2023 SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference

2023 Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference

Save the date! SABR’s Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference will be held on Thursday, June 6 to Sunday, June 9, 2024, at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Grandstand Theater in Cooperstown, New York.

All baseball fans are welcome to attend. Registration information will be available at SABR.org/malloy in early 2024. Hotel room availability in Cooperstown may be limited, so all attendees are encouraged to book their own accommodations now.

Click here for highlights from the 2023 Malloy Conference, held in Detroit, Michigan.


About the Conference

The Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference promotes activities to enhance scholarly, educational, and literary objectives. Since 1998, the event has been the only symposium dedicated exclusively to the examination and promotion of Black baseball history. The conference is open to baseball and history fans of all ages.

Each year, monies are targeted to donate books to schools or libraries; raise funds for the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project; and award scholarships to high school seniors in a nationwide essay contest and an annual art contest. The Negro Leagues Committee is one of SABR’s original committees, formed in 1971. It has continued to preserve and highlight the contributions of African-American players in baseball history.

The committee published the landmark The Negro Leagues Book in 1994, which featured a complete register of more than 3,000 players, team rosters and in-depth histories from leagues of the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth.

Essay Contest

SABR’s Negro Leagues Research Committee is pleased to award $1,000 scholarships to four high school seniors in its 15th annual Thomas R. Garrett Scholarship essay contest in 2023.

The contest is open to high school seniors and carrying a minimum GPA of 2.5 at the end of their junior year. Students have 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. Click here to learn more.

Art Contest

The 13th annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference Art Contest is open to all artists in 2023. Art from the winners will be on display at an upcoming Jerry Malloy Conference. The winning entry in the professional and amateur categories will receive a $150 prize and a certificate from the conference. The youth winner will receive a set of art supplies. Photos of the art will also be included in an upcoming issue of Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal, published by McFarland & Co. Questions can be directed to Leslie Heaphy (Lheaphy@kent.edu).

Dick Clark Memorial Library Grants

SABR’s Negro Leagues Research Committee will award two $500 Dick Clark Memorial Library Grants for 2023. School and community libraries from across the country are invited to submit grant proposals centering on educating students and the community about black baseball and American history.

Please email a completed application, including a letter of support, to Leslie Heaphy (Lheaphy@kent.edu). Click here to download an application (PDF)

From Rube to Robinson: SABR’s Best Articles on Black Baseball

One of our newest publications from the SABR Digital Library brings together the best Negro League baseball scholarship that SABR has ever produced, pulled from its journals, Biography Project, and award-winning essays. The book includes a star-studded list of scholars and historians, from the late Jerry Malloy and Jules Tygiel, to award winners Larry Lester, Geri Strecker, and Jeremy Beer, and a host of other talented writers. The essays cover topics ranging over nearly a century, from 1866 and the earliest known Black baseball championship, to 1962 and the end of the Negro American League. Click here to learn more or download the e-book. SABR members can download the e-book edition for free or get 50% off the paperback edition.

Past Highlights

Click a link below for highlights from past Jerry Malloy Conferences:


Who was Jerry Malloy?