The Sabermetric Soapbox: Unite for History!

How a self-serving interest is inhibiting an advancement of baseball research.

The Ides of April means many things. Tax returns are due to be sent. Spring is finally beginning to take a full hold. And the baseball season, a mere two weeks old, takes a step back to reflect on the life and legacy of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, Lawrence Eugene Doby, Robert Leroy Paige, John Jordan O’Neil, and the many others who graced the landscape of black baseball.

You’re familiar with their stories: Jackie breaking into the Dodgers roster in 1947, and Larry joining the Indians a few months later. Satchel’s pitching into his 50s, and Buck’s ambassadorship. Yet as I page through my slightly dated 2006 ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia (the one with the 2005 White Sox rejoicing on it), I only see short biographical quips about some of these greats, and not the statistical record that is the hallmark of such a book. And, until yesterday, I just assumed those statistical records were too difficult to piece together the reliable quantitative picture we have come to expect.

Then I read Rob Neyer (sadly, ESPN Insider access required). I listened to Larry Luster and Dick Clark in their NPR interview from 2005 (hat tip to Rob). And, as I finally get around to building a database of baseball statistics to use for research and column ideas here, I now know there’s information that exists that could enhance, improve, and illuminate not only sabermetrics, but all baseball research.

To catch those of you up who are lost at this point (and I would’ve been too if I hadn’t found those links), the Hall of Fame commissioned a group of researchers to compile a statistical database for the Negro Leagues. While that news may have slipped past, the news of 17 Negro League individuals being enshrined into the Hall surely did not, and it was largely because of this data. Yet these numbers still can’t find it on that great gift to fankind, baseball-reference.com.

If you couldn’t access the Neyer article, the reason for the public inability to access it is the Hall of Fame, which is holding on to them for a book deal and control. Now, I don’t know much about book deals, but I’m going to believe the minimal 5-figure sum that Mr. Neyer found. By itself, the money may not be a bad reason, but the kicker in the deal is they’ve been sitting on this since before I could drink beer at a ballpark. Ok, 3 years may not be that long, but it is when you’re talking about $10,000 that is worth less and less as our economy tumbles.

Just think: how awesome would it be to really know what kind of ballplayer Josh Gibson would have been in the NL, or how many steals Cool Papa Bell could have heisted against the Chicago White Sox? How much better would the stories be? How much better would our understanding of the game’s evolution be? How much fun could you have figuring the major league equivalences of the Negro Leagues using KJOK’s sheet?

Rob’s fire about the subject has fanned to me, and I can only hope that the flames reach far enough to change the minds of the suits who run Cooperstown’s beloved landmark. As Rob said to close his piece: “Let the statistics go. It’s time. Right now.”

Want them for the sake of Buck and baseball history. Do it to properly honor the legacy that baseball remembers each year on Jackie Robinson Day.