The basic elements of the SABR convention include committee meetings and research presentations, vending of baseball books and other material, an awards presentation and keynote talk, panels of former players and other members of the baseball industry, a trivia contest, and trips to one or more baseball games. All these elements were part of the schedule today at the 36th annual SABR convention in Seattle.

Jim Bouton was the headline attraction today, appearing on a panel of former Seattle Pilots and as the keynote speaker for the annual SABR Awards Luncheon. Bouton was articulate and colorful in both appearances and offered insights to the writing of his groundbreaking book Ball Four. His keynote talk probably evoked more laughter than any other in recent SABR history.

SABR’s highest honor, the Bob Davids Award, was presented to John Thorn at the luncheon. Like Bouton, Thorn is a baseball literary legend with the creation of SABR’s The National Pastime and Total Baseball just two of his many achievements.

Friday evening, SABR members descended en mass on Safeco Field where the Seattle Mariners hosted the Colorado Rockies. We saw a game historic for its brevity. Colorado defeated Seattle, 2-0, in just one hour and 52 minutes, the shortest game in the history of the park.

Safeco is another great modern ballpark and its accolades are well deserved. There are a variety of vantage points to see the game and historical tributes to Seattle’s baseball past worked into some of the concession stand graphics on the main concourse.

Today’s highlight was a visit to Cheney Stadium in Tacoma for the game between the Tacoma Rainiers and the Fresno Grizzlies. Cheney Stadium, named after Ben Cheney, opened in 1960 and provides an actual retro experience to a different era and way of thinking about ballpark construction. Cheney Stadium is smaller, in every sense, than current Triple-A ballparks. It’s a one-deck affair and all the seats are close to the action. It doesn’t have the urban setting of PGE Park in Portland, but its location off Interstate-5 and State Route 16 offers nice scenery and a more relaxed baseball atmosphere than Safeco Field with all the high-tech, high speed bombardment of the senses that most new parks offer.

If you visit Cheney Stadium, don’t miss the Tacoma Baseball Hall of Fame on the first base side of the Grandstand concourse with plaques honoring its inductees including Cheney, Gaylord Perry, Dusty Rhodes and others. Also be sure to see the most unique statue of Ben Cheney sitting in a seat behind home plate, in the first row of seats above the walkway that separates the field boxes from the higher grandstand.

Earlier in the day, we broke away from the SABR convention for lunch at the Fox Sports Grill (where World Cup soccer, not baseball, dominated the attention of the diners) and a ride up the famous Space Needle. At the top of the structure we had a great view of the Seattle area in all directions. The Space Needle and its environs is not only a major tourist attraction, but also an historic destination harkening back to the World’s Fair of 1962.

Our trip back east began with a drive of about 600 miles back to Helena, Mont., via Interstate-90 and US Route 12. We managed to visit two classic baseball sites on the way. Leaving Seattle, we paid homage to the 1969 Seattle Pilots with a stop at the site of Sicks' Stadium. The site is now occupied by a Lowe’s store, but it pays a fond tribute baseball with a marker at the site of home plate near an entrance to the store, a small display of memorabilia (mostly related to the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League) just inside one of the store entrances, and a sign outside the other side of the store indicating that the site was once home to the Rainiers and the Pilots.

About 300 miles later, we visited Avista Stadium in Spokane, Wash., where professional baseball dates back to at least 1890. Avista is immediately comparable to Cheney Stadium in style and structure (and the main ballpark in Dodgertown at Vero Beach, Florida), although Avista clearly has more in the way of upgrades in recent years with over $2 million worth of renovations. The home of the 2005 Northwest League champion Spokane Indians was originally the home of the Triple-A farm club of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958 after a lightning-fast three month construction for $534,700. Lights came from Gilmore Field in Hollywood and the batting cage from Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.

Avista Stadium has been named the NWL Field of the Year seven times and led the league in attendance in 2005 (180,074) with an average of 4,739 fans per game. The franchise is owned by the Brett Brothers, including Hall-of-Famer George Brett. He is one of seven Spokane Hall of Famers honored outside the main entrance to the park including Stan Coveleski, George Kelly, Duke Snider, Hoyt Wilhelm, Don Sutton and Tommy Lasorda. (Thanks to Brandon Hansen, Director of Public Relations for the Indians, for his hospitality and information about the team’s ballpark and history.)

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