Contributors

Mike Lynch:

Lynch has been a baseball fan since he was old enough to hold a bat and ball. 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, and has been a member of SABR since 2004. His first book, Harry Frazee, Ban Johnson and the Feud That Nearly Destroyed the American League, was published by McFarland Publishing in 2008 and was named a finalist for the 2009 Larry Ritter Award in addition to being nominated for the Seymour Medal. His second book, It Ain’t So: A Might-Have-Been History of the White Sox in 1919 and Beyond, was released by McFarland in December 2009.  His work has also been featured in SABR books about the 1912 Boston Red Sox and 1914 Boston Braves.

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.

Matt Aber:
Matt has been a member of SABR and the Connie Mack Chapter since 2009. The most accurate description of his level of interest in the game was given by a friend who referred to him as a “baseball degenerate.” Along with his fascination with the history of baseball Matt, gets most enjoyment from attending minor league games because of the “grass roots feel of the game” he gets from the smaller ballparks.  Matt has been a writer since May 2009 focusing on current happenings in the majors, minor league ball in the Philadelphia region and the hometown Phillies.

Gary Bedingfield:
Born in England, Bedingfield lives in Glasgow, Scotland and is recognized as a leading expert in baseball during WWII. He is employed as a Program Development Manager for a training organization in Glasgow. Bedingfield founded the Baseball in Wartime website in 2001 and is the author of Baseball in WWII Europe and Baseball’s Dead of WWII: A Roster of Professional Players Who Died, and a contributing author of When Baseball Went to War.

John Cappello:
John is the author of Stealing Greatness, a book on baseball’s Steroid Era and its impact on the game’s statistics—stay tuned for its publishing date. A member of SABR since 2007, John has made several popular presentations at SABR gatherings. He has been fascinated by baseball statistics since he began collecting baseball cards and playing Strat-O-Matic in the 1970s. After graduating with his master’s degree from Drexel University in Philadelphia, he became a computer hardware engineer and now runs his own consulting firm, Optimal Design Inc. John is a lifelong Phillies fan and proud to have started out following the team during those basement-dwelling days of the early ’70s with players like Deron Johnson, Denny Doyle, and Roger Freed leading the way; it made their championship season in 1980 that much sweeter. To see more of John’s baseball research and postings, go to www.baseballengineer.com.

Arne Christensen:
Christensen lives in Seattle and runs Misc. Baseball, a blog assembling eclectic items about baseball’s history, and 1995 Mariners. Christensen has been writing for Seamheads since December 2009.

Jon Daly:
Jon Daly is a life-long resident of the Greater Hartford area. His father introduced him to baseball and the Red Sox during the 1975 season. Because he was a young lad at the time, he expected the Red Sox to play in the World Series every year. Boy, was he wrong! In his free time, he works in the financial service industry. Jon has been a SABR member since 2001.

He has written several biographies for SABR that have appeared online or in books, including ones on Billy Southworth and Jim Willoughby. His writing has also appeared online at websites such as Baseball Think Factory and The Hardball Times. Jon would love to hook up with an illustrator and write the Great American Non-Fiction Baseball Graphic Novel.

Jim Elfers:
Elfers wrote the book The Tour To End All Tours: the Story of Major League Baseball’s 1913 -1914 World Tour. It won the 2003 Larry Ritter Award and was a finalist for both the Seymour Medal and the Casey Award. In addition to that he has written chapters in Deadball Stars of the American League (Jimmy Callahan) and When Boston Still Had the Babe: the 1918 World Series Champion Red Sox.

He’s also contributed book reviews and articles to the “Inside Game,” the Deadball era committee’s news letter; had a review published in World War II History Magazine.(“Playing for their Nation: Baseball and the American Military during World War II” in the January/February 2005 issue. He’s published two articles about the tour in the Diamond Angle online magazine.

Ronnie Foreman:
Ron has been a baseball fan since early childhood and grew up in West Virginia watching the Cubs on WGN. His favorite player was Ryne Sandberg, so much so that Ron’s son’s middle name is Ryne. He’s written for numerous sites, covering some Ohio State football for Bleacher Reports.com, and has done some video segments for newspaper websites on WVU football.  Ron has played sports most of his life including little league, high school and 3 years of amateur baseball in West Virginia. Mainly as a second basemen but also first base and right field. Ron also has coached little league and adult Women’s softball and officiated little league baseball games.

Harvey Frommer:
One of the most prolific and respected sports journalists and oral historians in the United States, author of the autobiographies of legends Nolan Ryan, Tony Dorsett, and Red Holzman, Dr. Harvey Frommer is an expert on the New York Yankees and has arguably written more books, articles and reviews on the New York Yankees than anyone. In 2010, he was honored by the City of New York to serve as historical consultant for the re-imagined old Yankee Stadium site, Heritage Field. A professor for more than two decades in the MALS program at Dartmouth College, Frommer was dubbed “Dartmouth’s Mr. Baseball” by their alumni magazine. He’s also the founder of HarveyFrommerSports.com.

Bill Gilbert:
Bill grew up in Denver and graduated from the University of Colorado. After 2 years as a Naval Officer and a 33-year career with ExxonMobil, he has spent a good part of his retirement years indulging his lifelong interest in baseball. He was active in Little League Baseball as a coach and administrator for 14 years and played in Senior Softball tournaments for many years.

A SABR member since 1984, Bill has attended 15 SABR Conventions and has given presentations at 13 of them. He has also written articles for The National Pastime, The Baseball Research Journal and other publications and web sites. He was the leader of SABR’s Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston for over 10 years and, after relocating to Austin, founded the Rogers Hornsby Chapter in Central Texas. For the past 16 years, he has worked for Tal Smith Enterprises on salary arbitration and has attended many arbitration hearings.

He lives in Lakeway, Texas, a suburb of Austin with his wife of 47 years. They have 4 children and 9 grandchildren.

Eddie Gilley:
Gilley is the area director for the Baptist Collegiate Ministries in Gainesville, Florida. He has worked with College Students (Collegiates for the sake of distinguishing college and high school students) since 1980 in some capacity. First as a minister of youth and students, then as the director of a ministry to collegiates only in a local church, and as the BCM director at the University of South Florida and now at the University of Florida. He currently works with the Gator baseball and softball teams as their chaplain. He has taught numerous seminars on the subject of college students in the church and how to work with them and written many articles for various publications.

He published the book Collegiate Ministry in the Local Church: Implementing The Impossible Mission. He completed a Doctor of Ministry degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2003. Gilley’s work can be found at Suite101.com.

Austin Gisriel:
Austin planned to take over third base for his hometown Baltimore Orioles upon the retirement of his hero Brooks Robinson.  Only a lack of talent prevented this from occurring.  His two daughters would have been named Brooks had either been a boy.  Gisriel is the author of Safe at Home: A Season in the Valley, the story of the 2009 New Market Rebels in Virginia’s Valley Baseball League.  It is as much the story of what the team means to the town as it is the unlikely and improbable season on the field.  Gisriel is now a webcaster for the Rebels and handles publicity for the team.  He is also a frequent contributor to Hagerstown Magazine, often writing about the Sally League Hagerstown Suns.  He muses about baseball, life, and other stuff on his blog of the same name at www.baseballlifeandotherstuff.typepad.com

Paul Gotham:
Paul Gotham is a beat reporter for the Webster Yankees of the New York Collegiate Baseball League. You can check out more of Paul’s work as Casey on www.pickinsplinters.com.

Andy Greenberg:
Andy Greenberg is a lifelong Mariners fan who likes to name his fantasy teams after TV Characters. This year it’s Dr. Mantis Toboggan. For more than just baseball, find him @AndyTheG on Twitter.

Chip Greene:
When not reading and writing about baseball, Chip is a management consultant. A lifelong resident of the Washington, DC, metro area, in the summer of 2008 he moved to Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, still close enough to retain his lifelong enthusiasm for the Baltimore Orioles. Chip is a member of SABR and writes for the BioProject website, as well as contributing to several upcoming SABR book projects. He also writes for Yankees Annual magazine. Chip’s interest in baseball history is fed by a continuous fascination with the career of his grandfather, Nelson Greene, who briefly pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Dave Heller:
Heller, an Orioles fan, is the author of As Good As It Got: The 1944 St. Louis Browns and has been contributing to Seamheads since June 2009, writing mostly about the Browns. He’s had numerous newspaper jobs, working as a writer, editor, or web producer for the Cincinnati Post, Bengal Report Magazine, Cincinnati Enquirer, Sportsline.com, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Philadelphia Daily News, and Detroit Free-Press.

Daniel Hirsch:
Daniel is the creator of TheBaseballGauge.com. He grew up in Tampa, Florida and is a die hard Rays fan. After joining the Air Force, he was stationed in Omaha, Nebraska. It was in Omaha where he met his wife and decided to stay in Nebraska. While no longer in the military, he continues to work as a Firefighter at Offutt AFB.  Daniel was introduced to Baseball at a young age by his father who gave him his first Total Baseball Encyclopedia and APBA Board Game. Since then, Baseball has consumed his life and over two decades later, his passion for the game continues to grow.

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 ’50s, 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.

Chris Jensen:
Chris Jensen grew up a tape-measure shot from the home of baseball–Cooperstown, N.Y.–which helped him develop a lifelong passion for the game. He is a member of the Oscar Charleston chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Chris has been published in Elysian Fields Quarterly, the Yankees 2011 Annual Yearbook and In the Dugout: Yankees 2013. His first book, Baseball State by State: Major League and Negro League Players, Ballparks, Museums and Historical Sites, was published by McFarland in July 2012.

Frank Jozsa:
In 1941, Frank P. Jozsa, Jr. was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. While living there, he graduated from Indiana State College in 1963 with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and played baseball and basketball for the Sycamores. After his discharge from the United States Air Force in the late 1960s, Frank worked at various companies and continued his education during the 1970s by earning a Master of Business Administration degree followed by a Master of Science degree and a Doctor of Philosophy degree, both in economics.

During his career as a college professor and researcher, he authored articles about the sports industry and in addition, several books on the commercial operations, economics and financial issues of professional team sports. In 2010, Football Fortunes: The Business, Organization and Strategy of the NFL was published by McFarland. Among his many other books are Baseball In Crisis: Spiraling Costs, Bad Behavior, Uncertain Future, Big Sports, Big Business: A Century of League Expansions, Mergers, and Reorganizations, Major League Baseball Expansions and Relocations: A History, 1876-2008, and The National Basketball Association: Business, Organization and Strategy.

In 2011, Frank wrote A Hoosier’s Journey. The book discusses his experiences, priorities, and values as an athlete, student, teacher and author. Visit his website to learn more about Frank and his life’s journey. The long-distance runner and Vietnam veteran retired from full-time teaching at Pfeiffer University in 2007. Frank lives in Tega Cay, South Carolina.

Jeff Katz:
Born in Brooklyn, Jeff Katz now writes about music, baseball and whatever else he’s obsessing on from his new home base in Cooperstown, New York. His story about Sandy Koufax was included in the anthology Play It Again, and his latest book, The Kansas City A’s & The Wrong Half of the Yankees was published in 2007. Jeff’s “what if” history of rock and roll, Maybe Baby (or, You Know That It Would Be Untrue), has garnered worldwide readership, with a new story posted on backbeat Fridays (the 2nd and 4th of every month).

Sean Lahman:
Sean has broken new ground in the field of sports statistics, creating historical databases for use in both print and digital projects. His Baseball Archive web site was one of the early sources for baseball information on the Internet, and he headed the first significant effort to make a database of baseball statistics freely available to the general public. Lahman also contributed to pioneering efforts at web sites like Baseball-Reference.com, Pro-Football-Reference.com, and Basketball-Reference.com.

He has written for or edited a number of books, including the ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia, Total Baseball and Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia. His writing experience ranges from regular work in big city newspapers to major magazines to books and encyclopedias. He is a frequent guest on sports radio programs across North America. He provided content that is used in interactive kiosks at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. He helped to develop supplementary material for the DVD version of the nine-part Ken Burns’ documentary”Baseball.”

Bob Lazzari:
Bob is an award-winning sports columnist for both Connecticut’s Valley Times and NY Sports Day, where his “Sports Roundup” column is featured weekly. He is a member of the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance and host of “Monday Night Sports Talk,” a cable television show on CTV/Channel 14 in Connecticut.  A Fordham grad, Bob is a regular contributor to ESPN Radio’s “Inside Yankee Baseball”; he can also be heard weekly every Tuesday morning on WXLM/104.7 FM in New London, CT. He has a popular blog where many of his past columns have been archived.

Ted Leavengood:
Ted is a Nationals fan and a baseball writer who works for Uncle Sam to pay the bills. He and his wife live in Chevy Chase, MD with their dog. He has two books published with McFarland and Company, Publishers and when he gets to this point in the conversation, his two grown daughters shoot one another glances and steer the conversation away from baseball.

Steve Lenox:
Steve Lenox is a sports broadcaster, who currently serves as an update anchor with 1050 ESPN Radio in New York city. Steve also works with lexy.com, serving as a lexycaster and covering the New York Jets, New York Yankees, UConn Huskies basketball, and Major League Baseball.  Along with his work with ESPN Radio and www.Lexy.com, The Shelter Island, NY native is a contributing writer to highly successful and popular baseball website www.seamheads.com. He also serves as co-host on a weekly podcast show on the seamheads.com website, which features high profile guests from around baseball.

In the past, Steve has worked on a national stage with XM Satellite Radio’s major league baseball channel and XM Sports Nation, serving as a reporter, play-by-play announcer, talk-show host and update anchor. He served as play-by-play announcer with XM for the inaugural baseball classic in Tokyo, Japan and Phoenix, Arizona in 2006.  Steve has worked for four minor league baseball clubs and has broadcast over 1,000 professional baseball games. He has also served as a fill-in basketball play-by-play announcer and public address announcer for several Division I Colleges and Universities.

Steve currently makes his home in East Haven, CT. He and his wife, Lauren, are the proud parents of two boys, Alex and Matthew.

Andrew Martin:
Andrew is a passionate Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics fan from Vermont. Any aspect of baseball, from the historical to current minor leagues are among his interest in the sport. He holds a Masters Degree in history from the University of Vermont, where he wrote his thesis on the Boston Red Sox and their connection with community and identity in the Boston region. Andrew is a published writer who hopes to continue making progress on his career. He writes the Baseball Historian Blog (http://baseballhistorian.blogspot.com/), and you may reach him at historianandrew@gmail.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Baseball-Historian/138174109591660.

Sam Miller:
Sam Miller is a graduate of the University of Illinois where he worked with various teams in sports information and received the Freedom Forum—NCAA Sports Journalism Scholarship for his achievements. During the 2009 season, Miller served as communications intern for the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate. Prior to that, he worked as a communications intern for USA Basketball and as an associate reporter for MLB.com.

Dennis Pajot:
Dennis Pajot is a life long resident of Milwaukee, who enjoys as a hobby researching Milwaukee baseball. He is an active member of SABR, both the local Ken Keltner chapter and the national group. His baseball publications include The Rise of Milwaukee Baseball: The Cream City From Midwestern Outpost to the Major Leagues, 1859-1901 (McFarland & Company, 2009), Baseball’s Heartland War, 1902-1903: The Western League and American Association Vie for Turf, Players and Profits (McFarland & Company, 2011) , and “The Greatest Baseball Game Ever Played Anywhere” (Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring 2009) detailing an 1899 baseball game in Milwaukee between City of Milwaukee officials and State of Wisconsin officials to help the sufferers of a tornado in New Richmond, Wisconsin.

Jon Pessah:
Jon has been a sports journalist for most of his 36 years in this profession. He’s been a writer and an editor. He’s covered little league games and Super Bowls, worked on a tiny paper in Manassas, Va. and helped start ESPN the Magazine. Now he’s writing for True/Slant, freelancing, writing a book, and teaching journalism at Stony Brook University.

Jeff Polman:
Jeff is a Strat-O-Matic fanatic and multi-tasking writer since 1965. A devout Red Sox fan, he is the founder of the fantastic web site, 1924 and You Are There!!: YOUR DAILY BASEBALL TIME MACHINE: A Fictional Replay of a Classic Season, and Play That Funky Baseball, dedicated to a Strat-O-Matic replay of the 1977 season. Some of Jeff’s baseball milestones include being at Fenway the day Billy Martin fought Reggie Jackson in the Yankee dugout; having a beer with Bill Lee after a game in Montreal and interviewing him for a Vermont newspaper story; being at Olympic Stadium for Rick Monday’s pennant-winning homer for Dodgers in 1981 and in the clubhouse during the champagne spray; and being at Anaheim Stadium to watch Don Sutton’s 300th win. Jeff has also written two screenplays, one of which starred Donald Sutherland and Amy Irving.

Josh Robbins:
Josh Robbins grew up in Lagrangeville, NY as a devoted Yankees fan. His first game was July 24, 1983, the night after the “pine tar” game. His favorite childhood player was the Yankee Captain, Don Mattingly.  A memorable trip to the 1990 Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Cooperstown with his grandfather, Seymour, helped transform Josh into a baseball fanatic. At the Otesaga Hotel, he was able to interact with baseball royalty such as Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Bob Feller. Those brief interactions changed his passion for the game forever.

In May 1998, Josh graduated from the SUNY-New Paltz with a Bachelors Degree in Video Production. That October, he watched the Yankees capture the 1998 World Series title in person at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, CA. During the summer of 2008, Josh watched a game in all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums in a world record 26 days by car (thirty27.com). In the process, he raised $2,200 for the Jim Thorpe Little League in Hawthorne, California

In August 2010, Josh graduated from CSU-Long Beach with a Masters Degree in Sport Management. During the program, he completed internships at the MLB Urban Youth Academy, Long Beach Armada, and Fox Sports West. Over the past decade, Josh has worked in the television/video production industry covering a wide variety of news and sports. He is currently a Freelance Videographer/Journalist in Redondo Beach, CA with future career aspirations to work for Major League Baseball.

Gabriel Schechter:
Gabriel Schechter grew up within ten miles of the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium, is a lifelong Reds fan, and once attended games in Los Angeles and San Diego on the same day. Since 2002 he has been a Research Associate at the library of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and is the author of Victory Faust: The Rube Who Saved McGraw’s Giants; Unhittable: Baseball’s Greatest Pitching Seasons; and This BAD Day in Yankees History, as well as the blog Never Too Much Baseball.

Dan Schlossberg:
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg is the author of 35 baseball books and more than 25,000 articles about the game. The 1969 Syracuse University graduate is a full-time freelance writer and broadcaster specializing in baseball and travel. His byline has appeared in Draft, Hemispheres, Hooters, USAir Magazine, and the official MLB All-Star Game and World Series programs, as well as the Denver Post, New York Post, and other major newspapers. In 2009, Dan’s baseball radio reports were featured on MLB flagship stations in Dallas, Denver, and St. Louis plus ESPN’s Cleveland affiliate. The Fair Lawn, NJ resident is managing editor and co-host of BallTalk Radio, a syndicated show also featuring Jay Johnstone and former Cubs publicist Bob Ibach. Dan’s latest book, The 300 Club: Have We Seen the Last of Baseball’s 300-Game Winners?, comes out in mid-April. He co-authored autobiographies of Ron Blomberg (Designated Hebrew) and Milo Hamilton (Making Airwaves) and wrote The Baseball Catalog, Baseball Gold, and Baseball Bits.

Daniel Shoptaw (Founder of C70 At the Bat and the Baseball Bloggers Alliance):
Shoptaw is a long-time Cardinal fan who has spent just over a decade online with the handle Cardinal70, starting as a poster and moving up to administration at CardsClubhouse.com before branching out into his own blog. His blog, C70 At The Bat, has been around for three years and has been the jumping off point for his organization of other like-minded writers into the United Cardinal Bloggers group (out of which came the UCB Radio Hour, a podcast that has had such luminaries as Ozzie Smith and Lou Brock and current Cardinals such as Kyle McClellan as guests) and then, last year, the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. The BBA has now grown to compass over 130 blogs across baseball and handed out their own awards after the 2009 season (which brought them to the notice of the Baseball Writers of America, and as such will be renaming their awards next season!). In real life, Shoptaw is a married CPA in Arkansas with a son and a daughter.

Lyle Spatz:
Lyle is the chairman of SABR’s Records Committee, the co-author of the recently released 1921: The Yankees, The Giants, and The Battle For Baseball Supremacy In New York, and author of Bad Bill Dahlen: The Rollicking Life and Times of an Early Baseball Star, and Yankees Coming, Yankees Going: New York Yankee Player Transactions, 1903 through 1999.

David Stalker:
David, a SABR member since 1998, began erecting monuments in tribute to Deadball Era players in 2005 when his monument of Fred Merkle went up in Merkle’s hometown of Watertown, WI. This is a non-profit series. The monument company and Stalker donate their time and funding comes from those that share his interest, often from the player’s families. His goal is to make this a National series, telling the story about these players throughout the country. With the continued help of player family members, fans, historians, authors and businesses, this can grow to be a series that the country can take much pride in.

Players that have followed Fred Merkle thus far include Davy Jones, Billy Sullivan, Red Kleinow, Addie Joss, Charley Faust, Bob Groom, Bert Husting, Bill Killefer and Red Killefer, and the first team monument honoring the 1901 Milwaukee Brewers. David’s monuments can be seen at Davy Jones bats, a company founded by the grandson of Deadball player and Stalker monument recipient Davy Jones. Because of Stalker’s beautiful work and association with Seamheads.com, his monuments have been featured in Chris Epting’s Roadside Baseball: The Locations of America’s Baseball Landmarks. Just recently, Stalker fulfilled his childhood dream of seeing a baseball game in every MLB park.

Tom Stone:
Tom Stone grew up near Rochester, NY, and still lives in that area with his wife Susan and their two cats Pepsi and Sprite. He has worked for Element K since 1999 as an Instructional Designer, ID Manager, and now Product Design Architect. He is a frequent speaker at eLearning industry conferences, and is also the company’s primary blogger. Tom has a BA degree in Philosophy from the University of Rochester, and in 1997 he combined this background with his growing web development skills by creating EpistemeLinks.com—a large and popular philosophy resource directory site (it receives about 7,000 visitors per day). Tom also published (as editor) a unique and interesting book: Frontier Experience, or Epistolary Sesquipedalian Lexiphanicism from the Occident, by J.E.L. Seneker (available from Lulu.com and from Amazon.com).

As for baseball, as a child Tom was a fan of the Pirates, though today he considers himself to be more a fan of the game as a whole than any particular team. He plays in multiple roto/fantasy leagues each year (and has been playing roto since the late 1980s when it was done by mail and phone!). He has been a SABR member for many years, and his baseball writings interests are mostly in history and statistics, especially topics such as all-time teams and rankings, hall-of-fame arguments, and related topics. He is also working on a baseball book on baseball’s all-time teams, and plans to post his draft chapters to Seamheads for feedback and comments. For more info about him, Tom has a slowly growing personal website at www.thomasryanstone.com.

Dan Totten:
Dan Totten was born and raised an avid sports fan in “The HUB” of the universe, Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Red Sox “Impossible Dream” season of 1967 was a childhood favorite of Dan’s. That “67” season, while a Dream season in many ways, was a heartbreak in the end, along with 1975, 1978, 1986 and so many other seasons which had a lack of a Red Sox world championship and that theme seemed to be following Dan as it did his sports loving late father Daniel F. Totten (a Red Sox and Boston Braves and Patriots fan) before him (and his father Edward Totten before him), until the fateful 2004 World Championship season as well as the 2007 championship, which both combined to seemingly lift all ghosts and curses (until this season).

Having his baseball career culminate at the all star game in the Mattapan (Massachusetts) Little League as a catcher (moved from 2nd base reputedly because he liked to backhand ground balls as a way to throw some flair into the game, rather than get in front of ’em, Totten is staying with the “coach thought I’d be a better catcher” story). Totten likes players and teams that show some spunk & fight, are willing to take risks, like to show they love the game and perhaps don’t operate with a business as usual acumen.

While a fan of the Boston Patriots growing up and now of the New England Patriots, his favorite pro football team as a youth was (admitted here publicly for the very first time) the Dallas Cowboys (and Totten still has some partial feelings towards them).

Totten is an avid Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, Bruins and college and pro basketball fan. He’s worked at The Boston Globe on the business side since 1980 and written freelance stories for SlamOnline Magazine and Dorchester Reporter. Totten has an MBA degree from Anna Maria College, in Paxton, MA. (National Collegiate Scholastic Honor Society member).

Having attended John Havlicek’s basketball school through middle and high school, Totten became acquainted with Havlicek’s work ethic and team and defense philosophies, yet still employs one of his favorite players mentality in his writing and daily life – that of Pistol Pete Maravich, where a great offense beats a good defense every time and Totten has been told by his wife and daughter and “occasionally” random other folks that he sure can be offensive.

Totten lives a Ted Williams-esque 502 feet from the Boston border in the South Shore area.Unlike Fenway Park, there’s no red seat to demark the distance.

He follows his 2011-2012 defense lacking Patriots with a weary but hopeful eye. As for the Red Sox – see you next year is sadly, once again, the employed phrase as a farewell to the 2011 Red Sox season. Yes, it’s here in print -THE worst September collapse in the history of baseball.

Alfonso Tusa:
Alfonso is a writer and chemical technician from Cumaná, Venezuela who was born in Roger Maris’ record-setting year of 1961. His work has been featured in Venezuela’s daily newspaper, El Nacional—he won an award in 2004 for a letter he sent to the paper called “Un mandado en Bebedero” (“An errand in Bebedero”), and in the magazine Gente en Ambiente, and he’s collaborated on several articles for newspapers, including “El Año del Pitcher” (“The Year of the Pitcher”) for the daily paper Tal Cual and “Jim Abbott sigue inspirando a los discapacitados” (“One handed wonder Abbott still an inspiration”) for El Nacional.

He’s also written three books. In 2004 his novel, Esperanzas entre Leones y Navegantes (Expectations between Lions and Navigators), received a special mention in the First Contest on Baseball and Literature supported by the Venezuelan Winter Baseball League. In 2006 his book, Una Temporada Mágica (A Magical Season), won the Second Contest on Baseball and Literature supported by the Venezuelan Winter Baseball League. And in 2007 he published his third book, El Látigo del Béisbol. Una Biografía de Isaías Chávez (The Baseball’s Whip. An Isaías Chávez biography).

He’s written biographies for SABR’s BioProject (Isaías Látigo Chávez and Cito Gaston) and currently provides bilingual articles (Spanish-English) for Seamheads.com.

Nick Waddell:
Nick is currently a 3rd year law student in Chicago, and a student member of the Sports Lawyers Association. He’s been a baseball fan since age three, and avidly follows his Detroit Tigers no matter where he is. Nick’s hoping to work his way into baseball after law school. He wrote a biography on Al Kaline for the SABR book Sock It To ‘Em Tigers and has been a member of SABR since 2006.

Brandon Williams:
Brandon learned pretty early that his athletic prowess wouldn’t result in fame and accolades like childhood heroes Chuck Foreman and Jim Rice. Instead, he took up writing, and — thanks to some influential teachers — began considering it a career.  Since 1990, Brandon has been in sports media in a variety of roles, including sports editor of The Galveston County (TX) Daily News and general assignments/sports for the Houston Chronicle. His work has also appeared on foxsports.com, sportingnews.com and footballoutsiders.com. He co-authored the 2004 edition of the Pro Football Forecast along with Sean Lehman and Todd Grenier. He also worked as a transmissions administrator for Fox Sports Net.

An avid Colorado Rockies fan, Williams is passionate about baseball in the 1980s and holds a special place in his heart for the 1986 Houston Astros. He is single and resides in Houston, TX.  You can follow Brandon on Facebook and Twitter (BCWilliams71).

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. Joe also chairs the Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legends Project, a sub-committee of SABR’s 19th Century Committee. 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.

Bob Wirz:
Bob is a life-long professional in the world of sports, with heavy concentration on baseball. One of Wirz’s more intriguing tasks was running Major League Baseballâ’s media office as chief spokesman for Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Peter Ueberroth for more than a decade (1974-85). He started Wirz & Associates, Inc., a sports public relations and consulting company he still runs in Stratford, CT, later in 1985. It handled publicity for the prestigious Rolaids Relief Man awards for more than two decades, developed Little League Baseball’s first national sponsorship program and utilized sports celebrities and venues to establish broad awareness campaigns for the industry haircoloring giant Just For Men.

Since 2003, he has been writing a weekly column, the Independent Baseball Insider. It is unique in that it details news from every Independent league in a very upbeat manner. He also has a blog about Independent Baseball, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com, and a web site on University of Connecticut basketball and football, www.HuskyPedia.com.

Bob’s experience includes six years as publicity director for the Kansas City Royals, and a background in newspaper, radio and television work. His first professional baseball position was as Public Relations Director of the Denver Bears (Pacific Coast League) in 1967-68. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska. Bob and his wife Maybeth reside in Stratford. They have four children and five grandchildren.

Graham Womack
Graham is the founder and editor of Baseball: Past and Present and has been contributing to Seamheads since June 2010. He’s been reading about baseball since childhood, has a journalism degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and hopes to one day write for Sports Illustrated. Graham lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his cat Augustas.

Bill Young:
Bill has been a SABR member since 20001 and was a founder of the SABR-Quebec Chapter in 2005. He served as a Dean in the Quebec community college (CEGEP) system until retirement; and then was named founding Executive Director of the Greenwood Centre for Living History in his home town of Hudson, Quebec (CANADA). Born in Quebec City, Bill has nurtured a life-long interest in baseball, especially baseball in this province, and has written extensively on the topic. He collaborated with Danny Gallagher on the best-selling Remembering the Montreal Expos, and has published a number of articles about minor league ball in Quebec, particularly with respect to the Provincial League. He is married to Sandra Butler and has two grown children and two grandchildren. And, lordy, how he misses his beloved Expos!