David William Vincent (July 26, 1949 - July 2, 2017) was an American baseball official scorer, statistician, and historian. He was called "The Sultan of Swats Stats" by ESPN and was often quoted by Major League Baseball, ESPN, Fox, USA Today, and other media outlets regarding the history of the home run.
Vincent was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, and he studied music, earning an undergraduate degree and a doctorate. After a stint as a band director, Vincent went to work as a computer programmer for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and for Hewlett Packard once they bought out EDS.[1] Vincent lived in Centreville, Virginia.[2] [3]
A long-time member of SABR, he kept SABR's official home run statistics, and was presented with the organization's highest honor, the Bob Davids Award, in 1999. Vincent was also an official scorer for the Washington Nationals and the founding secretary of Retrosheet, which is collecting play-by-play accounts of every game in major league history. In addition to his work with home runs, Vincent had a special research interest in the history of umpiring.
Vincent wrote several books including:
Vincent died in Centreville on July 2, 2017, from stomach cancer. He was 67.[4]