Chuck the Writer Assists on a New Writing Project

Robert Bradley is an expert in the history of professional basketball. He's the head person behind the Association for Professional Basketball Research, an organization similar to the SABR people who chart baseball's history.

So when he contacted me the other day and asked if I had any information on the Continental Basketball Association standings for his upcoming book project, and if I could help him out...

I couldn't pull up my statistical data fast enough.

I was able to get him the standings for the last ten years of the CBA, and then followed that up with statistics from the United States Basketball League, the Premier Basketball League, the Eastern Pro League - and this morning, I e-mailed him the scores from the 1947 New York State Pro League semifinal playoff round between the Albany Red Devils and the Cohoes Mastodons. And you think today's team names are goofy??

Anyways...

This is what research is for. It's similar to tracking your family tree, discovering your genealogy. Only in my case, it's involving the rediscovery of professional sports that had long since passed into the mists of the diaspora.

Just for example, here's a piece I wrote on Barney Sedran and Marty Friedman, the "Heavenly Twins," two basketball stars from the early history of pro hoops. In fact, at 5'4", Barney Sedran is the shortest professional player ever inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame!