"Thomas seemed bolted to his chair, transfixed by Codell's numbers."
- Chicago Magazine

"Barry Codell, whose insight into baseball is singular in the game's history..."
- Robert Kurson, Chicago Sun-Times Sports best-selling author

"I'd give anything to learn what Codell is working on. He's a brilliant thinker, who operates on a different spectrum. It's a huge loss not to have access to his mind."
- Stuart Shea, noted baseball researcher and writer

"Codell's work was revolutionary. Then he just walked away. He disappeared. No one knows what happened to him."
- Cappy Gagnon, SABR President and baseball historian

A reading of the 2001 Chicago Magazine article by Robert Kurson (which was prefaced, "Before turning his back on baseball, Barry Codell invented a stat that captured the essence of the game.") piqued my curiosity to meet with Barry and talk baseball through his stats! Happily, he encouraged "access to his mind," as well as my interest to create a site dedicated to all his formulas and offshoots, in which I will regularly look at baseball's past, present and future through the previously published (and deliberately unpublished!) numbers of Barry Codell.

In this 30th anniversary of Barry's famed "Diamond Ratio"--that of bases to outs--I found what Robert Kurson wrote to be true: "The statistics of Barry Codell, in their scope [and] symmetry . . . unmask the many false prophets of baseball statistics who have proclaimed themselves to be keepers of the game."

Recently, writer Ray Flowers of SI.com wrote, regarding Barry's groundbreaking Base-Out Percentage (BOP), "The simplicity of what Mr. Codell developed is eloquent..." Unlocking the Barry Code, I found the BOP was the tip of the iceberg! To those, like myself, fortunate enough to have seen the entirety of his numbers (described as "astoundingly simple" and "simply astounding"), the "Father of the BOP" changed their baseball vision.

Before Bill James' Sabermetrics, before Moneyball, Codell had begun a statistical journey that was virtually unnoticed, culminating in today's most fertile and fascinating method of baseball analysis. As Bob Costas once said (and it still holds true), "Barry's numbers are the best!"

So, from BOP to BAM (and beyond!), let's enjoy that statistical, mystical trip around the bases we will share, with Barry Codell's endorsement, through The Barry Code–the Holy Grail of Baseball!

Don Sevcik, "The Don of The Barry Code", 2008