| Sabermetric’s Bill James and Sports Machine’s George Michael Highlight New Baseball Research Journal |
| For Immediate Release February 25, 2005 |
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| Cover of the Baseball Research Journal #33 |
Cleveland, Ohio – In its thirty-third year of publication, SABR’s Baseball Research Journal continues to explore the cultural and historical forces that help shape our understanding of the game. The newest issue of BRJ is no exception.
In his article, “Underestimating the Fog,” Bill James suggests in BRJ #33 that a wide range of conclusions in sabermetrics may be unfounded, due to the reliance, as he puts it, “on a commonly accepted method which seems, intuitively, that it ought to work, but which in practice may not actually work at all.” Does clutch hitting exist? Do catchers have an impact on a pitcher’s ERA? Bill James tackles these difficult questions and more in classic sabermetric fashion.
Another highlight of BRJ #33 is the article, “Identifying Mystery Photos” by George Michael, of Sports Machine fame.
Pictures that have been misidentified or have no identification on them represent a special challenge. To the small group of researchers who get an unlikely thrill from solving a baseball photo mystery, George Michael is quite simply the guru. There are people who know subtle details about changes in uniforms, such as the year that piping was added to road uniforms or when the sock pattern changed or the lettering on the home uniforms. Michael, who’s been a member of SABR since 1998, knows all of that, but he takes great pride in being able to figure things out on uniforms that were unchanged for a long time, such as the Dodgers in the 1950s. He identifies players by the tilt of the head when sliding and knows all the umpires at a glance. Once he knows the umpire, the fielder and the runner, he then pores through newspapers to find the conjunction of all of them.
In his collection of over 5,000 photos of sliding action, Michael shares his analysis of ten photos which have presented greater challenges throughout the years. Using a “case style” approach, Michael lets the reader be the “Watson” to his “Sherlock Holmes.” Along the way, he gives readers the tools and techniques of the trade to become an image detective in a baseball mystery of their own.
To read these stories and more, check out the Baseball Research Journal #33 available through University of Nebraska Press (http://unp.unl.edu/ or 1-800-755-1105).
Published annually since 1972, The Baseball Research Journal is the flagship of SABR publications. Written and compiled by SABR members, BRJ's objective is to highlight articles covering previously unpublished material or dealing with historical data from a different perspective.
Great articles also included in this issue: “Should Saduharu Oh Be in Cooperstown?,” by Jim Albright; “Protest Upheld, Computer Software Compounded,” by David W. Smith; and “The Science of Second-guessing,” by Scott Schaffer and many more.
SABR (pronounced “Saber”) is an international organization headquartered in Cleveland, OH. The Society's mission is to foster the study of baseball, to assist in developing and maintaining the history of the game, to facilitate the dissemination of baseball research and to stimulate interest in baseball.
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Page Link: http://www.sabr.org/sabr.cfm?a=cms,c,1071,40,0
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