SABR announces 2022 Henry Chadwick Award recipients
SABR is pleased to announce the 2022 recipients of the Henry Chadwick Award, established to honor the game’s great researchers — historians, statisticians, annalists, and archivists — for their invaluable contributions to making baseball the game that links America’s present with its past.
The 2022 recipients of the Henry Chadwick Award are:
James E. Brunson III (1954 – ) is a historian, artist, and art historian who has contributed much to the study of baseball. In the mid-1980s, he began his decades-long study of the history and imagery of African Americans in baseball. This work led to the 2019 publication of his three-volume magnum opus, Black Baseball, 1858-1900: A Comprehensive Record of the Teams, Players, Managers, Owners and Umpires, which won the Robert Peterson Award from SABR’s Negro Leagues Research Committee. He is the assistant vice president for Diversity & Equity in Student Affairs & Enrollment Management at Northern Illinois University.
Jane Leavy (1951 – ) is a journalist, feature writer, and author who has devoted most of her career to baseball. After many years with the Washington Post, in 2003 Leavy wrote Squeeze Play, a humorous novel about a female reporter assigned to cover the worst team in baseball. She then set her sights on nonfiction, and her biographies of Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth are enough to place her in the top echelon of 21st-century baseball writers. She won the 2019 Seymour Medal for The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created.
Daniel Okrent (1948 – ) is a writer, editor, and historian who has made several distinct contributions to baseball research. In a career filled with great works of nonfiction, two baseball books stand out: The Ultimate Baseball Book (1979, with Harris Lewine), a pictorial history; and Nine Innings: The Anatomy of Baseball as Seen Through the Playing of a Single Game (1985). In 1980, he and a group of friends created Rotisserie League Baseball, which launched a multi-billion dollar fantasy sports industry. In 1981 he wrote a profile of Bill James for Sports Illustrated that led to James getting a national book contract. He has turned his talents away from baseball in recent years, but his contributions to the enjoyment of the sport are undeniable.
By honoring individuals for the length and breadth of their contribution to the study and enjoyment of baseball, the Chadwick Award will educate the baseball community about sometimes little known but vastly important contributions from the game’s past and thus encourage the next generation of researchers.
The criteria for the award reads in part: The contributions of nominees must have had public impact. This may be demonstrated by publication of research in any of a variety of formats: books, magazine articles, websites, etc. The compilation of a significant database or archive that has facilitated the published research of others will also be considered in the realm of public impact.
For a complete list of Chadwick Award winners, click here.
Originally published: March 8, 2022. Last Updated: March 8, 2022.