This Week in SABR: October 25, 2019

/in /by

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 25, 2019:

Early registration now open for the 2020 SABR Analytics Conference in Phoenix

Early registration is now open for the ninth annual SABR Analytics Conference on March 13-15, 2020, at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown in Arizona, where we’ll bring together the top minds in the baseball analytics community to discuss, debate and share insightful ways to analyze and examine the great game of baseball. Register today to join us!

The Analytics Conference schedule consists 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.

Programming will begin on the afternoon of Friday, March 13 and will run through Sunday afternoon on March 15. A large block of rooms for SABR Analytics Conference attendees is available on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Click here for highlights of the high-quality content from the 2019 conference.

SABR has a long and storied history with baseball statistical analysis, evidenced by the link between our name and sabermetrics. SABR’s long history in this area of baseball research, coupled with our mission of advancing the understanding and knowledge of baseball, makes us the perfect choice to coordinate and host this ground-breaking event.

For more information on the 2020 SABR Analytics Conference, or to register, visit SABR.org/analytics.

2019 Rawlings Gold Glove Award finalists announced

SABR Defensive IndexFor the seventh consecutive season, the SABR Defensive Index will be used to help select the winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and Rawlings Platinum Glove Award™, presented by SABR. The SABR Defensive Index accounts for approximately 25 percent of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award selection process which are added to the votes from the managers and coaches.

On Thursday, Rawlings announced the finalists for the 2019 Rawlings Gold Glove Award®, honoring the best individual fielding performances at each position in the American League™ and National League™. The winners will be unveiled during a live, one-hour airing of ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” at 7:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, November 3.

Following the show, voting will begin online for the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award™, presented by SABR. The Rawlings Platinum Glove Award winners are determined by combining votes based on an adjusted SABR Defensive Index for each of the nine Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners in each League and the votes from baseball fans worldwide. The final SABR Defensive Index rankings will be released on November 3.

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 Babe

The Babe book coverTime to call your shot and add our newest SABR Digital Library baseball book to your collection:

The Babe
Edited by Bill Nowlin and Glen Sparks
Associate editors: Carl Reichers and Len Levin
Introduction by Jane Leavy   
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-9701-5917-2, $9.99 
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9701-5916-5, $29.95
8.5″ x 11″, 312 pages

Babe Ruth thrilled baseball fans with his tremendous home-run swing. He made friends—and some enemies—with his loud, larger-than-life personality. The list of books about Ruth could fill a few bookshelves. Most recently, SABR awarded the prestigious Seymour Medal to Jane Leavy for her 2018 biography entitled The Big Fella, and she contributes the introduction to this book we call The Babe.

A baseball book published under that title is quite naturally about the great slugger for the New York Yankees, who led the American League in home runs 12 times and lived life large during the Jazz Age.

This book includes the contributions of over 50 SABR members: 30 articles, plus accounts of 50 notable games from The Babe’s career. He hit tape-measure long balls, fought with managers, won more than 90 games as a pitcher, and gave time and money to children’s charities.

In no way is this an exhaustive last word on Babe Ruth. That might be an impossible chore. We do believe this book will help readers get a fuller picture of baseball’s most fabled figure, a man still famous today and still revered in the game he loved.

Contributors include: Josh Berk, Nathan Bierma, Mark Blaeuer, Thomas J. Brown Jr., Frederick “Rick” Bush, Alan Cohen, Fr. Gabriel Costa, Herb Crehan, Reynaldo Cruz Díaz, Richard Cuicchi, Paul E. Doutrich, Mike Dugan, Don Duren, Rob Edelman, Rob Fitts, T.S. Flynn, James Forr, Carolyn R. Fuchs, John Gabcik, Ed Gruver, Mike Haupert, Leslie Heaphy, Rock Hoffman, Paul Hofmann, Mike Huber, Bill Jenkinson, Jimmy Keenan, Tara Krieger, Kevin Larkin, Jane Leavy, Len Levin, Mike Lynch, Brian “Chip” Martin, David McDonald, Skip Nipper, Bill Nowlin, Chad Osborne, Pete Palmer, Tim Rask, Tim Reid, Carl Riechers, Harry Rothgerber, Gary Sarnoff, Tom Schott, Joe Schuster, Curt Smith, Steve Smith, Wayne Soini, Glen Sparks, Lyle Spatz, Mark S. Sternman, Cecilia Tan, Stew Thornley, Saul Wisnia, Gregory H. Wolf, Allan Wood, and Jack Zerby.

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.

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

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

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

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

SABR Negro Leagues Committee awards $1,000 scholarships in 2019 essay contest

SABR’s Negro Leagues Research Committee was pleased to award $1,000 scholarships to two high school seniors in its 11th annual Thomas R. Garrett Scholarship essay contest in 2019.

Ian Cohen, a graduate of Wantagh High School in Wantagh, New York, was awarded the Tweed Webb Scholarship. He plans to study Sports Business at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business.

Joseph Young, a home-school graduate from Clermont, Florida, was awarded the Jimmie Crutchfield Scholarship. He plans to study studio art at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

The contest was open to high school seniors and carrying a minimum GPA of 2.5 at the end of their junior year. Students had to write a 1,200-word essay answering a question related to one of the Negro League figures who are the namesakes of the scholarships.

SABR’s annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference is the only symposium dedicated exclusively to the examination of black baseball history. Learn more at SABR.org/malloy.

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.

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.

3 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.

Last 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.

Clint Hurdle to speak at Rocky Mountain Chapter’s 22nd annual banquet

Clint HurdleThe SABR Rocky Mountain Chapter is pleased to announce that our 22nd Annual Chapter Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 2, 2019. For the fifth consecutive year it will be held at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies. The banquet is open to all SABR members and baseball fans.

Our keynote speaker will be none other than former Rockies and Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. The theme will be a celebration of the 2007 NL Champion Rockies. As usual, we will conduct our Silent Auction of baseball memorabilia and artifacts. We will reprise last year’s popular book sale and feature a special sale of Rockies baseball cards.

Tickets for the banquet are $65 per person and can be purchased online by visiting RMSABR.org and clicking on the “Banquet” tab. You may also mail a check to RMSABR Banquet, 5803 Orchard Creek Lane, Boulder, CO 80301. Please make checks payable to “Rocky Mountain SABR.”

For more information, visit RMSABR.org.

Register now for the 2019 Canadian Baseball History Conference

The fourth annual Canadian Baseball History Conference will be held on November 9-10, 2019, at Museum London in London, Ontario. All baseball fans are invited to attend. The event, which brings together baseball fans and researchers from across the country, is once again being organized by SABR member Andrew North, a longtime Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame volunteer and the co-founder of the Centre for Canadian Baseball Research.

This year’s conference will also include a bus trip to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Marys, Ontario, where attendees will have a chance to visit the newly expanded facility.

The registration fee for the conference is $70, which covers all of the presentations, continental breakfasts both days, a catered lunch on Saturday, and tours of both the Museum London Art Gallery and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

For a complete list of the presentations and for more information, visit http://baseballresearch.ca/london-2019.

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 Cardinals beat writer Derrick Goold

Derrick GooldListen 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 #30 — our guest this week is Derrick Goold, the award-winning Cardinals beat writer with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and past president of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Goold has been covering the Cardinals since 2004; he is the co-host of The Best Podcast in Baseball and the author of 100 Things Cardinals Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.

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 Minnesota; Brian Madigan, SABR member and associate librarian for Hennepin County Libraries; and more.

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

7 new SABR biographies published

Dale MurphySeven new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 5,019 published biographies. Here are the new bios published this week:

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

2 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

Tom CheneyTwo new game stories were posted this week as part of the SABR Games Project. Here are the new game stories:

New Games Project stories can be found at SABR.org/gamesproject/recent. Find all published Games Project articles 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.

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.

From Tom Terrific and the Miracle Mets to the triumphant 1986 World Series champions and beyond, all of the game summaries from our Met-rospectives book can now be read online at the SABR Games Project.

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.

Volunteers needed to help with Sporting News contract card collection

The Sporting News Player Contract Cards project needs volunteers this weekend to help with cleaning up player name and birthdate data on about 4,000 of the 180,000+ cards that will be made available online at LA84.org. This is one of the last tasks that needs to be done before we can go live.

The task is simple enough: put a number in a column on a spreadsheet that identifies the best choice for the last name, and, for extra credit, look at the card contents to see if there is birthdate information and put that in if available. The task takes about 10 seconds per card on average so we are looking for 40,000 seconds of volunteer time, roughly 12 hours in all. If you can spare an hour to work on this, please email F.X. Flinn at FXFlinn@gmail.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:

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
Shawn Barnes Mesa, AZ     Chris Jones Midlothian, VA
Steve Behnke Aiken, SC     David Kozak North Haven, CT
Rob Blomberg Woods Hole, MA     Ryuta Mochizuki Hiratsuka, JPN
Michael Brdar Ann Arbor, MI     Stanley Newton Anderson, SC
Drew Creasman Boulder, CO     Toniray Silva Chesapeake Beach, MD
Richard Dean Mesa, AZ     Doug Stark Barrington, RI
Sam Dolson St. Petersburg, FL     Paul Stein Valley Village, CA
Joshua Downs Chicago, IL     Carl Tiller Tenino, WA
Christopher Fetter Ann Arbor, MI     Robert Welborn Long Beach, CA
Michael Guersch Reno, NV     Brent Wilson Lincoln, NB

 

Research Committee news

There are no 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 25, 2019. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

Support SABR today!

Donate Join

Cronkite School at ASU
555 N. Central Ave. #406-C
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Phone: 602-496-1460

About

History

Meet the Staff

Board of Directors

Annual Reports

Diversity Statement

Contact SABR

DONATE

© SABR. All Rights Reserved