SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game

SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game
Edited by Bill Nowlin
Associate Editors: Mark Armour, Scott Bush, Leslie Heaphy, Jacob Pomrenke, Cecilia Tan, John Thorn
Foreword by John Thorn

Published by University of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: September 1, 2020
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-4962-2268-8, $49.95
8.5″ x 11″, 632 pages

Baseball has seen many changes in the last 50 years, and SABR’s 50th anniversary provides an opportunity to highlight the most memorable players, teams, and events from the game’s glorious past.

SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game, edited by Bill Nowlin and available from the University of Nebraska Press, celebrates and highlights SABR’s wide-ranging contributions to baseball history.

Established in 1971 in Cooperstown, New York, SABR has sought to foster and disseminate the research of baseball — with groundbreaking work from statisticians, historians, and independent researchers — and has published dozens of articles with far-reaching and long-lasting impact on the game. Among its current membership are many Major and Minor League Baseball officials, broadcasters, and writers as well as numerous former players.

The diversity of SABR members’ interests is reflected in this fiftieth-anniversary volume— from baseball and the arts to statistical analysis to the Deadball Era to women in baseball. SABR 50 at 50 includes the most important and influential research published by members across a multitude of topics, including the sabermetric work of Dick Cramer, Pete Palmer, and Bill James, along with Jerry Malloy on the Negro Leagues, Keith Olbermann on why the shortstop position is number 6, John Thorn and Jules Tygiel on the untold story behind Jackie Robinson’s signing with the Dodgers, and Gai Berlage on the Colorado Silver Bullets women’s team in the 1990s.

Other contributors include: Mark Armour, Bob Bailey, Philip Bergen, Phil Birnbaum, Peter C. Bjarkman, Clifford Blau, Gene Carney, Jerrold Casway, William R. Cobb, Warren Corbett, L. Robert Davids, Mark Fimoff, David (D.B.) Firstman, Robert K. Fitts, Duke Goldman, Peter B. Gregg, Bill Haber, Gary D. Hailey, Leslie Heaphy, John R. Husman, Clifford S. Kachline, Stephen R. Keeney, Bill Kirwin, Herm Krabbenhoft, William F. Lamb, Larry Lester, Daniel R. Levitt, Matthew Levitt, Fred Lieb, Karl Lindholm, Tom Melville, Peter Morris, Leonard S. Newman, Heather M. O’Neill, Joseph M. Overfield, Lawrence S. Ritter, Tom Shieber, David Shoebotham, David W. Smith, Steve Steinberg, A.D. Suehsdorf, Stew Thornley, and William J. Weiss.

Leading up to SABR’s 50th anniversary in 2021, the organization also produced a series of online exhibits at SABR.org to highlight baseball’s most impactful players and off-field figures, ballgames, record-breaking feats, books, films, stories, milestones, and baseball cards.

As SABR looks ahead to its next fifty years, this 50 at 50 collection gathers the organization’s most notable research and baseball history for the serious baseball reader.

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Below: Find essays and articles from SABR 50 at 50

Essays

Foreword: SABR 50 at 50

The Growth of ‘Three True Outcomes’: From Usenet Joke to Baseball Flashpoint

The Struggle to Define ‘Valuable’: Tradition vs. Sabermetrics in the 2012 AL MVP Race

Professional Woman Umpires

The Roster Depreciation Allowance: How Major League Baseball Teams Turn Profits Into Losses

The Double Victory Campaign and the Campaign to Integrate Baseball

The Black Sox Scandal

Bill McKechnie

Do Hitters Boost Their Performance During Their Contract Years?

Clutch Hitting in the Major Leagues: A Psychological Perspective

Lou Gehrig’s RBI Record: 1923–39

Babe Ruth and Eiji Sawamura

The Georgia Peach: Stumped by the Storyteller

Zooming In On A Great Old Photo

The Quest for Dick McBride

History versus Harry Frazee: Re-revising the Story

Pots & Pans and Bats & Balls

The Effects of Integration, 1947-1986

Clemente’s Entry into Organized Baseball: Hidden in Montreal?

New Light on an Old Scandal

Do Batters Learn During a Game?

Why is the Shortstop ‘6’?

Which Great Teams Were Just Lucky?

Underestimating the Fog

John McGraw Comes to New York: The 1902 Giants

Hack Wilson’s 191st RBI: A Persistent Itch Finally Scratched

 Free Agency in 1923: A Shocker for Baseball

Cy Seymour: Only Babe Ruth Was More Versatile

The Colorado Silver Bullets: Can Promotion Based on ‘Battle of the Sexes’ Be Successful?

Lifting the Iron Curtain of Cuban Baseball

Cricket and Mr. Spalding

Karl Lindholm: The Book

The Evolution of the Baseball Diamond: Perfection Came Slowly

Smokey and the Bandit: The Greatest Pitching Duel in Blackball History

Locating Philadelphia’s Historic Ballfields

Four Teams Out: The National League Reduction of 1900

Jackie Robinson’s Signing: The Real Story

Honus Wagner’s Rookie Year, 1895

Roy Tucker, Not Roy Hobbs: The Baseball Novels of John R. Tunis

Zane Grey’s Redheaded Outfield

J. Lee Richmond’s Remarkable 1879 Season

Anatomy of a Murder: The Federal League and the Courts

Out at Home: Baseball Draws the Color Line, 1887

In Pursuit of Bull Durham

Runs and Wins

Ladies and Gentlemen, Presenting Marty McHale

Average Batting Skill Through Major League History

The First Negro in 20th Century Organized Baseball

The Best Games Pitched in Relief

Relative Batting Averages

Ernie Lanigan, Patron Saint of SABR

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