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Lahman Database The Lahman Database, which can be downloaded from
this site, is a valuable
reference tool for baseball researchers. While its uses are most evident
to those doing statistical research, I find it very helpful in many of my
historical projects. You have to be familiar with the query functions of
Microsoft Access, or some other relational database, in order to make full use
of it. If that idea is a nonstarter for you, then you can stop reading
here. But if you already use Access, or are thinking about learning, the
Lahman database makes it possible to quickly sift through mounds of data and get
the answer to a puzzling question. Here are a few examples.
I was recently curious about how many batters have had seasons of 100 or more
walks and 20 or fewer strikeouts. This required only a very simple query and
produced these results:
Cupid Childs, 1892, Cleveland
John McGraw, 1893, Baltimore
Cupid Childs, 1893, Cleveland
Billy Hamilton, 1894, Philadelphia
Cupid Childs, 1894, Cleveland
Cupid Childs, 1896, Cleveland
Johnny Evers, 1910, Chicago Cubs
Charley Gehringer, 1940, Detroit
Johnny Pesky, 1949, Boston Red Sox
Elmer Valo, 1952, Philadelphia Athletics
Right now the list is just the answer to a trivia question rather than a
finished piece of research, but there are several noteworthy things about the
list. The thing that really jumps out at you is that Childs had four of
the ten such seasons in baseball history -- pretty amazing for a man most
baseball fans have never heard of! The list also suggests some interesting
possibilities for additional research. For one thing, not one of these men
hit more than 10 homers in the season in question, suggesting that there is a
tradeoff between dominating the strike zone and hitting for power. That
isn't exactly surprising, but it would be interesting to study in more depth.
It's also interesting to look at the cluster of such years right after the 1893
adoption of the 60'6" distance from the pitcher to home plate. I've started to
look at some other numbers and am learning more about how rule changes are
usually made when the balance between the batter and pitcher gets out of whack.
I ran another query to learn how many players had played at least ten games
at second base, shortstop and pitcher in the same season. It produced a short
list:
Amos Booth, 1877
Jimmy Callahan, 1897
Robert Smith, 1925
The story behind Callahan's odd season is a fascinating one and I intend to write an article
about it. I have no doubt that there are equally interesting
pieces to be written about the other two such seasons. The only limitations on
what can be done with the Lahman database is your own imagination. |
