Sad news, Tom Ruane has passed away

Click here to see a short bio of him. Tom's obituary. Here is what SABR posted.

There were many times I emailed Tom questions about baseball and he always took the time to come up with amazing answers. He also did several guest posts at this blog. It always great to talk to him at SABR conventions. He was a fantastic guy.

Sean Forman said on Twitter: "B-R [Baseball Reference] would be a lot less useful without him and the work he did as a part of Retrosheet."

Here is what that bio says about him:

"A prized member of the SABR family for more than 25 years, Tom Ruane’s broad knowledge and interests have allowed him to contribute to many committees, especially Baseball Records, Statistical Analysis, Biographical Research, and the Biography Project. He received the Bob Davids Award, SABR’s highest individual honor, in 2009. A longtime board member and stalwart of Retrosheet, Tom has been involved in many of its most noteworthy efforts, including the design and implementation of its website. While Retrosheet had already served a valuable role in the research community, it was Tom’s extensively linked site which made it a prized tool for the masses. He led a group of volunteers to create box scores using official dailies and newspaper accounts, an effort requiring painstaking diligence and persistence that has led to Retrosheet having a complete set of box scores dating back to the early 20th century."

Related links:

• Read Mark Armour’s profile of Tom Ruane in the Spring 2016 Baseball Research Journal
• Read “Fun with Retrosheet Data,” by Tom Ruane (Retrosheet.org)
• Read “The Games That Broke Retrosheet,” by Tom Ruane (Retrosheet.org)