2015 Conference Program

The 22nd Annual NINE Spring Training Conference

March 11-14, 2015, Tempe, Arizona

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11
  
THE CY SEYMOUR LEAD-OFF SESSION
Chair: Lee Lowenfish

"Unraveling the Mysteries of Player Development Scouting Then and Now"
Panelists: Bob Scanlan, Marty Lurie, Don Welke

THURSDAY, MARCH 12

THE RICKEY HENDERSON SESSION
Chair: Kristin Anderson
 
James Brunson, "'Not Simply a Man, But a Manly Man': The Baseball Art of Joseph Christian Leyendecker"
 
Mitchell Nathanson, "The Media and Dick Allen: Black and White and Read All Over"

Roberta J. Newman, "RE2SPECT, My Way: Advertising and Derek Jeter's 'Farewell Tour"'

THE GEORGE BRETT SESSION
Chair: Rob Garratt
 
Howard M. Wasserman," An Empirical Analysis of the Infield Fly Rule" 

Albert Piacente, "On the Necessity of Spitballs"

Dan Levitt, "Pat Gillick and His 'Many Rivers': One General Manager's Approach to Gaining an Edge"

James R. Walker and Robert V. Bellamy, "Your Guess is as Good as Mine: National Media Predictions of MLB Standings"

Field Research: Mariners v. Athletics at Hohokam Park

THE SAMMY SOSA SESSION
Chair: Jean Hastings Ardell

Charlie Vascellaro, "The Thread: A Mystical Baseball Memoir"

FRIDAY, MARCH 13

THE JIMMY KIRKLAND SESSION
Chair: Trey Strecker

Donna Halper, "A Lady Sporting Editor: How Ina Eloise Young Covered Baseball and Made History"
 
Steve Klein, "Hugh S. Fullerton, the Black Sox Scandal, and the Ethical Impulse in Sports Writing"

Steve Gietschier, "Baseball Mystery and Baseball History: The Mickey Rawlings Novels of Troy Soos"

THE JOHN HENRY LLOYD SESSION
Chair: Roberta Newman
 
Michael E. Lomax, "A League of Their Own: Rube Foster's Pitfalls of Baseball Revisited"

Daniel Anderson, "Negotiating Contradictions: The Absence of Negro League Baseball in Histories of the New Negro Renaissance"

Jim Overmyer, "Negro League Ball Comes East-The Eastern Colored League" 

Bill Nowlin, "The Reception of Sam Jethroe in Boston"

THE JANET MARIE SMITH SESSION
Chair: Mitchell Nathanson

Ed Edmonds and Frank Houdek, "The Evolution of 'The Tools of Ignorance' and the
U.S. Patent System"

Jim Odenkirk, "Classic League Park, A Slice of Baseball Heaven, Not the Mistake by the Lake"

Kristin M. Anderson and Chris Kimball, "The Next Thing to Sunlight, Without the Burn: Field Lighting in St. Paul and Minneapolis"

Maureen M. Smith, "Building Baseball History in the 21st Century: A Statue Proposal for the Los Angeles Dodgers"
 
THE ROBERTO CLEMENTE SESSION
Chair: Justin Turner
 
James Orr, "Little League in Japan: It's a Hit!"

Robert Fitts, "I Left my Heart in San Francisco: The Inside Story of Japan's First Major Leaguer"

William Steele, "The Birth of the Family: The 1971 Pirates and MLB's First All-Black Lineup"

Kevin Warneke and John Shorey, "Pick Wisely: A Look at Whom Select Baseball Players Choose as Their Heroes and Why"

SATURDAY, MARCH 14

THE LESTER RODNEY SESSION
Chair: Jim Overmyer

Jim Leeke, "Class D: The Nine Eventful Seasons of the Ohio State League, 1908-1916"

James Robinson, "Communist Sports: The Communist Part, Left-wing Sports Programs 1939-1947, Organizing and Recruitment, Decline, and Lessons for Today's American Left"

Justin Turner, "Recent Trends in Cuban Baseball Defections"

THE GERMANY SCHAEFER SESSION
Chair: James R. Walker
 
Lee Lowenfish, "Baseball Passion in the Work and Lives of Joe E. Brown and Buster Keaton"

Ron Briley, "Baseball Cinema Challenges the Hollywood Blacklist: Robert Aldrich's Big Leaguer (1953)"

Joseph L. Price, "Laughing Allowed: Playful Parodies, Interactive Antics, and Unintentional Incongruities at Minor League Ballparks"

Field Research: White Sox vs. Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium

THE BILL KIRWIN SESSION

The Society for American Baseball Research's Seymour Medal Award Presentation: Andy McCue, Mover & Shaker: Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers, & Baseball's Westward Expansion

Keynote Speaker: Terry Cannon, "The Baseball Reliquary: Re-imagining Bill Veeck in the 21st Century"