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BaseballChronology.com: Seymour Medal Honorees for 1996

By Patrick Mondout

SABR (Society For American Baseball Research) annually awards the Seymour Medal to the best book of baseball history or biography published in the previous year. Below are the finalists and winners for 1996, including links to the book at Amazon.com for your convenience. We also have a list of all winners and finalists from 1996-2006.

SEYMOUR MEDAL FINALISTS & WINNERS
WINNER		Fleet Walker's Divided Heart by David W. Zang "For the record, Moses "Fleetwood" Walker was born in Ohio four years before the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, attended Oberlin College, studied law at the University of Michigan, was acquitted of first-degree murder in Syracuse, was granted a patent for an artillery shell, was convicted of mail robbery in Ohio, ran a hotel, edited a newspaper, wrote a well-regarded treatise advocating the emigration of blacks back to Africa, and spent the years before his death in 1924 running a theater that offered opera, live drama, and motion pictures." Read more...
FINALIST		Rogers Hornsby: A Biography by Charles Alexander Alexander was written a number of baseball biographies, including ones on Ty Cobb and John McGraw and has written a popular history of the game called Our Game: An American Baseball History.
FINALIST		Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson from Baseball to Birmingham by David Falkner Falkner's decision to write an honest assessment of the complete life of the most revered figure in the history of the game perhaps led to Jackie's family refusing to cooperate on the biography, but it did not dissuade SABR members who voted his book one of the best of 1996. Falkner's "warts and all" biography was a welcome change from the unrealistic, hero-worshiping books on Jackie that preceded it. It remains in print a decade later as a standard reference on an American icon.
FINALIST		Diamonds of the North: A Concise History of Baseball in Canada by Bill Humber "When and where was the first game of baseball played? Which Canadian minor league team did Wayne Gretzky play for? From the first baseball game ever played in Beachville, Ontario in 1838 to the Toronto Blue Jays' 1993 and 1994 World Series wins, Diamonds of the North vividly depicts how baseball gained popularity throughout Canada. Humber covers every interesting aspect of baseball in Canada, such as why Quebecois came to play the game, how the Gold Rush brought baseball to the west coast, women's baseball in Saskatchewan after World War I, and the story of Japanese Canadian, black, and native baseball players in Canada." Read more...
FINALIST		The Beer and Whisky League: An Illustrated History of the American Association-Baseball's Renegade Major League by David Nemec "Although the American Association lasted only a decade, from 1882 to 1891, it rewrote the playbook on baseball, establishing many of the conventions we still honor. Writer David Nemec and photographer Mark Rucker have put together a book that vividly tells the Association's story, and sets a new standard for books on baseball in the 19th century. This is the first comprehensive look at the American Association. Meticulously researched, this lively history is complemented by over 200 rare photographs, most never before published." Read more...
FINALIST		Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train by Henry W. Thomas "How good a pitcher was Washington Senator ace Walter Johnson? Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Joe Jackson considered him the best ever. His career strikeout record lasted for half a century, and no one's ever come close to his mark of 110 shutouts; some of his Senator teams were so bad, the only way Johnson could win was literally to keep opponents from scoring. Of course, the numbers alone don't tell the story. Johnson was a towering figure in the first quarter of the baseball century. One of the most respected--and liked--men in the game, he was something of an anti-Cobb: straight, honest, and clean, with a life off the field as content as it was accomplished on it. This is an excellent, exhaustive biography, showing clear affection for Johnson from the first pitch: Thomas is Johnson's grandson." Read more...
BEST BASEBALL BOOKS OF EACH YEAR ACCORDING TO SABR