R to L: Roland Hemond and Bob Fontaine, jr.

SABR 36 Awards Luncheon Schedule
12:05-3PM Friday, June 30, 2006
Courtyard Ballroom

Sponsored by the Louisville Slugger Museum.


Introduction of the Head Table by Master of Ceremonies

Meal

Introduction of founding members in attendance
Recognition of Donors

Awards Presentations
The Lee Allen Award, presented at National History Day
The Jack Kavanagh Memorial Youth Baseball Research Award
Recognition of USA Today Sports Weekly Awards (awarded later in the convention)
McFarland-SABR Awards
Sporting News-SABR Awards
The Roland Hemond Award (for meritorious service to the Scouting Profession)
The L. Robert "Bob" Davids Award (introduction of past awardees in attendance)

Keynote Address: Jim Bouton

Introduction

Sifting through Jim Bouton's numerous careers - pitcher, author, broadcaster, actor, television producer, entrepreneur, motivational speaker - it's difficult to settle on one title, though some have tried.

Pariah. Iconoclast. Legend. Whatever your choice, this week Bouton serves as the headline attraction at the SABR 36th annual convention and today's speaker.

Known to his high school junior varsity baseball team as "Warm Up Bouton" (because that's all he ever did), he planned on becoming a forest ranger. Not even a decade later, in 1963, he was an American League All-Star and 21-game winner for the Yankees.

In 1969 he wrote Ball Four, the funny, controversial, all-time bestseller that revealed baseball players as human beings. Ball Four was recently selected by the New York Public Library as one of the "Books of the Century." The latest update, titled Ball Four: The Final Pitch, is now entertaining a new generation.

Bouton retired from baseball in 1970 and became a television sportscaster in New York where he helped WABC-TV and then WCBS-TV climb to 1st place in the ratings. In 1978 Bouton made a comeback to baseball with the Atlanta Braves. When the 39-year-old knuckleballer beat the San Francisco Giants 4-1, it was his first major league win in eight years.
During his comeback Bouton helped create Big League Chew, shredded bubble gum in a pouch, so ballplayers could look right without getting sick. Big League Chew, introduced in 1980, has replaced chewing tobacco at many high schools and colleges.

The highest honor of his career came in 1996 when Bouton was named one of "The One Hundred Most Important People in American Sports History," published by Macmillan. In 1998, after 28 years, Bouton was finally invited to Old Timers' Day at Yankee Stadium when his son Michael wrote a letter to The New York Times saying the Yankees should forgive his dad for having written Ball Four.

USA Today Sports Weekly sponsors the oral and poster research presentations. Winners receive a cash prize of $250 for The Doug Pappas Research Award for the Best Oral Research Presentation, and $125 for Best Poster Research presentations. USA Today Sports Weekly donates the same amount to SABR.