I’ve attended the annual Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) convention every summer since 2004, but often skip the awards luncheon because a) it’s awfully expensive for some mediocre chicken, b) sometimes there’s an actual baseball game going on at the same time, and c) if there isn’t an actual baseball game there’s definitely some drinking to be done.
My luncheon attendance also depends a lot on the keynote speaker. Marvin Miller and Jim Bouton were must-attends for me no matter the price, but some of the others haven’t really piqued my interest.
This year’s convention is in California and not surprisingly SABR has landed a big-name keynote speaker in agent Scott Boras, so I may have to attend simply because he’s been such a frequent topic here at Hardball Talk. Maybe he’ll even take some questions, in which case I can ask about his relationship with Jon Heyman or his current take on the wonderful Oliver Perez/Sandy Koufax comparisons. Or maybe even think of a worthwhile question. It’s not until July, after all.
Incidentally, I highly recommend going to the SABR convention. If you love baseball and hanging out for a few days with other people who love baseball, it’s tough to beat.
