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BaseballChronology.com: Seymour Medal Honorees for 2002

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 2002, 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		Early Baseball and the Rise of the National League by Tom Melville "Did modern baseball spontaneously arise from the genius of the American people? Did professionalism arise simply from a desire to turn baseball into a business? Did William Hulbert, organizer of the National League, really "save" baseball? These are three of the questions examined in this work about early baseball's role in American culture. Beginning with an introduction to the sport as achievement and expression, the author takes a close look at the early demand in New York for "the best against the best" in baseball and argues that this demand was contradictory to society's equally persistent demand that displays of "the best against the best" be locally accessible. This work offers insights into how baseball operated in its early days, with special attention paid to the National Association and how the National League came into being." Read more...
FINALIST		Much More than a Game: Players, Owners, and American Baseball Since 1921 by Robert F. Burk "To most Americans, baseball is just a sport; but to those who own baseball teams--and those who play on them--our national pastime is much more than a game. In this book, Robert Burk traces the turbulent labor history of American baseball since 1921. His comprehensive, readable account details the many battles between owners and players that irrevocably altered the business of baseball." Read more...
FINALIST		Musial: From Stash to Stan the Man by James F. Giglio "Musial: From Stash to Stan the Man is the most comprehensive assessment of baseball legend Stan Musial's life and career to date. Musial, better known as Stan the Man, was born in 1920 to a Polish immigrant father and a second-generation Slovak mother in Donora, Pennsylvania. As a youth, however, he went by the nickname Stash, which his closest friends have continued to call him." Read more...
FINALIST		Hal Chase: The Defiant Life and Turbulent Times of Baseball's Biggest Crook by Martin Kohout "Hal Chase is considered by many to be one of the best first basemen ever to play the game of baseball. He was able to make the routine look spectacular, the spectacular look routine. But Chase will never have his plaque in Cooperstown because he has gone down in history as the biggest crook in baseball. Chase was repeatedly accused of throwing games, bribing players, betting against his own team, and various other crimes, yet with his relaxed nature he always managed to get off the hook for his misdeeds by working his charm. His major league career lasted from 1905 to 1919, and by the mid–1930s he was a destitute alcoholic living off friends. The last fifteen years of Chase’s life saw him hospitalized repeatedly for a variety of ailments, living off a sister and brother-in-law who loathed him. This work traces the turbulent life and times of Hal Chase from his humble beginnings to his sad end." Read more...
BEST BASEBALL BOOKS OF EACH YEAR ACCORDING TO SABR