Award definition and call for nominations
The McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award honors the authors of the best articles on baseball history or biography completed during the preceding calendar year (published or unpublished). The 2008 awards will be presented at the SABR convention in August 2009.

This award was previously named The Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award (1987-1999). It is presented each year at the SABR National Convention to three individuals, groups or groups of individuals whose research projects have greatly expanded our knowledge of baseball. In 1995, the focus of the award was changed to articles about baseball history and biography. A $200 cash award accompanies the honor.

Previous winners of the McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award

2009
Mark Armour (Corvallis, OR), “A Tale of Two Umpires,” published in fall 2009 issue of Baseball Research Journal
William F. Lamb (Meredith, NH), "A Fearsome Collaboration: The Alliance of Andrew Freedman and John T. Brush,” published in the fall 2009 issue of Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game.
Geri Strecker (Muncie, IN), “The Rise and Fall of Greenlee Field: Biography of a Ballpark,” published in the fall 2009 issue of Black Ball: A Journal of the Negro League.

2008

David J. Laliberte, “Myth, History and Indian Baseball: An Unexpected Story of the Game in Minnesota”
William J. McGill, "The Greatest College Pitcher: George Sisler at Michigan”
David Vaught, “Our Players Are Mostly Farmers: Baseball in Rural California, 1850-1890”

2007  

Henry D. Fetter, Revising the Revisionists: Walter O'Malley, Robert Moses, and the Death of the Brooklyn Dodgers. (revised text published under title "Revising the Revisionists: Walter O'Malley, Robert Moses and the End of the Brooklyn Dodgers," in New York History, Vol. 89, no. 1, Winter 2008).
Frederick Ivor-Campbell, Knickerbocker Base Ball: The Birth and Infancy of the Modern Game, a slightly revised version was published in Base Ball (McFarland, Fall 2007)
Dick Thompson, Cannonball Bill Jackman, originally published in The National Pastime #27 (SABR).

2006  

Brian Carroll, Early Twentieth Century Heroes: Coverage of Negro League Baseball in the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender
Mitchell Nathanson, The Irrelevance of Baseball's Antitrust Exemption: A Historical Review
Steve Steinberg, Matty and the Browns: A Window Onto the AL-NL War

2005  

Charlie Bevis, Rocky Point: A Lone Outpost of Sunday Baseball in Sabbatarian New England; originally published in Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture.  
Gregory Bond, Too Much Dirty Work: Race, Manliness And Baseball in Gilded Age Nebraska, originally published in Nebraska History. 
James Forr, Pie Traynor 

2004

Richard Bak, Bat Out of Hell 
Ken Fenster, Earl Mann, Nat Peeples and the Failed Attempt of Integration in the Southern Association; originally published in Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture. 

2003   

Charlie Bevis for Evolution of the Sunday Doubleheader and Its Role in Elevating the Popularity of Baseball
Bob Gorman and David Weeks, Foul Play, Fan Fatalities in Twentieth-Century Organized Baseball          
Robert H. Schaefer, The Great Baseball Match of 1858, Base Ball's First All-Star Game 

2002   

Frank Ardolino, Missionaries, Cartwright and Spalding           
Ron Briley, In the Tradition of Jackie Robinson: Ozzie Virgil and the Integration of the DetroitTigers
Jim McConnell, Dahlgren, You're in There

2001   

Bruce Markusen, Thirty Years Ago...The First All-Black Lineup 
Robert H. Schaefer, Legend of the Lively Ball
Dick Thompson, Baseball's Greatest Hero: Joe Pinder  

2000  

Tom Altherr, A Place Leavel Enough To Play Ball: Baseball and Baseball-type Games in the Colonial Era, Revolutionary War, and Early American Republic
Robert H. Schaefer, The Lost Art of Fair-Foul Hitting   
Dick Thompson, The Wes Ferrell Story

Previously Awarded as the Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award

1999

Ron Briley for As American as Cherry Pie: Baseball and Reflections of Violence in the 1960s and 1970s
Chris Lamb for L'Affaire Jake Powell: The Minority Press Goes to Bat Against Segregated Baseball
Stephen Norwood and Harold Brackman for Going to Bat for Jackie Robinson: The Jewish Role in Breaking Baseball's Color Line

1998

David M. Jordan, Larry Gerlach and John Rossi for A Baseball Myth Exploded
Jim McConnell for Baseball's Dark Past
Andrew O'Toole for Clemente's First Spring

1997

Clifford Blau for The History of Major League Tie Games
John McReynolds for Nate Moreland, Mystery to Historians
Gary Smith, for Damned Yankee

1996

Adrian Burgos, Jr. for Jugando en el Norte, Caribbean Players in the Negro Leagues, 1910-1950
Jim Price, for A Half Century of Pain a retrospective look at the 1946 Spokane Indian bus accident
Joseph M. Wayman, for Grandstand Baseball Annual Pitching Won-Loss Records, National League, 1890-1899

1995

James A. Smith, Jr. & Herman Krabbenhoft for research involved in The Baseball Quarterly Reviews Triple Play Projecy
Hank Thomas & Chuck Carey for research involved in The California Comet on Walter Johnson's California semi-pro career
Michael O'Grady for From Covehead to the Polo Grounds: The Story of Henry Haverlock Oxley, Major Leaguer

1994

Peter C. Bjarkman for Baseball with a Latin Beat: A History of the Latin American Game
Robert F. Burk for Never Just a Game: Players, Owners and American Baseball to 1920
Jack Kavanagh for Walter Johnson: A Life

1993

Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, won for The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball
James A. Riley, for The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues
Michael Gershman, for Diamonds: The Evolution of the Ballpark

1992

Phil Dixon, won for The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History
Barbara Gregorich, for Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball
William Ryczek, for Blackguards and Red Stockings: A History of The National Association

1991

Robert Gregory, for Diz: The Story of Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great Depression
Herman Krabbenhoft, for Baseball Quarterly Reviews
Mark Stang & Linda Harkness, for Rosters!

1990
Bruce Kuklick, for To Everything a Season--Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia 1909-

1989
Dr. Harold Seymour for Baseball: The People's Ga  Dick Clark, John Holway & James A. Riley, for work on Negro League statistics in The Baseball Encyclopedia (8th edition)
James E. Miller, for The Baseball Business

1988

Bill Deane, for Award Voting
Paul Dickson, for The Dickson Baseball Dictionary
Marc Okkonen for Major League Uniforms of the 20th Century

1987

Melvin Adelman, for his work on 1820-1870 New York City baseball
Stew Thornley, for On to Nicollet, a team profile of the Minneapolis Millers
Bob Tiemann & Rich Topp, for their work cataloging managerial changes

1986

Andy McCue, for Baseball By the Books
Rob Ruck, for The Tropic of Baseball