SABR 41: Krabbenhoft Driven to Set Record Straight
From the Albany Times Union on July 11:
Herm Krabbenhoft can prove one of major-league baseball’s longest standing records is wrong.
He has spent five years accumulating evidence, logging hour after tedious hour combing through library archives, newspaper stories, box scores and official stats.
Like a prosecutor, he can walk a jury of his baseball-loving peers through physical and circumstantial proof and lead them to his conclusion:
The American League’s single-season RBI record should not belong solely to Lou Gehrig, but rather should be shared with Hank Greenberg.
Krabbenhoft, a 66-year-old retired research chemist who owns a home in Schenectady, is a longtime member of the Society for American Baseball Research, better known as SABR.
He grew up a Detroit Tigers fan, but his quest to see the record changed has little to do with his favorite team, his passion for statistics or even baseball at all.
His only interest, he said, is righting a wrong.
“If you make a mistake, you have to get it right,” he says. “You don’t just leave it out there. It’s not out of any loyalty to the Tigers or Hank Greenberg or baseball. It’s about loyalty to accuracy. If I found an error, it should be corrected.”
Read the full article here: http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Man-driven-to-set-the-record-straight-1459689.php#ixzz1S87IRpD5
Krabbenhoft delivered his research presentation on July 7 at the 41st annual SABR convention in Long Beach, California. For more stories from SABR 41, click here.
Originally published: July 14, 2011. Last Updated: July 27, 2020.
