Wednesday, March 5
7:00-9:00 p.m. The Cy Seymour Lead-off Session
Welcome: Steve Gietschier, emcee
Moderator: David Pegram
An Evening with Tom Hoffarth: Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of Vin Scully’s First Game Behind the Mic
Thursday March 6
8:15-8:30 a.m. Opening: Steve Gietschier
8:30-10:10 a.m. The Benny Distefano Session
Moderator: Robert Tholkes
David Krell—“Nuf Ced!: The Story of Michael McGreevy, Baseball’s First Superfan”
Jay Wade Edwards—“Arthur Lee Maye: Baseball Player & Recording Artist”
Mark McGee—“It Was A Mod, Mod World On The Field: How 1970s Fashions Made Uniforms Too Colorful.
Jeff Jaech—“The Art of Selling Bubblegum: Bowman Bubblegum Trading Cards, 1933-1955”
10:10-10:20 a.m. Break
10:20 a.m.-12:00 p.m. The Mule Suttles Session
Moderator: Lisa Brucken
Mark Cryan—“Black Community Baseball and Softball in Alamance County from the 1930s to the 1960s: An Overlooked Case Study of Resistance to Institutional Racism”
Geri Driscoll—“Life at Camp McGrath: Private Oscar Charleston’s Baseball Training in the Philippines”
Jim Overmyer—“Gus Greenlee’s Rise and Fall”
Alan Cohen—“The Negro Leagues After 1948”
12:00-2:00 p.m. Lunch Break
2:00-3:20 p.m. The Sugar Cain Session
Moderator: Rowly Brucken
Todd McDorman—“Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis Goes to Wabash College”
Jay Hurd—“Baseball Research and ‘Incidental Findings’”
David Bohmer—“A ‘Dizzying’ Episode”
3:20-3:30 p.m. Break
3:30-4:50 p.m. The Joanne Weaver Session
Moderator: Dave Bohmer
Brendan H. O’Connor & Patrick Gentile—“ ‘I’m Your Gringo’: Bridging Linguistic and Cultural Difference in Professional Baseball”
Leslie Heaphy—“Boston Bloomer Girls”
Heidi Berger—“Women in Baseball and the Decision Between College Baseball or Softball”
7:00-8:30 p.m. The Jean Hastings Ardell Session
Moderator: Willie Steele
This session includes poetry, music, and a film. Feel free to grab a drink or two from the hotel bar and join us for a lively panel dedicated to baseball and the arts.
Eric Poulin & Mark Schwaber—“Here Comes the Pizzer: The Found Poetry of Baseball Announcers”
Brian Pulverenti—“Inflections of the Poetic Catalog in Baseball Poetry”
Cami Kidder Divine—Throw Like a Girl
Friday, March 7
8:30-10:10 a.m. The Chicken Wolf Session
Moderator: Connie Sharpe
David Gunzerath—“Changing Channels: The Dodgers’ and Giants’ Early Efforts to Alter the Economic Model of Televised Baseball”
Dan Levitt—“Win by Any Means: The Giants Post-Merkle”
Lindsay Bell—“The Curious Case of Character: Hall of Fame Voting and Character Before the Character Clause”
Rowly Brucken—“Laundering Baseball: How the Mills Commission Reflected and Influenced the Growth of American Empire, 1900-1920”
10:20-11:50 a.m. The John Paciorek Session
Moderator: Leslie Heaphy
Jay Thomas—“Fastball John and the Case of the Missing Locklear”
Eric Gray—“Songs of the Diamond: The Intersection of Music and Baseball”
Richard Black—“The Babe in the Wasteland: Modernity and the Maharajah of Mash in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury”
1:10 pm Baseball Game: Diamondbacks vs Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium
Saturday, March 8
8:30-10:10 a.m. The Vicente Romo Session
Moderator: Dan Levitt
Billy Gerchick—“De las Calles al Estadio: The Historical and Cultural Legacy of Baseball in Mexico City”
Jon Leonoudakis—“The Final Inning: Mortality Among Active MLB & Negro League Players (1872-2020)”
Jason Cannon— “A Time for Reflection: The Legacy of Billy Williams”
Doug Feldmann—“City Guys and Country Guys: The Intersection of Urban and Rural Landscapes in Baseball Literature”
10:00-10:20 a.m. Break
10:20–11:40 a.m. The Tom Greenwade Session
Moderator: Mark Cryan
Lisa Brucken—“Anyone but the Yankees: A Narrative Journey of Cultural Memory, Resilience, and Hope from the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Guardians”
Jennifer Asenas & Kevin Johnson—“Baseball and the First Amendment in Contemporary Law and Culture”
Adam Mocho—“A Case Study Using Open AI’s ChatGPT in the Assessment of Juan Soto’s Future Prospects”
Sidney Carlson White— “Jackie Robinson and the Power of Celebrity in the Long Civil Rights Movement”
12:00-2:00 pm—Lunch Break. Optional: Join us at noon on the hotel patio for a Dutch-treat lunch conversation with other conference participants about in-progress projects. This will be a time to discuss your research and gain insight from other scholars in the field of baseball studies.
2:00-3:20 pm The Herb Washington Session
Moderator: Gary Gershman
Cary Heinz—“Should Charley Finley be in the Hall of Fame?”
Steve Treder—“From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: The Ownerships of the (Oakland) Athletics, 1980-2025
Mitchell Nathanson— “Lies, Damn Lies, and Moneyball: The Truth and the Story of Moneyball (and how never the twain did meet)”
6:00 p.m. Social Hour, Cash Bar, Encantada Patio
7:00 p.m. The Bill Kirwin Session
Closing Banquet, featuring The Society for American Baseball Research’s Seymour Medal Award Presentation: Larry Gerlach, Lion of the League: Bob Emslie and the Evolution of the Baseball Umpire