Town Ball Research Committee
Welcome to the Town Ball Research Committee, formed in 2025.
Our mission is to conduct research on baseball and its cultural significance to towns and local communities. While Town Ball blurs the line between amateur and professional baseball, the committee’s approach to research seeks to answer how baseball shaped local communities, and how the communities in turn shaped baseball. By maintaining a broad definition for Town Ball research, the committee encourages collaboration with other research groups to create a more complex understanding of baseball’s impact on American culture.
This committee aims to develop a database of town baseball teams throughout history. Several focuses for this project will be recording Black baseball teams and other marginalized groups that developed organized baseball teams. Another will be identifying teams that held Major League players on their rosters.
Announcements: To sign up for email announcements from this committee, click the “Announcements” button above, then click “Join Group” (
). All SABR members are eligible to sign up for announcements from any committee.
Contacts: For more information, or to get involved, contact a committee leader below:
- Jude Butler (Chair)