Lyle Spatz’s “Dixie Walker: A Life in Baseball” wins 2012 Ron Gabriel Award
We are pleased to announce that Lyle Spatz’s book Dixie Walker: A Life in Baseball has been selected as the inaugural winner of the Ron Gabriel Award in 2012.
Spatz’s latest book, published by McFarland & Co., was chosen by the Ron Gabriel Award Committee, chaired by William Dahlberg, from nearly a dozen submissions which spanned a wide breadth of topics throughout the storied history of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The book details the unique life, legacy, and career of one of baseballs most colorful characters from some of the most important years in its history. Spatz will be formally recognized at the SABR 42 convention in Minnesota.
The Ron Gabriel Award, established in 2012, annually honors the author(s) of the best research, published or unpublished, on the subject of the Brooklyn Dodgers completed during the preceding calendar year. Eligible works include but are not limited to magazine and journal articles, previously unpublished chapters or articles in anthologies or other books with multiple authors, unpublished research papers, written versions of oral presentations, books, databases and websites.
Ron Gabriel (1941-2009), a native of Brooklyn, New York, and longtime resident of Bethesda, Maryland, was a former Vice President of SABR and instrumental in establishing the Bob Davids Chapter, which serves the Washington-Baltimore region. He was founder and president of the Brooklyn Dodger Fan Club, and a charter elected member of the Brooklyn Dodger Hall of Fame. Gabriel, who earned his Ph.D. in Human Resource Management from American University, was a retired U.S. Government executive, having served with the Postal Service Management Institute, the Department of Defense and the General Services Administration.
Originally published: June 14, 2012. Last Updated: June 14, 2012.