Ernest J. Lanigan was the nephew of Sporting News founder Al Spink and one of three men in his immediate family to gain acclaim as a newspaperman. As sports editor for the New York Press and official scorer for a handful of World Series, he was the premier statistician of his day.
Lanigan compiled the first baseball encyclopedia in 1922, and it is reprinted here with each of its twelve annual supplements. As the original publisher advertised on the book’s title page, it “[c]omprises a review of Professional Baseball, the history of all Major League Clubs, playing records and unique events, the batting, pitching and base running champions, World’s Series’ statistics and a carefully arranged alphabetical list of the records of more than 3500 Major League ball players, a feature never before attempted in print.”

In addition to serving as sports editor of the New York Post and Cleveland Leader, Ernest J. Lanigan wrote for The Sporting News and Baseball Magazine, worked as secretary and information director for the International League, and served as curator of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Ernest J. Lanigan. Series Editors Gary Mitchem and Mark Durr
Format: softcover (6 x 8)
Pages: 417
Bibliographic Info: tables, index
Copyright Date: 2005
pISBN: 978-0-7864-1868-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0926-3
Imprint: McFarland
Series: The McFarland Historical Baseball Library

Editors’ Note      ix
Ernest John Lanigan      1

Part I: The National Pastime      3
Part II: A Brief Outline of the History of Baseball in the Cities of the Leading Professional Circuits 19
Part III: Baseball’s Leaders and Title Holders      70
Part IV: Famous Games—Famous Players Famous Feats      93
Part V: World’s Series’ Facts and Figures from 1884 to 1921, Inclusive      162
Part VI: The Minor Leagues Operating in 1922      180
Part VII: Brief but Comprehensive Records of More Than 3,500 Major League Ball Players      190

First Supplement      289
Second Supplement      298
Third Supplement      307
Fourth Supplement      316
Fifth Supplement      325
Sixth Supplement      333
Seventh Supplement      341
Eighth Supplement      349
Ninth Supplement      357
Tenth Supplement      365
Eleventh Supplement      373
Twelfth Supplement      381

Index      389

“One of the best but least-heralded developments in the recent history of baseball literature was the inauguration of the McFarland Historical Baseball Library in 2003”—I>Spitball; “invaluable McFarland Historical Baseball Library series”—Edward Achorn, The Providence Journal.