Bill Weiss | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1925-06-02)June 2, 1925 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | August 16, 2011(2011-08-16) (aged 86) San Mateo, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Sportswriter, Baseball Historian |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
William J. Weiss (June 2, 1925,Chicago – August 16, 2011,San Mateo, California),[1] was an American baseball historian and statistician. He served as the officialstatistician for thePacific Coast League, and edited a weekly newsletter for theCalifornia League for over thirty years. For over forty years, he created sketchbooks which eventually covered over 200 books about all of the players in severalminor league andMajor League organizations. Those sketches are the only records existent of many minor league organizations' and players' statistics.
Weiss began his association withprofessional baseball in 1948 as the official statistician for theLonghorn League andbox office manager for theAbilene Blue Sox of theWest Texas–New Mexico League.[citation needed]
He moved to San Francisco the following year and began his work as the statistician of the California andFar West Leagues. He was associated with the California League for many years.
In 1950, Weiss began his association with the Pacific Coast League. In 1954, he married Faye Nelson, who was his "number one assistant" for more than fifty years.[2] From 1959 to 1984, he was president of aSan Francisco Bay Area amateur league, thePeninsula Winter League, which helped local players, such asBaseball Hall of FamersWillie Stargell andJoe Morgan, to develop their skills. In 1988 he became an executive with Howe Sportsdata. He also wrote a column forBaseball America for several years. Weiss joined theSociety for American Baseball Research (SABR) on September 3, 1971, as member No. 34, less than one month after the organization's founding.[3] In 1977, he was named "King of Baseball" by Minor League Baseball.
In 1998, Weiss and fellow historianMarshall Wright were chosen to selectThe National Baseball Association's top 100 minor league teams.
In 2004, he received theTony Salin Memorial Award, which is awarded annually by TheBaseball Reliquary to a person who dedicates his or her life to baseball history.[4]
In 2005, he became the official League Historian and Secretary of the newly formedGolden Baseball League.
In 2014, theSan Diego Central Library announced it had acquired the "Bill Weiss Collection of baseball artifacts and information",[5] which would be a part of the Library's Sullivan Family Baseball Research Center.[6] The collection includes "... a compilation of thousands of individual questionnaires that were filled out by high school ballplayers of past generations who would go on to play Major League Baseball."[7]
