Editing Bill James (section)

===STATS, Inc.===
In an essay published in the 1984 ''Abstract'', James vented his frustration about [[Major League Baseball]]'s refusal to publish play-by-play accounts of every game. James proposed the creation of Project Scoresheet, a network of fans that would work together to collect and distribute this information.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19840428&id=EaBSAAAAIBAJ&pg=6795,3730203 |title=Top Secret: Project Scoresheet to bring hidden facts to the fans |first=Glenn |last=Miller |newspaper=[[Evening Independent]] |date=April 28, 1984}}</ref>

While the resulting non-profit organization never functioned smoothly, it worked well enough to collect accounts of every game from 1984 through 1991. James's publisher agreed to distribute two annuals of essays and data—the 1987 and 1988 editions of ''Bill James Presents The Great American Baseball Statbook'' (though only the first of these featured writing by James).

The organization was eventually disbanded, but many of its members went on to form for-profit companies with similar goals and structure. [[STATS, Inc.]], the company James joined, provided data and analysis to every major media outlet before being acquired by [[Fox Network|Fox]] Sports in 2001.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140515/BLOGS04/140519841/stats-llc-sold-to-private-equity-firm |title=Stats LLC sold to private-equity firm |first=Danny |last=Ecker |magazine=[[Crain's Chicago Business]] |date=May 15, 2014}}</ref>