SABR member Paul Dickson wins Chicago Baseball Museum award
We’re pleased to pass along this announcement from SABR member David Fletcher at the Chicago Baseball Museum on November 29, 2012, about fellow SABR member Paul Dickson:
Paul Dickson, author of the 2012 book, “Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick,” will receive the 5th annual Jerome Holtzman Award at The Pitch & Hit Club 67th Annual Awards Banquet Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, at The Carlisle in Lombard, Illinois.
Each year, the Holtzman Award is presented by the Chicago Baseball Museum to the person who reflects the values and spirit of its Hall of Fame namesake. The honoree is selected by what is deemed to be the most significant contribution to the promotion of Chicago baseball and the preservation of its history and tradition.
The Holtzman Award was established in 2008. Its recipients are recognized each year at the annual Pitch & Hit Club’s banquet, the oldest and most prestigious off-season baseball event in the Chicago area.
Dickson, author of more than 55 non-fiction books, earned the Holtzman Award for contributions to Chicago Baseball. “Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick” (Walker and Company, New York) is a richly-detailed portrait of the ground-breaking baseball innovator who livened up the game with memorable promotions and was a firm advocate for racial equality in the mid-20th Century, whose signing of Larry Doby in July 1947 in Chicago broke the American League color line.
Dickson conducted more than 100 interviews to paint the portrait of two-time White Sox owner Veeck while also featuring the back story of his father William Louis Veeck, also an innovator as Cubs president from 1919 to 1933. The two generations of Veecks had lasting impacts on both sides of town in Chicago baseball history.
The Veeck biography follows up Dickson’s previous baseball books such as “The Unwritten Rules of Baseball,” “The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign Stealing Have Influenced the Course of Our National Pastime,” “The Joy of Keeping Score,” “Baseball’s Greatest Quotations,” “Baseball The President’s Game” and “The Dickson Baseball Dictionary,” the latter now in its third edition.
One special Dickson book, written with Thomas B. Allen and published in 2005, was developed into a 2006 PBS Documentary. “The Bonus Army: An American Epic,” detailed how 45,000 World War I veterans marched on Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1932. Their encampment, broken up by Army troops under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, changed American history.
Another Dickson book on a key turn in history was “Sputnik: Shock of the Century,” published in 2001.
The Yonkers, N.Y., native Dickson has been a full-time free-lance writer since 1968. He also has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, The Nation, The Smithsonian and Town and Country. His first book, “Think Tanks,” was published in 1971.
Dickson lives in Garrett Park, Md., with wife Nancy, who works as his first-line editor and financial manager.
The last Holtzman Award winner presented in January 2012 was White Sox icon Minnie Minoso, who celebrated his 88th birthday Nov. 29.
Jerome Holtzman was SABR member No. 77, joining in December 1971 and remaining active until his death in 2008.
For more information, contact Dr. David Fletcher, president of the Chicago Baseball Museum, at (217) 855-0979 or DFletcher@ChicagoBaseballMuseum.com.
Originally published: November 28, 2012. Last Updated: November 28, 2012.