WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4
4:30 pm Registration Opens
6:00-7:00 pm Welcome Reception, Cash Bar
7:15-7:30 pm Welcome Emcee Steve Gietschier
7:30-9:00 pm THE CY SEYMOUR LEAD-OFF SESSION
“From San Francisco to Tokyo: A Celebration of Lefty O’Doul and Asian Baseball History and Culture” Film screening and panel discussion featuring:
- Jon Leonoudakis, filmmaker, Lefty O’Doul: America’s Forgotten Hero
- Robert Fitts, author/researcher, In the Japanese Ballpark
- Karen Kuo, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University
- Kathryn Nakagawa, Emeritus Professor, Arizona State University
- Bill Staples, Jr., author/researcher, Kenichi Zenimura
THURSDAY, MARCH 5
8:00-8:15 am Coffee
8:15-8:30 Opening: Steve Gietschier
8:30-9:50 am THE JOHNNY RAY SESSION
Moderator: Michael Haupert
Leslie Heaphy, “NY Bloomer Girls: The Story Continues”
Perry Barber, “The Future of Professional Umpiring in a Post-Jen Pawol World”
Hannah Beam, “New Sound to the Old Game”
9:50-10:00 am Coffee Break
10:00-11:50 am THE GEORGE “CHIPPY” BRITT SESSION
Moderator: Gary Gershman
Mitch Nathanson, “The Bobo Newsom Memorial Society and the Creation of the ’62 Mets”
Jay Wade Edwards, “The History and Artistry of Baseball Monster Cards”
Roberta J. Newman, “Short Manga, Short Game: Mitsuru Adachi’s Perspectives on the High School Game”
Kevin A. Johnson & Jennifer J. Asenas, “Baseball and Freedom of Expression: A Year in Review”
1:00 pm ATHLETICS VS ANGELS at Tempe Diablo Stadium (Bus pickup is at 12:15)
7:00-9:00 pm THE JEAN HASTINGS ARDELL SESSION
Moderator: Dan Levitt
Gary Gershman, “Pride Night and the Texas Rangers: Do they Need One? Should MLB Insist”
Lily Sweeney, “From Stadiums to Screens: The Evolution of American Fandom from Baseball to Twilight”
Eric Poulin, “No One Mourns the Wicked OR Whatever Happened to The Sundown Kid: The Sad Saga of Dan Thomas?”
Willie Steele, “What’s the Worst that Could Happen?: One Professor’s Quest to Find the Perfect Knuckleball, OR Gaming the System: Having the Academy Pay for My Knuckleball Habit”
FRIDAY, MARCH 6
8:00-8:15 am Coffee
8:15-9:50 am THE HELEN CALLAGHAN SESSION
Moderator: Leslie Heaphy
Brett Mizelle, “ ‘The Pig’s B.B. Club’: Meatpacking, Baseball, and Advertising in 1890s America”
Daniel M. Linnenberg & Virginia M. Skinner-Linnenberg, “Who’s on First? Nobody!: The Baseball Related Art of Long John Reilly”
Paul Hensler, “Parallel Tracks: The Misfortunes of Charlie Finley’s Oakland Athletics and Patrick McGinnis’s New Haven Railroad”
Steve Treder, “Bayball: The Giants, the Athletics, and the San Francisco Bay Area”
9:50-10:00 am Coffee Break
10:00-11:45 am THE MICKEY HAEFNER SESSION
Moderator: Roberta Newman
Tom Shieber, “Drafting the Game: The Creation of the 1857 Rules of Baseball”
Rowly Brucken, “Spalding’s Mischief: Boosters, Buffs, and Biographers Broadcast the Abner Doubleday Myth, 1908-1919”
Dave Bohmer, “Why Cooperstown?”
Ed Edmonds, “Why I went to Law School?: Stories from Three Members of the Baseball Hall of Fame”
12:00-2:00 pm Author’s Luncheon (optional)
2:00-3:20 pm THE BUTTERCUP DICKERSON SESSION
Moderator: Brett Mizelle
Jay Thomas & John D’Acquisto, “The Culture of Velo and the Road to T.J.”
James R. Walker, “Senile Seniors or Silver Sages: MLB Owner Age, Experience, and Winning Baseball”
Mark McGee, “Everything, including the Ball, was White: Segregation and the Death of the Southern Association”
3:20-3:35 pm Break
3:35–5:25 pm THE JIM CLANCY SESSION
Moderator: Dave Bohmer
Michael Haupert, “The Pillars of Modern Baseball”
Alan Cohen, “Bats, Balls, Boys, and Dreams: The Hearst Sandlot Classic—1946-1965”
Steve Gietschier, “ ‘I Know of No Rule of Law’: Stan Musial. Walter O’Malley, and the Korean War’s Wage and Price Controls”
SATURDAY, MARCH 7
8:30-9:50 am THE COOT VEAL SESSION
Moderator: Jason Cannon
Jason Daniels, “Into the Outfield: What Baseball Tells Us about the World”
Brynn Wisniewski, “From Ballpark to Brandscape: Community and Urban Identity at Busch Stadium”
Rob Fitts, “Behind the Scenes at a Japanese Ballpark”
9:50-10:00 am Coffee
10:00-11:50 am THE RON LeFLORE SESSION
Moderator: Rowly Brucken
Dan Levitt, “The Abortive American Association of 1899-1900”
Billy Gerchick, “Bootlegging, Grass, and Shenanigans: Deviant Behavior at Cactus League Lawn Seats”
Lisa Brucken, “Wooden Bats in the Brave Little State: A Narrative History of the Vermont Mountaineers”
John McLaughlin, “Lest We Forget the Hartfords of Brooklyn: Defunct Major League Baseball Teams”
4:30-6:00 pm Closing Reception, Cash Bar
6:00 pm THE BILL KIRWIN SESSION
Evening banquet, featuring The Society for American Baseball Research’s 2026 Seymour Medal Award Presentation