One of my goals since starting my Ph.D. program was to get published. I also wanted to give a presentation at a conference somewhere, and both are happening this summer. In June I will attend my first SABR Convention in Dallas. I have been a long time member, and if you know anything about me personally I love baseball and its history.
If you don’t know, SABR is the Society for American Baseball Research. While I want to earn my Ph.D. in history, I also want to become a baseball historian. And this is a step in the right direction.
I was fortunate to have both my abstracts selected for an article and a presentation. Both are on minor league baseball teams in Waco but deal with different teams, leagues, and years.
My article titled Waco Pirates: A Tale of Two Cities, deals with the 1953-1954 seasons where the Pirates, then a Class B league team of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The two seasons were marred by disaster, a move to a different city, and then a championship. I just received the proof of the journal and it should be out this summer. This will appear in this summer’s National Pastime: Baseball in Texas and Beyond. See cover photo for last year’s journal from Minnesota.
My presentation deals with an older minor league team in Waco, the 1914 Waco Navigators of the Texas League. This team was embattled in a controversy with the Houston Buffaloes at the end of the year. I am still working on this presentation and believe I am scheduled to give it June 26th at 11:30AM. Below is the listing on the SABR Convention website.
11:30-11:55 a.m. (Irving Lecture Hall)
RP08: The Texas League Controversy of 1914
Eric Bynum
The Waco Navigators won three consecutive Class B Texas League titles from 1914-1916. Bynum focuses on the first of their titles, shared with the Houston Buffaloes. Houston was accused of delaying the last game of the season until it was too dark to play, allowing it to win the title by percentage points over Waco. The league Commissioner ultimately made a decision that eventually led to Houston and Waco having the same record and sharing the title. Bynum explores what led to this decision, while touching on the rather brief major league career of the Navigators’ Harvey Grubb.
Eric Bynum has been a die-hard Atlanta Braves fan in Texas since the 1980s thanks to WTBS. A history teacher by trade, he loves to travel the world and see baseball in as many places as possible. He is taking a break from his PhD to work on writing about baseball once again and plans on continuing to research the teams of the Big State League, especially the teams of Temple, Texas, where he grew up.
Check out the full schedule here:
I am excited to really start building my CV with articles and presentations. I’ll look to continue doing so with different publications over the next few years as I work toward finishing my degree.
I have so many ideas of what I want to do with local sports teams and schools, but priority #1 will be finishing up my degree. I still plan on posting here as I read and discover new stories.
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My goal this year is to read 12 books. You can follow me on Goodreads if you have an account and see what I am reading and my thoughts on the books.