MAY 6, 2026 — SABR is pleased to announce the 2026 recipients of the Henry Chadwick Award, established to honor the game’s great researchers — historians, statisticians, annalists, and archivists — for their invaluable contributions to making baseball the game that links America’s present with its past.
- Rob Ruck, a history professor at the University of Pittsburgh, has been contributing to the research landscape for many decades, on topics ranging from local history to baseball in Latin America. The theme of his work has revolved around the recognition that working people have sporting lives and a desire to explore what sport has meant to everyday people and their communities. His books and documentary film subjects have included Puerto Rican legend Roberto Clemente and photographer Teenie Harris, sandlot baseball in Pittsburgh, and the Negro Leagues. He was also a consultant on the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s exhibit, “Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball.”
By honoring individuals for the length and breadth of their contribution to the study and enjoyment of baseball, the Chadwick Award will educate the baseball community about sometimes little known but vastly important contributions from the game’s past and thus encourage the next generation of researchers.
The criteria for the award reads in part: The contributions of nominees must have had public impact. This may be demonstrated by publication of research in any of a variety of formats: books, magazine articles, websites, etc. The compilation of a significant database or archive that has facilitated the published research of others will also be considered in the realm of public impact.