Spitball Magazine

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Spitball Magazine

Spitball is a literary baseball magazine founded in 1981 and dedicated to poetry, short fiction, prose, art, and book reviews; all devoted to baseball.

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.

12/04/2020

Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's * by Dale Tafoya * Lyons Press;

Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original * by Mitchell Nathanson * University of Nebraska Press;

The Cactus League (a novel) * by Emily Nemens * Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball's Fastest Pitcher * by Bill Dembski, Alex Thomas, & Brian Vikander * Influence Publishing

How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed * by Thomas W. Gilbert * David R. Godine, Publisher;

Issei Baseball: The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers * Robert K. Fitts * University of Nebraska Press;

Mutt's Dream: Making the Mick (novel) * by Howard Burman * Ascend Books;

Swing Kings: The Inside Story of Baseball's Home Run Revolution * by Jared Diamond * William Morrow;

Tom Seaver: A Terrific Life * by Bill Madden * Simon and Schuster;

The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball's Afterlife * by Brad Balukjian * University of Nebraska Press; and

A Year of Playing Catch: What a Simple Daily Experiment Taught Me about Life * by Ethan D. Bryan * Zondervan Books.

10/09/2020

RIP to the Chairman of the Board, Whitney Ford

09/06/2020

Spitball Magazine is sad to hear about the passing of Lou Brock.

09/03/2020

Spitball Magazine is sad to hear of Tom Seaver’s passing. He was one of the greatest pitchers who ever played the game.