The 42nd Annual CASEY Awards

Spitball Magazine’s 42nd annual CASEYs were a success, and a blast too. In front of a crowd of maybe 35 baseball diehards on a drizzly Sunday afternoon, the prestigious award for best baseball book of the year was given to Kevin Baker for his terrific book, The New York Game. At the award ceremony, hosted by Poor Michael’s Sports Bar in Cincinnati, Kevin was presented with his customized Louisville Slugger bat before I was handed a plaque honoring A Baseball Gaijin‘s selection as a fellow finalist. Although none of the other eight finalists was able to attend, their books were placed prominently at the front of the stage (Keith O’ Brien’s Charlie Hustle, a Pete Rose biography, finished runner-up to Baker’s book.). Copies of ABG and The New York Game were made available for purchase in the back of the room as Spitball editor and founder Mike Shannon posed some baseball history trivia questions. Then, each of the 10 finalist books were introduced one by one before Kevin was brought on stage for his presentation. Following Kevin’s talk, I joined him on stage for an introductory statement before answering questions from the assembled crowd.