At long last, the Outsider Baseball Notebook makes a surprise appearance. Today’s guest is Von Spalding, an independent researcher from Georgia. Von and I have been working together on the 4,000 Professional Hit Club (which I presented at this year’s SABR Convention) but his research on international leaderboards goes far deeper than that. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Von. <a href="https://darowski.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Darowski.com</a> has links to everything related to the 4,000 Professional Hit Club, including a spreadsheet where you can find the latest stats and coverage the project has received.

Today we take for granted that the best baseball talent in the world finds its way to the American and National Leagues, but that wasn’t always the case. The Outsider Baseball Notebook, hosted by Adam Darowski, focuses on the unique baseball landscape before Jackie Robinson re-broke the color line. From the Negro Leagues to semi-pro teams, barnstormers to army teams, from the East Coast to the West Coast and well beyond—baseball was everywhere.