Research Interest Spotlight: Deadball Era
SABR’s Deadball Era Committee studies and analyzes baseball from 1901 through 1919, one of the most exciting eras in baseball history. Since the Committee’s creation in 2000, members have contributed to The Inside Game, the DEC’s quarterly newsletter, and have also attended ‘Boiling Out,’ a gathering held every other year in Hot Springs, Arkansas to simulate spring training of a century ago. Our committee also maintains a spirited e-list.
Now, the Deadball Era Committee is on the threshold of a new era. For most of the past seven years, Committee mem
SABR’s Deadball Era Committee studies and analyzes baseball from 1901 through 1919, one of the most exciting eras in baseball history. Since the Committee’s creation in 2000, members have contributed to The Inside Game, the DEC’s quarterly newsletter, and have also attended ‘Boiling Out,’ a gathering held every other year in Hot Springs, Arkansas to simulate spring training of a century ago. Our committee also maintains a spirited e-list.
Now, the Deadball Era Committee is on the threshold of a new era. For most of the past seven years, Committee members have devoted their primary efforts to producing two volumes of player biographies. With the release of Deadball Stars of the American League this past spring, this project involving the publication of a total of nearly 300 vintage biographies was complete.
The Committee, which now includes more than 300 members, is ready to take on a new major research project, and you can help determine our direction going forward. Following in the footsteps of Tom Simon and David Jones, I recently became the third Chair in the history of the Deadball Era Committee. I welcome your ideas for new initiatives at deadball@sabr.org. Would you like to become involved with a subcommittee that will assess the feasibility of a potential new project? Please let me know.
There are also other ways you could contribute. You can, for instance, help us conceptualize the new DEC website, found by clicking here. We also need volunteers to catalog back issues of The Inside Game for SABR’s Baseball Index so that researchers can easily locate articles that have been published.
Our newsletter, which is edited by Charles Crawley, regularly includes several reviews of recently-released books focusing on the Deadball Era, and we welcome you to take on a book review assignment. It is also possible to serve on the Ritter Award subcommittee, chaired by Gabriel Schechter, which presents an award annually to the best book on Deadball Era baseball published during the year prior.
In addition, we would like members to write biographies of Deadball Era players and executives for the BioProject, SABR’s online biographical initiative. Even with the publication of our two books, there are well over a thousand lesser-known players of the period whose biographies still need to be written. Sometimes, the more obscure players have the most interesting stories.
Whether your niche is writing, research, or you just enjoy learning more about the period, there is a place for you on the Deadball Era Committee. Should you have an interest in joining our committee, please contact me at the above e-mail address. We want your contributions as well as your input as to how we can best examine this vibrant era.
Originally published: October 3, 2007. Last Updated: October 3, 2007.