Under 30 at SABR, Baseball-Reference Partnership?, SABR 39 in the ATL
I just returned from the first Under-30 group meeting at the convention, and it was sure nice to meet up with other people my own age that are as fascinated by baseball as I am.
There were eight others there, from locations as diverse as Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Illinois and New Jersey. Ok, well, those are all east of the Mississippi, but you get what I mean.
We talked about our backgrounds, our interest in the game, and what we’d like to do to be more a part of SABR. One of the issues we talked about was that the difficulty of joining conversations at the convention is compounded by our age. While we certainly don’t know as much as some of the more experienced members, we’re not ignorant by any means, yet it can be hard to overcome the percieved age/knowledge barrier.
Personally, I don’t have a terribly difficult time talking with the more traditional SABR members (read: retired 65-year-old white men), but I can certainly understand where the other guys are coming from. And don’t take my use of “guys” too literally, since one of our group was a young woman from New York — who has the privilege of working for MLB, in fact.
The most important thing about our gathering, though, was that we’re making a push to be more involved with SABR. We are, after all, quite literally the future of the organization.
We resolved to meet up again this weekend, and to keep in contact in the future so that we can help move SABR ahead with our own generation.
While the majority of the organization still relies on research tools like microfiche and hardbound statistical volumes, we’re the generation that uses computerized analysis and vast, instantaneous databases like Baseball-Reference’s Play Index — based on the wonderful, irreplaceable, best-thing-since-sliced-bread Retrosheet.
The quick, electronic sharing of data is the way of the world, and while that might sound obvious, it can be hard to move an organization like SABR into that era. While there are many people in power that are striving to not only reach that status, but to expand upon it, there is still much to be done.
If we can help bring SABR’s enormous wealth of information, experience and data into the modern era, and share this resource with other baseball enthusiasts in our generation, we’ll all benefit.
And you know what? I think we can do it.
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On a related note, I just heard a couple of interesting items discussed in the business meeting. It seems that SABR might have a partnership with Baseball-Reference in the works. To bring together the fantastic power of BBRef and the trove of information SABR stores would be a huge stride in the right direction.
When BBRef brought the wonderful Retrosheet database together with their easy-to-use format to create the Play Index, it was arguably the greatest stride forward in bringing stats to the fans since box scores began being published in newspapers. If BBRef can take SABR’s massive, largely difficult-to-access data and make it as easy to sift through as that, we could see another huge improvement in the quality and accessibility of all things baseball.
SABR has photos and biographies of nearly every player to ever take part in a major-league game, historical stats for the majors and minors, home run data, and an endless line of other valuable research that just isn’t easy to get to for most. Bringing that information to the public would be pretty damn cool.
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One more note: it was just announced that the 2010 SABR convention will be in Atlanta. Next year’s event is in Washington. I’m still hoping for one close to home, like Kansas City.
Until all the college baseball fans in Omaha start to join SABR, I don’t think it will ever get closer to Nebraska. A SABR convention in town at the same time as the College World Series — even though hotel rooms would be at a premium — would be pretty cool.
However, since the nearest SABR chapter is in KC — meaning I’ve never been to a chapter meeting, sadly — it’s probably not going to happen. I don’t know why there are virtually no SABR members in my home state. I’m one of only two Nebraskans at the convention… out of over 600. The other Nebraskan, I believe, is with the University of Nebraska Press. Considering the aforementioned lack of SABR support in the Cornhusker State, it’s oddly enough the official press of SABR.