Although Spitball debuted in the spring of 1981 as a baseball poetry journal, it quickly evolved into a broader literary magazine that included baseball short fiction, prose, art, and book reviews. While Spitball was published irregularly in the beginning, the magazine eventually became a quarterly and maintained that schedule for several years. Recently, Spitball has become a bi-annual, publishin
g issues in the spring and fall of each year. In 1983 Spitball established the CASEY Award to honor the authors and publishers of the best baseball books published each year. The CASEY was the first award of its kind, and it is widely recognized as the most prestigious award that a baseball book can be given. The CASEY Award winner and finalists are recognized at the CASEY Awards Banquet held every year (late February-early March) in Cincinnati, Ohio. Spitball was brought to a wider audience in 1988 when Pocket Books (a division of Simon & Schuster) published The Best of Spitball, an anthology of the best stories, poems, art, and interviews published in the magazine up to that point. Seven years after Jim Harrison died, Spitball underwent a dramatic transformation. In 1992 William J. McGill, Mark Schraf, and Steve Cummings brought new life and energy to the magazine as partners and editors, and under the guidance of new art director Donnie Pollard the magazine was totally re-designed. One key development was the introduction (at the suggestion of Mr. Cummings) of regularly-appearing prose features, such as "Card Blanche" and "Brushes with Baseball"; while a second was the decision to make Mr. Pollard Spitball's permanent cover artist. Today, Spitball remains one of the most unique and engaging magazines published in the country, as well as the second-longest running periodical devoted exclusively to baseball.
