Bob McConnell

Robert Churchill McConnell

• School Vanderbilt University

• Born January 18, 1925 in Seattle, WA USA
• Died March 18, 2012 in Newark, DE USA

Biographical Information

Bob McConnell was one of the 16 founders of SABR, serving as its secretary and treasurer. He is the author of SABR Presents the Home Run Encyclopedia and was involved in many research projects through the decades. He attended 40 SABR conventions and won the first Bob Davids Award for baseball research, winning the award in 1985.

McConnell was born on January 18, 1925 in Seattle, WA, though he moved around continuously throughout his youth. His family settled in Newark, NJ in 1935.

He joined the Navy in 1942, serving on the U.S.S. Whitman and U.S.S. Mifflin during his first three years in the service. He was sent for officer training at Vanderbilt University in July 1945, whence he earned a Bachelor's of Science in mechanical engineering in 1949.

McConnell is credited with finding, filling in and fixing considerable amounts of missing, incomplete or incorrect historical baseball information, especially that concerning home runs. His work largely included seeking out old box scores, gleaning statistics and details from those, collecting his new findings and sharing them with other baseball research enthusiasts - many of whom would be among the founding SABR members. His expertise was cited by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Associated Press and The Press of Atlantic City, among others.

He died on March 18, 2012, aged 87. He was awarded the Henry Chadwick Award posthumously in 2018.

Further Reading

• Peter Morris: "Bob McConnell", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Vol. 47, Nr. 1 (spring 2018), pp. 121-123.

Related Sites

• Bob McConnell at the SABR Bio Project