Doug Pappas (1961–2004) was a baseball writer and researcher who was considered a foremost expert on the business of baseball.
Pappas was a graduate of the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
(1982) and the
University of Michigan Law School
The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...
(1985), where he had been Executive Note Editor of the
Michigan Law Review
The ''Michigan Law Review'' is an American law review and the flagship law journal of the University of Michigan Law School.
History
The ''Michigan Law Review'' was established in 1902, after Gustavus Ohlinger, a student in the Law Department ...
. He attended and graduated from
Hackley School
Hackley School is a private college preparatory school located in Tarrytown, New York, and is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. Founded in 1899 by a wealthy philanthropist, Frances Hackley, Hackley was intended to be a Unitarian al ...
in 1978.
Contributions to baseball research
Pappas wrote prolifically about baseball economics, analyzing and debunking what he perceived as false information spread by
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
and sympathetic media outlets. He railed against claims by Commissioner
Bud Selig
Allan Huber "Bud" Selig
(; born July 30, 1934) is an American baseball executive who currently serves as the Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball. Previously, he served as the ninth Commissioner of Baseball from 1998 to 2015. He initially served as ...
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
''Total Baseball'' (latest edition , first published 1989) is a baseball encyclopedia first compiled by John Thorn and Pete Palmer in 1989. The latest edition, published in 2004, is its eighth.Society for American Baseball Research
The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...
, 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
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' 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 he observed on his frequent drives along America’s highways and byways.
Doug didn’t Misrepresent clients and did not use people to run along and do his dirt. 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 in
BigLaw
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...
and a photography enthusiast. After graduating from law school, Pappas was an associate at two now-defunct Wall Street firms,
Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey
Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey, also known as Finley, Kumble, was a United States law firm founded in 1968. The firm, based in New York, had grown from eight lawyers at its inception to over 700 lawyers at the ...
, and then its successor,
Myerson & Kuhn. While at Finley Kumble, Pappas represented the former
United States Football League
The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...
in its antitrust suit against the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
. He later moved to another New York firm,
Mintz & Gold, where his practice concentrated on general civil and commercial litigation.
His unexpected death came on a photographic excursion. 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
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
's Transportation History Collection of the Special Collections Library.
University of Michigan News Service, The University Record Online
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Notes
External links
*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.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pappas, Doug
American sportswriters
1962 births
2004 deaths
University of Chicago alumni
University of Michigan Law School alumni
Deaths from hyperthermia