SABR announces 2026 Henry Chadwick Award recipients
MAY 6, 2026 — SABR is pleased to announce the 2026 recipients of the Henry Chadwick Award, established to honor the game’s great researchers — historians, statisticians, annalists, and archivists — for their invaluable contributions to making baseball the game that links America’s present with its past.
The 2026 recipients of the Henry Chadwick Award are:
- Brian Kenny has served as a host and anchor at MLB Network and ESPN since 1997, bringing analytical insights to World Series coverage, All-Star Games, and the daily rhythms of baseball coverage on television. He helped create Clubhouse Confidential, the first television program devoted to sports analytics, and is the author of the award-winning Ahead of the Curve: Inside the Baseball Revolution. His contributions to baseball research aren’t measured in awards, databases compiled, or new statistics invented; his public impact and legacy come through highlighting the work of fine writers and thoughtful researchers, making them part of the mainstream conversation. In doing so, he helped reshape how millions of fans understand baseball.
- Eugene Murdock was a prolific baseball researcher and past SABR Board President who left behind an essential baseball biography and several dozen interviews with old ballplayers. He joined SABR one month after its founding in 1971 and was a frequent contributor to the annual Baseball Research Journal. He was the author of three acclaimed baseball books: Ban Johnson, the Czar of Baseball; Baseball Players and Their Times: Oral Histories of the Game, 1920-1940; and Baseball Between the Wars: Memories of the Game by the Men Who Played It. His oral history interviews and the rest of his extensive research papers are available at the Cleveland Public Library.
- Rob Ruck, a history professor at the University of Pittsburgh, has been contributing to the research landscape for many decades, on topics ranging from local history to baseball in Latin America. The theme of his work has revolved around the recognition that working people have sporting lives and a desire to explore what sport has meant to everyday people and their communities. His books and documentary film subjects have included Puerto Rican legend Roberto Clemente and photographer Teenie Harris, sandlot baseball in Pittsburgh, and the Negro Leagues. He was also a consultant on the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s exhibit, “Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball.”
- Allan Simpson is the founder of Baseball America, which reintroduced minor league baseball coverage to thousands of fans in the early 1980s and initiated meaningful widespread reporting on college baseball. He largely created the field of baseball draft analysis and prospect tracking and evaluation, forging a new, deeper connection between ardent fans and the future of the sport. During his 25 years at Baseball America, the publication transformed a niche interest into an essential part of the baseball conversation, creating a legacy of information and insight that has forever enriched our understanding of the national pastime.
By honoring individuals for the length and breadth of their contribution to the study and enjoyment of baseball, the Chadwick Award will educate the baseball community about sometimes little known but vastly important contributions from the game’s past and thus encourage the next generation of researchers.
The criteria for the award reads in part: The contributions of nominees must have had public impact. This may be demonstrated by publication of research in any of a variety of formats: books, magazine articles, websites, etc. The compilation of a significant database or archive that has facilitated the published research of others will also be considered in the realm of public impact.
For a complete list of Chadwick Award winners, click here.
Originally published: May 6, 2026. Last Updated: May 5, 2026.