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Ernest Lanigan is largely forgotten in baseball history. A newspaperman, official scorer, and executive for the minor leagues and the Hall of Fame, Lanigan is largely responsible for getting the RBI accepted as an official statistic. Though he recorded it for quite a few years previous to the statistic’s acceptance, RBI was finally accepted with the support of NL President John Heydler.

Shown here is a historic letter dated April 30, 1957. Lanigan writes in his capacity as official historian of the Baseball Hall of Fame on the Hall’s beautiful letterhead.

“I did the RBI’s in 1907 to 1919 inclusive, they were adopted by the majors in 1920 not on my say so and made their beginning into the Associated Press box score two years later when John McGraw said they were the best batting figures.”

Lanigan has been referred to as the Patron Saint of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and no wonder.

“I really don’t care much about baseball, or looking at ball games, major or minor,” Lanigan once said. “All my interest in baseball is in its statistics. I want to know something about every major league ball player, not only what he is hitting, but his full name with all middle names and initials, where they were born, and where they now live.”

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Ernie Lanigan might not ever make the Baseball Hall of Fame, but he is in the International League’s Hall. Shown here is a letter in International League letterhead from 1938, Lanigan’s fourth season as the league’s information director.

A statistician and numbers man by nature Lanigan helped RBI become an official statistic. He led a long and prosperous life inside the game of baseball.

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Ed Delahanty’s daughter Florence Delahanty Randall wrote to the Hall of Fame on May 16, 1946 offering to donate her father’s, “…Silver Plated Baseball Bad (sic), which was presented to my Father the late Ed Delehanty, by Baseball Fans at Philadelphia during the height of his baseball career.”

She addressed her letter to the Director of the Hall of Fame, Ernest Lanigan.

Note her spelling of her father’s last name “D e l e h a n t y” with the second “e”. We’ve never seen it spelled that way in any reputable baseball publication. She also closes the letter spelling the game the same way.

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The curator of the Hall of Fame during this time was Ernest Lanigan. In this offering of May 21, 1946, Lanigan writes to Ed Delahanty’s daughter, “It was very thoughtful of you to think of the Baseball Museum in connection with the bat and we will be very proud to have it and to see that it is prominently displayed .”

Later in the letter, Lanigan mentions all the ball-playing Delahanty brothers, writing, “When I was living in Philadelphia, I saw your father play often. Knew Joe well, Frank and Jim slightly.”

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In the correspondence dated June 9, 1946, Lanigan writes to Ed Delahanty’s daughter, “Enclosed find your father’s playing record. Shortly I will send you copies of the box scores of his first minor league game and his first major league game…I am enclosing some press releases on Jesse Burkett, Dan Brouthers, Jim O’Rourke, and Mike Kelly. I think you saw some of these men play.”

The mention of the four 19th century players and the allusion to Delahanty makes this a highly desirable letter on National Baseball Museum letterhead.

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By June 26, 1946 Lanigan and the Hall received the bat. Lanigan writes, “Some stories of the Hall of Famers are enclosed and some pictures.”

Lanigan enclosed a story about Ed Delahanty and of his daughter’s generous donation.

Many would be thrilled to serve in Lanigan’s position at the Hall. He got to correspond with many of the game’s greats and their families. Lanigan, however got more satisfaction dealing with numbers.

The Patron Saint of SABR, Lanigan was an early influencer of the way we measure player performance.