Ernest Lanigan

Ernest John Lanigan (January 4, 1873 in Chicago, Illinois – February 6, 1962 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American sportswriter and historian on the subject of baseball.

During a two-year convalescence in the Adirondack Mountains, he continued his baseball stat gathering for The Sporting News, as he had during his banking career, and began inventing new statistics.

The publisher advertised on the book's title page that it "comprises a review of Professional Baseball, the history of all Major League Clubs, playing records and unique events, the batting, pitching and base running champions, World's Series' statistics and a carefully arranged alphabetical list of the records of more than 3500 Major League ball players, a feature never before attempted in print."

[1] In 1946, Lanigan was named curator of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and later served as its historian.

He held that post until he retired in 1959, when he was replaced by Lee Allen, who continued Lanigan's work in compiling biographical stats on players.