Society for American Baseball Research


The Society for American Baseball Research is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball. Established in Cooperstown, New York, on August 10, 1971 by sportswriter Bob Davids, it is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Its membership as of June 1, 2019, is 5,367.

Membership

While the acronym "SABR" may have lent its root to the word sabermetrics, the Society is about much more than statistics. Well known figures in the baseball world such as Bob Costas, Keith Olbermann, Craig R. Wright, and Rollie Hemond are members, along with highly regarded "sabermetricians" such as Bill James and Rob Neyer.
Among Major League players Jeff Bajenaru was believed to have been the only active player with a SABR membership; Elden Auker, Larry Dierker, and Andy Seminick also have been involved.
Some prominent SABR members include:
Only a minority of members pursue "number crunching" research. Rather, the SABR community is organized both by interest and geography:
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. The organization also hosts an annual baseball analytics conference in Phoenix and a Negro Leagues conference, which is held in a different location each year.

Publications

The Baseball Research Journal is SABR's flagship publication since 1972 for members to publish and share their research with like-minded students of baseball. The National Pastime is an annual, published from 1982 to 2008 as The National Pastime: A Review of Baseball History, when it was intended as a more literary outlet than the stats oriented BRJ; since 2009 it is a convention-focused journal, with articles about the geographic region where the convention is taking place that year. Other Society publications are an increasing variety of books and ebooks ; 8-10 new e-books published annually are all free to members.

Awards

SABR annual awards include:
In 2013, SABR began collaborating with Rawlings on the Gold Glove Award. Rawlings changed the voting process to incorporate SABR Defensive Index, a sabermetric component provided by SABR, which accounts for approximately 25 percent of the vote for the defensive award.

Research committees

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

Regional chapters

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