SABR DAY 2024 was February 3rd! Held annually on the Saturday a week before the Super Bowl, it is a chance for all baseball fans to come together on the same day regardless of where they live. Our chapter along with dozens of other regional chapters held meetings. Our chapter's SABR Day 2024 meeting was an online event held via Zoom from 10am to 12noon.

Our keynote speaker was Joe Posnanski, author of The Baseball 100 and Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments among many other books. Wikipedia writes, "Joe Posnanski (/pəzˈnænski/; nicknamed "Poz" and "Joe Po"; born January 8, 1967) is an American sports journalist. A former senior columnist for Sports Illustrated (where he wrote a blog called "Curiously Long Posts") and columnist for The Kansas City Star, he currently writes for his personal blog JoeBlogs." The New York Times writes, "Joe Posnanski is baseball's greatest modern day story teller, and his passion and expertise leap through every page of this book on why Baseball became America’s national pastime."

Our Chapter thanks Joe for an excellent SABR Day visit! The video of Mr. Posnanski's presentation is now available by clicking on the play button below.

Our last chapter Zoom book discussion was on August 23. Marty Appel joined us to discuss his new book, Pinstripes by the Tale. Thank you to Marty, it was one of our best Zooms to date. If anyone missed it, or would like to re-watch the presentation, you can do so by visiting here:

[K. Carter]

Marty Appel has been a Yankees fan since 1955, began working for the team in 1968, and has now spent more than half a century in and around the organization. His 25th book, published May 2 (Triumph) recalls the backstage stories he was witness to, with humor and humanity. "I used to love books with lots of short tales, lots of photos, lots of white space. So that's what I did." There are over 125 stories covering the greats and the forgotten. [E. Miller]

 

Yogi Berra’s incredible life story --It Ain’t Over-- will be released in theaters in the tri-state area starting May 12 and rolls out to other markets in subsequent weeks. The full-length documentary chronicles the Yankee legend’s remarkable life which included enlisting in the US Navy for WW II and returning home to win 10 World Series championships with the Yankees. Plus his extraordinary career as a celebrity spokesman.

The film is produced by Natalie Metzger, p.g.a., Matt Miller, p.g.a., Peter Sobiloff, and Mike Sobiloff with Vanishing Angle and Off Media, and executive produced by Lindsay Berra. It made its world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival in the Spotlight Documentary section.

Get a sneak preview by clicking the trailer link below.

[E. Miller]

We had a chapter Zoom book-discussion event on April 13.. Justin McKinney joined us to present his book, Baseball's Union Association: The Short, Strange Life of an Early Major League. Justin is a baseball researcher and archivist living in Canada. He has written articles on 19th century and early 20th century baseball for the SABR Research Journal, and the SABR Biography Project.

Thanks very much to Dan, and to everyone who joined us. If anyone who missed it, or would like to re-watch the presentation, you can do so by visiting here:

[K. Carter]

We had a chapter Zoom book-discussion event on March 13. Dan Taylor joined us to present his upcoming book, Baseball at the Abyss: The Scandals of 1926, Babe Ruth, and the Unlikely Savior Who Rescued a Tarnished Game. Dan is a sports historian, author, and a former award-winning television sportscaster who is currently the television broadcaster for the Fresno Grizzlies. He has written five books and is a contributor to SABR's Biography Project.

Thanks very much to Dan, and to everyone who joined us. If anyone who missed it, or would like to re-watch the presentation, you can do so by visiting here:

[K. Carter]

Chapter members and friends: Our virtual NYC SABR Day was on Wednesday, February 22. Authors Lee Lowenfish and Barry Sparks presented their fascinating topics, followed by a Q&A for each presentation. Also, back by popular demand, Eric Weiss delivered some New York baseball-focused trivia to close things out..

Lee Lowenfish's upcoming book Baseball's Endangered Species: Inside the Craft of Scouting by Those Who Lived It (2023) explores one of baseball's vital jobs: Scouting. Lowenfish highlighted the player development rivalry between Branch Rickey's St. Louis Cardinals and the Yankees dynasties under Ed Barrow, Paul Krichell, and George Weiss. Krichell was responsible for discovering Lou Gehrig, first at Rutgers 100 years ago, and later, scouting him at Columbia University, signing him shortly thereafter. Scouts were indispensable to the powerful Yankees dynasty.

Lee's biography Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman won SABR's prestigious Seymour Medal in 2008. His previous books include The Imperfect Diamond: A History of Baseball's Labor Wars now in its third edition, and Tom Seaver, The Art of Pitching with Lee Lowenfish. For more on his articles, teaching, writing, interviews, events, and blog, see leelowenfish.com. Lowenfish was one of the panelists on SABR's 2021 Summer of SABR Baseball Labor Relations Panel (YouTube Link Here), he also discussed his books and research at Lee Lowenfish Interviewed and "Book Talk Guest" - Branch Rickey.

Barry Sparks discussed some of the players he researched for The Search for the Next Mickey Mantle: From Tom Tresh to Bryce Harper (2022). Among the 16 players in the book, two had stints with the New York Mets: Clint Hurdle (1983, 1985, 1987) and Gregg Jefferies (1987–1991) and ten were on the New York Yankees: Tom Tresh (1961–1969), Joe Pepitone (1962–1969), Roger Repoz (1964–1966), Bobby Murcer (1965–1966, 1969–1974), Steve Whitaker (1966–1968), Bill Robinson (1967–1969), Tony Solaita (1968), Ron Blomberg (1969, 1971–1976), Jay Buhner (1987–1988), and Ruben Rivera (1995–1996).

Barry focused on former NY Mets Hurdle and Jefferies, plus several NY Yankees, including Pepitone and Murcer. Sparks has had more than 700 of his articles published in over 70 national and regional publications. He also wrote Frank "Home Run" Baker: World Series Hero and Hall of Famer (Baker played for the Yanks from 1916-22). For articles, see seamheads.com and podcasts at American Sports History and BlogTalkRadio. [E. Begley]

The entire virtual meeting is now available by visiting the SABR Virtual YouTube link below. We apologize for the early audio issues but it seems to resolve itself pretty early on.

As always, if anyone has any questions, comments or suggestions please send an email to questions-comments@sabrnyc.org and we'll point your inquiry in the right direction. [K. Carter]

Back on December 6, 2022, Mark Armour (joined by Dan Levitt) gave a presentation on their recent book Intentional Balk. Mark Armour is a long-time SABR member, the creator of the SABR BioProject and the Baseball Cards Committee, and the author or co-author of several books and dozens of articles on baseball.

Thanks very much to Mark and Dan, and to everyone who joined us. If anyone who missed it, or would like to re-watch the presentation, you can do so by visiting here:

Update: Congratulations to Mark Armour and Dan Levitt for winning the 2023 SABR Seymour Medal for Intentional Balk! [K. Carter]