Spitball Magazine announces winner of 2012 Casey Award

If you enjoy reading about baseball, you might be interested to hear that the editors at Spitball Magazine, the “Literary Baseball Magazine,” recently announced that “Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick” by Paul Dickson won this year’s Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year.

Dickson is scheduled to receive the 2012 Casey Award, which is a specially made royal blue and gold engraved Louisville Slugger baseball bat, during the 30th Annual Casey Awards Banquet on March 3 in Cincinnati.

Dickson’s book was among 10 finalists for this year’s Casey Award. The other finalists included:

- “Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan” by Robert K. Fitts

- “Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915-1931” by Norman L. Macht

- “Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry and Baseball's Greatest Gift” by Harvey Araton

- “Gil Hodges: The Brooklyn Bums, The Miracle Mets and the Extraordinary Life of a Baseball Legend” by Tom Clavin and Danny Peary

- “Golden Boys: Baseball Portraits, 1946-1960” by Andy Jurinko and Christopher Jennison

- “The Last Natural: Bryce Harper's Big Gamble in Sin City and the Greatest Amateur Season Ever” by Rob Miech

- “The Might Have Been: A Novel” by Joseph M. Schuster

- “Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss” by Marty Appel

- “Willie Mays Aikens: Safe at Home” by Gregory Jordan

The Casey Award has been given annually by Spitball Magazine since 1983 and a number of outstanding baseball books have received the award over the years. Past winners include:

1983 - “The Celebrant” by Eric Rolfe Greenberg
1984 - “Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers” by Peter Golenbock
1985 - “Good Enough to Dream” by Roger Kahn
1986 - “The Bill James Historical Abstract” by Bill James
1987 - “Diamonds Are Forever” by Peter H. Gordon
1988 - “Blackball Stars” by John Holway
1989 - “The Pitch That Killed” by Mike Sowell
1990 - “Baseball: The People’s Game” by Harold Seymour
1991 - “To Everything a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia, 1909-1976" by Bruce Kuklick
1992 - “The Negro Baseball Leagues” by Phil Dixon
1993 - “Diamonds” by Michael Gershman
1994 - “Lords of the Realm” by John Helyar
1995 - “Walter Johnson” by Henry W. Thomas
1996 - “Slide, Kelly, Slide” by Marty Appel
1997 - “Play for a Kingdom” by Thomas Dyja
1998 - “Judge and Jury” by David Pietrusza
1999 - “Slouching Toward Fargo” by Neal Karlen
2000 - “Cy Young” by Reed Browning
2001 - “The Final Season” by Tom Stanton
2002 - “Shut Out” by Howard Bryant
2003 - “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis
2004 - “Ted Williams” by Leigh Montville
2005 - “Luckiest Man” by Jonathan Eig
2006 - “Game of Inches” by Peter Morris
2007 - “The Soul of Baseball” by Joe Posnanski
2008 - "We are the Ship" by Kadir Nelson
2009 - "Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend" by Larry Tyre
2010 - "The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron" by Howard Bryant
2011 - “56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports” by Kostya Kennedy

In the end, if you’re looking for a good baseball book to read, you probably won’t go wrong with any of those mentioned above.