Notes from SABR 37 - Wrap
Today was the last day of the 37th SABR Convention, and it came to a close not with a bang, but a whimper. Many people left on early morning flights, and those that stayed congregated in Ballroom D at the Adam’s Mark to view the telecast of the Hall of Fame cermonies from Cooperstown.
Someone had the brilliant idea to serve a buffet of ballpark-style foods at the gathering, and it made the atmosphere that much more authentic for the televised inductions. Hot dogs and soft pretzels came in by the dozens, while cans of pop and more bowls of mustard than you could shake a fungo at surrounded the tables. The highlight was a huge bowl with at least a hundred individual-sized containers of Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, a famed St. Louis institution. Let me tell you, it lived up to the billing. Soft and creamy, it was probably the best thing I’ve had to eat all weekend, narrowly beating out the footlong brat I had at the Stadium on Friday night.
The Hall of Fame induction cermony got plenty of applause from the SABR crowd in the ballroom. Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn, Denny Matthews and Rick Hummel are all held in rather high regard in this group, and many people were nodding their heads in agreement with the sentiment expressed in the speeches. It was funny, though, that every time Bud Selig was on screen, a good portion of the SABR crowd booed or hissed at him. One of the few t-shirts on sale in the vendor’s room this weekend was one that said “Contract Bud, and do something about that hair while you’re at it”, referring to the proposed contraction of two teams by Selig a few years back. He’s not a popular man amongst most baseball purists, which is largely what SABR is; not solely a bunch of stat-heads, as the misconception holds.
After the Hall of Fame party wrapped up, and the other SABR-ites left the building, I had a lot of time to kill. You see, instead of flying out on Sunday like almost everyone else, I opted to stay one extra day, and see a bit more of St. Louis. I walked down Broadway, past the new Busch, and ate a meal at a local fine dining establishment. You may have heard of it — White Castle. It took me a while to find it, but not nearly as long as Harold and Kumar. As my stomach struggled to digest the sliders, I made my way toward the Arch, intent on giving more time to it than I did last time I was in the Mound City.
I was in St. Louis back in my senior year of high school, as the captain of my school’s quiz bowl team that was to represent Nebraska in the National Academic Championship regional. I don’t say that to boast — we finished in the middle of the pack — but simply as background information. As long as we’re on the subject, the NAC wasn’t nearly as much fun as the two times I went to the Panasonic Academic Challenge, in Orlando — but I digress. Anyway, the last time I was at the Arch was with that NAC team, and we only spent about 15 minutes in the museum, and ten minutes at the top of the arch. This time, I watched an IMAX movie, perused the museum at my leisure, bought a booklet on the building of the Arch for my ten-year old brother, and spent a good 30 minutes looking over the city of St. Louis from my perch 630 feet above the Mississippi River shore.
Looking back on the last few days, I think my time at the convention was well-worth the money spent on plane fare and hotel accommodations. I met many, many interesting baseball-minded people, made some good connections, and got some nice new reading material from acquiring editor — and nice guy — Rob Taylor at the University of Nebraska Press. I finally met a few people I’d only known through emailed correspondence, heard some wonderful speakers talk about their research and experiences, and learned a heck of a lot I didn’t know last week. I even got to add one more stadium to the list of ballparks I’ve witnessed games in.
Unexpectedly, I even ran into a couple of my A’s fan buddies from Wichita, Kansas, who were in town for some baseball. I’m going to be seeing them again next week, when I travel to Oakland to see all three games of the A’s vs. Angels homestand at the Coliseum. I’ll be posting quite a bit about that over at Catfish Stew, but I’m sure I’m going to have a lot of material that makes its way over here, to The Pastime.
Oh, and if you’re interested, I’ve just written ten capsules on various players in the A’s minor league system over at A Minor Consideration. Just so you know.
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Also, I’d like to thank Jay Roberts for his kind words regarding my coverage of SABR 37. I’d hoped to illuminate just how much fun this event is for those that were unable to attend, and I’d like to think I succeeded — even if a couple of my pictures were a bit fuzzy.