Sport: Media Inducted: 2003 Country: USA Born: 1872 Died: August 1, 1938
In 1913 in the City of New York, Al Elias, with brother Walter,
began what today is known as the Elias Sports Bureau. The
Elias Brothers and their Bureau's methods of collection and
presentation of statistics set the form and precedent for
recording baseball information, and influenced the universal
collection and presentation of other sports information.
In 1916, three years after the brothers opened shop selling baseball scorecards
featuring team and player statistics in saloons and haunts of baseball fans,
the New York Telegram began publishing the Elias’ weekly compilation of "batting
and pitching averages". In 1919, the brothers were appointed official statisticians
for the National (Major) League and International (minor) League (and later the
American League).
In 1937, the Al Munro Elias Bureau took over publication of “The Little
Red Book”, the official statistics journal of Major League Baseball. In
1938, the Bureau began producing The Pocket Cyclopedia of Major League Baseball,
and for many years published the official Green Book, the National League's annual
summary.
Al Elias died in 1938. Today's Elias Bureau, headed for more than 50 years by
Seymour Siwoff, also records statistics for the National Football League (NFL),
National Basketball Association (NBA) National Hockey League (NHL), Major League
Soccer MLS and Women’s National Basketball Association WNBA.
