Society for American Baseball Research

"SABR" redirects here. For other uses, see SABR (disambiguation).

The Society for American Baseball Research was established in Cooperstown, New York, in August 1971 by Bob Davids of Washington, D.C. The Society's mission is to foster the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball, while generating interest in the game. SABR is based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Background

SABR, which is pronounced "saber" and whose acronym led to the creation of the word sabermetrics, the usage of mathematical tools to analyze baseball, is about much more than statistics. Members include not only "sabermetricians" Bill James, perhaps the best known SABR member to the general public, and Rob Neyer, but also other people active in the baseball world such as Keith Olbermann, Craig R. Wright, Roland Hemond, and Bob Costas. Jeff Bajenaru was believed to have been (until 2006) the only active Major League Baseball player with a SABR membership; Elden Auker, Larry Dierker, and Andy Seminick also have been involved.

Some of the more prominent members of SABR include:

• Bob McConnell (researcher)
• Pete Palmer (encyclopedist)
• Art Schott (historian)
• Dave Smith (Retrosheet)
• David Vincent (Home Run Log)
• Larry Lester (Negro Leagues)
• Bill Carle (Biographical Committee)
• Lyle Spatz (Records Committee)
• David Nemec (prolific author)
• Robert L. Tiemann (author)

Only a minority of members pursue "number crunching" research. Rather, SABR offers a community of fans organized in two ways. Research Committees study a particular issue. Regional Chapters are for members in geographic proximity. They are frequently named after baseball personalities relevant to the region.

SABR members keep in touch through online directories and electronic mailing lists set up through the SABR headquarters. The headquarters also maintains a number of research tools on its website, including a lending library, home run and triple play logs, and course syllabi related to the game.

SABR holds annual conventions in a different city each year. The conference generally includes panel discussions, research presentations, city-specific tourism, a ballgame, and an awards banquet. The 2007 convention in St. Louis, Missouri set the attendance record with 726 registered attendees out of approximately 7,000 SABR members.^[1] The organization also sponsors a literary conference in Cleveland and an annual Negro Leagues conference, held in a different location each year.

Awards

SABR annual awards include:

• Bob Davids Award: for exceptional SABR members who have made contributions to SABR and baseball that reflect ingenuity, integrity, and self-sacrifice. It is SABR's highest honor, and was established in 1985.^[2]
• Henry Chadwick Award: for baseball researchers—historians, statisticians, annalists, and archivists.
• Seymour Medal: best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year.
• Jerry Malloy Book Prize: best book-length nonfiction manuscript submitted by a member of SABR.
• Doug Pappas Research Award: best oral research presentation at the Annual Convention.
• Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award: for projects which do not fit the criteria for The Seymour Medal or the McFarland-SABR Award.
• McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award: for authors of the best articles on baseball history or biography completed during the preceding calendar year (published or unpublished).
• Lee Allen Award: for the best baseball research project at the annual National History Day competition.
• Jack Kavanagh Memorial Youth Baseball Research Award: research paper by a researcher in grades 6-8 (middle school category), grades 9-12 (high school category), or undergraduates 22 and under (College Category).

Research committees

Asian Baseball Ballparks Baseball and the Armed Forces Baseball Records Bibliography Biographical Research BioProject Black Sox Scandal Business of Baseball

Collegiate Baseball Deadball Era (1901-1919) Latin America Minor Leagues Music and Poetry Negro Leagues 19th Century Oral History

Origins Pictorial History Science Scouts Spring Training Statistics Umpires Women in Baseball

Retrosheet [2] is a research and archives organization independent of SABR which holds its annual meeting in conjunction with the society's annual convention.

Regional chapters

Allan Roth - Los Angeles, California Auker-Seminick - Orlando, Florida Bob Broeg - St. Louis, Missouri Bob Davids - Washington, D.C. Bobby Thomson - Great Britain SABRBoston - Boston, Massachusetts Bresnahan-Mud Hens - Toledo, Ohio Carolina - North Carolina Casey Stengel - New York City Connie Mack - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania       Dayton, Ohio Don Lund - Ann Arbor, Michigan Elysian Fields - Northern New Jersey Emil Rothe - Chicago, Illinois Field of Dreams - Iowa Flip Valentini- Louisville Flame Delhi - Phoenix, Arizona Forbes Field - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Ford-Harrelson - Long Island, New York

Gardner-Waterman - Vermont Hall-Ruggles - Dallas, Texas Halsey Hall - Minnesota Hanlan's Point - Toronto Hoyt-Allen - Cincinnati, Ohio Jack Graney - Cleveland, Ohio Jesse Burkett - Worcester, Massachusetts       Jim O'Rourke - Bridgeport, Connecticut Ken Keltner - Wisconsin Larry Dierker - Houston, Texas Leatherstocking - Cooperstown, New York Lefty O'Doul - San Francisco, California Lou Criger - South Bend, Indiana Magnolia - Atlanta, Georgia Monarchs - Kansas City, Missouri Montreal Lajoie-Start - Providence, Rhode Island NWSABR - Seattle, Washington Orlando Cepeda - San Juan

Oscar Charleston - Indianapolis, Indiana Pee Wee Reese - Louisville, Kentucky Rabbit Maranville - Springfield, Massachusetts Robinson-Kell - Little Rock, Arkansas Rocky Mountain SABR - Denver, Colorado Rogers Hornsby - Austin, Texas Sacramento, California Schott-Pelican - New Orleans, Louisiana Seymour-Mills - Southwest Florida Smoky Joe Wood - Connecticut South Carolina South Florida - Miami, Florida Ted Williams - San Diego, California Tennessee - Nashville, Tennessee Tokyo Wade Boggs - Tampa, Florida Wally Pipp - Western Michigan West Texas - Abilene, Texas

Past convention sites and featured speakers

1971 Cooperstown, New York 1972 Washington, D.C. 1973 Chicago, Illinois 1974 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1975 Boston, Massachusetts, Joe Dugan 1976 Chicago, Illinois, Lew Fonseca 1977 Columbus, Ohio 1978 Paramus, New Jersey, Tony Lupien 1979 St. Louis, Missouri, Mike Shannon 1980 Los Angeles, California, Roy Smalley 1981 Toronto 1982 Baltimore, Maryland, Sparky Anderson 1983 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Hal Goodenough       1984 Providence, Rhode Island, Lou Gorman 1985 Oakland, California, Roy Eisenhardt 1986 Chicago, Illinois, Bill Gleason 1987 Washington, D.C., John Steadman 1988 Minneapolis, Minnesota, Andy MacPhail 1989 Albany, New York, Bobby Brown 1990 Cleveland, Ohio, Sam McDowell

1991 New York City, Mel Allen 1992 St. Louis, Missouri, Bing Devine 1993 San Diego, California, Dick Williams 1994 Arlington, Texas, Robin Roberts 1995 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Chuck Tanner 1996 Kansas City, Missouri, Don Fehr 1997 Louisville, Kentucky, Jim Bunning 1998 San Mateo, California, Bill Rigney 1999 Scottsdale, Arizona, Tommy Henrich 2000 West Palm Beach, Florida, Elden Auker 2001 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Bud Selig 2002 Boston, Massachusetts 2003 Denver, Colorado, Jim Evans 2004 Cincinnati, Ohio, Marvin Miller 2005 Toronto, Paul Godfrey 2006 Seattle, Washington, Jim Bouton 2007 St. Louis, Missouri, Joe Garagiola 2008 Cleveland, Ohio, Ron Shapiro 2009 Washington DC, Josh Alkin (MLB lobbyist) 2010 Atlanta, Georgia, John Schuerholz

2011 Los Angeles, California 2012 Minneapolis, Minnesota 2013 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

See also

• Baseball statistics
• Retrosheet

References

Notes

1. ^ http://www.sabr.org/sabr.cfm?a=cms,c,376,39,156
2. ^ [1]

Bibliography

• Keri, Jonah (ed.) (2006). Baseball Between The Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game is Wrong. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-00596-9. 
• Lewis, Michael (2004). Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. Norton. ISBN 0-393-32481-8. 
• Ross, Ken (2004). A Mathematician at the Ballpark: Odds and Probabilities for Baseball Fans. Plume. ISBN 978-0-452-28782-2. 

External links

• Society for American Baseball Research Official Site
• SABR's BioProject committee, whose goal is to write in-depth biographies of every MLB player