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.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]
| 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 |
Award process
editBaseball books, both non-fiction and fiction, 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". It is then presented at the annual CASEY Award Banquet held in Cincinnati, Ohio in January.[1]
Previously, the winner received a bronze plaque which manufactured by the Newman Brothers Company in Cincinnati and featured Nap Lajoie holding a quill, the original logo of the award which was designed by magazine's first art director, Blair Gibeau. In 2009, the bronze plaques were replaced by authentic Louisville Slugger baseball bats imprinted with a new CASEY Award logo designed by the magazine's second art director and longtime cover artist Donnie Pollard.[2]
Winners and finalists
edit1980s
editSource:[2]
| 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 Broadcasting, 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 |
1990s
editSource:[2]
| Year | Author(s) | Book | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Dorothy Seymour Mills & 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 |
2000s
editSource:[2]
| 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 |
2010s
editSource:[2]
| 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 | |
| D.J. Stout | 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 J. 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 |
2020s
editSource:[2]
| 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 | |
| 2024 | N/A | N/A | Winner |
| Aaron Fischman | A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back | Finalist | |
| Noah Gittell | Baseball: The Movie | Finalist | |
| Keith O'Brien | Charlie Hustle: the Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball | Finalist | |
| Erik Sherman | Dewey: Behind the Gold Glove by Dwight Evans | Finalist | |
| Andy McCullough | The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw & the Burden of Greatness | Finalist | |
| Steve Steinberg & Lyle Spatz | Mike Donlin: A Rough and Rowdy Life from New York Baseball Idol to Stage and Screen | Finalist | |
| Kevin Baker | The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City | Finalist | |
| Tim Newby | The Original Louisville Slugger: The Life and Times of Forgotten Baseball Legend Pete Browning | Finalist | |
| Morris Hoffman | Pinch Hitting | Finalist | |
| Eric Vickrey | Season of Shattered Dreams: Postwar Baseball, The Spokane Indians, and a Tragic Bus Crash that Changed Everything | Finalist |