Doug Pappas
Encyclopedia
Doug Pappas was a baseball writer and researcher who was considered the foremost expert on the business of baseball.
Pappas was a graduate of the University of Chicago
(1982) and the University of Michigan Law School
(1985), where he had been Executive Note Editor of the Michigan Law Review
.
and sympathetic media outlets. He railed against claims by Commissioner Bud Selig
that the league's teams were in dire financial straits, using the league's own data to refute the claims.
Pappas conducted exhaustive research on player salaries, compiling a database from a variety of sources. His analytical work focused on measuring the performance of a team's front office with a metric called Marginal Wins/Marginal Payroll. This work inspired and informed major league general managers like Billy Beane
, and formed the foundation of what would later come to be known as "Moneyball."
He was a regular contributor to Baseball Prospectus
from 2001 to 2004 and a listed contributor to the 4th and 5th editions of Total Baseball
. Pappas was also very active within the Society for American Baseball Research
, in 1994 founding and then chairing the SABR Business of Baseball committee and serving as the organization's parliamentarian
. After his death, SABR renamed its USA Today
award for the best paper at its annual convention in honor of Pappas:
In eulogizing Pappas, Neal Traven of SABR wrote:
in May 2004, where he was overcome by heat prostration. After his death, his mother donated more than 500 of his books along with 34 of his photograph albums, and approximately 3,700 of his postcards related to transportation to the University of Michigan
's Transportation History Collection of the Special Collections Library.
Pappas was a graduate of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
(1982) and the University of Michigan Law School
University of Michigan Law School
The University of Michigan Law School is the law school of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Founded in 1859, the school has an enrollment of about 1,200 students, most of whom are seeking Juris Doctor or Master of Laws degrees, although the school also offers a Doctor of Juridical...
(1985), where he had been Executive Note Editor of the Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The Michigan Law Review is an American law reviews established in 1902, after Gustavus Ohlinger, a student in the Law Department of the University of Michigan, approached the Dean with a proposal for a law journal. The Michigan Law Review was originally intended as a forum in which the faculty of...
.
Contributions to baseball research
Pappas wrote prolifically about baseball economics, analyzing and debunking what he perceived as false information spread by Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
and sympathetic media outlets. He railed against claims by Commissioner Bud Selig
Bud Selig
Allan Huber "Bud" Selig is the ninth and current Commissioner of Major League Baseball, having served in that capacity since 1992 as the acting commissioner, and as the official commissioner since 1998...
that the league's teams were in dire financial straits, using the league's own data to refute the claims.
Pappas conducted exhaustive research on player salaries, compiling a database from a variety of sources. His analytical work focused on measuring the performance of a team's front office with a metric called Marginal Wins/Marginal Payroll. This work inspired and informed major league general managers like Billy Beane
Billy Beane
William Lamar "Billy" Beane III is a former Major League Baseball player and the current general manager and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics...
, and formed the foundation of what would later come to be known as "Moneyball."
He was a regular contributor to Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Prospectus is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well player and team performance projections on the site...
from 2001 to 2004 and a listed contributor to the 4th and 5th editions of Total Baseball
Total Baseball
Total Baseball is a baseball encyclopedia first compiled by John Thorn and Pete Palmer in 1989. The latest edition, published in 2004, is its eighth...
. Pappas was also very active within the Society for American Baseball Research
Society for American Baseball Research
The Society for American Baseball Research was established in Cooperstown, New York, in August 1971 by Bob Davids of Washington, D.C. The Society's mission is to foster the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball, while generating interest in the game...
, in 1994 founding and then chairing the SABR Business of Baseball committee and serving as the organization's parliamentarian
Parliamentarian (consultant)
A parliamentarian is an expert on parliamentary procedure who advises organizations and deliberative assemblies. This sense of the term "parliamentarian" is distinct from the usage of the same term to mean a member of Parliament....
. After his death, SABR renamed its USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
award for the best paper at its annual convention in honor of Pappas:
The Doug Pappas Research Award recognizes the best oral research presentation at the Annual Convention. Before 2004 it was known as The USA Today Sports Weekly Award; the name was changed to honor the late Doug Pappas. USA Today Sports Weekly continues to sponsor both it and the companion award for the best poster presentation.
In eulogizing Pappas, Neal Traven of SABR wrote:
He was a brilliant researcher, blessed with the capacity to digest and describe great volumes of material. Most SABR research stops there, but Doug continued on, to analyze and make sense of what he observed, and to synthesize his insights into recommendations for resolving the problems he addressed.
He was a splendid and generous communicator, writing with clarity and passion, eager to share resources and ideas with all who sought him out, always as ready to examine his own assumptions as he was to challenge the assumptions of others.
Doug detested pretension and artifice – he certainly knew that the clothes do not make the man. If he’s somehow observing us, he’s laughing about us wearing suits and ties on this occasion. At the same time, he reveled in the unabashed quirkiness and fakery he observed on his frequent drives along America’s highways and byways.
Doug didn’t suffer fools gladly, nor could he muster up sympathy for those who would willfully and deliberately mislead and misrepresent. His college friend Veronica Drake speaks of his mastery of the Socratic method (as taught at the University of Chicago), but I’d call his approach one of reductio ad absurdum … following the premises of, say, Bud Selig to their logical conclusion, and then simply noting the absurdity and fallacy of that outcome.
His abiding enthusiasm for baseball and for the American roadside were amply illustrated in the public persona of his writings and his web presence. Less obvious, but just as deeply held and as integral to his being, were his commitment to social justice and progressive politics, and his love of rock-and-roll music.
Other interests and contributions
In addition to his baseball fandom, Pappas was a lawyer and a photography enthusiast. Pappas was an attorney with [Mintz & Gold]http://www.mintzandgold.com, where his practice concentrated on general civil and commercial litigation. His unexpected death came on a photographic excursion to Big Bend National ParkBig Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park is a national park located in the U.S. state of Texas. Big Bend has national significance as the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert topography and ecology in the United States, which includes more than 1,200 species of plants, more than 450 species of birds, 56...
in May 2004, where he was overcome by heat prostration. After his death, his mother donated more than 500 of his books along with 34 of his photograph albums, and approximately 3,700 of his postcards related to transportation to the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
's Transportation History Collection of the Special Collections Library.
External links
- Pappas's Web Site
- Doug's Business of Baseball Weblog
- Gary Huckabay, "6-4-3: Leaving the Shore" (May 25, 2004).
- Maury Brown, "Baseball Prospectus: Remembering Doug Pappas" (May 21, 2007).
- SABR Obituary for Doug Pappas (May 21, 2004)
- SABR Eulogy for Doug Pappas, written by Neal Traven (June 7, 2004).
- Joanne Nesbit, "Library Gift Celebrates the Open Road," Univ. of Michigan News Service, University Record Online, January 20, 2005.
- Outside the Lines, SABR Business of Baseball Newsletter, edited by Pappas 1995-2004.