The Casey Award (stylized as CASEY) is an annual literary award that has been given to the best baseball book of the year since 1983.[1]
| CASEY Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Best baseball literary work |
| Presented by | Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine |
| First awarded | 1983 |
| Most recent winner | Joe Posnanski Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments (2023) |
| Website | spitballmag.com |
The award was created by Mike Shannon and W. J. Harrison, editors and co-founders of Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine because, up until then, there was no award given to authors and publishers of distinguished baseball literature; it is considered to be the most prestigious award that can be given to a baseball book.[1]
Books are nominated by a panel of three judges under five main criteria: literary quality, informational content, analytical content, originality, and artistic appeal. After a shortlist is finalized, the judges vote on the book which has given "the greatest contribution to baseball literature".[1]
CASEY Award winners and finalists edit
1980s edit
| Year | Author(s) | Book | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Eric Rolfe Greenberg | The Celebrant | Winner |
| Jules Tygiel | Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy | Finalist | |
| Harry Stein | Hoopla | Finalist | |
| Donn Rogosin | Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues | Finalist | |
| L. Robert Davids | Insider's Baseball: The Finer Points of the Game, as Examined by the Society for American Baseball Research | Finalist | |
| Lowell Reidenbaugh | Take Me Out to the Ballpark | Finalist | |
| Richard Lindberg | Who's on 3rd? The Chicago White Sox Story | Finalist | |
| 1984 | Peter Golenbock | Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers | Winner |
| Walter Iooss & Roger Angell | Baseball | Finalist | |
| Kevin Kerrane | Dollar Sign on the Muscle | Finalist | |
| Eugene C. Murdock | Might Casey: All American | Finalist | |
| Robert Creamer | Casey Stengel: His Life and Times | Finalist | |
| Charles Alexander | Ty Cobb | Finalist | |
| 1985 | Roger Kahn | Good Enough to Dream | Winner |
| John Thorn | The Armchair Book of Baseball | Finalist | |
| Don Olson | Bambi's Bombers: The First Time Around | Finalist | |
| Daniel Okrent | Nine Innings: The Anatomy of Baseball as Seen Through the Playing of a Single Game | Finalist | |
| Dave Masterson & Timm Boyle | Baseball's Best: The MVPs | Finalist | |
| Donald Hall | Fathers Playing Catch with Sons | Finalist | |
| Donald Honig | Baseball America: The Heroes of the Game and the Times of Their Glory | Finalist | |
| W. P. Kinsella | The Thrill of the Grass | Finalist | |
| None | Topps Baseball Cards | Finalist | |
| 1986 | Bill James | The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract | Winner |
| Myron J. Smith, Jr. | Baseball: A Comprehensive Bibliography | Finalist | |
| Terry Pluto & Jeffrey Neuman | A Baseball Winter: The Off-Season Life of the Summer Game | Finalist | |
| Tony Ardizzone | Heart of the Order | Finalist | |
| W. P. Kinsella | The Iowa Baseball Confederacy | Finalist | |
| Jack B. Moore | Joe DiMaggio: A Bio-Bibliography | Finalist | |
| Roger Kahn | Joe & Marilyn: A Memory of Love | Finalist | |
| David Falkner | The Short Season: The Hard Work and High Times of Baseball in the Spring | Finalist | |
| 1987 | Peter H. Gordon | Diamonds Are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball | Winner |
| Bowie Kuhn & Marty Appel | Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner | Finalist | |
| George Plimpton | The Curious Case of Sidd Finch | Finalist | |
| John Thorn & John Holway | The Pitcher | Finalist | |
| David Q. Voigt | Baseball: An Illustrated History | Finalist | |
| Charles Einstein | The Fireside Book of Baseball, Vol. 4 | Finalist | |
| Tony Kubek & Terry Pluto | Sixty-One: The Team, The Record, The Men | Finalist | |
| Neil Sullivan | The Dodgers Move West | Finalist | |
| Joe Coomer | A Flatland Fable | Finalist | |
| Curt Smith | Voices of the Game: The First Full-Scale Overview of Baseball Broadcasing, 1921 to the Present | Finalist | |
| 1988 | John Holway | Blackball Stars: Negro League Pioneers | Winner |
| Roger Angell | Season Ticket: A Baseball Companion | Finalist | |
| Lonnie Wheeler | Bleachers: A Summer in Wrigley Field | Finalist | |
| Charles Alexander | John McGraw | Finalist | |
| Dorothy Ruth | My Dad, the Babe | Finalist | |
| W. P. Kinsella | The Further Adventures of Slugger McBatt | Finalist | |
| Noel Hynd | The Giants of the Polo Grounds | Finalist | |
| Lonnie Wheeler & John Baskin | The Cincinnati Game | Finalist | |
| Gerald Astor | The Baseball Hall of Fame 50th Anniversary Book | Finalist | |
| Dave Winfield & Tom Parker | Winfield: A Player's Life | Finalist | |
| 1989 | Mike Sowell | The Pitch That Killed: Carl Mays, Ray Chapman and the Pennant Race of 1920 | Winner |
| Lawrence Ritter & Mark Rucker | The Babe: A Life in Pictures | Finalist | |
| Mike Bryan | Baseball Lives: Men and Women of the Game Talk About Their Jobs, Their Lives, and the National Pastime | Finalist | |
| Joel Zoss & John Bowman | Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball | Finalist | |
| Paul Dickson | The Dickson Baseball Dictionary | Finalist | |
| John Krich | El Beisbol | Finalist | |
| Hank Greenberg & Ira Berkow | Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life | Finalist |
Source: [2]
1990s edit
| Year | Author(s) | Book | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Harold Seymour | Baseball: The People’s Game | Winner |
| Shelly M. Dinhofer | The Art of Baseball: America's Game in Painting, Folk Art and Photography | Finalist | |
| Mike Shatzkin | The Ballplayers: Baseball's Ultimate Biographical Reference | Finalist | |
| James E. Miller | The Baseball Business: Pursuing Pennants and Profits in Baltimore | Finalist | |
| William Curran | Big Sticks: The Batting Revolution of the Twenties | Finalist | |
| Michael Sokolove | Hustle: The Myth, Life, and Lies of Pete Rose | Finalist | |
| Darryl Brock | If I Never Get Back | Finalist | |
| George Will | Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball | Finalist | |
| Mark Winegardner | Prophet of the Sandlots: Journeys With A Major League Scout | Finalist | |
| 1991 | Bruce Kuklick | To Everything a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia, 1909-1976 | Winner |
| Andy McCue | Baseball by the Books | Finalist | |
| Henry Aaron & Lonnie Wheeler | I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story | Finalist | |
| Marc Okkonen | Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century | Finalist | |
| Brendan Boyd | Blue Ruin: A Novel of the 1919 World Series | Finalist | |
| Jerry Lansche | Glory Fades Away: The Nineteenth-Century World Series Remembered | Finalist | |
| David Lamb | Stolen Season: A Journey Through America and Baseball's Minor Leagues | Finalist | |
| Dick Johnson & Glenn Stout | Ted Williams: A Portrait in Words and Pictures | Finalist | |
| None | Tales of the Diamond: Gems of Baseball Fiction | Finalist | |
| None | Nolan Ryan: The Authorized Pictorial History | Finalist | |
| 1992 | Phil S. Dixon & Patrick J. Hannigan | The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History | Winner |
| Bruce Chadwick | When the Game Was Black & White: The Illustrated Story of Baseball's Negro Leagues | Finalist | |
| David James Duncan | The Brothers K | Finalist | |
| Robert Gregory | Diz: The Story of Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great Depression | Finalist | |
| Peter Golenbock | Fenway: An Unexpurgated History of the Boston Red Sox: | Finalist | |
| Lois Browne | The Girls of Summer: In Their Own League | Finalist | |
| Lawrence Ritter | Lost Ballparks: A Celebration of Baseball's Legendary Fields | Finalist | |
| Hal Erickson | Baseball in the Movies: A Comprehensive Reference, 1915-1991 | Finalist | |
| Mike Betzold & Ethan Casey | Queen of Diamonds: The Tiger Stadium Story | Finalist | |
| Luke Salisbury | The Cleveland Indian: The Legend of King Saturday | Finalist | |
| 1993 | Michael Gershman | Diamonds: the Evolution of the Ballpark | Winner |
| Neal & Constance McCabe | Baseball's Golden Age: The Photos of Charles M. Conlon | Finalist | |
| Ed Linn | Hitter: The Life and Turmoils of Ted Williams | Finalist | |
| Barbara Gregorich | Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball | Finalist | |
| Lloyd Johnson | The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball | Finalist | |
| Wilfred Sheed | My Life as a Fan: A Memoir | Finalist | |
| Donald Hall | The Museum of Clear Ideas | Finalist | |
| Gerald Eskenazi | The Lip: A Biography of Leo Durocher | Finalist | |
| Bob Edwards | Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship | Finalist | |
| Rich Westcott & Frank Bilovsky | The New Phillies Encyclopedia | Finalist | |
| 1994 | John Helyar | Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball | Winner |
| Bill James | The Politics of Glory: How Baseball's Hall of Fame Really Works | Finalist | |
| David Halberstam | October 1964 | Finalist | |
| Randall A. Hendricks | Inside the Strike Zone | Finalist | |
| Daniel Coyle | Hardball: A Season in the Projects | Finalist | |
| Al Stump | Cobb: The Life and Times of the Meanest Man Who Ever Played Baseball | Finalist | |
| Nicholas Dawidoff | The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg | Finalist | |
| Michael Bishop | Brittle Innings | Finalist | |
| James A. Riley | The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues | Finalist | |
| 1995 | Henry W. Thomas | Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train | Winner |
| Dan Gutman | Banana Bats and Dingdong Balls: A Century of Baseball Inventions | Finalist | |
| Pete Williams | Card Sharks: How Upper Deck Turned a Child's Hobby into a High-Stakes, Billion-Dollar Business | Finalist | |
| Jay Rogoff | The Cutoff | Finalist | |
| Greg Rhodes & John Erardi | Crosley Field: An Illustrated History of a Classic Ballpark | Finalist | |
| W.P. Kinsella | The Dixon Cornbelt League and Other Baseball Stories | Finalist | |
| Jack Torry | Endless Summers: The Fall and Rise of the Cleveland Indians | Finalist | |
| David Zang | Fleet Walker's Divided Heart | Finalist | |
| David Falkner | Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson | Finalist | |
| Charles Alexander | Rogers Hornsby: A Biography | Finalist | |
| Richard Panek | Waterloo Diamonds: A Midwestern Town and Its Minor League Team | Finalist | |
| Stefan Fatsis | Wild and Outside: How a Renegade Minor League Revived the Spirit of Baseball in America's Heartland | Finalist | |
| 1996 | Marty Appel | Slide, Kelly, Slide: The Wild Life and Times of Mike "King" Kelly, Baseball's First Superstar | Winner |
| Dan Shaughnessy | At Fenway: Dispatches from Red Sox Nation | Finalist | |
| Richard Cahan & Mark Jacob | The Game that Was: The George Brace Baseball Photo Collection | Finalist | |
| Rachel Robinson & Lee Daniels | Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait | Finalist | |
| David Cataneo | Tony C.: The Triumph and Tragedy of Tony Conigliaro | Finalist | |
| Mike Shropshire | Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History" ― The 1973–1975 Texas Rangers | Finalist | |
| Mark Winegardner | The Veracruz Blues | Finalist | |
| Peter Golenbock | Wrigleyville: A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs | Finalist | |
| 1997 | Thomas Dyja | Play for a Kingdom | Winner |
| Arnold Rampersad | Jackie Robinson: A Biography | Finalist | |
| Alan Klein | Baseball on the Border: A Tale of Two Laredos | Finalist | |
| David Nemec | The Great Encyclopedia of 19th Century Major League Baseball | Finalist | |
| Roger Kahn | Memories of Summer | Finalist | |
| Joseph J. Dittmar | Baseball Records Registry | Finalist | |
| David Pietrusza | Lights On! The Wild Century-Long Saga of Night Baseball | Finalist | |
| Greg Rhodes & John Erardi | Big Red Dynasty: How Bob Howsam & Sparky Anderson Built the Big Red Machine | Finalist | |
| Joseph A. Reaves | Warsaw to Wrigley: A Foreign Correspondent's Tale of Coming Home from Communism to the Cubs | Finalist | |
| Paul Dickson | The Joy of Keeping Score: How Scoring the Game Has Influenced and Enhanced the History of Baseball | Finalist | |
| 1998 | David Pietrusza | Judge and Jury: The Life and Times of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis | Winner |
| Dave Rosenbaum | If They Don't Win It's a Shame: The Year the Marlins Bought the World Series | Finalist | |
| Frank Dolson | Jim Bunning: Baseball and Beyond | Finalist | |
| Larry Canale | Mickey Mantle: The Yankee Years: The Classic Photography of Ozzie Sweet | Finalist | |
| John Thorn | Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame | Finalist | |
| Richard Bak | A Place for Summer: A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium | Finalist | |
| Rodney Torreson | The Ripening of Pinstripes | Finalist | |
| Samuel O. Regalado | Viva Baseball: Latin Major Leaguers and Their Special Hunger | Finalist | |
| William J. Ryczek | When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1870 | Finalist | |
| Ray Robinson & Christopher Jennison | Yankee Stadium: 75 Years of Drama, Glamor, and Glory | Finalist | |
| 1999 | Neal Karlen | Slouching Toward Fargo: A Two-Year Saga of Sinners and St. Paul Saints at the Bottom of the Bush Leagues with Bill Murray, Darryl Strawberry, Dakota Sadie, and Me | Winner |
| Bruce Adelson | Brushing Back Jim Crow: The Integration of Minor-League Baseball in the American South | Finalist | |
| Bryan Di Salvatore | A Clever Base-Ballist: The Life and Times of John Montgomery Ward | Finalist | |
| William Marshall | Baseball's Pivotal Era, 1945-1951 | Finalist | |
| Terry Pluto | Our Tribe: A Baseball Memoir | Finalist | |
| Robert Reed | A Six-Gun Salute: An Illustrated History of the Houston Colt .45s | Finalist | |
| Mark Rucker & Peter Bjarkman | Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball | Finalist | |
| Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria | The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball | Finalist | |
| Hobe Hays | Take Two and Hit to Right: Golden Days on the Semi-Pro Diamond | Finalist | |
| Dean Chadwin | Those Damn Yankees: The Secret Life of America's Greatest Franchise | Finalist | |
| Burt Solomon | Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball | Finalist |
Source: [2]
2000s edit
| Year | Author(s) | Book | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Reed Browning | Cy Young: A Baseball Life | Winner |
| David McGimpsey | Imagining Baseball: America's Pastime and Popular Culture | Finalist | |
| Roger Kahn | The Head Game: Baseball Seen from the Pitcher's Mound | Finalist | |
| Darryl Brock | Havana Heat | Finalist | |
| Richard Ben Cramer | Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life | Finalist | |
| Milton H. Jamail | Full Count: Inside Cuban Baseball | Finalist | |
| Jim Kaplan | Lefty Grove: American Original | Finalist | |
| Jeff Hutton | Perfect Silence | Finalist | |
| Glenn Stout & Richard A. Johnson | Red Sox Century: One Hundred Years of Red Sox Baseball | Finalist | |
| Tim Peeler | Touching All the Bases: Poems from Baseball | Finalist | |
| 2001 | Tom Stanton | The Final Season: Fathers, Sons, and One Last Season in a Classic American Ballpark | Winner |
| Jerry Kelly | Bushville: Life and Time in Amateur Baseball | Finalist | |
| Steve Fainaru & Ray Sanchez | The Duke of Havana: Baseball, Cuba, and the Search for the American Dream | Finalist | |
| James P. Quigel Jr. & Louis E. Hunsinger Jr. | Gateway to the Majors: Williamsport and Minor League Baseball | Finalist | |
| Martin Donell Kohout | Hal Chase: The Defiant Life and Turbulent Times of Baseball's Biggest Crook | Finalist | |
| Pat Williams | Marketing Your Dreams: Business and Life Lessons from Bill Veeck | Finalist | |
| James N. Giglio | Musial: From Stash to Stan the Man | Finalist | |
| Marty Appel | Now Pitching for the Yankees: Spinning the News for Mickey, Billy, and George | Finalist | |
| Jim Morris & Joel Engel | The Oldest Rookie: Big League Dreams from a Small-town Guy | Finalist | |
| Greg Rhodes & John Snyder | Redleg Journal: Year by Year and Day by Day with the Cincinnati Reds Since 1866 | Finalist | |
| 2002 | Howard Bryant | Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston | Winner |
| Jane Leavy | Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy | Finalist | |
| Tony Castro | Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son | Finalist | |
| Charles Alexander | Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Depression Era | Finalist | |
| Larry Lester | Black Baseball's National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1953 | Finalist | |
| Glenn Stout & Richard A. Johnson | Yankees Century: 100 Years of New York Yankees Baseball | Finalist | |
| John Theodore | Baseball's Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus | Finalist | |
| David L. Fleitz | Louis Sockalexis: The First Cleveland Indian | Finalist | |
| Steven Travers | Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman | Finalist | |
| Richard J. Tofel | A Legend in the Making: The New York Yankees in 1939 | Finalist | |
| 2003 | Michael Lewis | Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game | Winner |
| Brad Snyder | Beyond the Shadow of the Senators: The Untold Story of the Homestead Grays and the Integration of Baseball | Finalist | |
| Jim Bouton | Foul Ball: My Life and Hard Times Trying to Save an Old Ballpark | Finalist | |
| Noah Liberman | Glove Affairs: The Romance, History, and Tradition of the Baseball Glove | Finalist | |
| Elizabeth V. Warren | The Perfect Game: American Looks at Baseball | Finalist | |
| Paul O'Neill & Burton Rocks | Me and My Dad: A Baseball Memoir | Finalist | |
| Tom Stanton | The Road to Cooperstown: A Father, Two Sons, and the Journey of a Lifetime | Finalist | |
| Henry D. Fetter | Taking on the Yankees: Winning and Losing in the Business of Baseball, 1903-2003 | Finalist | |
| David Halberstam | The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship | Finalist | |
| James E. Elfers | The Tour to End All Tours: The Story of Major League Baseball's 1913-1914 World Tour | Finalist | |
| 2004 | Leigh Montville | Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero | Winner |
| W.C. Madden & Patrick J. Stewart | The College World Series: A Baseball History 1947-2003 | Finalist | |
| Bob Bailey | History of the Junior World Series | Finalist | |
| Jeff Pearlman | The Bad Guys Won! A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform – and Maybe the Best | Finalist | |
| Greg Hoard | Joe: Rounding Third & Heading for Home | Finalist | |
| Buster Olney | The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness | Finalist | |
| Jim Collins | The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream | Finalist | |
| Neil Lanctot | Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution | Finalist | |
| Alan Schwarz | The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics | Finalist | |
| Michael Sokolove | The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw | Finalist | |
| 2005 | Jonathan Eig | Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig | Winner |
| Ozzie Sweet & Larry Canale | The Boys of Spring: Timeless Portraits from the Grapefruit League, 1947-2005 | Finalist | |
| Peter C. Bjarkman | Diamonds Around the Globe: The Encyclopedia of International Baseball | Finalist | |
| Howard Bryant | Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball | Finalist | |
| Tony Massarotti & John Harper | A Tale of Two Cities: The 2004 Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry and the War for the Pennant | Finalist | |
| Buzz Bissinger | 3 Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager | Finalist | |
| David Block & Tim Wiles | Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search For the Roots of The Game | Finalist | |
| Willam Price Fox | Satchel Paige's America | Finalist | |
| Bill Simmons | Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN's Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help From Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank, and the 2004 Red Sox | Finalist | |
| Stephen Wong | Smithsonian Baseball: Inside the World's Finest Private Collections | Finalist | |
| 2006 | Peter Morris | A Game of Inches: The Game on the Field and the Game Behind the Scenes | Winner |
| Leigh Montville | The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth | Finalist | |
| David Levinthal | Baseball | Finalist | |
| Joshua Prager | The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World | Finalist | |
| David Maraniss | Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero | Finalist | |
| Mark Lamster | Spalding's World Tour: The Epic Adventure that Took Baseball Around the Globe | Finalist | |
| Brad Snyder | A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports | Finalist | |
| John Gall & Gary Engel | Sayonara Home Run: The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card | Finalist | |
| William C. Kashatus | Money Pitcher: Chief Bender and the Tragedy of Indian Assimilation | Finalist | |
| Sam Walker | Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe | Finalist | |
| 2007 | Joe Posnanski | The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America | Winner |
| Jim Reisler | The Best Game Ever: Pirates vs. Yankees: October 13, 1960 | Finalist | |
| Lee Lowenfish | Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman | Finalist | |
| Norman L. Macht | Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball | Finalist | |
| Peter Morris | Level Playing Fields: How the Groundskeeping Murphy Brothers Shaped Baseball | Finalist | |
| Cait Murphy | Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History | Finalist | |
| Jonathan Eig | Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season | Finalist | |
| Dennis D'Agostino & Bonnie Crosby | Through a Blue Lens: The Brooklyn Dodgers Photographs of Barney Stein, 1937-1957 | Finalist | |
| Dan Shaughnessy | Senior Year: A Father, A Son and High School Baseball | Finalist | |
| Tom Stanton | Ty and The Babe: Baseball's Fiercest Rivals: A Surprising Friendship and the 1941 Has-Beens Golf Championship | Finalist | |
| 2008 | Kadir Nelson | We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball | Winner |
| John Feinstein | Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember | Finalist | |
| Bill Nowlin | Red Sox Threads: Odds and Ends from Red Sox History | Finalist | |
| John Rosengren | Hammerin' Hank, George Almighty, and the Say Hey Kid: The Year that Changed Baseball Forever | Finalist | |
| Daniel K. Levitt | Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees' First Dynasty | Finalist | |
| William C. Kashatus | Almost a Dynasty: The Rise & Fall of the 1980 Phillies | Finalist | |
| Andy Strasberg, Bob Thompson & Tim Wiles | Baseball's Greatest Hit: The Story of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" | Finalist | |
| John Hanley & Chris De Luca | Classic Cubs: A Tribute to the Men and Magic of Wrigley Field | Finalist | |
| None | Ballet in the Dirt: The Golden Age of Neil Leifer | Finalist | |
| 2009 | Larry Tye | Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend | Winner |
| Warren Corbett | The Wizard of Waxahachie: Paul Richards and the End of Baseball as We Knew It | Finalist | |
| Joe Torre & Tom Verducci | The Yankee Years | Finalist | |
| Mark Frost | Game Six: Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series: The Triumph of America's Pastime | Finalist | |
| Matt McCarthy | Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit | Finalist | |
| Michael D'Antonio | Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles | Finalist | |
| Mike Vaccaro | The First Fall Classic: The Red Sox, the Giants and the Cast of Players, Pugs and Politicos Who Re-Invented the World Series in 1912 | Finalist | |
| Brett Friedlander & R. W. Reising | Chasing Moonlight: The True Story of Field of Dream's Doc Graham | Finalist | |
| Peter Morris | Catcher: How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero | Finalist | |
| Bruce Weber | As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels Through the Land of Umpires | Finalist |
Source: [2]
2010s edit
| Year | Author(s) | Book | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Howard Bryant | The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron | Winner |
| Jane Leavy | The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood | Finalist | |
| James Forr & David Proctor | Pie Traynor: A Baseball Biography | Finalist | |
| Edward Achorn | 59 in '84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had | Finalist | |
| James S. Hirsch | Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend | Finalist | |
| Robert Elias | The Empire Strikes Out: How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way Abroad | Finalist | |
| Josh Wilker | Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told through Baseball Cards | Finalist | |
| Steve Berg | Target Field: The New Home of the Minnesota Twins | Finalist | |
| Dick Perez | The Immortals: An Art Collection of Baseball's Best | Finalist | |
| None | The Amazing Tale of Mr. Herbert and His Fabulous Alpine Cowboys Baseball Club: An Illustrated History of the Best Little Semipro Baseball Team in Texas | Finalist | |
| 2011 | Kostya Kennedy | 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports | Winner |
| Dennis Snelling | The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast League, 1903-1957 | Finalist | |
| John Thorn | Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game | Finalist | |
| Chad Harbach | The Art of Fielding | Finalist | |
| Dan Barry | Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game | Finalist | |
| Wilfred Santiago | 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente | Finalist | |
| Neil Lanctot | Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella | Finalist | |
| Neal & Constance McCabe | The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon's Golden Age Baseball Photographs | Finalist | |
| Thomas Aiello | The Kings of Casino Park: Black Baseball in the Lost Season of 1932 | Finalist | |
| Glenn Stout | Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway's Remarkable First Year | Finalist | |
| 2012 | Paul Dickson | Bill Veeck: Baseball's Greatest Maverick | Winner |
| Norman L. Macht | Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915-1931 | Finalist | |
| Robert K. Fitts | Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan | Finalist | |
| Harvey Araton | Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball's Greatest Gift | Finalist | |
| Tom Clavin & Danny Peary | Gil Hodges: The Brooklyn Bums, The Miracle Mets, and the Extraordinary Life of a Baseball Legend | Finalist | |
| Andy Jurinko & Christopher Jennison | Golden Boys: Baseball Portraits, 1946-1960 | Finalist | |
| Rob Miech | The Last Natural: Bryce Harper's Big Gamble in Sin City and the Greatest Amateur Season Ever | Finalist | |
| Marty Appel | Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss | Finalist | |
| Joseph M. Schuster | The Might Have Been: A Novel | Finalist | |
| Gregory Jordan | Willie Mays Aikens: Safe at Home | Finalist | |
| 2013 | Herschel Cobb | Heart of a Tiger: Growing Up with My Grandfather, Ty Cobb | Winner |
| Tom Dunkel | Color Blind: The Forgotten Team that Broke Baseball's Color Line | Finalist | |
| Allen Barra | Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age | Finalist | |
| Michael Joyce | Going the Distance | Finalist | |
| Lucas Mann | Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere | Finalist | |
| Roberts Ehrgott | Mr. Wrigley's Ball Club: Chicago and the Cubs during the Jazz Age | Finalist | |
| Valerie Sayers | The Powers | Finalist | |
| Mike Lackey | Spitballing: The Baseball Days of Long Bob Ewing | Finalist | |
| Edward Achorn | The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game | Finalist | |
| Robert Weintraub | The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age | Finalist | |
| 2014 | Kostya Kennedy | Pete Rose: An American Dilemma | Winner |
| William C. Kashatus | Jackie and Campy: The Untold Story of Their Rocky Relationship and the Breaking of Baseball's Color Line | Finalist | |
| John Rosengren | The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption | Finalist | |
| Doug Wilson | Brooks: The Biography of Brooks Robinson | Finalist | |
| Rick Huhn | The Chalmers Race: Ty Cobb, Napoleon Lajoie, and the Controversial 1910 Batting Title that Became a National Obsession | Finalist | |
| Dennis Snelling | Johnny Evers: A Baseball Biography | Finalist | |
| Andy McCue | Mover and Shaker: Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers, and Baseball's Westward Expansion | Finalist | |
| Roger Kahn | Rickey & Robinson: The True, Untold Story of the Integration of Baseball | Finalist | |
| Rob Goldman | Nolan Ryan: The Making of a Pitcher | Finalist | |
| Scott Simkus | Outsider Baseball: The Weird World of Hardball on the Fringe, 1876-1950 | Finalist | |
| Bill Madden | 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever | Finalist | |
| George Will | A Nice Little Place of the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred | Finalist | |
| 2015 | Charles Leerhsen | Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty | Winner |
| Charles Fountain | The Betrayal: The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball | Finalist | |
| Travis Sawchik | Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-Year Losing Streak | Finalist | |
| Steve Steinberg & Lyle Spatz | The Colonel and Hug: The Partnership that Transformed the New York Yankees | Finalist | |
| Bill Pennington | Billy Martin: Baseball's Flawed Genius | Finalist | |
| Philip Beard | Swing | Finalist | |
| John Klima | The Game Must Go On: Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray, and the Great Days of Baseball on the Home Front, 1941-1945 | Finalist | |
| Gary Cieradkowski | The League of Outsider Baseball: An Illustrated History of Baseball's Forgotten Heroes | Finalist | |
| Jeff Katz | Split Season, 1981: Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strike that Saved Baseball | Finalist | |
| Jon Pessah | The Game: Inside the Secret World of Major League Baseball's Power Brokers | Finalist | |
| 2016 | Michael Leahy | The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers | Winner |
| Jeff Passan | The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports | Finalist | |
| Tim Peeler | Wild in the Strike Zone: Baseball Poems | Finalist | |
| David Duchovny | Bucky F*cking Dent | Finalist | |
| Ben Lindbergh & Sam Miller | The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team | Finalist | |
| Stephen Wong & Dave Grob | Game Worn: Baseball Treasures from the Game's Greatest Heroes and Moments | Finalist | |
| Glenn Stout | The Selling of the Babe: The Deal that Changed Baseball and Created a Legend | Finalist | |
| Tom Stanton | Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-Era Detroit | Finalist | |
| Michael Tackett | The Baseball Whisperer: A Small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams | Finalist | |
| George Gmelch | Playing with Tigers: A Minor League Chronicle of the Sixties | Finalist | |
| 2017 | Marty Appel | Casey Stengel: Baseball's Greatest Character | Winner |
| Sridhar Pappu | The Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age | Finalist | |
| John Eisenberg | The Streak: Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken Jr., and Baseball’s Most Historic Record | Finalist | |
| Dennis Evanosky & Eric J. Kos | Lost Ballparks | Finalist | |
| Paul Dickson | Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son | Finalist | |
| Dennis Snelling | Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador | Finalist | |
| Jason Turbow | Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swinging A’s | Finalist | |
| Richard Sandomir | The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper, and the Making of a Classic | Finalist | |
| Kevin Cook | Electric October: Seven World Series Games, Six Lives, Five Minutes of Fame that Lasted Forever | Finalist | |
| Keith Law | Smart Baseball: The Story behind the Old Stats that Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones that are Running It, and the Right Way to Think about Baseball | Finalist | |
| 2018 | Rob Neyer | Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game | Winner |
| Jane Leavy | The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created | Finalist | |
| Tony Castro | Gehrig & the Babe: The Friendship and the Feud | Finalist | |
| Bill Gruber | Baseball in a Grain of Sand: Seeing the Game through a Small Town Team | Finalist | |
| Tom Friend | The Chicken Runs at Midnight: A Daughter's Message from Heaven that Changed a Father's Heart and Won a World Series | Finalist | |
| Anne R. Keene | The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team that Helped Win World War II | Finalist | |
| Peter Devereaux | Game Faces: Early Baseball Cards from the Library of Congress | Finalist | |
| Mark Di Ionno | Gods of Wood and Stone | Finalist | |
| Todd Radom | Winning Ugly: A Visual History of the Most Bizarre Baseball Uniforms Ever Worn | Finalist | |
| Bill Nowlin | Tom Yawkey: Patriarch of the Boston Red Sox | Finalist | |
| John Erardi | Tony Perez: From Cuba to Cooperstown | Finalist | |
| Randy Roberts & Johnny Smith | A Season in the Sun: The Rise of Mickey Mantle | Finalist | |
| 2019 | Jeremy Beer | Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball's Greatest Forgotten Player | Winner |
| Paul Goldberger | Ballpark: Baseball in the American City | Finalist | |
| Tyler Kepner | K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches | Finalist | |
| Bill Pennington | Chumps to Champs: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to the 90’s Dynasty | Finalist | |
| Greg Rhodes, John Erardi, & Greg Gajus | Baseball Revolutionaries: How the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Rocked the Country and Made Baseball Famous | Finalist | |
| Alex Speier | Homegrown: How the Red Sox Built a Champion from the Ground Up | Finalist | |
| Bob Klapisch & Paul Solotaroff | Inside the Empire: the True Power behind the New York Yankees | Finalist | |
| Don Zminda | The Legendary Harry Caray: Baseball's Greatest Salesman | Finalist | |
| Ron Rapoport | Let’s Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub, The Life of Ernie Banks | Finalist | |
| Ben Lindbergh & Travis Sawchik | The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players | Finalist | |
| Christopher J. Phillips | Scouting and Scoring: How We Know What We Know about Baseball | Finalist | |
| Jason Turbow | They Bled Blue: Fernandomania, Strike-Season Mayhem, and the Weirdest Championship Baseball Had Ever Seen | Finalist |
Source: [2]
2020s edit
| Year | Author(s) | Book | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Thomas W. Gilbert | How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed | Winner |
| Mitchell Nathanson | Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original | Finalist | |
| Dale Tafoya | Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's | Finalist | |
| Emily Nemens | The Cactus League | Finalist | |
| Bill Dembski, Alex Thomas, & Brian Vikander | Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball's Fastest Pitcher | Finalist | |
| Robert K. Fitts | Issei Baseball: The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers | Finalist | |
| Howard Burman | Mutt's Dream: Making the Mick | Finalist | |
| Bill Madden | Tom Seaver: A Terrific Life | Finalist | |
| Jared Diamond | Swing Kings: The Inside Story of Baseball's Home Run Revolution | Finalist | |
| Brad Balukjian | The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball's Afterlife | Finalist | |
| Ethan D. Bryan | A Year of Playing Catch: What a Simple Daily Experiment Taught Me about Life | Finalist | |
| 2021 | Joe Posnanski | The Baseball 100 | Winner |
| Dan Taylor | Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball | Finalist | |
| Andy Martino | Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing | Finalist | |
| Dave Parker & Dave Jordan | Cobra: A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood | Finalist | |
| Bryan Hoch | The Bronx Zoom: Inside the New York Yankees’ Most Bizarre Season | Finalist | |
| Tim Wendel | Escape from Castro’s Cuba | Finalist | |
| Steven Treder | Forty Years a Giant: The Life of Horace Stoneham | Finalist | |
| Lonnie Wheeler | The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell: Speed, Grace, and the Negro Leagues | Finalist | |
| Luke Epplin | Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series that Changed Baseball | Finalist | |
| 2022 | Kostya Kennedy | True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson | Winner |
| Judith R. Hiltner & James R. Walker | Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcasting Legend | Finalist | |
| Howard Bryant | Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original | Finalist | |
| Tyler Kepner | The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series | Finalist | |
| Ron Shelton | The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit | Finalist | |
| Paul Aron | The Lineup: Ten Books that Changed Baseball | Finalist | |
| Dan Good | Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever | Finalist | |
| Joe Maddon & Tom Verducci | The Book of Joe: Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life | Finalist | |
| Jason Cannon | Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman Behind the Chicago Cubs | Finalist | |
| Bob Ryan & Bill Chuck | In Scoring Position: 40 Years of a Baseball Love Affair | Finalist | |
| 2023 | Joe Posnanski | Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments | Winner |
| Jesse Cole | Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas | Finalist | |
| Jim Chapman | Baseball Photography of the Deadball Era: Rediscovering the Early Lensmen and Their Indelible Images that Brought the Game from the Field to the Fans | Finalist | |
| Steven P. Gietschier | Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years | Finalist | |
| Erik Sherman | Daybreak at Chavez Ravine: Fernandomania and the Remaking of the Los Angeles Dodgers | Finalist | |
| Mark Stevens | The Fireballer: A Novel | Finalist | |
| Jeffrey Loria | From the Front Row: Reflections of a Major League Baseball Owner and Modern Art Dealer | Finalist | |
| Russell A. Carleton | The New Ballgame: The Not-So-Hidden Forces Shaping Modern Baseball | Finalist | |
| David Vaught | Spitter: Baseball’s Notorious Gaylord Perry | Finalist | |
| Ryan McGee | Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer, at the Perfect Ballpark, at the Perfect Time | Finalist | |
| Adam Lazarus | The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, and Unbreakable Friendship between John Glenn and Ted Williams | Finalist |
Source: [2]
