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Baseball's Think Tanks

By Jeremy Rosenberg
October 19, 2009
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If original and independent research, statistical analysis, and position papers are among the hallmarks of think tanks, then the national pastime is lousy with 'em.

Let's start with Bill James, the sort of one-man-RAND of hardball wonks.

James -- and certain substances and naked pull-ups -- helped bring the Boston Red Sox two recent World Seriestitles. In think tank terms, that's like the Center for American Progress getting national health care reform through.

James and the people he influenced also led to this Michael Lewis book, and of course, to the drafting of Nick Swisher and the Greek God of Walks.

In addition to James, other key baseball tanks might be said to include: Elias Sports Bureau, Baseball Prospectus, Daniel Okrent and the advent of Rotisserie, and the Society of Baseball Researchers*. On a less quantatative bent, up in Pasadena, there's the Baseball Reliquary.

Related: Reason's editor-in-chief Matt Welch has written plenty about various nines, including this quick paen to Howie Kendrick and this deeper piece about Cuba.


Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user jondoeforty1. It was used under Creative Commonslicense.

*Disclosure: TTLA's blogger wrote a chapter in this baseballbook which is posted at sabr.org.

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