Another View
First in a series
Baseball is a sport, rightly or wrongly, that induces arguments and debates: Who is the best hitter or hitters? The best pitcher or pitchers? Best fielder? And for such arguments, baseball fans and others use statistics as a foundational basis.
My first time attending the Society of American Baseball Researchers (SABR) convention, held in August in Minneapolis, had all the makings of a baseball geek’s paradise with tons of panel discussions, research presentations, and various committee meetings.
“We emphasize SABR’s ability to unite all of us in baseball fellowship,” said SABR CEO Scott Bush in his welcome during the convention program.
He told us, “We’ve got just less than 600 people here. We have 34 different research committees, and each one of them is represented in some way, shape or form at the conference. Really, something for everyone,” boasted Bush.
Among the panel discussions we attended was the Future of Baseball Broadcasts featuring Minnesota. Twins President Dave St. Peter, which we reported on in an earlier MSR edition.
We sat in on Mark Armour’s “The One Millionth Run” presentation in which the veteran researcher argued that, by his statistical analysis, Bob Watson may not have after all scored baseball’s one millionth run on May 4, 1975.
“I think by what we knew at that time, [Watson] did,” Armour said afterwards. “And by what we know now, he probably didn’t.”
Now that MLB is officially recognizing Negro Leagues statistics, Armour pointed out that the millionth Major League run probably would have been scored “10 or 15 years earlier,” he said.
Todd Peterson is the co-chair of the Negro Leagues Committee, which was formed in 1971. Its main purpose is to preserve the history of Blacks in baseball before the reintegration of the game, as well as support efforts to recognize Black players.
“We’re going to find out more stuff about [Black baseball players],” said Peterson. “I think that a lot of information is still out there.”
Peterson, The Donaldson Network founder Pete Gorton, and Carl Rogan, grandson of Hall of Famer and former Negro Leaguer Wilbur “Bullet” Rogan, were featured on a Black baseball panel at SABR25.
“I like what they’ve done because it gives some credibility to what has happened in the past,” said Carl Rogan. On his grandfather’s career stats now officially recognized by MLB, he said, “His stats are in the top 25 of everybody that’s ever played. That to me is just remarkable.”
However, Gorton said he’s afraid that the MLB move [and the subsequent MLB certification process], which took place in May, could ultimately hurt more than help in recognizing more Black baseball players, such as John Donaldson, who according to Gorton, have “more wins, more strikeouts than any segregated pitcher all time.”
Peterson added, “I think as more things are digitized, more people will be able to find things. People are starting to do deep dives [for] information. They can look at the stats and interpret them in many different ways.
“More stuff is going to come out every day.”
Next — The forgotten St. Louis Cardinal