Статистика в бейсболе: история и эволюция

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Baseball statistics refers to a variety of metrics used to evaluate player and team performance in the game of baseball. Since the flow of a baseball game has natural breaks to it, and normally players act individually rather than performing in clusters, the sport lends itself to easy record keeping and statistics. Statistics have been recorded since the game's earliest beginnings as a distinct sport in the middle of the nineteenth century, and as such are extensively available from leagues such as the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players and the Negro leagues, although the consistency to which these records have been kept and the standards with respect to which they were calculated (and their accuracy) has varied. Since the National League (which along with the American League constitutes contemporary Major League Baseball) was founded in 1876, statistics in the most elite levels of professional baseball have been kept to a reasonably consistent standard which has continually evolved in tandem with advancement in available technology. New advances in both statistical analysis and technology have driven teams and fans to evaluate players by new standards as the game progresses. With the advent of many of these methods, players can be compared across different time periods and run scoring environments.

The practice of keeping records of player achievements was started in the 19th century by Henry Chadwick. Based on his experience with the sport of cricket, Chadwick devised the predecessors to modern day statistics including batting average, runs scored, and runs allowed. Traditionally, statistics such as batting average (the number of hits divided by the number of at bats) and earned run average (the average number of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings) have dominated attention in the statistical world of baseball. However, the recent advent of sabermetrics has created statistics drawing from a greater breadth of player performance measures and playing field variables. Sabermetrics and comparative statistics attempt to provide an improved measure of a player's performance and contributions to his team from year to year, frequently against a statistical performance average. Comprehensive, historical baseball statistics were difficult for the average fan to access until 1951, when researcher Hy Turkin published The Complete Encyclopedia of Baseball. In 1969, Macmillan Publishing printed its first Baseball Encyclopedia, using a computer to compile statistics for the first time. Known as "Big Mac", the encyclopedia became the standard baseball reference until 1988, when Total Baseball was released by Warner Books using more sophisticated technology. The publication of Total Baseball led to the discovery of several "phantom ballplayers", such as Lou Proctor, who did not belong in official record books and were removed.