Contributors

Mike Lynch:

Lynch has been a baseball fan since he was old enough to hold a bat and ball (actually I have pictures of myself before I was old enough to hold a bat and ball, but my dad supported my arms, so it looked like my then infantile arms could handle the load). He was born in the heart of Red Sox nation in the year of Yastrzemski and has been a die hard Red Sox fan ever since. He lives in Portland, Oregon and has been writing for web sites since 1999, has been published by The Oregonian newspaper, has been a member of SABR since 2004, and will have his first book, Harry Frazee, Ban Johnson and the Feud That Nearly Destroyed the American League, published by McFarland Publishing in 2008.

Kevin Johnson:

Another SABR member, Johnson lives in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma with his wife and two daughters, but grew up in St. Louis as an avid Cardinal fan. He works for a travel technology company. He maintains a database on major league ballparks, has been a contributor to Total Baseball and The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, is helping coordinate the SABR Minor League Committee Minor League Encyclopedia project, and his article, “St. Louis’ Forgotten Champions of 1928″ was published in SABR’s Mound City Memories in 2007.

Dr. Michael Hoban:

Michael Hoban, Ph.D. retired in 2005 after a 48-year career in education. The last 35 years were spent teaching at the university level (after obtaining his doctorate in mathematics from

Columbia University in 1970). Mike is Professor Emeritus at the City University of N.Y. Professor Hoban has been an avid baseball fan for over 60 years. He grew up in NYC in the shadow of the old Polo Grounds. During the late ‘40s and the 50’s, Hoban saw all the greats of the game play at Yankee Stadium or the Polo Grounds. Among his best baseball memories is when, at the age of 15, he saw Willie Mays play his first game in the Polo Grounds in 1951. He still considers Mays to be the best all-around player to ever play the game. The professor has been a serious baseball analyst for the past 12 years (and a member of SABR since 1998). In addition to his new book, Mike has previously written two books devoted to the task of ranking players.

1. Baseball’s Complete Players (McFarland: 2000) was an attempt to put the numbers together (both offensive and defensive) to see who were baseball’s best all-around players at each position.
2. Fielder’s Choice: Baseball’s Best Shortstops (Booklocker: 2003) was an attempt to rank the shortstops by defensive skills and then by overall excellence.

Joel Tscherne:

Even though he’s over 50, Joel Tscherne still remembers the first time he ever attended a professional baseball game. Having only listened to the game on the radio, or watching games on an old black & white television, he was struck by the colors, the sounds, and the smells of really being there. Even though he had to deal with the bad years in Cleveland, he still attended as many games as possible, which helped build his love of the game.

Joel is a retired librarian, having worked for the Cleveland Public Library for over 30 years and still works as a substitute for the system. He is a longtime member of SABR, with interests in rules and statistics. He is one of the moderators for the SABR-L mailing list. He also scores baseball games for Stats.com and is the commissioner of a rotisserie league that has been around since 1992.

Joel is also a series producer and series web editor of the Conversations Network, one of the leading publishers of podcasts. Joel currently writes reviews for Library Journal, specializing in suspense fiction and current events non-fiction.

Joel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in American History from Cleveland State University and a Masters in Library Science from Kent State University.

He lives in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, with his golden retriever Elvis, and his three cats, Dewey, Elsie, and Satchmo.

John Lease:

Born into a family of Cubs fans from Iowa, John always had to walk his own path. He moved to Pittsburgh in 1968, and got to go to the first National League game he can remember in any detail in 1969 at Forbes Field. His family moved to Northern New York in 1969 and, for the time being, John was (of all things) a Yankee fan. These were the sucky early 1970s Yankees, though, so please no hate mail.

Moving back to Pittsburgh in 1974 brought John back to the Pirates, and it’s been a pretty one-sided love affair. Blame him if you must, John asked God to let the Pirates win in 1979, and since he hasn’t become a missionary yet, God might be holding it against John for the last 15 seasons. He has infected both of his sons with the Pirate disease (John, not God), although they don’t seem to have a lethal dose. John’s hometown of Export, Pennsylvania is the home of former Pirate Bob Moose, and 30s and 40s major leaguer, Jimmy Ripple.

Scott Powers:

Scott is an undergraduate statistics major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In high school he won the SABR Jack Kavanaugh Memorial Youth Baseball Research Award three consecutive years, during which time he played varsity baseball and served as team captain. Now he is an editor of The Daily Tar Heel, UNC’s school newspaper, and the starting setter for Carolina Men’s Club Volleyball.

Wayne Lin:

Wayne Lin is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and has copyedited for the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals. He resides in the Oklahoma City area with his wife. He is currently writing a book entitled Paradigm about two baseball players going in opposite directions both in life and in the game.

Joe Williams:

Joe’s interest in baseball began in the early 1970s in his hometown of Poughkeepsie, New York when his uncle gave him a bunch old baseball books and cards. Among the items was a 1952 edition of Ken Smith’s Baseball Hall of Fame. Through this book he began to learn about the history of the game and about baseball’s all-time greats. Joe’s area of expertise is the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and he has attended the annual induction ceremony in Cooperstown each year since 1987. After graduating as a history major from the University at Albany, he moved to Hartford, Connecticut in 1989.

Joe has been a SABR member since 1990 and is very active in the Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood SABR Chapter. He was officially named the chapter’s treasurer in 2006 and is currently working with other SABR members to write a BioProject book on significant Connecticut baseball players, managers, umpires and executives. A life-long New York Mets fan, Joe lives in East Hampton, Connecticut with his wife, son and daughter, and is a law librarian for a large regional law firm.

Matt Sisson:

Mathew Sisson, a SABR member from Massachusetts, is a life long Red Sox Fan. He currently lives in Watertown, Massachusetts and works for a consulting firm in downtown Boston. Matt is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and is currently in the second year of his MBA at Clark University. Matt has a strong interest in current major league players, baseball statistics, fantasy baseball and baseball history. Matt is currently working on a chapter in the upcoming SABR book documenting the historic 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers.

Matt Mitchell:

A statistician by trade and an aspiring sabermetrician by extension into his great passion for baseball, Matt Mitchell grew up as a child of the game of summer with a dream of being like Ryne Sandberg or Frank Thomas. Unfortunately, the Chicago area native batted below the Mendoza line in Little League, thus effectively killing that dream. However, his love for the game persisted, thanks in part to his sizable baseball card collection that he used to hone his mathematical skills and learn about the game as well as a nearly decade-long stint as a Little League umpire.

A current resident in the western edge of the football-loving state of Nebraska, Matt still follows his White Sox with the same passion that allowed him to enjoy their 2005 World Series triumph. His writing experience comes almost exclusively from his assignments at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, IL and writing his own personal blog. He is a member of SABR, participating with the Rocky Mountain chapter, and a member of his local Knights of Columbus council like Connie Mack, Babe Ruth, and Ron Guidry. And in case that last remark made you think he was eligible for AARP, he’s a mere 24 years old, still with much to learn about life and baseball.

Sean Grybos:

Sean Grybos is a freelance writer who uses his background in anthropology to guide his work. He takes great joy in seeking out and participating in cultural experiences. One such example came about when he joined a French-Canadian fantasy league with two fellow University of Pittsburgh students in the spring of 2000. He intended on only competing one year in the league, but baseball has shown to be a powerful tool as he continues to defy the language barrier.

He believes that the thirst for knowledge is unending and looks forward to writing about culturally significant aspects of the game that sometimes are overlooked. Primarily, he will focus on the Negro Leagues and central Pennsylvania’s baseball history.

He currently resides one hour south of Howard J. Lamade Stadium with his wife Kim, and their three dogs, Reno, Deuce, and Haus.

Justin Murphy:

Justin Murphy, a graduate of the University of Chicago, is a former professor of linguistics at Vilnius University in Lithuania. He lives in Rochester, New York. His main interests are oral history, the deadball era, and the Minnesota Twins.

Michael Taylor:

Michael’s love for the game, as a native of NE Ohio, stems from the revival of the Cleveland Indians in the ‘90s and the opening of Jacobs Field. One of his most cherished memories is that first moment he stepped inside the new ballpark. He fell in love with everything about it. Be it the crowd, the team or the field, you name it, he was hooked. It was and still is a slice of heaven every time he visits.

Michael’s love for the sport has grown into an obsession, albeit a good obsession, for as much information as he can get about the game. He is most interested in the Cleveland Indians, Fantasy Baseball and the business aspects of the sport. He also has been a member of SABR since 2005 and scored minor league games for Baseball Info Solutions since 2006.

Michael resides in Columbus, Ohio with his wife, Julie, and son, Zachary. He works as an IT/Facility Manager for an industrial design firm and is a graduate of the Wright State University School of Business.

Richard Stroud:

Richard is a 29 year old graduate student at Northeastern State in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He has been an avid baseball fan all his life. The family story goes that his great-grandfather nearly signed with the Cardinals as a shortstop before being drafted for WWI. Richard was born in Texas and so he remains a fan, for some reason, of the hapless Rangers. He is also a contributor to Fuss Magazine, an online music and entertainment magazine.

Nathaniel Staley:

Nathaniel Staley is excited about writing for Seamheads. His passion for baseball began while cheering for his beloved Cincinnati Reds and learning about their storied history. He is a SABR member who enjoys all aspects of baseball, especially biographies and the minor leagues. Nathaniel currently resides in New York City with his wife and daughter. He is looking forward to your feedback.

Brendan Macgranachan:

Brendan Macgranachan was born and currently resides in Brandon, Manitoba and is a diehard and lifelong Toronto Blue Jay fan. He has covered hockey for both HockeyFuture and CanucksCorner as a beat writer for the Vancouver Canucks. He is an avid baseball fan with interess that spread from current events, fantasy baseball and the history of the game, and follows both the Major Leagues and the college game.

Matt DiFilippo:

Matt grew up in New Hampshire, spending far too much time reading Bill James, baseball reference books and Bill Mazeroski’s Baseball Annuals. Matt now lives in Maine, where the high school baseball season begins in late April and ends in mid-June. By trade Matt is a sportswriter for a newspaper called the Morning Sentinel. Matt loves his xm radio and listening to broadcasters like Vin Scully, Skip Caray, Tom Hamilton and Charlie Slowes, and is still a little upset at the Phillies for letting go of Scott Graham.

Greg Stephens:

Greg Stephens is a prosecuting attorney by profession and freelance sports writer by passion. Having grown up a huge MLB and NFL fan since he was child, Greg began writing for several sports internet sites in 2004 and currently has several magazine articles pending publication. He was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, a fan of the Big Red Machine and currently resides outside of Cincinnati with his wife and two children.

Brian Joseph:

Brian grew up on Phillies baseball while living in the Philadelphia suburbs. A graduate of Rowan University of New Jersey, Brian spent the last 14 years in retail including the last four years as a multi-unit manager. Freelance writing, sports and poker have taken up the rest of his free time. Brian has recently become a member of SABR and is working on a comprehensive analysis of the Major League Baseball amateur draft. He’s been in love with the history of the game ever since being introduced to Strat-O-Matic baseball by his brother as a kid which later advanced to Micro League Baseball on the Commodore 64.

Josh Deitch:

 

When, as a young child, Josh Deitch donned a plastic “Cookie Monster” mask and apron, knelt down in a catcher’s stance, and started giving signs to an imaginary pitcher, needless to say, his parents were concerned. Luckily for them, Josh somehow grew into a mildly well-adjusted young man, despite his obsession with the game of baseball and the New York Yankees. Josh attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied Education and American Culture and, until he injured his left arm, pitched for the WUSTL Bears. Currently, Josh pursues a Masters of Education from Fordham University and teaches American History and Latin at the Rippowam Cisqua School. There, he cultivates young minds; coaches young athletes in soccer, basketball, and baseball; and pushes his students as they grow into sarcastic adolescents that watch too much TV.

Brian L. Cartwright:

Brian is a lifelong Pirates and Steelers fan who has worked as a Systems Analyst/Programmer and Senior Photogrammetrist for Aerometric in Sterling, Va. since 1988. He lives with his wife Donna, two children, two grandchildren, various cats and a dog in Johnstown, Pa.