{"id":91,"date":"2021-08-24T15:40:23","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T15:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/?p=91"},"modified":"2021-10-19T21:14:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T21:14:11","slug":"baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/baseball\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Hits Big with Baseball Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you think Nebraska is all about football fandom, you haven\u2019t seen what the University of Nebraska Press offers baseball fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scan any list of must-read books on baseball, and you\u2019ll typically find multiple offerings from the university\u2019s press, one of the nation\u2019s major publishers of baseball books. The general interest books focus primarily on history and biographies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe authors are holding a mirror onto the larger culture in which the game is played or how the sport has evolved,\u201d said marketing manager Mark Heineke, citing topics such as desegregation, the game-changing 1920s and the golden years of the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UNP\u2019s baseball expertise began in the 1990s, when then-director Daniel Ross reprinted several books that trade publishers had dropped. The books\u2019 success helped revive a readership in baseball history. By the 2000s, Nebraska was publishing original books, cementing its national reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt got to a critical mass and, not just baseball, but sports publishing became one of the categories the press is known for,\u201d said Rob Taylor, senior acquisitions editor in charge of sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"961\" src=\"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Baseball_shutterstock_111707318-2-1024x961.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Baseball_shutterstock_111707318-2-1024x961.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Baseball_shutterstock_111707318-2-300x281.jpg 300w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Baseball_shutterstock_111707318-2-768x721.jpg 768w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Baseball_shutterstock_111707318-2.jpg 1394w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Photo by Dan Thornberg\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, Taylor oversees as many as 16 baseball books a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A recent highlight is Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball\u2019s Greatest Forgotten Player by Jeremy Beer. Published in 2019, the book won the prestigious 2020 Seymour Medal for the best baseball book of history or biography, UNP\u2019s 10th win. The book also won the 2019 CASEY Award for the best baseball book of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s one of many award-winning and popular books in the press\u2019 bullpen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Taylor and Heineke credit the nonprofit publisher\u2019s ability to take chances on authors and topics that trade publishers won\u2019t. \u201cWe\u2019re pushing the boundaries of thought and debate,\u201d Heineke said. \u201cWe\u2019re not recycling the same old, same old here, whether it\u2019s a book on history or a collection of poetry or a baseball book. It\u2019s woven into our DNA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe cachet of the baseball list really sets the table for the rest of the list,\u201d Heineke added, noting the attention it brings UNP with reviewers and booksellers. \u201cIt\u2019s our calling card.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">UNP\u2019s Hall of Fame Baseball Titles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Recent University of Nebraska Press baseball titles have earned critical acclaim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SABR Baseball Research Award<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>2021: Rob K. Fitts,<em> Issei Baseball: The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers.<\/em><\/li><li>2020: Roberta J. Newman, <em>Here\u2019s the Pitch:<\/em> <em>The Amazing, True, New, and Improved Story of Baseball and Advertising; C\u00e9sar Brioso, Last Seasons in Havana: The Castro Revolution and the End of Professional Baseball in Cuba.<\/em><\/li><li>2019: Bill Nowlin, <em>Tom Yawkey: Patriarch of the Boston Red Sox<\/em>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SABR Larry Ritter Book Award<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>2020: Jeremy Beer, <em>Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball\u2019s Greatest Forgotten Player; Charles DeMotte, James T. Farrell and Baseball: Dreams and Realism on Chicago\u2019s South Side.<\/em><\/li><li>2018: Jim Leeke, <em>From the Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War.<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Publishing Awards<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Brad Balukjian, <em>The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball\u2019s Afterlife, <\/em>Los Angeles Times monthly bestseller list and NPR\u2019s Book Concierge Rest Reads of 2020.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you think Nebraska is all about football fandom, you haven\u2019t seen what the University of Nebraska Press offers baseball fans. Scan any list of must-read books on baseball, and you\u2019ll typically find multiple offerings from the university\u2019s press, one of the nation\u2019s major publishers of baseball books. The general interest books focus primarily on&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/baseball\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Press Hits Big with Baseball Books<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[30,17,31,32,29],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affiliates","tag-baseball-books","tag-history","tag-mark-heineke","tag-rob-taylor","tag-university-of-nebraska-press","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}