the 2008 SABR National Convention in Cleveland, late June

Given the nonsense he's spewed of late, it BETTER be brief.

Note they didn't give him the coveted "most special guest of the afternoon" designation.

I assume he's just gonna set up a table next to the lobby newsstand and sign stuff for 3 days.

I have registered. There's also a minor-league game in Akron on Saturday night!

So far, former Indians Kevin Rhomberg and Vern Fuller have accepted invitations to appear on a panel of former Cleveland Indian players on Friday afternoon. We are still waiting to hear back form other invitees.

Rhomberg, who played 41 games with the Tribe over three seasons, was the Southern League batting champion in 1981, hitting .366 for the Chattanooga Lookouts.

Fuller was signed by Cleveland in 1963 as an amateur free agent, and played with the Tribe from 1964-1970.

CORY SNYDER OR BUST

I wuz hopin for Super Joe Charboneau

What do you do at the SABR convention?

DR. M- what hotel are staying at?

who the hell is Kevin Rhomberg

xp: as much as possible?

Basically, go to 1 or 2 ballgames, listen to research presentations (a couple last year by the author of Crazy '08) and old ballplayers, watch a game of vintage 9th-century ball in an urban park, field compliments on my Yo La Tengo/Mr Met shirt, and ask Rob Neyer why he wrote such n' such 3 months ago. Occasionally have a catch with guys even older than I am.

It's at the Renaissance downtown.

^uh that's 19th-century ball

Kevin Rhomberg hit .366 in 1981, for Chattanooga:

http://minors.sabrwebs.com/cgi-bin/player.php?milbID=rhombe002kev

9th Century ball would be awesome

and there might've been some! acc to that book a couple years ago on baseball antecedents.

Lacrosse? The more warlike Native Americans sewed the balls out of deerskin.

if you're flying in to Hopkins you can just take the train to Tower City, that's where the Renaissance is.

The more warlike Native Americans sewed the balls out of deerskin

dead ball era of lacrosse

I have all the directions I need; for about 5% of the registrants, it's their only time out of the house all year.

This weekend in Detroit

http://sabr-detroit.org/main/node/1

Do I fly out of Cleveland Sunday afternoon as usual, or bring my bags onto the bus to the Lake County Captains (A) game in Eastlake (1 pm) and fly at 7? (I'm going to an Akron minor-league game on Sat nite already.)

How are you getting to the airport from Eastlake?

oh duh the bus will bring you back

Yeah. Obv it wouldn't be a good day for 16 innings.

Thanks to the Chicago trains last summer I am somewhat comfortable w/ checking in 15 mins before departure.

Dude, check in online.

I meant getting to the gate.

WOOHOO, Super Joe is IN!!!!

Former Indians Kevin Rhomberg, Vern Fuller, Len Barker, Joe Charboneau, and Dave Burba have accepted invitations to appear on a panel of former Cleveland Indian players on Friday afternoon.

Rhomberg, who played 41 games with the Tribe over three seasons, was the Southern League batting champion in 1981, hitting .366 for the Chattanooga Lookouts.

Fuller was signed by Cleveland in 1963 as an amateur free agent, and played with the Tribe from 1964-1970.

Barker pitched for the Indians from 1979 to 1983; he is best known for his perfect game on May 15, 1980.

Charboneau was Rookie of the Year in 1980. "Super Joe" caught the imagination of Tribe fans everywhere that season in which he batted .289 with 23 homers and 87 runs batted in.

DAVE BURBA! The rich man's Brett Tomko!

(I always seem to confuse / conflate Tomko & Burba & Ron Villone -- they're all products of the M's organization, aren't they?)

somehow I clipped off Burba's blurba:

Burba won 15 or more games three out of his four complete seasons (1998-2001) for the Tribe.

oh the Burba shave puns we would use back then. 9/11/01 changed everything

from the SABR list:

The annual meeting of the SABR Science and Baseball Committee will take place at the SABR convention in Cleveland on Friday June 27, 4-5 PM in the Severance Room. Those of you at last year's meeting will recall th the meeting focused on the PITCHf/x pitch-tracking system. There have been many new developments since then. I will give an oral presentation earlier that day at 10:30 AM entitled "What are we learning from the PITCHf/x system?" Much of what I will say will be a summary of the just-completed "First Annual PITCHf/x Summit" (see

http://sportvision.com/events/pfx.html

as well as today's WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121149546083915647.html?mod=sports

Lots of people who are at the cutting edge of PITCHf/x data analysis and interpretation were there and made interesting and well-researched presentations. For our committee meeting, I propose continuing this discussion....

-- Prof. Alan M. Nathan
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

F06: 11:00 – 11:25am
Ballroom B
1907: The Season That Changed Ohio Baseball
Craig Lammers

What was so important about 1907 in Ohio? There was profligate overspending, retaliatory player signings, leagues collapsing and others forming. It was, argues the author, a pivotal year of sorting-out in the development of the minor leagues, with implications for the region and for all of professional baseball in the Deadball Era. The events of 1907 in Ohio would eventually lead to consolidation of the American Association’s influence over lower classification minor leagues.

Craig Lammers is Bluegrass/Country Music Director at WBGU Radio in Bowling Green, Ohio. He's also the catcher, occasional pitcher and statistician for the Wood County Infirmary Inmates Vintage Baseball team. Despite a decided lack of baseball ability and with the help of a courtesy runner, he batted .595 last year, leading the Inmates in hits. Specializing in Ohio and Kansas minor league history, Craig has previously presented at SABR 34, 35 and 37.

F08: 3:00 – 3:25pm
Ballroom A
Did Steroid Use Enhance the Performance of the Mitchell 89? The Effect of Performance Enhancing Drugs on Offensive Performance from 1995-2007
Pat Kilgo, Jeff Switchenko, Brian Schmotzer, Paul Weiss

The evidence collected in support of the Mitchell report will undoubtedly be subjected to a great deal of analysis and discussion in coming years. The study undertaken by Kilgo, Switchenko, and their colleagues applies sophisticated biostatistical methodology to the problem. Their linear mixed effects model, attempting to examine HGH and steroids separately while simultaneously adjusting for age-related year-to-year effects, suggests a significant effect of performance-enhancing drugs.

Jeff Switchenko is currently a 2nd year PhD student in the Department of Biostatistics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2006, he received a BA in Mathematics, with a minor in Chemistry, from Bowdoin College. Born and raised in Boston, Jeff is a lifelong Red Sox fan, and grew up idolizing the likes of John Valentin, Troy O’Leary, and Brian Daubach. SABR member Pat Kilgo is on faculty in the Biostatistics Department at the Emory University School of Public Health, where he teaches graduate methods courses and performs cardiothoracic surgery clinical research. His baseball interests are varied, though most of his effort goes into book collecting and a serious Atlanta Braves devotion. He shares his life with his wife Michelle and four children. Brian Schmotzer and Paul Weiss are Kilgo’s colleagues at Emory.

"Paul Weiss," lol

Thursday (6/26) agenda includes (Jon Miller!):

At 1pm, Cleveland area member Mat Kovach will facilitate a discussion in the Superior Room titled “Software and SQL for Baseball Geeks.” Database programmers and anyone else interested in a discussion of putting Retrosheet (and Gameday) information into an SQL database are invited. The discussion will center on how people are handling statistical information and the programs they are using. Non-“geeks” who are interested in the capture and manipulation of data sets are also welcome.

At 1:30, join Indians broadcasters Tom Hamilton and Rick Manning, along with author and former Indians beat writer Russ Schneider for a Broadcasters/Media Panel. Moderated by Indians VP of Public Relations Bob DiBiasio, you are sure to learn more about the Indians from another point of view.

For those interested in broadcasting, Curt Smith, author of Voices of the Game, will continue the panel’s theme in the Superior Room with Hamilton and Giants broadcasters Jon Miller and Duane Kuiper.

At 1:30, join Indians broadcasters Tom Hamilton and Rick Manning

Oh, man, I wish I had some way to mp3-ize my reel of Tom Hamilton off-air outtakes from when I worked at WKNR in 1995-96. There's some golden stuff on there. If he takes questions, ask him how he liked the visitors' broadcast booth at the Bagdome.

Favorite Hamilton story: At a road broadcast from Yankee Stadium, he opened the broadcast by noting that they were in the Bronx, then told Herb Score, his on-air partner at the time, that "I would no sooner bring my family here than I'd bring them to Harlem."

lovely

I guess I should go on the Western Reserve Historical Society’s Library tour, for this:

http://www.wrhs.org/index.php/museum/CurrentEx/baseballexhibit

On Friday, the Cleveland Public Library is hosting a baseball author panel with Charles Alexander, Rob Neyer, and Tom Swift. Head over there during the noon hour and also see some of the amazing baseball collection that they have.

What's with the 30-60% "scattered showers" forecast every damn day of the convention? Has Cleveland turned into Miami?

No, the major difference being there's no nightlife here.

so I hear. Someone online even dissed the "leather bar."

Morbs don't listen to Pancakes Hackman- there is downtown bowling

The SABR schedule is pretty packed. i've been checking this but, eh, not much I see:

http://clevescene.com/

Wanda Jackson is in town, but I've seen her AND I'll be at a game in Akron Sat nite.

It looks like this is the best place near the hotel to grab lunch?

http://www.clevescene.com/bestof/2007/award/best-quick-and-casual-lunch-468488/

good question- Alesci's has a good rep in cleveland but lunch places that are open during the week may not be open on the weekends (at all).

there's the warehouse district (a short walk) http://www.cleveland.com/warehouseguide/index.ssf?/warehouseguide/more/rest.html.

tower city itself- there's a deli there (not in the food court) that I can't comment on.

East 4th street (a very short walk) has some places- open for lunch who knows. you basically need a guide for cleveland BECAUSE NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS

tower city itself- there's a deli there (not in the food court) that I can't comment on.

this one?

morbs should go to LOLa

ha yes, operated by mr iron chef. no lunch though

here's some east fourth street propaganda. http://www.east4thstreet.com

Frontiers - A Journey cover band is playing Saturday night at the House of Blues.

Zocalo on E. 4th has a really good happy hour, and if you like tequila, they've got some amazing top-shelf stuff that you can order in flights. My office had their Xmas party there last year and we got like four different flights. Good stuff.

Oh, and if you go to XO Prime Steaks, leave a good tip. King LeBron supposedly stiffed someone and it was major news in the alt-weeklies for like a month.

Not that much of a foodie, and too busy.... mostly the food court will hafta do. (and fuck off, Troll)

The Rock Hall's best thing is Lennon's scrawl of In My Life.

Off to see FELLER!

We'll be at the Wade Oval around 6:30 tnite for vintage ball game (weather permittg). I'll be in the Newark Bears t shirt.

did the game go on? there was a little thunderstorm in the early evening.

I was sick all day yesterday, but vintage game would've been cool to see. I live like 10 min. from Wade Oval!

I took a tour at the Western Reserve library when the vintage game was going on at 5:30. A planned 2d game was rained out! (got my picnic burger in time)

Bob Feller has a good handshake for a 90-year-old (all the fingers stay together).

Jon Miller can REALLY work a crowd for the yuks.

Rob Neyer at the library panel just now: "I like both: Joe Morgan stories, and the truth." Ex-Indians panel next...

Looks OK weather for Sabathia, maybe tomw night's Akron game is in danger tho.

damn I shoulda went to the library for my lunch hour. if you get a chance, walk through the Arcade (The Hyatt Hotel)- it's right across the street from the library. it's pretty cool.

I mighta gone to see Eef Barzelay last night, but Beachland looks like a mighty long ride (bus?).

taxi. it's about 15 minutes by car (all highway). god only knows how many bus connections you'd have to make (not that I would know anyway)

Home & Garden is playing tonight (band was started by ex-Pere Ubu guitarist Jim Jones(rip)). Not sure waht they sound like today but they were pretty good at one time. They're on West 25th tonight at a place called the Matinee.

Wow Home & Garden just came up on my iPod yesterday from one of the old Cleveland Music Group comp CDs. Weird.

H&G's "(please) FIX MY HORN (my brakes don't work)" came up on my iTunes a couple days ago from the Datapanik box set rarities disk hey how bout that tribe.

brownie if i get outta work early would you want to go

tonight?

yeah! if it's happening & cool & 9pm or later ... ... ...

wait I thought you meant go to the Tribe game.

i kinda got the bronchitis or something. should stay away from bars this weekend.

sux. okay then. (i e-mailed; sorry morbs)

http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2008/06/sabr_convention_welcomes_congr.html

I got Joe Charboneau's autograph right under Feller's.

super CC last night -- we were in shitty seats as usual (RCF boxes), so Grady's 1st inning catch was a blind spot. Also, during drizzle had stupidest thing ever at a ballpark said to me by usher (after I was careful to sit in front of a row with nobody in it and rest half-open 'brella on top o my head): "You can't open your umbrella in the seating bowl." So fuck the Indians.

now I think I get on bus to Ohio City to eat burger at Heck's?

also, Rob Neyer emphatic that "yo la tengo" is an Ashburn fiction.

where can I get pancakes downtown tomw morning?

morbz! post a pic of yr mr. met shirt

morbz, did you get your pancakes? house of blues has a gospel brunch every sunday

cankles, I hv neither a digi-camera or a scanner.

brownie, I had an omelet at some place near the Browns stadium -- Karl's? Very serene at 9am Sunday.

Akron game was nice -- I guess I shouldn't be surprised the PA disn't play "My City Was Gone."

Saw a nice presentation by Pete Palmer and another sabermetrics vet on the fog of clutch hitting. (No, they still don't think it exists.)

Trader Frank Lane quote:

"Sympathy can be found in the dictionary between shit and syphilis."

http://griddle.baseballtoaster.com/archives/1034131.html

(the "strike one" study in there was fascinating)

sabriffic:

last night the second game of a doubleheader between the springfield cardinals and tulsa drillers in the double-a texas league went 13 innings. at the end of the game, both clubs had catchers on the mound, each receiving a decision.

seattle catcher jamie burke, on july 6, became the first catcher to take a loss in a major league game since hall of famer roger bresnahan did it for the 1901 baltimore orioles. it seems possible that last night's game may be the only one in which catchers received both decisions.

Kurkjiantastic

During the convention, we celebrate the best of baseball research. The winners of the McFarland-SABR and Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Awards were honored along with the Seymour Medal Winner (Lee Lowenfish) at the Sunday Awards Breakfast. Also feted were Vince Gennaro, whose presentation, "What Factors Influence Free Agent Salaries?" won the Doug Pappas Research Award for Best Oral Presentation at the convention. David R. Zavagno, Avrami Grader, and Philip M. Halleck won the USA Today Sports Weekly Award for the Best Poster Presentation for "Maple Bats Changed the Game."