Sean Lahman (born June 9, 1968) (pronounced "lay-men") is an

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. He is currently a

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for the

USA Today Network Gannett Company owns over 100 daily newspapers, and nearly 1,000 weekly newspapers. These operations are in 44 U.S. states, one U.S. territory, and six countries. Newspapers United States *''USA Today'' ( Tyson's Corner, Virginia) **''USA Today ...

and

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle The ''Democrat and Chronicle'' is a daily newspaper serving the greater Rochester, New York, area. At 245 East Main Street in downtown Rochester, the ''Democrat and Chronicle'' operates under the ownership of Gannett. The paper's production fac ...

and frequently makes public appearances to speak about

database journalism Database journalism or structured journalism is a principle in information management whereby news content is organized around structured pieces of data, as opposed to news stories. See also Data journalism Communication scholar Wiebke Loosen def ...

, data mining and

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

databases.

Sports research

He is most noted for the Lahman Baseball Database, a collection of baseball statistics for every team and player in Major League history. Starting in 1995, he made this database freely available for download from the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, helping to launch a new era of baseball research by making the raw data available to everyone. In addition to fostering research, the Lahman Database also made it possible for baseball simulation games, such as

Baseball Mogul ''Baseball Mogul'' is a series of career baseball management computer games created by game designer Clay Dreslough. The product was first published in 1997. The 25th and latest installment is ''Baseball Mogul 2022''. A proprietary database, i ...

and

Out of the Park Baseball ''Out of the Park Baseball'' (abbreviated as ''OOTP'') is a text-based baseball simulation for career, historical, and fictional play. Starting with ''OOTP 16'', the game has licenses for Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball. Games ...

, to recreate historical seasons from actual baseball history. In the mid-1990s, Lahman created the first online baseball encyclopedia at his Baseball Archive website. He later sold the website to Total Sports and became senior editor for that company's print publishing division. The encyclopedia disappeared from the web when Total Sports declared bankruptcy. It was later reborn as

Baseball-Reference.com Baseball-Reference is a website providing baseball statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history. The site is often used by major media organizations and baseball broadcasters as a source for statistics. It offers a variety of advan ...

, and Lahman resurrected the Baseball Archive website as a platform to continue the free distribution of his database. Since 2011, he has worked for the

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 ...

to coordinate data collection projects, including an effort to build a database for minor league baseball In 2021, Lahman served on a task force that made recommendations on which Black leagues from baseball’s segregated era should be recognized as major leagues. Lahman's efforts to document the statistical history of sports have gone beyond baseball. During the 1990s and 2000s, he edited or contributed to the definitive encyclopedias for baseball,

professional football In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

. In the late 1990s, Lahman launched the Football Project, an effort to collect, digitize, and distribute play-by-play accounts from NFL games back to 1920. In 2010, he served on a "blue ribbon" panel assembled by

NFL Films NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries for and about the NFL, as well as ot ...

for the ten-part documentary series called The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players. He has also appeared as a guest on the

MLB Network The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox C ...

show "Behind the Seams."

Books

From 1998 to 2007, Lahman was an editor or contributor to more than a dozen sports encyclopedias , including: * three editions of ''Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball'' * five editions of the ''ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia'' * two editions of the ''ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia'' * ''Total Tennis: The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia'' * ''Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia'' * ''Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia'' In addition to these encyclopedias, Lahman has written several other books on sports history. He created the annual

Pro Football Prospectus ''Pro Football Prospectus'' was an annual book series published from 2002 to 2008. It reviewed the previous NFL season and previewed the upcoming season. Its brand of statistical analysis set it apart from the annual magazines that covered the sa ...

in 2002 and produced the first three editions in the series. His 2008 book ''The Pro Football Historical Abstract'' received the Nelson Ross Award, presented annually for "outstanding achievement in pro football research and historiography" by the

Pro Football Researchers Association The Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) is an organization of researchers whose mission is to preserve and, in some cases, reconstruct professional football history. It was founded on June 22, 1979 in Canton, Ohio by writer/hist ...

Newspaper and other work

Lahman has worked as a database reporter for the

since 2010, where he has been a part of statewide and national investigative reporting teams for the

. His work has won awards in a variety of disciplines, including feature writing, business reporting, spot news, and state government reporting. His 2018 reporting on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's campaign fundraising won the Associated Press First Amendment award. He has also won awards for his reporting on gun violence and the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. Lahman was a senior editor for

Total Sports Publishing {{refimprove, date=July 2009 Total Sports Publishing refers to a book publishing company based in Kingston, New York, that operated from 1998 to 2002. Prominent author John Thorn served as the division's publisher throughout its existence. Total ...

from 1999 to 2001. He later served as a

sports reporter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

for the

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

from 2003 until the paper's demise in 2008.

External links

Official website

USA Today articles

Rochester D&C articles

New York Sun articles

Lahman's blog (''"In Lahman's Terms"'')

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lahman, Sean 1968 births Living people Baseball statisticians Writers from Rochester, New York University of Cincinnati alumni Journalists from New York (state) Sportswriters from New York (state)