“The Sporting News” donates two special resource collections to SABR
At the SABR 43 Annual Business Meeting on Thursday, August 1, 2013, Executive Director Marc Appleman announced that The Sporting News has donated two special collections to SABR:
- The Sporting News Contract Cards: This 60-box collection consists of 214,000 index cards that The Sporting News maintained on virtually every professional baseball player from the early 1900s through the mid-1990s. The cards contain player biographical data, as well as details of year-by-year contract signings, player trades and assignments.
- The Leonard Gettelson Baseball Record Collection: This 36-box collection consists of 129,000 index cards with miscellaneous baseball statistical data that was kept by Mr. Gettelson. This material was the basis of several reference books that Mr. Gettelson compiled for The Sporting News between the 1930s and 1977, including The Sporting News Baseball Record Book and The World Series Record Book.
The SABR Board of Directors will determine how best to digitize the collections and make them available to all baseball researchers.
“These collections will be valuable resources for SABR members, as well as the general public, in conducting historial baseball research,” Appleman said.
For more coverage of SABR 43, visit SABR.org/convention.
- Related link: SABR members have access to complete The Sporting News archives through Paper of Record; click here to learn more
Originally published: August 7, 2013. Last Updated: April 16, 2020.