The NINE Spring Training Conference features four days of dynamic, scholarly presentations on the subject of baseball, held in Tempe, Arizona, in the midst of Cactus League Spring Training. This is an interdisciplinary program, covering history, biography, media, sociology, law, literature, architecture, and more.
Attendees have an opportunity to conduct “field research” (aka, a spring training game), and the conference culminates with a Saturday evening banquet, which includes the presentation of the SABR Seymour Medal.
Join us for this one-of-a-kind baseball event. See for yourself…
Co-Chairs
Willie Steele, Lipscomb University, Nashville
David M. Pegram, Paradise Valley Community College, Phoenix
Advisory Board
Lisa Doris Alexander
Richard Black
Jason Cannon
Leslie Heaphy
Stephanie Liscio
Mitchell Nathanson
Emalee Nelson Stone
Anna Newton
Our Partners
Past Featured Speakers
Charles Alexander, Marty Appel, Mark Armour, Eliot Asinof, Darryl Brock, Robert W. Creamer, Rick Dempsey, Larry Dierker, Rob Edelman, Nancy Faust, Rob Fitts, Jean Fruth, Archie Gips, Arnold Hano, Roland Hemond, Tom Hoffarth, Leonard Koppett, Chris Lamb, Dan Levitt, Lee Lowenfish, Peter Morris, Eric Nusbaum, Anika Orrock, Jerald Podair, Ron Rapoport, Robert Sherwin, Curt Smith, Janet Marie Smith, John Thorn, Steve Treder, and Robin Yount
Conference History
The NINE Spring Training Conference was created by Bill Kirwin, the founding editor of (what was then titled) NINE: An Academic Journal of Baseball History & Social Perspectives. The first conference was held in 1994, at the Ambassador Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1999, the conference moved to Tucson and began to grow in popularity. Bill Kirwin passed away in 2007; as his obituary so elegantly stated, “Bill Kirwin will be remembered and cherished in the hearts of every life he touched and will live forever in our collective loving spirit.”
The conference was steered by co-chairs Trey Strecker and Jean Hastings Ardell, starting in 2008. When spring training left the Tucson area, the conference moved to its current home in Tempe in 2010. The current leadership team took stewardship in 2018. Sadly, Jean Hastings Ardell passed away in 2022. Writer and researcher Leslie Heaphy reminisced, “Jean was an untiring advocate for women being involved in all aspects of baseball. (She) was a great supporter of all our members who wanted to learn, contribute and be involved in any aspects of women and baseball.”
