AL
MUNRO ELIAS
Country: USA
Born: 1939
In 1913, Al Elias, with brother Walter, established the Al Munro Elias
Bureau, today known as the Elias Sports Bureau, in New York City. The 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. Six years after the brothers
opened shop, the New York Telegram began publishing the Elias weekly compilation
of baseball "batting and pitching averages".
In 1919, the Elias' were appointed official statisticians for the National
(Major) League and International (minor) League (and later the American
League). In 1937, the Elias Bureau took over publication of the official
statistics journal of Major League Baseball. In 1938, it 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 1939. (Today's Elias Bureau, headed by Seymour Siwoff
for nearly 50 years, also registers statistics for the NFL, NBA and NHL,
MLS and WNBA.) |
