Joe Niese’s Zack Wheat biography wins 2021 SABR Ron Gabriel Award
SABR is pleased to announce that Joe Niese’s Zack Wheat: The Life of the Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Famer, published by McFarland & Co., has been selected as the winner of the Ron Gabriel Award in 2021.
Niese is a library director from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and the author of Burleigh Grimes: Baseball’s Last Legal Spitballer; Handy Andy: The Andy Pafko Story; and other articles and books on sports.
The Ron Gabriel Award annually honors the author(s) of the best research, published or unpublished, on the subject of the Brooklyn Dodgers completed during the preceding calendar year. Eligible works include but are not limited to magazine and journal articles, previously unpublished chapters or articles in anthologies or other books with multiple authors, unpublished research papers, written versions of oral presentations, books, databases and websites.
Honorable mention went to:
- Francis Kinlaw, “Crucial Choices: Dressen, Reese, and Alston Rolled the Dice in Brooklyn” (unpublished)
- Steven C. Weiner, “July 5, 1952: Shotgun Shuba’s homer, Erskine’s pitching lead Dodgers to win,” SABR Games Project
The award subcommittee included: Andy McCue (chair), John McMurray, and Roberta J. Newman.
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.
For a list of past award winners, click here.
Originally published: March 26, 2021. Last Updated: March 26, 2021.