Evening star., 1939-08-04
Psychologist Dobon Finds Bits Of Information Useful in Modng Eleven
From the
Press Box
Figures Made Al EIios
Baseball Figure
By JOHN LARDNER,

NEW 1oIe1A, mug. NA>1A.A>.1AJ'
1t was back in 1913. according to
his biographers, that AL Munro Elias,
who died this week at the age of St,
computed and sold his first batting
average. He started something
there.
1 suppose the stock market has
been responsible for more printed
figures than any Institution in the
country, but the baseball business
runs close second, thanks to the
late Mr.. Elias. If you took all the
batting averages, fielding averages,
pitching averages, and the stolen
base, home run, runs batted in,
base hit, strikeout and walk totals
that have been published in news
papers, magazines and books since
the war alone and laid them end to
end-well, why lay them end to end?
You must have something better
to do.
1t was AL Munro Elias who first
took profitable note of the fact that
the baseball fan, like the rest of his
species, is nut about numbers. A
gall game is more than nine innings
OF action on d green field. It is an
incubator. For the 100000 fans
who do not see big league game,
or an important minor league game,
from one year to another, the actual
business of the meeting does not
begin until Mr.. Elias and statisticians
like him have picked the contest
apart for the 90-odd different sets
OF figures, which it is guaranteed to
produce, if properly harvested.
Left Grocery Business
To Rush to Boil Park.
Elias, the first commercial statis-
tlclan, was salesman before his
stomach went back on him. He
hustled groceries. That is a pretty
sordid origin for a genius, but be-
sides being a grocery drummer, Elias
was true baseball fanatic AS soon
as his ailing stomach chased him
of the road, he ran like thief for
the Polo Grounds, where he sat in
the bleachers day after day watch
Ing the gall game and jotting num-
bers down on a jad.
These numbers fascinated AL
Munro Elias and he guessed that
they would fascinate his fellow
citizens, too, if they had daily access
to the complete record, in print.
He was not the first record keeper.
He began his work in 1913. For
many years before that scores were
Kept, and certain statistics compiled
from the boxscore. Francis Rich
ter's valuable History and Records
OF Baseball" published in 1914, is
about as thorough a catalogue of
post-Civil War baseball dope as I
know. 1t was adequate, at the time
Greeted Public Appetite
For Comes Statistics.
But in 1914 the work of AL Munro
Elias was just beginning. Within
few years Elias had created a
public appetite for baseball statis-
tics which the old style of record
keeping could not possibly satisfy,
The old records touched on the
fundamentals - batting averages,
pitching percentages, winning and
losing streaks-and little more.
Elias exploited every angle of the
boxscore-and some points which
the boXscore overlooked.
His was dual ontribution-com-
plete statistics and public statistics,
And, like all pioneers, Elias found
the going tough at first. He was
shown or thrown out of many a
newspaper Office before his statistics
became public, as well as complete.
Figures" Elias haunted the ball
parks till within few years of his
death. He was short, powerfully
built fellow with a bullet head and
thick spectacles. After an automo-
bile smashup cost him his right leg
he walked around the park, leaning
heavily on cane. His brother and
his assistants brought him fresh fig
ures from the field.
Knew More About Come
Thon Comes Players.
The last time I saw him, for in
stance, Figures" Elias was worried
about a point outside the boxscore.
Had a certain batter taken a third
strike last Tuesday, or did he swing?
He says he don't know" reported
AIS runner.
What about Moran? He was UNI
piring back of the plate?'
Moran says he don't remember"
We'll, go and ask Hartnett. He
was ketching; he ought to know.
These fellas never remember moth
ing" muttered Mr.. Elias gloomily.
When Hartnett proved he had the
information-it was a called third
strike-Mr. Elias made a note of
the fact and shook his head.
These fellas play this game for
q living" he reflected, land I know
more about what happens to them
than they do"
The viewpoint there is somewhat
warped. Mr. Elias was thinking in
terms of black hieroglyphics on
white paper. But nothing paints the
Importance of those hieroglyphics,
and charts the public's feverish need
of them, more clearly than the
career of AL Munro Elias.