Seymour Siwoff, who managed Elias Sports Bureau for seven decades, has passed away at the age of 99.
Siwoff had been the president and chief executive of Elias, the official record-keeper for America's major professional sports leagues, since 1952, twenty-some years before computers were first used to analyze sports statistics.
"Statistics can be cold and trivial," Siwoff once said. "But they can also be alive and full of drama."
"What I enjoy most about statistics is the chance they give you to relive the past. When Nate Colbert drives in 13 runs in a doubleheader, it gives you a chance to recall when Jim Bottomley drove in 12 in a game.