Andy McCue
Andy McCue joined SABR in 1982 and he probably has the broadest range of baseball interests of anyone in our Society! Currently, he lists 11 committees in which he is a member, one of which, the Bibliography Committee, he has chaired since 1992. No wonder two additional committees list him as “potential member.”
As a valued member of so many research committees, Andy’s presence is critical during the scheduling of each annual convention, so if you notice that the Statistical Analysis and Ballparks Committees aren’t tracked against each other, or the Women in Baseball and Business of Baseball Committees can’t be in conflict, it might be due to each committee clamoring that Andy must be at their meeting.
However, his contributions to our Society go well beyond that. In 1990, Ted Hathaway persuaded SABR to establish The Baseball Index (TBI). From the very start, Andy has been indispensable in the administration of that effort and the coordination of the work of a large number of SABR volunteers. That index now has over 200,000 sources catalogued and more are being added all the time. It is the essential starting place for any serious baseball research, whether the study is numerical or cultural. Andy’s leadership has contributed mightily to making the Index such a valued resource.
He is an active researcher and was the winner of the 2004 Doug Pappas Award, presented annually for the best research presentation at the SABR national convention. Andy’s winning work was titled “Rickey vs. O’Malley and the Mysterious Buyout Clause.” He won the McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award for “Baseball by the Books” back when it was called the Macmillan-SABR Award in 1986.
Andy’s publication record is excellent: five of his articles have been published in various SABR publications, and his chapter on using books is a highlight of How to Do Baseball Research. He has served the Alan Roth Chapter (Los Angeles) as its president and has been an integral member of the convention committee, the nominating committee, the committee to create a Research Services Manager, and the committee on research committees – of course, what else?
Andy has served on the L. Robert Davids Award Committee in the past as well, and since 2002, when he was elected to SABR’s Board of Directors, Andy has been opposed to having a sitting member be eligible to receive SABR’s highest honor. However, this winter our Board saw the wisdom in modifying that policy and this is the first year the Bob Davids Award committee was permitted to consider current Board members. Our selection task then became very easy and I hope Andy is not too unhappy with us for choosing him.
I cannot conclude a citation such as this without commenting on Andy’s delightful personal characteristics. He is friendly, outgoing, gregarious and genuinely helpful to all who approach him. I remind you that the award description refers to “ingenuity, integrity, and self-sacrifice” in contributing to SABR and the baseball research community in general. Andy McCue possesses all of those attributes in abundance. It is my sincere pleasure to present him with the Bob Davids Award for 2007.