SABR BioProject reaches milestone with 6,000th baseball biography
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the SABR Baseball Biography Project has reached another milestone with its 6,000th published biography. SABR’s most ambitious research initiative, which began in 2002 and is now directed by Gregory H. Wolf and Rory Costello, aims to produce comprehensive, peer-reviewed profiles of every person who ever played or managed in the major leagues, as well as other subjects significant to baseball history.
More than 800 SABR members have contributed to the BioProject as writers, editors, or peer reviewers over the past two decades.
The newest batch of SABR bios includes notable — and unheralded — figures from all eras of baseball history. Our recent bios include stories about:
- Jason Giambi, the All-Star first baseman for the Oakland A’s and New York Yankees, by Ralph Caola
- Fritz Maisel, a 1910s stolen base king and longtime Baltimore Orioles scout and executive, by Malcolm Allen
- Ray Rippelmeyer, Washington Senators pitcher who became a successful pitching coach, by Thomas Van Hyning
- Dave Skaugstad, who at age 17 became the first person born in the 1940s to appear in a game, by Larry DeFillipo
- George Barclay, a 19th-century college football champion and major-league outfielder, by Bill Lamb
- Butch Henline, the first catcher to homer three times in a game and the first umpire to eject Jackie Robinson, by Russ Walsh
- Bobby Marshall, a multisport star at the University of Minnesota and early Black baseball teams, by Bill Johnson
At SABR.org/BioProject, you can read about anyone in baseball from A (Henry Aaron) to Z (Bob Zuk). Some of our favorite articles produced by the BioProject are of the “cup of coffee” players whose stories are rarely told, such as Moonlight Graham, a one-time Giants outfielder whose name was immortalized in the film Field of Dreams. You can also read about Negro Leagues greats like Oscar Charleston or Josh Gibson, and stars from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League such as Marge and Helen Callaghan.
More than 60 BioProject books have been published through the SABR Digital Library, including our most recent team book on the 1920 Chicago American Giants, the first champions of Rube Foster’s Negro National League. SABR members can download all of them for free or purchase paperback editions at SABR.org/ebooks.
You can browse all of our biographies by category, to find bios of Hall of Famers or players from a specific team. In addition, we have pages for Broadcasters, Executives, Managers, Scouts, Siblings, Umpires and a lot more on the BioProject website at SABR.org/BioProject.
The BioProject has also spawned two successful offshoots in the SABR Ballparks Project and the SABR Games Project, led by John Fredland.
It’s easy to get involved. Any SABR member is eligible to write for the BioProject, the Ballparks Project, or the Games Project. If you’d like to contribute, visit our BioProject Resources page or read the FAQs section to get started. If you’re not a SABR member, visit SABR.org/join to learn more or to sign up for an annual or monthly membership.
Originally published: June 6, 2022. Last Updated: June 10, 2022.