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The Conversation
The Conversation
Tom Reinsfelder, Distinguished Librarian, Penn State

Bingles, knuckleballs and ‘Beer Barrel Polka’ – hundreds of forgotten works showcase the eclectic world of baseball scholarship

Baseball Michael Morrissey Hall of Fame
The aerodynamics of the knuckleball was one of the hundreds of academic theses and dissertations that were recently compiled in a database. Diamond Images/Getty Images

Today’s fans may associate baseball research with cutting edge analytics. But long before data-driven tools like Statcast and FanGraphs, university students were conducting research about baseball.

About three years ago, I came across a 1988 article published by the Society for American Baseball Research. Written by a historian of Cuban baseball named Peter C. Bjarkman, it highlighted several academic dissertations, noting that they “provide a fruitful scholarly resource … yet at the same time represent one of the least explored sources.”

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