SABR 50 at 50 celebrates and highlights the Society for American Baseball Research’s wide-ranging contributions to baseball history. Established in 1971 in Cooperstown, New York, SABR has sought to foster and disseminate the research of baseball—with groundbreaking work from statisticians, historians, and independent researchers—and has published dozens of articles with far-reaching and long-lasting impact on the game. Among its current membership are many Major and Minor League Baseball officials, broadcasters, and writers as well as numerous former players. The diversity of SABR members’ interests is reflected in this fiftieth-anniversary volume—from baseball and the arts to statistical analysis to the Deadball Era to women in baseball. SABR 50 at 50 includes the most important and influential research published by members across a multitude of topics, including the sabermetric work of Dick Cramer, Pete Palmer, and Bill James, along with Jerry Malloy on the Negro Leagues, Keith Olbermann on why the shortstop position is number 6, John Thorn and Jules Tygiel on the untold story behind Jackie Robinson’s signing with the Dodgers, and Gai Berlage on the Colorado Silver Bullets women’s team in the 1990s. To provide history and context, each notable research article is accompanied by a short introduction. As SABR celebrates fifty years this collection gathers the organization’s most notable research and baseball history for the serious baseball reader.    

Vinyl Ventures: My Fifty Years at Rounder Records is less a standard history and more an idiosyncratic memoir written by one of the three Rounder founders. Rounder Records was born in 1970, a “hobby that got out of control,� a fledgling record company more or less conceived when vinyl still reigned, while the Sixties were still in flower, and which began publishing on a shoestring budget of just over $1,000. Founded by three friends just out of college, the Boston-area company produced over 3,000 record albums, the most active company of the last half-century, specializing in roots music and its contemporary offshoots. Rounder won fifty-six Grammy Awards and documented a swath of music that in many cases might otherwise never have been presented to a broader public. It’s arguably a quintessentially American success story. This book focuses on the early years up to and just through when Rounder evolved to a second stage, with a generational change that has kept the label healthy and flourishing when so many other cultural enterprises from the era have folded or gone dark. It includes original photographs taken by the author or drawn from the Rounder Records archives. It’s the story of three people with no background in business who took an idea and, through hard work and passion, built something of lasting cultural significance.

Long before the Red Sox "Impossible Dream" season, Boston's now nearly forgotten "other" team, the 1914 Boston Braves, performed a baseball "miracle" that resounds to this very day. The "Miracle Braves" were Boston's first "worst-to-first" winners of the World Series. Shortly after the turn of the previous century, the once mighty Braves had become a perennial member of the National League's second division. Preseason pundits didn't believe the 1914 team posed a meaningful threat to John McGraw's powerful New York Giants. During the first half of that campaign, Boston lived down to such expectations, taking up residence in the league's basement. Refusing to throw in the towel at the midseason mark, their leader, the pugnacious George Stallings, deftly manipulated his daily lineup and pitching staff to engineer a remarkable second-half climb in the standings all the way to first place. The team's winning momentum carried into the postseason, where the Braves swept Connie Mack's heralded Athletics and claimed the only World Championship ever won by Boston's National League entry. And for 100 years, the management, players, and fans of underperforming ball clubs have turned to the Miracle Braves to catch a glimmer of hope that such a midseason turnaround could be repeated. Through the collaborative efforts of a band of dedicated members of the Society for American Baseball Research, this benchmark accomplishment is richly revealed to the reader in The Miracle Braves of 1914: Boston's Original Worst-to-First World Series Champions. The essence of the "miracle" is captured through a comprehensive compendium of incisive biographies of the players and other figures associated with the team, with additional relevant research pieces on the season. After a journey through the pages of this book, the die-hard baseball fan will better understand why the call to "Wait Until Next Year" should never be voiced prematurely. Includes: FOREWORD by Bob Brady THE BRAVES Ted Cather by Jack V. Morris Gene Cocreham by Thomas Ayers Wilson Collins by Charlie Weatherby Joe Connolly by Dennis Auger Ensign Cottrell by Peter Cottrell Dick Crutcher by Jerrod Cotosman George Davis by Rory Costello Charlie Deal by Charles F. Faber Josh Devore by Peter Gordon Oscar Dugey by Charlie Weatherby Johnny Evers by David Shiner The 1914 Evers-Zimmerman Incident and How the Tale Grew Taller Over the Years by Bob Brady The Evers Ejection Record by Mark Sternman Larry Gilbert by Jack V. Morris Hank Gowdy by Carol McMains and Frank Ceresi Tommy Griffith by Chip Greene Otto Hess by Gary Hess Tom Hughes by Greg Erion Bill James by David Jones Clarence Kraft by Jon Dunkle Dolf Luque by Peter Bjarkman Les Mann by Maurice Bouchard Rabbit Maranville by Dick Leyden Billy Martin by Bob Joel Jack Martin by Charles F. Faber Herbie Moran by Charles F. Faber Jim Murray by Jim Elfers Hub Perdue by John Simpson Dick Rudolph by Dick Leyden Butch Schmidt by Chip Greene Red Smith by Charles F. Faber Paul Strand by Jack V. Morris Fred Tyler by John Shannahan Lefty Tyler by Wayne McElreavy Bert Whaling by Charles F. Faber George "Possum" Whitted by Craig Hardee MANAGER George Stallings by Martin Kohout COACH Fred Mitchell by Bill Nowlin OWNER Jim Gaffney by Rory Costello The Braves' A.B.C. by Ring Lardner 1914 Boston Braves Timeline by Mike Lynch A Stallings Anecdote 1914 World Series by Mark Sternman "I Told You So" by O.R.C. The Rest of 1914 by Mike Lynch How An Exhibition Game Contributed To A Miracle by Bob Brady The National League Pennant Race of 1914 by Frank Vaccaro The Press, The Fans, and the 1914 Boston Braves by Donna L. Halper Return of the Miracle Braves by Bob Brady Miracle Teams by A Comparison of the 1914 Miracle Braves and 1969 Miracle Mets by Tom Nahigian An Unexpected Farewell by The South End Grounds, August 1914 by Bob Ruzzo The Time(s) the Braves Played Home Games at Fenway Park by Bill Nowlin And other informative articles

As Boston's revered Fenway Park hits its 100th anniversary, it's a good time to look back at the full century of Red Sox baseball played in the team's home park. Author of more books on the Red Sox than any other writer, Bill Nowlin has produced another one here. This is no dumbed-down version of Fenway Park history told in trivia form. The average reader will easily answer some of the questions, certainly, but our guess is that the average reader will feel more frustrated than genius after working his or her way through these 100 questions for the 100 years. The goal isn't to give the reader a difficult time, though. It's to provide better insights into the park and the play on the field. Reading through this book will hopefully be an educational (and enjoyable) experience.