We're joined in this episode by Sports Reference Product Director Adam Darowski. From the Providence, RI, area, Adam grew up relatively sports agnostic until an older brother introduced him to baseball cards. It was not the images on the front of the junk wax-era that captured Adam's attention, however, it was the stories and statistics on the back that fascinated him.
Statistics, it seems have been a constant through line for Adam ever since. In addition to his work at Sports Reference, Adam has been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) since 2013 and serves as co-chair of its 19th Century Overlooked Legends Committee. He also created the Hall of Stats website in 2012 that makes the case for baseball players' Hall of Fame credentials from a purely statistical point of view. He has hosts a pair of baseball-centric podcasts: Building the Ballot (about the HoF's Era Committees) and The Outsider Baseball Notebook (about baseball outside of MLB before integration).
During our time with Adam we learn why he's pro-Lou Whitaker and Dr. Frank Jobe for a spot in Cooperstown and about some of the under-the-radar pre-integration baseball players: Bullet Rogan (a HoFer), Tetelo Vargas, and Lazaro Salazar.
Finally, Adam shares how he went from relatively ambivalent about sports to setting his schedule around Borussia Dortmund FC fixtures from the Bundesliga.
You can find Adam on Twitter at @baseballtwit. Trust us when we say he's a good follow. You'll learn more about early baseball players than you thought possible.
