[Ads-l] Antedating of "Sabermetrics"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Doing a little bit more Googling, I see that apparently James self-published his Bill James Abstracts annually from 1977 to 1981.  The 1980 edition is said to include the following:

A year ago I wrote in this letter that what I do does not have a name and cannot be explained in a sentence or two. Well, now I have given it a name: Sabermetrics, the first part to honor the acronym of the Society for American Baseball Research, the second part to indicate measurement. Sabermetrics is the mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball records.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________
From: Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2015 7:20 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Antedating of "Sabermetrics"

The OED's first use for the word "sabermetrics" is dated 1982.  I see that the website of the Society for American Baseball Research website states: "Sabermetrics was coined by statistician Bill James, who first introduced the word to readers of his Abstract in March 1980, writing: 'Sabermetrics is the mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball records.'"  Does anyone have the precise bibliographic information for this 1980 usage?

Fred Shapiro

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