Bratkovich, Edwards, Fitts win 2021 SABR Baseball Research Awards
The 2021 SABR Baseball Research Awards, which honor outstanding research projects completed during the preceding calendar year that have significantly expanded our knowledge or understanding of baseball, have been awarded to:
- Stephen M. Bratkovich, The Baseball Bat: From Trees to the Major Leagues, 19th Century to Today (McFarland & Co.)
- R.A.R. Edwards, Deaf Players in Major League Baseball: A History, 1883 to the Present (McFarland & Co.)
- Robert K. Fitts, Issei Baseball: The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers (University of Nebraska Press)
Bratkovich is a retired forester and wood products specialist with the U.S. Forest Service in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Dovetail Partners, Inc. in Minneapolis. He lives in Medina, Minnesota.
Edwards is a professor of history at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.
Fitts is the author of five books on Japanese baseball, including Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game, which also won the SABR Baseball Research Award in 2006. He is the founder of SABR’s Asian Baseball Research Committee.
The SABR Baseball Research Award is designed to honor projects that do not fit the criteria for the Seymour Medal or the McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award. The selection committee included Tara Krieger (chair), Pete Cottrell, and Don Zminda.
To see a complete list of SABR Baseball Research Award winners, click here.
Originally published: April 14, 2021. Last Updated: April 13, 2021.