Our theme this year is Ponce de Leon Ballpark, Atlanta's home for baseball for over 50 years. Come -- learn -- rediscover -- the place called "Poncey." We'll hear presentations from Paul Crater of the Atlanta History Center, Andrew Mearns of Georgia Tech, award-winning author Ken Fenster, and Sam Gazdziak of RIPbaseball.com. Sprinked throughout will be trivia questions and a fun afternoon of baseball conversation. As tradition dictates, we will be dining on BBQ with an optional lunch before SABR Day begins. We have reserved a room at 12:45 p.m. at Slope's BBQ, 200 Johnson Ferry Road, Atlanta GA 30328. Please join us if you'd like. All are welcome!

Join us for our annual winter meeting on Saturday, January 11 at Texas State San Marcos. Our program includes: Tom Thayer is going to talk with us about competitive balance throughout baseball history; Eric Robinson is going to share the story of the Chinese national baseball team as it relates to Grand Prairie, TX; Peter Myers is going to show pictures and memorabilia from the 1953 Hall of Fame Game; Monte Cely will help us decipher the puzzle of the upcoming 2020 rules changes as well as the situation regarding the possible contraction of minor league baseball teams; and as always, Mike Capps from the Round Rock Express will be there to regale us with his signature wit and insight. We’ll also have mock Hall of Fame voting, a metric ton of free baseball books for the taking, and a fun presentation by Jim Baker. Hope to see you there!

Join us for SABR Day on Sunday, January 26! The program will include a delicious lunch and our traditional raffle of baseball books and memorabilia. Our guest speakers are expected to include Richard “Dick “O’Keefe, successful owner of the Peabody Heights Brewery; Bernard McKenna on John Beckwith and the Baltimore Black Sox; Shawn Hearne; Executive Director of the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum; Richard Hershberger on his new book, Strike Four; Charlie Vascellaro on the Negro Leagues in Baltimore; and more TBA. Hope to see you there!

All baseball fans are invited to join us for SABR Day! We will again meet at Fenway Johnnie's, our new home base, just a short walk down Brookline Ave from Fenway Park. We will be there at 4:00 PM, and we will last as long as we have baseball talk to argue about, lament about, and look forward to with optimism albeit tinged with regret. Bring along a book to exchange if you have one to part with. If this is your first meeting, do not be shy! New attendees are most welcome and this is a good time to meet up with others who know their way around Boston and baseball. See you there.

The Vermont Lake Monsters are pleased to announce its second annual “Winter Warmer” on January 25, 2020, which will feature ESPN Baseball Insider Buster Olney, LA Dodgers Director of Player Personnel Galen Carr; and ESPN radio/TV play-by-play broadcaster Jon "Boog" Sciambi participating in a 90-minute question and answer session with our audience. This year’s event will be held at the Film Room at Main Street Landing on the Burlington Waterfront on January 25, with ticket proceeds benefiting SABR-Vermont. Registration and ticket pick up will begin at 6:00 pm with the evening's festivities starting at 6:30 pm. For further information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.vermontlakemonsters.com. This event will sell out, so advance registration is strongly encouraged! PREGAMING: We are also going to have an informal SABR chapter gathering before the Lake Monsters Winter Warmer, just like we did last year. It will be at Sweetwater's, on the corner of Church and College Street in downtown Burlington. I have a 4:30 p.m. reservation so people can get food or beverage as we prepare for the 6:30 p.m. gathering down the hill. There will be a trivia contest and other activities to be announced.

Join us for SABR Day! Richard Puerzer will present on the 1946 Negro League World Series between the Newark Eagles and the Kansas City Monarchs. We will also take a tour of the All Sports Museum, which features artifacts from many professional athletes with ties to South Jersey — and best of all, the museum features Goose Goslin's personal collection! Hope to see you there. All fans are welcome to attend.

Join us for SABR Day! If you haven’t had a chance to see the renovated Reds Hall of Fame and Museum yet, we will have an opportunity to explore the museum following our meeting. We have had a number of new members join over the past few years and this year we'd like to have an informal baseball discussion to see what interests you have and how you would like to get more involved with SABR. If you have been conducting baseball research and would be interested in presenting to the group, we will have plenty of time for presentations in addition to the planning session. As always, this meeting is free and open to the public. Family and guests are always welcome.

We will be meeting on the fourth floor of the Terrace Club restaurant at Progressive Field on Saturday, January 18. The doors will be open at 9:15 am with the meeting starting at 9:30 am and ending at 3:30 pm. We will have a 90 minute lunch on your own break around 11:30 am. We have a great array of speakers including: Eric Binder, Indians VP for Baseball Operations; Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer; James Rapien of 92.3 The Fan; Dave Ford, former major-league pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles; and Ike Brooks. The meeting will be free and open to all so feel free to invite anyone you think who would have an interest in attending.

All baseball fans are welcome to join us for the next meeting of the new SABR South Carolina Chapter. We have a terrific meeting organized. There will be guest speakers and we will see some of the modern technology being used in baseball today to improve hitting and pitching. There will be light snacks and water. Tina Whitlock has done a great job arranging all of this plus she will be talking about her new position with a Major League team and some of the events at last month's baseball Winter Meetings. We will be voting on the name of our chapter, as well as chapter officers. There has been plenty of news in MLB recently so we will have plenty to talk about. Please RSVP to Tim Deale at tidea@comcast.net if you plan to attend.

Our second Hot Stove Meeting of the offseason is scheduled for Saturday, January 25, which is SABR Day. Take note it starts at 9:30am, at the Hilliard Library. We'll discuss the Baseball Hall of Fame voting, trade talks and rumors, and any other baseball subjects on your mind. Hope to see you there!

Join us for SABR Day in Cooperstown! Our guest speakers will include: Jim Gates, Hall of Fame Librarian on the latest goings-on at the library; Collin Miller on 200 Years of Delaware County baseball; and HOF Senior Curator Tom Shieber on 1912 baseball cards. If you are interested in giving a presentation on any baseball-related subject, please contact Jeff Katz. Hope to see you there!

We will have our 11th annual SABR Day and 23rd annual Hot Stove Meeting. It will be held at the Blake Street Tavern, 2301 Blake Street in Downtown Denver (more commonly known as LoDo). The BST will open its doors to all participants starting at 11:30 a.m. for an a la carte lunch off their menu, which will go until about 1:30 p.m. Then we will move into the Tailgate Room for the specific SABR day events, starting at around 2:00 p.m. and lasting until about 4:00 pm. The presentations will start with Greg May, current SABR member and the leader of Fellowship of Baseball Intellectuals, will give a presentation on a “Fan’s Perspective of Welcoming Professional Baseball to Colorado,” including highlights of the building of Coors Field and the inaugural season of the Colorado Rockies professional baseball team. Then the presentations conclude with an in-depth SABR-like analytical analysis by current RMSABR member and Colorado School of Mines student Robert Gauer, with the topic of the analytical approach and analysis to be a mystery surprise. We will then conclude the SABR Day festivities with our traditional “Mass Game of Catch” after the events (regardless of the weather). Don’t forget to bring your ball cap, ball, and glove for the game of catch after “Play Ball” is announced.

Join us for an informal SABR Day get-together on Sunday, January 26 at Twisted Vine Brewery. All baseball fans are welcome to join us! Pizza will be provided at 1:30 p.m. Please RSVP to Steve Elsberry at sabrsteve@aol.com if you plan to attend so he can have an approximate head count for the pizza.

This meeting is open to all baseball fans. The presentations will begin at 12:30 PM. Jerry Amernic, novelist and Babe Ruth historian, is our primary speaker. Jerry is a SABR member from Toronto who will speak about Babe Ruth’s legacy. Copies of his new book will be available for (cash) sale and signing. See https://baberuthlegacy.com. Former MLB outfielder Jim Gosger will be our second speaker if his health permits. On the weekend there is free parking in the employee lot on the south side of the library on Putnam Street. If the south lot is full or closed, there is a parking garage (Wayne State University lot #6) at 61 Putnam Street on the opposite side of the street. In the evening after our SABR Day event, I encourage everyone to stop at Nemo’s (1384 Michigan Avenue) at 7:00 PM to celebrate Babe Ruth’s Birthday Party. See https://www.facebook.com/baberuthbirthdayparty for more details. Hope to see you there!

Join us for SABR Day! Our presenters are expected to include: 1. Mark Souder on the Boston Beaneaters; 2. Steve Krah on the Limestone League, an Indiana-based spring training league during World War II; 3. Tim Tassler on the very close relationship between Rube Foster and the Fort Wayne Colored Pirates in 1926-1928; 4. Baseball Trivia and some Hot Stove talk, maybe some predictions on where the top Free Agents will land; 5. Hall of Fame comparisons, your thoughts on the 2019 season and any other subject you want to discuss. Have an idea for a presentation? Let us know!

Join the new Central Pennsylvania Chapter for a "baseball brainstorming" session on SABR Day! We'll meet from 2:00 to about 3:00 p.m. at the Appalachian Brewing Company in Mechanicsburg. Please RSVP to R.J. Lesch if you plan to attend. Look for R.J. in the black White Sox cap and Harold Baines shirt (he should be easy to spot!) We'll talk about current events in baseball, and start thinking of future chapter meetings later this year. All fans are welcome, so we hope to see you there!

The Larry Dierker SABR Chapter will celebrate SABR Day on Saturday, January 18, 2020, at Minute Maid Park in conjunction with the Houston Astros FanFest from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We will have a table staffed by our members to promote SABR membership and provide free baseball cards to all who drop by. We will also make available for sale several baseball books written by our people such as "Houston Baseball: The Early Years", "It's Time for Expansion Baseball" and "Breathing Orange Fire". Should have over 10,000 fans in attendance. Hope to see you there! Tickets for FanFest must be purchased online or at the door. Learn more at https://www.mlb.com/astros/fans/fanfest

The Larry Dierker Chapter will hold its next monthly meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday, January 20, 2020. It will be held at the Spaghetti Western Restaurant, 1608 Shepherd Drive in Houston, a few blocks south of I-10, the Katy Freeway. All baseball fans are welcome. Former Astros GM Tal Smith outlined the structure and process of arbitration in preparation for the mock arbitration sessions scheduled for our January 2020 meeting. Chapter volunteers, representing both owners and players, will attempt to replicate the process. It should be both challenging and fun! Hope to see you there.

Join us for SABR Day on January 25! Presentations, trivia review, and more baseball banter. Our guest speakers will include: Noel Fliss, who will reflect on the late Pete Cava, a great statesman for the sport and for our chapter; Howard Kellman on the 2020 Indianapolis Indians season and other baseball musings; Alan Nathan on the MLB Home Run Committee's report; Tim Tassler on the history of black baseball teams in Northeast Indiana; and David Bohmer on Ford Frick, the Hoosier commissioner. Hope to see you there!

Join us for SABR Day on January 25 at the Gem Theater on Vine Street, directly across from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Admission is free, please feel free to bring any baseball-loving friends! We will have 2 guest speakers: Todd Peterson will speak about a new book he edited, The Negro Leagues Were Major Leagues: Historians Reappraise Black Baseball; Tim Grubb, the voice of the newest minor league team in our area, the Wichita Wind Surge, will discuss the upcoming season for his team and the process of putting a new team in Wichita. The Royals FanFest is also taking place that Saturday just 2 miles away, and it opens to the general public at 11 AM, so after our meeting concludes that would be a great next stop (or maybe lunch and then FanFest). Info on the Royals FanFest and ticket info can be found here: https://www.mlb.com/royals/fans/fanfest. We will also have the usual trivia, discussion topics, and Hall of Fame arguments that accompany any SABR gathering. Hope to see you all there!

A new year brings new hope for your team. It also brings us closer to the annual SABR Day meeting. On Saturday, January 25, 2020, we'll have our first chapter meeting of the year. It will be held at the Lawson McGhee branch library starting at 10 a.m. Our guest speakers will include Dr. William Hardy, historian and vintage base ball player, talking about the beginnings of base ball in Knoxville, specifically the men that played the game; Mark Aubrey talking about black baseball in Knoxville, focusing on the 1920 Knoxville Giants of the Negro Southern League; and Lucas Hobbs talking about the future of MiLB, specifically the Appy League. Hope to see you there!

Join us for SABR Day on January 25! We will meet in the large conference room off the Theater Wing near the front entrance. Dr. Michael Green will be discussing an interview he did with Jamie Jarrin, the Spanish-language voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers since 1959. Hope to see you there!

The guest speaker will be former major league pitcher Willie Banks, who played for seven teams from 1991 to 2002. We also have the following presentations lined up: Johnny Mullins on Johnny Sain, pitching coach; Fred Worth on Childhood Memories and Cemeteries; Jim Yeager with another installment of his Backroads and Ballplayers series; Mark Williamson on the Arkansas State League, 1908-1909; and Jim Kreuz on his two 1926 NY Giants close personal friends. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Hope to see you all there!

Join us for the Pee Wee Reese Chapter's SABR Day! This year we will be graced with the esteemed presence of Louisville’s own Tom Hallion, longtime Major League umpire who is famous for, among other things, his dynamic punch-out. Chris Betsch will report on his research of John Dodge, an early 20th-century major leaguer who was killed by a pitched ball while playing in the minors and who is buried in Louisville’s famous Cave Hill Cemetery. Tad Myre will give an update on a SABR project we’re getting started with Cave Hill. In addition, there will also be door prizes and a trivia contest authored by local SABR member Dr. Jack Sullivan with cash prizes going to the winner and runner-up. Hope to see you there!

The Halsey Hall Chapter will be hosting a booth at Twinsfest from Friday, January 24 through Saturday, January 25. If you are interested in volunteering for the booth, contact Doug Skipper (theskippers1@hotmail.com) and we hope to see you there!

Join us for SABR Day on January 25 at the Yogi Berra Museum! We'll have a panel discussion on New York Mets history, a speaker on New Jersey baseball history, and museum exhibits. Registration is not needed, but please RSVP to David Krell if you plan to attend. There will be a moderate $10 admission fee to defray costs (payable at the door.) All baseball fans are welcome, so we hope to see you there!

The next meeting of the SABR-Quebec chapter will be held on SABR Day on January 25 at Madison’s restaurant on Sherbrooke Street in Montreal. Patrick Carpentier and Marcel Dugas will make a joint presentation on the evolution of French baseball terms in the Province of Quebec. We will see that sporting terms have been translated quite early in the 20th century, yet it took a long time for media people to adopt them, even longer for the sporting population as a whole. Several topics will also be discussed, among others, the last World Series and the initiative to bring back a new Expos team. Hope you'll join us!

Join us for SABR Day on January 25 at the Looby Branch Library from 10:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Harriet Kimbro-Hamilton, daughter of Negro League star Henry Kimbro and a member of our chapter, will be telling us about a project to commemorate Negro Leaguers from Nashville with a plaque at Rose Park. This initiative is an undertaking by former Nashville councilman Ronnie Greer, Belmont University, Nashville Park Board, along with Harriet and others. Christopher Ryland will lead a discussion about 19th Century Base Ball. "Books" is one of the players in the Tennessee Vintage Base Ball Association and a "Digger" on protoball.org. Tom Lee will talk about Sports Gaming, particularly as it relates to MLB. Tom is on a state committee that is looking into future ramifications. Skip Nipper will lead the discussion on recent news surrounding cheating in baseball, MLB's anti-trust exemption, and the potential new MiLB-MLB agreement that could eliminate minor league teams and affiliations. We will have lunch nearby after the meeting, if you would like to join us. Hope to see you there!

The Schott-Pelican Chapter will hold its SABR Day meeting at the Holiday Inn West Bank Tower in Gretna, LA. The cost is free for baseball fans to attend! If you wish to attend or present, please contact S. Derby Gisclair (derbygisclair@cox.net) or Richard Cuicchi (rcuicchi@aol.com).

NY SABR will present an exciting program with a full slate of exceptional featured speakers so please pre-register with David Lippman at kiwiwriter47@gmail.com. You can also register in person on the day of the event. The meeting is open to non-members as well so bring a friend or invite a student; all baseball fans are welcome! The morning program panel “Babe Ruth As You Never Knew Him: 100 Years as a Yankee” includes Marty Appel, Michael Gibbons, and Bill Jenkinson, with all three men comprising an unparalleled "Brain Trust" on The Babe. The afternoon program features SABR Director Tyrone Brooks who is also the Senior Director of MLB's Front Office and Field Staff Diversity Pipeline Program. Members might know him as the founder of the Baseball Industry Network or for his contributions to Scouting and Sabermetrics. We will present a special silent auction this year and we thank all of you in advance for bringing high-quality donations to be included!

Let us usher in a new year and a new decade with another SABR Day happening! Our lineup is still forming but this is what we have so far: Mike Gimbel with a statistical summary of the 2019 season; Dan Joseph, “Last Ride of the Iron Horse”; Mitch Nathanson on his upcoming Jim Bouton biography; Brian Engelhart, "Moe Berg's year with the 1925 Reading Keys: Before He Was A Catcher or A Spy"; Ted Knorr: “Rap’s Rap”, a presentation on the life and career of Rap Dixon; Mark Kanter on his “Competition Index” about the relative closeness of pennant races in MLB; Alex Cheremeteff on "Hold that Tiger"; and Steven Glassman on "The Great Indoors". Matt Albertson will deliver a baseball trivia quiz. Please bring a photo ID in order to enter the building. Hope to see you all there!

This will be a belated-by-a-week SABR Day celebration. We will be having Jacob Pomrenke make a presentation about his latest exciting Black Sox Scandal findings, and Jim Odenkirk is on the docket for some personal reflections about his life-long obsession with the Cleveland Indians. Consider this a last call for anyone else who wants to present a paper, presentation, book or project. We will allot 15-20 minutes for each. Please contact Barry Bloom if you are interested. Hope to see you there!

George Skornickel, georgeskornickel@gmail.com

SABR Day comes early this year on Saturday, January 11, 2020, at the Conference Center at PNC Park. Enter the Pirates offices on Federal Street and go to the third floor. (If you arrive after 9:00 a.m., please call George at 724-554-0176 to unlock the doors.) Our guest speakers include Brian Engelhardt, "Moe Berg's Year with the 1925 Reading Keys"; Jim Haller with baseball trivia; Tim O'Neil on "Fred Clarke and his Third Basemen"; Barney Terrell on "Rube Waddell and his place in baseball's memory"; Chris Phillips on "Pittsburgh, MLSP, and the transformation of modern scouting"; and Dan Joseph on "How Lou Gehrig fought ALS to play one final championship season." Lunch is on your own from 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Please RSVP if you plan to attend and bring a baseball-loving friend!

Our featured guest for the 7th annual Hot Stove Dinner will be Rey Palacios. Cocktails at 5:00 p.m.; dinner at 6:00. Space is limited, so early RSVPs are encouraged (this event is expected to sell out and tickets will not be available at the door.) To learn more, visit rochesterbaseballhistory.org.

Our annual Hot Stove Meeting will be February 1 at Favazza's on The Hill. You don't need to be a SABR member to attend! Please sign up and bring a friend to introduce them to our wonderful organization. Reservations can be made with Mark Stangl (mwsbaseballdude@yahoo.com). The cost this year is $40/person — this event is a bargain at that price! Our guest speakers will include: Dan O’Neill (author and former Post-Dispatch columnist), George Altman (Negro Leaguer, NL All-Star), Dr. Ray Doswell (VP of Curatorial Services for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City), and Emily Wiebe (St. Louis Cardinals Manager of Player Development and Performance).

Join us for SABR Day! Our guest speakers are expected to include: a chat with former Padres first baseman Broderick Perkins; a joint presentation by Carlos Bauer and Bill Swank on professional baseball in California before 1957; and a talk by Bob Hicks on Bucky Harris and the 1949 Padres. Hope to see you there!

Please save the date: Saturday, January 18, 2020. We will meet at noon, at Driveline Baseball, which describes itself as “The world’s best data-driven baseball player development program. Hitting and pitching performance training informed by research and constant iteration.” We will receive a VIP tour of Driveline’s training facility, observe one-on-one training sessions, then break off for further discussion and Q&A with Driveline’s team. Driveline is located at 19612 70th Ave S #2-4, Kent, WA 98032. We are still working on an agenda that we will send out when it is ready. Again, please save this date—it’s right around the corner. This is going to be an awesome field trip. Google Driveline Baseball and check out the innovative things they are doing.

Join us on SABR Day for the inaugural meeting of the new Cool Papa Bell Chapter! Our guest speakers will be John Cohen, athletic director and former head baseball coach at Mississippi State University, who will talk about his experiences at the College World Series; and Thomas VanHyning on major-leaguers in Puerto Rico's Winter League. Member Glenn Lautzenhiser will present a baseball trivia contest. All baseball fans are welcome, so we hope to see you all there!

Please make plans to join us on SABR Day for this free event. Nick Gandy from the Florida Sports Foundation will be presenting on recent developments in the realm of Spring Training baseball in Florida, including the new minor league facility for the Atlanta Braves at Northport and improvements on others. In addition, chapter member Jeff English will present for discussion his all-time team of major leaguers who have come through Florida State, a topic sure to provoke some lively debate. We'll also discuss chapter business, including potential chapter representation at SABR 50 in Baltimore and the 2020 SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference in Birmingham, as well as the results of the 2020 BBWAA ballot for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. And of course, no North Florida/Buck O'Neil Chapter SABR Day event would be complete without the annual trivia contest. Hope to see you there!

Join us for SABR Day in Toronto! We'll meet from 1-3 p.m. at the Wallace Gastropub and all baseball fans are welcome to attend. Topics of discussion: the Black Sox Scandal and additional activities for the year. Hope to see you there! Please RSVP in advance at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/sabr-hanlans-point-winter-meetup-2020-tickets-88653183057 if you plan to attend.

Let's gather for brunch at John's Place at 11:00 AM on Saturday, January 25. As always, feel free to bring along any baseball items that would be of interest to the group. All baseball fans are welcome, so pass this invitation on to anyone else who might be interested. Please RSVP so that we can reserve a table for the group. We hope to see you there!

Bud Metheny/Virginia Eastern Shore Chapter

Join us for SABR Day in Virginia Beach! Our agenda includes introductions and baseball discussion on the future of minor-league baseball, player movement this offseason, and an awards recap, plus three presentations from members: "Happy Anniversary! Babe’s sale 100 years ago," Chris Jones; "Hall of Fame Veterans Committee," Paul Boren; and "Scouting School Weekend/ Baseball Winter Meetings," Alexis Collins. Hope to see you there!

$40 in advance; $45 at the door; $20 for ages 15 and under.

Join us for SABR Day on Saturday, February 1! The Speakers List (more to come): Jesse Dougherty, Nationals beat writer for the Washington Post; Jerry Crasnick, longtime ESPN writer who is now a senior adviser to the MLB Players Association; Matt Van Hoose, organist, Washington Nationals; Chris Segal, Major League umpire; Mark Pankin, who will present his talk on “Batting Out of Turn (BOOT): The Most Confounding Rule” that won the 2019 Doug Pappas Award; Greg Larson, former clubhouse attendant for the Aberdeen Ironbirds and author of "Clubbie" on the economics of minor league ballplaying; and research presentations by Brian Englehardt on "Moe Berg — Before He Was a Catcher or Spy”; Paul Scimonelli on “Joe Cambria: Scout or Scoundrel”; and Charlie Pavitt on “Major League Player Ethnicity, Participation, and Fielding Position, 1946-2018”. Plus: baseball book vendors, trivia, raffle, and camaraderie. Please RSVP early if you plan to attend. Hope to see you there!