Peter Morris (born 1962) is an American
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
researcher and author. A lifelong love of baseball led him to membership in the
Society for American Baseball Research
The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and statistical record of baseball. The organization was founded in Cooperstown, New York, on Au ...
, where he became an active member of the Biographical Committee, researching the lives of early major league baseball players.
Morris is a highly respected baseball researcher, and is often interviewed or cited by major media outlets such as
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
. He has written or co-authored nine books (as of 2014), including the major two-volume work ''A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations that Shaped Baseball'' in 2006, the first book to ever win both the Society for American Baseball Research's
Seymour Medal and the
Casey Award
The Casey Award (stylized as CASEY) is an annual literary award that has been given to the best baseball book of the year since 1983. The award was created by Mike Shannon and W. J. Harrison, editors and co-founders of '' Spitball: The Literary B ...
. In 2012, he served on the
Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...
’s pre-integration committee.
Early life and education
Peter Morris was the first child of Ray and
Ruth Morris. When he was two years old, the family moved to
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
They moved again when he was seven, to
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, where he grew up. He obtained a B.A. in English from the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
.
In addition to his interest in baseball, Morris was a keen and talented ''
Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, re ...
'' player. After completing his B.A., he moved to
East Lansing
East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County, although a small portion extends north into Clinton County, Michigan, Clinton County. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...
,
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
, where he was able to hone his skills against many highly skilled players. He won the
National Scrabble Championship
The Scrabble Players Championship (formerly the North American Scrabble Championship, and earlier the National Scrabble Championship) is the largest ''Scrabble'' competition in North America. The event is currently held every year, and from 2004 t ...
in 1989, and was the first winner of the
World Scrabble Championship
The World Scrabble Championship (WSC) is played to determine the world champion in competitive English-language Scrabble. It was held in every odd year from 1991 to 2013; from 2013 onwards, it became an annual event.
The most successful player i ...
, held in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
in 1991. With no further goals to achieve in ''Scrabble'', he largely dropped out of competitive play soon after his World Championship.
Morris also completed an M.A. in English at
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...
.
Books and awards
* 2003 ''Baseball Fever: Early Baseball in Michigan'', Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
* 2006 ''A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball: The Game on the Field (Volume 1)'', Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee.
* 2006 ''A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball: The Game Behind the Scenes (Volume 2)'', Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee.
* 2007 ''Level Playing Fields: How the Groundskeeping Murphy Brothers Shaped Baseball'', Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
* 2008 ''But Didn't We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843–1870'', Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee.
* 2010 ''Catcher: How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero'', Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee.
* 2012 ''Base Ball Pioneers, 1850—1870: The Clubs and Players Who Spread the Sport Nationwide'', (with William J. Ryczek, Jan Finkel, Leonard Levin, and Richard Malatzky), Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
* 2013 ''Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players and Cities of the Northeast that Established the Game'', (with William J. Ryczek, Jan Finkel, Leonard Levin, and Richard Malatzky), Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
* 2013 ''Cracking Baseball’s Cold Cases: Filling in the Facts About 17 Mystery Major Leaguers'', Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Morris’ first book, ''Baseball Fever: Early Baseball in Michigan'', won the Society for American Baseball Research’s Seymour Medal in 2004 for the best book on
baseball history
The question of the origins of baseball has been the subject of debate and controversy for more than a century. Baseball and the other modern Bat-and-ball games, bat, ball, and running games – stoolball, cricket and rounders – were developed ...
. He followed this up with his epic two-volume ''A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball,'' which solidified his reputation as an expert researcher in baseball history. This became the first book ever to win both the Seymour Medal and the
Casey Award
The Casey Award (stylized as CASEY) is an annual literary award that has been given to the best baseball book of the year since 1983. The award was created by Mike Shannon and W. J. Harrison, editors and co-founders of '' Spitball: The Literary B ...
for best baseball book of the year.
Each of Morris’ subsequent books reflects his meticulous research and his dedication to uncovering forgotten details from the early history of baseball.
In ''Cracking Baseball’s Cold Cases,'' Morris describes some of the work that he and other members of the Society for American Baseball Research’s Biographical Committee do to fill out and correct details of nineteenth-century baseball players as listed in the Baseball Encyclopedia. He outlines the lives of 17 of these players, and the challenges and triumphs that were involved in tracking them down.
In 2010, Morris was named one of the nine inaugural winners of the Society for American Baseball Research’s Henry Chadwick Award, an award established "to honor those researchers, historians, analysts, and statisticians whose work has most contributed to our understanding of the game and its history."
Other baseball history work
Morris is given most of the credit for another significant discovery in baseball history that has not been covered in his books: that
William Edward White
William Edward White (October 1860 – March 29, 1937) was a 19th-century American baseball player. He played as a substitute in one professional baseball game for the Providence Grays of the National League, on June 21, 1879.
Work by the Society ...
, who played a single major-league game in 1879, was likely baseball’s first black player. White was one-quarter black and was listed as
white in most documentation, but was in fact the child of A. J. White and his mulatto housekeeper, Hannah. This research appeared in a 2004 article by Stefan Fatsis, in ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
''.
In 2012, Morris served as a member of the 16-person National
Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...
Pre-Integration Committee, who elected
Hank O'Day,
Jacob Ruppert, and
Deacon White
James Laurie "Deacon" White (December 2, 1847 – July 7, 1939) was an American baseball player who was one of the principal stars during the first two decades of the sport's professional era. The outstanding catcher of the 1870s during baseball ...
to the Hall of Fame.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Peter
1962 births
Living people
University of Toronto alumni
American male writers
Baseball writers
Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands
Michigan State University alumni
English emigrants to the United States
English emigrants to Canada
Writers from Toronto
Canadian Scrabble players
British Scrabble players
World Scrabble Championship winners
Sports historians
Historians from Ontario
English historians