About UsWelcome to Scott Simkus' Outsider Baseball Bulletin, a weekly e-zine devoted to the game’s rich and (sometimes) peculiar history. “There’s an epidemic shortage of information about baseball history,” Simkus explained at a recent press conference, before getting pelted with rotten fruit and ushered off stage amidst a chorus of boos and derisive laughter. “Seriously,” Simkus said later on, wiping a San Marzano tomato off his face in the locker room before firing up a Marlboro Light. “There’s a lot of baseball history on the web, dude, and some of it’s good; but the vast majority falls into the recycled category, or worse… the who cares bucket?” You wanted to end it all?“Well almost, I guess. But instead, I decided to create the OBB. We’re going to start small, a couple pages each week for subscribers, featuring our original research, essays, humor, interviews, and book reviews. We’ll share war stories from the front lines of baseball research….and we’ll post new baseball statistics. We’re going to share stats and analysis people have never seen before.” What do you mean?“Uh, you know: Negro League stuff, Cuban League, semi-pro, exhibition games between white Major Leaguers and the guys from what we calloutsider baseball. We’ve got new material about familiar Major League players and teams like Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and the New York Giants; and stuff about stars and teams you may have never heard of, like Pete Hill, Eddie Gerner and the Brooklyn Bushwicks. We dig into Japanese baseball, Latin America, the minors and other hidden, overlooked, or unknown corners of baseball history.” Sounds awesome, but how do we get it?“All you have to do is subscribe. The OBB costs only $22 per year, or $40 for a two year subscription. And again, you’ll receive 52 issues—one per week—a minimum of two to three pages of new material each issue. Guaranteed.” Whoa, what’s up with the cost?“Baseball research takes time and money, and besides, over the next couple years we’re going to share a huge portion of our statistical work for free, at www.baseball-reference.com. The subscriptions are, in essence, helping fund the work which is going to be shared on the internet, gratis. And I believe the material you’ll get in the OBB compliments the database perfectly. Each week, you’ll get the story behind the numbers.” Cool, what’s that all about?“Sean Forman and the good folks at Sports Reference, Inc. have partnered with us in the statistical research. They’re providing a home for our data, and it’s our responsibility to marshall resources and build the database. To that end, we treat the OBB subscribers as partners in the adventure. But beyond that, it’s really our goal to have the Outsider Baseball Bulletin stand on its own merit. Even if you don’t care about Negro or Cuban League statistics on the web, we want readers to feel they’re getting an honest bang for their buck with the ezine. Over the course of a year, you’ll be getting the equivalent of a book’s worth of new baseball material delivered straight to your email.” “If you love baseball, you’ll love the Outsider Baseball Bulletin. Thanks for listening, man; I gotta go.” Simkus poured a pint of Blue Moon, topped it off with an orange slice, and walked out the back door. THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
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SCOTT SIMKUS is a writer from Chicago. He was the lead consultant to the Strat-O-Matic Game Company (New York), helping build the statistical database used for their ground-breaking Negro League simulation game. His work has been profiled in Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, National Public Radio, and WGN-TV among others. He is married and has two children.