Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

Founded in 1971 at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY, the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) gathers together writers, historians, and statisticians interested in making scholarly contributions in the field of baseball. Many of the themes covered in this exhibit are analyzed by SABR research committees, including women in baseball, statistics, and baseball and the arts.

SABR is now most closely associated with the statistical analytics, or sabermetrics, used by professional baseball organizations to assess player and team performance. Sabermetrics have taken root at every level of baseball, from general managers deciding what players to hire, to managers deciding in-game player behavior, to fans carefully tracking statistical information for fantasy leagues. However, SABR is much broader than just baseball statistics, publishing reference material, two journals, books and ebooks, and a weekly newsletter.

The works on display in this case, gifts of Lehigh alumnus Eric A. Simonsen (’67, ‘71G), provide a representative sample of SABR’s scholarly output and help to show how historical and sociological researchers understand baseball’s impact on American culture.