Doug Pappas Award
The Doug Pappas Research Award recognizes the best oral research presentation at the Annual Convention. Before 2004, it was known as the USA Today Sports Weekly Award; the name was changed to honor the late Doug Pappas.
The award for the best oral research presentation was first presented at the 1990 SABR convention in Cleveland as the John W. Cox Award, in honor of the late SABR member from Carrollton, Texas. In 1992, the USA Today Sports Weekly Award was established as a continuation of the Cox Award.
In 2002, a companion award for the best poster presentation was established. From 2004 to 2016, it was known as the USA Today Sports Weekly Award. Click here to learn more about the winners for the SABR Convention Poster Presentation Award.
Previous Winners
- David W. Smith, “Where Did the 24 Minutes Go?”
- David Firstman, “Dan Uggla: History’s Most Unlikely Hitting Streak?”
- John Asel, “Meta Pitch Tracking: How The Changes In Pitch Tracking Technologies Should Change How We Look At The Data They Collect”
- Mark Pankin, “Baseball’s Most Confounding Rule”
- Callie Batts Maddox, ” ‘Ty Cobb has Nothing on Her’: Early Twentieth Century Women’s Collegiate Baseball in Ohio”
- Chuck Hildebrandt, “Does Changing Leagues Affect Player Performance, and How?”
- David W. Smith, “The Myth of the Closer”
- Chuck Hildebrandt, “‘Little League Home Runs’ in MLB History”
- Michael Haupert, “William Hulbert and the Birth of the Business of Professional Baseball”
- Vince Gennaro, “Analyzing Batter Performance Against Pitcher Clusters”
- Rob Fitts, “Murderers, Spies, and Ballplayers: The Untold Story of the 1934 All American Tour of Asia”
- Ross Davies, “Toolson’s Secrets: A Close Call for the Baseball Antitrust Exemption”
2010
- Ross Davies, “Chinese-US Baseball Diplomacy before the Great War”
2009
- Tim Herlich, “21”
2008
- Vince Gennaro, “What Factors Influence Free Agent Salaries?”
2007
- Cait Murphy, “Cover-up: Gambling, Corruption, and the Wild Finish of the 1908 Season”
2006
- Sean Forman, “Blocking Pitches: Assessing a Catcher’s Ability to Save Runs with Bruises”
2005
- Peter Morris, “Origin of the Pitching Rotation”
2004
- Andy McCue, “Rickey v. O’Malley and the Mysterious Buyout Clause”
2003
- Peter Morris, “The Origin of the Word ‘Fan’ “
2002
- Tom Tippett, “Using Lineup-dependent Expected Runs Analysis to Evaluate Strategies”
2001
- David W. Smith, “Play by Play Analysis of the 1951 National League Pennant Race”
2000
- Doug Pappas, “111 Years of Major League Ejections”
1999
- Jean Ardell, “Left-hander Ila Borders: Crossing Baseball’s Gender Line from Little League to the Northern League”
1998
- Stew Thornley, “The Polo Grounds — A Tale of Four Stadiums”
1997
- Norman Macht, “Baseball’s Traditional Values: What Are They?”
1996
- John Pastier, “A Dozen New Ballparks, 1989-2000”
1995
- Dennis & Jeanne DeValeria, “Honus Wagner’s Tricks of the Trade: At the Plate in the Field, On the Bases”
1994
- Tom Shieber, “The Evolution of the Pitcher’s Mound”
1993
- Barry Mednick, “The Giants Stay Put: For Now”
1992
- Jack Carlson, “Baseball Patents”
1991
- William Chambers, “Larry Doyle”
1990
- Bob Buege, “The Milwaukee Braves: A Baseball Eulogy”