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BaseballChronology.com: Seymour Medal Honorees for 2007

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 2007, including links to the book at Amazon.com for your convenience. We also have a list of all winners and finalists from 1996-2007.

SEYMOUR MEDAL FINALISTS & WINNERS
WINNER		A Game of Inches by Peter Morris A Game of Inches is an encyclopedic story of innovation in baseball. Professional researcher Peter Morris documents every detail of baseball innovations from rules to equipment and from umpires to intentional walks. Who threw the first brushback pitch? That is a hard question whose answer is blurred by the evolution of overhand pitching, changing rules that originally did not allow batters a base after being hit, and increasing competitiveness in the early game. Morris answers the question elegantly, weaving early newspaper accounts with modern scholarship and sensible conclusions. Read more...
FINALIST		The Origins and History of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League by Merrie Fidler "This is an in-depth treatment of the organization and operation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Referencing primary documents from league owner Arthur Meyerhoff and others, the book offers a unique perspective inside the AAGPBL and examines its rise and fall, with an emphasis on league and team administration. The study begins with a brief history of women's softball, noting its importance as a precursor to, and talent pool for, women's professional baseball. Next the book investigates changing league administration and organization. Publicity and promotional philosophy and practices receive particular attention. Later chapters cover team administrative structure, team managers, and chaperones. Finally, discussion focuses on player backgrounds and league policies and regulations for the players, including salaries, trades, waivers, and allocation procedures and problems. The book includes a foreword by AAGPBL all-star Jean Cione; four appendices with valuable information about the AAGPBL Players Association and league highlights; numerous photographs; and an extensive bibliography. ." Read more...
FINALIST		When to Stop The Cheering? The Black Press, the Black Community, and the Integration of Professional Baseball by Brian Carroll "The purpose of the book is to document the close and often conflicted relationship between the black press and black baseball beginning with the first Negro professional league of substance, the Negro National League, which started in 1920, and finishing with the dissolution the Negro American League in 1957. When to Stop the Cheering? examines the multidimensional relationship the black newspapers had with baseball, including their treatment of and relationships with baseball officials, team owners, players and fans. Over time, these relationships changed, resulting in shifts in coverage that could be described as moving from brotherhood to paternalism, then from paternalism to nostalgic tribute and even regret." Read more...
BEST BASEBALL BOOKS OF EACH YEAR ACCORDING TO SABR