The Society for American Baseball Research (or SABR for short), which is the world’s leading organization for historical baseball research, has recently accepted Project Cobb (the Project for the Chronicling of British Baseball) under its umbrella as a Chartered Community. This important step for Project Cobb not only enhances its reputation as a group of research collaborators, but also helps to extend its reach.
The Chartered Community concept is a very new one, being established at the end of 2009. Baseball Think Factory members Chris Dial, Mike McCullough, and Paul Brewer made the excellent suggestion – at SABR’s 2009 national convention in Washington, DC -  for the organization to accept virtual chapters to “recognize the impact of the Internet and other technologies on the way in which SABR members interact,” as described in this press release. Baseball Think Factory was the inaugural Chartered Community, while Project Cobb becomes the fifth group to attain this status and the first that has a primary focus away from the game in North America.
I am very glad to welcome Josh Chetwynd alongside me as co-chair of the Project Cobb Chartered Community. While he is sorely missed from our TV screens, we can take solace in his persisting passion for British baseball.
The British baseball publication Baseball Mercury was edited by baseball historian William Morgan from 1972 until 1989. Fifty-one issues were produced in all, and the publication’s scope covered both domestic and international baseball, as well as softball.
Project Cobb (the Project for the Chronicling of British Baseball) supports both historical research into baseball in Britain and efforts to chronicle the game as it happens. The main force aiding the latter is Project Cobb’s sister organization the 
The 2009 update of the Great Britain national team history has just been completed, and what a historic year it was. While Great Britain had competed against a non-European country before (the United States, back in 1938), the nation’s landmark appearance at the 2009 Baseball World Cup gave them the opportunity to play against teams from Asia and South America for the first time.
After launching a research project on the British Baseball Federation website last month (
With two of the three inaugural inductees into the British Baseball Hall of Fame last month being Merseyside-based (Sir John Moores and Norman Wells, Sr), this is clearly the region of the country where press coverage was most likely to be achieved. And achieved it has been, with news stories appearing in three newspapers:
I was contacted a few weeks back by Anthony Taylor, a British-based collector of baseball memorabilia. While his collection is focused mainly on the Major Leagues, he has developed an interest in British baseball too, and he has managed to pick up a number of rare programmes from the 1930s and 1950s, such as the one for the 1939 national final between Halifax and Rochdale that is pictured to the right.