The Baseball Index: SABR Effort, SABR Tool

Editor’s note: This article describes an early version of SABR’s The Baseball Index database as it existed at the turn of the twenty-first century. To search the current database of The Baseball Index online, visit baseballindex.org.

 

Nearly all baseball research is drawn in some way from the printed word. Whether you’re researching a player profile, statistical analysis, fan memoir, manager’s biography, team history, or an economic study, you will almost inevitably end up referring to the written works of others. As a baseball researcher, you know that finding the information you need can be difficult and frustrating. The finding tools available to baseball researchers have been shallow and recent in their coverage. If you want something to help you navigate the ocean of baseball literature from before 1980, 1985, or even 1990, your options are limited, to say the least. The Baseball Index (formerly known as RBI) was created to address this deficiency.

What is The Baseball Index?

It is a SABR-owned index to baseball literature. An index, of course, is something that helps you find where something is located within a text or body of literature. Perhaps you use a computer product like InfoTrac1 or ProQuest2 to find magazine articles on a particular subject. Or, you may recall using the old Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. Whether paper-based or electronic, these indexes guide you to the information you need. The Baseball Index works much the same way, except that its focus is on baseball. The importance of such finding tools cannot be overstated. The difference is knowing where to find your information versus guessing where it might be. It is the difference between a few hours’ work versus a few days or even weeks. Finding tools like indexes can give you certainty instead of serendipity.

How Does it Work?

The Baseball Index is the largest bibliographic baseball database available with over 150,000 records encompassing books, magazine articles, programs, pamphlets, films, recordings, songs, cartoons, and anything else that may be of interest to the baseball fan or researcher. When we index books or articles for The Baseball Index, we gather a variety of information that not only helps researchers locate the information they need, but also gives you an idea as to the content of each source:

• Author
• Title
• Statistical Content Type
• Photo or Illustration Content Type
• Named Persons (significant mention)
• Topics
• Publication/Publisher Name
• Publication Information (copyright date, issue date, volume number, issue number, size, indexes, bibliography, footnotes, and pagination)
• Additional information for poems, songs, book reviews, etc.

You can look up information with The Baseball Index. using any of these categories. For example:

• I need a list of all the articles you have by Roger Kahn. (You look this up under the “Author” category.)
• Who wrote the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant? (Look it up under the “Title” category.)
• What is there on Jake Powell? (Look him up under the “Named Persons” category.)
• I’m looking for anything on the Black Sox Scandal. (look it up under the “Topics” category.)

You can also look up information in The Baseball Index by combining categories. For example:

• I need articles on Willie Mays that were published in “Jet” or “Ebony” magazine during 1954 and 1955. (Look up “Mays” in the “Named Persons” category combined with “Jet” and “Ebony” in the “Publications” category combined with “1954” and “1955.”)

Some examples of records from The Baseball Index:

• Author(s): Klem, Bill; with William J. Slocum
• Title: I Never Missed One in My Heart
• Statistics: n
• Photos/Illustrations: c:(1); bw:(1)
• Document Type: Article
• Named Person(s): Klem, Bill; O’Loughlin, Silk; Tighe, Jack; O’Rourke, Jim; McCreery, Tom; Clymer, Bill; Pulliam, Harry
• Topic(s): Biographies; Umpires; Umpiring; Bad Calls; Anecdotes
• Publication Name: Collier’s
• Copyright Date: 1951
• Issue Date: March 31
• Volume: 127
• Issue Number: 13
• Page(s) in Article: 30(6)

 

• Author(s): n
• Title: Jury Disagrees in Bush Case
• Statistics: n
• Photos/Illustrations: n
• Document Type: Article
• Named Person(s): Bush, Joe; Miller, Louis
• Topic(s): Litigation; Trials; Death; Automobile Accidents
• Notes: Bush is sued for killing man in auto accident; brief article
• Column or Series Name: Late News Items
• Publication Name: The Sporting News
• Copyright Date: 1916
• Issue Date: June 15
• Volume: 62
• Issue Number: 15
• Page(s) in Article: 1(1)

 

• Author(s): Lieb, Frederick G.
• Title: The Boston Red Sox
• Copyright Date: 1947
• Statistics: n
• Photos/Illustrations: bw:(15)
• Document Type: Hardbound Book
• Named Person(s): Mack, Connie; Collins, Jimmy; Young, Cy; Criger, Lou; Stahl, Chick; Speaker, Tris; Wood, Joe; Ruth, Babe; Carrigan, Bill; Frazee, Harry; Taylor, John I.; Quinn, Bob; Yawkey, Tom; Somers, Charlie; McGreevey, Nuf Sed
• Topic(s): Boston Red Sox; Fenway Park; Owners; Executives; Fans; Historical Knowledge; Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds; Socks; Suicide; Popularity; World Series; 1901; 1903; 1912
• Publisher: (New York): G.P. Putnam’s Sons
• Size: 21,14.5
• Index: n
• Bibliography: n
• Pages in Book: 261
• Footnotes or Sourcenotes: n

How is it accessed?

Accessing The Baseball Index is not difficult. It is available through the The Baseball Index Data Service3 to anyone. You need not know anything about computers, much less searching computer databases. Simply describe to us your research project and the kinds of information you need. We will use this information to search The Baseball Index for relevant source material, then get back to you with the total number of source references The Baseball Index lists on your topic, along with a fee schedule if you would like us to list them for you. This much of the service is entirely free.

Before sending in your request, think carefully about what you need. The better you can describe your topic, the more accurate we can be in finding the appropriate information. If you decide to purchase the list of source references you can choose to have them sent electronically via email, or mailed as a printout on paper. Paper is slightly more expensive and takes a few more days. Payment may be sent either directly to The Baseball Index address or to the SABR office.

Orders may also be charged through the SABR office. Your list of references will be sent to you promptly upon receipt of payment. Baseball Index fees are a fraction of the cost of similar specialty database services, and SABR members enjoy a further substantial discount. We are not trying to turn a profit or fill SABR’s coffers, even though we have collected over $6,500 in receipts. We charge a fee to demonstrate that researchers are willing to pay for this kind of information and also to limit the number of requests we have to process. The Baseball Index is a completely volunteer effort. No one in the project receives any compensation for his or her work. The Baseball Index is the exclusive property of SABR. The complete Baseball Index database is also available for purchase as a data file for use on your own computer.4 Using commonly available commercial software — such as Microsoft Access or Excel — you can readily search the database for sources on any baseball research topic.

In the fall of 2000, SABR entered into an agreement with the IdeaLogical Company of New York to provide access to The Baseball Index through IdeaLogical’s Baseball Online Library on CBS Sportsline (http://cbs.sportsline.com). This will provide free access to up to 100 source references. Researchers will be able to search using Topic, Named Person, or Author’s Name. As we go to press, the web site is not yet up and running, but up-to-date information on developments may be found at http://www.sabr.org/dataserv.shtml.

Finding your sources

Now that you have your list of sources, how do you find the sources themselves? The Baseball Index contains many cataloged materials that you may find it difficult to locate.

Your logical starting place is an area library — the larger, the better. An excellent guide to library holdings in the United States and Canada is OCLC’s WorldCat.5 This electronic resource is available through many libraries. On the state or regional level, there are many “union catalogs” which allow you to search hundreds or even thousands of library catalogs at once. In my state of Minnesota, for example, there is a catalog called MNLink6 that encompasses the holdings of hundreds of public and academic libraries around the state.

Academic libraries, particularly those at large universities, often house excellent collections of books and periodicals. State historical societies are also fine sources for baseball publications. But even if you live far from large population centers, you can often order a publication through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) at your local library. It sometimes takes weeks for your request to be filled, but you can obtain many sources this way, often at low or no cost.

If you can’t get your materials through ILL, you might want to try a fee-based research service, which can locate your sources, photocopy, and send you the information you need. This approach can be expensive, but it may be worthwhile, especially if you need only a few things.

Finally, if your local library finds the source you want at a library in another city but is unable to borrow it for you, you can travel to the source itself.

The Baseball Index depends on volunteers

The Baseball Index is an entirely volunteer effort. Dozens of individuals have contributed to building this huge database, but more needs to be done. There are many opportunities for working on The Baseball Index.

You might index a new book you’ve just finished reading, or the latest issue of a magazine you subscribe to. Perhaps you have a small collection of baseball books, or past issues of magazines. You may have ready access to a local library’s baseball collection. Any and all of these may be good candidates for adding to The Baseball Index.

Indexing is not difficult or time-consuming, and we require no long-term commitments from our volunteers. The Baseball Index has already helped hundreds in their research. By helping to build The Baseball Index, you are working to facilitate and advance baseball research.

If you think you might like to work on The Baseball Index, please contact either project director Ted Hathaway or Andy McCue, or the SABR office.

TED HATHAWAY is the originator and principal director of The Baseball Index. A SABR member since 1988, he has contributed research presentations and articles on several baseball subjects. He has also been active in promoting and facilitating the Society’s use of the Internet. He is the author of The Senior Professional Baseball Association (1992), the bibliography for The Senior League Encyclopedia (1998), and a co-author of SABR’s research guide How to Do Baseball Research. He runs INFORM Research Services in Minneapolis.

 

Notes

1. http://www.galegroup.com

2. http://www.umi.com

3. http://www.sabr.org/dataserv.shtml

4. http://www.sabr.org/merchandise/rbi.shtml

5. http://www.odc.org

6. http://www.mnlink.org