Editor’s Note: Spring 2025 Baseball Research Journal

I have news about the publications department here at SABR. I’ll be taking a sabbatical in the fall to write a SABR book for University of Nebraska Press. I’m expanding the SABR Style Guide into a handbook for baseball writers and editors, to be published in 2026. This is something I’ve wanted to do ever since I first took over the publications director position in 2011, so I’m excited to see it come to fruition. My hope is that the SABR Guide will become a resource that baseball writers, editors, and researchers outside of SABR will find valuable for years to come. Now, please meet Liz Roscher—whose byline you’ve probably seen at Yahoo! Sports—who will be taking the reins of the Baseball Research Journal. Sadly, as we welcome Liz, we bid farewell to publications assistant Davy Andrews—but you can continue to read his articles at FanGraphs. Davy, we miss you already!

I’ll be honest, it might seem trivial to devote an entire handbook to issues like whether it’s proper to refer to a major league baseball player from Montreal as “an Expo,” compared to geopolitical issues like, say, the president of the United States talking about invading Canada. But defining best practices for writing isn’t just for people who care about comma placement, it’s to create standards that improve clarity. And clarity in writing is crucial to preserving knowledge.

Many SABR members are interested in American history at large. Lately I find myself at a loss at the news, as “history” is being made every day, but they are doing their best to keep us in the dark. We live in unprecedented times, and while there are hundreds of things to be aghast over since November, the thing that worries me most is what is happening to knowledge itself.

My impression of this federal administration is that they would prefer that no one under their governance have any facts, so that they can govern purely on their own ill-informed (or nefarious) ideas without being challenged. That includes both information like what DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) is actually doing and research into everything from public health to climate change. Facts should not be controversial. Science should not be controversial. But we have various cabinet members now who have made statements that show either they are truly ignorant of known scientific facts—for example, vaccines and treatments for measles1—or they are craven liars.

They are actively destroying huge amounts of data that were gathered for the good of the American people (and paid for by our taxes). It would take me several pages to list everything that has already been deleted, burned, or disappeared, so I’ll mention just one that is relevant to SABR: the day before I wrote this editorial, the Department of Defense deleted a page about Jackie Robinson’s military service from their website.

There was immediate outcry. Robinson is now a genuine folk hero, who stands in the pantheon of American icons—alongside Babe Ruth—as a universally revered secular “saint.” But they deleted the pages about his service under the publicly announced directive to remove any hint of “DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion) from government websites and publications.

Following the outcry, the DOD reversed course, claiming the page was “mistakenly” removed in the DEI purge. “We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot told the media, but also, “Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson.”2

In other words, they couldn’t get away with disappearing Jackie Robinson. But they will be trying to erase many, many other things from our collective memory. We cannot allow that to happen. SABR’s mission—to foster the study, discussion, and understanding of all aspects of baseball—has not changed at all. It’s just become more crucial. Historians, librarians, and archivists: we are the front line against this onslaught. It will be up to us to keep what we care about from being swept away.

— Cecilia M. Tan
SABR Publications Director

The statement above represents the views of the author and is not a statement by SABR as an organization.

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Notes

1. Mary Kekatos, “RFK Jr. claims measles can be treated with vitamin A, linked to poor diet. Here’s what science says,” ABC News, March 14, 2025, https://abcnews.go.com/Health/rfk-jr-claims-measles-treated-vitamin-linked-poor/story?id=119713193.

2.   Kinsley Crowley, “Jackie Robinson Article Removed from Department of Defense Website Has Been Restored,” USA Today, March 19, 2025, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2025/03/19/jackie-robinson-department-of-defense-website/82538988007/; Chris Boccia and Luis Martinez, “DOD Mistakenly Removed Jackie Robinson Content,” ABC News, March 19, 2025, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dod-mistakenly-removed-jackie-robinson-content-website-amid/story?id=119955477.