom Pardo, Jacob Pomrenke, Alan Reifman, Richard Riis, C. Paul Rogers III, Joe Schuster, Lyle Spatz, Mark S. Sternman, Stew Thornley, Joseph Wancho, Bob Webster, Steven C. Weiner, Gregory H. Wolf, Bob Wood, Brian P. Wood, Brian Wright, and Don Zminda.

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.

To find more books from the SABR Digital Library, visit SABR.org/ebooks.


SABR Digital Library: Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox

1959 Chicago White Sox book coverSound off the sirens! Add a championship baseball book to your collection with our newest title from the SABR Digital Library:

Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox
Edited by Don Zminda
Associate editors: R.J. Lesch, Len Levin, Bill Nowlin  

ISBN (e-book): 978-1-9701-5910-3, $9.99 
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9701-5911-0, $29.95
8.5″ x 11″, 320 pages

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

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

To find more books from the SABR Digital Library, visit SABR.org/ebooks.


Coming soon! 2020 SABR Analytics Conference registration opens next week

SABR is pleased to announce that the ninth annual SABR Analytics Conference will be held Friday, March 13 to Sunday, March 15, 2020 at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown, 100 N. 1st St. in Phoenix, Arizona.

Conference registration and hotel information for the 2020 conference will be available beginning next week at SABR.org/analytics.

The SABR Analytics Conference brings together industry insiders from the baseball community, data innovators, thought leaders, members of the media and college students who will participate in the popular Diamond Dollars Case Competition.

Visit SABR.org/analytics to learn more.


From the archives: SABR interviews with heroes of Octobers past

As the Major League Baseball postseason continues, let’s take a whirl through the SABR archives for interviews with heroes of Octobers past conducted by members of our Oral History Research Committee.

Over the last four decades, the SABR Oral History Committee has compiled hundreds of interviews of former players in the majors, minors, Negro Leagues and All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, along with executives, scouts, authors and writers, broadcasters and fans.

  • Click here to listen to excerpts from our Oral History Collection, including clips from Lew Burdette, Hank Bauer, Dusty Rhodes, Al Gionfriddo, and Marty Marion.

For more information on the SABR Oral History interview collection, visit SABR.org/research/oral-history-research-committee.


10 days left to submit nominations for the 2020 Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award

Dorothy Seymour MillsNominations are now open for the 2020 Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award — “The Dorothy” — named in honor of Dorothy Seymour Mills and her lifetime of contributions to promoting women’s baseball.

To submit a nomination for The Dorothy in 2020, please submit a letter of nomination (self or external); supporting letters; list of accomplishments with supporting documentation (including articles written by/about the candidate; book reviews for books written; links to organizations/tournaments/others that the candidate participated in or helped organize); awards received; or other achievements by October 28, 2019, to Dr. Leslie Heaphy by e-mail at lheaphy@kent.edu or by mail at Dr. Leslie Heaphy, KSU at Stark, 6000 Frank Ave., North Canton, OH 44720.

To learn more about the legendary baseball historian Dorothy Seymour Mills, click here.

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


Call for papers: 2020 SABR Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference

All SABR members are invited and encouraged to submit a Research Presentation Proposal Abstract on any topic of 19th-century baseball for the 2020 Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The 12th annual Ivor-Campbell Conference is scheduled for April 24-25, 2020.

The deadline for proposal Abstracts is October 31, 2019. Your abstract must be between 200-400 words for a 20- to 25-minute presentation. Please include name, title, and contact information and send your proposal as a Microsoft Word or PDF attachment to Peter Mancuso at peterplus4@earthlink.net.

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


Join us in November for Oscar Charleston book signing event at Changing Hands in Phoenix

Oscar Charleston book coverSwing by … introducing Oscar Charleston: Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player:

7:00 p.m., Thursday, November 14, 2019
Changing Hands Bookstore
300 W. Camelback Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85013

Please join us! As we approach the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro National League, come hear Nick Piecoro, Diamondbacks beat writer for the Arizona Republic, discuss the legacy of the Negro Leagues and its best all-around player, Oscar Charleston, with SABR member Jeremy Beer, author of the new biography, Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player.

The event is free and open to all baseball fans.

Attendees are asked to consider making a tax-deductible donation in support of SABR and our Negro Leagues Grave Marker Project, which funds headstones for Negro Leagues players buried in unmarked graves.

Those who make a donation of $150 or more are invited to attend a free private dinner at Southern Rail, located next door to Changing Hands, immediately afterward with Piecoro, Beer, SABR CEO Scott Bush, and members of the SABR staff. Click here to make a donation online.

If you plan on attending this event, please RSVP to brose@sabr.org by Friday, November 8.


SABRcast with Rob Neyer: Listen to an interview with Portland journalist Dwight Jaynes

Dwight JaynesListen to a new episode of SABRcast with Rob Neyer, a new weekly podcast hosted by award-winning author and longtime SABR member Rob Neyer — which is now available on your favorite podcast streaming services!

Visit SABR.org/sabrcast to listen to Episode #29 — our guest this week is Dwight Jaynes, a longtime sports columnist and reporter in Portland, Oregon, and one of the leading advocates to bring Major League Baseball to Portland. Since 2011, he has been the Trail Blazers Insider for NBC Sports Northwest.

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. Every week, SABRcast will feature insights and analysis of what’s happening in modern baseball on and off the field, plus compelling interviews with figures from around the game — and music from The Baseball Project.

To learn more, visit SABR.org/sabrcast.


One month left to register for the 2019 SABR Minnesota 19th Century Baseball Interdisciplinary Symposium

The SABR Minnesota 19th Century Baseball Interdisciplinary Symposium will take place on Saturday, November 16, 2019, at the Minneapolis Public Library, 300 Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The day-long Saturday symposium will be devoted to 19th-century baseball as it was played and evolved in Minnesota and the greater Midwest region. The event is a joint project of the SABR Nineteenth Century Committee, SABR’s Halsey Hall Chapter, and the Hennepin County Library.

Guest speakers are expected to include John Thorn, MLB’s Official Historian; Larry Millett, longtime St. Paul Pioneer Press architecture critic and author of more than 10 books, including The Curve of the Arch and Lost Twin Cities; Stew Thornley, author of Baseball in Minnesota: A Definitive History and other books; Dan Levitt, author of Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way and other books; Mike Haupert, Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; Kristin Anderson, art and architecture professor and author of an upcoming book on the history of sports facilities in the Twin Cities; Frank White, author of They Played for the Love of the Game: Untold Stories of Black Baseball in MinnesotaBrian Madigan, SABR member and associate librarian for Hennepin County Libraries; and more.

For more information, contact event organizers at sabrMN19c@gmail.com.


2 new SABR biographies published

Al CampanisTwo new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 5,012 published biographies. Here are the new bios published this week:

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


Read all stories from Met-rospectives book online at the SABR Games Project

Met-rospectives book coverIn Met-rospectives: A Collection of the Greatest Games in New York Mets History, edited by Brian Wright and Bill Nowlin and published in 2018, we offered Mets fans a chance to soak in some Amazin’ memories with dozens of game stories on the most memorable moments in franchise history.

All of the game summaries from our Met-rospectives book can now be read online at the SABR Games Project. Here are some highlights:

To read more articles from the Met-rospectives book at the SABR Games Project, click here.

Click here to download your free e-book or get 50% off the paperback edition at SABR.org.

  • Read all stories from Crosley Field book online: In Cincinnati’s Crosley Field: A Gem in the Queen City, edited by Gregory H. Wolf and published by SABR in 2018, we told the stories of more than 85 historic and monumental games played at the Reds’ diamond jewel on the West End of Cincinnati at the corner of Findlay Street and Western Avenue. All of the stories from our Crosley Field book can now be read online at the SABR Games Project. To download your free e-book edition or get 50% off the paperback, click here.


Listen to archives of Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on Saturdays

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by former SABR Board President Vince Gennaro, is taking a hiatus during the MLB postseason, but it will be back after the World Series from 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET on Saturdays on MLB Network Radio.

You can listen to archives of recent episodes on-demand on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App. Click here to learn more.

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 (SABR.org/directory).

Name Hometown     Name Hometown
Elise Burton Plainsboro, NJ     Ian Lindstrom Chandler, AZ
Jerry Chen Durham, NC     Noah Martel Fitchburg, MA
Robbie Cobbs Washington, DC     Gerald Marx Georgetown, TX
Cynthia Counter Valley Village, CA     Nick Nigro Staten Island, NY
Joe Czachowski Scotch Plains, NJ     Jim Orr Glenside, PA
Tom Hanlon San Francisco, CA     Muhamed Pasha Palatine, IL
Frank Harris Sacramento, CA     EJ Slemp Homer Glen, IL
Kenneth Koff Tarzana, CA     Robert Vorwald Winnetka, IL
William Koontz Eastpointe, MI     Matthew Wallis Austin, TX
Glen Krajca-Radcliffe Tiki Island, TX     Jonathan Whitlinger Springfield, MO

 


Research Committee news

Here are the new research committee updates this week:

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 events on the SABR calendar:

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.)

 

Follow us:

Contact us:

More info:

 



Originally published: October 18, 2019. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.