We take a break from our usual baseball card storytelling this week to announce a new award approved by the SABR Board of Directors and coming out of our very own Baseball Cards Research Committee. The Jefferson Burdick Award for Contributions to the Hobby will be handed out for the very first time at #SABR50, our national conference taking place from July 15-19, 2020, in Baltimore.
At this time it is our pleasure to announce that SABR’s inaugural recipient of this prestigious honor will be…drum roll please…up to you!
Award criteria
Yes, we are looking for YOU to nominate a worthy recipient who has made significant contributions to the hobby in such areas as–
- Baseball card research/scholarship
- Baseball card creation/production/innovation
- Developing/maintaining resources (e.g., publications, websites, communities, events) for collectors
- Increasing access, knowledge, or enjoyment
In short, we are looking for the individuals who have made baseball card collecting a better hobby for the rest of us.
award process
Have someone in mind? Here is what we’d like you to do.
- No later than February 28, use the Contact form on this website to let us know your nominee(s) along with with a very brief description of their role or contributions. A few sentences is sufficient at this stage in the process.
- Be available for follow-up in case more information is needed.
On our end, we (your committee co-chairs, Nick and Jason) will vet the nominees and hope to arrive at a short list of finalists. Once finalists are determined, we will work with nominees to turn each finalist nomination into a post here on the SABR Baseball Cards blog and then work with our Awards Subcommittee* to choose the award winner.
*Subject to availability, those committee members who contributed at least 12 posts to the SABR Baseball Cards blog in the preceding year.
Award rules
A couple quick notes before closing this post and putting the ball in your court:
- Nominees should be living at the time of nomination (and we’ll hope for their sake still alive by SABR 50!)
- You must be a SABR member to participate in the nomination process. If you are not yet a member, please join!
- The nomination deadline is February 28, 2020.
MORE ABOUT the award’s namesake
Finally, for a wealth of great articles on Jefferson Burdick himself, head to the Burdick section of the “Old Baseball Cards” library.
SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee 
I am so happy that the committee has taken this on. There are many folks, alive and deceased, who deserved some sort of recognition for their contributions. Remember- Baseball Hobby News used to run a “Buck Barker Spirit of the Hobby” Award to acknowledge such people.
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Jason: thanks so much for the link t the Old Baseball Cards library. Fascinating reading. I’m sure lots of folks here knew about the site, but others like me did not.
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