Society for American Baseball Research

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The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) was founded at the Hall of Fame library in Cooperstown, NY on August 10, 1971 by a group of 16 baseball scholars led by Bob Davids. Membership has now reached over 7,000, including a number of prominent authors, researchers, sabermetricians, former players and executives, and baseball fans. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in baseball willing to pay the annual membership fees. The society's headquarters were located in Cleveland, OH for a long time, before moving to Arizona in 2011.

While the term sabermetrics is derived from the society's name, its work encompasses much more than just statistical analysis and reflects the eclectic interests of its broad membership. Its mandate is to "foster the study of baseball past and present, and to provide an outlet for educational, historical and research information about the game."

SABR publishes The Baseball Research Journal, a twice-annual publication that contains original baseball research undertaken by members. Another publication, The National Pastime, used to cover similar topics, but is now the vehicle for publishing articles related to SABR's annual convention. Both are provided to members as part of their annual membership dues. In addition SABR publishes other books on baseball and reprints some hard-to-find materials of high historical interest. SABR also hosts a number of specialized research committees dealing with specific topics such as the Negro Leagues, the Business of Baseball, Scouts, Women in Baseball, Records, Biographical Research, etc. There are regional chapters of the society throughout the United States and in Canada, the UK and Japan, all of which meet on a regular basis to exchange the results of original research and trade stories and anecdotes with guests connected to the game.

One of the society's major undertakings in the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which collects biographies of all players and managers who have appeared in major league baseball, as well as of a number of other persons of significance in baseball history. Other significant projects include the SABR Games Project and the SABR Oral History Collection. This website is also affiliated with SABR, and most of its principal contributors are SABR members.

In 2010, SABR celebrated the first "SABR Day", held on a Saturday in January timed to coincide with the free week-end between the NFL Conference Finals and the Super Bowl. On this day, most regional chapters organize a meeting or event to promote the objectives of the organization. This has since become an annual event and a standard date on the baseball calendar.

Conventions[edit]

Former logo

The SABR annual convention is a meeting of baseball researchers from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. Research talks, player and executive panels, a trivia contest, and research committee meetings are among the highlights of the convention. Attendance typically ranges from 400-700.

Convention Sites

Further Reading[edit]

  • Bill Nowlin, ed.: SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 2020. ISBN 978-1-4962-2268-8
  • Bill Shaikin: "Many try, but few finish, the world’s toughest baseball quiz", The Los Angeles Times, September 17, 2019. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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