How many of these Seymour Medal winners have you read?

Recently, I read a great book called “501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die” by Ron Kaplan. Throughout this book, Kaplan makes reference to the Seymour Medal, and honestly, I’d never heard of this book award before reading Kaplan’s book.

 

As it turns out, the Seymour Medal is awarded each year by the Society of American Baseball Research to honor the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year. Named after Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour, the first Seymour Medal was awarded in 1996.

 

What follows is a complete list of the all-time winners:

 

2014 – “Smoky Joe Wood: The Biography of a Baseball Legend” by Gerald C. Wood

2013 – “Banzai Babe Ruth” by Robert K. Fitts

2012 – “Fenway 1912” by Glenn Stout

2011 – “1921” by Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg

2010 – “Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend” by Larry Tye

2009 – “Chief Bender's Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star” by Tom Swift

2008 – “Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman” by Lee Lowenfish

2007 – “A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball” by Peter Morris

2006 – “Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game” by David Block

2005 – “Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution” by Neil Lanctot

2004 – “Baseball Fever: Early Baseball in Michigan” by Peter Morris

2003 – “Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Depression Era” by Charles C. Alexander

2002 – “Early Baseball and the Rise of the National League” by Tom Melville

2001 – “Past Time: Baseball as History” by Jules Tygiel

2000 – “Baseball's Pivotal Era: 1945-1951” by William Marshall

1999 – “Baseball's Last Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Oakland A's” by Bruce Markusen

1998 – “The Detroit Tigers: Club and Community, 1945-95” by Patrick Harrigan

1997 – “Honus Wagner, the Life of Baseball's ‘Flying Dutchman’” by Arthur D. Hittner

1996 – “Fleet Walker's Divided Heart” by David Zang

In the end, how many of these Seymour Medal winners have you read over the years? Which did you like or dislike? Which is your personal favorite? Let us know in the comments section below.