Pete Palmer
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Pete Palmer (born January 30, 1938) is an American sports statistician and encyclopedia editor. He is a major contributor to the applied mathematical field referred to as
sabermetrics Sabermetrics (originally SABRmetrics) is the original or blanket term for sports analytics in the US, the empirical analysis of baseball, especially the development of advanced metrics based on baseball statistics that measure in-game activity ...
. Along with the
Bill James George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books about baseball history and statistics. His a ...
'' Baseball Abstracts'', Palmer's book '' The Hidden Game of Baseball'' is often referred to as providing the foundation upon which the field of sabermetrics was built.


Baseball work

Palmer began his career as a baseball analyst when he worked for the Raytheon Corporation as a
radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
systems
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
. At night, after his co-workers had left for the day, Palmer used the company's (at the time) cutting-edge computers to run advanced simulations analyzing historical baseball statistics. In 1982, he gained notoriety when he recognized a scorekeeper's error which counted a 1910
Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...
box score twice, crediting
Ty Cobb Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American professional baseball center fielder. A native of rural Narrows, Georgia, Cobb played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent ...
with an extra two hits and three at-bats. That year Cobb was declared the batting champion, despite an unsuccessful effort by the St. Louis Browns to help Cleveland Naps star Nap Lajoie overtake Cobb. If the double-counted game were to be removed Cobb's average would finish second to Lajoie, though Major League Baseball still lists Cobb as the batting average leader. Palmer also innovated the Linear Weights method of estimating a player's offensive contributions, an invention that will likely be his lasting legacy. Palmer, with help from Dick Cramer, invented OPS (on-base plus slugging) in 1978, which now is universally accepted as a measure of batting ability. Many of Palmer's early works were written in partnership with John Thorn, including ''The Hidden Game of Baseball'' and '' Total Baseball''; the latter book also featured, in later editions, the contributions of editor Michael Gershman. Palmer edited or served as a consultant for many of the sports reference books produced by Total Sports Publishing. Palmer's most recent work has been in collaboration with Gary Gillette. Since 2003, the pair has produced five editions of the ''ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia'', and several other baseball annuals. In 2010 he was named a charter member of the Henry Chadwick Society by SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) and also received a lifetime achievement award from them in 2018.


Football work

Palmer has also played a significant role in the field of football statistics. In the seventies, he served as editor for several editions of the A.S. Barnes football encyclopedia. In 1973, he joined the stat crew of the
New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...
, compiling the official statistics for the team's home games. Palmer continued this task through the 2016 season. In 1988, Palmer published '' The Hidden Game of Football,'' with co-authors Thorn and Bob Carroll. The book was updated and re-released in 1998 and is still considered the seminal work on football analysis. He was also co-editor (with Gillette,
Sean Lahman Sean Lahman (born June 9, 1968) (pronounced "lay-men") is an author and journalist. He is currently a reporter for the USA Today Network and Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and frequently makes public appearances to speak about database journal ...
, et al.) of the ''ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia.''


Personal life

Palmer is married to his wife Beth, together they have three children. Emily, the oldest, Stephen, the youngest, and Daniel. They reside in
Hollis, New Hampshire Hollis is a New England town, town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 8,342 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, having grown 9% from the 2010 population of 7,684. The town center village is listed ...
.


References


External links


Henry Chadwick Award: Pete Palmer
by David W. Smith (2010) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Pete 1938 births Living people Baseball statisticians Place of birth missing (living people) Sportswriters from New Hampshire