SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research, is 33 years old today.
It was on August 10, 1971 that a small group of sixteen men met in Cooperstown, NY at the behest of Bob Davids, who was interested in making an effort to organize those interested in baseball history and statistical research. In his initial letter, Bob called them "statistorians". Now, in tribute to Bob's creation, we call them "sabermetricians".
The day was the day after the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies (Satchel Paige became the first black man in the Hall that day; Dave Bancroft, Jake Beckley, Chick Hafey, Harry Hooper, Joe Kelley, Rube Marquard and George Weiss were also inducted). The men (including Hall of Fame Librarian Cliff Kachline, who provided the facilities) had been invited by Davids, who knew many researchers and historians through his previous work writing for the Sporting News as well as his newsletter Baseball Briefs (later Baseball Bits). Davids had sent letters to about 35 people; 16 showed up at the first meeting, but response had already been extremely warm.
The name SABR was chosen over several other candidates (including "Baseball Research Association", or BRA, and "Research in Baseball Incorporated", or RBI) and the members present adopted enthusiastically several of the goals that Bob Davids had dreamed up for the organization. Its original mission, to unite researchers and further their research, remains its animating goal. SABR's purpose is "to foster the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball". It does an extraordinary job in animating that purpose.
SABR today has over 7,000 members; it is a sizable organization that generates a huge amount of research and provides immesurable assistance to its members. The benefits of SABR membership are almost too numerous to mention; the research tools it provides to members (including the SABR Research Library with thousands of articles, the SABR-L mailing list, and the SABR Online research tools including ProQuest, which archives the complete, full-text-searchable back issues for over 100 years of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times and Washington Post), four gorgeous baseball books per year, dozens of Committees with their own newsletters (including the invaluable Behind The Numbers from the Statistical Analysis Committee) and an annual convention attracting hundreds of baseball nuts. A convention that will be taking place in Toronto next year, for the first time. A convention that I am going to drag every available writer on this website to, if I have to take them by the hair. :)
Does this sound like a hard sell? It is. Join SABR. If you are not a member, and you like baseball enough to read Batter's Box, you will be hooked in your first year.
Researcher Steve Johnson once recounted, in a memorial for Bob Davids, a conversation he had with him during the 1999 convention. "He was modest about his accomplishments yet I sensed his pride in them. He treated me with kindness, as an equal baseball fan, though we had never met before. We are all in his debt. His legacy lives on in the research and camaraderie of the great organization he founded." Bob Davids was right to be proud in the organization he founded.. it is a living tree, from which many further seeds are yet to be planted. Happy Birthday, SABR.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20040810040540999