Martin Monkman in Victoria, British Columbia organized an informal meet-up for members in that area on SABR Day. He has provided the following recap:

SABR Day was celebrated by a small group in Victoria, British Columbia.  Five SABR members gathered for lunch at John’s Place restaurant, underneath the large painting of old Tiger Stadium. This was the first time that most of us had met one another, so much of the conversation was about our interest in baseball – just getting to know one another better. Our discussions touched on SABR events and baseball games attended, parks visited, and future plans (including the up-coming World Baseball Classic).

We were joined by Holly Jones, the General Manager of the Victoria HarbourCats of the West Coast League.  The HarbourCats are an expansion franchise in the league, which features collegiate players drawn from across the United States and Canada. The team begins its inaugural season in June 2013. Holly fielded a number of questions about the club, ranging from player recruitment to media relations. The club seems poised for a very successful season, with strong season ticket sales and a number of highly-rated college players already signed. The HarbourCats will also be hosting the WCL All Star Game in July, and given the quality of the players in the league, there’s already a buzz in the scouting community.

Another highlight was member David McDonald’s vintage baseball cards. Dave brought a number of cards featuring the players of the Victoria Bees of the Northwestern League, dating from 1911.  It was amazing to see these century-old artifacts. There were some chuckles over some of the archaic language used to describe the players, but just as interesting were the things that haven’t changed in a hundred years.

Although it was a small group and very informal, it was great to connect with other SABR members. We pledged to get together again soon; attending a HarbourCats game as a group seems a likely prospect.

The Pacific Northwest Chapter of SABR held a meeting on January 26 at Safeco Field in Seattle. The event was one of several local chapter gatherings going on across the country as part of national SABR Day activities. In addition to the meeting itself, several NW SABR members volunteered at an informational booth during the Seattle Mariners Fan Fest.  One of the exciting things to see was the ongoing construction in left field, as the Mariners are moving in the fences this year. The view above is from behind our booth along the third base line.

The Seattle Mariners provided a great group of guests for the 35 members in attendance. We were able to meet, listen to and ask questions of each of the guests. First up was Chris Gwynn, the Mariners new Director of Minor League Operations. Chris spoke about his new position and his impressions of the Mariners minor league system and some of its top players. Chris was followed by Assistant General Manager Jeff Kingston. Jeff has spoken to the NW SABR group for several years in a row now, and its always good to hear his observations.

 Jack Zduriencik followed and gave some insight into various aspects of his position.  Jack talked about the Mariners' recent decision to move in the fences, as well as the expectations he has of some of the young players. Eric Wedge then spoke to the group. Heading into his third season as the M's manager, Wedge provided a candid assessment of the team and expressed a great deal of faith in the talent of the club, expecting to improve both run production and wins this year.

The final guest of the afternoon was the Mariners Baseball Operations Analyst Wesley Battle. Wesley talked about the methods and processes by which the Mariners develop and use technology and statistics across all facets of the organization, and the role the analysts have in developing tools for the coaches, scouts, and managers throughout the organization.

The local chapter members who volunteered for the SABR informational booth at Fan Fest were Tip Wonhoff, Mark Brunke, Bob Russon, Bill Woodward, Tim Jenkins, Bob Webster, Mike Rice & Rick Solomon. We would also like to thank the members of the Mariners organization who assisted us in having our meeting again at Safeco Field. Corporate Business Assistant Kristin Harwood provided invaluable assistance in helping us set up our NW SABR Booth and  Marketing Manager Camden Finney did a fantastic job in coordinating our guests with the Mariners Front Office.

Two more items of note. In addition to our regular Chapter Meeting, members in Victoria, British Columbia organized a meetup, and the recap of that can be seen in the Recaps section.

Finally, David Eskenazi exhibited items from his collection of Northwest baseball history in the Diamond Club section in Safeco Field. David is also a member of NW SABR, and there is an online exhibition of photos on our Chapter site. That can be accessed here.

The next Chapter Meeting will be held February 16 at 12:15 PM at the Hillsdale Library in Portland, Oregon. This meeting will be open to the public so all are encouraged to attend. Information about all upcoming events can always be found on the home page of the NW SABR Chapter.

The Northwest Chapter of SABR held a meeting in the conference room of the Seattle Pacific University library from 12 to 5:30 PM on Saturday, November 3, 2012.

The meeting was attended by 36 people, including nine who were attending their first SABR meeting.

The meeting began with a welcome from Bill Woodward, our host, SABR colleague, and Professor of History at SPU. Many of the new attendees were Bill's students and their family members.

Rick Solomon discussed chapter business. He announced this would be the last meeting for John Henshell as President. The chapter gave John a hearty round of cheer as he is finishing his current two-year term in that capacity preceded by two years’ service as Vice-President. VP Rick Solomon becomes President in January. Mark Armour is our Vice-President-elect. Mark and John are both from Oregon, and Rick is from Seattle. The chapter's tradition is to have the leadership roles alternate between Washington and Oregon. Tim Herlich provided a report of the chapter treasury, which is free of usury at the present time and in a healthy condition. We held a book exchange to spur donation efforts and it raised $32.

Scheduled guest Mel Stottlemyre had to cancel for health reasons, but we hope to have him for a future meeting. Our first presentation, Tim Herlich's “1964 American League Pennant Race,” would have dovetailed nicely into Mel's appearance. Tim covered how teams finished in the 1963 season and off- and in-season roster changes that would influence the 1964 Pennant Race. The season had a number of memorable characters, including Charlie Finley, erstwhile journalist Jim Brosnan, and amateur harmonica player Phil Linz. Tim showed how the August 11 call-up of rookie Mel Stottlemyre saved the Yankees. The White Sox, Orioles, and Yankees finished within two games of each other, trading the lead in a round-robin fashion until the Yankees finally emerged on top.

In the second presentation, Melissa Booker looked at “Corporate America's Best Example of Business Intelligence: Major League Baseball”. Melissa gave an overview of business intelligence, a term used to describe the way companies collect and organize data at different levels for usage in supporting decision-making. Melissa modified a presentation she usually gives to business management, and showed how baseball's unified system of information and measurement allows managers to make instantaneous, sound decisions. The Reds fan cited George Lee “Sparky” Anderson as the greatest user of business intelligence. Melissa noted how “Captain Hook” would always have the most recent and relevant information necessary to make the right decisions, and this was reflected by the success of the Reds and Tigers under Anderson.

Mark Brunke gave the next presentation, on “The Spread of Baseball in the Pacific Northwest to 1890.” Mark began by giving an overview of the Spread of Baseball project, which is currently underway at www.sabrpedia.org. The Spread project is an attempt to locate the first games and clubs to use New York rules in each state, as well as document any predecessor games related to baseball. Mark coordinated efforts for the Northwest, and included information found by fellow sleuths Bob Webster, Melissa Booker, Michael Lynch, and Terry Gottschall. Mark showed how the Northwest had a competitive amateur baseball environment from 1866 on in Portland, Walla Walla, and Victoria. For the final part of the presentation, he used a photograph of Seattle's first club, the Alkis of 1876-79, to show how the players had each brought a background of organized baseball with them as they migrated to Seattle.

Next, Rob Garratt presented “Matthew Fox & the Move West by the Giants and Dodgers.” Rob described the influence of Fox and his company, Skiatron, on baseball's decision to move west. Fox was an early proponent of pay-per-view broadcasting, and he was a behind the scenes player in the decision making of both Horace Stoneham and Walter O'Malley.

The final member presentation was Mike Rice's “Who Really Belongs in the Hall of Fame.” Mike looked at all the members of the Hall of Fame elected by the BBWAA, and then used a stepwise methodology to see who should “really” be included. Mike looked at WAR, Black Ink, Grey Ink, Hall of Fame Monitor, and Hall of Fame Standards measurements. Mike's methodology gradually grew to include most of the elected players in the Hall. The definitions of each of the measurements can be found on Baseball-Reference.com. Mike's inclusions, exclusions, and methodology generated passionate discussion.

John Henshell hosted a discussion of the state of the Mariners based on our recent chapter poll. NWSABR members were sent the poll results after the meeting.

The next meeting will be in late January, so please check back for details.

The Northwest Chapter of SABR held a meeting in the conference room of the Seattle Pacific University Library from 12 to 5 PM on Saturday, June 16, 2012.

The meeting was attended by 16 members of the Northwest chapter. We had five member presentations.

The meeting started with announcements of upcoming events. Dave Baldwin will be giving a talk titled "The Weird Science of Baseball" at an event called Triple Play in Yachats, Oregon. The event starts at noon on July 28. Our next meeting will be August 11 at Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver, B.C. Details about both events can be found under the Upcoming Events banner on our Web site. Our next U.S. meeting will be November 3, also at the Seattle Pacific University Library. Past president Tim Herlich will be presenting “21,“ about Tom Cheney’s amazing 21-strikeout game, at the Hall of Fame. This presentation won the Doug Pappas Award for Best Oral Presentation at the 2009 SABR National Convention.

The first presentation was by Steve Steinberg: The Day John McGraw Lost Control of His Team...and Quit. Steve’s presentation covered the events leading up to, during, and following a game played on October 3, 1916 between McGraw’s Giants and Brooklyn, which was led by his former teammate, business partner, and pitching coach Wilbert Robinson. Steve’s presentation covered issues, relationships, and characters surrounding McGraw’s behaviour during and after the game. He showed material published in the newspapers that failed to document the full story. Steve will be doing an abridged version of this presentation at the convention.

The second presentation was by John Henshell, titled Strength of Schedule: The Hidden Context Factor. John explained the history of the schedule and how it became progressively unbalanced. He noted that all-in-one formulas do not include strength of schedule, yet it is the most significant context factor for evaluating and comparing players and teams. As examples, John showed how strength of schedule benefitted recent award winners Josh Hamilton and Clayton Kershaw. As a sidebar, he documented that ballpark effect on performance is highly individual, and formulas that standardize it hide more truth than they reveal. John showed that the AL has dominated regular season, All-Star, and World Series interleague play in the past 20 years.

Mark Brunke‘presentation was about Leadoff Hitters. Mark presented a study of 189 leadoff hitters from 1919-2011, looking at their per-game averages and career production. He contrasted using Times on Base with Reaching on Error to OBP to find players who reach on error a signficant amount of time. Mark then presented a set of three formulas to show which leadoff hitters:

• produced the most bases per game from total bases, walks, hit-by-pitch, reached-on-error, and stolen bases;
• had the most extra bases per game; and
• reached first base while not producing an out the most times per game.

Melissa Booker‘s presentation, “The Undefinable Satchel Paige,” objectively documented the many conflicting sources of factual information about Paige’s life and career. Melissa described the difficulty of evaluating Paige’s performance through statistics. For instance, he often left ballgames before the fifth inning once he acomplished what he wanted to prove. She discussed the sources of information and evaluated their credibility. Melissa will be reprising her presentation at the 15th annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference in Cleveland next month.

The final presentation was by Tip Wonhoff, entitled 40th Anniversary of Curt Flood v. Bowie Kuhn. Tip opened with a slide showing Marvin Miller speaking to players about Curt Flood. Tip then described the case, which was decided on June 19, 1972, and how its impact lead to arbitration and free agency. Tip also presented an overview of the legal decisions going back to the Federal League case (1922) and Toolson (1953), and looked at the substance of the Supreme Court’s decision, including Justice Harry Blackmun’s listing of 83 players he considered greats of the game, and that Blackmun always regretted not including Mel Ott on that list.