First Greg Spira Baseball Research Award Winner Named
The winner of the first Greg Spira Baseball Research Award, named in honor of the late co-founder and managing editor of Frequent Business Traveler magazine, was announced Saturday. Trent McCotter, an attorney residing in Washington, D.C., was awarded top honors for his essay, “Cal Ripken’s Record for Consecutive Innings.” …
Greg Spira Award created to recognize young baseball researchers
A group of distinguished writers and researchers have collaborated to create a new award as a memorial to the late baseball researcher and SABR member Greg Spira. The Greg Spira Baseball Research Award (www.SpiraAward.org) will be given annually in recognition of the best published article or paper containing original baseball research by a person 30 years old or younger. The winning entry must display innovative analysis or reasoning.
Working with the Spira family, the creators of the Greg Spira Award include SABR members Sean Forman (Baseball-Reference.com), Joe Hamrahi (Baseball Prospectus), Sean Lahman (Baseball1.com) and Gary Gillette (24-7 Baseball, LLC), along with Dave Pease (Baseball Prospectus).
The winner of the Greg Spira Baseball Research Award will receive a cash prize of $1,000. The program will also recognize two additional writers with awards of $200 for second place and $100 for third place…
Award honoring researcher Spira announced
An award has been established in memory of Greg Spira, a baseball researcher who was ahead of his time and passed away in December at age 44.
The Greg Spira Baseball Research Award will be given annually in recognition of the best published original research by a person age 30 or younger.
“The winning entry must display innovative analysis or reasoning,” according to the statement announcing the award Friday, which would have been Spira’s 45th birthday.
Raised in New York City and a Harvard graduate, Spira founded the Internet Baseball Awards in 1991 and announced the 2011 winners a month before his death, caused by complications from polycystic kidney disease and a subsequent kidney transplant…
Greg Spira Baseball Research Award Announced
A group of distinguished baseball writers and researchers have collaborated to create a new award as a memorial to the late baseball researcher Greg Spira. The new Greg Spira Baseball Research Award (www.SpiraAward.org) will be given annually in recognition of the best published article or paper containing original baseball research by a person 30 years old or younger. The winning entry must display innovative analysis or reasoning.
Greg Spira founded the annual Internet Baseball Awards (IBA) in 1991 and announced the 2011 winners a month before his death. Spira was an early adopter and a pioneer in using the Internet to advance baseball analysis, particularly via Usenet’s groundbreaking rec.sport.baseball as well as via BaseballProspectus.com.
Spira later contributed to many sports books as a researcher, writer, and editor, including the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, the ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia, Total Baseball, and several annual periodicals about the Mets. A lifelong and passionate Mets fan, Spira died on December 28, 2011 in his native New York City…
Greg Andrew Spira
Greg Andrew Spira ’89cl died December 28 in New York City from complications of polycystic kidney disease and a kidney transplant. He was a co-founder of The Diesel Driver and Frequent Business Traveler magazines and an online pioneer. In 1991, two years before the invention of the first Web browser, he founded the Internet Baseball Awards, which turned 20 in 2011; he also helped develop Usenet online baseball discussion groups, notably rec.sport.baseball, and co-founded both Baseball Prospectus, a website focusing on sabermetric analysis of the sport, and BaseballBooks.net. As a freelance editor and researcher he worked on a variety of publications, including Ultimate Yankees Companion, USA Today Sports Weekly’s Best Baseball Writing, ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, and Sports Illustrated Sports Almanac. His own library of books on contemporary sports numbered in the thousands. He leaves his brother, Jonathan, and his mother, Marilyn.
Greg Spira baseball library finds a new home at SABR office
In his short life, SABR member Greg Spira built one of the most admired private baseball libraries in the world.
John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s official historian, told MLB.com in January that Spira’s collection of “modern” baseball books could well be unparalleled.
“Greg got everything that came out,” Thorn said. “So if you’re talking about modern baseball books, say 1990 forward, I don’t know who would equal Greg, apart from a library.”
Spira, 44, passed away on December 28, 2011, after…
Influential researcher Spira dies at age 44
By Evan Dreilich
In the early days of the online world, well before American Idol and social media made the public’s input commonplace, Greg Spira created the Internet Baseball Awards.
A Harvard University graduate and prolific researcher, Spira brought the awards from a niche online community to the Web at large. Hosted today by Baseball Prospectus — the sabermetrics-minded outlet Spira helped grow in its nascent years — the IBAs celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2011…
Greg Spira, Writer and Internet Pioneer, Co-Founder of Frequent Business Traveler, Dies at 44
Greg Spira, a co-founder of Frequent Business Traveler (née Executive Road Warrior) and The Diesel Driver magazines and an online pioneer, died on December 28, 2011 in New York City. He was 44 years old.
The cause was polycystic kidney disease and complications stemming from a subsequent kidney transplant, said his brother Jonathan Spira, who is also a co-founder of the two publications.
In 1991, two years before the invention of the first Web browser, Mr. Spira founded the Internet Baseball Awards…
Greg Spira, Writer and Internet Pioneer, Co-Founder of The Diesel Driver, Dies at 44
Greg Spira, a co-founder of The Diesel Driver and Frequent Business Traveler (née Executive Road Warrior) magazines and an online pioneer, died on December 28, 2011 in New York City. He was 44 years old.
The cause was polycystic kidney disease and complications stemming from a subsequent kidney transplant, said his brother Jonathan Spira, who is also a co-founder of the two publications.
In 1991, two years before the invention of the first Web browser, Mr. Spira founded the Internet Baseball Awards…
In Memoriam: Greg Spira
By Jacob Pomrenke
Greg Spira, 44, a member of the Connie Mack, Bob Davids and Casey Stengel Chapters, died December 28, 2011, after a long battle with kidney disease in New York City. A lifelong, diehard, passionate and knowledgeable New York Mets fan, Spira joined SABR in 1988 and was viewed by his colleagues as a peerless researcher. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in American History in 1989. In 1991, before the World Wide Web was created, Spira founded the Internet Baseball Awards — now in their 20th year — which will live on in his name at BaseballProspectus.com. He was an important pioneer in online baseball discussion at Usenet’s rec.sport.baseball group, and an early contributor to Baseball Prospectus. He also created the BaseballBooks.net website with Sean Forman and annually updated Baseball-Reference.com’s travel guide. Spira’s publishing credits include the groundbreaking 2008 Slate.com article “The Boys of Late Summer”, on the differences between ballplayers born in July and August. He also contributed, as an editor, co-editor and researcher, to Maple Street Mets Annual (2009-11), Big League Ballparks (2009), Meet the Mets (2008), Ultimate Yankees Companion (2008), Ultimate Red Sox Companion (2007), ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia (2006-07), USA Today Sports Weekly’s Best Baseball Writing 2005, ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia (2004-08), Total Basketball (2003), Total Baseball (2001), Sports Illustrated Sports Almanac (2000-01) and Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia (2000). Spira was survived by his brother, Jonathan, and his mother, Marilyn. He was interred in Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens.