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Society for American Baseball Research

American baseball research organization

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
9 min read
Source updated September 4, 2026
Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and statistical record of baseball. The organization was founded in Cooperstown, New York, on August 10, 1971, at a meeting of 16 "statistorians" coordinated by sportswriter Bob Davids. The organization now reports a membership of over 7,500 and is based in Phoenix, Arizona.

01Membership

While the acronym "SABR" was used to coin the word sabermetrics (for the use of sophisticated mathematical tools to analyze baseball), the Society is about much more than statistics. Well-known figures in the baseball world such as Bob Costas, Keith Olbermann, Craig R. Wright, and Rollie Hemond are members, along with highly regarded "sabermetricians" such as Bill James and Rob Neyer.

Among Major League Baseball players, Jeff Bajenaru was believed to have been (until 2006) the only active player with a SABR membership; Elden Auker, Larry Dierker, and Andy Seminick also have been involved.

Some prominent SABR members include:

02Activities

Only a minority of members pursue "number crunching" research. Rather, the SABR community is organized both by interest and geography:

  • Research Committees study a particular issue
  • Regional Chapters link members by proximity. The latter are frequently named after baseball personalities relevant to their region.

SABR members keep in touch through online directories and electronic mailing lists set up through the SABR headquarters. The headquarters also maintains a number of research tools on its website, including a lending library, home run and triple play logs, and course syllabi related to the game.

SABR holds annual conventions in a different city each year. The conference generally includes panel discussions, research presentations, city-specific tourism, a ballgame, and an awards banquet. The 2017 convention in New York City, set the attendance record with 806 registered attendees out of approximately 7,000 SABR members. The organization also hosts an annual baseball analytics conference in Phoenix and a Negro Leagues conference, which is held in a different location each year.

Projects and collections

  • Biography Project, with members authoring well-researched and engaging biographies of a growing list of former big league ballplayers and other notable contributors to the game.
  • Games Project, where members research, write, and publish accounts of the major league regular season, postseason, and All-Star Games, including Negro Leagues games, along with other games of historical significance such as in the minor leagues or international or exhibition contests.
  • Oral History Collection, a collection of interviews conducted with ballplayers, executives, scouts, authors, writers, broadcasters, and other figures of historical baseball significance.
  • SABR-Rucker Archive, an extensive collection of baseball photographs which contain nearly 80,000 images dating from the 19th century to modern-day baseball.

03Publications

The Baseball Research Journal (BRJ) is SABR's flagship publication since 1972 for members to publish and share their research with like-minded students of baseball. The National Pastime is an annual, published from 1982 to 2008 as The National Pastime: A Review of Baseball History, when it was intended as a more literary outlet than the stats oriented BRJ; since 2009 it is a convention-focused journal, with articles about the geographic region where the convention is taking place that year. Other Society publications are an increasing variety of books (since 1976) and ebooks (since 2011); 8-10 new e-books published annually are all free to members.

04Awards

SABR annual awards include:

  • Bob Davids Award: for exceptional SABR members who have made contributions to SABR and baseball that reflect ingenuity, integrity, and self-sacrifice. It is SABR's highest honor, and was established in 1985.
  • Henry Chadwick Award: for baseball researchers, historians, statisticians, annalists, and archivists.
  • Seymour Medal: best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year.
  • McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award: for authors of the best articles on baseball history or biography completed during the preceding calendar year (published or unpublished).
  • Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award: for projects which do not fit the criteria for The Seymour Medal or the McFarland-SABR Award.
  • Jerry Malloy Book Prize: best book-length nonfiction manuscript submitted by a member of SABR.
  • Doug Pappas Research Award: best oral research presentation at the Annual Convention.
  • Lee Allen Award: for the best baseball research project at the annual National History Day competition.
  • Jack Kavanagh Memorial Youth Baseball Research Award: research paper by a researcher in grades 6-8 (middle school category), grades 9-12 (high school category), or undergraduates 22 and under (College Category).
  • Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award: awarded to any person with a sustained involvement in women's baseball or any woman with a longtime involvement in baseball in any fashion, player, umpire, writer, executive, team owner, scout, etc.

In 2013, SABR began collaborating with Rawlings on the Gold Glove Award. Rawlings changed the voting process to incorporate SABR Defensive Index, a sabermetric component provided by SABR, which accounts for approximately 25 percent of the vote for the defensive award.

05Research committees

Notes

06Regional chapters

SABR has regional chapters located across the mainland United States. There are also a number of international chapters. The majority of chapters are named in honor of a player or person with a close connection to, or after something associated with, the chapter's location. Chapters are displayed here with their headquartered locations and the wider area they serve, if applicable.

International chapters

07Past convention sites and keynote speakers

SABR holds an annual convention in different locations around North America.

08Former Presidents

  • Bob Davids (1971-72, 75-76, 82-84)
  • Ron Menchine (1972-73)
  • Robert Allen (1973-74)
  • David Voigt (1974-75)
  • Eugene Murdock (1976-78)
  • Cliff Kachline (1978-80)
  • Kit Crissey (1980-82)
  • Cappy Gagnon (1984-86)
  • Gene Sunnen (1986-89)
  • Rich Topp (1989-91)
  • Jack Kavanagh (acting, July-December 1991)
  • Lloyd Johnson (1991-93)
  • David Pietrusza (1993-97)
  • Larry Gerlach (1997-99)
  • Jim Riley (1999-2001)
  • Claudia Perry (2001-2003)
  • Dick Beverage (2003-2009)
  • Andy McCue (2009-2011)
  • Vince Gennaro (2011-19)
  • Mark Armour (2019-25)
  • Dan Evans (2025)
  • Daniel R. Levitt (2025-present)
Watch videos about Society for American Baseball ResearchExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Society for American Baseball Research”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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