SABR Partners with Tout Wars

Leading fantasy baseball players will now play for The SABR Trophy

The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is pleased to announce a partnership with Tout Wars, the high-profile fantasy baseball experts league. With SABR’s support, the writers and experts who play in Tout Wars’ three leagues will now compete each year for The SABR Trophy. The first awarding of The SABR Trophy (for the 2009 season) will take place on Friday, March 26, 2010, at CitiField as Tout Wars players hold their spring draft for the upcoming season.

“Participating in fantasy baseball brings together many of the disciplines SABR supports,” remarked F. X. Flinn, a long-time member of the SABR Board of Directors. “The Tout Wars competitions, which by design bring together many of the top sabermetric analysts for shared public games, is squarely in line with SABR’s mission of promoting a deeper appreciation and understanding of the game we love.”

Ron Shandler, one of the founders of Tout Wars and a long-time SABR member, stated that he is

“honored and gratified that we have forged this relationship. Fantasy baseball has become a vital part of the baseball experience and serves to keep fans connected to the game. The hobby fosters advanced analysis and understanding of baseball, and this recognition by SABR further validates our place in the celebration of our National Pastime.”

The winners of the 2009 SABR Trophy are: Lawr Michaels (CREATiVESPORTS), American League champion; Brian Walton (CREATiVESPORTS), National League champion; and Chris Liss (Rotowire), Mixed League champion. Flinn, who will present the first SABR Trophies on March 26 ^th , was the Bantam editor who signed and published Rotisserie League Baseball in 1984, the first book about fantasy baseball.

The Society for American Baseball Research is an international, member-driven organization whose mission is to foster the research, preservation, and dissemination of the history and record of baseball.. More information is available on SABR’s website at: www.sabr.org .

Tout Wars was founded in 1998 as an independent national competition among the industry’s top fantasy baseball professionals. It is the premier experts competition of its type and has been the subject of a best-selling book ( Fantasyland , Viking, 2006) and recent motion picture. For more information visit www.toutwars.com .

Thanks to SABR’s Susan Petrone for bringing this to my attention .