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Harry Simmons
Harry Simmons (September 29, 1907 - January 14, 1998) was a baseball executive, writer and historian.
He was born in New York in 1907 and graduated from Morris High School in the ...view moreHarry Simmons (September 29, 1907 - January 14, 1998) was a baseball executive, writer and historian.
He was born in New York in 1907 and graduated from Morris High School in the Bronx. He then worked in several jobs whilst developing a deep interest in baseball history, rules, and statistics, and was the first writer to compile 19th Century National League won-lost records for pitchers.
Simmons worked for the International League from 1945-1966, first in New York then in Montreal. He then worked in the Baseball Commissioner’s office until his retirement in 1982. He developed the playing schedules for the Majors and various minor leagues for over 20 years.
Known as a historian and writer, he did much original research into 19th Century baseball. He developed and wrote the weekly feature titled “So You Think You Know Baseball,” which ran in the Saturday Evening Post from 1949-1961. His book of the same name was a bestseller. For many years he wrote the entry for baseball in the Encyclopædia Britannica.
In 1951, Simmons testified as an expert witness to the Celler Committee hearings on the history of the reserve clause.
At the 1979 baseball winter meeting in Toronto, he was honored as “King of Baseball”. In 1990, his contributions to the game were recognized when he received the SABR Salute. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 and elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Israel in 2007.
He died in in New Canaan, Connecticut in 1998, aged 90.view less