Jerome Holtzman
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Jerome Holtzman (born December 11, 1926 in Chicago, IL U.S.) is an award-winning baseball writer and since 1999 has been the official historian for Major League Baseball.
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[edit] Newspaper career
Holtzman wrote for his hometown papers in Chicago for over 50 years. Beginning as a copyboy at the Chicago Daily News in 1943, Holtzman wrote for the paper through its merger with the Chicago Sun. Holtzman's influence and viewpoints made him something of a legend among newspapermen. Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard, who worked with Holtzman while sports editor of the Sun-Times, called him "the dean of American baseball writers," and went on to say "He never smiled, but he had the keys to Cooperstown. No major leaguer ever got into the Hall of Fame if Holtzman didn't want him there."[1] Holtzman left the Sun-Times in 1981 for the Chicago Tribune. He remained at the Tribune for 19 years.
Holtzman won the 1989 J. G. Taylor Spink Award. He was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
Among Holtzman's contributions to the game during his sixty year career, was the creation of the modern save rule in 1959. It was adopted as an official statistic in 1966.
[edit] Official Historian
In 1999, Holtzman retired as a newspaper writer and was named as the official historian of Major League Baseball. He writes occasional columns on the mlb.com website. [1]
In 2001, Holtzman made the infamous decision to revert to counting walks in 1887 as hits, reviving an old debate. Revised statistics appeared in the seventh edition of Total Baseball, the Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball. The move has been criticized (and largely ignored) by most other baseball historians.
[edit] Books
Holtzman has written or edited more than a dozen books, including the critically acclaimed No Cheering in the Press Box, a collection of interviews with 18 sportswriters that was published in 1974. A revised edition in 1995 added interview with six new subjects. Among his other notable books are The Commissioners, which contained biographies of baseball's commissioners and a history of the office, and Baseball Chicago Style,a history of the Cubs and White Sox.
[edit] References
- ^ If I Ever Get Back To Georgia, I'm Gonna Nail My Feet To The Ground. Lewis Grizzard. pg.319. ISBN 0-345-37270-0
[edit] External links
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