Eric Nusbaum’s ‘Stealing Home’ wins 2021 SABR Seymour Medal
Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, written by Eric Nusbaum and published by PublicAffairs, is the winner of the 2021 Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal, which honors the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year.
Nusbaum will receive his award during the 28th annual NINE Spring Training Conference at 8:00 p.m. EDT / 5:00 p.m. PDT on Saturday, March 20, 2021. The NINE Conference will be held virtually over three weekends in March. To register for the NINE conference, visit nineconference.com.
The Seymour Medal Selection Committee of Amy Essington (chair), Andy Andres, and Jan Finkel released the following statement:
In Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, Eric Nusbaum tells the story of a community, a city, and a baseball team. The arrival of the Dodgers from New York brought major league baseball to Southern California, but it was the building of Dodger Stadium which changed the lives of the people who lived in three established Mexican American communities in the hills of Chavez Ravine. Nusbaum weaves together the devastating consequences of the city’s politics in the 1950s and 1960s, showing the intersections of the lives of local families, the activism of Fred Wilkinson and his work on a public housing project, the early career of Roz Wyman and the politics of the Los Angeles City Council, and the building of a new home for a major league team. Stealing Home is a good example of how baseball history can inform us not only about the sport, but the broader society.
Nusbaum, a SABR member since 2019, writes a weekly subscription newsletter called Sports Stories and is a former editor at VICE Sports. His work has also appeared in Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, The Daily Beast, Deadspin, and the Best American Sports Writing anthology. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he has also lived and worked in Mexico City, New York, and the Seattle area, where he now lives with his family.
The other finalists for the 2021 Seymour Medal were:
- How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed, by Thomas W. Gilbert (David R. Godine)
- Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original, by Mitchell Nathanson (University of Nebraska Press)
- The Called Shot: Babe Ruth, the Chicago Cubs, and the Unforgettable Major League Baseball Season of 1932, by Thomas Wolf (University of Nebraska Press)
The Seymour Medal, named in honor of Dr. Harold Seymour and Mrs. Dorothy (Seymour) Mills, was first awarded by SABR in 1996. To be considered for the medal, a work must be the product of original research or analysis. The winning book shall significantly advance our knowledge of baseball and shall be characterized by understanding, factual accuracy, profound insight and distinguished writing.
To see a list of previous Seymour Medal winners, click here.
Originally published: February 22, 2021. Last Updated: March 18, 2021.