Bill Weiss

William J. Weiss

Bill Weiss may have personally compiled statistics for more league-seasons than anyone else in baseball history. After World War II, he looked for opportunities in minor league baseball, starting in the statistics operation of the Abilene Blue Sox in 1948. He convinced the Howe Sports Bureau that it made sense to get a local person track their stats as Howe was running everything out of Chicago at the time. In 1950 he was the statistician for the Pacific Coast League, Sunset League, Far West League and California League; by 1957 he was covering the PCL, Western League, Northwest League, California League, Southwestern League and Pioneer League. 31 years later he was tracking statistics for the PCL, California League, Northwest League, Arizona League and Pioneer League. In 1982 Weiss bought a 1923 WS program at an auction - when he found that it had the Hall of Fame stamp he inquired of a friend there when the Hall started selling off properties. They had been doing no such thing - Joe Reichler had sold items that had been on loan. Weiss had discovered one of the biggest scandals to hit the Hall of Fame.

He later helped edit The Historical Register and co-authored, with Marshall Wright, articles on the top 100 minor league teams of the 20th century for minorleaguebaseball.com. In 2006 he was elected to the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame.

Sources include 1951, 1958 and 1989 Baseball Guides, Baseball Lives by Mike Bryan and Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame? by Bill James

MiLB article