 Born in Chicago, Illinois, on December
11, 1926, sportswriting legend Jerome Holtzman had a more than 50
year career as a sportswriter. During his illustrious career he won
many awards including the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the Red Smith
Award, and four "Page One" Awards. Holtzman began his career as a
copy boy at the Chicago
Times, in 1943, before working his way up the ladder to
become a writer. Then in 1957, he was put on the baseball beat at
the Sun-Times where he
remained until 1981 following the Cubs and White Sox. In 1981 he
left the Sun-Times, moving
to the Chicago Tribune as
a columnist. He remained with the Tribune until his retirement in
1998, at which point he was named "Baseball's Official Historian."
He remained in that position until his death in 2008. Along with
his work at the Sun-Times
and Tribune, Holtzman also
wrote Baseball Guide's "Review of the Year" for many years, and the
"History of Baseball" for Encyclopedia Britannica. He is also the
author of a number of books including "No Cheering in the Press
Box," "The Commissioners," and "Baseball Chicago Style." In
addition to his work as a writer, Holtzman is also famous for
inventing baseball's "save" statistic, in 1959. In recognition of
Holtzman's outstanding career as a sportswriter, he was inducted
into the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame on
May 3, 2004. |