Schudel: Seymour Siwoff, who knew the score for baseball and other sports, dies at 99

December 4, 2019/in /by admin

From Matt Schudel at the Washington Post on November 30, 2019, on longtime SABR member Seymour Siwoff:

Perhaps more than anyone else, Seymour Siwoff made baseball a game of numbers. For 67 years, he led the Elias Sports Bureau, the official guardian of statistics for Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and other leagues, compiling a dizzying array of statistics that captured the history, happenstance and glory of sports.

Mr. Siwoff (pronounced SEE-woff) was 99 when he died Nov. 29 at his home in New York City. His daughter, Nancy Gilston, confirmed his death but did not cite a specific cause.

In March, Mr. Siwoff sold the Elias Sports Bureau to his grandson, Joe Gilston, but for several months afterward he continued to show up for work almost every day.

Trained as an accountant, Mr. Siwoff appreciated the importance of numbers. He once turned down a job offer from the Internal Revenue Service to keep working at Elias, which was founded in 1913 to provide baseball statistics to newspapers and wire services.

Read the full article here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/seymour-siwoff-who-knew-the-score-for-baseball-and-other-sports-dies-at-99/2019/11/30/4d403e4c-1393-11ea-bf62-eadd5d11f559_story.html

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Originally published: December 4, 2019. Last Updated: December 4, 2019.