Mark Armour
Mark Armour is a husband, father, friend, writer, film lover, music enthusiast, baseball nut and dog companion living in Corvallis, Oregon. After 40+ years as a student or professional in computer science, Mark retired in April 2020 and now has more time to spend on his passion for baseball research and writing.
Mark has written extensively about baseball, and is particularly expert on labor relations, baseball integration, and biography. Joining SABR in 1983, Mark has made extensive contributions to the organization over the past four decades.
Dan Levitt
Award-winning writer Daniel R. Levitt is the author of Ed Barrow: The Bulldog who Built the Yankees’ First Dynasty. His previous book (co-authored with Mark Armour), Paths to Glory, How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way (Brassey’s, 2003), received a highly favorable critical reception. Joe Sheehan of the Baseball Prospectus called it, “The best baseball book I have read this spring…It’s simply an excellent book, one that can be both enjoyed and studied.” David Shiner concluded his review in Elysian Fields Quarterly, “Not everyone can write a great baseball book, although many of us try. Mark Armour and Dan Levitt have succeeded and they deserve our congratulations.”
For their research in producing Paths to Glory, in 2004 Dan and Mark Armour won the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award, an award honoring those individuals whose outstanding research projects have significantly expanded our knowledge or understanding of baseball. Dan has been interviewed on more than a dozen radio shows and has participated in book signings with authors Michael Lewis, Bill James, and Rob Neyer.
Dan is a longtime member of SABR, the baseball research organization, president of the Minnesota chapter, and left fielder on the chapter’s vintage baseball team.
Dan has also published numerous well-respected and well-received articles and short biographies. In Deadball Stars of the National League, Dan contributed biographies for Vic Willis, Pat Moran and Noodles Hahn. In the article “Pitch Counts,” published in the 2000 Baseball Research Journal, Dan introduced new and convincing evidence that today’s pitchers throw just as many pitches per season as their Deadball era counterparts despite fewer innings pitched. In an essay in the 1996 Baseball Research Journal, he established that Ferdie Schupp should rightfully be credited with the single season ERA record.
As Vice President for Ryan Companies US, Inc, Dan manages the capital markets for Ryan-owned properties. Dan has over 20 years of direct finance experience and has developed a reputation for his thoroughness, clarity, creative problem solving and presentation skills.