§        Next Regional Meeting Set for Saturday, March 29, 2003

§        PCL Padres Lane Field Historical Marker Project

§        Introducing John Zajc…SABR’s New Executive Director

§        Chapter Web Site “Under Construction”

§        NINE 10^th Annual Conference in Tucson March 20-23, 2003

§        Baseball Web Sites to Check Out

§        SABR Board Meeting Highlights

§        Baseball Research Center-Library: New Acquisitions

 

 

Plans are underway for our next regional meeting.  We are departing from our traditional Super Bowl Saturday event and, instead, will hold the meeting on the Saturday before the 2003 major league baseball season starts.  Our next e-News will have more details but this we know:

Date:                         Saturday, March 29, 2003

Time:            The specific time is not set, but we will begin in the morning and likely go into the early afternoon

Place:                        Hall of Champions

 

The entire meeting will focus on the life and career of Ted Williams.  We are working with the Hall of Champions on the program and invite any ideas you might have.  Contributors already on tap for the program include: Dan Boyle, Frank Myers, Bill Nowlin, Jim Smith, Andy Strasberg, Bill Swank, and Jay Walker. 

 

 

At their meeting on November 2002 meeting the SABR Board approved $250 toward our Lane Field Historical Marker.  We have also received a few member donations and are at the point where we are only $850 away from our goal.  THANKS to all of those who have contributed!  Our plan is to unveil the Marker at our March 23^rd meeting and have it installed by opening day 2003.

 

If you would like to add your personal contribution to help complete this project then send your donation (any amount will help) payable to “SD SABR” and mail to:

San Diego Ted Williams SABR

3104 Fourth Avenue

San Diego, CA 92103

And…if you have a question, then feel free to contact us at SDTWSABR@aol.com.

 

 

SABR President Claudia Perry has announced that John Zajc (pronounced “Zites”) will become Executive Director beginning on January 1, 2003.

 

"The board is pleased with the leadership and intelligence that John has shown since he was appointed to the position in an acting capacity," Perry said.  "As we begin the long-range planning process, we expect for John to add his vast knowledge of SABR's culture and membership to our discussions of how best to prepare for the future."

 

John joined the SABR office in June of 1990.  In 1995, he was promoted to Manager of Membership Services, where he focused on servicing and growing the membership, developing alternative sources of revenue through membership annual giving initiatives, facilitating SABR chapter communications and editing The SABR Bulletin.  In recent months he has stepped in as Acting Executive Director while the organization undertook an executive search for a permanent director. 

 

 

Through the efforts of interim webmaster Vic Cardell, we are almost ready to unveil our new web page.  We expect that it will be on-line in February 2003.

 

 

NINE: A Journal of Baseball History & Culture announces its 10^th Annual Spring Training Conference:

Tucson, Arizona

March 20 - 23, 2003

 

The conference will include morning sessions, two spring training games, and a banquet. Original unpublished papers are presented that study all aspects of baseball with a particular emphasis on history and societal implications.  For further information about the conference please contact: 

www.ninejournalofbaseball.com

NINE Spring Training Conference

#444, 11044 - 82 Ave.

Edmonton, AB T6G 0T2 Canada 

(780) 492-0409

 

 

According to the New York Times  www.baseballlibrary.com is a hulking colossus of online baseball arcana ... that can serve up ample portions of the most obscure baseball history."  This site’s storehouse of information is primarily drawn from two books: The Ballplayers and The Baseball Chronology.  Michael Shazkin, editor of The Ballplayers  runs the site and also produces a daily e-mail newsletter.

 

Paul McGurgan and Jodi Bay visited the “Baseball as America” exhibit in L.A. and stayed for a presentation by Kerry Yo Nakagawa who is author of a book entitled Through a Diamond, 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball.  He writes on the importance that baseball had to the Japanese-American internees in the camps during WWII.  If you are interested in his book, or just want a fascinating look into this aspect of baseball history…plus links to Japanese baseball subjects, then check out his website at http://www.niseibaseball.com.  We hope to have Kerry speak to us at one of our future regional meetings.

 

Wondered about the Perfect Offensive Player, or POP?  Check this site out: www.popaward.com.  The POP Award is given to each player who in a season in which he qualifies for the batting title achieves each of the following:

.300 or greater batting average

.400 or greater on base percentage

.500 or greater slugging average

There have been 666 such seasons in baseball history (338 by Hall of Fame members).  These seasons have come from 278 players (88 Hall of Fame members).

 

 

The following report is extracted from a summary prepared by Stew Thornley:

A highlight of the 2003 budget was providing funding for the largest membership publication ever, a book on National League Deadball Era players.

The Board has continued to invest in upgrades to the SABR website, with the goal of making all membership information available online (to members only) by January; in effect, a real-time updated membership directory with searching capabilities.  The Tattersall-McConnell Home Run Log is the next large piece of content that will be added to the site, followed by other databases such as the "Who-Signed-Whom" Scout database and the Biographical Research Committee database.  An online research warehouse, which will allow members to "publish" their research online, is also planned for 2003.  From your home, library or any other computer with Internet access, SABR members will have access to a wealth of exclusive information with just a username and password.

By now you should have received your 2002 issue of The National Pastime ; the Baseball Research Journal will be mailed in December and Best of "By the Numbers" mailed in January.  In 2003, The National Pastime and Baseball Research Journal will return to their more traditional schedule.  Expect The National Pastime in May/June and the Baseball Research Journal in October.  The SABR Bulletin will be published in March (convention information), April (elections), September, and November.  More member news will be disseminated electronically via e-mails, e-groups, and www.sabr.org.

 

Our chapter’s library liaison, Vic Cardell, has announced new acquisitions in the Central Library and Branches during the three-month period, July-September 2002.  All holdings are at Central Library and branches unless noted otherwise.

 

BOOKS

The Almanac. Durham, NC: Baseball America, 1988. R796.357/Almanac 1988 (Central)

Baseball As America: Seeing Ourselves through Our National Game. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2002. 796.357/Baseball

The Baseball Encyclopedia. 1^st ed. New York, N.Y.: Macmillan, 1969. R796.357/Baseball 1969

(Central)

Fitzpatrick, Frank. You Can't Lose 'Em All: The Year the Phillies Finally Won the World Series. Dallas: Taylor Trade, 2001. 796.35764/Fitzpatrick

Golenbock, Peter. Amazin’: the Miraculous History of New York's Most Beloved Baseball Team. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002. 796.357/Golenbock

James, Bill. Win Shares. Morton Grove, Ill.: STATS Publishing, 2002. 796.35764/James

Jenkins, Jerry B. The Youngest Hero. New York: Warner Books, 2002. FIC/Jenkins

Rader, Benjamin G. Baseball: A History of America’s Game. 2^nd ed. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2002. 796.357/Rader

Rhodes, Gregory L. and John Snyder. Redleg Journal: Year by Year and Day by Day with the

Cincinnati Reds since 1866. Cincinnati, Ohio: Road West Pub., 2000. 796.35764/Rhodes (Central)

Stewart, Wayne. Fathers, Sons & Baseball: Our National Pastime and the Ties That Bond. Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2002. 796.357/Stewart

Tofel, Richard J. A Legend in the Making: The New York Yankees in 1939. Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee, 2002. 796.35764/Tofel

 

AUDIO–SPOKEN WORD

Morris, Jim and Joel Engel. The Oldest Rookie: Big-League Dreams from a Small-Town Guy.

New York: Time Warner AudioBooks, 2001. AC B/Morris

 

VIDEO

Hitters on Hitting: Finding the Sweet Spot. [United States]: Major League Baseball Productions, 2001. VC 796.357/Hitters

Mom, Can You Teach Me How to Hit? Distributed by Bobby Woods Productions, 2001. VC 796.35726/Mom