Tom Shea

Tom Shea

• School Boston College

• Born 1904
• Died 1995

Biographical Information

Tom Shea was a pioneer in biographical research on baseball players, although his name has been obscured by that of Hall of Fame historian Lee Allen.

After graduating from college in 1926, he worked as a travelling school book salesman, based in his hometown of Hingham, MA. He would use his time on the road visit libraries and meet locals in order to compile notes and information on local baseball lore, including biographical data on former players. He first proposed putting together a Baseball Encyclopedia in 1939, but the idea was killed before it could reach fruition. However, a lot of his research was used in The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball published by Hy Turkin and S.C. Thompson in 1951. He mistakenly believed he would be given equal credit to the two other authors, but his name only ended up being briefly mentioned in the preface.

Although embittered by that development, he continued his research over the next decades and corresponded frequently with Allen and other researchers in the field. He had first begun corresponding with Ernest Lanigan when he was still in college and considered him his mentor. Not having any living relatives, he passed his personal archives of index cards, letters and other research materials to Dick Thompson of SABR. He was one of the 16 founding members of the Society for American Baseball Research in 1971.

He was an active member of SABR's Biographical Research Committee from its creation until his death. He was posthumously honored with the Henry Chadwick Award in 2020.

Further Reading

• Dick Thompson: "Tom Shea", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Vol. 49, Nr. 1 (Spring 2020), p. 117."

Related Sites

• Tom Shea at the SABR Bio Project
• SABR Tribute page