Baseball Research Journal (BRJ): Volume 49, #1 (Spring 2020 Issue)

edited by Cecilia M. Tan

The flagship publication of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), the Baseball Research Journal is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed publication presenting the best in SABR member research on baseball. History, biography, economics, physics, psychology, game theory, sociology and culture, records, and many other disciplines are represented to expand our knowledge of baseball as it is, was, and could be played. The Spring 2020 issue (Volume 49, #1) features groundbreaking research and analysis. In this issue, researchers present an analysis of pitch pairing and attempt to identify most effective pitch combinations. Read about Charlie Calvert, a newly discovered black ballplayer who debuted in professional baseball in Canada 24 years earlier than Jackie Robinson, or Tom Loftus, one of the founders of the American League whose early death led his role in league history to be obscured by Ban Johnson and Charles Comiskey. An exploration of the rough-and-tumble, hard-drinking world of baseball in the Dakota Territory sits alongside the first ever statistical analysis of professional baseball in 1858 through 1865. Other articles explore Canadian Prime Ministers, including Lester B. Pearson, and their connections to baseball. Numerical and statistical quirks are also used to look at the game, from Dennis Eckersley being the only "thousand-hundred" pitcher (1,000+ pitching appearances and 100+ complete games), to "Cubic Players": those whose uniform number, batting order position, and position on the field all shared the same number. Also included in this issue, bios of the most recent winners of the Chadwick Award: Tom Tango, Michael J. Haupert, and Tom Shea. "Toward the end of Loftus's career, he stood shoulder to shoulder with Ban Johnson and Charles Comiskey during the rise of the American League and was at the center of some of the most pivotal events during that first critical year in 1899. He is the American League's forgotten founding father." -Tom Loftus by John T. Pregler "In 1946, all eyes were on the Montreal Royals and Jackie Robinson as he was readying to break baseball's color line. But 24 years earlier, without any publicity, an African American ballplayer had already played six games for the Montreal team in the Class B Eastern Canada League." -Charlie Culver by Christian Trudeau "To be effective even an elite pitch must be mixed with less optimal ones, especially for starting pitchers. Therefore, it is imperative to study the interactions between pitches to fully understand the best shape a particular pitch should have and whether pairing a pitch with others improves or decreases effectiveness." -Using Clustering to Find Pitch Subtypes and Effective Pairings by Gregory Dvorocsik, Eno Sarris, and Joseph Camp