The 26th Annual NINE Spring Training Conference
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6
THE CY SEYMOUR LEAD-OFF SESSION: An Evening with Nancy Faust
For 40 years, Nancy Faust entertained White Sox fans, as the organist at Comiskey Park (both old and new, later known as US Cellular Field). Faust popularized the use of contemporary music, particularly “Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye” when opposing pitchers left the game. Faust worked closely with Bill Veeck and Harry Caray, and she has earned a number of accolades and honors. Sports Illustrated described her as baseball’s “Most Valuable Organist.” In 2018, she was inducted into the Shrine of the Eternals by the Baseball Reliquary.
THURSDAY, MARCH 7
THE ERNEST LAWRENCE THAYER SESSION (Chair: Gary Gershman)
Allison R. Levin, “A Glimpse Inside?: The Rhetoric of Player-Selected Walk-up Music”
Jim Gates, “Cardboard Culture: On the Origins of the Great American Baseball Card”
Roberta Newman, “ ‘From the Land of the Sky-blue Waters’: A Bear, Beer, and Baseball”
THE PAT JORDAN SESSION (Chair: Jean Ardell)
Mitchell J. Nathanson, “From ‘Tell-Some’ to ‘Tell-All’: How We Went from Brosnan to Bouton”
Daniel Anderson, “ ‘The way it should be’: Re-examining Hemingway and Baseball, Modernism and Sports
David Block, “Jane Austen’s Baseball Dynasty”
Ron Briley, “Philip Roth, Trick E. Dixon, and Curt Flood: Baseball as Satire in the Tradition of Jonathan Swift”
FIELD RESEARCH: Cleveland Indians vs. Arizona Diamondbacks at Salt River Fields
THE HAROLD BAINES SESSION (Chair: Willie Steele)
Lindsay Bell, “Baffling Ballots: The Perplexing First Ten Yeats of Hall of Fame Voting”
Respondents—Steve Gietschier, Lindenwood University, former BBWAA voter; Barry Bloom, BBWAA voter since 1992; Tony DeMarco, BBWAA voter since 1998
FRIDAY, MARCH 8
THE MOSES FLEETWOOD WALKER SESSION (Chair: Allison Levin)
Taylor Braun, “Sliding Safely into Home: Father and Son Relationships in Baseball Films from 1984-1994”
Shlomo Weinish, “From Facilitators to Leaders: The Next Stage of Latino Ball Players”
John Harney, “East Asian Baseball Culture in Historical Context”
THE MANNY SANGUILLEN SESSION (Chair: Mitchell Nathanson)
Steve Treder, “1946: Major League Baseball’s 1491”
Steve Gietschier, “Let’s Play Fantasy Baseball, World War II Style: The War Bond League of 1943”
George Skornickel, “Blue, Gray and Baseball”
THE MEL ALLEN SESSION (Chair: Taylor Braun)
Dan Levitt, “They Deserved Each Other: The Tempestuous New York Giants Ownership of Charles Stoneham, John McGraw, and Frank McQuade”
Jason Cannon, “ ‘In Blaze of Glory’: Charles Webb Murphy’s Redemptive Legacy
Robert F. Garratt, “Kenesaw Mountain Landis and the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”
THE EFFA MANLEY SESSION (Chair: Lisa Alexander)
Al Piacente, “Yippee! I didn’t choke!: What Steve Sax, Chuck Knoblauch, Mackey Sasser, et al, tell us about sport performance”
Robert V. Bellamy and James R. Walker, “Enjoy Your Beer & Kettle Corn: It’s Spring Training and the Games Don’t Matter, Right?”
Tyler Fleming, “Who/What Were the Zulu Cannibal Giants?: Minstrelsy, Clowning, and the Use of Stereotypes of Africa within Negro Leagues Baseball”
Ed Edmonds, “Roy Face’s Incredible 1959 Season”
SATURDAY, MARCH 9
THE EDDIE GAEDEL SESSION (Chair: Paul Hensler)
Lee Lowenfish, “Major League Baseball and College Summer Leagues: Jack Horenberger, Bill Enos, and Two Tales of Pro-Amateur Cooperation from the 1960s and the 1980s”
Stephanie Liscio, “ ‘The Finest Site for a Stadium in this Country’: The Braves Leave Milwaukee for Atlanta”
Lee C. Kluck, “ ‘What About Harry Dalton?: The Role of Harry Dalton in the Success of the Baltimore Orioles 1960-1971”
THE TONI STONE SESSION (Chair: Ed Edmonds)
Lynn R. Miller , “Your Success Story: An Innovative Scaling of Major and Minor League Baseball Community Involvement to Enhance Public Perception and Positively Impact Youth”
Judith R. Hiltner and James R. Walker, “Red Barber: Voice of a Century”
Kevin A. Johnson and Jennifer J. Asenas, “The First Amendment and Baseball”
Scott D. Peterson, “Lardner’s Other Bushers: The Probelmatic Bildungs Quests of Speed Perkins, Skull Scoville, and ‘The Yellow Kid’”
FIELD RESEARCH: Milwaukee Brewers vs. Oakland Athletics at Hohokam Park
THE BILL KIRWIN SESSION
2019 Society for American Baseball Research’s Seymour Medal Award: Jane Leavy, The Big Fella
Keynote Speaker: Curt Smith
Curt Smith is the author of seventeen books, including Voices of The Game, a history of baseball broadcasting, Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story, and Mercy! A Celebration of Fenway Park’s Centennial. His latest book, titled The Presidents and the Pastime, was released in 2018. Smith served as speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush and is now a senior lecturer of English at the University of Rochester.