Years ago my friend Mike asked me if I’d ever heard of something called the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Biography Project?
I’d not.
At the time, I believe Mike was a member of SABR and was actually working on a biography or two for a future SABR-published book commemorating the 1984 Detroit Tigers’ World Championship. (Sadly, still the last Tigers’ championship.) Mike noted that the editors were looking for more authors of player biographies and that, if I was interested, I should contact ther a fella named Gary Gillette.
I did. He provided me a list of 1984 Tigers’ players in need of biographies and I selected Barbaro Garbey, the first Cuban to defect and play in Major Leagues.
At the time, I knew little about the history of the SABR Biography Project.
If you are now, like I was a couple of decades ago, in the dark about the Project, I have some terrific news for you!
Conversations with Sports Fans’ guest this week is Mark Armour, the man who founded the Project.
Mark is kind enough to share his fandom journey with listeners. It dates to his days as a youngster seeing Willie Mays for the first time as a San Francisco Giant to his family’s move to New England just in time for some late-1960s Boston Red Sox magic to his days now as a retiree in the Pacific Northwest.
He also talks plenty about SABR, his involvement with the organization, and its Biography Project. He also lets listeners learn a bit about his latest endeavor, “The Satchel Paige Project,” in which he attempts to document every game the Hall of Famer played in (professional, amateur, barnstormer, or otherwise). To the moment he’s over 2,000 total.