McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award
The McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award honors the authors of the best articles on baseball history or biography completed or published during the preceding calendar year.
This award was previously named the Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award (1987-2000). It is presented each year at the SABR 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.
The selection committee consists of: Barbara Mantegani (chair), Stephanie Liscio, Allen Tait, and Roberta J. Newman.
2025 award nominations
Submit nominations for the 2025 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, honoring research projects completed in the 2024 calendar year, to Barbara Mantegani by December 31, 2024. Please include author(s) name, project name, publisher, date, online URL (if applicable), and any other relevant information. Self-nominations are welcome. Non-SABR members are also eligible to be nominated.
McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award winners
- Gary Belleville, “The Trailblazing Canadian Trio That Powered the Rockford Peaches Dynasty of 1948-50,” Journal of Canadian Baseball / Revue du Baseball Canadien, November 1, 2023
- Charlie Bevis, “Four Girls in Spring 1974: The First Foot-Soldiers of Female Inclusion in Little League Baseball,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Spring 2022
- Yoichi Nagata, Robert K. Fitts, and Mark Brunke, “The 1921 Native American Tours of Japan,” Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan, Volume 1: 1907-1958 (SABR, 2022)
- John Racanelli, “Death and Taxes and Baseball Card Litigation,” SABR Baseball Cards Blog, January 8-December 14, 2022
- Bruce Allardice, “Runs, Runs, and More Runs: Pre-Professional Baseball, By the Numbers,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2021
- Steve Gietschier, “Before We Forget: The Birth, Life, and Death of The Sporting News Research Center,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Spring 2020
- Robert H. Schaefer, “The Fair-Foul Hitting Era: 1864-1876,” scheduled for publication in Base Ball 13: New Research on the Early Game, Fall 2021 (McFarland & Co.)
- Emma Baccellieri, “A Brief History of the Many Times Baseball Has Died,” Sports Illustrated, August 29, 2019.
- Bill Staples Jr., “Early Baseball Encounters in the West: The Yeddo Royal Japanese Troupe Play Ball in America, 1872,” International Pastime, July 18, 2019.
- Dan VanDeMortel, “White Circles Drawn in Crayon,” in The Polo Grounds: Essays and Memories of New York City’s Historic Ballpark, 1880-1963; ed. Stew Thornley (McFarland & Co.)
- Richard Bak, “The Rise and Fatal Fall of Tenny Blount,” unpublished work.
- Robert Fitts, “Baseball and the Yellow Peril,” Base Ball: New Research on the Early Game, Vol. 10 (McFarland & Co.)
- John McMurray, “Addie Joss and the Benefit Game,” Base Ball: New Research on the Early Game, Vol. 10 (McFarland & Co.)
- Warren Corbett, “The ‘Strike’ Against Jackie Robinson: Truth or Myth?”, Baseball Research Journal, Spring 2017 (SABR)
- Doron Goldman, “1933-1962: The Business Meetings of Negro League Baseball,” in Baseball’s Business: The Winter Meetings, 1958-2016 (SABR)
- Jack Bales, “The Show Girl and the Shortstop: The Strange Saga of Violet Popovich and Her Shooting of Cub Billy Jurges,” Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2016 (SABR)
- Dan Barry, “The Big League Prospect Who Became a Mob Hit Man,” New York Times, October 30, 2016
- Richard Bak, “Digging Up Bob Troy,” unpublished (subsequently published in Michigan Historical Review #44, No. 1, Spring 2018)
- Doron Goldman, “The Double Victory Campaign and the Campaign to Integrate Baseball,” from Who’s on First: Replacement Players in World War II, eds. Marc Z. Aaron and Bill Nowlin, 2015 (SABR)
- William Lamb, “Jury Nullification and the Not Guilty Verdicts in the Black Sox Case,” Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2015 (SABR)
- David Ball with David Nemec, “The Sam Barkley Case,” Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Vol. 7 (McFarland & Co.)
- James Overmyer, “Black Baseball at Yankee Stadium,” Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal, Vol. 7 (McFarland & Co.)
- Rory Costello, “Olympic Stadium,” SABR Baseball Biography Project
- Christopher W. Schmidt, “Explaining the Baseball Revolution,” Arizona State Law Journal, Vol. 45, 2013
- Tom Shieber, “The Pride of the Seeknay,” Baseball Researcher
- Bruce Allardice, “The Inauguration of This Noble and Manly Game Among Us: The Spread of Baseball in the South Prior to 1870,” Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Fall 2012 (McFarland & Co.)
- Ken Fenster, “Earl Mann Beats the Klan: Jackie Robinson and the First Integrated Games in Atlanta,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Spring 2013
- Mitchell Nathanson, “Who Exempted Baseball Anyway? The Curious Development of the Antitrust Exemption That Never Was,” Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, Spring 2013
- Thomas L. Altherr, “Basepaths and Baselines: The Agricultural and Surveying Contexts of the Emergence of Baseball”, Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Fall 2011
- William Lamb, “John B. Day”, SABR Baseball Biography Project
- Geri Strecker, “Dave Wyatt: The First Great Black Sportswriter”, Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal, Spring 2011
- Ron Cobb, “The Georgia Peach: Stumped by the Storyteller”, The National Pastime: Baseball in the Peach State, 2010 (SABR)
- Jeff Obermeyer, “Disposable Heroes: Returning World War II Veteran Al Niemiec Takes on Organized Baseball”, Baseball Research Journal, Summer 2010 (SABR)
- Geri Strecker, “And the Public Has Been Left to Guess the Secret: Questioning the Authorship of ‘The Great Match, and Other Matches’ (1877)”, NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Spring 2010
2010
- Mark Armour, “A Tale of Two Umpires,” Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2009 (SABR)
- William F. Lamb, “A Fearsome Collaboration: The Alliance of Andrew Freedman and John T. Brush,” Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Fall 2009
- Geri Strecker, “The Rise and Fall of Greenlee Field: Biography of a Ballpark,” Black Ball: A Journal of the Negro League, Fall 2009
2009
- 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”
2008
- 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” Base Ball: A Journal of the Negro League, Fall 2007 (McFarland & Co.)
- Dick Thompson, “Cannonball Bill Jackman,” The National Pastime #27, 2007 (SABR)
2007
- Brian Carroll, “Early Twentieth Century Heroes: Coverage of Negro League Baseball in the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender,” Journalism History, Spring 2006
- Mitchell Nathanson, “The Irrelevance of Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption: A Historical Review,” Rutgers Law Review, Vol. 58, Issue 1, 2005
- Steve Steinberg, “Matty and the Browns: A Window Onto the AL-NL War,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Spring 2006
2006
- Charlie Bevis, “Rocky Point: A Lone Outpost of Sunday Baseball in Sabbatarian New England,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Fall 2005
- Gregory Bond, “Too Much Dirty Work: Race, Manliness And Baseball in Gilded Age Nebraska,” Nebraska History
- James Forr, “Pie Traynor,” SABR Baseball Biography Project
2005
- Richard Bak, “Bat Out of Hell,” included in the author’s book Peach: Ty Cobb in His Time and Ours, Sports Media Group, 2005
- Ken Fenster, “Earl Mann, Nat Peeples and the Failed Attempt of Integration in the Southern Association,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Spring 2004
2004
- Charlie Bevis, “Evolution of the Sunday Doubleheader and Its Role in Elevating the Popularity of Baseball.” The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2003-04 (McFarland & Co.)
- Bob Gorman and David Weeks, “Foul Play, Fan Fatalities in Twentieth-Century Organized Baseball,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Fall 2003
- Robert H. Schaefer, “The Great Baseball Match of 1858, Base Ball’s First All-Star Game,” published in NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Fall 2005
2003
- Frank Ardolino, “Missionaries, Cartwright and Spalding,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Fall 2002
- Ron Briley, “In the Tradition of Jackie Robinson: Ozzie Virgil and the Integration of the Detroit Tigers,” The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2002 (McFarland & Co.)
- Jim McConnell, “Dahlgren, You’re in There”
2002
- Bruce Markusen, “Thirty Years Ago … The First All-Black Lineup”, MLBlogs.com
- Robert H. Schaefer, “Legend of the Lively Ball,” Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game (McFarland & Co.)
- Dick Thompson, “Baseball’s Greatest Hero: Joe Pinder,” Baseball Research Journal #30, 2001 (SABR)
2001
- Tom Altherr, “A Place Leavel Enough To Play Ball: Baseball and Baseball-type Games in the Colonial Era, Revolutionary War, and Early American Republic”, NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Social Policy Perspectives
- Robert H. Schaefer, “The Lost Art of Fair-Foul Hitting,” The National Pastime #20, 2000 (SABR)
- Dick Thompson, “The Wes Ferrell Story,” The National Pastime #21, 2001 (SABR)
Previously Awarded as the Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award
2000
- Ron Briley, “As American as Cherry Pie: Baseball and Reflections of Violence in the 1960s and 1970s,” The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 1999
- Chris Lamb, “L’Affaire Jake Powell: The Minority Press Goes to Bat Against Segregated Baseball,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 1, Spring 1999
- Stephen Norwood and Harold Brackman, “Going to Bat for Jackie Robinson: The Jewish Role in Breaking Baseball’s Color Line,” Journal of Sport History, Vol. 26, No. 1, Spring 1999
1999
- David M. Jordan, Larry Gerlach and John Rossi, “A Baseball Myth Exploded,” The National Pastime #18, SABR, 1998
- Jim McConnell, “Baseball’s Dark Past,” Grandstand Baseball Annual
- Andrew O’Toole, “Clemente’s First Spring,” Elysian Fields Quarterly
1998
- Clifford Blau, “The History of Major League Tie Games”
- John McReynolds, “Nate Moreland, Mystery to Historians,” Los Angeles Sentinel, August 13, 1998
- Gary Smith, “Damned Yankee,” Sports Illustrated, October 13, 1997
1997
- Adrian Burgos Jr., “Jugando en el Norte: Caribbean Players in the Negro Leagues, 1910-1950,” Centro: Journal del Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños
- Jim Price, “A Half Century of Pain: A retrospective look at the 1946 Spokane Indian bus accident,” The Spokesman-Review, June 24, 1996
- Joseph M. Wayman, “Pitching Won-Loss Records, National League, 1890-1899,” Grandstand Baseball Annual
1996
- James A. Smith Jr. and Herman Krabbenhoft, “Triple Play Project,” The Baseball Quarterly Review
- Hank Thomas & Chuck Carey, for research involved in “The California Comet” on Walter Johnson’s California semi-pro career
- Michael O’Grady, “From Covehead to the Polo Grounds: The Story of Henry Haverlock Oxley, Major Leaguer”
1995
- Peter C. Bjarkman, Baseball with a Latin Beat: A History of the Latin American Game
- Robert F. Burk, Never Just a Game: Players, Owners and American Baseball to 1920
- Jack Kavanagh, Walter Johnson: A Life
1994
- Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball
- James A. Riley, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues
- Michael Gershman, Diamonds: The Evolution of the Ballpark
1993
- Phil Dixon, The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History
- Barbara Gregorich, Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball
- William Ryczek, Blackguards and Red Stockings: A History of The National Association
1992
- Robert Gregory, Diz: The Story of Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great Depression
- Herman Krabbenhoft, “Baseball Quarterly Reviews”
- Mark Stang and Linda Harkness, “Rosters!”
1991
- Bruce Kuklick, “To Everything a Season — Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia 1909-1976”
1990
- Dr. Harold Seymour, Baseball: The People’s Game
- Dick Clark, John Holway and James A. Riley, for work on Negro League statistics in The Baseball Encyclopedia (8th edition)
- James E. Miller, “The Baseball Business”
1989
- Bill Deane, Award Voting
- Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary
- Marc Okkonen, Major League Uniforms of the 20th Century
1988
- Melvin Adelman, for his work on 1820-1870 New York City baseball
- Stew Thornley, “On to Nicollet,” a team profile of the Minneapolis Millers
- Bob Tiemann and Rich Topp, for their work cataloging managerial changes
1987
- Andy McCue, Baseball By the Books
- Rob Ruck, The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic