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]