WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6
7:30-9:00 pm: THE CY SEYMOUR LEAD-OFF SESSION (Chair: David Pegram)
BOYS, BASEBALL, AND BANK ROBBERS, hosted by Robert Sherwin
Special Guests: Randy Cohen, Rick Dempsey, Dan DeSantis, Larry Yount, and Robin Yount. This panel session will tell the incredible true story of the 1963 Canoga Park PONY League team, a national finalist whose head coach was later revealed to be a notorious bank robber. Mr. Sherwin will be joined by former players, as well as Archie Gips, director of a new documentary about the team.
9:00 pm This evening, and every evening, informal baseball discussions continue in the Kachina Lounge.
THURSDAY, MARCH 7
8:15-8:30 am: Opening: Steve Gietschier
8:30-10:10 am: THE ELEANOR DAPKUS SESSION (Chair: Chad Wise)
Tynan Weathers, “Native Alaskans and Baseball: A Focus on Alaska and its Unique Baseball Culture”
Amanda Taylor, “For the Love of the Game: Creating a Co-Cultural Clubhouse in a Diversifying Baseball Landscape”
Leslie Heaphy, “The Role of Barnstorming in Black Baseball”
Gary Gershman, “Chasing the Rainbow: MLB’s Failure to Reconcile its Hypocrisy and Contradictions over Pride Night”
10:20 am-12:00 pm: THE MYSTERIOUS WALKER SESSION (Chair: Robert Tholkes)
Paul Hensler, “From Abbey Road to Brookline Avenue: Re-imagining The Fab Four as Boston Red Sox Icons”
David Krell, “A Cultural Critique of Seinfeld, the 1990s New York Yankees and George Costanza as a Metaphor for the Seven Deadly Sins”
Richard Black, “‘St. Peter got your name in the book’: August Wilson’s Fences and Turkin and Thompson’s The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball”
Ron Rapoport, “Frank Chance’s Diamond: The Baseball Journalism of Ring Lardner”
2:00-3:20 pm: THE LARRY SCHMITTOU SESSION (Chair: Eric Berg)
Rodney Paul, Jonah Soos, & Danny Baris, “Promotions and Giveaways in Minor League Baseball: An Analysis Across Leagues and Demographic Areas”
Mark McGee, “Scout Willie Mays and Die: Hank DeBerry, ‘The Old Scout’”
Marcus Mann, “Data-Driven Insights on Tommy John Surgery”
3:30-4:50 pm THE SHIRLEY POVICH SESSION (Chair: Paul Hensler)
Jay Thomas, “Deacon White: My Neighbor Just around the Corner”
Mitchell Nathanson, “Larry Ritter Lied—It’s More than Just Turning on the Tape Recorder: Practical and Ethical Issues Involved in Writing Oral History.”
Barry Bloom & Joseph Reaves, “Quiet Streets & Noisy Locker Rooms: Fifty Years of Sports Legends”
7:00-8:30 pm: THE JEAN HASTINGS ARDELL SESSION (Chair: Willie Steele)
Jon Leonoudakis, “Lefty O’Doul’s 1949 Goodwill Tour of Japan”
Roberta Newman, “Dorabase or How a Team of 22nd Century Robot Cats and One Human Teach Japanese Cultural Values to 21st Century Children”
James Orr, “Diamond Democracy: Japanese Notions of Baseball as a Force for Democratization in Post-WWII Japan”
Yuriko Romer, Diamond Diplomacy: Baseball Behind Barbed Wire
FRIDAY, MARCH 8
8:30-10:10 am: THE MIKE EASLER SESSION (Chair: Jason Cannon)
Evan Thompson, “It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times: The League Championship Series, 1969-1984”
Phillip Lovas, “‘Sell the Team, Dude’: A Study of Baseball’s Fan Resistance Movements”
Kevin Johnson & Jennifer Asenas, “First Amendment Rights and Baseball: Intersections, Controversies, and Politics”
Chris Birkett, “‘It’s Not About Baseball, It’s About America’: Bill Clinton, Ken Burns, and the Political Use of the Baseball Mythos in the Polarized 1990s”
10:20-11:40 am: THE BOMBO RIVERA SESSION (Chair: David Bohmer)
Mark Pelesh, “DAMONSDAY MMXXIII: Baseball Foretells the Metaverse”
Jay Wade Edwards, “Cemetery Wins Above Replacement”
Jack Hitter, “Two-Way Athletes in Baseball: How Often, How Rare?”
1:10 pm: Chicago Cubs vs. Arizona Diamondbacks, Salt River Fields at Talking Stick
SATURDAY, MARCH 9
8:30-10:00 am: THE ONLY NOLAN SESSION (Chair: Roberta Newman)
Autumn Marshall, “Supplementing Performance: Why MLB Needs Dietitians”
David Bohmer, “Happy Chandler: Hall of Fame Worthy?”
Jason Cannon, “The Life and Legacy of Willie McCovey from Those Who Knew Him Best”
Eric Berg, “Target Field as a Symbol for Social Change in Baseball”
10:20 am-12:00 pm: THE STEPHEN CLARK SESSION (Chair: Mitchell Nathanson)
Dan Levitt, “John McGraw’s Florida Land Investment Fiasco”
Cary Heinz, “Should Charlie Finley be in the Hall of Fame?”
Steve Treder, “The Giants, the A’s, and Silicon Valley”
Charlie Vascellaro, “Diamond Daze: The Brief Life and Tumultuous Times of the Official Chronicle of Major League Baseball”
6:45-8:30 pm: THE BILL KIRWIN SESSION
The Society for American Baseball Research’s Seymour Medal Award Presentation: Steve Gietschier, Baseball: The Turbulent Mid-Century Years